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.