December

Yeah that's right, I did it!  I wrote 50,000 words in the month of November for the first time since 2008.  The novel is not completed, and it's crap, but I wrote it.

Now that NaNoWriMo is over I can get back to reading.  I had four books out from the library when November came in, so I had to renew them twice so I could keep them to start reading again on December 1.

The dog knocked over the trash can and I know for sure that he ate a turkey leg (bones, etc), some stale cereal, a week-old Thanksgiving party cookie and some moldy beef jerky.  There might have been other delights in there as well.  It would serve him right to be sick but that would just mean more work for me.  Ugh.

I have two tiny baby tomatoes!

November

First of all, Hi Sarah!  I think you are the only person that reads this :)

My tomato plant has three little blossoms.  The plant is healthy but still seems too small to me to be able to support any tomatoes yet.  My cucumber plant also has blossoms, and also seems small.  I fertilized them both today to hopefully give them a little boost.

Also today I planted broccoli sprouts that I got from Holly's school almost a month ago.  I was supposed to thin all but one of the sprouts and then let it grow and then plant it.  But I never thinned... and they never really grew.  Today I separated the sprouts into five groups and planted them all.  If even one or two survives, I will be happy!

Reason #36 that I love Florida:  Gardening at the end of November.

I had a lovely quick trip to Maryland and West Virginia last weekend to see my parents, my grandparents, and a group of girlfriends.  Also got to see my brother and my Aunt Carol, which were both happy surprises.  It was really freaking cold up there, and while I enjoyed the chill and even seeing snowflakes, I was happy to come home.  Of course as soon as I got back to Orlando the temperatures dropped and we got our own cold front -- down into the 30s one day.  Today was back to mid 80s and I am happy.

Me and The General in West Virginia

Playing in fall leaves

Yo

Faithy got gifts and balloons at school on her birthday

Birthday cake for Thea and Faith at Cracker Barrel

Thanksgiving party in Holly's class

Plantings

Planted yesterday, October 17, one Better Boy tomato and one cucumber I don't remember the name of.

Last Day in New Orleans

I had pretty much worn myself out on Tuesday and Wednesday sightseeing, so on Thursday I stayed in again and worked most of the day.  This was the last day of classes and seminars for Tech Ed, so Dan got finished a little early and came back to the hotel and we rested up for the closing party.

At about 7 pm the buses started running that picked us up from our various hotels to take us to the closing party venue.  Apparently we hit a bump just as I was taking this picture.

The Mercedes-Benz Superdome welcomed us, lit up with rotating lights like a giant spaceship.

Everyone had to have a picture of it.

And everyone had to post their picture on Facebook.

We were greeted as we walked in by a drum band and by some characters in costume -- one was a plastic-faced king who looked like the Burger King (who scares me) and another was his plastic-faced queen.

This is looking down onto the floor of the Superdome from the entrance level.  There were free food and drink booths set up everywhere, and some football skills games to play at the back of the dome.

At the front of the dome they'd set up a stage and were playing live music.

There were these cool flower-shaped lights that hung from the dome roof.  They slowly opened up and brightened, then dimmed as they closed.

It was fun watching non-athletic men try to impress their friends or wives with football "skills."

Here and there in the crowd were costumed performers, in the style of Mardi Gras I assume.

I tried as much of the food as I could eat.  The vegetarian gumbo was so-so.  The red beans and rice were slightly bland.  The bread pudding was a little gummy.  Did this stop me from stuffing myself?  Nope.  Also, these teeny little bottles of Tabasco sauce were SO adorable!

An artist painted this while we watched.  Again, the style I saw in several local art galleries, with the bold bright colors and distinct lines.  Only after I took this picture did I realize the artist had put Windows -- Microsoft Windows -- into the windows of his Creole houses.

Dan and Kevan rested on the concourse for a bit to get a rest from the crowd on the Superdome floor.

The surprise of the evening was the "Halftime Show" performer -- none other than Tina Turner! (EDIT: Turns out this was a Tina Turner impersonator! I do not know why Microsoft tried to pass her off as the real Tina, even though she did a great job.) However the emcee or somebody screwed up by making the big announcement and introducing her, when she wasn't on the stage yet.

It was at least another 15 minutes before she was wheeled to the stage in a cart, in a very anticlimactic manner, with most people not even noticing.

Tina sang a very brief medley of some of her songs, and then invited some men to join her on stage and be her "Tinettes".  I don't know if she realized exactly who this audience was.

In this video you hear Tina encourage the nerds to "shake what your momma gave ya". You may also hear me groan.

While singing "Proud Mary", Tina encouraged the men to take turns dancing. It was simultaneously hilarious and disturbing!

Tina Turner's performance did not last long.  The next group to take the stage was a local band called MoJEAUX who played a wide variety of covers, from Top 40 to rock to some old school R&B.

I enjoyed it a lot. But I couldn't help laughing at the overwhelmingly white nerdy male audience trying to dance.

After a while I realized that they were having just as much fun as I was, whether because they were comfortable with themselves, or because they had had way too much free beer. Either way... to each his own, you know? Peace to the nerds!

It was nearly midnight when Dan and I headed back to the hotel. The next day we were heading back home to Orlando. You know it's been a good vacation when you enjoyed yourself but you're ready to go home.

Day Five in New Orleans (nighttime)

Dan and Kevan wanted me to meet them at the Convention Center so we could go to dinner, so I caught the Tech Ed shuttle from my hotel.

The Convention Center is huge.

I would have liked to have seen the aquarium in New Orleans, but it wasn't on my agenda this time.  Maybe next time when I have more money!  This mural was very nice though.

I suggested that we go back to the French Market for dinner.  There were lots of booths and vendors, so I was sure that we would each find something that we wanted to eat, plus there would be music to listen to.  So we got on the streetcar yet again.

This was a cool tile mural that dressed up an otherwise bland view from the streetcar.  We took the streetcare along the riverfront to Dumaine Street.  When we got off, I had to go up and get one more picture of the river, with the beautiful blue sky and fluffy clouds (and without the rats).

My idea of eating at the French Market was a huge FAIL, because turns out it basically closes up at 6 pm.  So we were stuck yet again wandering around trying to find someplace that we could all agree on that would not break the bank.

We ended up here at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville.

This is not New Orleans food, it's a chain restaurant -- in fact, there's one right back home in Orlando.  But the promise of a good burger drew us in!

Fun place and yes, the burger was delicious.

This was our last free evening in New Orleans, so we had to make one more stop at Cafe du Monde.  On the way there I saw my friend at the fountain from earlier that day, and had to get a picture with her.

We just didn't have room after dinner for beignets, but we had to have some frozen coffee.  Maybe it's the chicory they traditionally put in their coffee, but this stuff was amazing.

River at night.

The Steamboat Natchez, offering jazz cruises on the river.  Another thing to do next time!

This outdoor room of the aquarium houses parakeets -- hundreds of them, for all the chirping we could hear and little feathery bodies we could see flying around and perching inside.

The mirrored outside of the aquarium's IMAX theater was glittery in all the city lights.  There are so many things I wish I could have done in New Orleans!  But now our time was basically finished.  The next day, Thursday, was the last day of Tech Ed.  I had a lot of work to be done so I wasn't going to be sightseeing during the day, and in the evening, we were looking forward to attending the closing party of the convention!

Day Five in New Orleans (daytime)

So many pictures, I have to split this post into two.

On Wednesday I ventured off to explore the French Quarter on my own.  This neighborhood was founded in the early 1700s as part of the French Louisiana colony.  Fires in the late 1700s destroyed most of the original buildings and when they were rebuilt they reflected Spanish architecture because by this time Spain owned much of the area.

 

Old buildings...



New buildings...



Little alleyways.



Walking from behind St Louis Cathedral towards Jackson Square.



The cathedral was very quiet and solemn inside.



Ceiling of the cathedral.





The pulpit looks like a giant clamshell.



The sanctuary.



The organ at the back of the cathedral.



It had been perfectly sunny when I went into the cathedral, but when I came back out it was raining.  That was OK, as the rain had driven away most of the street vendors between the cathedral and Jackson Square, so I got to walk around in relative peace.



Statue of Andrew Jackson, with the cathedral in the background.



I read somewhere that this statue of Andrew Jackson astride a horse was the first statue in which a horse had two feet off the ground.



Cathedral again.



After I left the cathedral I wandered down more residential streets.





This is the Old Ursuline Convent, which some say is the oldest building in New Orleans.  This is a French style of architecture as opposed to Spanish.



Across the street from the convent is the Beauregard-Keyes House.  An architect from Baltimore designed the house and garden, which was built in the 1800s.  I loved this little barred window into the garden.



Peering through the bars you see this.



More meandering through the streets.







I love the balcony gardens.





Though this house is not marked in any way and sits unassumingly on the street, it is the LaLaurie Mansion, with a grisly history of torture and murder and is considered to be haunted.



I believe this is a type of house called a shotgun house, which is very narrow and long, and consists of rooms leading one into another without any hallways.



I think I would have had to turn sideways to walk through this narrow doorway!



I had been walking for several hours in the steamy heat and I took a break at the French Market, drinking a bottle of water and listening to these guys on guitars and harmonica.  I decided there was no way I could walk all the way back to my hotel -- my feet were killing me.  But I didn't have exact change for the streetcar, so I was simply forced to go to Cafe du Monde and enjoy a frozen cafe au lait to break my $20.



Behind the Cafe, this lady looked quite comfortable.  I thought of stopping to soak my feet in her fountain but thought that would be kind of gauche.



Clothes hanging in a shop, looking more like they are on a clothesline hanging to dry.



Some other tourists helped me get on the right streetcar and took this picture of my exhausted self!  As soon as I got back up to my room at the hotel, I ran cold water into the bathtub and sat on the edge letting my feet soak.  Ahhhhhh...  Less than an hour later, Dan called and said he and Kevan were done for the day, so why don't I come down to the Convention Center to meet them and go somewhere for dinner?