New Orleans - Day 1

A few weeks ago I had a conference in New Orleans. When my mom found out I was going to be down there we decided to take a va-cay. Neither of us had been to New Orleans before so we were both excited to see what all the fuss was about... and boy was everyone right, it is quite a town. At times it feels like a European city. We did a crap-ton of walking (I don't think I could ever convey exactly how much walking we did) and it was pretty hot and humid out. We kept joking that if it were this hot in St. Louis there's no way we'd be out walking in it...

Anyway onto the pictures.

Since I worked that morning I was WAY hungry by the time my mom and I hit the streets. So our first dining out experience was at tourist place. Bubba Gump Shrimp. The food was tasty and it was nice to have something in my belly other than pastries from the free conference refreshments that morning.
When we were finished it was pouring down rain. Luckily we were right next to a National Historic Park Site so we popped in there until the rain stopped.
After the rain stopped we started our way toward Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral. On our way there we decided to take a horse and carriage tour.
Next we walked through Jackson Square.
We walked through St. Louis Cathedral... what beautiful stained glass! (which you can't really see in the picture, but trust me on that one)
Then we ate beignets at the famous Cafe Du Monde.
We also learned that the waiters actually pay for the food first and then you pay the waiter back... very interesting.
After we were full with beignets we walked around a bunch and ended up walking down Bourbon Street. And then decided to ride the St. Charles Street cars. We rode the entire track, and it was a looooong ride, but we got to see the beautiful garden district.
After our long ride we headed back to the hotel. We cuddled up to a $14.99 movie on our hotel TV (The Bounty Hunter... it was okay). But overall we had a great first day!!

promise

I know I've been a little MIA... but I'm trying to play catch up... so here's my guarantee to everyone.... over the next 3 days (at the very least) you'll have three brand new blog entries.

There's the possibility of more but that much I can guarantee you!!

9/25

My first Jodi Picoult book... and it did not disappoint. It was a very easy read, although you knew the entire time the ending would probably be sad. I really enjoyed the fast it was told from different perspectives. This helped with telling a story that has no right or wrong answer. It's a difficult topic, but well told to understand how challenging of an issue it is. Toward the end (last 200 pages or so) I couldn't put it down. I needed to know what was going to happen. I will definitively be reading another Picoult book. I kind of want to watch the movie, but I heard it has a different ending.

8/25

I found this author a few years ago when I needed a book and was at Costco. I picked up her first book, Something Borrowed, simply b/c it had a sparkly ring on the cover and needed a book to read at lunch at work. I ended up enjoying it... a lot, and since then I've read all of Emily Giffin's books (it also felt cool that I found it before it got real popular) Heart of the Matter is her 5th book. I flew through this book. It's a girly, fluffy book, but I enjoyed it, very much. I did feel a bit conflicted at time (which is ok) and it took awhile to see where the book was really headed. I enjoyed hearing the "same story" from two different perspectives. I really enjoyed this book... and hopefully she releases a new book very soon.

Not going to lie...

The reason I have not posted in awhile has pretty much been that the posts I want to make need pictures and since I mentioned before, my camera is broken... so this begs the question what should I do about not having a camera?

I have tried to find my old point-and-shoot but can't seem to locate it.

I have looked at getting it fixed, but I might as well buy a new one for the price it would cost to get it fixed.

So do I buy a new one... and if I do which kind do I get. I hope to someday have a DSLR (maybe in the next year?) but even with a DSLR I will still want a point-and-shoot for convenience. Do I spend a "decent" amount of money on a new one, or just buy any kind. I saw one in Kmart's ad for $50... hmm

Chad says we might have some other options... stay tuned...

7/25

Finally... I'm done with this series... and honestly, I'm happy to be done. I will say that I did get into this book more than the others. Maybe it was b/c what I knew about this book was figured out early in the book. About halfway through I figured out everything I wanted to figure out... I was intrigued what could possibly happen in the last half of the book. When the pages were twindling down, becoming smaller and smaller I was wondering how in the heck they would wrap everything up. Turns out everything got wrapped up fairly quickly... While the ending worked for the book, it might seem a bit of a let down if only watching the movie series.

The bottom line of this series... it doesn't even compare to the Harry Potter series in my opinion. At times during this series the 'love' was just so over the top. I'm done with this series, but with Harry Potter, I'll probably end up reading it again (3rd time for most of the book, 4th for others). I just don't understand the complete hystaria of these books... they are ok... good even, but not worth going completely and utterly crazy over. I'm glad that I read the books, but honestly feel better eh about them.

Where have I been?

I'm in desperate need to update this blog... I can't believe I've gone so long without blogging when there are so many updates to make. I'm going to cover a couple of things right now...

1. I got a 'special award' at work this week. It was unexpected and exciting. It came from central office and was for a project I helped with last year. I'm excited to get recognized for doing great work. I already know I work really hard and do my best to make everything perfect... it's very nice to feel like people recognize it.
2. Last night Chad and I took a date night cooking class at Kitchen Conservatory in Clayton. We got a gift certificate from my wonder mother-in-law, Chris for our first anniversary. We finally got around to cashing it in. We took "The Hard Edge to the Big Easy". It was so much fun. There was five other couples in attendance and we all helped make the meal. Chad and I personally made the andouille-pork burgers, which turned out AMAZING. We also had fried pickles and chorizo and cream cheese filled jalapenos wrapped in bacon for appetizers. We had the burgers, sweet potato fries and red beans and rice for the main course and white chocolate bread pudding for dessert. We also had two different kinds of hard cider. It was all very yummy and we came away with some great recipes... especially the burgers. I think we may take another class, or at least I think Chad should... he would REALLY enjoy that. It was really fun interacting with other couples as well.
3. I'm going to New Orleans in a few days. I leave on Tuesday and on Thursday my mom will be joining me. I'm really excited about seeing New Orleans, everyone I talk to has their own suggestions of what to do. It seems like it's really a loved town by all. I'm excited to get to experience it myself.
4. There's some other financial things going on that I don't really think is right to talk about on this blog... they are big things going on so just wanted to mention that.
5. I'm a bit late on this one but last Saturday my mom and I sent a lovely day together while Chad was working. We had lunch at Lafayette Fire Company No 1 in Lafayette Square. It is owned by firefighters and serves fire house recipes. It was super yummy. I had their french dip (with green peppers and pepper-jack cheese) and mom had a chili cheese dog on a pretzel. Their chili tastes exactly like my mom's chili. Everyone should really check this place out. The other thing I liked a lot was they serve breakfast until 2pm! After lunch we saw Sex and the City 2 at the Moolah Theater. It was a really neat place to see a movie. They have couches... although we got there too late to see which couches were free. After the movie we did some shopping... I got several home decor items that I'm excited to get up on the wall and share with everyone. It was such a great day with my mom. I really enjoy spending lots of time with my mom.
   
6. Speaking of the home decor items... I also picked up a second trash can for the kitchen. I'm hoping by having two trash cans (one for trash and one for recycling) we will recycle much more than we've be doing... I'm all for convenience!!
   
7. And for a bit of a teaser... I have been updating the house a bit and I'm excited to show the progress... the not really having a camera thing is hindering that blog entry. I need to find my old camera so I can take some pictures...
   

I think that's all I wanted to say... there may be some more things I'm forgetting...