It's been months, I know...many of you keep reminding me. And the longer time passes, the harder it seems to know where to begin to fill in the gaps, to capture some of the moments of joy, laughter, and thankfully hardly any sadness, of the past 8 or so months - and then I remembered, it's never too late, or too hard to begin a conversation with friends. So here goes....back to The Blog...
And let's start again with weather - it's day 2 of snow in Milwaukee..and I had to share this rather delightful email I just received from our IT department....it really maybe time to move back to a warm spot in the South Pacific....
Hello Everyone- Winter is upon us. With that being said, we ask that you do not leave your laptop in your car overnight or even only for a few hours. Extreme cold can cause damage to your LCD screen, hard drive and the plastic components in and on your laptop. Also, booting up a cold laptop can cause condensation on the inside of the device. If your laptop has been exposed to the cold, please allow it to warm up to room temperature before you boot it up. This warm up process can take up to 1 hour or more depending on the temperature outside. Thank you, The Network Admin and Helpdesk Teams
Ok, it's Friday afternoon and time for a laugh. Check out these two clips from Onion TV (for those that don't know, The Onion is a satirical US newspaper given away free each week.
So you think you've got it bad?...check out what's going on in other people's lives...
Another hilarious commentary on life - F*** My Life is a website compiled of random thoughts from people posting venting blurbs about something in life that's got them down. Let go of your recession woes and get it out!
From the interesting files, photographer David Bergman captured 220 images of Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration, then stitched them together creating an incredibly detailed panoramic photograph. All of you photo-geeks will appreciate the technology going in to his project – Bergman clamped his Gigapan-mounted Canon G10 to a railing, allowing the robotic mount to photograph the action. He then processed the captured images on his Macbook Pro with Gigapan software, creating a ginormous 2 gigabite, 1,474 megapixel TIF file. Click here to see the image and zoom in...
See if you can spot Yo-Yo Ma photographing the scene with his i-Phone - I couldn't find him!
Music, music everywhere..this family of three were eking out a living busking
A garden oasis in the French Quarter
Across the street - Bradjelina's New Orleans abode...
Inside one of my favorite junk shops on Decatur
What more do you need....
...maybe oysters...standing in line outside Acme Oyster House - waiting for the grilled oyster experience.......oysters, garlic, butter, dash or worchestershire sauce - and of course cheese - then on the grill.. After dinner we took a Haunted Tour of the French Quarter. The statue at the back of the Cathedral set the tone...Later that night we took the kids to the legendary Preservation Hall for a jazz session, old school
Bourbon Street - last nightLast morning in New Orleans - and the beignets are all gone...'bye New Orleans - until next time...
Christmas morning in Jackson Square, French Quarter, New Orleans
9am mass...
Christmas Day - for which I sadly don't have any pictures - was spent north of the lake at Robbie's sister Christine's house where we cooked lunch for their family - deep fried turkey of course!
The view from (our) room
Lunch on Boxing Day was the legendary (yes, another one!) Po-Boy (sandwich) shop called Domilises in Uptown NO...the kids were a bit late getting up so it was close to 12 by the time we got there - which meant, as usual, the lines had started to take form.
So you walk in, take a little numbered card and wait for them to call your number before you can order. I didn't know any of this til later, and stood at the counter like a stupid idiot for all of 2-3 minutes while the ancient black bakelite phone on the counter rang non-stop and went unanswered, and while the women serving totally ignored me, while I waited to be served.
There are a grand total of about 6 tables in the restaurant - that hasn't changed in the past 50 years - including the staff who now include one of the original sisters who set it up, and what looks like her husband working the bar, and daughter and grandson and daughter making sandwiches non stop.
There are no fries, no salads - not even any tomatoes (apparently because they were off the menu a few years back during a particularly pricey tomato season - and never got around to putting them back in the sandwiches!)...they're just sliced meats, cheese, and their speciality - the crispy, salty fried oysters or shrimp - or preferably half and half (like we had) onLeidenheimer french bread with hot sauce, mayo, and lettuce.
So you wait while your number gets closer to the top of the pile, and pray that a table comes free when your orders comes up - which is just about always on cue - except for this time when a woman baggsed a table before her number was up "because I have a nun coming to join me"...I thought "yeah right - Tui" - but in she walked!Ray the bartender...Barq's local New Orleans root beer or creaming soda is a must...Behind the bar...complete with Peyton and Eli Manning shots (local football heros who grew up nearby and who ate there all the time when growing up) - and Ray's till that he still presses the amount for every transaction, but I can't imagine any reconciliation gets done at the end of the day!The Leidenheimer bread truck even pulled up for a lunchtime delivery while we were there - the second delivery of the day... Later that afternoon we took the kids on a Katrina tour to show them some of the devastation from the storm. Incredibly whole neighborhoods still only have a smattering of houses rebuilt - but incredibly one of the badly destroyed restaurants that stood at the West End Marina - Lawrys Seafood - is back up in and in business.
shots from 2005 - 2 months after Katrina (double click to enlarge them)
Friday night we had dinner with Robbie's uncle David and wife Kathleen at Arnaud's - one of a handful of longstanding family-run restaurants that form the backbone of much of the restaurant tradition in New Orleans (including the likes of Broussard's, and Galatoires).
The Christmas lights were very pretty in the formal dining room and while it was expensive and rather old school - complete with the table side theater of desserts and flaming coffees - it was rather special.
David and Kathleen had just been to the opening day of Brad Pitt's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which was mostly filmed in New Orleans and told us that a scene was filmed with Cate Blanchett in Arnaud's - and according to the Maitre d' who overhead him - we were sitting at the actual table...mmm, we'll see when we go to the movie...!
Shots from the wintery midwest as we continued our roadtrip south for the holidays...Wintered corn fields through southern IllinoisAnd we finally left the snow behind us... Our second morning on the road we were up early after a night spent roadside at one of those hotel chains that you never remember which one you were at (Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express....), but have the complimentary breakfast and free wifi - and every hotel rooms always looks the same...
It was cold enough for freezing rain and we ended up stuck on the freeway at a dead stop for over an hour as they cleared a wreck from the icy conditions. As we sat the road started to freeze and so we were reduced to speeds of less than 40mph...adding another 3 hours to our day as we planned to get to New Orleans that night...
After some more searching on Chowhound I was salivating at the reviews of Taylor Grocery in Mississipi - in the backwaters near Ole Miss - the University of Mississipi, legendary for it's fried catfish and uber-atmosphere...but we weren't going to have time this trip because of the delay to detour all the way into the countryside for lunch...
(Photo: Fieldandstream.com)
So it was to be lunch in Memphis..."lunch in Memphis?" - well that would have to mean BBQ!
Memphis is the home of Graceland, the blues and BBQ - but oh, which type?...dry rub vs BBQ sauce, and ribs or a pulled pork sandwich...?
I finally found us a BBQ joint called Interstate Barbeque - an outpost of their downtown location, that was just off the freeway, and known for their ribs...and they were deeee...lishousness personified...melt in the mouth tender - and so good I didn't even get a shot of them!
But we did also try the barbeque spaghetti - something of a local Memphis tradition. Strange, but kind of familiar at the same time...probably because it more resemble the sweet tomato based sauce we have with canned spaghetti from NZ (but with chunks of pulled pork)...
Later that night we arrived, finally in the French Quarter of New Orleans. We checked into the hotel that Robbie's aunt manages, just off Bourbon Street - then took the kids for a wander and a sensory overload (especially for the 14 year old who probably was a little too close to his Dad as he walked by the Hustler Club, and the full frontal posters promoting the all-girl review shows!).
Still the quality of the music was just as we remembered it - even by the groups busking on the street corners...
Drinks flowed freely - as ever. Loved this shot of a bar - or kind of a bar...with beers for $1 being served out of a cooler (with taps) out of the back of another shop...and of course a Miller Lite sign above! Next morning we were up early for the obligatory breakfast visit to Cafe du Monde for a plate piled high with icing sugar doused beignets and chicory coffee...devoured so quickly they didn't even make it into the camera! ...then a walk back to the hotel through the Qwarta...well recovered from the devastation of Katrina and looking back at her best... This is a shot of Jean Lafitte's blacksmith shop - the oldest building in New Orleans that has undergone somewhat of a patch repair since the following photo I took of it during my first visit to NOLA in 2005...
It's been months, I know...many of you keep reminding me. And the longer time passes, the harder it seems to know where to begin to fill in the gaps, to capture some of the moments of joy, laughter, and thankfully hardly any sadness, of the past 8 or so months - and then I remembered, it's never too late, or too hard to begin a conversation with friends. So here goes....back to The Blog...
