Lou'siana

Since I've been home for over a week now, isn't it about time I posted some of my pics? Yep, that's what I thought.
Aside from camera troubles frustrating enough to make me want to chuck it in the nearest fountain, I came home with some decent amateur photos. Enjoy.

A few thoughts about the trip:

• New Orleans has some beautiful things in it, and it is true that you could happily eat your way from one end of it to th'other, but it takes some purposeful obliviousness to navigate it without permanently scaring your innocence. That or buckets of Wassa's Eye Bleach.
• When the threat is real, I am indeed afraid of snakes.
• Live Oaks are just about the coolest thing ever.
• Friends you've never met before can turn out to be just as amazing as you hoped they'd be.
• So can their kids.
• Pralines. Yum.
• Worshiping with others "of like faith and practice" is awe inspiring no matter where it takes place.
• I want to go back.

Uneventful Event

This last weekend Chad and I attended the Boxacon event in Waukesha, WI. Aimlesst put together a great gathering with lots of science fiction themed boxes, tons of great food, a fantastic turn out and weather that cooperated for the most part. I got to see several "old" friends and meet lots of new people as well. Everyone was friendly and gracious to my DH, as I knew they would be. And unless I just haven't found them yet, I didn't come home with a single cootie. In spite of my knee, I managed to walk a short trail and find a few boxes with the help of Shorty, Pitties, and Atomic Beans (thanks for allowing the slack boxing guys!).
All in all, it was fairly ordinary. Don't read that as boring though. I just mean that nobody got set on fire, or arrested, or any such nonsense.

I purposefully left the file size of this photo huge so that you can click on it to enlarge the picture. I thought about trying to identify everyone, but quickly gave that up as too daunting a task for this early in the morning.

I only carved one new stamp for the event. M has been bugging me to carve Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver for months and I finally gave in. It isn't any light saber, but if I had to choose one to have "for real", I'd pick the sonic screwdriver in a double heart beat. There isn't much that little gizmo can't do.

On the way home, we stopped for dinner at the Chicken Basket, one of Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive ins, and Dives. It has been on our list since February. Yes, the fried chicken and mac n cheese were as good as we expected. Maybe the guy does know what he's talking about after all.



Of course, this begs the question: Could a person, theoretically, put together a road trip that combines the best of both the letterboxing and the foodie worlds and convince said person's family to actually take such a hypothetical journey?

In Memory

I could not think of a more appropriate tribute to Janet, a friend who was lost before I knew her half as much as I would have liked.

AWAY!

Now I out walking
The world desert,
And my shoe and my stocking
Do me no hurt.

I leave behind
Good friends in town,
Let them get well-wined
And go lie down.

Don't think I leave
For the outer dark
Like Adam and Eve
Put out of the Park.

Forget the myth.
There is no one I
Am put out with
Or put out by.

Unless I'm wrong
I but obey
The urge of a song:
I'm--bound--away!

And I may return
If dissatisfied
With what I learn
From having died.

~Robert Frost

Blooming Flowers, you will be missed.