Saturday in the Park

After a rain soaked Labor Day weekend , we were very happy to be given a picture perfect Saturday. We headed out to Lafayette Square in New Orleans to attend the 5th Annual New Orleans Seafood Festival.



We got there right when it opened so we could enjoy looking around without a large crowd. I think the park was a great location to have this small festival. It provided shade and lots of green space.




All of the food vendors were lined up on one side of the park in the shade.










Mr. B's Gazpacheo was refreshing



Remoulade's meat pie wasn't really spicy but it was tasty.


We never did make it to the Luke booth. This picture was taken early and they weren't ready to serve at that time.


Cafe Giovanni's Shrimp and Grits where a huge disappointment. Instead of the expected rich, spicy flavor we found this dish to be too sweet (?)


The fried shrimp and bacon poboy was very, very good!


We sampled the bread pudding and it was delicious.

By this time we were extremely full and needed to move around. We decided to walk around the block from Magazine to Julia and back up St. Charles. There is so much to observe in this area of the city that we played tourist, stopping every few feet whenever something caught our eye.



















I have a slew of other pictures and I plan to do a post on some of those, especially the variety of window styles, in the near future.

Back at Lafayette Square, the crowd at the Festival was growing



and it was almost time for Amanda Shaw to perform.



We first witnessed Amanda's incredible talent 8 years ago when she was 11. At that time she was relatively unknown and her playing blew us away. She has matured since that performance and in my opinion she gets better and better. She sounded fantastic at the Seafood Festival and she got the crowd dancing.










You gotta love being in a place where a busload of tourists drive by a festival and wave at the festival goers!

After Amanda finished we followed our stomach's advice and got in line at Drago's char-broiled oyster booth.




They were worth the wait!!


Drago's was going thru french bread to fast, they had more delivered by cab. LOL




Kermit Ruffins followed Amanda Shaw with his Barbecue Swingers. They played for more than 90 minutes and the crowd loved them.
















Kermit's 19 year old daughter Neshia performed and she has a very sweet voice.


You can tell who her Daddy is, can't you?

We left about 4 and the people were still streaming into the park. It was a fantastically fun day, but it was good to get home, sunburned and full of good memories of a day in New Orleans. We are truely blessed to live here. See you next week!

Scuzzbuckets of the Week

TUCSON, Ariz (Reuters) - The Republican Party in Representative Gabrielle Giffords' home county is raising eyebrows by raffling off a Glock handgun -- the same brand handgun with which Giffords, a Democrat, was shot through the head in January.

"When I first heard about this last week in an email, I said 'That's a joke, a sick joke. Nobody could be doing that,'" said Pima County Democratic Party Chairman Jeff Rogers.

"This is like tearing the scab off a wound. This community is still healing."

The county Republican organization announced the fund-raiser in its online newsletter, Tracks, on August 26.

"Get yourself a new Glock 23 .40 cal handgun for just 10 bucks -- if your name is drawn," the newsletter reads.

A picture of the handgun, being raffled with three 12-round magazines and a case, also appears in the newsletter. The Republicans are selling 125 tickets.

Mike Shaw, chairman pro tem of the Pima County Republicans, and Frank Antenori, a Republican state senator who has filed paperwork for a potential run against Giffords, did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

Jared Lee Loughner, 22, who has since been diagnosed with schizophrenia, is charged with shooting Giffords and 18 others with a Glock 19 handgun during a shopping center meet-and-greet January 8.

Six people died in the rampage before bystanders tackled Loughner, preventing him from reloading.

Giffords supports the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, said her spokesman Mark Kimble, though he could not confirm media reports that the congresswoman has owned a Glock handgun.

A Wet Labor Day Weekend

September is the high point on the tropical activity calendar. We who live on the Gulf Coast accept the fact that our Labor Day weekends might possibly be hampered by tropical activity. And this year we have Tropical Storm Lee.

What follows are my pix taken on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain (approximately 30 miles away from the French Quarter). The pictures are not as sensational as the Weather Channel would have you believe about Lee's intensity. Lee is more of a slow moving storm than a powerful one. As I type this (Sunday at 8 AM) it's still pouring outside.



This was taken from Lakeview Drive, better known as Rats Nest Road in Slidell. The old piers destroyed by Katrina are in the foreground and the new Twin Spans can be seen in the background.


This train was moving slowly across the submerged marshland heading towards Lake Pontchartrain.


Six years Post Katrina, St. Genevieve Catholic Church in the Bayou Liberty area of Slidell (my neighborhood) is finally rebuilding.



I like this shot of the crosses of the chapel and church.


Bayou Liberty boat berths. Those poles in the foreground represent sunken boat slips.





Swings and benches submerged in Lee's flood waters.


This is what this area normally looks like.


Hubby pointed out the beauty of the Spanish Moss and the waters of Bayou Liberty.


This crazy truck driver drove through the flood waters to drop off a friend.



The "new" Bayou Liberty Bridge taken from the Church side of the Bayou.





A view of the piers on the St. Genevieve grounds.



A bright spot in all of this wet windy weather is that our 6 month old lab discovered how much he LOVES water!

Labor Day Weekend - Friday

Hello T.S. Lee.

Baboons?

 

The English language has some wonderfully anthropomorphic collective nouns for the various groups of animals.

We are all familiar with a Herd of cows, a Flock of chickens, a School of fish and a Gaggle of geese.

However, less widely known is a Pride of lions, a Murder of crows (as well as their cousins the rooks and ravens), an Exaltation of doves and, presumably because they look so wise, a Parliament of owls.

Now consider a group of Baboons. They are the loudest, most dangerous, most obnoxious, most viciously aggressive and least intelligent of all primates.  And what is the proper collective noun for a group of baboons?

Believe it or not ....... a Congress!

I guess that pretty much explains the things that come out of Washington !

 

 

Bayou Sauvage Marsh Fire

Apparently lightening started a fire in an island in the Bayou Sauvage NWLR this week and NOLA has been overwhelmed with the smoke from the fire. Here is a time lapse today provided by a local TV channel.

Raw Video: Time Lapse Of Smoke Filling CBD - Video - WDSU New Orleans

Former Governor Blanco

Kathleen Blanco has been diagnosed with a form of eye cancer. She has begun writing a journal to detail what she's going through. Here is a recent excerpt found at BayouBuzz.com:

Cancer Radiation

Written by Bayoubuzz StaffMonday, 29 August 2011 13:21

BlancoThe following is the most recent edition of Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco’s Journal which she has started since discovering she was suffering from a rare eye cancer.

"My First Report Since Radiation

Dear Friends: Thank you, again, for you sustaining prayers. I have had little to report in the past few weeks as my eye slowly healed from the plaque radiation treatment done in Memphis. I was not bed-ridden, but I did spend the past weeks being extra kind to myself by following doctors orders: 1)not lifting heavy items (you suddenly realize bags of groceries are heavier than you should be lifting); 2) keeping my head above my heart (which is harder than you think when some incidental falls to the floor and the tendency is to bend down and swoop it up instead of sitting and carefully reaching for it); 3)and getting more rest including day-time naps (a luxury I had never experienced).

My eye no longer looks like a Raisinet. It looks like a normal eye. My vision in my treated eye is still not back to what it was before radiation, but it is good enough for me to resume driving without scaring myself. I am checked regularly by my local doctors to ward off unforseen problems and after waiting 8 weeks, I took another trip to Memphis so Dr. Wilson could check my progress.

The odds of radiation reducing these tumors are very high, but a small percent of patients do not respond well and have to have the cancerous eye removed, afterall. I was praying I not fall into that rare number, so with some last minute nervousness, Raymond, Karmen and Monique and I left for Memphis. After ultrasound and other eye tests I was relieved to learn that the tumor in my eye which first measured at 6mm high is now 4.5mm. Shrinking is a good thing and I pray this continues. Hallelujah! I still have swelling in the macula and Dr. Wilson gave me a shot (yep, in the eyeball!--OUCH! ) to help the swelling go away. Of course my next prayer mission is for the swelling to go down as this is what is affecting the clarity of my vision.

I will continue to see my local eye doctor for periodic exams and return to Memphis in December for comprehensive tests like CT scans, liver studies, etc., to detect the presence of matastasis if it exists (I PRAY NOT!) and to determine whether the tumor continues to shrink (I PRAY SO!)

i look quite normal, but still have a bit of fatigue to deal with. Keep me in your prayers along with all our friends who suffering debilitating or dangerous illnesses. Other than being somewhat tramatized by all of the above, my family is doing well. God bless all of you, and again, thanks for your hevenly petitions in my name. Love you all, Kathleen"

K plus 6

Hurricane hitting the East Coast

 Comment on the cnn.com article re: Hurricane hitting the East Coast

 

• MatiValhalla

Oh my God. What are these idiots doing, living along the Eastern seaboard, New York City, Boston, Norfolk, etc? What are they thinking? Don't they know they shouldn't build or live in the path of where Major Hurricanes come ashore!?   And I don't want my tax dollars paying out to these people or to ... more

Oh my God. What are these idiots doing, living along the Eastern seaboard, New York City, Boston, Norfolk, etc? What are they thinking? Don't they know they shouldn't build or live in the path of where Major Hurricanes come ashore!? 
  And I don't want my tax dollars paying out to these people or to FEMA in case they need help. Why can't they learn? And to think they even have Earthquakes in that region as well. Idiots! No help for them!

signed,
A Hurricane Katrina survivor. 
Aug/Sept 2005

The Truth Hurts, Doesn't It?
And doesn't it really sound ridiculous, heartless, demeaning, inhuman and sarcastic when the "shoe is on the other foot"?

I actually hope everyone will be fine.
Including the Idiots that posted 'merde' about my State and the South inn the aftermath of Katrina.

 

Katrina Memorials

 St. Bernard Parish plans two events associated with the 6th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

On Aug. 28, local officials and civic groups will gather at the Katrina Memorial Monument in Shell Beach for 7:30 a.m. ceremonies to remember the 163 St. Bernard residents killed when the storm struck on Aug. 29, 2005.

The parish School Board plans a breakfast Aug. 29 at Chalmette High School to mark the anniversary.

This website has some fantastic photos of the Memorial and other sections of St. Bernard Parish’s recovery http://hippics.smugmug.com/