Igor and Kathrine

A few weeks ago, Igor and Kathrine came and visited us. We were very excited to see them, although somewhat sad that the Fallacy never made its trip down the Mississippi carrying them. Anyway, we were really pleased to have company, and Colin and I spent the whole week they were here eating too much wonderful food and listening to live music. We did our best to show them all the cool things in New Orleans, although we did not even scratch the surface of what to do in this town. Here is a picture slide show of some of the things we did:

As it was Igors 25th birthday, his father flew down to visit him and treated us all to several delicious meals. This is a photo of Igor, Papa Igor, and Kathrine, outside of Jaques Imo restaurant.

Here is Igor, at Igors lounge, a bar on St. Charles ave. The bar also turned 25 this year. Igor and Kathrine were amazed that this bar existed, and that it offered laundry facilities. (No joke!)

This next set of photos is from City Park in New Orleans, which as you can see has the most amazing trees, as well as awesome lion statues.

It was so awesome having people come down and visit us. We are always glad for company, and our new house has plenty of extra room for visitors. Also, we have a huge tree suitable for hammock hanging, which Igor and Kathrine took advantage of during their stay. Remember people, Mardi Gras is February 24th this year, there is still time for you to make reservations and ask to stay at our house!

Friday cat blogging

Check it out everyone, I was finally able to get some photos of Annie that look halfway decent! Part of my problem is that she is all black, so it is hard to get a photo where she is lit correctly with her features recognizable, rather than a black blob. Also, she is oddly camera adverse, and runs away when I try to take her photo. She is the only cat I have ever had who does not sit and pose for her glamor shots.

Also, we have the obligatory Hodag looking adorable photo. This week he fell asleep in a garbage bag of clean laundry. Colin and I washed basically every item of clothing we owned last Saturday, and ran out of laundry bags to fit clean clothing in, so we resorted to extra large trash bags. Hodag did not seem to mind.

The elusive Annie, finally caught on film!

mmmm, clean warm clothes.

I'm Still Here, Too!

I've just been overwhelmed, is all.

This week's recommended listening is an episode of This American Life called This is Not My Beautiful House, from September of 2005. It's about the aftermath of Katrina. The entire episode is amazing. My favorite part is Act 4 with Nick Spitzer from American Routes.

Friday cat blogging

No Hodag and Annie this week folks, instead we have the ever popular Mike the Tiger! Here we feature Mike chewing on his yoga ball, and going for a swim in the middle of October (don't you wish you lived in a semi-tropical environment too?)

Fetch, Mike!


Swimming some laps.

Halloween update

Ah Halloween, my favorite holiday of the year. Colin and I had a lot of fun preparing our house for our first ever trick-or-treaters', and getting into the Halloween spirit. Here is an update on our seasonal activities.

First the pumpkins. We carved four pumpkins in total, two each. Colin carved one pumpkin to resemble Tux the Linux penguin, and the other was a two sided comedy/tragedy pumpkin. I carved one of my pumpkin quite simply, because I stuck a whole bunch of plastic bugs all over it. The other pumpkin I carved was a political pumpkin, mostly because Colin alerted me to the joy that is Yes We Carve. As you might imagine, this is a pumpkin carving site in support of Barack Obama*. It featured stencils of the Obama campaign slogans to carve into your pumpkins, and outlines of the senator and his running mate. I decided that I should carve the slogan from Jewish Americans for Obama (no, it was not 'he may be a schvartze, but we support him anyway', jeez people!). I had just had a conversation with my mother about the Obama campaigns use of the transliteration of Barack Obama into Hebrew as its slogan. Supposedly, the lack of English is a daring move designed to show solidarity with Jews. (for more on Jewish political buttons past and present, check out the amazing NY times article here).


My Obamakin, and on the right, the tux the penguin pumpkin. Please also note the creepy plastic bugs and fake bones we put on our porch.


Up next, the costumes. Now I spent several weeks making my costume, which was that of Baron Samedi, the Voodoo loa of the dead. Colin on the other hand, started his costume about an hour before we left for a Halloween party. He went as Eddie from Rocky Horror Picture Show, and I think he pulled off a fairly convincing Meatloaf, albeit one who had undergone bariatric surgery.



Me in my costume as Baron Samedi, and Colin as Eddie.

We also decorated the outside of our porch with spiderwebs and more plastic bugs. As a final touch, I put votive candles in brown paper lunch bags that I had glued yet more plastic bugs to. The trick-or-treaters' we had come by seemed to think we had done a pretty awesome job of decorating, although I think they were most creeped out by Hodag meowing down at them from the upstairs porch.

All in all, we had a great Halloween.


* non partisan note, after discovering yes we carve, I searched for a McCain pumpkin carving site, and was unable to find one.

Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated

Ok, so I know that I have been MIA for quite some time now, and I apologize. It was the result of a round of exams, a personal meltdown, and Halloween, all at once. I am beginning to get my life back together though, and you can expect new and exciting posts soon on topics such as Halloween, the election, Igor and Kathrine's visit to New Orleans, as well as the ever popular Friday cat blogging.