Best of Jackson Party

Sunday we went with Carl, Rebekah, Shanean and Paula to the Best of Jackson party at Mardi Gras restaurant, sponsored by the local alternative weekly, the Jackson Free Press. The free food and beer were the main draw, but the local characters were a close second. One attention-seeking man wore a body-hugging gold lame' jumpsuit, another man dressed like Snow White, and a third dressed like a hung over Elvis. Dorothy from Oz was there along with some dread-lock bearing rastafarians. A blonde woman I'll call 'interesting' wore a t-shirt with the slogan "Hugo Chavez is not the enemy." The best food offering of the night was burgers from Cool Al's.

Saints Stop Marching

Saints fever has hit Jackson. My neighbor spelled out "Who Dat" in duct tape on the back of his car. Plenty of businesses had Geaux Saints on their signs. We watched the Saints game today at Jake's house along with Phillip, Lyndsey, Wade, Sarah and Randy. We kept moving chairs trying to find some seating arrangement that was 'lucky.' Unfortunately, the Saints were not able to overcome the turnovers that ruined their chances to go to the Super Bowl.

Jeff & Grace Visit

Saturday Jeff and Grace were in town, so we went out to eat with them and had a great visit at Old Venice Pizza Co.

Plate Special

So Saturday I was straightening out a cabinet with some dishes and I realized that I had in this house a plate from 4 out of 5 sides of Todd's and my family. I decided to display them. From left, they are (1) old plate from a set from Todd's mother's family; (2) the "chicken/rabbit plate" from my father's family; (3) old plate from a set from Todd's father's family; (4) plate from my mother's family; and (5) special plate reading 'Bob' on it from Todd's grandmother. The plate was hand painted in the 1950s in honor of Todd's mother, Barbara, whose childhood nickname was 'Bob.'

Saints Win Shirt

There is palpable New Orleans Saints fever around here. This is my low-key tribute.

Recent Reading

I'm midway through reading a Christmas present from Jake, Angels and Demons Illustrated Edition by Dan Brown. I read this novel a couple of years ago and constantly found myself looking up works of art, landmarks and other things mentioned in the book, so this illustrated edition is awesome.

Wok Cooking

I got a wok for Christmas from Aunt Kaye and was determined to use it. I spent last weekend seasoning the wok and this week poring over this cookbook, Wok Fast. What a great cookbook! It makes clear the world of Asian cooking with lots of illustrations and explanations. Today I used the wok for the first time. I went to the local Asian grocery to get supplies and followed a recipe. I made a rosemary hoisin sauce and cooked stir fried shrimp with zucchini, yellow squash and red onion. The great thing about wok cooking is there's no questioning about the heat...it's all high, all the time. Therefore you only spend 4 or 5 minutes actually cooking. Results tonight were great - the sauce was incredibly spicy - Todd didn't even have to add Tony's seasoning to it, as he usually adds to everything!

Who Dat

I was pretty excited about the New Orleans Saints game yesterday. Last weekend in New Orleans, all we heard was Saints, Saints, Saints. It's on everyone's lips. So Saturday, Todd and I both wore Saints t-shirts and went to Jake's to watch the game. Here's a photo of the fleur de lis cake I made for the occasion. We were so thrilled about the win on Saturday and the franchise's first ever appearance in the conference championship game next weekend.

January Spring

We were surprised to arrive home from Greenwood on Saturday to see the first blooms in the bed of bulbs in our back yard. The rest are about to bloom. It's 76 and very pleasant today, in keeping with the temps the past few weeks. These bulbs originally came from my mother's garden before she sold her house in Spring 06. They were planted last spring, after they had bloomed elsewhere and were transplanted, so this is the first time I've had an inkling of what color or type they were. It seems that they are paperwhites - or at least the paperwhites are the first to bloom in this grouping. It's a shame the rest won't have a chance to bloom at all - a cold front is coming through that is going to plunge temperatures into the 30s tomorrow night. Today I planted some hollyhocks, some narcissus and some yellow daffodils, both in pots and in an established bed.

Rooms at The Alluvian

My one bone to pick with The Alluvian hotel is the bedding. Others with us on the trip and during other trips have absolutely raved about the Alluvian bedding and wanted it for their homes. The opposite is the case for Todd and me. We normally sleep on memory foam pillows and it's a stark contrast to sleep on a down pillow, which offers almost no support. In fact, it's like sleeping on no pillow at all. The last two times we've stayed in this hotel, we've had trouble sleeping and didn't feel rested in the morning. However, the Godiva chocolates at turn down are delightful.

The Alluvian

We visited the Alluvian Hotel in Greenwood, Mississippi Friday night for business. We had a dinner that evening in the hotel and I had a meeting the next morning with people I work with. The Alluvian is like an oasis in the desert - almost surrounded by scary, dark streets and decay. But inside is another world. It's a nice place to escape to - a 2 hour getaway from Jackson.

Return of French Quarter

Last weekend as we were visiting Todd's family on the Westbank of New Orleans, we took a rare trip into the city, visiting the World War II museum and eating at Maspero's in the French Quarter. The French Quarter had a lot of foot traffic and a more festive atmosphere than when we visited in July. Although people did not seem to be in the shopping mall area of Jackson Brewery, there was a superb mime who had us fascinated, there were 5 or 6 street artists in Jackson Square (as opposed to none on a July morning). This was the Saturday following the Wednesday Sugar Bowl - but we saw lots of Notre Dame fans still in the Quarter.

Kentwood La Delicacy

I didn't take many photos of our New Orleans trip last weekend, but I snapped one of this great greasy chicken place where we stopped on the way - Jam's chicken in Kentwood Louisiana, otherwise known as the hometown of Britney Spears. We loved the food and thought the chicken and gumbo were hard to beat. We also liked their sign on the door that said "No pants below the rear!"

Hard Knock Auto

Todd swears this car is "trying to kill us." I say it's just trying to commit suicide and take us with it. Anyway it was Christmas Day and we had left my mother's house and had gone only 2 miles of a 2 hour trip home. A Suburban darted out in front of me, causing me to swerve into a curb and shred both of my right tires. Yes, I did hit that orange/white pole thingy, but it popped back up. This near accident detained us for a further 24 hours before we could get home and forced me to take a day of vacation I had not planned on taking on the 26th. We went car shopping on the 26th because this is the fifth crazy strange near accident and accident that has happened to me in this car in the past 13 months.

Ghetto Cork

I promised the Christmas crowd I would blog about the so called ghetto cork spotted on Christmas Eve in the kitchen. Draw your own conclusions.

Backtrack to Christmas

Back to Christmas...I haven't figured out the logistics with the laptop yet, because it's not the computer we download photos to, so I am just now putting photos on the laptop for uploading purposes. Kaye took this photo on Christmas Eve of Todd, me, Lyn, Breck and Jen.

Good Luck in 2007

Beverly and Dave were nice enough to have us over for New Year's Day. Beverly cooked her annual if-it's-not-famous-it-oughta-be delicious New Year's feast - corned beef, cabbage and black eyed peas. I also cooked some black eyed peas with some leftover pork rib meat we had in the fridge. Hopefully we'll be lucky. Origin of eating black eyed peas on this day. Also should mention Chris and Laura's engagement - congratulations from all. We know they are looking forward to 2007!

Football

We have been watching a lot of football. I am an NFL fan I will admit. We watched the Saints play the Panthers Sunday afternoon, then that night I cooked while watching the Packers and Bears in Brett Favre's last game. Monday we watched bowl game after bowl game while doing other tasks in the same room as the TV. Todd manually keyed several locks and I put the period on the end of the sentence for two projects that I am ready to pass along to others. Also on New Year's Day, we changed out the 2006 business files and replaced them with 2007. None of these tasks was especially interesting, but all were necessary. Back to the football. I saw the first drive of the Boise State/Oklahoma game, but turned it off and read a magazine instead. I guess I had football overload. Tonight (Tuesday) we are watching the Orange Bowl.