an actual picture post
I mentioned in my last post that we were in New Orleans for Halloween this year. I don't take many pictures, and all I have is a cell camera, but here are a few.
What to do on Halloween day is a no-brainer when your hotel is within walking distance of the St. Louis Cemetery #1. Upkeep of these above-ground burials is up to the family. Some do better than others.
Instead of taking a tour, we wandered around with the aid of a map on my cell phone, so I don't know how long most of the statues have been missing heads and various limbs. It may be a result of the flooding.
I'm pretty sure this is vandalism or some other kind of random damage, not an escape attempt.
I was raised Catholic and am used to ghoulish religious imagery. I found it amusing that the small Protestant section of the otherwise chaotic cemetery is scrupulously neat and organized.
As we wandered around looking for Marie Leveau, we spotted a few other monuments that were also marked as if they were linked to some NOLA legend.
Offerings at Marie Leveau's supposed resting place. I leave it up to you to decide if it's the site that's questionable or the idea that she stayed put after burial.
A cat woman pays homage to the voodoo queen.
If you've never been to New Orleans, this is a typical street scene from the French Quarter, one of the bits that isn't Bourbon Street and doesn't have a fine establishment owned by Larry Flynt on each corner. Not that we avoided Bourbon Street. We spent the evening of Halloween eating in a restaurant with a view of the festivities. This suited me, as I enjoy watching people parade around in costumes much more than dressing up myself.
Mr. M admired this baby alligator during a swamp tour, during which I managed not to snap any pictures of the very impressive great blue herons lounging about.
One day, we took the St. Charles streetcar to the Garden District. We waited out a bit of rain in the bookstore where Anne Rice has the first signings for her books. I'm not a Rice fan, but as a one-time bookseller, I thought the store did a great job of merchandising their stock. After the rain stopped, we wandered around looking at the pretty houses
Another pic of the house and its amazing fence.
And here is a pic of the fence and its gate of morning glories and corn stalks.
We aren't doing a full kitchen remodel. For one thing, we're hanging on to all of the old appliances. But the cabinet and counter tops have been replaced. The new ones are not exotic, but neither do they have shelves of thin, disintegrating particleboard. Oak, which we like, is apparently not fashionable and therefore cheap(ish). The biggest deal besides having sturdy shelves is that we got rid of the horrible cabinet that hung from the soffit you can see at the top of the pic. It was constantly in the way and didn't actually add much storage space. Even if you avoided banging your head on it, the island below it was too low to work on comfortably. We now have a bigger and taller island, which more than makes up for losing the shelves that used to hang above.
Obviously, we need to paint, but before that, I'm going to have an electrician hang a light fixture from the soffit so that it illuminates the workspace. In general, the lighting in my house sucks, and that should improve the situation a bit.
Note to self: No matter how long it has been since you last messed with html do not, under any circumstances, click on the "rich text" link at any point when writing a post.
What to do on Halloween day is a no-brainer when your hotel is within walking distance of the St. Louis Cemetery #1. Upkeep of these above-ground burials is up to the family. Some do better than others.
Instead of taking a tour, we wandered around with the aid of a map on my cell phone, so I don't know how long most of the statues have been missing heads and various limbs. It may be a result of the flooding.
I'm pretty sure this is vandalism or some other kind of random damage, not an escape attempt.
I was raised Catholic and am used to ghoulish religious imagery. I found it amusing that the small Protestant section of the otherwise chaotic cemetery is scrupulously neat and organized.
As we wandered around looking for Marie Leveau, we spotted a few other monuments that were also marked as if they were linked to some NOLA legend.
Offerings at Marie Leveau's supposed resting place. I leave it up to you to decide if it's the site that's questionable or the idea that she stayed put after burial.
A cat woman pays homage to the voodoo queen.
If you've never been to New Orleans, this is a typical street scene from the French Quarter, one of the bits that isn't Bourbon Street and doesn't have a fine establishment owned by Larry Flynt on each corner. Not that we avoided Bourbon Street. We spent the evening of Halloween eating in a restaurant with a view of the festivities. This suited me, as I enjoy watching people parade around in costumes much more than dressing up myself.
Mr. M admired this baby alligator during a swamp tour, during which I managed not to snap any pictures of the very impressive great blue herons lounging about.
One day, we took the St. Charles streetcar to the Garden District. We waited out a bit of rain in the bookstore where Anne Rice has the first signings for her books. I'm not a Rice fan, but as a one-time bookseller, I thought the store did a great job of merchandising their stock. After the rain stopped, we wandered around looking at the pretty houses
Another pic of the house and its amazing fence.
And here is a pic of the fence and its gate of morning glories and corn stalks.
We aren't doing a full kitchen remodel. For one thing, we're hanging on to all of the old appliances. But the cabinet and counter tops have been replaced. The new ones are not exotic, but neither do they have shelves of thin, disintegrating particleboard. Oak, which we like, is apparently not fashionable and therefore cheap(ish). The biggest deal besides having sturdy shelves is that we got rid of the horrible cabinet that hung from the soffit you can see at the top of the pic. It was constantly in the way and didn't actually add much storage space. Even if you avoided banging your head on it, the island below it was too low to work on comfortably. We now have a bigger and taller island, which more than makes up for losing the shelves that used to hang above.
Obviously, we need to paint, but before that, I'm going to have an electrician hang a light fixture from the soffit so that it illuminates the workspace. In general, the lighting in my house sucks, and that should improve the situation a bit.
Note to self: No matter how long it has been since you last messed with html do not, under any circumstances, click on the "rich text" link at any point when writing a post.