Scenes from NOLA and other random Monday crap

I now sort of have a cold. The fun never ends. I need exercise and fresh air in the worst way. Perhaps we will get to actually go snowshoeing this weekend. What, you say?! Actually do something that no one else has scheduled for me?! I sure need a break in a major way from all the overscheduled stuff. Here's what my schedule for the last few months has been: October-November (election day)-off of work to work on campaign stuff. The rest of November--off of work to help observe for recount. December--holidays and poor Jeffy getting very sick and ultimately not with us any more. January--being in mourning for my sweet Jeffy and then going to New Orleans which wasn't really a vacation. My new answer to people who want me to do more than I am currently doing is NO. I am trying to decide if I still want to do all the stuff I am doing now. Maybe I'll think about that for a while.

Anyhow, here are pictures from my non-vacation. It did have moments of fun, but not as many as I would have liked.

Here's a picture of Paulette filling wheelbarrows with dirt.

We had two days of community service to fix up baseball diamonds in two parks. I did not do the dirt digging thing because I didn't want to make my tennis elbow get messed up again. I pulled weeds and picked up garbage and other stuff.

Here's a picture of the AFSCME Council 24 crew. From left: Larry, Kenny, Renee, Jeff, Paulette, me, Jana, and Bob.

Here's a picture of some of the houses around the park. They don't look that bad here, but in other parts of the city, the damage is still very evident. It's just shameful that 3 years later, some portions of the city (most of them in the 9th ward) are still in such disrepair. Our bus driver who took us to our community service gave us a tour of the devastation after we were done working. It's breathtaking how close some of those houses are to the levees.

St. Louis Cathedral. Picture taken from the other side of Jackson Square.

Interior view of altar in St. Louis Cathedral. Taken after mass on Sunday morning. While the church itself is very pretty, we don't happen to agree with the conservative views of the priest.

Paulette outside of St. Louis Cathedral.

Me outside the Quarter Stitch yarn shop. I am wearing the scarf I made with yarn from the shop.

Paulette outside the Quarter Stitch.

The window of the Quarter Stitch.

Cafe du Monde. Can you say cafe au lait and beignets?

On the home knitting front, my sweater is in the home stretch. I started the shaping for the tops of the sleeves this weekend. When that's done, there's not much left until I get to wear it and start something else!

Here's a picture of our new blog sweetheart, Churchill, aka Billy. It's hard to take a good picture of him. I must work on that. He has big paws to fill. Churchill has not been a big going outside guy. I am going to see if we can work on that. I'll miss my outside gardening buddy Jeffy when it gets warm and need a new assistant. Billy, you're it.

Finally

Sorry about not posting. I caught an intestinal bug in New Orleans that I have had since Sunday evening. I am starting to feel a little better now. It wasn't fun flying when you're not feeling well. We got home at midnight on Monday. Ugh.

I am glad to be home. Going to a conference and going on actual vacation are two different things. This was no vacation.

Churchill was really happy to see us. I missed him so much.

I am back at work, having been off since I got home on Monday. Tuesday I had originally taken vacation to watch the inauguration. I watched it, but I wasn't feeling the best. Wednesday and Thursday I have been sick.

Maybe stuff will get back to normal around here.

I get to go home!

Okay, it's much warmer here than at home--it's 62 degrees here. Even though, I want to go home. We are leaving around 2:00 to go to the airport. I can't wait.

I took a bunch of pictures that I will post when I get home.

It's even cold here

It's still cold in New Orleans. Well, cold is a relative term, I suppose. It's currently 39 degrees here. It's supposed to be a cold (for here) 31 degrees overnight. It's certainly not the -19 degrees that we had in Oshkosh last night, according to our cat-sitter, Julie.

Paulette and I went to the Quarter Stitch yarn store yesterday afternoon. I had been there on Wednesday, but I had to go back with Paulette. We just got back from dinner. The guys had raw oysters again-yuck. I had chicken.

Today we fixed up baseball diamonds in two parks. It certainly was chilly being outside without a jacket when it's 32 outside. Brrr. It has taken me all day to get warm.

Paulette and I went down Chartres Street when we got back from the parks to a candy store, where we bought really expensive chocolates that we are going to consume in our room when I get back up there. Yeah, we're real party animals. I may even get to knit tonight. The last time I got to do that was on the plane on the way here.

Gotta go now--chocolate is calling me!

It's not below zero!

Hey everyone,

I am currently in New Orleans where it's not 5 million degrees below zero. It's 53 degrees outside. Sorry to all the folks who are freezing their a$#es off in Wisconsin. It was nice to take my long underwear off. I ws sitting in Jackson Square about an hour and a half ago. I also was sitting St. Louis Cathedral for about a half hour thinking about my friend, Don Wyman, who passed away early Wednesday morning. We will miss you Don.

Of course, I forgot to get some of those airplane earplugs, so my ears are all screwed up today. I bought some not at a Walgreen's. They're getting better now, but I still don't feel all that well. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

More tomorrow.

A little better

We are doing a little better than my last post. We still miss Jeffy terribly--the we includes Churchill. Churchill's blood glucose has been way better than it has been in a long time. We don't know if it's the new insulin or that Churchill is just missing Jeffy or the new dry food he's got. Unfortunately, his blood glucose was 48 this morning at 5:30 (not good--nornal is between 80-120). We managed to get it to raise to 105 or so and hour later. Poor Billy. He seemed okay the whole time. Unfortunately, this makes me extra nervous to leave him alone while we go away.

Churchill met his new cat sitter, Julie Gibson, who has a pet sitting service that comes to your home when you're going to be gone. Her company is called Oshkosh Unleashed if you are interested. There's more information here as well. She will be taking care of Churchill while we are in New Orleans. I don't know if I would really have picked right now to go, but I could probably use a change of scenery anyhow.

On the knitting front: I am two inches away from decreasing for the sleeve tops of my cardigan. Yippee! The end is in sight. I am not using that for airplane knitting, since I don't want to be running into my seat mates with the ends of the needles. I will be starting a pair of socks to knit on the plane.

Goodbye old friend

It is with a broken heart that I must tell you that we had to have Jefferson put to sleep on Friday, Jan. 2. We are all very sad. Churchill keeps looking for him. He was 15.

Jeffy came to us in January 1994, on a very cold day. He was born around Thanksgiving 1993. Paulette wrapped him up in her scarf to bring him home. He was such a cute little scamp. He could play and play. He also liked to jump into bowls of microwave popcorn when he was a kitten and lick the butter stuff off of it. When he grew up, his delight was going outside. He loved to lay in the grass and take a nap. He also like to chase the butterflies, which I do not doubt he is doing right now in heaven as I write this. You could leave Jeffy alone in the yard without a leash and he would stay in the yard. He will be greatly missed by us since he helped us with the gardening. While Churchill and him did not always get along with each other, they did love each other. Jeffy would get really concerned if there was something wrong with Churchill.

We love Jeffy very much and we will never forget him. Heaven has a new furry angel.