October Visitors

Last month, Fred and Josie came for a visit! We decided to be adventurous and try someplace other than Elizabeth's for breakfast... so we went to Russells Marina Grill for sweet potato pancakes and Egg's Ponchartrain. The food was pretty good ... not quite as decadent as Elizabeth's, but we'll definitly try it again.

We spent the day at Lafayette Square for the annual New Orleans Blues Festival, enjoying the weather, listening to good music, eating yummy New Orleans food like Red Beans and Rice, Crab and Spinach bread bowls, and Gelato, and watching the eccentric people of the Crescent City.

We also had dinner one night at Fisherman's Cove, indulging in boiled shrimp, Fried Pickles, and an Eggplant Pirogue (amazing fried eggplant topped with a crawfish and crab cream sauce).

Thanks for visiting Fred and Josie ... Come back again soon!

A wall of passion vines

Last year I started some passion vines from seeds from a couple Whole Foods passion fruits. I planted the little guys along side our patio last year, and they've been doing well since then. We had some old metal trellis placed along the patio, more to keep the dogs out of the edging than for their aesthetic nature.

So I asked Jeff to build me a wall of trellis for my passion vines.

After we put it up, we spent about an hour carefully removing the vines from the old trellis, and winding them through the new one. I'm planning to put glass pieces into some of the squares, but haven't gotten to it yet.

Hopefully this year we'll have a wall of passion flowers and fruit!

My attempt at an herb garden ... again.

Each year since moving down here, I've puchased various potted herbs including cilantro, basil, lavendar, oregano, various kinds of mints, and rosemary. Each year, I lovingly plant these herbs in new pots to place along our patio ... and then promptly forget to water them. Each year, my herb garden dies only to be started again the following spring. This year, I did a little better because we have installed an automatic watering system for our back yard and patio. This helped and my herb garden was doing great, until the sprinkler system sprung a leak and stopped watering for us. Since it's set to water before we get up or when we are at work, we didn't notice ... until my herb garden wasn't looking too healthy. So I decided this year, I would put an end to the cycle ... I've planted all of my herbs in an area of the edging that I recently cleared, and here they will live from now on ... free from drought (providing the sprinkler system works when mother nature doesn't provide us with the usual afternoon thunderstorm) and free from Baxter's annoying habit of choosing my potted herbs, out of all the plants in our yard, to lift his leg on.

Fall Fuddpuckers

At the beginning of October, Jeff and I planned to go to the fall Fuddpuckers tournament as our vacation, so we reserved a condo for the week at Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. I was supposed to play with my team from the spring tournament, but due to some injuries and relocations, our team decided not to play. This was actually a nice treat, because it meant a lot of laying around on the beach relaxing. Though our condo was just a small apartment about a block off of the beach, we were able to use the pool and lazy river at one of the hotels/condos some of our NOLA friends were staying at.

Mom and Dad generously offered to come down and dogsit for us while we vacationed, so we got a nice visit in with them also, including a mandatory trip to Elizabeth's for breakfast.

What's your opinion?

So after mom looked at my entry about my painting's new home, she promptly called to tell me that the painting didn't look good above the fireplace. I wasn't completely sold on it's new home, so I thought I'd take her advice and try it above the couch instead, relocating the wedding photo to above the fireplace.

So what's your opinion ... where does the painting look best?

Above the couch?

Or above the fireplace?

Breakfast at Elizabeth's ... again.

On Sunday morning, we met John, Meg, Becky, Bill, and Beth for breakfast at Elizabeth's. John and Meg were in town from Portland, OR for the weekend. Here are a few pictures:

I was a little disappointed because the "Crabby Eggs" weren't on the menu this time... so I had to go with the Eggs Florentine, which is creamed spinach topped with poached eggs with Hollandaise sauce, and fried oysters, served over hashbrowns. I ordered mine without the hashbrowns, as I'm on phase 1 right now. It was very good, though a little disappointing since it wasn't "crabby eggs". Jeff ventured away from the stuffed french toast, his usual, and got the special which was corned beef hash with poached eggs and hollandaise. He also said it was good, though not phenomenal.

The company was outstanding though! We miss you Meg and John!

Saturday night... Date night.

This past saturday, Jeff and I went to play some pick up volleyball with friends at Coconut beach in the morning. We ran some errands in the afternoon, then got cleaned up for saturday night - date night.

We started out our evening with dinner at a new restaurant on Magazine called Baru. The food was pretty good, but a little pricey. We have another Tapas restaurant that we go to occasionally, and I think I like that one better, so I'm not sure if we'll come back here again.

Following dinner, Jeff said.... Let's go get tattoos! I'd been wanting to have my dolphin tattoo on my foot covered with something new for awhile anyway, so I said "okay!", thinking I was calling his bluff..... Little did I know....

So off we went to Crescent City Tattoo on Magazine! Jeff already has his tattoo picked out from when we had stopped in there to ask about coverups. So, here it is in progress!

And here's the finished product! It looks FABULOUS!!!!!!!

Here's the before of my dolphin...

And the after the outline was done for the new tattoo...
(That's not bruising by my toes, just a little leftover ink!)

And my finished product...

While I'm not so sure about the shading behind the tattoo as it looks a little strange from my point of view, it was necessary to completely cover the dolphin. I'm really liking the overall picture though! I just had forgotten how much tattoos on the foot HURT!!! WOW!!! This hurt way more than either my back or my ankle, or the small dolphin in the same spot for that matter!

Our new family member...

So two weekends ago, while I was shopping at the outlet mall in Gonzales with my friend Becky, Jeff called me on my cell phone. Here's how the conversation went....

jen: "hi"

jeff: "hi. what are you doing?"

jen: "we are leaving the mall now, I'll be home in about 45 minutes. What
are you doing?"

jeff: "feeding our three dogs."

jen: "three!?!? ..... What kind of dog did you find, and are we keeping it?

jeff: "She looks like a german shepard mix and looks a
little like Sake, but bigger. She's young, still acts like a puppy."

jen: "I'll be home in 45 minutes. Bye."

jeff: "Bye."

So home I went. And this is the giant "puppy" I found when I got there.

And here's Jeff with our new "kid".

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Just Kidding!

"Bella" had tags on, and we tracked down her owner's parents (since he wasn't answering his phone) through the magical powers of the internet. They came and picked "Bella" up about an hour after I got home.

I'm starting to think that our dogs leave little "messages" around the neighborhood telling lost dogs to come to our house if they need help. This is number 5 or 6 that we've helped return home since we've moved here.

Bilbo and Baxter, BFF

Our "kids" have taken a liking to hanging out on the bed together. They always seem to lay in identical positions, usually facing the same way. The other morning, I walked into the bedroom to find Baxter and Bilbo just about to fall asleep, facing each other.

Even cuter, they were "holding paws"!

This was very unusual for Baxter and Bilbo. Usually, Bilbo will try to nuzzle against Baxter for attention, and Baxter just sits there stoically, unsure what to do with Bilbo.

So I guess Baxter has finally decided he likes Bilbo and they will be

Best Friends Forever.