New Blog..New Post..New City..New Home

Ok, so I started a new blog...I know...I know...I only wrote in my old Blog like 4 or 5 times, but I promise to try and be better at writing on this one! I wanted to rename my blog since I have a new last name and couldn't figure out how to do it so I just decided to have a fresh start with a new Blog! Anyways, I am going to try and use this blog to update people on our big move to NOLA and also on my photography endeavors.

Anyways, so we have been in NOLA for about 10 days now. Wow! Has it really been 10 days??? It doesn't seem like that long. We are getting all settled in our new house. I mean home. How can a house become a home in 10 days? I don't know but it has. I really like this place so far. The little imperfections I didn't like at first I am actually growing quite fond of. It has a lot more character than our old house (and cabinet space!) I must say I am not too fond of the insects, reptiles, amphibians and varmints I have been finding around this joint. So far I have found a lizard climbing up in the wall IN THE HOUSE, another 6 inch lizard in the garage, a midget frog climbing up the wall in the garage (right by the light switch I went to flip in the dark), lots of giant bugs climbing around outside (including these huge locusts which leave their sickening shells all over the place), and also a baby nutria rat which Penny thought was a squeak toy and batted around the back yard. For those of you who don't know what a Nutria or Coypu rat is then type it in Google and you will see for yourself. They are these 20-30 lb rats that roam around down here close to water. They are siiicckkkk!

Other than unpacking a million boxes and organizing our house I haven't done much else besides run errands and try to get myself acclimated to where I am at. Saturday was Mills' birthday so we went out to White Linen Night in the Arts Warehouse District. It was an event put on by the Contemporary Arts Center of New Orleans. Everyone dressed in white (linen mostly) and walked around eating food, drinking cocktails and walking through art galleries. I saw lots of cool art, a group of painted people, including a topless girl, another girl who had spilled her red wine all down her snow white dress and even some trampy girls dressed in all black just to draw attention to themselves. Mills said it was the most attractive girls he has seen down here since he has been here. Something else interesting about it...it was still 93 degrees outside at 9pm!!! Yes, you heard that correctly. The day we moved in the 90 year old lady that lives across the street came out to greet us and tell us it was going to be "Hot as Fried Chicken Today"! And boy was she right. It has been hotter than Hades! It has been such a hot and humid summer in Indiana that I really haven't noticed much of a difference during the day down here. Whether it is 90 or 95 or 98 doesn't really make a difference. Sweltering hot is sweltering hot. But the biggest difference is at night it doesn't cool down. It is no odd occurrence for it to still be in the 90's well into the night! Ick!

I know why they call it the dirty south...it is DIRTY down here! Last week we went to Walmart (which I would totally refrain from doing under any normal circumstances, but we had some gift cards to burn) and it was one of the worst experiences! It was so dirty and disgusting that I didn't want to buy anything...and the Walmart was only a couple months old! Oh well, Mills said I will get what he likes to call "Louisiana eyes" in no time. He doesn't even realize how crappy everything looks anymore. He is totally used to it.

I have had some good eats in the past week. I had one of the best pasta dishes I have even eaten in my life last week. It was angel hair with shrimp alfredo. I wouldn't even call it alfredo though, because I normally don't like alfredo. Maybe it is because I reference all alfredo sauces to the disgustingly think bland goop that we would squeeze from industrial size bags at Shoemaker into big pots. It was so gross I kind of want to vomit just thinking about it. But this sauce was thin and creamy and just the right amount of spicy. It was delish! Boy do they know how to cook down here! Speaking of cooking, yesterday I made Mills a birthday dinner which consisted of a crab/cream cheese dip appetizer, a wedge salad complete with HOMEMADE ranch dressing, shrimp, corn and potato bisque, homemade crab cakes, creamed corn and hush puppies. Oh and yellow cake with chocolate icing (his favorite). It was pretty good if I do say so myself! Operation lettuce needs to start tomorrow!

Oh and for those few Penny lovers out there, she is doing good. She absolutely loves our huge backyard and all of the weird bugs and critters she has been finding. She goes running through the yard with her ears and tongue flapping everyday. We went on a walk along the levee tonight. We live about 100 yards from the Mississippi River levee. There is a walking/bicycle trail along the top of the levee that is pretty cool. She loved that. She isn't used to the wood floors yet. We throw her toys and she going skidding across the floors past them. I am not sure if she realizes we are in our new home yet. She is in heaven to be with her beloved Millsy again. She gets so excited every night when he gets home from work she can hardly contain herself. She is already back to sleeping with him every night and wanting nothing to do with me. :( Oh well, I am happy that she is happy. I am happy to be with Millsy too. We have been apart far too long. I feel like our whole existence is sewn together with periods of separation. Oh well, absence makes the heart grow fonder right?

Ok, signing off for tonight!