Home Sweet Home

After three months of almost non-stop travel, for both business and pleasure, it's good to be home for awhile. My office may not be fancy, but it works for me, and it's good to be back!

ETA: Interesting...I blogged this from my iPhone, and it kept one of the paragraphs of the email, but not the other. Maybe if I can get mobile blogging figured out well, I can post more often!

Happy Mardi Gras!

Spanish Town 2009 was a giant success. We caught tons of beads, cups, coins, and, in Jen's case, bunny ears!



The pics are up in a Flickr set, so go check 'em out. I will warn you, though, that the theme was "Bayeaux Bailout" and so some of the floats were a bit, uh, racy...a relatively clean example:




So, if that doesn't offend you, check out the pics! If it does, well, then you're better off not clicking over to the set. It's actually a family-friendly parade (none of the "traditional" bead acquisition techniques, that's part of why I love it so much) but this year the floats were somewhat scandalous. ;)

Many, many thanks to the lovely Carly for hosting us all at her house! Isn't she fab?

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

That's right, it's Mardi Gras! We've been parading in BR for a few weeks now, though I haven't been to any of them yet - I'm saving my time & energy for the big ones this weekend! But look what I discovered on campus Monday morning on the way to my office:







Beads in trees! There are a few trees like this right near the Design building, and the beads have been cut and hung nicely, so I like to think it's some type of installation art. Whatever it is, it makes me happy and even more excited for this weekend! =)

I DON'T like Ike.

(Image from Weather Underground)

Get ready, Tejas. Based on the outermost bands that we started getting last night, this storm sucks. A lot. Good luck to everyone in the path - stay calm but alert, don't be stupid, evac if you're told to, and be excellent to your neighbors when the power goes out.

(We're certainly taking a harder hit because we are still in a damaged state, but we've got street flooding and have lost a lot of the power that the energy companies had worked so hard to restore. And remember my awning, that Gustav blew over on itself? Now it's dangling by a screw and a half, right in front of my door, banging my door every time the wind blows. I'd get it down myself but I don't have a ladder, so hopefully my complex will come get it today!)

Good luck! Sending good thoughts and prayers for calm winds and not much rain!!!

Gustav. Gross.

I've put up some more Gustav pics in my Flickr set - mostly just photos of the destruction around town, taken while I was driving (so forgive the less-than-stellar composition and exposure, por favor).  Here are a few highlights:


Power lines. Power lines power lines power lines. Down. Everywhere.


There are parts of the parish (what we call a county in LA, don't ask) that will be without power for three weeks. Three weeks.


So many people have trees on/in their houses. Suck.

But, there is some good news!

Blue tarps!!!!! The blue tarps have arrived, my friends, and they are popping up all over town!

Now, we're just hoping and praying and crossing fingers, legs, and toes that Ike doesn't hit us too badly!

Choice Quotes

I did a bit of radio listening during the storm, as it was the only way to keep up with what was happening while the power was out.  Here are some of the best quotes I heard:

"X number of customers are without power.  You can check entergy.com for more information and maps of where the outtages are."

[That's really easy to do when you don't have power.  Really.]

"Temperatures today?  It hardly matters.  Rain and wind, on the other hand, ..."

[During a mid-storm weather report.]

Guy #1: "FEMA is now telling us that they don't have the blue tarps.  They don't know where they are, but they will try to find out.  Does that sound familiar?"

Guy #2: "Hey now, no editorializing..."

[They still don't have blue tarps.  Apparently there is a massive blue tarp shortage.  Same as there was three years ago.  Also, blue is apparently the only acceptable tarp color.  I guess the other colors don't keep out rain.]

[On people being stuck at home, it being a holiday, and most people not having work the next day]

"There tends to be a little drinking going on.  You've got a lot of people with a lot of booze."

[Really?  In Louisiana?  No way!]

It is never boring living in this state! =)

Football season!

I love college football! And this is a great town for it. Almost everywhere you go, there are count-downs, as we wait to see if the Tigers can pull off another season like the last one. This is my favorite, because it's close to campus so I see it often:



They've been counting down for most of the summer, lol, and we're finally into single-digit days! Yay!!! =)

I <3 the Farmers Market

Almost every Saturday morning, I visit the Red Stick Farmers Market in Downtown BR to stock up on fruit, veggies, milk, etc. One thing they have a lot of is plants and flowers. Herbs, ornamental plants, fresh-cut blooms, annuals, perennials, etc. I've never purchased any, but I've always wanted to. Here are some that I lusted after today:



I love the colors. I just need to figure out how to get my patio in shape to grow plants like these, herbs, and flowers. One of these days! =)

Ciao!

Welp, I'm back from my trip(s) and so glad to be home! (My Louisiana home, not my Texas, New Mexico, or Italy home, haha.) I have thousands (literally) of pictures, the best of which I'll edit and post, hopefully sometime soon, once I get caught up on work and get over the sore throat/cold I picked up a few days ago. Some of my favorite pics have gone up on Flickr already, so you can check 'em out if you want. But, the strangest thing just happened, so I thought I'd share. I walked through my complex to get my mail, and what did I see but this:



Huh?!? My first thought was "Well, I've never lived anywhere with a pool, so maybe this happens all the time?" And then my second thought was "Um, there are a lot of hunters in Louisiana..." Lo and behold:



Dang. I was hoping it was real!

In other news, I took a Photoshop class today (how I love LSU and their free computer classes), so I can finally do basic things like, oh, load a picture, make a layer, apply a filter, etc., that I could never figure out on my own, and am hoping to play around with some of PW's tutorials in the future (on the school computers, which have CS3 - woo!). I'm also hoping I can figure out how to download her actions to a jump drive and play with those, as well. Anyone done that? Run actions off a jump drive? I'll keep y'all updated if it works! =)

Hi friends!

So, I'm still around, and still taking pictures, but not having a whole lot of time to edit and post and blog about them...silly school... One thing I've been having fun with lately is focus, and taking the same picture with different focus points:



vs.



I like the second better, I think. Here's another fun comparison:



vs.



These ones, I can't decide. I lean towards the first one, but in the second, I love the in-focus Tobasco logo.

Speaking of Tobasco, all of these were taken at Avery Island, LA, the home of the world-famous Tobasco Pepper Sauce! We spent a day there a few weeks ago for my friend's birthday, and had a blast. Anyone visiting this state should definitely swing by Avery Island. In addition to the Tobasco Factory, there is a 250-acre Jungle Gardens and Bird City, which is beautiful. I took tons of pictures, some of which you can see here.

I probably won't be around much for the next few months. If I don't comment much, it's not because I don't love reading your blogs (I do!), I just love doing well in my classes and not losing my fellowship more. I know you understand, haha. Hope you have a great day! =)