From the City of Big Shoulders to the Big Easy

Friday Cat Blogging

2010-10-01T11:19:00.002-05:00

I know that we've been quiet lately, and in particular have not had Friday Cat Blogging in a long time. Today is more of a reflection than a showing of cute cat photos. I'm sorry.

Last night, Tony came up onto the bed with us just after I laid down. He settled onto my pillow, and flopped over, leaning his body on my head. He's been doing all of this recently, except he usually chooses Nora's pillow (and her head is usually further down the pillow so he doesn't actually touch her). This is a reflection of an enormous amount of trust we've built up with him in the past year. When he first came home, he was so scared that he would hide in the closet in the office, and only come out to explore when no one else was in that room. Now he initiates affection with us, sleeps in the bed with us, and sometimes even drapes himself across our chests.

Tony was so much worse when he came home than any of the other cats, so the change is more radical with him. But the others have all shown this to some extent as well. Okra was sick when she came home, so she didn't really like interaction until she got well enough to actually eat. She still doesn't shower us with quite the affection that Tony does, but she's very kitten-like still, bounces around the house continuously, and has slept in the bed with us (even under the blanket). Wally and Marty still mostly hide under the bed, but that's because Tony doesn't really like them. They show us lots of affection, and Wally often sleeps at the foot of the bed (Marty is just now starting to do that as well). Hodag has settled into a more quiet show of affection. When we first got him, he would wake me up at sunrise by pouncing on my toes through the blanket. He would also follow me up and down the hall when I would work on homework late at night.

I've been thinking about this the past few days because of Tony. It's very humbling, because they all show us nearly unconditional love, and I don't really feel like I've done anything to deserve it. And yet somehow, they seem to think I have.

Thoughts on the BP oil spill

2010-06-14T20:03:00.002-05:00

Hello all.

I know it has been forever since we have had any posts. I blame this partially on two things, the first being the fact that my much abused laptop finally gave up the ghost, and started blue- screening at regular intervals. This meant that I had to order a new computer, which always takes a long time to arrive. Additionally, we were off in California and Chicago for a two week summer vacation. Our vacation was wonderfully relaxing, and we were able to spend time with our friends in Chicago whom we had not seen in a long time.

On vacation we received a lot of questions about the BP oil spill, and how it was affecting the gulf coast. These questions were sometimes difficult to answer, and definitely brought back to me memories of trying to answer questions regarding New Orleans recovery from Katrina. (For an amusing take on what questions the public is asking, see the FAQ sheet that Tulane has posted for parents who are worried about their children being in New Orleans during the oil spill.) The trouble I had was that on the one hand, the oil spill is barely affecting us at all, and on the other hand, we feel the effects of the oil spill daily.

Practically, you can currently spend time in New Orleans and never know that anything at all was wrong. New Orleans is 130 miles from the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, and the effects on day to day life are practically undetectable. The worst I have noticed is that on some days a strange kerosene smell blows in from the south, but other residents claim that they have smelled nothing. I think that the detection of the smell depends on a highly variable breeze (I have driven a few miles from home and been unable to detect the smell any longer) and how good your sense of smell seems to be.

On the other hand, every single day we are faced with the results of the oil spill. The Times Picayune has been relentless in its coverage of the spill and the effects of the oil on various industries ans gulf coast populations. All manner of coastal jobs are in danger due to the oil, Shrimpers, Oystermen, and Fishermen all are suffering due to either oil in the waters they harvest from, or prophylactic closures of the waters for fear of oil encroachment. Oil workers are suffering too with the proposed oil drilling ban. Many of the people who work these industries are hardworking people who do not have the financial resources to survive a whole season of lost revenue. One thing I noticed after we moved down here was how huge the pride and support of local agriculture and food was, and how integral food production and food preparation was to New Orleans.

Then of course there is the environmental impact. The problem with oil spills is that the magnitude of the damage caused by oil can take a long time to manifest. Environmentalists are particularly worried about the oil's possible effect on the Louisiana state bird, the brown pelican. The brown pelican was only recently removed from the endangered species list (in November of 2009) after the pelican population had finally bounced back from the effects of DDT accumulation. The Times Picayune has been keeping track of oiled wildlife, and dead wildlife that has washed ashore or been found during oil cleanup activities. However, until the necropsies are performed it will remain unclear how many deaths can be blamed on the spill.

As for how people down here feel about the spill, a whole range of emotions are involved. People feel angry, sad, disappointed, frustrated and afraid. I have heard local chefs get choked up as they describe the fate of marshes that their families have fished for generations. I have heard politicians seethe with anger and frustration because both a black swan event has occurred, and because there does not seem to be anything that anyone can really do to mitigate its effects. In New Orleans, the past is the present, and I think what people here fear most is that somehow the oil spill is going to irrevocably change their lives for the worse.

Ponchatula Strawberry Festival

2010-05-15T18:47:00.003-05:00

Back in April, we drove up to Ponchatula for the annual Ponchatula Strawberry Festival. Ponchatula is on the northern end of the isthmus running between Lakes Ponchartrain and Marepas, and is locally famous for its strawberries, and has a festival every year to celebrate. There's a ton of strawberry-related food available, and a bit of country-fair atmosphere.

Of course, the REAL reason to go to the Strawberry Fest is for the ginormous strawberry daiquiris, which we bought from the booth run by the family of this year's queen.

(Just kidding. And don't worry; we split that between us). But really, what country fair would be complete without deep-fried things that have no business being deep-fried? We had the choice of chocolate and vanilla deep-fried strawberries; we got one of each. They taste exactly the way you would expect, which is to say, AWESOME.

When I say country fair, I really do mean country fair. The festival itself is in a park a few blocks off the main drag, and on those couple of blocks leading up to the park. They have country fair rides and game booths set up in the park, and food lining the outter edge of the park. There are more food and drink stands on the city street leading up to the park. On the main street of Ponchatula, all the businesses stay open during the festival for all the foot traffic.

And finally, here is our real main mission of the day: a flat of strawberries (yes we could have gotten it back in New Orleans, but that wouldn't have been as much fun). Nora shows off the flat we bought for $8. It has since been turned into several jars of strawberry jam.

The festival is so popular that we had to park about a mile outside of town, on the road leading into Ponchatula from I-55. There are farmers lined up all along that road into town, so we just bought our flat from the stand closest to the car.

Friday Cat Blogging: foster cats edition

2010-05-07T19:48:00.003-05:00

(Cue Jaws music) Oh no, it's a scary shark!

Wait, no...that's just Wally, one of the cats we are fostering. And here's his brother, Marty, who we are also fostering.

Wally and Marty were found in the parking lot of the local Wal-mart, which is how they were named. Nora likes to call Wally Wall-e, like the movie. He even responds to that. We are fostering Wally and Marty on behalf of ARNO, so they are staying with us just for a bit. When we took in Tony last summer, we were debating between him and these two guys. We eventually went with Tony because we thought no one would take him, and Wally and Marty would get adopted relatively quickly. But no, they are still at ARNO. Wally had a tooth infection, and is still recovering from that. Marty is very shy. Both have gotten a bit antisocial from being coupped up in a cage at ARNO next to the dogs. So they are staying with us until Wally is recovered and both of them are more social. Then we hope to get them to a forever home without much more time at ARNO.

They currently spend a lot of time in the closet, which is where we see them here. They are living in our office and listening to NPR and classical music all day, and slowing unferalling.

Injuns

2010-04-07T20:17:00.000-05:00

One of the many wonderful and weird things that one gets to experience in New Orleans are the Mardi Gras Indians. Mardi Gras Indians are somewhat difficult to explain, but, over-simplistically, they can be described as; African Americans who create and then parade down the streets of New Orleans in elaborate costumes decorated with feathers and beads or sequins. Mardi Gras Indians form strict hierarchical groups (tribes) that do 'battle' with members of other tribes in the form of singing and dancing as they parade through the streets. The costume a Mardi Gras Indian wears is called a 'suit', and takes thousands of hours of work to create. Every tribesman makes his own suit (or at least, helps in the making of it with assistance of his family) and the costs of the materials for a suit can be in the thousands of dollars. The very best compliment you can give an Indian is to tell him he has a "real pretty suit" or a "nice suit". A new suit is made each year for the Mardi Gras parades, and often members of a tribe will begin designing and purchasing items for their next suit as soon as Mardi Gras is over.

The Indian's position in the tribe also provides some requirements for the suit, as Tootie Montana, the long-time chief of the Yellow Pocahontas explained:

"You've got first chief, which is Big Chief; First Queen; you've got Second Chief and Second Queen; Third Chief and Third Queen. First, Second, and Third chiefs are supposed to have a queen with them. That's just tradition. I found them doing that. ..You also have your Spy Boy, your Flag Boy and your Wild Man. Your Spy Boy is way out front, three blocks in front the chief. The Flag Boy is one block in front so he can see the Spy Boy up ahead and he can wave his flag to let the chief know what is going on. Today, they don't do like they used to. Today you're not going to see any Spy Boy with a pair of binoculars around his neck and a small crown so he can run. Today a Spy Boy looks like a chief and somebody carrying a big old stick. It's been years since I seen a proper flag... The Wild Man wearing the horns in there to keep the crowd open and to keep it clear. He's between the Flag Boy and the Chief."

Often you can tell the Big Chief and First Queen by their elaborate costumes and large headdresses, and the chief carries some sort of identifier of the tribe (the "big stick" that Tootie refers to above). Flag boys have embellished 'flags' to signal danger, and the wild man wears a headdress with animal horns attached.

The origin of the Mardi Gras Indians is difficult to determine . It appears that the Mardi Gras Indians have masked and paraded in New Orleans for around two hundred years. It is clear that West African influences,Native American influences (both those of local tribes such as the Choctaw and Chitimacha as well as those of the plains Indians) and the New Orleans slave and free black traditions contributed to the costumes, chants and culture of the 'Indians'. The fact that local Native Americans in Louisiana assisted escaped slaves from New Orleans and surrounding plantations, may have inspired slaves in New Orleans to dress in the style of Native Americans.

Regardless of what inspired Mardi Gras Indians to start making and wearing their suits, the results of their handiwork are amazing. The pictures below are taken at the Mardi Gras Indian parade on st. Joseph's day.

I feel pretty, oh so pretty!

A beautiful suit made by a female Mardi Gras Indian. If you look closely, you can see the pictographs representing the life of female Native Americans. I caught this Indian before she had put on her headdress, you can see it being held by the woman next to her. I am pretty sure this is a Hard Head Hunter tribe member.

Again, I sadly captured this Indian without his headdress. According to Nola.com he is a spy boy for the Hard Head Hunters tribe. If you link to Nola.com you can see him fully dressed at in the slide show at the bottom of the page.

Indian butt! Notice how an a single suit can contain several accessories that are equally impressive as the costume itself. Here you can see a fan and a flag. This is probably a cheif given how much equipment he has.

An individual suit can weigh over a hundred pounds. They are also quite hot and do not allow for air circulation. This particular Indian was so hot and dizzy by the time he got to me that I ended up giving him a drink of water out of my nalgene bottle.

According to Nola.com, this is the Mohawk Hunters Flag Boy Jamal Casby. the two 'flags' are visible at the bottom of the photo.

A small child gets in on the dancing.

A young flag boy, holding his shotgun shaped flag.

TA'ing

2010-03-23T11:04:00.004-05:00

Sorry for taking such a long hiatus here folks, sometimes the hectic life of a PHD student just gets in the way of things I actually want to do, like update this blog.

Recently I have been devoting a lot of time to my TAing job. I am the TA for epidemiology 712, which could also be called intermediate epidemiology. As unimpressive as that class sounds, I assure you TAing it can be quite challenging. This is because epidemiology is one of those subjects where the difficulty of the subject matter does not increase as a gentle slope, but rather as a sine wave from zero to 110 degrees (AKA, quite steeply, followed by a plateau). For some reason, intermediate epidemiology is the hardest class that most epidemiology majors take at the masters level, despite the fact that they are required to take advanced epidemiology (advanced epi would be the plateau part of my analogy above). I think this is because Epi712 teaches you all the theory needed to design and conduct an epidemiology study, and once you have that down, the rest is window dressing. Since the class can be tricky, I have spent a lot of time in the last few weeks giving extra help to struggling students. Luckily, I continue to enjoy teaching, so despite the fact that it has been a bit of a time drain, at least I have been having a good time. Additionally, because I am so involved in the class (giving the occasional lecture, hosting problems sessions, creating the homework) I have gotten lots of experience that will be useful when I begin teaching classes as a professor.

Friday cat blogging, snuggle time

2010-02-26T21:53:00.004-06:00

The cats have been pretty snuggly this week. Last night they were all asleep on our bed with us, keeping close and warm. Here is a photo I shot a couple of weeks ago of Okra and Tony being cuddle buddies. Hodag is still being a bit aloof from us and the other cats, but we are slowly forcing him to be social.

Back from the Dead

2010-02-20T20:38:00.001-06:00

Part of the reason we were so quiet In November and December is that I was studying for (and passing, apparently) my qualifying exams. I had meant to say something about this just after I had taken them, but didn't finish the post, and eventually forgot about it with all the other craziness going on at the time. I'm glad to finally be done with the exams, as this means I can actually get some useful work done at home and on research. On the other hand, it's sort of a weird feeling no longer having any major deadlines looming over my head for a few years.

Qualifying exams are odd beasts. For us, there are two exams, "Classical" and "Modern," each 5 hours long. I have to pass them separately, so if I pass one and fail the other, I only have to retake the one I failed. I get one more attempt, if necessary, in the spring. What is most odd about the exams is the split. "Classical" normally means "not quantum"; in this context it means "pre 1900." And even then, the split is not perfect.

Our classical exam has mechanics (ie, analytical/Newtonian), electrodynamics, and statistical mechanics. Stat mech contains thermodynamics, which I suppose is why it gets put under classical, but it also contains quantum statistical mechanics, which should definitely go under modern. What you end up with is that a single problem could be split between the two exams, with the stat mech part giving you a result and having you carry out further derivations from that point, and the quantum part deriving the result the stat mech part took as given.

Our modern exam has quantum, special relativity, and math methods. The math that physicists use all predates 1900, but a lot of the higher-level stuff gets used primarily in quantum, so that's why it's on the modern exam. Special relativity really ought to be under electrodynamics, but the grad-level discussion of it does start to pull in some of the more difficult math, so some (I emphasize "some") relativity problems aren't too out of place on the modern exam.

What was weirdest for me was the actual set of problems that showed up on my exams: the difficulties I had in the problems seemed very low-level. On the classical exam, only two problems gave me any real trouble. One was a thermodynamics problem involving a derivation I hadn't seen since second year of undergrad. The other was a statistical mechanics problem that really amounted to a series of increasingly complicated infinite series. The major difficulty was keeping track of all the terms (though to be fair to the problem, I think there is a MUCH simpler way of doing it if you remember some stat mech cleverness, which apparently I don't). And since we only had to do seven problems, I didn't really have to worry about them. As it turns out, I didn't quite finish two of the other problems, because I made similar stupid mistakes at the end of both of them, and forgot that the last part of each problem was really as easy as it apeared. Two of the modern problems were trivial math problems, which was a little disconcerting. All the other problems on that exam were good, but I was a little surprised at the lack of problems requiring matrices and state vectors. One of the relativity problems used the electromagnetic field tensor, but nearly all of the quantum problems were written so as to favor solving partial differential equations. I guess in sum, the quantum was more Schroedinger and less Heisenberg than I anticipated. Which is a little weird because usually the Scroedinger approach is taught earlier, and the Heisenburg (and Dirac) approach is only taught on the student's second or third pass through Quantum Mechanics.

Mardi Gras? More like LOMBARDI GRAS!!!

2010-02-13T22:21:00.000-06:00

Nora mentioned last week that the Saints were playing in the Super Bowl. [SPOILER ALERT] The Saints won, 31-17.

Needless to say, the city has gone insane. The team had already planned a win-or-lose victory parade through the CBD to celebrate the season and their first Super Bowl birth. Okay, and because it's New Orleans, and we barely need an excuse to have a party. After the victory, the parade was quickly re-named the Lombardi Gras parade. Estimates of attendence range from 200,000-300,000 (from NOPD) to over 800,000 (from Barry Kern, of Blaine Kern Studios, quoting WWL). (Sorry, I can't find a quote for the NOPD figure, but I swear I saw it in the paper this morning.) For comparison, the city population is about 350,000, and the metro population is about 1.1 million.

I biked to Lee Circle to watch the parade. When I got there, the crowd was solidly packed for about 50 feet back. It loosened up a bit when the parade got to us: people with ladders climbed up them, and people with kids lifted them up on their shoulders. That opened up a little bit of room for me to move up.

The atmosphere reminded me of some photos of we saw of Louis Armstrong as king of Zulu; the parade threaded down the street, while masses of humanity stood by to great the returning heroes. Several Mardi Gras Krewes donated floats: the kickers rode on the Muses shoe float, the recievers rode on a float with outstreached arms (can't remember from which Krewe), and the other groups of players rode together on their own similarly cleverly-designated floats.

Speaking of which, this is right in the middle of Mardi Gras. All of last Sunday's parades were moved to earlier in the day or canceled because of the game. Thursday night should have been Muses, Chaos, and Babylon. It wasn't because it was raining (and snowing on the north shore): Muses moved to last night, Babylon tomorrow morning, and Chaos was canceled. That's okay, because we were able to spend Thursday night cleaning, and see Muses and Krew d'Etat last night. We have to clean because we are hosting a University of Chicago alumni party Monday. It's a little awkwardly timed, because we have to balance the fact that not everyone gets Lundi Gras off, and some people might get trapped on the wrong side of the parades. So it's early enough that people can come and then get home around parades, and late enough that people can come after work and stay until after parades. We're really looking forward to it, and it sound like a lot of interesting people are coming

Black and Gold Victory Brownies

2010-02-03T20:32:00.008-06:00

So, you may have noticed that the New Orleans Saints are going to be in the Superbowl for the very first time in their 43 year history. To say that New Orleanians are excited about this is an enormous understatement. It has been said that New Orleans has two religions, Catholicism and Football, and I think they may be overstating the catholic part. People here took to the streets, cried, hugged strangers, and shot fireworks when the Saints won the national football league conference championship game.

For most of this fall complete strangers would decide to have football related conversations with me in unlikely locations. For example, once I was greeted with an enthusiastic "Who Dat!" at the gas pump. Another time a man and I had an in depth discussion of passing tactics in the deli line at Wall-mart. I am not exactly sure why, but for some reason it was clear to the true locals that I was following the football season closely. Colin were I listening to every game on WWL "the Saints radio network", hosted by Bobby Hebert (pronounced Ea-Bear) the "Cajun Cannon" and Hokie Gajan, both former Saints players. We really enjoyed listening to the games, but we missed being able to see the plays being discussed due to our lack of a functioning tv. For the NFC championship game we went to a friend's house and were able to actually see the game. I made brownies to celebrate this, and thus the Black and Gold Victory Brownie was born. Basically these are Nigella Lawson's super delicious brownies with peanut butter and Reece's peanut butter cups added. I have included the recipe below, but I warn you that they are not for the faint of heart.

Side view of Victory Brownies, showing their height and composition.

Top view, showing decoration using peanut butter cups

Black and Gold Victory Brownies

13 ounces best quality bittersweet chocolate
1 2/3 cups softened butter
6 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 medium sized bag of Reese’s peanut butter cups
2 cups natural ground peanut butter

1. Preheat oven to 350° and grease a 9 x 13" pan.

2. In a double-boiler, or a small pan melt the butter and chocolate.

3. Whisk until well blended and let cool.

4. While chocolate is melting, whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla until frothy and slightly lighter in color.

5. Gently fold the cooled chocolate mixture into the eggs, and whisk until well blended.

6. Fold in the flour and salt and mix well.

7. Add 1 cup of the peanut butter to the batter and mix well.

8. Cut up about half of the Reece’s peanut butter cups into fourths.

9. Gently stir in the quartered Reece’s peanut butter cups.

10. Pour into the baking dish and cook until a crust forms on top.

11. When cool, frost with remaining peanut butter and dot with remaining peanut butter cups.

Classes Spring Semester 2010

2010-01-23T18:55:00.003-06:00

In case anyone wants to see what I am taking this semester, here is my schedule:

Mondays:
12:00- 1:00 Departmental seminar.
A class I have to attend and get no credit for, woo-hoo! Various faculty members and guests give power-point presentations on their recent research.

1:00-2:00 TA hours.
I am TA'ing Epidemiology II this semester. Epidemiology II is significantly harder than Epi I is, and I fully expect lots of panicked visits from students.

Tuesdays:
10:30 -11:45 Regression.
A bio-statistics class in regression techniques. Supposedly much easier than last semesters Categorical Data Analysis, but we shall see.

Wednesdays:
9:00 -11:45 Reproductive Epidemiology.
I am really looking forward to this class, since I know very little about how to measure birth outcomes, which is probably what I am going to be looking at in my thesis research.

1:00-2:15 Epidemiology II (the class I am TA'ing for)

Thursday:
10:30 -11:45 Regression.

Friday:
1:00-2:15 Epidemiology II (the class I am TA'ing for)

Nature blogging, Racoon edition!

2010-01-23T17:36:00.005-06:00

Why, hello there.

Last weekend, we were at home being domestic and doing some chores. Colin was in the attic investigating a possible roof leak, and I was sitting in the bedroom working on some Biostatistics homework. After about ten minutes in the attic I hear Colin call for me, saying that I have to come see something. I obliging trot over to the attic stairwell, mumbling the equivelent of 'this better be good darn it, I was in the middle of something...' to find Colin staring out the window. I go stand next to him and look outside at the veiw of Ent, the enormous tree that lives in our backyard. At first, I see nothing unusual, and then suddenly I spot the raccoon lumbering along a tree branch towards our neighbors roof. For a moment I thought the racoon was going to jump from the branch down on to the neighbors roof and then scramble down to the ground from there. He looked down onto the roof and seemed to be assesing his chances of a soft landing. After a few minutes, he turned around and headed back on the branch towards the tree trunk. At this point we quickly retrieved the camera and shot a couple of photos of our stripey new friend as he descended the tree and wandered off into the underbrush.

Displaying head down climbing technique.
I did not even know raccoons could climb both head up and head down!

Last shot before he lumbered away. Check out those awesome paws!

Surfing Safari

2010-01-17T19:55:00.000-06:00

I took surfing lessons while we were in Hawaii. This requires a back story. In order to encourage you to read the back story, I am going to cleverly place the photos at the end of this post.

First, the back story. Last year while we were in Hawaii, I made the decision that I wanted to learn how to surf. At the time, however, my swimming prowess had severely atrophied. Nora would not allow me to take surfing lessons unless I strengthened my swimming ability, since she was afraid that I would drown since I cannot float in water.

So at the beginning of the academic year in August, we started going to the gym almost every morning. We did weights and swam. At first, I was a pathetic swimmer; I could barely make it across the pool without running out of breath or exausting my arm strength. But I slowly got better. I'm still not where I would like to be in terms of bodily strength and endurance, but I was strong enough to maneuver the board and to swim myself around without getting too tired. I feel much better health-wise than I did when I started (I sleep better, am in better mood, etc), so the experience has encouraged me to continue to swim and improve my health.

Now for the awesome photos that Nora took of me surfing. First, here is me sitting on my board waiting my turn.

And here is an action shot of me riding a wave in.

I'm the surfer in the front. This also shows off both Nora's impressive photography skills, and her camera's powerful zoom.

Friday Cat Blogging: Snake Edition

2010-01-08T14:46:00.000-06:00

Alex, the younger of my step-brothers, has a pet boa. Nora and I met Cookie Monster (that's what Alex calls him) for the first time while at my parents' house. Isn't he cute?

Cookie Monster eats mice, apparently. As opposed to cookies.

BONUS UPDATE: We also have an update on Poggibonsi, the cat that Nora sent to her parents. While we were at Nora's parents' house, we got to check in on him and his progress. They think he is a Maine Coon, which means he should eventually get big. Right now, he is just really fluffy.

Overall, Poggi seems very happy to be in his new home, and get along very well with his older brother Ruffus.

Back from Vacation

2010-01-07T19:53:00.002-06:00

We're back in New Orleans from our various vacations. We both apologize for the relative silence. But fear not; tomorrow will feature some awesome animal-based blogging.

Classes start up again for the University on Monday. Nora still has classes to take; she will probably post her schedule at some point. I am fully done with classes, and my teaching doesn't start up until a few weeks into the semester. So I just have research fo a couple of weeks. I passed my qualifying exams; I was formally notified the day before we left (which was apparently a bit slow). I'm told that I passed them quite handily, which I'm glad to hear. It's a huge relief to be done with them. They are enormously (surprisingly so) time-consuming to prepare for, so it's good to have that extra time again. And they are the big hurdle at which most physics students drop out of grad school. So it's good to be past that finally. On to research!

I will be presenting a poster at the American Chemical Society meeting in March in San Francisco, which is exciting. We are presenting a bit of work I did over the summer and the fall in between studying, and am continuing between now and the meeting. My time between now and the meeting is likley to be taken up finishing some experiments and assemblying the poster.

Friday Catblogging: Mid-week, ladder edition

2009-12-08T21:37:00.003-06:00

Nora apologizes for me being a loser and not blogging enough recently. She is far too busy at the moment with exams. But we present a cat-based episode from earlier this evening.

We had an "incident" with the smoke detector. The battery was running low, so I climbed up the ladder to unplug it so it would stop beeping at us until we got new batteries for it. When I unplugged it from the wall, it started screeching very loudly and at a high pitch. All three cats stared at us and started meowing as if we had caught some exotic high-pitched bird. Eventually we figured out how to get the battery out, and it finally shut up.

But the cats had to examine and climb all over the ladder before we could put it away. Tony in particular wanted to examine the new hole in the ceiling, thinking the bird lived there.

Oprah enjoyed the chance to use her awesome climbing skills to climb up and down the ladder repeatedly.

Hodag just stared at Tony and Oprah as if they were idiots. He seems to have gotten used to his humans doing weird and stupid things, so he did not expect to find anything interesting in the ladder.

Tulane vs LSU

2009-11-13T20:57:00.006-06:00

On Halloween night, Colin and I enjoyed one of America's great national pastimes, cheering for the loosing side at football game . The annual LSU Tulane football game was especially bittersweet this year, as it was probably the last time ever that these two teams will play each other. Although both are division one football teams, LSU has for the past few decades so far outclassedTulane that the game was becoming predictable, and, quite possibly, dangerous for Tulane players. Colin and had a great time. We had never been to an LSU game, which is a rite of passage here in Louisiana. Colin and I were really excited because the game was at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, which meant that the mascot of LSU, Mike (VI) would be at the game.

Despite the fact that Tulane lost to LSU 42-0, they actually made some impressive plays.For instance, there were several under 150 pound guys from Tulane who were really good at tackling the larger LSU players by diving at their feet and hanging on for dear life.
The famous LSU Tigerland Marching band.

The LSU cheerleaders on top of the cart that carries Mike the tiger around the Tiger Stadium.

An up close picture of Mike in his cart. He is larger then when we last saw him, and in his adolescence. Apparently , now that he is older, he is a bit more reticent to get into his cart. I do not blame him, since I wouldn't want a bunch of undergrads standing on top me.

Official photos of Mike (VI), from his website. He sure is a handsome cat.

Oysters!

2009-11-13T14:50:00.002-06:00

Readers outside Louisiana may or may not have heard of the FDA's proposed rule requiring that raw oysters harvested from the Gulf during the summer be treated for a rare (but potentially fatal) bacteria. The oyster industry here is huge, so this was front-page news in the Times-Picayune.

Well, good news: the FDA has decided to back away from the rule after a meeting with our congressional delegation. I may have to go celebrate with some raw oysters.

Friday cat blogging, Halloween edition

2009-10-30T22:29:00.005-05:00

Meet Oprah, one of the newest cats at ARNO, and the perfect feline to feature in this Halloween edition of Friday cat blogging. A few weeks ago, a local veterinary office called ARNO to ask us for a special favor. They were calling on behalf of Heaven's Pets , a local pet cemetery. Apparently, Heaven's pets found itself in an unusual situation, they had a live pet on their hands. Oprah was found, undernourished and ill, wandering the grounds of the pet cemetery and crematorium. The cemetery staff had managed to catch her and bring her to the vet, and after she was given some food and fluids, the cemetery staff and veterinary staff decided that they would ask ARNO to take her in. Since Heaven's pets cremates any animal who dies in our animal shelter for free, we were more than happy to oblige them and take little Oprah under our wing. Not only was Oprah found in a pet cemetery, in October, but she is also all black with orange eyes. She would be downright creepy if she were not so tiny and adorable. Oprah was still a little weak when we got her, and so I brought her home to live with us for a while and get extra feedings and special attention. In the week that she has been with us, she has gained weight and strength, and seems much perkier. I guess that when you start off in a cemetery, there is really nowhere to go but up.

Oprah, when she first arrived at our house.

Oprah at our pumpkin carving party on Monday night.

office!

2009-10-30T22:23:00.000-05:00

You know what rocks about being in a PHD program? For the first time in my life, I have a professional office. Below are pictures of my new PHD level digs. As you can see, I have a desk in the Epidemiology department's Fellow's office. Since almost every other PHD student has an additional desk in the room in the area where their research study takes place (there is usually a room allotted to the researchers of a study for data analysis and grant business) , I am often the only person in the large, well appointed fellows room.

My desk, complete with computer, phone, and lots of file storage space.

The amazing view from my 20th floor office window, looking out across New Orleans to lake Pontchartrain. (Basically, where the buildings end is the start of the lake.)

My office plant, Burrito.

Hooray for Drew Brees

2009-10-18T22:40:00.002-05:00

TWo weeks ago, the NYTimes Sunday Sports section gave us a wonderful article about New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees. It's a very light piece, starting with Brees's arrival in the city shortly after the storm. Saints fans immediately took to him, and he immediately took to the city. He has since had a child, and appears to be very dedicated personally to the city. The team is well-loved in the city, almost to the point of becoming a religion. The organization returns the favor, often putting together charity and city spirit events. The spirit in the city for the team is very infectious, particularly when they are doing as well as they are now. I've even started listening to the games on the radio while studying for my qualifying exams; they are scary good.

As an aside, I find it a bit amusing that I am now so enthusiasticaly cheering for Brees. I've seen him play in person once, during the 2001 Rose Bowl (following the 2000 season). Brees was playing for the Purdue Boilermakers, and lost to the Washington Huskies during their Marques Touiasosopo years. I don't remember Brees being particularly brilliant in that game, but he wasn't awful. Touiasosopo ran the option, and was personally responsible for something like 80% of the Huskies offensive yards that season. But I guess Brees got the last laugh, as he went higher between the two in the 2001 NFL draft, and Tuiososopo now plays for the Raiders.

But anyway, go read the NYT article. It's fantastic. Even more fantastic given the rediculous game he had today against the Giants.

Campus cats

2009-10-16T09:30:00.000-05:00

Monday afternoons I run a TA session for Epidemiology 101. The TA session is on the uptown campus, because this particular class has a fair number of undergraduates who are public health majors. Since undergraduates spend most of their time uptown (even those who are public health majors, and take some classes downtown with me) that is where the TA session is. This does not particularly bother me, since we live right next to the uptown campus, and it gives me a chance to walk through the Tulane campus quads during the lovely early evening hours. Often on my walk to the TA session, I get a chance to see some of the fabled uptown campus cats.

Here were some beauties I spotted recently:

This fellow was staked out under this tree waiting for the squirrel above him to have a mishap.

While this group of feral cats were waiting to be fed their daily meal.
In exchange for this meal they help to keep the rat and mouse population down.

This is about how close any of them will let you get before they realize
you are not their evening meal ticket.

Friday Cat Blogging

2009-10-02T14:46:00.002-05:00

This week's Friday Cat Blogging says goodbye to Poggibonsi, who left us last week. We had picked him up at the shelter for a few weeks ago, and were fostering him until Nora's father was in town to take him to Pasadena. Here we show the two men sharing a moment together in the library of their house.

DonorsChoose Social Media Challenge

2009-10-02T09:41:00.002-05:00

Inspired by ScienceBlogs, we will be competing in the DonorsChoose.org Social Media Challenge, a friendly month-long competition between blogs to see which can do the most to help low-income classrooms on DonorsChoose.org. In addition, our friend Sara works as a teacher in New York, and has funded a project through DonorsChoose. We chipped in a bit to that, and shipped her a box of Mardi Gras beads to give to her class.

By way of background, DonorsChoose.org is an online charity connecting individuals, like you, to classrooms in need. The average public school teacher spends $500 - $700 on classroom supplies out of his/her own pocket, and students still go without critical supplies they need to learn. This website provides an easy way for everyday people to address this problem. Public school teachers post project requests that range from a $100 classroom library, to a $600 digital projector, to a $1,000 trip to the zoo. People like you can choose which projects to fund and then get photos and thank-you letters from the classroom.

DonorsChoose is definately good people. The page I've put together currently lists all the urgent projects in Louisiana; I plan to select a few specific projects in a bit. I'm going to try to keep it to projects of interest to us (New Orleans, DC, Baltimore, Chicago, science, and public health), but feel free to also give to projects that aren't on our list (or request that I add them to our list). You can contribute to our Challenge here.

Busy Busy Busy

2009-09-30T15:37:00.002-05:00

We've been pretty busy the last few weeks, so we haven't had time to keep up. Classes have started. Nora has officially begun her PhD program, so she has lots of new classes to keep up with. I don't have to formally take any more classes, but I am sitting in on the undergraduate Organic Chemistry because it's useful for my research. My major goal for the semester is to pass my qualifying exams in about a month, so I'm studying for that while doing everything else.

Both of us are teaching. I have three labs this semester: two sections of 101, which I've been TA'ing every semester; and one section of 131, the calculus-based intro class for science majors. The 131 class is a very interesting challenge, both because I haven't done it before, and because it intrinsically requires more. I'll have more to say on that soon (working title, "The Kids are All Right"). Nora was offered a TA position at the last minute because her department needed another TA. It's not officially a full TA position, because she only has to run a recitation section (ie, doesn't have to do any grading). I'll let her discuss that more as she wishes.

We are also both doing research. I'm continuing with my research project. We hope to hear back from our grant submission in November or December. Nora's TIGRE grant just started paying her, so she is trying to get started on her research for that. Things are starting slow as you might expect, but one of her advisers is trying to pay for her to go to Martinique sometime this semester to study dengue.

As if our academic responsibilities weren't enough, we've been working on several extracurricular projects. Tony has now been fully acclimated into the family. He was very skittish while Poggibonsi was staying with us, but is settling down now that Nora's father has taken the kitten home to Pasadena. Hodag is also happy to have more of our attention as well. They are getting along quite well with each other, and appear to greatly appreciate having a friend/wrestling buddy. For just over two weeks now, we've been going to the gym 5 days a week, at 7:00am. We mostly do weights and swimming. The main goal is general fitness, but the specific benchmark we are aiming for is to get me into shape enough that I can take surfing lessons when we are in Hawaii in December. And finally, we have become the official University of Chicago alumni representatives for the New Orleans area. In that capacity, we co-hosted (with our counterparts in Baton Rouge) the first ever Send Off party for Louisiana. It was a brunch affair at this cute little restaurant in Mandeville, right on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain. Ben, the alumni representative for Baton Rouge, knows the owner, so it was very convienient.

The past few weeks have been particularly full of extracurriculars, and have gotten stressful at times, but that seems to be passing. So hopefully we can get back into a more normal routine soon.

Friday Cat blogging: Poggibonsi Edition

2009-09-11T20:36:00.003-05:00

Our house now protects five souls, as we have yet another cat. Nora brought Body (pronounced BO-dee) home from ARNO yesterday evening. Her parents are adopting him to be friends with their cat Rufus. He was chosen in particular because he is orange like Rufus and Sim (Nora's childhood cat who died a few years ago), and because he has a personality that will mesh very well with their family. They are renaming him Poggibonsi, after the town in Italy. He will be staying with us until Nora's father is in town in two weeks for a Tulane board meeting.

In honor of Body's visit, we present two photos of him being cute.

New Orleans, Katrina +4

2009-08-29T08:39:00.004-05:00

Today is an important date in the city of New Orleans. Four years ago today Katrina made landfall in New Orleans . The effects of that storm, combined with the structural failures that accompanied it, are sadly familiar to most news watching Americans. Colin and I were not here for Katrina, we were still living in Chicago at the time. This is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in that we were not forced to evacuate, did not have our lives turned upside down and did not have to go through the many hardships that others were forced to endure. A curse in that we can never truly understand how hard that time was for this city and its residents, and that we were not witnesses to the destruction, the federal and local government failures, and the suffering that was experienced at this time four short years ago.

For me, the Katrina anniversary provides me with another chance to be grateful that I have been able to come to this amazing city. That New Orleans was still here for me to live in and to love. That in some small way my arrival here was helpful in allowing the preservation of a great American city.

Rabbi Cohn, the rabbi of our synogouge said it best when he noted that the residents of New Orleans post Katrina must be “the rebuilders of the ruins, the restorers of paths to dwell in.” (Isaiah 58:12) I like the King James version of this line even better, and think that New Orleanians are "... The repairer(s) of the breach..." or the ones who will fix our broken levee system and our ruined wetlands. This translation is particularly apt because most of the commentaries on this verse understand "breach" to be a breach of the covenant. To apply this to New Orleans, we (both the city and the rest of the country) have broken our promises to ourselves and each other to maintain a livable and safe city.

A visitor that came through the city this summer and stayed with us noted that New Orleans seemed to still be referencing the storm, or the flood, in every conversation. I think that the magnitude of destruction left a permanent watermark on this city, and that it will take many more years before Katrina does not hold a place of attention in our city's consciousness. However we see progress every day. In just the last two years, a huge number of stores and homes have been built where before there were only abandoned buildings. Colin and I constantly marvel at how much has been accomplished in the time we have been here. This is not to say that we have not also seen negligence and squandered chances. This city will never be the same as it was before Katrina, and we still have a long, long way to go before we are fully functional. But, I can see the promised land. If we are lucky, New Orleans will continue not just to exist, but to thrive.

Start of the school year

2009-08-26T06:45:00.005-05:00

Hey all, I just thought I would let you know how my first week of classes has been going, and what my life has been like as a newly minted PHD student. First of all here are is my class schedule for this semester:

Monday:
Epidemiology Department Seminar 12:00-1:00

Tuesday / Thursday:
Categorical Data Analysis 9:00-10:15

Wednesday:
Field Methods, Project Monitoring and Evaluation 10:00- 12:00
Observational Epidemiology 1:00-3:45
Healthcare of Women 4:00-5:40

Friday:
Field Methods, Project Monitoring and Evaluation 10:00- 12:00

As a PHD student I also have other official duties besides taking classes. This semester I will be TA-ing for Introduction to Epidemiology. This means I will be grading homework and quizzes and holding office hours from 5:00-6:00 on Monday evenings. My studies are being funded through a brand new grant given to Tulane called Training in Global Reproductive Epidemiology (TIGRE) grant. You can investigate what that entails here. My specific area of research under TIGRE is to examine the effect of Dengue virus infection in pregnant women and children. So, starting this semester, and continuing through-out my PHD program, I will be conducting research looking at the health impact of Dengue on these groups.

Most excitingly, I also get my very own corner in the Epidemiology fellows office. This is my first official office, and I plan on sprucing it up with a houseplant and other swag. I will post a picture next week of my official work area once I finish decorating it.

Biodiversity in South East Asia

2009-08-25T23:05:00.003-05:00

As many of you know, I love South East Asia. To me it is the coolest place on earth. I love the people, the cultures, the food, and of course the beautiful scenery. Part of that scenery is composed of the amazing plants, animals and insects that make this tropical part of the world their home. I came across a nice little discovery news video which describes some of new species that have been discovered along the Mekong delta region in the last decade. It is a nice little educational sail down the Mekong river, which makes clear why we need to protect this amazing area today and in the future. Enjoy!

Friday cat blogging

2009-08-21T21:18:00.005-05:00

We are pleased to announce that Tony is well on his way to becoming a Friedman-McFaul. He has gone from refusing to leave the office closet, to freely wandering the house (albeit with some trepidation) and trying to play with Hodag. He is also willing to let near-strangers (guests and friends of ours) pet him as long as he is in a safe location. Tony's safe places include the office closet, and the space beneath our bed. He will also sit out in the open pretty much anywhere on the second floor.

Hodag seems to be adjusting to the addition of Tony to the family pretty well. Although he has not yet let Tony touch or play with him, they have slowly gotten more comfortable around each other. All in all, we are quite pleased with the progress that Tony has made in fitting into our home, and we anticipate that he and Hodag will become friends.

Tony allowing our friend Erin (the hand) to snuggle him.

Tony and Hodag investigating each other closely.

Tony hanging out in our bedroom.

Waiting for October

2009-08-19T22:30:00.000-05:00

Ah, the doldrums of the end of summer. It's been a busy summer (not that I've been reporting on my activity), and classes are starting next Monday (not that I've noticed, seeing as how I am done with classes). The next big thing up on my schedule is the qualifying exam in October.

So what have I been doing all summer? I've been working in the lab. My big news for the summer is that my lab is applying for the MRI-R2 grant program that NSF is funding as part of the stimulus package. We are submitting Tulane's instrumentation development proposal. My project for the last year or so has been to develop a new instrument for our lab, so it was very convienient for us that this instrumentation development grant came along when it did. NSF grants are always very competitive, so it's impossible to get too optimistic, but we are about as hopeful as we can be. My advisor's suspicion is that a lot of the submissions will be wish-lists, and thus of lower quality than usual. In addition, we suspect that most of the grants in this competition will be for instrumentation acquisition, rather than for instrumentation development. So there's likely to be less competition development grants like ours. That's the hope anyway.

What makes this all really exciting is that this grant would fund me fully for three years, and that I will be the only full-time person on the grant. And there will be a lot of interesting things for me to work on.

I will say more about the actual content of this project in a few days.

I no longer trust weather underground

2009-08-11T14:42:00.002-05:00

This is Weather Underground's current status for 70118. The sky outside my window is completely clouded over, raining hard, and lightning-ing. It's not just wrong, it's the completely opposite of right. I don't understand what's going on.

Friday Cat Blogging: Tony Edition

2009-08-07T22:47:00.008-05:00

Tomorrow we are welcoming a new member of our family. This is Tony, one of the cats I met at ARNO. I fell in love with him despite the fact that he is extraordinarily shy, and hides from most people. However, it turns out he can be lured out of his hammock or box with Temptation Cat Treats. We plan on picking him up first thing tomorrow morning, and bringing him home after we swing by our vet for a final ringworm treatment. It is our hope that Tony and Hodag will become friends and keep each other entertained during the day, especially since Colin and I will soon be busy with school and work respectively. Tony will most likely spend the first few weeks he is with us sequestered in the office, learning how not to be afraid of us and the house. Then we will introduce him to Hodag and hope that all goes well. Stay tuned for updates!

Computer Parts have arrived

2009-07-30T12:24:00.002-05:00

Huzzah! the computer stuff arrived earlier this week. That includes an enormous 1TB external hard drive, and a new laptop for me. So Nora will now be able to make room on her computer for new photos. And posting in general will be less of a pain in the neck for me, so you're likely to see me pick up the pace.

Still no photos

2009-07-21T20:48:00.005-05:00

Stupid computer shipping people! I still have not gotten my external hard drive which will allow me to post photos to the website. I am really sorry about this, as I would like to show some photos of the work I have been doing to the house, and of the people and animals I have met at ARNO. I am hopeful that I will be able to post pictures soon, and in the meantime, here is a short update on what I have been doing recently.

On the house:
A veritable flurry of painting has been undertaken here at Chez Hodag, and many rooms are looking brighter and cleaner than before this summer. I have been helped immensely in my painting endeavors by Erin (our friend and summer roommate). She has helped me to paint the upstairs bathroom, and while we were in California seeing Sean and Alex graduate from high school, she painted the dining room all by herself. All the touch ups I wanted to do for the downstairs and upstairs hallways have been completed. Now Erin and I will tackle painting the trim in the downstairs rooms, which seem to have been painted in three different, non matching shades of white. In other indoor decorating news, today I painted a couple of accent chairs that will be used in the dining room. Future plans for the dining room include recovering the dining chair cushions. Other big projects this week include meeting with a salesman to purchase shutters to prevent hurricane damage, and scheduling a time to have the brick stilts our house sits on tuck pointed.

At the animal shelter:
I have almost completed the survey of dog poo (yay!). So far, most dogs have been free of parasitic infections, which is excellent news. Unfortunately, in the meantime, 71/76 kittens in the shelter have managed to get Ringworm. Victoria (an amazing 16 year old volunteer who has worked at ARNO since hurricane Katrina) and I have begun an aggressive twice weekly lime sulfur dipping campaign to treat the infected kittens. We have also added an additional cage cleaning step for the contaminated cages, adding a 20% bleach water wash step after we clean cages with Trifectant. It is amazing what a degree in parasitology allows you to do, I have been diagnosing upper respiratory infections, parasites in poo, and now, I get to shove kittens into a cold, smelly fungal dip. While this probably does not sound fun to you all, I am really impressed with unexpected practical skills my degree has given me.

Hooks and whips and tapeworms, oh my!

2009-07-06T10:11:00.002-05:00

So this Sunday I spent a lot of time looking at dog poo. Beth, the other volunteer parasitologist at ARNO had decided that it was past time to run a basic fecal on all of the dogs in the shelter. Usually, we give priority to animals who appear to be suffering from gastrointestinal symptoms, or who are new to us at ARNO. With our limited resources, managing these animals takes up most of our time, so we rarely check for parasites in animals who lack obvious symptoms. The problem with this is that we miss infections which are easily transmitted to other animals and can cause subtle health problems. (Riddle me this, how can a dog tell you it is suffering from hookworm anemia?) So, just to make sure that the dogs were all as healthy as can be, Beth and I checked out about two dozen shelter mutts. It was a good thing we did, since we found a fair number of nasty parasites once we started looking. One dog had whipworm, several had tapeworms, some had hookworms, and a couple had roundworms. One especially unlucky dog named Paris had three different parasitic infections (hookworm, tapeworm and roundworm). Hopefuly, we will be able to complete a survey of all of the dogs in the next few weeks.

RIP Annie

2009-06-27T23:40:00.000-05:00

We put Annie down Thursday. She was dying of kidney failure.

She looked and acted like her usual, long-suffering self when Nora and I left for California a week before. When we returned Tuesday evening, our roommate Erin reported that Annie had been hiding in the bathtub, shunning the cooler downstairs. When she came out of hiding long enough to greet us, she looked thin and frail. Nora took her in to the vet on Wednesday. He gave her fluids and kept her overnight for monitoring. Annie came home Thursday morning, and seemed to be recovering. She napped on a cold air vent for a few hours. But when she woke up, she started howling, vomiting, and soiling herself. Erin and Nora picked me up at the lab and we all went to the vet to put her down. Nora and Erin dug a hole in the backyard while I returned to work. They cleaned her up a bit, wrapped her in an old bedsheet for a burial shroud, and laid her in a box. Nora and I put the box in her grave and buried her after dinner than night. We left an old brick as a marker.

Nora took a few photos of Annie while she was napping, just a few hours before she died.

She looked at us like this all the time. She always looked maligned and long-suffering.

But she also looked very peaceful and content when she was asleep. We had her for almost a year. Nora sent a nice note to Lindsey, Annie's previous person. Annie seemed generally happy while she was living with us, and we were glad to be able to give her a nice retirement home. We're all sad to see her go, and it was especially sad that she had to be in so much pain the last day or two. But we were glad that we could all be there together with her at the vet when she died. The method of euthanasia was an overdose of barbiturates, so at least she had some relief could die quickly and painlessly.

Lack of Photos

2009-06-15T13:31:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone.

You may have noticed that I am not posting many pictures to the blog these days. There is a very simple reason for this, my computer has run out of memory. This came as something of a shock to me, since I knew I was taking a ton of photos (which are quite large in Kb), but I guess I underestimated the sheer volume of pictures I have stored on my computer. To solve this problem, I am purchasing myself an external hard drive. Soon I should have a whole terabyte to devote to old schoolwork, photos, and other files which are unnecessary on a daily basis, but should be kept somewhere. Within a few weeks you can expect to see some photos from this summer that I have been itching to download and post.

In other news, my summer is going extremely well. I continue to do home repairs during the day, and about two evenings a week and Sundays I spend my time at ARNO. Sunday has become my lab work day, when I go around collecting cat poo and making wet mounts of samples. So far I have diagnosed tons of Coccidia infections, which are a common scourge among shelter cats. It makes me feel good that I figure out why an animal is ill, and be able to recommend treatment based on what I have learned over the past two years.

Friday Cat Blogging

2009-06-05T19:18:00.002-05:00

I am sorry for the lack of Friday Cat Blogging last week. And I'm sorry for the relative lack of my posting recently. We've been busy. Hopefully I will be better at posting.

To partially make up for all that, here is Hodag, napping cutely in a box in the bedroom.

I hope everyone has a similarly restful weekend.

Summer Plans

2009-06-05T13:45:00.000-05:00

It is as hot as Hades here, and the daily evening thunderstorm pattern has begun. Ah, summer in New Orleans; hot, humid, and buggy. Luckily, I have plenty of summer projects to keep me busy so I cannot complain too much about the weather.

What summer projects you ask? Well, for starters, I am trying to get the house into the best shape possible before hurricane season begins in earnest. I am going to be completing both cosmetic and structural repairs, indoors and out. Examples of items on my to do list include: paint touch ups to the indoors, purchasing and installing outdoor shutters (once these puppies are in I look forward to never having to board up our house for a hurricane) , installing rain barrels to prevent gutter water pouring onto the ground around our pylons, and sealing the fireplaces to prevent air leaks. My summer days have so far consisted of traveling to the hardware store, followed by getting filthy and completely covered in sweat before giving up for the afternoon. I do feel that I am making some progress, even if my projects are not being completed as quickly as I would like.

Other summer plans I have include volunteering at Animal Rescue of New Orleans. ARNO is a wonderful organization that cares for the stray, feral, and abandoned animals of New Orleans. They run a no kill shelter and also have feeding stations in the more hurricane damaged areas of our city. I am going to be a dog walker, walking and jogging some of their shelter dogs, and I will also be donating some time to their parasitology laboratory, diagnosing infections among the rescued animals at the shelter.

Hurrican Season

2009-05-28T10:33:00.001-05:00

Hey, look! Hurricane season came just a few days early this year!

Welcome to the world, Tropical Depression ONE.

Life is good

2009-05-18T17:06:00.002-05:00

On Saturday I graduated from Tulane with my master of science in public health. Also on Saturday I found out that the Tulane grant which will fund my PHD research was approved, meaning that I will be paid to go to graduate school. Life is good.

Graduation Week Dining Guide

2009-05-13T21:24:00.003-05:00

Hey all. This week is the lead up to my Masters graduation on Saturday. I will be receiving a Master of Science in Parasitology/ Master of Public Health. This means I get to wear a spiffy yellow hood (for Master of Science) instead of the salmon colored hood that comes with the Master of Public Health degree. My parents are visiting us for graduation, in part because I am graduating and in part because my father, as a member of the Tulane Board of Trustees, is supposed to be present for graduation.

We are going to be dining in some pretty amazing establishments this week including:

Dante's Kitchen
Emerils Delmonico
Herbsaint
Commanders Palace for Sunday brunch

I fully expect to gain five pounds.

In the Navy!

2009-05-09T21:25:00.004-05:00

[Ed: this is the post Nora left for me to post. I don't know if it will list me or her as the author. She actually wrote the content. I merely copy-edited.]

Colin got a totally sweet gift from his dad last week.

It is a hat (as you can see) which is a good thing, since Colin somehow lost his Sox hat in the move to New Orleans. However, the neat thing about this gift is not so much the hat itself, but rather the fact that the hat has the insignia of the USS McFaul on it. That is right people, not only do the McFauls practically have their own island, but now they have a ship to get to it as well. the SS McFaul is an Arleigh Burke destroyer ship in the US Navy. It is named after Chief Petty Officer Donald L. McFaul, a Navy SEAL and graduate of the Defense Department language institute in Spanish. Officer McFaul died in combat in 1989 during operation 'Just Cause' in Panama. He was posthumously awarded both a purple heart and a Navy Cross. Colin's dad apparently told Colin about this ship sometime ago, but this hat is the first time I had heard of it.

In other navy-related news, we have proof that the military can cook! NPR has been running a series called How Low Can You Go? in which cook submit recipes for a dinner for four persons that costs less than $10. Well, one of the submissions was a skate recipe from a navy chef named Michael Edwards, culinary specialist first class, and 'Armed Forces Chef of the Year'. Edwards is an enlisted aide to Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He cooks for both the Admiral, and his visiting guests. Edwards says that he joined the Navy shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, because a recruiter told him the food in the Navy was better than Army food.

Friday Cat Blogging: Circle of Life Edition

2009-05-08T21:36:00.003-05:00

My apologies for our recent quiet. Nora has been in California on a road trip with her mother, and I've been busy taking finals. She left me a post to put up, but I've been lazy. To make up for that, there are extra pictures of Hodag this week, along with other creatures. It's the Circle of Life, New Orleans-style.

Hodag protects us from the bugs, dogs, and other dangerous creatures. For example, here he is protecting me Tuesday night while Nora is away and can't protect me:

The house protects Hodag from the rain. It rained once this week, and not very much. But I can promise you that the house protects Hodag even when it really rains. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo to show this.

Finally, Nora and I protect the house from the bugs. In this case, the termites. Hodag isn't all that interested in chasing termites, so it falls to us to deal with them. He does, however, like to sniff the termite carcasses after the humans have killed them:

All those termites carcasses are my handiwork. I'm so useful! There was quite a swarm that night. I was working in the office when it hit. Even closing the windows didn't help, as some of the windows don't fully seal, so they are able to sneak in through the cracks. I had to turn off the ceiling light and close all the blinds in order to get them to leave that room alone. Then I could finally kill them all.

The termites that swarm, of course, aren't the ones that eat your house. The real way in which the humans protect the house is that we've been planning to get one more termite treatment for a few months. We finally made the appointment about a week ago, and the guy came yesterday. He found some wood and other termite-food debris under the house, and left it in a "small" pile in the back yard. The wood had some termite damage on it, which he identified as Formosan, the worst kind of termite (and the species that was swarming).

Now, when I say "small," I actually mean exactly enough wood and crap to fill our trash can.

Fortunately, tomorrow is trash day, and we don't have any other trash this week.

Npr = cows

2009-04-25T15:22:00.006-05:00

NPR is full of cows!

Firstly, there was this report on the completion of the sequencing of the bovine genome. L1 Dominette 01449, an eight year old Hereford cow has been the subject of intense scrutiny for six years as a team of scientists from around the world have sequenced her DNA. The resulting information gathered from L1 Dominette gives us valuable information into "the essence of bovinity", as well as the differences and similarities between cows and other mammals. One difference that makes a lot of intrinsic sense is that cows have a larger portion of their genome devoted to milk production than humans do. Another logical discovery is that cows lack the genome areas relating to certain digestive enzymes. As cows let commensal bacteria digest their grass for them, they no longer needed to keep those genes around. For an even more in depth discussion of the information gained from the cow genome, check out Science Daily.

Secondly, NPR's quiz show "Wait wait, don't tell me" alerted me to even more cow related news this week. Apparently, a conservationist in England has imported 13 rare Heck cattle to his farm. Cattle importation is not normally newsworthy, but Heck cattle are special. Heck cattle are the result of a breeding project sponsored by Herman Goering, and were produced in Nazi Germany in an attempt to back breed existing cattle to recreate the extinct aurochs. While they did not manage a complete recreation, Heck cows are fairly impressive looking, and are basically wild. As the limerick listener challenge put it (an audio recording is here): "A specter is haunting Europe, namely giant Nazi cows." As amusing as that sounds to us in America, the Brits appear to be taking the matter more seriously. Here is a BBC video in which the reporter asks the conservationist Mr. Gow if he is "a collaborator".

And if all this cow-ish goodness was not quite enough, I present to you a recent story by NPR about how cows align themselves with power lines.

Friday Cat Blogging

2009-04-24T20:33:00.002-05:00

Well folks, the sun is shining, it is 80 degrees, and the bugs are abundant; thus summer must be nearly upon us here in New Orleans. The cats have begun celebrating the seasonal change by forming cat like puddles at midday, and by being particularly feisty during the relatively cool morning hours. Below we have a photo of Hodag taken this morning as he attacked my feet while I was getting ready to go to my internship.

Delicious Mommy foot!

PHD

2009-04-19T13:00:00.001-05:00

Just a quick note to let you all know that I have been accepted into Tulane School of Public Health's PHD program in epidemiology. I will start classes in fall of 2oo9. I will hopefully be fully funded (!) , and be able to receive a tuition waver as well as a living stipend. There may even be money for me to travel and conduct research overseas. All of this money would come from a grant that Tulane has applied for from NIH. Unfortunately, we will not know if we have gotten the grant until August 1st, although we are hoping we will based on high initial scores. The grant would be for global maternal and child health work, and I would get to work on issues associated with dengue fever in pregnant mothers. I am really excited by this area of work, because dengue is pretty interesting and has all sorts of challenges associated with it. Other bonuses include that dengue fever is transmitted by my very favorite type of mosquito, the Aedes aegypti and is endemic in Southeast Asia, my favorite part of the world.

A female A. aegypti mosquito

Map of dengue virus transmission as of 2005.

Yay! New Computer

2009-04-16T21:22:00.002-05:00

This is a long story. It is meant as amusing, rather than complaining. Near the end of last summer, my labmate Tomasz gave me his old computer, as my work computer was not-so-slowly dying. Tomasz just graduated a few weeks ago. Back in January, he warned me that the friend he had gotten the computer from was going to want it back when Tomasz left the country. So at the beginning of the month, they came in to retrieve it. By then I had recovered everything I needed from it, so it's not that big a deal. Except then that I was computer-less. I had been meaning to purchase a laptop to both use at work and replace the (old) computer I got from Jena in 2005 (and which she had gotten in 2001). Unfortunately, due to a medium-sized (but now fixed) SNAFU, I was without funds to purchase a computer until just a few days ago. At the same time, my labmate Mike started digging up computer pieces to assemble a computer for me. That computer got up and running today. So now I have a work computer. Yes, I still plan to get myself a new laptop. But that can wait another week or two.

Friday cat blogging

2009-04-10T20:17:00.004-05:00

This week we feature a cat we met while purchasing a piece of furniture in River Ridge. Colin and I finally bought ourselves a china cabinet, a furniture piece that we have needed ever since we moved into the new house. We found a lovely two piece set on craigslist and had arranged with the owner to drive over and pick it up at his home in River Ridge. When we arrived at the seller's house, we saw an adolescent male cat in the bushes. The cat ran out of said bushes as soon as he saw us, and was very friendly and snugly. When the seller answered the door, we asked him if this was his cat. He replied, "Who, Lagniappe? He kinda belongs to the whole neighborhood." Colin and I thought this was particularly apt, because of the meaning of the word Lagniappe. The term is thrown around quite a lot in New Orleans; for instance, the Times-Picayune calls its Friday extra section Lagniappe.

Colin's leg gets a little "something extra."

Friday Cat Blogging

2009-04-03T19:34:00.005-05:00

This week, we present both cats being catly, each in their own way.

Nora finally caught Annie sitting on the bed and actually posing regally for a photo:

Earlier in the week, I was mean to Hodag. I put him 5 feet up on a ladder in the office (the ladder is there because I need to fix the ceiling fan). He was unable to get down until I grabbed him to carry him to safety. But at least he got to be tall for a few minutes.

Zombie Ants

2009-04-02T17:37:00.001-05:00

I just heard a great story on NPR about how ants know when an another ant is dead. Turns out that ants don't recognize one of their own as dead until it begins to smell. Apparently ants produce a unique odor during decomposition that alerts members of their community to the fact that the dead ant needs to be removed to the midden. Basically, ants require other ants to rot before they figure out that they are dead. This is kind of odd, when you consider that a dead ant looks pretty different from a living ant, I mean, you think they would notice that the dead ant is upside down and not moving. E.O. Wilson proved that it doesn't matter how lively an ant looks, or even if it moves, in the determination of death, all that matters is the scent. Professor Wilson showed this by creating a zombie ant, a live ant that for all intents and purposes appeared dead to its companions, simply by putting a drop of dead ant smell on it.

Read, or listen to the story here.

Happy Birthday to Me

2009-04-01T21:04:00.002-05:00

Today is my birthday, as most of you know. Nora got me two awesome gifts, which arrived earlier this week:

1. This wind-up rechargeable radio. Or at the very least, something very similar. It came about because I have had a boom box for several years (my stepmother bought it for me when I left for college). I loaned the boom box to Scav Hunt a couple of years ago, and misplaced the power cord. Because that power cord was a little weird, I've been unable to replace it. Since a little before we moved to New Orleans, Nora and I have liked to listen to the radio while we make dinner. When we moved into the new house, the boom box was the only radio we could listen to in the kitchen. But without a power cord, it's battery powered. And it take 6 batteries. After replacing the batteries twice, we gave up on it. This radio replaces it, and also acts as an emergency radio. It's fantastic. We've used it every day since I opened it.

2. This sunlight detector. We haven't used it yet because it's been cloudy/raining all week. We plan to start a garden (both flowers and vegetable), and need to check for proper sunlight. So it will be useful eventually. Little does Nora suspect that the first use will be to locate the best spot for the rose bush I'm getting her for our 2nd anniversary (the traditional gift is cotton; I say rose are close enough).

Bald!!

2009-03-24T20:02:00.004-05:00

On March 18th I once again got my head shaved to raise money for pediatric cancer research. We were able to raise over 55,000 dollars for St. Baldrick's foundation, and we had a blast in the process. I personally raised twice as much money as I did last year, thanks to all my wonderful family and freinds who donated! We had food, music, and visits from cancer patients and survivors. I made a photo album of a whole bunch of shots that got taken during the afternoon, so you can get a feeling for what it was like.

Before....

and after!

The volunteer barbers also put temporary green shamrock tattoos on our heads.

St. Patricks day

2009-03-21T20:03:00.007-05:00

Colin and I spent the Saturday March 14th on Magazine street watching the New Orleans St. Patrick's day parade. This was the first time we saw these festivities, having missed last years parade. We had a good time though, and I am pretty sure that we will be sure and go to next years celebration.

Firstly, allow me to set the scene for you. Southern Louisiana has been experiencing a lack of rain for this time of year. In fact, according to climatologists, we are experiencing a "mild drought". We had gone weeks without a drop of rain, making the Mardi Gras season quite enjoyably dry. It could not last forever though, and on the day the parade was going to roll it poured for the whole day. This did not mean that the parade was canceled, just that everyone stood out in the drenching rain for the afternoon. Luckily the small group we were with had been well fortified with whiskey cake (see recipe below). Unluckily, it was so wet that I was not able to capture any photos of the event, and you will have to make do with descriptions and photos shamelessly stolen from Nola.com

Firstly, there are more people who walk in the St. Patrick's day parades than those that ride. Most of those who walk are men dressed either in black tuxedos, or kilts. These men carry Irish themed objects for distribution (the equivalent of float 'throws'). Items for distribution include beads, flowers, stickers, cups, magnets, and for some reason, thong underwear and garter belts.

Two members of the Irish Channel St. Patrick's Day Club.

The beads were of course primarily in green and white, sometimes with Irish flags or shamrocks and occasionally with a small plastic beer cups attached, which you could get filled by float members distributing liquor. Some beads were clearly designed for just the St. Patrick's day parade, and some could have been used for Mardi Gras too.

The flowers were mostly fake plastic carnations in either green, white or orange, and were displayed on "flower canes" a typically bizarre New Orleans creation consisting of a plastic or bamboo umbrella handle and shank, around which is a layer of Styrofoam with individual plastic flowers stuck into the foam. (In the photo above, the man on the right holds his flower cane) To get a flower, you had to catch the eye of a walking gentleman and he would present you with a flower in exchange for a kiss on the cheek. Colin however, found an equally good method of obtaining flowers which was less intimate. He would simply run up to one of these guys and ask pathetically if he could have a flower for his wife. Usually the parade member would willingly give him one without asking for any kiss in return.

There were some floats as well in the parade, but they were definitely less predominant than they are in the Mardi Gras celebrations. Mostly the floats held women and children who were family members of the men who walked. The floats distributed the usual throws of beads and stuffed animals/ toys, but they also distributed food. Top Ramen packages, individual Lucky Charms cereal bowls, lemons, carrots, potatoes, onions and cabbages were all tossed from the float to the crowds below. The cabbages were particularly dangerous, being both large and heavy, as well as dangerously slippery in the rain. We spent a fair amount of the parade either catching or deflecting cabbages to prevent injury. In the end we had collected six cabbages. Luckily we found someone to give a few to after the parade was over. We met a lady on the way to our car who was sitting on her porch. She asked how the parade went, and as we got to talking she mentioned how her severe arthritis, had prevented her from attending the parade, and collecting her usual cabbage haul. We gladly gave her some of our excess cruciferous vegetables, and in the last week have managed to eat the remaining three.

The last thing you ever see before dying is an incoming cabbage.

Whiskey cake:
(Adapted from the Irish Spirit; recipes inspired by the legendary drinks of Ireland)

1 cup raisins
1.5 cups water

1.5 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
.75 teaspoon cloves
.75 teaspoon nutmeg
dash allspice
.5 teaspoon salt

1 stick (.5 cup) butter
.5 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg

.25 cup Irish whiskey
1 cup chopped walnuts

Optional frosting
8 oz Neufchatel cheese
.5 cup confectioners sugar
.25 cup whiskey

1. turn oven on to 350 degrees. while oven preheats, place raisins and water in a small saucepan on high heat, until water boils. Then, turn down stove and let raisins simmer for about 20 minutes.

2. While raisins are simmering, place the flour, baking soda, baking powder, the spices and salt in a bowl. Stir these dry ingredients together until well mixed.

3. In another bowl, cream butter and sugar together with a mixer until light and fluffy (4-5 minutes) . Then, add the egg and beat until smooth.

4. Take the saucepan of raisins and remaining water. Remove all the raisins, and pour the water off into a measuring cup until you have .75 cup of water. Throw away any other remaining water in the pan.

5. Into the butter/sugar/egg mixture fold the flour mixture, alternating with the remaining raisin water. Then fold in the whiskey, raisins, and walnuts.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes in a 8 inch cake pan. Blend frosting ingredients together until smooth, frost cake when cool.

Anthony Rouse, 1929-2009

2009-03-15T15:33:00.000-05:00

Last week, the Times-Picayune informed us that Anthony Rouse died. Who was Anthony Rouse? He was the founder of the Thibodeaux-based Rouse's chain of grocery stores. Thibodeaux is a few hours away from New Orleans, but Rouse is much beloved here because he moved Rouse's into New Orleans just after Katrina, when a lot of companies were leaving. Shortly after we arrived, Rouse's bought up all the Sav-A-Centers in New Orleans, including the one we shopped at sometimes. A few months later, they opened a new store on Carrollton, which is much more convienient to us. We actually have a really solid grocery store now. It's disappointing how far it is, but it's really not too bad. And the competition seems to have caused Winn-Dixie (also semi-local) to improve itself a lot.

Today, the Times-Picayune informs us that this investment has payed off tremendously for Rouse's. This is wonderful to hear.

Tuesday bike blogging

2009-03-10T22:12:00.005-05:00

My friend Sammy and I have recently been taking long bike rides on the New Orleans levee bike path. This is a trail that leads from uptown New Orleans all the way to Baton Rouge along the Mississippi river. The trail is well paved and not too crowded, even on beautiful sunny weekends. Since the path is right along the Mississippi you can see river traffic, and even a small strip of adjacent marsh, complete with many bird species. (So far we have seen Anhingas, Egrets, Herons, and a guinea fowl). Needless to say, we have been enjoying our exercise very much, and have been traveling around 20 to 25 miles each time we get together. This last trip we decided to meet earlier than usual, starting at 11am, and finishing around 2pm. I knew that we would be out biking during the sunniest part of the day, so I was careful to put sunscreen on my face, neck, and arms. We had a wonderful time as usual, and made it out past the Louis Armstrong Airport and the Kenner historic district, which includes the site of the first heavyweight boxing championship in 1870. Only one detail marred my enjoyment of the day, I forgot to apply sunscreen to my legs.

Next time, more sunscreen. (Can you see where my pants ended?)

Friday cat blogging

2009-03-07T12:51:00.003-06:00

So, yesterday afternoon a tree trimming crew came and removed the branches in our neighborhood which were close to any power lines. This meant that all day we heard various grinding, beeping and motor noises. Surprisingly, the cats were completely unperturbed by the commotion outside, and spent the day sleeping as normal. Here are some shots of the cherry picker working on the tree closest to our house, followed by the cat photos of the week.

Both of these were shot from the bedroom window, while Hodag rested comfortably on the bed.

Annie uses her amazing absorbent properties to act as a solar panel.

Hodag protects me (and the socks) while I nap.

Going Bald, part deux

2009-03-04T23:01:00.002-06:00

I had so much fun shaving my head last year with the St. Baldrick's organization that I am going to do it again. The best part about last years experience was meeting the children who were currently undergoing treatment at Tulane for pediatric cancer. They got to come down to the atrium for our shaving, and seeing them there was really moving. I am scheduled to be shaved March 18th, and am pretty excited about it. If you are interested in learning more about the organization, check out my "Shavee profile".

Pink Dolphin

2009-03-04T21:16:00.005-06:00

Photo courtesy of the Telegraph

So, you thought Louisiana had produced enough pigment challenged animals, huh? Well, lucky for you, you were wrong. The first ever albino bottle nose dolphin has been found in Lake Calcasieu in Southern Louisiana. Erick Rue, owner of Calcasieu Charter Services was the first to photograph the remarkably cute dolphin. The dolphin has now been featured in American and British news stories.

Mardi Gras 2009 part one

2009-03-01T19:25:00.003-06:00

Mardi Gras was amazing again this year. Colin and I went to more parades and tried even harder to experience the whole of this crazy event . We made it to almost all the parades and activities on our list, not an easy job to accomplish considering how tiring it can be watching a parade. The sensory overload of colors, sounds and motion can leave you feeling pretty wiped out.

One could classify the various New Orleans parades in a number of different ways, by the age or type of krewe (For example, the oldest krewe is the Krewe of Comus, and a women only krew is that of Muses) or when they parade during the week leading up to or on Mardi Gras. For this years blog post about Mardi Gras, parades have been classified into: day parades vs night parades, and then a discussion of the common elements shared by night and day parades. This is important for a couple of reasons, enumerated below. I am hoping that these categories, and the accompanying explanations will help all of those who have not seen a New Orleans Mardi Gras understand some of the interesting elements involved.

Night Parades:
First, and perhaps most importantly, the night parades usually have flambeau carriers. Unlike last year, this year we actually saw people tipping the flambeau carriers. In fact, one particularly sweet family next to us explained to one of their friends that they had given their young daughter a couple of extra dollars, in addition to her regular allowance, so she could tip the carriers. We also were sure to bring one dollar bills to give to any carriers we thought were particularly deserving. Colin ran down an older man with a slight limp to make sure he had a couple of dollars for his efforts. (Read last years account of Mardi Gras to learn more about flambeaux).

In addition to, and sometimes instead of flambeaux, night parades also rely on electrical lighting to make the floats visible. Depending on the resources and style of each particular krewe, this lighting can be basic, (as seen in the light bulbs and spotlights used by Bacchus) or can be LED based as in the photos from Endymion. Muses uses an interesting addition to both electrical lighting and flambeaux, large LED lit shoe puppets, attached to walking people, who manipulate them to simulate walking. The amount of the float lighting is also partially dependent on the route of the parade. I think that Endymion uses so much LED lighting in part because the route the parade travels includes a set of wide streets in mid city, with only occasional street lighting. Since the streets are so wide the house and building lighting on either side of the parade does not provide as much ambient illumination for the floats.

A phoenix float from Bacchus's parade "Creatures of the Imagination"

The shoe puppets from Muses

Endymion's captain's float, which features lit up "flames" and the Fleur de Lis shield in LEDs. The letters on the float were also made of LEDs and rotated through various colors.

Day parades:

in general day parades are smaller in scale and expense than night parades are, unless those parades happen to be either Rex or Zulu, the two huge Mardi Gras day parades. (Rex is a traditional, old line krewe which has been around since 1872, and Zulu is a traditionally black parade which is celebrating its centennial this year) You might think that day parades would be more family friendly than the night parades, but this does not seem to be the case. Day parades do have more under eight children, but that is only because really young children can get tired before much has gone by in the night parades.

A small child gets all the goodies from the Thoth parade.

We have noticed that, regardless of the time of the parade, more kids are seen at the beginning of the parade routes (before the parade turns onto canal) because there are fewer drunk tourists flashing their anatomy around. Also, regardless of where or when the parade is, the small children will get the best throws. I personally believe that I have noticed a slightly more adult humor, usually about politics, displayed in the night floats, but this may be a spurious association, since the parades with the most overt political satire, Krewe d'Etat and Krewe deVeiux, are both at night.

Here is an example of political humor, a float from Krewe d'Etat,examining the downfall of Chicago Governor Blagojevich, and comparing this failure to that of Louisiana governors.

We had not previously attended many day parades, except that of Zulu. This year, we both saw Thoth and Rex, and Colin also saw Pegasus. Our overall impression is that the smaller day parades are less elaborate, with less ostentatious float decorations, and almost no gilding on the float.

A still beautiful, although less elaborate float by Thoth.

Common elements:
There are some parts of the parades that are the same regardless of what time of day the parade is at. Common elements you are likely to see include: the military, horses, and marching bands. strangely enough, all branches of the armed services have decided that showing up to Mardi Gras is a great way to connect with average Americans, and increase support for our troops. The army, navy, coast guard and marines all have floats with service members as riders who distribute beads, cups, doubloons and posters emblazoned with recruiting information. The Marines may have the weirdest version of this, several service men ride in a camouflage painted HumVee whose back end has been converted into an enormous stereo system (pimp my ride, anyone?) For the smaller parades, the military presence may be shown only in the inclusion of military bands, both from local ROTC schools, as well as the bands or color guards of various divisions and forts.

This is the Coast Guard cutter float.The float also has a miniature version of the Coast Guard chopper on the back. The Navy also has a boat float, but theirs resembles a 1900's privateer sailing ship.

Another parade addition you can be certain of seeing is horses. there are the horse cops, the various local riding groups, captains or lieutenants of certain krewes ride on horses, and if you are lucky, some Clydesdales pulling a cart. In the larger parades, the Budweiser Clydesdales will be present, pulling their beautiful wagon accompanied by the Budweiser dalmatian. In fact, the Budweiser cart is in so many parades during the days surrounding Mardi Gras that two sets of horses, and two dalmatians take shifts. The drivers are not so lucky, I saw the same two guys working all the parades. In addition to this there is also the Angola Prison Rodeo cart, also pulled by Clydesdales.

The Budweiser wagon. These poor Clydesdales have to carry a bunch of people, their two drivers, and a dalmatian. I guess the right hand driver had noticed me at several different parades taking pictures of the horses, and by Mardi Gras day he would wave to me.

The marching bands are another integral part of nearly every parade. Most parades use a mix of musical floats and high school or college marching bands to provide the accompaniment to parades. The musical floats resemble cattle cars with windows, and contain brass or rock bands, wired up with speakers and lights. The marching bands are from places near and far, and include the teams color guard, its cheerleaders, step girls and so forth. During the Friday night parades we were near a lovely woman from Australia who now lived in Wisconsin and taught world music at the college level. She had a saying about the bands, if they were good, she would say "ah, another band NOT from Wisconsin!". Very few bands were classified as "from Wisconsin", and most of those were the bands from the New Orleans suburbs. She mentioned how much she wanted to bring her students here to see them get there asses kicked by a bunch of kids in high school.

St. Augustines marching 100, one of the best known New Orleans marching bands. "Definitely NOT from Wisconsin!"

Fat Tuesday Bike Blogging

2009-02-27T20:50:00.001-06:00

We made a concerted effort this year to do everything by bike Mardi Gras weekend. I think we can now call that experiment a success. There were a few snags along the way, but we made it. So here's the bike-centric summary of our Mardi Gras:

Thursday: I had to teach technically from 3:00-7:00. I also had a project due at midnight. Fortunately, the lab wasn't too long, and the students were just as interested in finishing early as I was, so I was able to get all of it done by about 6:30. The parades started at 5:45. I rode my bike straight from campus to meet Nora at the parades; she had ridden from home. Our normal spot for watching the Uptown parades has become immediately in front of Touro Synagogue. Touro faces onto St Charles at General Pershing, one block below Napolean. The traditional Uptown parade route starts on Napolean, and turns onto St Charles. So the synagogue is very close to the beginning of the route, which makes things slighly more predictable. As it turns out, there was a nearly hour-long delay Thursday night, so I only missed the first parade (Babylon) and the very beginning of Chaos. After the parades, we biked home together.

Friday: Again, I went straight from campus and met Nora in front of the synagogue. Nora was very clever and bought some food to munch on during the parade. I was able to leave campus earlier Friday night than Thursday, so we got to the parades at about the same time. And I got there in time to see everything.

Saturday: Our first big snag. There are a few parades Uptown on Saturday evening, but we skip those in favor of Endymion. They all meet up at Lee Circle, but we've never been all that interested in going that far downtown. And frankly, Endymion is more than enough parade for one day. It starts at City Park at 4:15. We were planning on leaving at 3:30 to bike along Carrollton to Mid City park ourselves on Canal near the beginning of the route. At 3:00, I was checking the tires on the bikes and inflating anything that needed it. Apparently I have used poor technique in inflating my tires; I don't remove the nozzle properly, which puts some strain on it. I pulled the nozzle off of my front tire, leaving a huge hole. And since it's Mardi Gras weekend, the bike shop around the corner isn't open to sell me a new inner tube. It wasn't too bad because we have a spare bike. Unfortunately for me, the spare bike is a 21-speed mountain bike, different from my bike in nearly every way possible. It handles potholes better than my bike, but is a little uncomfortable for me to ride. But it made it okay.

Sunday: This is the day the bikes really shined. Tim, who runs the teaching labs at Tulane (imagine a 35-year-old Van Bistrow, for those of you who know Van), invited us to his house a block off of Audubon Park in the afternoon to watch Thoth. Thoth starts near the park to allow it to pass by several hospitals, which is their tradition. They eventually get to St Charles, and then follow the traditional route. After that, my advisor Wayne Reed had invited us to his house (Napolean and Magazine) to watch Bacchus, which runs just along the traditional route. For these, the bikes were particularly convienient. It helped us avoid parking hassles, city traffic blockades, and having to get the car in and out of both areas. And it was rather enjoyable to bike from home to Tim's, to Dr Reed's, and back to home. The one snag was not having my own bike. I stupidly insisted on bringing our Jazz Fest chairs (yes, that's what Walgreens calls them), which have straps that let you carry them over your shoulder. My thought was that we would actually have a place to set them up. The problem was that, without the baskets on my real bike, I now couldn't carry any of the throws we aquired at those parades. It turned out to be quite a lot, and Nora's backpack was very heavy and nearly bursting for most of the day.

Monday: we were burned out, and stayed home all day.

Tuesday: another brilliant day for the bikes. I finally figured out how to get the gears on the mountain bike to go into the right gear (it had previously been giving me a lot of trouble). We biked to Jackson near the start of Zulu. The one snag with that was that I forgot/didn't realize that the area between Louisiana and Washington is very bike unfriendly. The result was that we ended up walking further than we would have liked. A better route would have avoided that and have been more pleasant, at the expense of being a little longer in distance. After Zulu passed us, we got on the bikes again to head towards St Charles to catch Rex. But we took a detour (which was really on the way) to check up on a hot tip Nora had recieved about a Mardi Gras Indians gathering location. We found them about a block away from where the tip suggested, but there they were. We watched them finish setting up, and followed them for a while as they paraded, blocking traffic (with corkers, even!) as necessary. We were hoping to see them run into another Mardi Gras Indian gang so we could watch them do battle. But we eventually figured out that they were probably going to head downtown before that happened, so we broke off from them and headed down to Rex (we later found out that they had gone all the way downtown to the Claiborne overpass at Canal). After we saw Rex, we biked home. We had some trouble crossing the parade, which led us to bike home along Claiborne. That would not normally be advisable, but it was nearly empty due to the parades. That led to us getting yelled at by an absolutely insane motorist a few blocks from home, but that wasn't nearly enough to spoil the weekend.

Friday Cat Blogging

2009-02-27T20:04:00.006-06:00

This week we have some Mardi Gras cat photos for all of you out there in internet-land. First up is Annie, looking glamorous with her fabulous Muses beads which match her lovely golden eyes.

Next we have Hodag, featured here in an Endymion throw bag. Throw bags are the reusable plastic bags which hold all of a krewe members loot on a float. Once the bag has been emptied it is thrown over the side of the float where parade goers inevitably retrieve it. Although it is not clear in this photo, the bag has the Endymion logo on it, and a tag which lists the contents in dozens of beads. (And you just thought it contained an alley cat!)

Finally, as a special bonus this week, we feature the adorable little snake I found while cleaning up some leaves on Mardi Gras day. I was raking away when I overturned what I thought was a small plastic snake toy.

Isn't he cute? He was a bit nervous in the Tupperware, but he perked right up when returned to the backyard near some mulch debris.

I love a parade

2009-02-18T16:30:00.006-06:00

Are you are wondering what is on our plate for the upcoming Mardi Gras madness? Here is our tentative schedule for the parades and events we will attend.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2009

• Babylon - Uptown, 5:45 p.m. Website for Babylon
• Muses - Uptown, 6:15 p.m. Website for Muses
• Chaos - Uptown, 6:30 p.m.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2009

• Hermes - Uptown, 6 p.m. Website for Hermes
• d'Etat - Uptown, 6 p.m. Website for d'Etat
• Morpheus - Uptown, 7 p.m. Website for Morpheus

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2009
• Endymion - Mid-City, 4:15 p.m. Website for Endymion

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2009
• Thoth - Uptown, Noon a.m.
•Bacchus - Uptown, 5:15 p.m.

LUNDI GRAS, FEBRUARY 23, 2009
• Zulu Lundi Gras Festival - French Quarter, 10 am

MARDI GRAS, FEBRUARY 24, 2009
• Zulu - Uptown, 8 a.m. Website for Zulu
• Rex - Uptown, 10 a.m Website for Rex
• Mardi Gras Indians - 2nd and Dryades streets, morning

As you can see, we are attending a ton of parades on Thursday and Friday. This is because these parades are sequential along the same route, and it is just easier to stay and watch all of them then to try and leave in the middle. The parades often run late or are disorderly, and it can be difficult to "plan" when to show up for a parade. Colin and I usually show up when the parades are supposed to start, which means we are about half an hour early. On Saturday we plan on going to Endymion, which is the only parade we attend that follows the mid-city route. We really had a good time at Endymion last year, probably because people in mid city were so happy to be able to see the parade along its traditional route. (for three years post Katrina, Endymion was re-routed along the Uptown parade path). On Lundi Gras we will probably stop by the Zulu festival, which has music and food, and then stick around the riverfront to see the arrival of the court of Rex by barge.

Friday Gecko Blogging!

2009-02-13T09:02:00.006-06:00

A few nights ago, Colin and I were doing dishes, and I noticed that we had a little lizard friend on our kitchen window. I assume that he was attracted by the light from the window, or more precisely, he was attracted by the insects, who were attracted by the light from the window. I love living in a place that supports a diversity of lizards. In addition to our friendly gecko below, I often see anoles sunning themselves on the stairs leading to the Riley Center (Tulane's gym) and we have a small skink species that lives in our backyard. For a list of all reptilians in my area, you can check out the Louisiana Gulf Coast Herpetological Society species list.

Why hello there, Mr. Sticky-paws.

Krew de Vieux

2009-02-11T20:16:00.012-06:00

It's Carnival time! The festivities have officially begun here folks. Colin and I attended the Krewe de Vieux parade on Saturday night. This is a unique parade, as it features only small floats which are mule driven through the Marigny and the French Quarter. This is in contrast to the Bio-diesel tractor driven monster floats used by larger krewes such as Rex, Endymion and Bacchus. The floats used in this parade are so small that only two or three people can ride in them, and the rest of the krewe associated with that float walks beside it. In fact, the Krewe de Vieux is actually composed of many smaller sub-krewes who each have a float and those who accompany it. This year the theme for the parade was "Stimulus Package" and the floats were mocked our the financial melt down. The other thing that I should note about Krewe de Vieux is that their floats and themes are often quite lewd. Most Mardi Gras events are really family friendly (despite the popular ideas to the contrary) and almost all parades are suitable for all ages. I don't think I would want to bring my kids to a Krewe de Vieux parade though, which this year featured floats such as : "Mama Roux invests in stocks and bondage" and "Shmeckel and Shekel's Foreskins and Foreclosures LLC".

Mules, the real stars of the Krewe de Vieux parade.

One thing I love about the walking members of Krewe de Vieux is that they get to create and wear these amazing hats to fit their float theme.
Above we see oil rig hats from the float "The Profits of Persia".

Members of the "Mystic Krewe of Spermes" are carrying their gametes! This krewe named themselves jokingly after the older, and more staid,"Mystic Krewe of Hermes".

this float featured an energizer bunny, and powered by
a couple wearing bunny suits on a tandem bicycle.

This float was entitled "The New Voodoo Economics" and featured a large gris-gris doll and accompanying Marie Laveau figures, the ladies with white beehives seen below.

All parade floats are interspersed with musical acts.
In the larger parades, these are often high school marching bands.
In Krewe de Vieux the musicians are often members of local jazz bands who seem to enjoy dressing up and making merry.

Vine of Doom

2009-02-11T19:24:00.001-06:00

Recently, I have been doing a lot of gardening. At some point in the last few weeks I realized that several plants in our yard (most notably, a camellia tree, and Ent, our huge water oak) had been overtaken by some sort of parasitic vine. I decided that the only appropriate response to this threat was to remove the vine from both plants. This involved peeling the vine away from the trunk, and pulling on it hard, to try and get as many feet as possible off the tree. Once I had pulled the vines to the ground, I would cut the vine off, hoping to maim or kill the thing. This was a dirty, labor intensive process, but was very successful, at least on the camellia tree. Buoyed by my ability to free the camellia, I decided to take on the larger vines on Ent. This however, was a more difficult undertaking than it first appeared. First, the vine was way thicker on Ent than on the camellia, and way more entrenched. I spent hours pulling 3 inch diameter vines from the tree and then pulling them out of the soil using my whole body weight to do so. The vine actually resembled a snake, with thicker aerial parts and thinner roots that looked like a tail. At some point during this wrestling match when I was digging out a 5 inch diameter tuber, I found myself saying out loud "where I come from, vines are not capable of killing a person!". It was just another valuable lesson in what happens to vegetation when you live in a tropical climate, which is akin to what happens if you live near a nuclear power plant in a 1950's sci-fi movie.

The vine looked a whole lot like this Anaconda,
courtesy of the Oregon Reptile Man.

Friday cat blogging, Nora's Family edition

2009-02-06T08:25:00.005-06:00

My mom sent me some hate e-mail this week, commenting that last week on Friday cat blogging we displayed the McFaul family pets, and NEGLECTED to show the Friedman family pets. Therefore, I wish to present you with the extended cats of the Friedman family.

This is Rufus. He is my mom and dads cat (mostly my mom's) He is from Kauai, where I found him as a starving kitten many moons ago. My mother fell in love with him and brought him back with us to the continental states. He now resides with my parents in California.

This is Lobous. He is my sisters cat. His name in Yiddish means "Little monster", which is appropriate, since he nibbles everything. He is some sort of Asian mix, and is nearly Lilac colored. He lives in Oxford with Nana.

Friday Cat blogging (belated)

2009-01-31T20:00:00.003-06:00

A belated Friday Cat blogging this week. But to make up for it, we're bringing in animals from home for special guest appearances.

This is George, my family's cat, being held by my younger brother Sean.

And this is Rowlf, the family's dog. Rowlf was part of a litter named for the Muppet babies. He's taking a nap in between getting viciously kicked out of his bed by George.

Hats and related notes

2009-01-25T09:41:00.004-06:00

So, last year when I was bald (more on this later) I knit myself a little beanie to keep my head warm at night. It was March, and the nights in New Orleans were occasionally chilly due to damp night air. Well, it was such a good idea, and kept me so nice and warm, that I continued to use it even after I grew back some hair. I was wearing it about a week ago, during that cold spell in which the cats were so snugly. Colin noticed me wearing it and remarked that he was jealous, and wished he had a similar beanie. In particular, he noted that his head and ears get cold when he bicycles to work on damp winter days. I instantly resolved to knit him a hat to be worn under his helmet in inclement weather. I made it out of super wash merino yarn (so we could clean it in a regular old washing machine without fear of shrinkage) in a bright variegated yarn whose color was listed as "Tropical Storm". (Oh, the irony). I designed the hat so that it would fit easily under his helmet and provide ear coverage. The results are below:

without the helmet to hold down the ear flaps, I think it makes Colin look a bit like an old-timey football player. I tried really hard to stop them from curling up like that, but all my various efforts were in vain.

Luckily, the ear flaps work perfectly with the helmet on.

Friday Cat Blogging

2009-01-23T17:56:00.003-06:00

Pop quiz: How many cats are there in the photo below?

Answer: Two

Annie is actually cuddling up to Hodag who is hiding on the other side of the blanket. This is a new trick Hodag has learned since we returned from vacation. If I am in the bed under the covers, he will jump up on the bed and dig at the edge of the covers until I let him in. Then I sit with my knees bent so he can curl up in the space between my thighs and my feet. On this particular day, Annie decided that she should curl up on my feet for warmth as well. We do not know whether either cat was really aware of the others presence.

Since you cannot see both cats in the photo above, as a bonus this week we will also feature pictures of each cat individually.

Annie, sleeping on my feet again. This was a particularly cold weekend, and both cats wanted to snuggle me for warmth.

Here is Hodag enjoying the arrival of a box which arrived with a Hanukkah gift. Hodag, like most cats, really likes curling up in boxes. He also enjoys hiding in boxes and leaping out dramatically to attack my ankles.

Macabre, but amusing

2009-01-22T09:54:00.005-06:00

In the news of the amazing and weird, a flaming squirrel was responsible for the loss of a middle school in Jones Oklahoma. An Oklahoma television station reports the story as follows: "Firefighters: Flaming Squirrel To Blame In Jones Wildfire, Students Moved From Elementary To High School". What happened was that the squirrel touched two power lines at the same time and caused an electrical short circuit. The flaming squirrel fell to the ground and I assume that it lit dry brush, igniting the school. The fire also destroyed a few trailers. Luckily, nobody but the squirrel was injured.

Interestingly, squirrel related fires are not uncommon. To determine this, I Googled the phrase "squirrel causes fire" and received results of several recent fires attributed to self immolation among squirrels. Not only that, the phenomenon seems to be quite universal within the states and in England. It even appears on a story in "This American Life" (check around minute 19 to hear a story about a cop trying to catch a flaming squirrel). Apparently, the squirrels can chew through power lines, in houses, cars, or high voltage wires causing electrical outages, and accidentally starting fires.

King Cake for Martin Luther King Day.

2009-01-19T16:55:00.004-06:00

Yesterday I made my first King Cake of the Carnival season. Carnival season is already underway, and a list of the various parades that can be seen in the New Orleans area can be found here. Festivities have already begun, and Mardi Gras itself is on February 24th. I used a recipe from the Times Picayune Cooking Up a Storm cookbook, which, as you can see, produced a monstrously large king cake. I have not yet sampled the final product, but I have high hopes based on the taste of the dough. A recipe similar to the one I used can be found here.

Arts enjoyment weekend

2009-01-19T07:20:00.011-06:00

Colin and I just had a fabulous weekend. On Friday, we went to the "American Routes 10th anniversary extravaganza" at the House of Blues. For those of you who do not know, American Routes is a radio show which plays music and interviews artists in from the genres of jazz, blues, folk music, Cajun, zydeco, and more. A while back, we were listening as we always do to the Sunday night American Routes broadcast and were quite pleased to hear that to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the show a live music concert would be held at the New Orleans House of Blues. So we decided to buy tickets and attend. The show was amazing, and featured the following artists:

Dr. Micheal White and the Original Liberty Jazz Band
Feufollet
Deacon John and the Ivories
Al 'Carnival Time' Johnson
Topsy Chapman
Trombone Shorty

Every performer was amazing, but I think I enjoyed Dr. Micheal White and the Liberty Jazz band, Al 'Carnival Time' Johnson, and Trombone Shorty the best. Really it was an amazing show, and lucky for you it will be broadcast on American Routes on February 18th. Even if you do not get the show on your local NPR affiliate, the American Routes website has a brand spanking new digital archive that you can use to hear the program anytime after it airs on February 18th.

Then on Saturday, Colin and I headed out to see as much of the Prospect 1 Art Exhibit as we could before it closed on Sunday. For those of you that do not know, Prospect 1 was was an international art exhibit set in various locations in the city of New Orleans (from museums and galleries to flooded out buildings in the 9th ward) . All the exhibits were free, and there was a shuttle that would take you around to the 12 venues officially featured in the show. In addition, numerous galleries and smaller exhibit spaces featured the work of local artists as a complement to the official show. Colin and I only were able to visit some of the various official sites, but the quality of the artwork we were able to see was truly amazing. Some of the pieces did not lend themselves to photography, and others I took pictures of but they did not capture the whole effect of the work. Here are some of the works I was able to capture:

Each of the tare weights is the exact mass and volume of one of the people in the artist's family (pictured). Each weight is labeled with the person it represents: "father," "mother," etc. There is a diagram on the wall illustrating the process; the piece in the photo to the left is a visual representation of the purpose of the weights.

These are wall murals in a flooded house in the 9th ward. The murals show Louisiana's bayous. They are wall-to-ceiling, and intricately detailed, showing wetland wildlife. It was surreal to see these murals inside a house that became flooded in part due to the loss of coastal ecosystems.

This is the ark, one of the most well-publicized pieces of the biennial. It is made of plywood sheets gathered from wreckage in the 9th ward, pieced together to form a boat.

This sign is self-explanatory. It was part of an exhibit in a police station, and is made from welded metal.

This is a chair made for two people. You can rock back and forth with your partner. It is surprisingly comfortable, as well as stylish. It was in the Charles J. Colton School, which has been recommissioned into artist studios. While we were there, there were artists working in the machine shop, crafting non-Prospect 1 pieces.

These pieces was also at the school, and were part of an installation of five or six similar pieces made of concrete with inset LED counters. There were 1400 counters total, representing the number of people killed in Katrina and the subsequent flooding.

This piece was in the Battleground Baptist Church in the 9th ward. The diamond structure is made of rusted gym equipment from 9th ward homes, and has been welded together. There are mirrored walls surrounding the piece, and an audio recording of Martin Luther King spliced with electronic music was playing. That sounds strange, but the whole piece was actually quite moving.

This painting showed the paths of Rita, Katrina, and Ivan. In each state, there are mixed media pieces depicting things that can be found in that state. Specifically, see the fire ant in Florida, the heart of Dixie in Tennessee, and the various cut-outs of Jesus throughout.

Home!

2009-01-11T21:30:00.008-06:00

We have safely returned from our winter vacation. We had the good fortune to go both to Kauai and California, and we were able to spend time with both of our families. While we were gone, Hodag tried to make a break for freedom (through the fireplace of all escape routes!!) but was luckily recaptured by our intrepid cat sitter, who found him a few blocks from our house. Both cats are now safe and sound, and seem thrilled that we are back to snuggle and entertain them.

Spring semester classes start tomorrow, and Colin will be taking Quantum mechanics, Electricity and Magnetism, Computational Physics and probably sitting in on a class on General Relativity. I on the other hand, will soon be starting my required internship to complete my masters degree. Once I have logged all the hours, and written a report about the experience, I can receive my MSPH in parasitology.

But, before we get started on the new semester, here are some photos from our trip to Hawaii.

Colin, enjoying a tropical beverage.

A sunset from the porch of my parents hotel room.

Aerial roots hanging over a cave on the North shore of Kauai.

A photo of Colin at the Kilauea Light House,
an excellent place to bird watch.

A Nene Goose, the endangered state bird of Hawaii.

A Monk Seal, or, translated from the Hawaiian,
"the dog that runs through rough waters".

A Moa, or feral chicken.
These are all over Kauai, and in places on the other Hawaiian islands.

A Marine toad that I caught in the wee hours of the morning,
during my jet lagged phase of vacation.

More Snow!

2008-12-14T22:03:00.002-06:00

Here are some more photos from our bizarre weather day. Just for some background, the last time New Orleans saw snow was on Christmas day 2004, and before that, it was 1989. This is the earliest major recorded snowfall in New Orleans ever. People were going pretty crazy here, calling family and friends and standing outside in the snow looking as confused as if the four horsemen of the apocalypse had arrived.

I also heartily recommend looking at the amazing footage assembled by the Times Picayune here, WDSU here, and the BBC (we're international, baby!) here.

Oh, in case anyone is wondering, it is currently 64 degrees at 10:03 pm.

A neighbors palm tree, covered in snow.

Our house and front yard that morning.

Streetcar!

More streetcar!

A shotgun house in the snow.

Friday Cat Blogging: Finals Edition

2008-12-12T22:03:00.003-06:00

Because of finals, we almost forgot about Friday cat blogging. This week I present a new spin on a relatively regular occurance. I often make tuna noodle casserole. Both cats, it turns out, love to drink the tuna water. It's just like Calvin and Hobbes: they hear me opening the tuna can, and come trotting in expecting a treat.

Annie is usually more strategically located when this happens, so she gets the tuna water first. This time, however, Hodag was lucky, clever, and bold. I was collecting all the tuna water together in a bowl, and then was going to set it on the ground for the cats, but Hodag jumped up onto the counter to start drinking his fill:

Annie was stuck on the ground, to frail to jump that high. She looked very indignant, seeming to say, "Meep! Why must I be so frail? Hodag, you cheated."

But not to worry; Annie did get her tuna water in the end.

SNOW!!!

2008-12-11T20:45:00.004-06:00

Let me say that again: SNOW!!! Yes, it snowed this morning. In New Orleans.

Nora had to fetch the van from the shop in Jefferson (DON'T ASK -- it is a long tale of woe). The folks at the shop were about to close for the day when Nora showed up. They were so impressed with her for showing up that they gave her a free t-shirt.

The shop is on a road called Shrewsbury. This is the bar at the corner where Shrewsbury runs into the river. You can even see the river levee covered in a thin layer of snow.

Meanwhile, back at home, Trucky says, "This is not what I signed up for. I thought I was getting a nice retirement in a warm climate. I thought you people were done torturing me with the snow. Sigh."

After returning home safely, Nora braved the snow again to get some photos from the neighborhood. This is a Sno Ball shop somewhere near us (Plum St Snowball maybe? That's pretty near us).

Nora also got a nice photo of the streetcar on Carrollton.

I biked to campus through the worst of the storm, which was fantastic. Would you believe that in six years in Chicago, not once did I bicycle in the snow? Well I got to this morning. But before I left, I took a photo of our newly planted cypress tree, Tirza, and the rest of the front yard.

When I got to campus, this was the view outside my office window. I'm on the fifth floor, so I get to see the tops of all the trees.

Tornado warning!

2008-12-09T18:17:00.004-06:00

Auntie Em, Auntie Em!

Just in case you were curious, the weather here has been amazing, at least in comparison to Chicago weather this year. However, tonight and tomorrow, most of Louisiana is under a tornado watch. Sadly, Orleans parish is not threatened, which means that I do not get to ride my bike around in a grey dress and black pill box hat, singing "Doot da doot da do do, doot da doot da do do do!"

Thanksgiving menu

2008-12-05T08:20:00.004-06:00

Once again, Colin and I tried to create a thanksgiving menu that reflected both New Orleans and Southern flavors. We think we did pretty well, as everyone ate a lot and seemed to have a good time.

This was our thanksgiving menu this year:

Oysters Rockefeller
Shrimp with Remoulade sauce

Mama Kims Biscuits, similar recipe to this one
Mashed Sweet potatoes with Satusma juice and slices
Caribbean Roasted Vegetables
Turkey with Jalapeno Cornbread Stuffing
Corn and Jalapeno relish, similar recipe to this one
Cabernet Cranberry Sauce

Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie

In addition, our guests brought a blue cheese salad and a pecan pie. (Now you all know how I gained five pounds this holiday season. )

Igor and Kathrine

2008-11-21T20:55:00.004-06:00

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

2008-11-21T20:27:00.005-06:00

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!

2008-11-19T20:35:00.002-06:00

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

2008-11-14T23:47:00.009-06:00

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

2008-11-14T19:17:00.000-06:00

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

2008-11-12T21:49:00.003-06:00

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.

Friday cat blogging

2008-10-24T19:44:00.003-05:00

Sadly, yet again no photos of Annie, as she remains an elusive model for the camera. I did, however, manage to catch a snapshot of Colin hanging out in a box with Hodag.

Of pimm's cup and banksy's

2008-10-24T18:30:00.000-05:00

So, on Tuesday, Colin and I attended a surprise engagement shower for my public health buddy Sammy. Her roommates, Joe and Meroe, planned the whole thing quite carefully, and the bride and groom to-be had no idea we were all lurking in the backyard ready to pounce. At the appointed moment the unsuspecting victims were lured outside and into the festivities. After that, all the guests spent a pleasant evening hanging out in the garden, eating appetizers and drinking pimm's cups. The weather was lovely, the setting pleasant, and the company congenial. the garden had been decorated with tea lights in paper bags, and looked quite romantic. The only thing that could have possibly spoiled anyone's evening was the fact that the neighborhood cats tried to pounce on us. (The Marigny is FULL of cats, and these particular cats had ringworm). Colin and I of course enjoyed shooing the kittens away from the food, so we had a great time.

I was also pleased to continue to expand my repertoire of alcoholic beverages by sampling the Pimm's cup. The particular recipe we imbibed was a mix of the Napoleon house Pimm's cup and the Town hall Pimm's cup with slight alterations. (1 part Pimm's No.1, 2 to 3 parts ginger ale and garnished with a cucumber slice). It turned out quite tasty, but still carried a punch.

Colin and I were also able to view wonderful outdoor art on Tuesday evening, quite by chance. Recently, the Times Picayune reported that several outdoor paintings had appeared across the city, and were being attributed to the graffiti artist Banksy. (You can see photos of the New Orleans instillation here ). We had both read the article, and found the included photos of the street paintings profound, inspiring both joy and sadness. On the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Banksy was able to capture some of the truly emblematic symbols of the hurricane while provoking new thoughts on the tragedy. His work was so politically astute, so relevant, and perhaps best of all, exceedingly local. For example, one of his paintings features the grey ghost, a New Orleans figure (in) famous for removing graffiti. Other very local insights include a walking jazz band wearing gas masks, and a small child flying a refrigerator kite. (The refrigerator, with its rotting food smell, was one of the most visceral results of Katrina). We were able to veiw one of the city's Banksy's while we were driving around the Marigny, looking for the address where the surprise engagement party was being held. While trying to find a one way street going the correct direction, I saw a Bansky and shouted out to Colin to stop and let me out to take a photo. It was the painting of a young girl using an umbrella to fend off the coming storm, only to be soaked by the umbrella itself. Some have suggested that the umbrella is a metaphor for the levee system, designed to provide protection, but which ultimately was a leaky umbrella itself.

After the party I convinced Colin to take a small detour on our way home to see the other Banksy I had accidentally run into a few days earlier. This one I had encountered while walking from the downtown Tulane campus to the LSU's Health Sciences Center for an appointment. I had just turned a corner on my route, when I walked past an abandoned building with a painting of Lincoln with a granny cart on it. I believe that this painting is supposed to represent the displacement and homelessness that many New Orleans residents have faced as a result of Katrina.

We Love the BBC

2008-10-23T21:29:00.003-05:00

Why do we love the BBC this week? Because they publish articles with the words 'Fart gas' in the title. Just like that, with the standard BBC scare quotes.

Hydrogen sulfide causes farts to smell bad. Apparently, it also causes blood vessels to relax, lowering blood pressure. At least in mice.

Friday Cat Blogging

2008-10-17T20:56:00.002-05:00

Daddy is so weird. This Friday Cat Blogging thing was his idea, and now he just leaves it for mommy to do. Mommy says that he should do it this week, because he doesn't do anything else. But he doesn't have any cute pictures of me, so I had to go find an old picture on his computer, so I can do Friday Cat Blogging for him. Here is me, enjoying the window between my room and my porch.

I'm still annoyed at Annie. She comes into my room while I'm trying to snuggle with mommy and daddy. At least now they ignore her while they are snuggling me.But I'm still annoyed at her, so no pictures of her this week.

Well, I know what I want for my birthday

2008-10-11T07:18:00.005-05:00

So, it was Vladimir Putin's birthday yesterday, and guess what he got? A rare Manchurian tiger cub. He plans on donating her to a zoo or a wildlife preserve, which is good, since there are only about 400 of these cats left in the wild. Also, this species of tiger becomes huge when full grown, around 600 pounds, definitely requiring a professional staff and room to romp. Putin seems to be quite pleased with the cub, and he called journalists to his house after midnight to show off his new birthday gift. Here are some photos showing the cub, and you can also watch a video here, in which you can hear her purr.

Putin is thinking of naming the cub
Mashenka or Milashka.

Hmmm that journalist looks tasty.

The money shot.
That is one cute tiger cub.

Friday cat blogging, Fern edition.

2008-10-10T19:34:00.003-05:00

Ahhh, fall in New Orleans. The humidity has finally broken, and a delightful breeze has picked up to tame the warm weather. Since it has been so lovely, the cats have been lounging on the porch, often sleeping under the shade of my fern. I was able to catch Hodag hiding under the foliage, but when I tried to capture Annie, she got up from under it, and Hodag took her place.

Hodag being a jungle cat.

Annie soaking up some sun, while Hodag hides behind the fern
(look closely, and you will see him)

Eruv

2008-10-06T20:55:00.006-05:00

This weekend the Times Picayune ran a story about how the Orthodox Jews in Metairie (1) have just established an eruv.

I find this fascinating and funny for a number of reasons.

First the funny. It turns out that we have met the family that lead the charge to establish the eruv. Rabbi Uri and his wife and children often attend the Jewish newcomer events in New Orleans that Colin and I go to. They go to make sure that any interested Jews know that there is an orthodox synagogue in Metairie. (You can see photos of them, and read about their congregation, Beth Israel, here). The last time I spoke with them was at a Zephyr's AAA baseball game, when I was drinking a beer and eating a kosher hot dog. I was chatting with Uri, while Daliah ran around after the two boys, who seemed to be really enjoying the festivities. In fact, when Colin and I were trying to find Zephyr Field, Colin spotted a mini-van and said, "Oh, we must be getting close, I see 'The Jews' ". I had no idea what he was talking about, because I could only see the back of a beige minivan, so I chided him about how not ALL minivan drivers were Jews. He replied that he could see the people inside (which I could not from my seat) and it was Uri and his family. Then we both laughed.

Next, the fascinating. The first is that it is nice to see this little community of orthodox Jews rebuild their lives after Katrina. Large portions of Jefferson parish flooded after the levee breaches, and this particular synagogue was completely ruined. Seven Torahs and hundreds of old holy books were destroyed by water. All the other Torahs' in New Orleans had been evacuated before the Hurricane. A rescue operation to save the books was attempted, but sadly all were destroyed by water and mold. They were buried according to Jewish law, which states that destroyed holy books must be buried, because they should be treated like people, rather than as mere objects. The second fascination is that this particular eruv is being established using primarily natural boundaries. Most eruv I know of are established by means of string, or an arrangement of telephone lines, to denote the communal boundaries of a "house". This is done so that orthodox Jews can carry items outside of their homes and not be breaking the prohibition against work on the Sabbath. (Strictly speaking, to carry any item outside the home is considered work). The only natural boundaries I have ever heard of being used before to create an eruv were in Manhattan, where sea walls are used to create walls for the "house". In New Orleans, of course, we use levees and canal walls to mark our neighborhoods, and our eruvs. The Metairie eruv uses canal walls, levees, a highway sound barrier as well as the expected telephone wires to create a community "house". I think I find the concept of an eruv made of levees just inherently funny. I mean, the levees we have cannot protect us from flooding, so who says they make a decent "house"? Well, apparently, the rabbinical council of New Jersey, that's who!

(1) Metairie, it's safe here.

Post-Gustav Photos

2008-10-04T19:48:00.003-05:00

Sorry that I haven't posted in awhile. I just dug up a couple of photos that I took the morning after we returned from the Gustav evacuation. As I said earlier, the only indication that our house had been hit by a hurricane was the tree debris scattered all around the back yard. Well, here it is:

The first photo will also serve as a "before" shot, to indicate all the weeds that had overrun the back yard before we moved it. When I saw that photo just now, I was very impressed with us for how much better it looks in just one month.

Friday cat blogging, Politics addition!

2008-09-26T17:28:00.005-05:00

Now, I know that I swore I would never mention politics on this blog (because I feel that far to many people use their blogs as their own little HTML soapbox), but I have to mention politics just this one time. Today I conducted a little experiment, the results of which you can see in photo format below. I decided to determine if our cats were democrats or republicans. Therefore I placed in front of them a stimuli that could be interpreted as positive or negative, depending on your political affiliation. The chosen stimulus was 'Lefty' a beanie baby in the shape of a donkey.

I tested Annie and Hodag with this stimulus to determine their political leanings.

As you can see, Annie at first investigated the stimulus, and then promptly got up and left it. She remained uninterested in the stimulus despite repeated presentations.
Conclusion: Annie is a Republican.

Now we see Hodag's response to the stimulus. He investigated it and then proceeded to mark it, a universal sign of cat affection. Conclusion: Hodag is a Democrat.

Oh, also as Kevin Drum reports the Hemmingway cats have resumed their rightful place on Hemingway's property in the Florida Keys.

Warning:This post contains profanity!

2008-09-22T20:28:00.005-05:00

So a few weeks ago, when Gustav was still an incoming hurricane, and Mame was visiting, I had a brilliant idea.

It was when we were putting up plywood over our windows. Basically, this involved either one or two of us lifting a 4 foot by 8 foot half inch thick plywood sheet and holding it up while the last person screwed the sheet into the window frame with a drill. I must admit that I had no idea how heavy and awkward outdoor grade plywood was before that afternoon. To make the time pass more smoothly, we mixed up a pitcher of Hurricanes. It was when we were on the last piece of plywood, and I had been drinking all day when it hit me.

If New Orleans and our house survived this storm, we would need to celebrate. My plan was to host a huge barbecue. We would invite everyone we knew, grill a ton of sausages and burgers, and for dessert, serve sheet cake. The sheet cake was in fact what the flash of brilliance was all about, because suddenly, as if it was before my very eyes, I could see a sheet cake emblazoned with the phrase "Fuck off Gustav".

Fast forward to this weekend. Colin and I hosted a huge housewarming BBQ party, we grilled meat all day, and for dessert I got my very special cake. Just in case you were wondering, it turns out that the Rouses on Tchoupitoulas will put whatever profanity you want on a cake, you just have to ask nicely. Although, I will admit that I got a funny reaction from both the cake decorating lady "you sure you want that on a cake?" and an odd look from the check out lady.

I think it came out beautifully.

The BBQ was a smashing success. We had a great time giving people tours of the house, and everyone seemed to enjoy the food, the company and the surroundings. Perhaps best of all, everybody loved the cake.

Friday cat blogging

2008-09-20T07:38:00.008-05:00

Recently the weather has been lovely. I do not know if it is early fall, or only a temporary respite of relative cool, but it has been great. Due to the nice weather we have been using no air conditioning and keeping the windows open, including the window that leads to the second floor Hodag porch. Both cats have been taking advantage of the lovely weather to explore these new sitting places.

Hodag on the porch.

Annie exploring a window in the office.

Thank you Wells Fargo

2008-09-17T21:49:00.002-05:00

Recently, our local mortgage company transferred our mortgage to a national company, Wells Fargo. In fact this happened just around when we were moving in to the new house. Our first mortgage payment was due on the first of September, and we mailed it (ironically) just a few days before we evacuated for Gustav.

Today, I received a really amazing phone call from Wells Fargo. At first I was quite worried that somehow in the midst of the hurricane, our mortgage check had been waterlogged, or even lost. The associate assured me that my check had made it in just fine, and there were no problems.

Actually, he was just calling because Wells Fargo had heard that we had a house in what had been declared a federal disaster area. He said that Wells Fargo just wanted to make sure we were OK. He asked if if we had someplace to stay, if we had been able to return from evacuation and enter our property, and if all of the members of my family were alright. Stunned, I told him that we were "just fine, thank you". and that we were in the undamaged house at that very moment. He thanked us for our business, made sure he could not assist us in any other way, and politely ended the call.

How awesome is that? Considering all of the craziness in the lending business right now, my lender decided to take the time to call everyone on the Fema list and make sure that they were alright.

So, from the citizens of Louisiana, thank you Wells Fargo. It is a pleasure doing business with you.

Tuesday Bike Blogging: Post-Gustav Edition

2008-09-09T10:09:00.002-05:00

I don't have any photos this week, but there are a few things to report from my travels yesterday and today on the bike. The first is that New Orleans's streets are only slightly more hazardous than they were before Gustav. There is noticeably more debris in the road, but not so much that it causes major problems for bikes. That seems to be a combination of there not being very much damage to begin with, and a relatively efficient clean up effort. The other thing to report is that the farmers' market this morning was about half its normal size. The specific people that I noticed missing were the people with the Cajun meats and sausages, and the people from Plaquemines Parish with the satsumas. I hope they're all doing okay.

Re-vacuated

2008-09-07T21:54:00.000-05:00

We're home. We got back at about 8:00 last night, after an 11 hour drive. The house is just fine. It barely looks like it was just hit by a hurricane. We have not noticed any actual damage. The back yard is littered with all the smaller and less well-attached branches from the tree. We lost all the food that was in the refrigerator and freezer. There is one window in the attic that we knew was missing a pane when we moved in, and haven't had time to get fixed yet. We boarded that window up (from the inside) to prevent rain from getting in. The portion of that board facing the missing pane is noticeably water-damaged. Other than that, we haven't seen anything that requires our attention. I bought a rake and a larger outdoor push broom earlier this evening, both of which we needed to get anyway. To top it all off, the power was even on when we got home last night.

What we've seen so far of New Orleans, both in person and in the news, suggests that our experience is representative of the city as a whole. That doesn't mean that there wasn't a lot of damage, though. The central coastal of Louisiana (particularly Terrebonne and Lafouche Parishes) got the brunt of the storm, and we could see a lot of damage in Baton Rouge just driving through on the interstate last night. We didn't see any damage in Lafayette while driving through there, but we did see a huge convoy of emergency vehicles and National Guard get off the interstate near there. We heard there was a lot of damage there, and we didn't see much of the city on the way through. There were also a few levee breaches in Plaquamines Parish, downriver from New Orleans. They didn't flood anyone's home, but did cause some problems there.