qr goodness

 

Be impressed?

Be very impressed! :-)

the littlest burrito

Call him a little burrito. Or maybe an empanada. 

Either way he's delectably cute and yummy. 

Yummy for snuggles ... 

and that's what I finally got to do with the cutest new nephew in the family!

*happy dances!*

(Sorry for the quirky angle on this one.)

(I was trying to get those fists and feet in the photo and got a little crazy.)  

(And it was also the cell phone camera in low light which doesn't help.) 

(But you get the idea, right?)

Meet Mateo! You saw his cute toes a few posts ago. 

He slept through most of his first real introduction to me, 

Crazy Aunt Jess, 

but he did stretch and yawn and every once in a while. 

Until next time, little Mateo!

nom nom nola

I wanted to get to this cute little restaurant in NOLA last week but their hours didn't mesh with my availability. A few conference folks found their way there and said it was great, although none mentioned a bacon sundae. Check it out: 

Our “Notorious” Bacon Sundae
Pecan praline ice cream with a creamy bacon caramel sauce 
carrying a bit of both Pink Himalayan & Black Lava Salts, 
& micro-planed Nueske’s Applewood Bacon, 
layered with whipped cream, of course! $8

Forget the bread pudding with warm rum sauce and get me a bacon sundae pronto!

Oh wow. Click here, download the menus and prepare to be amazed. There are so many creative combinations and taste sensations just waiting to explode on the palate.

Green Goddess is definitely going on The List for the next visit to Nawlins. :-)

nawlins

Nawlins. New Orleans. NOLA. It's all the same thing - one crazy city with 24/7 liquor and lots of music!

It's also the place where I spent the majority of the week.

I was there for a conference. 

Honest and fer real!
(Come on, peeps! My mom reads this blog. It was a conference. Truly!)

The hotel was at the corner of Bourbon and Canal Streets in the French Quarter. 

These dudes were on the corner of Bourbon Street every afternoon by 4pm and sometimes stayed until after midnight. I couldn't see them from my hotel window, but boy could we hear them! They were very loud in tune rockin' jazzy obnoxiously fun exuberant, not to mention a little yeast-like in the fact the group would suddenly expand its members and instruments for no apparent reason.  

I should have turned around and gotten a picture of the crowd.
They were a hoot, too. 

But I did get a picture of this: 

That's a cat sleeping in the gallery window. 

The print behind him was one of my favorites in the Royal Street galleries.

Other French Quarter sights: 

Thanks for throwing the beads my way, peeps on the orange and pink float!

I escaped the French Quarter late one afternoon and took the streetcar 

down (up? over?) to Tulane. 

Even the Tulane trees had beads hanging in them! 

I call these the "beaded trees." 

There are lots of them along the "street side" of St. Charles Street.

And really, what trip to NOLA would be complete 

without a stop at Cafe Du Monde for beignets?

Mmmm! I can still taste the sugar... 

Before catching a cab to the airport for the trip home we wandered up to Antoine's for lunch. 

Who could resist the $0.25 martinis? 

Not us! They were seriously yummy. 

(That's my melon martini above.) 

At first we thought it would be a tiny taste, a sip of a martini. 

When the beverages came to the table we were pleasantly surprised. 

And $0.75 later we were quite fuzzy! 

 VERY fuzzy! Hee hee! 

Earlier in the week we had dinner at NOLA, one of Emeril's restaurants. 

It was so super yummy that I forgot to whip out the cell phone 

and snap photos of our delectable meal. 

Trust me when I say it was good, though.

Go! Get thee to Nola's!

Preservation Hall was also one of our stops. 

We had a great time listening to the St. Peter Street Playboys 

(you can find them on iTunes) (I think)

and then wandering back down Royal Street 

and peeking in gallery and antique shop windows. 

But not before picking up one of these: 

Bread pudding with a warm rum sauce that tasted like a kicked-up maple syrup. 

Swoon! 

(Notice that I didn't pick up alcohol, but a dessert?!) 

Did I see Jackson Square? Yes, but not in the daylight. 

Did I get out of the French Quarter? Yes, but not for long. 

Did I get drunk? Wellllllllll ... does tipsy count? 

Was it a fun trip? YOU BETCHA! 

But I learned a lot at the conference, too. *wink*

in remembrance

Here is how I chose to honor the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001:

I flew. 

Commercial. 

What better way to say, "nanny nanny boo boo," right? 

Security was a little tighter than usual at the airport today,
but the lines moved right along and not a soul complained.  

When we touched down it was clear that we can only win if we keep moving. 

If planes keep flying. If life goes on. If we don't let them get the best of us.  

And if we continue to have the freedom to paint jets to look like an orca.

updatey-doo

Either I make a practice of hanging at the hospital nursery and taking pictures of bambinos or there's a new cutie patootie nephew in the pink turkey world. 

I'll let you decide.

:-) 

birt-day

Happy birthday to my favorite Turkey! He turned 17 Friday and, as usual, I couldn't let a milestone pass without marking it appropriately.

Cue the window markers.

I made him drive everywhere and people were waving and honking and shouting, "happy birthday!"  It was super cool.

But let's take another look at the side window, mkay?

There. See it? My inaugural experience with window paint and I misspelled "birthday!"  *smh* What's super funny about this is I was painting the windows in the parking lot of the party store and people were walking by and commenting, giggling at my efforts. Little did I know they were giggling at my misspelling! Yikes!

I quickly tried to add the missing "h" and was [barely] able to squeeze it between the "t" and the "d." Barely.  It seems the window paints dry quickly, making the edits even tougher.

Misspelling or not, I'd just like to say ...

Happy 17th Birt-day to my Turkey!

the piano guys

It's been a while -- a loooooong while -- since I've posted about my piano obsession. (In case you didn't already know, I want a piano. Want. Want. Want. Waaaaaa-nt! It's like baby hormones -- there's no stopping the want.)

These guys don't help:




Aren't they cute? Love Jon's butt wiggle. Dancing in the wheelchair. And the conga line was a hoot!

Here's another that's just super sweet:





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