Currently browsing: New Orleans

Humpday Hilarities

Note: There will likely be no Humpday Hilarities next week as I’ll be on vacation!

This funny bit is courtesy of my mother:

The Truth

He’d been playing outside with the other kids for a while when he came into the house and asked, “Grandma, what’s that thing called when two people sleep in the same room and one is on top of the other?”

She was a little taken aback, but she decided to just tell him the truth. “It’s called ‘sexual intercourse’, darling”.

Little Tony just said, “Oh, OK,” and went back outside to play with the other kids.

A few minutes later he came back in and said angrily, “Grandma, it isn’t called ‘sexual intercourse.’ It’s called ‘bunk beds’, and Jimmy’s mom wants to talk to you!”

This one came from my mother-in-law:

Lost Churches of Louisiana

One of the local television stations in South Louisiana aired an interview with a woman from New Orleans . The interviewer was a woman from a Boston affiliate. She asked the New Orleans woman how such total and complete devastation of the churches in the area had affected their lives.

Without hesitation, the woman replied, “I don’t know about all those other people, but we haven’t gone to Churches in years. We gits all our chicken from Popeye’s.”

The look on the interviewer’s face was priceless.

You say Goodbye, I say Hello

I’ve recently (and finally) abandoned a service I’d become very fond of … HelloTxt. The guys who run it have been great, always welcomed feedback, and were helpful when bugs were reported, but it did not have availability of posting to other services of which I’m a member, and to use their SMS gateway, I would’ve had to incur some international charges.

The final straw was when I discovered that my tweets from NOLA were never posted. Even worse, when I tried using their mobile site from my cell last weekend, Opera Mini would hang or crash, and at one point I received an error message. Put simply: I’d had enough.

Chrispian at Mobility Hacks (formerly Twitter Hacks) recommended Ping.fm to me. I had checked out this service before, but didn’t sign up (no beta key). Having been hooked up with a fresh beta key and several recommendations of their service, I registered at Ping and “tested their tools” … everything came through quickly.

So far, so good … I’m really pleased with them!

If’n any of you are interested in giving Ping.fm a try, here’s the latest beta code: pingadactyl

Enjoy!

WordPress updated

It’s over with, and it wasn’t too painful. At least I remembered to update my WP-Config this time.

That said, I’ve been hearing horror stories from others who’ve tried to upgrade, so I guess I’m counting myself lucky. So far I’ve updated this site and BYKYC. I’ll most likely be doing the others later this week (or whenever time allows).

My darling Jim passed this gem to me and I know there are a couple readers here who’ve asked me if I knew of such a thing: WordPress Automatic Upgrade. The website says it’s compatible with the latest version of WP, but I have not yet had a chance to try it out myself. (may do so on a less ‘popular’ site, LOL!)

An update on things …

New Orleans was fun, but like all vacations it wasn’t long enough. Work has been absolute Hell lately, and the insurance company that we’ve been trying to settle with (remember my wreck, going on 2 months ago?) is giving us the run-around, so I’m stressing a bit more than usual.

To those who’ve asked about the Lunarpages WordPress Theme Design contest, no I didn’t win anything. But I am VERY grateful to those who voted for me! There’s been some speculation as to how the deciding votes (LP staff?) really came out, but in all honesty I’m just happy being nominated … for now. ;P

Speaking of theme designs, I’ve submitted a handful of mine to the new WordPress Theme Directory. So hopefully those will show up soon.

SA on the slow track …

I feel pretty bad that I haven’t gotten as much done on my Soldiers’ Angels stuff as I’d hoped. I am beginning to think that maybe I’ve bitten off more than I can chew in helping the warehouse/donations tracking, Walmart grants, all the websites, and even my own projects here for SA of Alabama. I’m feeling VERY overwhelmed, and frankly a little disappointed because the local response hasn’t gone as well as I’d been hoping.

There is a glimmer of hope though. A gentleman waved at me while stopped at a redlight last week and told me that he saw my bumper stickers (Soldiers’ Angels) and that he just had to thank me for supporting our soldiers. I’m not in SA for any kind of recognition or personal glory, but it IS nice feeling appreciated, and reminds me of why I want to do so much …

Geekery

About three weeks ago I heard from one of my old Neopets buddies, Rose. We talked for a bit and caught each other up on how our families were doing, and the usual. She nudged me about possibly re-joining Neopets, so on a whim I did. My character name this time around is BamaAngels so if you’re on, look me up!

(boy, what I wouldn’t give to have all that NP stuff I gave away, LOL!!!)

Also, I am now an active Editor for Addons.Mozilla.org again. I feel badly for neglecting those duties for so long, but am happy to say that I’m now back and trying to do a little each week to help out the AMO gang.

Back in the Heart of Dixie

Well, things are slowly returning back to “normal” … I was greeted this morning with 600+ emails in my work Inbox, 100+ in my personal, and ~3000 feed entries waiting to be read.

LOL! Miss me much did they?

I see that WordPress has released 2.6 finally. The blogosphere is all a-buzz with the news. Suggested reading: Doug Campbell, Keith Dsouza, and Ryan Boren. So now I’ll have to update all my blogs, themes, and plugins.

Yay … I’ll get around to it (hopefully!) this week …

We had a great time in NOLA. The drive down and back was pretty pleasant. We took the “scenic route” passing through Montgomery, stopping by Jim’s mom’s both ways (she kept Jessie for us). I was reminded why I love living in Alabama. I remember thinking to myself, “My God, we live in a beautiful state!”

We stopped briefly in Waveland, Mississippi, and in upper Louisiana. It’s been nearly 10 years since I’ve been down there … everything I remember is gone. Katrina and Rita really kicked the collective asses of coastal cities in lower AL, MS, and LA.

Otherwise the drive down to New Orleans was nice. We had great weather (outside of the heat and OPPRESSIVE humidity!) I took the time while in New Orleans to see some sights, have some great food, partake in local (and interesting) spirits, and just enjoy myself in general. The reunion was a lot of fun, and it was interesting to see the people Jim grew up with.

I was lucky enough to meet up and have lunch with two of my Cotillion sisters: Greta Perry and Conservative Belle. I would have liked to have spent more time with them, but the heat royally kicked my butt and Jim and I had so much planned, LOL!

Hopefully I’ll be making another trip down that way pretty soon!

We stopped by so many shops in the French Quarters that I loved! Many had beautiful clothing and jewelry that I could have easily gone “ga-ga” over. We stopped in one vampire shoppe that had many cute novelties and some interesting books covering local and Southern folklore. The shop owner had a BEAUTIFUL German Sheppard (the “head of security” LOL!) that was just as sweet as he could be!

I want another dog!

We also stopped by a local mall to pick up a few amenities that were forgotten in the hurried packing process. It was pretty much like what we have here back at home. I checked out one store that sold a lot of cell gear, drooled over some bluetooth cell phone headsets and considered getting another micro sd card for my Helio Ocean. (nah, will wait and get them cheaper online! LOL)

One thing that really sticks out in my memory is how “available” alcohol is down there. I kid you not, we walked into a Wal-mart and there was a HUGE section with every type of liquor and beer I could ever want! And you can’t walk 50 feet without coming across a daiquiri shop!

There’s so much more to tell, but we’ll leave it at this for now …

It’s good to be home!

Weekend and upcoming NOLA trip

We’ll be heading down to Montgomery this weekend. Jim’s brother is on leave from Afghanistan and flew in sometime last night. We’ll be visiting with him a while and will be bringing Jessie back home with us. In a way I feel sorry for her mother … she’s been really lonely without her. She depends on Jessie for companionship and entertainment, and has no idea how to function without her. (Honestly makes me wonder how she lived BEFORE Jessie was born!)

Jim and I have enjoyed our “quiet time” together. Both of us recently have been stressed from work and other matters and needed some time to reconnect … these two weeks have given us just that. I’m indebted to Jim’s mom for allowing Jessie to stay down there with her and her cousins.

I know Jessie enjoys staying with them, so that’s always a bonus!

I came home one night this week and Jim had already prepared dinner and bought a gallon of my favorite brew. What a man, what a man, what a mighty good man. :mrgreen:

Our trip to New Orleans will be coming up soon. I’m really looking forward to seeing the Big Easy again and seeing where Jim grew up. I’m also looking forward to meeting up with my Cotillion sisters who live down that way. (OMG, which reminds me … I still need to order my tiara! LOL!!)

I see a shopping trip in the near future!

Jim’s really been looking forward to this trip and has been working out to try to lose some weight before the reunion. Exercising, taking bodybuilding supplements and vitamin supplements, I’m proud of him he’s done really well. Me … not so much. I haven’t been able to get my weight quite down as low as I’d like … being on the amitriptyline is setting me back. I’m hesitant to ask my doctor about being switched to another migraine preventive. This work is working the best out of all I’ve tried so far, but the gain in appetite has been a real bitch to deal with. ;P

Oh well, I’m still relatively healthy so I can’t complain too much … right?

Headin’ back to NOLA!

I can’t remember if I posted about this already — Jim and I are heading down to New Orleans in a couple of months. His high school reunion is coming up, so we’re gonna take off for an extended weekend together. I’m really excited. I’ve always LOVED New Orleans, and this time I’ll get to meet some of Jim’s high school friends and see where he grew up.

PLUS!!! A handful of Cotillion sisters live down that way, so I’m uber-excited about meeting up with some of the gals!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

So now I’m mapping out driving routes and checking out cheap flights. We’ve already found and booked a hotel room.

It’s gonna be so shiny. :mrgreen:

Only in New Orleans

Jim grew up in and around New Orleans. His 20th class reunion is coming up. Guess where they’re having it? In a casino.

Only in New Orleans.

So we’ve got a few months before then. Jim wants to put his weight loss plan in overdrive. Me, I don’t think it will take me that long, and my Tai Chi starts next week. I figure I do that a little while, then I can start hitting the weights again.

Staying dedicated isn’t a problem, making time is …

It will be kind of neat though … meeting the people I’ve heard about over the past 5-6 years.

Edit: ~just~ as I hit “Publish” it dawned on me … there are Cotillion sisters living down this way.

MEETUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vividly tsunamic

Had a weird dream last night. For whatever reason, I was living in the home I grew up in on the outskirts of Mt. Olive, Corner, that area. I remember that there was some sort of catastrophic event and somehow the house was suddenly near the sea (maybe Gulf Coast?) — things and people have an odd habit of changing places in my dreams. Something caused a flood, but it was no normal flood. It was more like a tsunami. I remember that the waves would creep up, then recede outward, then come rushing in again very quickly. I remember being inside the house and seeing the water level rising, covering the windows. (which is odd in itself because this was a two-story house!)

I distinctly remember the color and smell of the water. It was dirty, almost muddy. (think Mississippi River banks in New Orleans, pre-Katrina) In my dream, I was trapped inside the house for some reason and remember panicking when the water broke through each of the windows and started pouring into the house. I don’t remember much else, except that towards the end of the dream I was standing at the water’s edge on the shore and someone was explaining some new anti-wave barrier mechanism to me that had just been put in place. I remember telling them “it’s not enough, they will still come.”

Weird.

I’m not sure what it signifies, but it’s one of the first dreams I’ve been able to remember being that vivid since going on the Amitriptyline. Usually I’ve forgotten my dreams by the time I wake up.

I’ve thought about it off and on all day. Something that struck me was when I was watching the water cover the land in my dream, I thought about how odd that it was covering that amount of real estate so quickly! However highly unlikely that we’d ever experience this kind of event up here in B’ham, it was still kind of creepy.