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.

Warmth in winter

When I get up in the mornings and think "Whew it's cold!!" because it's 50-something degrees outside, I know better than to complain about it. When the sun comes out, it will be in the 70s, but back in Baltimore it's struggling to reach 20. I think I can handle this.

 Yesterday after a morning shopping trip at Walmart, I went to open my trunk to put my groceries in, and the key snapped off in the trunk lock.

 

Not cool.  It meant of course that I was stranded in the Walmart parking lot until Dan could come from work, 29 miles away, to rescue me with a working key.  Again... in FL, this is not so bad as it could be.  I sat in the car with the windows down, basking in some sun and listening to birds singing in the trees.  I reflected on an observation I had made in the Walmart:  There are about the same amount of people riding around on electric scooters in the Walmart in Mt Dora as there were at the Walmart in Baltimore.  However,  in Mt Dora the riders were all elderly people.  In Baltimore they were not; they were obese, or swollen and possibly diabetic, or once in a while in a cast, but often just joy-riding.

At Walmart I bought a cilantro plant to put in my kitchen window.  Whenever I need cilantro, I only need a little bit, and I have to buy an enormous clump and waste it.  I thought a little plant would provide me with just the right supply.

This is what it looked like this morning.  I hope when the sun comes up it will perk up.

Here is one of those songs that gets in your ear and stays there.  It runs all day in your head and you find yourself walking in rhythm to it.  Then at night the infinite loop makes you an insomniac and turns your thoughts dark and you feel like there is SOMETHING that you are missing deep in yourself that would make this song bearable and then you could sleep.  Or is that just me?

"Midnight City" by M83

Random

• Having a usable kitchen -- meaning one with enough room to turn around and with a working oven -- makes a lot of difference in enjoyment of cooking.
• Waking up with the coffeemaker having just finished brewing a pot is also pretty cool.
• I'm not Linkin Park's biggest fan, but I really like "Burn It Down."
• When Chester and I walk around the neighborhood, we set off frantic barking at about every other house.  Chester never says a word though.  He's so well behaved!
• Except for when he took a dump on the patio.
• Faith is playing intramural badminton.  She loves it!
• We still go swimming almost every day.  But the water is getting darn chilly in that pool, despite the fact that the days are still very warm.
• I met my goal of reading 20 books this year.  (the list)  Now I'm working on number 21!

Sunset

While I was in Florida in June I marveled at the beautiful sunsets.  But apparently I had just not paid enough attention here at home.  Yes, even in Baltimore...  In the evenings when I take the dog out for his walk, I look down my street, towards the place where train cargo is unloaded all day and all night and trucked away by huge rigs, and above that place is a colorful display in the sky that surprises me every time.

Today after I admired the western sky, I turned to the east and there was the almost full moon, a beautiful peachy-pink.

Which means I spent the rest of the dog's walk humming "Pink Moon."  :)

I think I will miss the city a little bit after all.  I'm excited to be starting a new chapter in my life down in Florida, for many reasons, but Maryland is home, and I took some pride in being a Baltimorean.

"Pink Moon" by Nick Drake

Dog Days

July has been pretty rough temperature-wise.  The past two or three weeks have seen triple digits as a matter of course.  Dan, the cats, the dog, and I have been relatively inactive.

We did hit a productive spurt last weekend, though, and accomplished a bunch of things around the house in anticipation of the kids' return after spending nine weeks with their dad.  I cleaned up Thea's and Faith's rooms, we put a vanity in Thea's room, we put new lamps in our bedroom, my friend Carrie and I installed the long-promised chair rail in Faith's room and are painting the trim tonight, Dan and I cleaned hundreds of pounds of plaster, insulation, wood and other debris from the unfinished room, he worked on putting up drywall, and he installed a new sink and vanity in the downstairs bathroom.  Lots to be proud of.

My yellow pear tomato plants are in mutant mode.  They are busting out of their cages, climbing out onto the grass, choking out the other tomato plants.  Their branches go down to the ground, ROOT THERE, and then grow back up again.  I have yellow tomatoes everywhere.  It's almost scary.  Carrie and I made yellow tomato salsa one evening and I thought it turned out quite good -- the tomatoes gave it a sweet taste that hid at first the kick from the peppers that burned your mouth.  Speaking of the peppers, after chopping up two jalepenos (one was from my garden!) and a serrano, my fingers burned for two days.  Also, removing my contacts that night apparently transferred the pepper oil onto my contacts, and when I tried to put them in the next morning, my eyeballs nearly burned out.  A quick Google search showed me I am not the first person to experience this.  I rinsed the contacts with hydrogen peroxide and then milk, and let them soak for several hours in fresh solution.  This seemed to do the trick.

My one and only jalepeno

I'm doing a little redesign of the photo album portion of my website.  I'm only.. oh, seven months behind in putting up pictures.  There are a couple of pages I did for 2012 already -- our May trip to Ocean City, and Thea's 8th grade graduation.

I must admit that I have kind of a music crush on Foster the People at this moment.  Which led me to this song that I am currently rocking out at my desk to -- check out the adorable Mark Foster along with Kimbra of "Somebody That I Used To Know" infamy and a DJ named A-Trak in a really cool collaboration on this song, "Warrior".  I love the video, too.

Enjoy and stay cool!

Focus on your ability!

I'm currently obsessed with this song by Foster The People.  I got the album "Torches" while in Florida to play while driving around in the convertible.  Unfortunately Dan didn't particularly care for the album aside from "Pumped Up Kicks".  (I loved that song last summer but I've been kind of done with it for a while now.)

I didn't agree with Dan;  I enjoyed the CD a lot, especially the track "Helena Beat" and this one, "Houdini."  It in fact may be contributing to my insomnia because it's so catchy that it's hard to remove it from the replay in my head.

Enjoy, and sweet dreams!  Hehehe.

From the mess to the masses

You probably weren't wondering what I am listening to these days but I'm going to tell you anyway.  It's "Lisztomania" by Phoenix, which was a big favorite of mine about two years ago.  I liked the original a lot, I liked the version that the kids from New York's PS22 Chorus did, and now I can't quit listening to this "Alex Metric Remix:"

It's super dancey, isn't it?  I am a little disturbed by the video footage of the chickens, but I understand it is from the 1992 movie "Baraka," which I had never heard of but which plenty of people on the internet say changed their lives.  So now it's on my list of movies to see.

Little off subject there.  As I was saying, super dancey, isn't it?

I have almost finished the baby hat I am crocheting, and then I have to plop it on my friend's baby's head and see if it fits!  I've also started crocheting a basic wrap sweater for myself.  I have been using Pinterest for a little while now, and it has this way of making you feel like you could be a super crafter if you only had the time, hence the crocheting.  I also have been pinning favorite music over there if you want to have a listen.

As for my reading progress, I was enjoying "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" so much, and then somehow I just quit reading for like two weeks.  I don't really know what happened.  I need to pick it back up again, because I have a ton of other books on the shelf that I need to get to this year as well.

Here's a gratuitous picture of Holly wearing her new Old Navy Valentine's dress:

Yes, it was taken with my phone using the "Retro Camera" app, which those of us who don't use Instagram, due to owning Android phones, use.  I guess it's a little bit hipster of me, but it sure is cute, isn't it?

I come back here from time to time

picture from http://rebeccasower.typepad.com/

October... It's my absolute favorite time of year.  Colors, warmth and chill, orange sunshine, the smell of wet earth and leaves.

On Saturday, after showering and dressing, I stood out on the back porch and let the sun and the wind dry my hair.  Being as that I live in the middle of the city, I'm sure there were traffic noises and train whistles, but I didn't hear any of that.  I heard birds, and I heard the wind in the trees, and I remembered other October days when I thought to myself, "This is my absolute favorite time of year." 

It was one of those quiet wistful moments in time that you feel like you might remember forever, but you know it'll more likely be forgotten in a matter of days.  If you're lucky, though, the elusive feeling will return to you in another time and place.

This was the song playing through my head on Saturday, and it captures that wistful, warm feeling of October sun and childhood memories.  Gosh, I love this band.

Scattered Black and Whites by Elbow...

Dig - Incubus

This song is several years old but I have recently rediscovered it. Previously "Wish You Were Here" had been my favorite Incubus song, but I think it has just lost its title, as I can't stop playing and replaying "Dig".

This song is awesome -- all the instruments have strong and interweaving parts (listen for the bass, it's stirring), and Brandon Boyd's emotional vocals elevate it to something really moving. I love the lyrics, which suggest to me a commitment to remember and look for a friend's or lover's true person, underneath the changes and facades that we all go through or take on over time.

"If I turn into another, dig me out from under what is covering the better part of me..."

Mirrorball

I was so hypnotized by this song on the radio yesterday afternoon as I was driving that I nearly missed my exit.



Give it a few listens and then check out this live orchestral version. It brought tears to my eyes, which I know sounds cheesy, but it's the truth. How can you not sigh over these lines of how love transforms and enriches the ordinary:

You make the moon our mirrorball
The street's an empty stage
The city's sirens, violins
Everything has changed



(the song is "Mirrorball" by Elbow -- all the lyrics are beautiful)

Just Voicing Her Opinion...

Holly, watching Christina Aguilera sing the National Anthem at the Superbowl: "That singing is not beautiful."

Sunny days

We went to Centennial Park on Sabbath for a picnic with some people from church. Beautiful day. I do realize I'm way behind in getting pictures up -- I've only done through June. Sometime I'll sit down and work on getting July posted. July was the week-long camping trip, and I have between 200 and 300 pictures to go through... a daunting task.

Emily -- "Not a Kitten, Not Yet a Queen" -- became suddenly affectionate last week and we all thought, well isn't this nice! Until she began yowling and behaving obscenely and we realized she was in heat. It's not fun, and less fun is going to be the vet bill for having her spayed.

Today I am very taken with this song: "Laughing With a Mouth Of Blood" by St Vincent. Don't be put off -- the name sounds more Goth than it really is.

Becky's Top 40

I'm told I'm picky about music. This is probably true. The thing is, I love music, lots of different kinds of music, but I tend to form strong opinions for sometimes random reasons. I have completely arbitrary rules about what we can listen to in the car on the way to school. Thea likes to flip the radio channels and choose music, but she has to abide by my rules.

For instance, no Katy Perry. Because once she was a guest judge on American Idol and I couldn't stand her, plus I hate "California Gurls" because I think the lyrics are stupid. So, I decreed No More Katy Perry.

Also, I don't like songs in which the singer announces his name (I'm looking at you, Jason Derulo, and also at the three of you, Jay Sean, Sean Paul, and Lil Jon) because for one, it's arrogant, and for two, if you sound so much like a hundred other artists that you have to remind the listener who you are, why do we need you cluttering up the airwaves? Hence, No Saying Your Name.

I don't like Buckcherry's "All Night Long" because it has no hook, no musical piece of interest at all, it's just non-stop caterwauling. It's like hearing my kids whining and wailing at me for four minutes or whatever. Also, pretty much anything by Avenged Sevenfold. Tiresome. It sucks that I used to be into 98 Rock-type rock music, but now much of what they play seems just like a bunch of noise. Great! I'm officially old! No Buckcherry or Avenged Sevenfold.

But lest I (and you) think I'm just the grouch that hates all the kids' music these days, now and then something truly interesting and original will come on the radio and I'll perk up. Here are two things that caught my ear this past week:

"Believe" by The Bravery -- This is a unique sound, leans to the alternative... but still you can turn it way up with the windows down on a late summer night and rock out as you drive.

"100 Yard Dash" by Raphael Saadiq -- Do yourself a favor and check this out. The video is cool too. Very retro and fresh, makes your hips want to move.

Ulrich Schnauss - Between Us And Them

One of my Pandora stations I've tuned to what I call my "Writing Music" (even though I haven't done any significant writing in a while). It's mostly instrumental, atmospheric, mood music. Music that makes me feel a variety of emotions, just listening to it.

Here's something that station has been playing me for a couple of years: "Between Us And Them" by German electronica musician Ulrich Schnauss. This is music that will really take you away.

Catchup (mmmmmmm ketchup)

Some things that have been brewing in my head.

Things that are yummy:

Chocolate Pop-Tarts.

When you toast them, the warm gooey middle tastes just like licking brownie batter out of a mixing bowl. How can you go wrong? Yes this is my hand in the picture -- I am refraining from gobbling the rest of the pop-tart just long enough to snap this photo.

Also, the Mac Snack Wrap from McDonalds.

I could never get myself to eat the Big Mac, with its two all-beef patties, but the snack wrap goes down easy. Includes plenty of special sauce.

Songs I Like:

"The High Road" by Broken Bells



Heard this one last week and it's been playing in my head since.

Things People Shouldn't Say:

My friend Sarah last week bemoaned her colleague using the word "chillaxin'". I would like to add my disdain for my white peers who use the word "peeps" (and aren't talking about the marshmallow chickies that are in your neighborhood Walmart right now). I can't really speak to whether it's still OK for my black peers to say "peeps," but my gut says No, Not Really.

Home is wherever I'm with you

Song of my day: Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

How catchy is this! Makes you want to run around in the sun with those you love. Now all I need is some sun...

Appaloosa - The Day (We Fell In Love) (Ted & Francis Remix)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFJqESssWpY

I have this free sampler music CD and this is the last track on it -- it was on continuous replay on my drive to work.

Like.

All I Need

Just sayin', if you ever come upon me and I'm listening to "All I Need" by Radiohead, it's a pretty safe bet that I'm under a dark cloud. It's my wallow song.

Now you know!