New Orleans, you're in my prayers.

Last July I took my 13 year old cousin Holly to New Orleans for a 2 day karate tournament.
Since I had never been to New Orleans and Holly had never been outside of the state of California I decided to make a vacation out of it and spend a whole week there.
We stayed on Canal Street, walked the French Quarter and the French Market, toured the Garden District, took a dinner jazz cruise on the Mississippi, went to the Audobon Aquarium, visited the Laura Plantation and did a swamp tour, and every night we would walk from our hotel to Cafe du Monde for beignets and cafe au lait and watch/listen to the street performers. Considering I had a 13 year old with me who was nervous because she'd never been outside of California or away from her mother before, I didn't get to experience the nightlife, but I enjoyed the trip enormously.
As countless others have done before me, i fell in love with The Big Easy. I vowed to come back with friends, without a child where I could walk down Bourbon Street and enjoy the night life, I vowed to come back for Mardi Gras one day, considered what it would be like to honeymoon there if I ever get married and thought about spending my 30th birthday there next year.
One day I will return to New Orleans to enjoy the hospitality and vivaciousness that make the city as beautiful as it is. Until then, New Orleans, Biloxi and everywhere affected by Katrina, you are in my prayers.

My birthday, thus far...

Today is my 29th birthday, and so far it has been a good one.
First, yesterday I came home to find this in my driveway...


I knew that there was a peacock running around the neighborhood, but I'd never been able to get close enough to get a photo of it.
Then, this was in the mail for me....

WOOOO HOOOO!!!! A Crochet Dude pattern!! YAY!!!
So, since I took today off for my birthday did I go out with friends, see a movie, visit the local rose gardens? NO! I HAD TO GET YARN FOR THE VEST!!!
I spent my birthday going to a couple of local yarn shops to find yarns for the vest and further increase my stash.
First stop, The Fuzzy Penguin in Sacramento, where I got some crochet patterns as well as cross stitch patterns.
First, a pattern book for crocheted scarves. i'm not sure which one I'll make first, there are some really cute scarves in there.

Then, another crochet pattern book of "Purses for Sassy Girls". I'm thinking this will make a cute Christmas present for my little 5 year old cousin Janae. She is DEFINITELY sassy.

I'm leaning towards making her the bunny purse, but I'm not sure.

I also found a couple of Celtic knot patterns. I'm not sure what I'll do with these, I just love celtic knot designs though, so I had to get them.

And a fish pattern - this will go GREAT in my moms bathroom.

I FINALLY found some yarn....
First, I've been looking for some Red Heart Casual Cott'n, but EVERYWHERE I went didn't have it. I found it at Beverly's in Fair Oaks and got this great red colorway...

And I found the yarn I'm going to use for The Crochet Dudes Wooly Vest. A creamy white with a pink & cream novelty yarn for the trim. I'm thinking this will be for my aunts christmas gift...

But, my birthday is not over yet. My cousin Erin and her husband Jeremy are taking the train up this evening where I'll pick them up downtown and we'll be going to dinner and then hitting our favorite Brit pub here in Sacramento. More photos tomorrow after I've recovered...

I've been tagged.....

Idiosyncrasy- a structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group. Write down 5 of yours then tag 5 people if you like.
1. I cannot use a public bathroom unless it is practically a biological emergency. The thought of sitting where unwashed masses have sat before me.... I just can not do it.
2. I'm so addicted to coffee that I can tell you where darn near every single Starbucks is between Sacramento & San Francisco on Interstate 80 - I also know which ones have drive throughs & which dont.
3. I never spend my change - only bills & then dump the change in the bottom of my purse. Thats how I end up with a purse that weighs 10 lbs. In the past I've dumped the change from my purse into a jar - by doing this I partially funded a trip to New Orleans last year.
4. At work, I have to have the programs & applications I use daily in a certain order on my toolbar. If an application shuts down unexpectedly, I have to close them all out & restart in the designated order.
5. Although my entire life is chaos - messy car, messy house, etc... all of the books on my bookshelf have to be facing in the same direction so that you can read the titles on the spine when you tilt your head to the right.

I'll have to think about who to tag next.....

My ears are still burning.

Last night my grandmother repeated to me the conversation that she'd had with my 19 year old sister that morning.

Grandma - You know what next friday is, don't you?
Lil' Sis - uhhhhhhh..... I dunno. Whut?
G - Its your sisters birthday!
LS - serious?
G - yes.
LS - how old is she?
G - She'll be 29
LS - For real?
G - yes.
LS - Damn. She better hurry up and get married.

EFFING BRAT!

It's all random...

Not much is going on. Just some random photos.
First, last week a cooworker moved my purse off the table in the breakroom and pointed out that it is SO HEAVY and asked what the hell I was carrying around in it. So, we cleaned out my purse....
i have a habit that when i stop to et a pack of cigarettes, or a soda out of the vending machine, I always use bills and then drop the loose change into my purse and forget all about it.....

note the pepsi can for scale.












heres the change, counted & neatly stacked....














thats $7.98 in change that I've been carrying around in my purse. I now have a sufficient supply for my daily breakfast of cheetos & whatever soda is available for a while.

Sunday I helped my cousin Erin & her husband Jeremy move to San Francisco. They had to give away their cats since their new building doesnt allow pets, but the night before the move, I took some photos.....

heres Hugo - he's a total sweetie.









this is Mona. She's a little... odd. But, thats what I love about her. She mothers everyone, including humans. When she feels that my hair is not straight enough, or flat enough, or is a little wind blown, she'll take it upon herself to groom me. When you're passed out drunk on your cousins couch its slightly alarming to be woken up by her cat pulling your hair through her teeth to try to smooth it down. Alarming at first, but completely endearing over time.

As I said, I helped E&J move to SF this weekend. They are on the 16th floor of their building and have wonderful views. My photo ops were limited because of boxes, but this is the look down to the street from their kitchen window...















and here is the view directly out their kitchen window.













out their living room window...













leaning out their kitchen window....













here's the lovely couple in their apartment just after everything was moved in, but not yet unpacked.

Erin

Tomorrow my cousin Erin & her husband Jeremy are moving to San Francisco so that Erin can begin law school at UC Hastings.
While I am so excited for Erin, and proud of her for getting into a competitive school, I am very sad that she'll be moving.
While Erin and I are cousins, we're just a year apart and were raised together like sisters and spent a lot of time with our grandparents and great-grandparents. When I was 5 and Erin was 6, her parents moved to Fairfield which is about an hour away. We still saw each other every weekend. I always looked forward to the weekends so that I could see Erin and we could play. As we got older we didnt really play anymore but I still looked forward to the weekends when we would get together and experiment with makeup, our hair, and talk about boys. When Erin first went away to college at USC it was too far away to see her every weekend, but I looked forward to the care packages I would send every couple of weeks and the letters I would get in return.
6 years ago, when Erin and Jeremy married I was so honored to be the maid of honor at their wedding. To, walk up to the altar with them was an amazing honor. At the time, they both lived in Monterey and again I looked forward to visiting them on the weekends. A year later I was ecstatic when they relocated to Sacramento - we had not lived in the same town for almost 20 years.
Erin - I'm going to miss Friday nights dinner & movie, meeting at the pub for a beer or two when one of us have had a shitty day, rushing over to your apartment for lunch when I've forgotten my wallet at home. Once again, I'll be looking forward to the weekends when I come to visit you and J in the city. While I'm sad that you're leaving Sacramento, I'm so happy for you and proud of everything that you've done and everything that you'll become. I'm thankful that I have you as my best friend, sister, and cousin all in one.