Pure Love

I had to post this picture because I love my Scooby soooo much. She just got married to a terrific guy and I cannot believe she is all grown up. Thanks for the pic, Mom. Steve called it "Teeth and Cheeks". :)



Sorry I cried during my entire toast to you and Stewie at the wedding. :)

Interesting Cemetery

So while we were in New Orleans, we decided we wanted to experience a bit of the more ghoulish side of things. We were headed to the Ninth Ward, where a significant amount of Katrina damage can still be seen and where you can still feel the the walking souls and death, when we passed by a very old, very decrepid above-ground cemetery. Of course we had to stop and of course I had to take *too* many pictures.

In the above picture - seriously - a drain???? What's down there???



It was almost like walking into an apartment complex for the dead.



Some of them (below) made me feel like the souls were sealed off and banished to the grave forever:



I expected someone to come out and mow the lawn on some. Or maybe the soul of a doggy to come running out and bark at the fence?


Was there any soul here, kneeling, praying? Did I walk right past someone?




It's hard to read, but this was the grave of a PFC from World War II. It gave me a sense of creepy patriotism:

This one was like a mini prison grave:


The one below just looks like a darned kiln (crematorium). I looked for any remaining bones but didn't see any. (haha)



And yes, someone was actually squatting in this one!!! I tried to get Steve to lay in it but it grossed me out too much.


And this is what you get if you don't have much money:



I believe this particular cemetery is one of the ones that supposedly is haunted. Of course we didn't know that until later, when we were looking at some flyers for "things to do in New Orleans" and we saw some pictures of this exact place. Considering we walked around in here for quite some time, I'm certain we absorbed some spiritual energy without even knowing it!! :)

Crawfish

Now, down south where I'm from, eating crawfish is a pretty big deal. It's kinda like the BBQs we have out here (we have the BEST weather for that!!) except on a larger, more social scale. There's just something about hanging out, drinking beer, swatting mosquitos and boiling crawfish that brings a family together. :)

Steve had crawfish a few times, but never quite like we do it in the south. We had our first taste at a small place in New Iberia, La. It wasn't the usual, large social gathering, but that was coming up a little later. I told Steve he had to "suck the head" to get the spices out, and so he did:


I neglected to mention at the time that I don't actually do that. :) But *Real Men* do. :)

So when we got to my sister's house in Houston, we all decided that boiling a bunch of mudbugs was the thing to do. My BIL, Kenny, got 40 lbs of 'em and away we went. He taught Steve how to purge the crawfish, and Steve just found this to be entirely too much fun:



He almost couldn't wait until they were boiled!



But eventually we got 'em boiled along with corn, potatoes, mushrooms, deer sausage, etc. It put a huge smile on my face.


I miss the south. It's so much more interesting than any place on earth.

Best Vacation So Far!

Steve and I took off for the south a few weeks ago. We drove from New Orleans, La to Houston, Tx and had a fabulous time!

It started with this at Harrah's in New Orleans:


The coolest bar I've ever seen! Yes that is a tray encircling the bar, chilled and coated with ice. You just keep your drink on it and it stays cold. GREAT idea!!!

This, of course, led to this:




Which then led to this:



I ended up winning about $640 with this little lucky slot! It was still counting when I took this picture. :)

After leaving New Orleans, we headed to Avery Island, La. Steve had never been south before, so showing him my neck of the woods was a ton of fun! I thought that knowing where Tabasco sauce is made is pretty important in the grand scheme of things, so off we went.

Yes it really was this beautiful! This is a photo of the entrance to Jungle Gardens, a 4 acre garden of gorgeous trees and plants, along with swamp. It's a driving tour so you don't have to walk it, but you can stop your car and take pictures along the way. And believe me, this is how to do it. 4 miles ain't much, but it's halfway around the world when you have to battle the mosquitos this place had to offer!

The day wouldn't have been complete had we not eaten some boudin and some hot links along with some icy cold beer in front of the Tabasco store.


After Avery Island we headed a few hours west to Lake Charles, my home town, for the most part. We saw some significant Katrina damage that *still* is not repaired, and found a cemetary that I swear I never saw before, despite knowing that town pretty darned well. There was a crazy statue of Jesus in this cemetary and, well, being the atheistic heathens that we are, we had to make some fun:



Okay so we're not *that* bad, but we just could not resist taking this picture. But seriously, this cemetery was so cool and I have a huge interest in exploring these old places. There is just something cool about seeing graves that are over a hundred years old! And this particular cemetery held the graves of the founders of Lake Charles. Pretty darned cool.


I'm gonna start a new thread so this one doesn't get too long. I haven't even gotten to the best part of the trip yet!

Nasally Stuff

Last October, I got a cold. Nothing out of the ordinary, but it hung on. Because we were getting married on Thanksgiving, I called my doctor and she put me on oral antibiotics. No biggee, except that I didn't really get over the cold. In fact, I was sick on my wedding night with a sore throat and extreme exhaustion. My honeymoon was spent sniffling and coughing and resting. :(

I sort of got over it but never 100%, and at the end of December, I got sick again. Went on antibiotics again. Sort of got over it but not 100%.

I got sick again in Jan. Went on antibiotics AGAIN. Sort of got over it but not 100% and at this time, had been coughing since October. I don't mean a light "cough cough" I mean a loud, honking "HACK HACK" kind of cough.

At the beginning of March, we headed to Yosemite for our annual trip and on Day 1 of the conference, I got so sick I missed the REST of the conference. There we sat, in a great hotel room, in one of the world's most beautiful National Parks, and I was sicker than I'd ever been.

At this point I was convinced I had lung cancer and Steve and I were extremely emotional. We got a hold of our doctor and scheduled an appointment with a CT scan and chest xrays - results showed a severely abscessed sinus cavity!

Surgery was scheduled. Thank god.

So they roto-rooted out my sinus cavity, and it helped quite a bit. The only part that sucked, and I mean SUCKED, was that after surgery, they packed my sinuses with a strange torture device known as a "nasal tampon". Not so bad, until they pull the darned things out!

Just imagine having your nose stuffed full of fully expanded tampons. Now imagine someone YANKING it out it right after having the sinus cavity scraped clean (read: raw and irritated and bleeding and painful) without giving you any good drugs to aid in the process.

Did I say it SUCKED?

So now I'm here, about 2 months since surgery, and I have to say that while I'm not totally normal yet, I do feel a LOT better. No more colds, headaches, coughing, etc. Hopefully this thing will work. I am a bit more "nasally" than before, which I think is due to the new holes they cut into my sinuses to facilitate drainage, but it is what it is... as long as I'm not sick, I'm happy. I'll give up my singing voice for now.

I just had to post this one because of the SUCKAGE of the nasal tampons. I just can't reiterate that enough. So let me know if you're going to need this procedure - I'll be sure to lie to you like my doctor did to me, and tell you "it's not so bad, just a little uncomfortable". :)

On Turning 40...

I have to say that I had the BEST birthday this year and I have Steve to thank for it. Last week, on my actual b-day, he gave me my first "gift": a Wii!! We've been competing ever since. :) He got us several games, the Wii Fit and a lot of extra gadgets that go with it. Since I'm pretty compromised at operating these things, it's definitely something that we are able do to "together". (read: he has to show me how to work it)

Then on Saturday, he threw me a big party here at the house. Lots of fun! Old friends, new friends, staff members, etc came and helped me celebrate. Everyone ended up in the pool at least once, of course, and I hung out in the spa while Poppy grilled the food.

After that, all I knew was that 1.) we were going somewhere and 2.) I'd need an overnight bag. This isn't the first time my love has done this; he's really good at giving me surprise prizes. So Sunday morning, we packed and headed out.

First we went and saw the new Star Trek movie. Yeah! It was great! And, we both had been wanting to see it so that was a nice thing to do at 10am when it wasn't crowded. Afterwards, I was thinkin', "he had me pack a bag to throw me off so he could take me to a movie?". I should have known better. WAY better.

We headed down the hill and he still would not tell me where we were going. It wasn't until we were almost there that I figured it out: he had reserved us a large, beautiful suite at the Mission Inn in Riverside! This is one of my FAVORITE places to hang out! Simply gorgeous! So after checking into our beautiful room, he tells me there's one more prize and that I need to change clothes for that; then we headed down to the spa for a surprise couples massage. Those are ALWAYS great!!

This is a view from the window in our room:


After our massage, we headed to the bar, enjoyed some good drinks, some halibut ceviche, and then went off to dinner. I had one of the best prime rib dinners I've ever had, and Steve had a Surf and Turf special. It was absolutely fabulous!

Another view, from another window, in our ginormous suite:


We slowly got up and out of bed on Monday and headed back home to the real world.

Thank you, my beautiful husband, for making me feel loved and special and beautiful and all of those things that a husband is supposed to do for his wife. There is no bigger motivation to make a marriage the best it can be than for both spouses to simply love and be kind to each other.

Everything else falls into place. :)

Bruce!!

The Boss

Oct. 29th, 2007 was a very special night for me. See, my super cool boyfriend (now Hubby) surprised me with Bruce Springsteen tickets! My ex couldn't get a clue for 13 years that I really wanted to see him in concert but I mentioned it to Steve ONCE and he came up with tickets! He's a keeper. :)

When we showed up to get our wristbands, we were assigned a number somewhere between 1 and 1000. We were 612 and 613. The way Bruce lets the floor ticket holders into the building is like this: a fan picks a number and that number becomes Number One for the count, on who gets to enter the building first. Well, well... the number picked was 597 - we were the first 20 people to get into the show!!! What that means is we were in the first group to get to the stage - so not only did I get to see my favorite performer of all time, I got to stand 5 feet away from him the entire night! I got to see everything, including the sweat pouring off his body and the snot running from his nose. :)

It was absolutely an amazing night. Thank you, Honey. :)