Sherri's Graduation

Good news! Sherri has graduated from Daily-Nasty-Back-Pain-School and has now entered into Daily-Annoying-Pinchey-Feeling-University. I'll take it! It kind of feels like someone is pinching the inside of my left butt cheek all day. I'm trying to think of it as a good thing. I imagine that A.T. is following me around all day squeezing my tushy because it's so cute. (I know, it's a stretch, but suspend disbelief for a moment.. I am). I'm back to work in the office (Hooray!), and am able to sit all day without writhing in pain. (Double Hooray!) Now, if we could just get this nuisance pain to turn around and go home like Delta and Dawn, the two wayward whales that (until today) were stuck in the SF bay...

Memorial Day 2007

Memorial Day 2005: Camping on Angel Island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay.
Memorial Day 2006: Renting a house with friends along the Russian River.
Memorial Day 2007: Painting AT's baseboards.

Ha! Okay, it's not THAT dull. But we did paint most of his baseboards. :)
What else did we do?

Friday afternoon, we stumbled across a new restaurant just a block away, called Bar Bambino. We went back for dinner that night and had an AMAZING meal. This is an adorable little (and I do mean little) wine bar/restaurant on 16th & Mission that just opened 3 weeks ago. They have their own salumi chef guy (who carves meats & cheeses), an extensive and tasty tapas-style Italian menu (with plenty of veggie options, so we'll be taking Stefan there when he comes to visit!), and a great wine selection. We were happy with everything we got, and can't wait to o back to try even more tasty morsels. YUM!

On Saturday Sherri got acupuncture while AT played tennis. Then we went out with Rob & Heather to try another new restaurant in our neighborhood, Weird Fish. It was weird. And it was fish. But I don't think we will be going here again. Lots of fried stuff. Nothing special. Oh well, it was fun exploring a new place. Man, oh man, we need to re-implement the Mission food moratorium and get out to other parts of the city for nourishment!

On Sunday we spent the morning watching the Carnivale parade. The Mission, our neighborhood (or barrio, if you are so inclined), is a predominantly Latin-American neighborhood. Carnivale is the annual parade and festival that celebrates the heritage of our residents. In the parade, you will find a float from nearly every Latin American country (no matter how large or small the population in the Mission), dancers in traditional costumes from each country, kids from local schools playing in their band or singing and dancing in costumes, (some choreographed, some quite freestyle), and other fun things like the SF Garbage Men (for real) doing a synchronized garbage can drill. It's a very family-focused event, with a lot of liveliness, energy and fun. And food. How could I forget the food?! For the Festival part of the event, they blocked off 8 long blocks of Harrison street and filled it with food vendors offering cuisines from around the world, multiple stages with live music, people selling arts, crafts and other wares, games for the kids, and.. of course.. Diageo booze (Cuervo and Crown Royale were sponsors). And you know what festival food means, right? MEAT ON A STICK! Yum. A personal favorite.

We ate:

• pupusas (El Salvadorean soft corn shell stuffed with beans & cheese)
• Jamacian fried chicken
• funnel cake (to soothe Sherri's PA dutch roots. fried dough! mmm!)
• lumpia (Filipino fried meat rolls)
• Filipino BBQ chicken (on a stick)
• pancit (Filipino noodles)

Here are some photos from the morning:

Adorable girls dressed in blue:


Traditional Bolivian costumes:



Traditional.. uh.. errr.. uhhhh. I have no idea.











FOOD!



A.T. says, "This is the ONLY time you're going to see a Starbucks in the Mission" (referring to the mobile cart they brought in for the festival.)


Sunday afternoon, Sherri went on a SF City Tour of the Victorian Houses with Allison. (Happy Birthday Allison!). We had a fantastic time. Not because the tour was good, but because the tour guide was so freaking funny (in an incompetent kind of way). Despite it all, we did end up learning the difference between an Italianate Flat, Italianate 5-side/slanted bay, San Francisco Stick, Queen Anne tower, Queen Anne Row house, and an Edwardian house. And, of course, we now have a trained eye that can quickly call out the many "misguided improvements" that have mangled original Victorian architecture.

Sunday evening Sherri talked A.T. into a fine dining experience at Red Lobster. (I wasn't supposed to tell anyone). I thought it would be fun to do a little Central-PA-Role-Play and go out for a big meal at the Lobster. Plus, A.T. had a gift certificate to burn. We put it towards our tasty and bottomless basket of CHEESY BREAD. Yum. AT, as a former manager at Legal Seafood, had a hard time walking in the door, but the food was actually okay and we got to try the Parrot Bay coconut shrimp. (AT's company makes Parrot Bay rum). So technically, we can say that this was a work-research trip for A.T.. That might make him feel better. Tee hee.

Later Sunday evening, we were joined by Rob and Heather for an excursion to a tiki bar in Alameda. This was the third time that A.T. and I left the city this weekend (a record!). But this was a fabulous little find, and was absolutely worth the trip. Forbidden Island is the name. They have phenomenal drinks. Lots of foofy girly drinks for Sherri, and a rum selection that made at drool. Rob and Heather thoroughly enjoyed the adobo beef rolls and the delicious coconut shrimp! This place is so fun, we will definitely cross the Bay Bridge to visit again, and soon!



Monday morning we went sink and bathroom fixture shopping (AT's favorite pastime. Kidding!), then we painted the baseboards throughout most of his house. After our old, creaky, achy backs couldn't take it anymore, we called it a day (the bedroom and office can WAIT!), and dined on delicious Mediterranean food, and watched a really stupid movie.

It's official. I'm addicted.

So I was in my car yesterday, and I was listening to a song on the radio. Yes, radio. Not a CD. The radio. At one point, I couldn't quite understand the lyrics, so I (absent mindedly) reached down to the radio to rewind the song and listen again. Rewind live radio. Hello? You can't rewind live radio like you can rewind live TV with your beloved TIVO. This is a sign that I need to stop watching so much TV with TIVO. Sheesh. Thank goodness the TV season ended last week!

From the Jaws of Short Term Disability...

Holy crap. A HR representative from my company let me know that if an employee misses more than 5 consecutive days of work due to an illness, they go on Short Term Disability. Say what? Oh no. No no no no no. I can't do Short Term Disability. That just makes me sound pathetic and weak. No can do. Sure, it pays 100%, so no financial loss. But emotionally that would really schtink. So I'm going to do whatever the heck I have to do to NOT go on STD. I've been working partial days at home while desparately searching for a way to make the sitting-pain stop.

I certainly hope that with seven trained professionals working to solve the case of the achy breaky back, someone is sure to crack the case! Here’s who I’m currently seeing for this issue:

• Primary Care Physician
• Chiropractor
• Orthopaedist
• Neurosurgeon
• Acupuncturist
• Personal Trainer
• Massage Therapist

If you can think of any other type of healer that I should be seeing, by all means let me know!

Here’s what I’ve been doing:

• Anti-inflammatory drugs (not working)
• Chiropractic manipulations (apparently not working!)
• Wishful thinking
• Stretching sessions (should be good, but often feel bad afterwards)
• Getting out of the house on weekends to avoid cabin fever
• Walking/elliptical (backwards) to keep joints moving (feels good, but not fixing anything)
• Looking at old marathon/triathlon pictures with a healthy dose of melancholy
• MRI (results show it’s not another ruptured disk.. hooray!.. however, it might be worse that there is no visible problem to treat).
• Core strengthening (always a good thing)
• Swimming
• Asking my cats to walk on my back
• Deep tissue massage (coming up tomorrow. Jeff Cope at The Mindful Body has a way of making back pain go away. Let’s hope he hasn’t lost his touch!) Acupuncture (first session yesterday, next session Saturday. Feeling a little better today!)
• Having pity parties
• Sitting on a swiss ball, an air disk on my seat, a kneeling chair, and kneeling on the floor (none of which really worked for more than 15 minutes).
• Eating macaroni and cheese every day
• Asked BGI to Pimp My Desk with a hydraulic lift so that I could stand or sit and work

Status: still hurts when I sit for prolonged periods of time. The good news: I did get 2 hours of work in, sitting at my desk this morning. The bad news: my back was all jacked up after that. I’m hoping to make it into the office every day next week, if only for a few hours. Oddly enough, I really miss the hustle & bustle of the office!

Here’s my new Zero-Gravity chair. Fancy, huh? Okay, so it looks like a reclining lawn chair. It’s kind of comfy, but I don’t think I’m going to keep it. I really want a LA-Z-BOY, darn it. I think I’m going to go get one and use my lower back pain to rationalize it. When else will I have such a great justification? It sure beats all of this laying-on-the-living-room-floor that I’ve been doing!

Bay to Breakers 2007

Today was the annual Bay to Breakers race, a 7.46 mile trek from the bay to the ocean. Every year, tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people come out in costume to participate in this event. Some typical costumes: a rolling tiki bar (with bartenders and kegs inside), the Mona Lisa, jailbirds, super heroes, doctors (proctologist with funny names), cartoon characters, naked people, a group of Elvis impersonators, a school of Salmon that swim "upstream" from the end of the race to the beginning, the bacon delivery guy, and thousands of other brilliant, witty, and creative costumes. Of course it's San Francisco, so many of the costumes are plays on words, like the Deli Lama (a monk with lunch meat all over him). It's an affair that should not be missed. Even if you don't want to make the trek, grab a lawn chair or someones front steps and park yourself there for a few hours to watch the madness. People watching doesn't get any better than this.. (pics from past years..)




This year, instead of participating in this festive event, I was here:


Okay, not in that machine specifically, but in an MRI machine just like it! (Seriously, that room has such a magnetic force, it would have swallowed my camera whole!) If you haven't had the pleasure of having one, they lay you down on a tray and slide you into a narrow tunnel (the diameter is roughly the size of my shoulders), you lay still for 20 minutes, you hear loud buzzing sounds, they pull you out, inject you with some magnetic solution, stick you back in and zap you for another 10 minutes. It's not so bad if you have ear plugs and are not claustrophobic. Hopefully this machine will give me the answers to the lingering back pain question. Come ON big bad machine. Do your stuff.

Wine Country, Diageo Style

Today we took a lovely trip up to Sonoma and Napa for the semi-annual Cline winery extravaganza. This summer picnic is full of good food, entertainment, and best of all WINE. And you don't need to sit down to taste wine, so this was a fantastic getaway for Sherri! (Okay, you have to sit down to get there, but I managed to find about 8 different slouchy positions on the ride up/back that would transfer the pain to different regions, thus giving each sacro-iliac joint a temporary break.)

Every year, AT furnishes Sherri with the number of bottles that AT is allowed to purchase at Cline. That way, he won't go overboard after tasting too many wines that he just MUST purchase. Last year, he got sneaky and ordered a magnum of Cashmere wine and said that even though it's double the size of a normal bottle, it's technically just one bottle. :) In this picture, A.T. is trying to justify why he's walking away from Cline with another case of wine. If you haven't seen AT's house lately, he needs wine like he needs a hole in the head. He claims it's not for him. Uh huh.

After relaxing at Cline, and finding out that "Barnyard aroma" is actually legitimate terminology for wine connoisseurs and not just a bet that a Sommelier made at Gary Danko to see who could sell a bottle of wine with the most unusual description, we headed north to the Diageo winery region for my first trip to Sterling and Provenance.

First up was Sterling. What a beautiful winery! From the ski-lift-style tram that takes you up to the hill, to the self-guided (for ordinary people) tour, to the tasting room where the wine is brought to you (and you do not have to fight with all of the other visitors for a spot at the bar), it was fantastic. Tourguide A.T. gave us the spiel on how the wine is made, as he is now our resident wine expert after attending the official Diageo Wine Training courses. (If you can call something where you drink wine a "course".) One woman tried to sneak into our guided "tour", but Adam had to let her know that it wasn't an official tour.

AT's unofficial tour of Sterling. Notice Adam listening closely and preparing his next probing question. Obviously a man in the journalism business!


Adam, Andrea and Andrea's Mom at Sterling:


Sherri and A.T. at Sterling:


Andrea and Elissa at Sterling:


After Diageo we made a quick stop at Provenance to taste the best of the best wines there with warp speed, then off to dinner at the Rutherford Grill, and back home to the city. Boy, was it fun to visit wineries with an employee. We got the special treatment, special wines to taste, and great information.

And Adam, we will never make fun of your gas guzzling, environmentally unfriendly, too-big-for-the-city Lincoln Navigator again, and you are ALWAYS welcome to be our group's designated driver! You rock!

Sherri's New Best Friends

Decision point: Do I keep the blog happy and positive, or do I keep it real? Since the purpose of my blog is to let friends/family know what I’ve been up to, and to help me keep track of the passing of time.. I guess I’ll go with the keepin’ it real method.

Please meet my two new best friends, Tivo and my Soduku book.


Previously only casual acquaintances, over the past two weeks I have come to rely heavily on them while I have been laid up at home with an achy breaky back. That’s right. That pesky bugger of a back up to it’s old shenanigans again, and screaming for attention. Right before we left for Jazzfest, I had a 4-day episode where I couldn’t sit for more than 10-minutes at a time without standing up all crooked and in pain. After a few.. ahem.. intense.. chiropractic treatments, I was fixed up enough to get on the plane. Jazzfest week was stiff & achy, but bearable, as I wasn’t sitting down very much at all! Post-Jazzfest, I made it one day at work before I couldn’t take it, and have been at home, NOT sitting, ever since. I tried chiropractic, stretching, drugs, exercise, etc. Nothing works this time. Basically, I'm camped out on the floor in the living room, doing as much as I can without sitting or straining the back, and that isn't very much. I fall asleep and dream of my to-do list getting longer and longer as I remain idle. Booooo. I’m going kind of stir crazy. I try to get out as much as I can to get in some movement, but the back quickly tires of my escape tactics and sends me home. Tomorrow I see a new Neurologist, and hopefully I’ll get that new MRI quickly (grrr. HMO red tape). Send me all kinds of positive energy, please. One back surgery was enough for me. And if you have any spare, healthy discs, send those too!

Run Chi-Wa-Wa Run!

This morning I found myself pondering the question, “What does one wear to the Chihuahua races?” I thought perhaps a big floppy hat. A linen suit?

Andrea and Adam, my favorite dog owners and key to legitimacy for dog events, invited me to join them for the regional Chihuahua races. As much as it pained me, I had to say “maybe”, as I wasn’t sure if the old lower back was going to hold up. I don’t recall ever saying anything other than YES to an event that revolves around cute furry creatures. But after being cooped up in the house for a few days with back pain, and having a need to stand up and stretch out a bit, I gratefully accepted their offer. Besides, I didn’t want to miss Jack’s debut as a champion racing dog. I had already missed his debut as a loungewear model in the PoochOnline catalog!

Once again, I was in dog heaven. Not quite so much as the Bark & Whine ball a few months ago (I do love the big dogs!), but definitely heaven. Cute little dogs everywhere. I’m pretty sure that 95% of those dogs were only partially Chihuahua, which resulted in a whole slew of unique looking dogs. The Chihuas ranged in size from 1/6 to 1 /3 the size of either one of my cats.


Adam and Jack:

This little doggie, "Mochi", had two "Body Guards".. a German Shepherd and a Standard Poodle.
We mingled with the other dog owners. Once again, after I was doting on their dog for quite some time, I was given the suspicious eye and was asked, “Do YOU have a dog!?” Thank goodness Jack was nearby! I stated (perhaps somewhat inaccurately) that “mine” was over there, and pointed to Jack. Hopefully Andrea and Adam are not bothered by me claiming their doggie as my own to remove the appearance of being a doggie stalker.






Jack was in the 10th round of 24. Each round included 10 dogs. The dogs line up at the starting line, held by one owner (or handler). Another owner/handler waits at the finish line and tries to lure the dog with treats and other methods of bribery. “On your Bark…. Get set… Go!”. The dogs scatter. Some do not leave the gate. Others run off to the sidelines. A few run in circles wagging their tails, working the crowd. Some run to their owners. One ran right out of it’s costume. One dog refused to come off of the course, and had to be chased in circles by his owner and a few race workers, lured (unsuccessfully) by treats.

We started several rounds by guessing, based on the dog and owners’ appearances, who would win each round. We just knew the dog in the pirate gear would win (and he did). And we knew the guy in the coach outfit (complete with terrycloth headband) was serious. His dog was first in her race. (We also suspect he took her back to the locker room for a massage and some cortisone before the semi-final round).

Andrea, Adam and their friend Shaun discussed the “release strategy” for Jack. Don’t push him on the behind when the gate is opened, or he will turn around.


It’s the 10th round. Andrea and Jack await (impatiently) at the starting gate. Sherri stands on the sidelines waiting to videotape the race. The pressure is on. On your Bark. Get Set. Go! Sherri watches all of the dogs through the camera lens, but can’t find Jack. Uh. Jack? She turns off the camera. Suddenly Jack emerges from the gate and makes a beeline for Adam at the finish line. He is perhaps the only dog that ran a straight, direct line to the finish. He arrives just a second too late! He comes in third place. If only he had made it out of the gate, he would have qualified. Oh well, Jack is still a model, still a superstar in our minds, and still cute as a button.

Andrea and Jack at the Start Line:

Pre-Race Dog Shots:

(Questionable lineage on this one..)

New Orleans Food Fes... errr... JAZZ Festival

My idea of a great vacation is going anywhere that I haven’t already been. I love to explore and discover. I love being surprised. I love adventure. I love trying to get by in a foreign language. There is, however, one exception to that rule, and that exception is the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. I inherited this annual pilgrimage to New Orleans from AT, an 8-year veteran. If I want to see him the first week in May (on any given year), it has to be in New Orleans.

This year was my third Jazzfest. During the trip, I felt a little out of sorts as I kept checking my daily to-do list, realizing that there was nothing I * had * to do on that day. Nothing I had to see (I have been there 3 times before). Nothing I had to buy. Nothing. I felt like something was missing, but I gradually got used to, and..I must admit.. I even appreciated it.

• Sherri vacation = active + requires constant thought/planning --> return home exhausted
• Scary vacation = inactive & requires no thought/planning --> return home frustrated
• Jazzfest = active + requires little thought/planning --> return home relaxed
  

To pay homage to the now-defunct list (just for Jazzfest, mind you, I’m still rockin’ the to-do list at home!) I am going to I’m going to describe the entire trip through the use of lists.

Who was our crew at the Crescent City Guest House?

• Stefan (Boston)
• Lisa (Boston)
• Andrea (Boston)
• Ophelia (AT’s mom, Boston)
• Nancy (AT’s aunt, Novato, CA)
• AT (San Francisco)
• Sherri (San Francisco)
• Plaut (honorary guest. Tee hee)

How many ways can you get crawfish at the Jazz Festival?

• Crawfish beignets
• Fried softshell crawfish po-boy
• Fried crawfish tails
• Crawfish sausage po-boy
• Boiled crawfish
• Crawfish etouffee
• Cajun crawfish rice
• Crawfish puff
• Fried eggplant with crawfish sauce
• Crawfish sack
• Crawfish pie
• Crawfish enchilada
• Crawfish sushi rolls
• Crawfish spinach and zucchini bisque
• Crawfish remoulade
• Crawfish struedel
• Crawfish Monica
• Crawfish bisque
• Crawfish bread

What did we eat at the Jazz Festival? (# indicates multiple servings)

• Spinach and artichoke casserole#
• Crawfish pie #
• Tajades (tortilla chips, pickled cabbage, marinated pork)
• White chocolate bread pudding #
• Crawfish Monica #
• Praline bread pudding
• Fried fish Ferdinand #
• Cochon de Lait po-boy
• Fried eggplant with crawfish sauce #
• Fried chicken
• Key Lime Pie
• Grape Snow Cone
• Crawfish struedel #
• Sausage po-boy
• Crawfish bread
• Raspberry Iced Tea #
• Strawberry Lemonade
• Popcorn
• Mango freeze
• Crabcake
• Banana bread pudding
• Meat pie
• Fried pork chop sandwich
  

Drinks mixed for us by Chris McMillan, venerable Louisiana mixologist at The Ritz-Carlton Library Bar:

• Ramos Gin Fizz for AT
• French 75 for Andrea
• Pimms Cup for Stefan
• Jane Doe for Sherri
• Mint Julep for Ted (complete with history of the drink in verse as well as hand-chipped ices)
• Blueberry Hill for TodMojo Rising for Plaut
  

(Some of the drinks might be attributed to the wrong drinkers. I was mesmerized by 1.) Chris’s knowledge of the history of cocktails and entertaining demeanor and 2.) Lisa passed out on the sofa after telling us she didn’t feel a thing from that Monsoon. )

Non-Jazzfest meals:

• Dinner at Ophelia’s friend Steven’s place, just around the corner.
• Fine Dining at Emeril’s Delmonico. Beet salad, BBQ shrimp on grits, sweet and sour calamari (delightful!), pickled watermelon with crawfish salad…. to START.
• Beignets at Café du Monde
• Table for 9 at Marigny Brasserie (decision: healthy steamed vegetables or pasta in lobster cream sauce?)
• Burger, Fries and a cocktail at Checkpoint Charlie at 3am.
• Sukho Thai, where Stefan’s food was THAI SPICY, and spicier than anyone else’s food.
• Dinner at Angelis after giving up at Coops
• Muriels on Jackson Square. Did someone say bread pudding?
• Huge burgers and baked potatoes at Port of Call (drool drool slobber slobber)
• In-N-Out Burger in Mill Valley, CA. Hey, we weren’t HOME from vacation yet, so we were still free to eat like little piggies without guilt!
  

Highlights & Lowlights of the festival:

• Torrential downpour + high winds.
• Wading through the flooded fairgrounds in search of food (nothing will keep us from Fish Ferdinand and white chocolate bread pudding)
• Remembering to cover the bike seats with plastic bags
• Crawfish Monica closed from power outage in the storm (gasp!)
• AT running out to find his mom and forgetting his rain poncho.
• Jazzfest shuttle on strike!
• Mitch’s waterproofed phone and non-water-proofed self
• Mud squishing through my toes (fun!)
• Mitch’s 6-beer holster, 1-beer necklace and 2 hands.
• Crawfish Monica re-opens (joy!)
• Dancing with AT
• Accidentally getting the wrong bread pudding for Nancy and Ophelia and having to suffer through eating the extra praline bread pudding. Suffer, I tell ya. Suffer.
• Mating bugs using my arms, legs, shirt, hat, chair, under my toes, and food as a place to get it on.
• Heatwave! So hot that Sherri can’t hear the music anymore. Has to go home early to cool down. I’m mmmmeeellltttttiiiinnnnngggg.
• People of all ages dancing with highly decorated parasols to the Dixieland band.
• Guiding Lisa through her first Jazzfest food run (you just CAN’T send the vegetarian of the group to give guidance on such an issue!)
• Running into Mitch & the Gang and Plaut & Company
• Learning about Saint Arnold. Patron Saint of Artichokes? Of course not. AT’s namesake could only be the Patron Saint of Hops! (St. Arnold Brewing Company)
• Fantastic selection of music from all genres.
• People watching at it’s finest!
• Riding a bike in a skirt (no, NOT AT, silly!)

What we did at night:

• Two nights at Rock-N-Bowl: one night focused on beverage consumption, music, and messing with Lisa (telling her to tell the drunk lady she loves the Mucky Duck, and the tall guy Happy New Year); the other busy with bowling, hula lessons, and closing the place down.
• Shopped for Lisa’s pink feather boa.
• Civilized cocktails with Mitch & Company at the Bombay Club. Complete serenity just steps from Bourbon street.
• Pat O’Briens for Hurricaines
• Sherri won a Hula-Hoop contest with the owner of Mid-City Lanes/Rock-N-Bowl
• Cocktails at the Swizzle Stick Lounge
• You had to know that Sherri would go to Harrah’s for some gambling! Once with AT and once with Aunt Nancy. Very happy. The Wheel of Fortune giveth. (almost as much as the Wheel of Fortune tooketh away last month in Nassau!)
• Walked for miles and miles in search of the next tasty cocktail.
• Went to the Carousel bar (twice). The carousel (indoors) actually rotates around the bar very slowly. Try not to be too tipsy when you sit down!
• Sherri stayed in one night. AT said he went to see a “Can Opener”. No no no, he said “Piano Player”. However, apparently a can opener would have been more entertaining.
• Listened to the local weather station speak of a tornado watch and thunderstorms.

What we did during daylight, outside of the fest:

• Window shopping on Royal street in the Quarter
• Admired art and trash
• Wondered who would come out of each room at the B&B every morning
• Got chased out of a gallery when AT and Stefan tried to take pictures
• Woke up without an alarm clock (heaven!)
• Found a Blue Dog painting that Sherri loves, and it’s only $45,000
• Played “HEY, I’ve been LOOKING for a (insert cheesy item here)”. See below for the winning items in this game.
• Took a bicycle tour through Gentilly to see how much has changed since last year’s ride when it was 100% abandoned. This year, we witnessed some FEMA trailers and home rebuilding, but not a very large percentage. And this wasn’t even the worst neighborhood, the lower 9th Ward was even worse. So much remains to be done. SO MUCH.
  
• Visited the new and very beautiful Court House. Through the metal detector and baggage screen, long wait for printer paper, get a photo ID, lock up phones and cameras. No court in session. Visited the LA supreme court and a district courtroom.
• Drank Turbo Dog on tap
• Took naps

Quotes:

• “Look at that dorky kid having a great time.” -Ophelia
• “I LOVE this!!” -Lisa
• “Jazzfest express to the left. Taxis and RTA busses to the right one block at Stallings Playground”
• “No shade canopies”
• “This drink doesn’t have any alcohol. I don’t feel a thing” -Lisa
• “Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz” -Lisa, 1 hour later
• “Mmmmm. I smell fried!” -Stefan and Sherri
• “I know I’m in New Orleans when I hear live music at 1 o’clock in the afternoon and I’m walking down the street with a beer.” -AT
• “Turbo Dog on Tap!” –AT and Stefan
• “I’m sure we can find a place around here somewhere to get you a beer.” -AT to Plaut
• “There’s nothing hotter than a woman in a bike helmet.” -Plaut
• “Crap, I just lost $50. Now I have to go over to the dollar Wheel of Fortunes to get it back” -Sherri
• “Uh oh. We lost mom again” -AT

Contest: Find the most unique, tacky, ugly, and useless object for sale in New Orleans.

Contenders:

• Giant fish lure (18” long) with a big smiley face, to hang from ceiling
  
• Miniature gong held up by a cow horn
  
• Alligator dressed as a bride
  
• Ceramic cat standing up and playing the harp
  
• Ceramic dogs (matching)