New Orleans

Murals in the hotel in New Orleans.




The Mississippi River from Riverwalk on the way to the streetcar stop.


On the Streetcar not named Desire ... Actually, it's the Riverfront. They cost $1.25 to ride but .40 for seniors!! Such a deal! Tina had to pay full price. Left to right - Linda, Tina, Janie, and Dick.


Yes, we did! Beignets and café au lait at the Café Du Monde! You can't eat them without being messy. Tina unwisely wore black.

Dick, the waitress, Janie

Here's our carriage driver Brendan Finn McSomething who told us interesting stories during the tour.


Front seat left to right - Tina, Janie, Dick Back seat left to right - Linda and me


Jean Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop - the oldest bar in America (1772). Check it and the other 10 oldest bars in the US out HERE. They have curb service. The waitress came out to the carriage to take our order, but it was a little early in the day for us. In New Orleans you can take drinks out on the sidewalk, and the bars are open 24/7 except for an hour on Ash Wednesday from midnight until 1:00 AM. It's definitely a party town!


It's Voo Doo!


Linda and I walked around the French Quarter while the others rode the Canal Street Trolley to the end and back through the Garden District. We happened upon Touché where a friend of Dan's is bartender. I went in and asked an attractive woman behind the bar if her name might be Donna. She said it was, and I told her that Dan from Chicago told me to stop by and tell her hello. She smiled a huge smile and asked how he was and said she'd lost his phone number when she changed cell phones, so I gave it to her. I told her I'd never actually met Dan in person but knew him through blogs. Donna said I'd love him because he's so sweet and nice. I told her I could tell that from what I knew about him already and looked forward to meeting him in person. I told her my name and about "Auntie Flame" - we hugged each other and I let her get back to work. No pictures unfortunately. This is on Dumaine.




Home of the famous Muffaletta!


Blue Dog paintings by George Rodrigue. More HERE


We all met at the Gumbo Shop for dinner (another suggestion by Dan) and totally enjoyed it. Linda and I stopped in earlier for a bowl of gumbo and based on the menu wanted to have dinner there, so we suggested it to the group. Everyone thanks Dan!

End of the day at Pat O'Brien's


I have more New Orleans and cruise pictures I'll post on Facebook.

The Cruise - Part One - Saturday

I'm going to tell about the trip in segments. First of all, we got on the interstate around 2 AM and drove to Memphis to catch Amtrak to New Orleans. This meant we had no sleep from Friday morning until Saturday night. Those naps on the train in a painful pretzel position weren't real sleep but helped a little. We were on the second (top) level of the train and walked down steps to the tiny, airplane-like bathroon and through several cars to the lounge and dining cars. As Charlie said, Amtrak food is not to die for but to die from! On the way back, some of our group said dinner was really good, though.

It took 3 hours to drive to Memphis and 9 hours on Amtrak to New Orleans. It's sort of like riding a bus on rails. It stopped several times and various places in Mississippi and Louisiana. I'm still not sure how I feel about traveling that way.

Our car.

Janie, Richard, and Linda - we rode down with Janie and Richard.

Tina, my rommate, but Linda was my seatmate on the trip down.

Louisiana scene from the window.

We ate dinner at Mulate's and ran into the others from Dickson who came down a day earlier than we did. What are the odds? You'll see them later.

Here are Tina and Janie being silly with the fish after dinner.


While I am also punchy from no sleep and look it! My hair did not travel well but looked better here than it did later in the humidity! Yikes!


Linda looks good. How did she do it?


After dinner we went back to the hotel for the free drinks. I had a very good glass of pinot noir. Here's a picture I took later on the next morning when it was empty, but there were Gators fans watching football in the bar area and a wedding getting ready to happen in this part. Not sure how that worked out because we were too sleepy to stay and watch. This is where we had breakfast the next two mornings. They had a buffet and a place to order what you want that went with the room, too. We were at the Embassy Suites on Julia. The Joneses were in the main hotel, and Tina, Linda, and I were in The Lofts on the next block. My bed was so comfortable, and the suite was roomy and nice.

Gates Trivia

Microsoft CEO Bill Gates formed a company to sell a computerized traffic counting system to cities, which made $20,000 its first year. Business dropped sharply when customers learned that Gates was only 14 years old.

I'm Back!

I got home a little after 1:00 AM and slept so well! After being on a cruise ship for five days and Amtrak for nine hours, I was happiest to see my own bathroom facilities. It also took a while to quit feeling as if I were moving while standing still. We had a great time and enjoyed it! Details later!

I heard from some of you while I was gone by email and on FB. That was neat! Now I need to catch up on TV shows, the news, blogs, and delete over 500 emails and messages on the laptop. That BlackBerry came in handy for sure!

Cruising Away

Check out this wonderful Bon Voyage post from Maddie to me HERE! I'm thrilled and grateful! What a wonderful nephew! I just love my new family members!! Thank you, Maddie!

Thanks for all of your good wishes for my trip and sweet things you said! I also appreciate the birthday greetings! Thanks so much to all of you!!

I'll take lots of pictures and be in touch when I get back. You'll be in my thoughts! See you after the 17th!

Our Captain and Crew

Check Jim's blog HERE for DWTS recaps!

By Any Other Name Trivia

Chicago’s National League baseball franchise has been known by 18 different names establishing a record. They have been the White Stockings, the Colts, the Black Stockings, the Ex-Colts, the Rainmakers, the Orphans, the Cowboys, the Rough Riders, the Desert Rangers, the Pennants, the Recruits, the Zephyrs, the Nationals, the Fourth Nationals, the Third Nationals, the Spuds, and the Trojans. The club owners finally settled on Cubs in 1908, although this hasn’t helped them get into a World Series.

Chilly Trivia

Humans don’t have very much hair on their bodies anymore (except maybe for guys who get their backs waxed). So, hair standing up doesn’t make very good insulation—we don’t have enough fur for that. However, those little muscles we have on the end of each hair still work. They still make goose bumps.

World Famous David Dust

We can say we knew him when ....


Congratulations!!!

Moment of Grin

Info

OK, I got the global data service from Verizon and can check email and blogs while I'm on the cruise, so I might do that some. I might update on Facebook but won't blog. Being online comes under the global package which will be about $10.50 for the five days at sea since it will be prorated from the monthly charge. However, I won't be making calls since the roaming charges are $2.49 a minute on the ship. I've already told friends and family they won't hear from me while I'm gone. I got it mostly to be accessible in case they need to get in touch with me if there's an emergency and to be able to send my son an email letting him know that I'm OK, so he can also let my mother know.

My BlackBerry Curve

Tall Trivia

During World War II, before James Arness portrayed U.S. mar-shall Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke, he was the first American soldier to jump off his boat at the Anzio beachhead. He was ordered to do so by his commanding officer because, standing at 6’8", Arness was the tallest man in his company, and the water’s depth needed to be tested as a safety precaution.

Miss Kitty must have been tall, too, because I don't remember her being tremendously shorter than he was.

Preparation C

I'm working like a madman to get ready for the cruise. I went through my clothes to decide what to take and start packing them. I'm also doing some cleaning and running errands that need to get done before I leave. There are around 20 from here that are going. I know half of them. Five of us (Tina, Linda, Janie, Richard, and me) are driving to Memphis to take Amtrak to New Orleans very early Saturday morning. We'll be in NOLA from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning when we board the ship. We have two stops - Progreso and Cozumel. This is my first cruise, and I'm looking forward to it. Hope I get everything done and still get some sleep!

You will not hear from me while we're on the ship. Will you miss me?

This is the exact ship, Carnival Fantasy, in the New Orleans port. Wish us luck! My daughter Kathy and her family are going the next week and leaving from Miami on a seven-day cruise. Ours is five days which is just right for the first one, I think. They've been on many cruises.

Ban Button

DWTS 9 Week 3

Kathy Ireland went home last week. Dances this week are the Latin dances. Len is back, so we'll see what kind of mood he's in tonight. Scores are listed in this order: Carrie Ann, Len, and Bruno.

Mark Dacascos & Lacey Schwimmer

Dance: Rumba
Score: 6, 6, 6 = 18
Apparently the Iron Chef dancer is hyper since Lacey kept telling him to slow down. I've said that to some men myself. I'm not sure about Lacey's choreography on this or if I don't know much about rumbas. Ah, the judges agree that there's no chemistry between them. So mostly they criticized Mark for not connecting with his partner and being too mechanical. Yeah, I know what they mean.

Joanna Krupa & Derek Hough

Dance: Samba
Score: 7, 8, 8 = 23
Joanna had moments of hip action but more of stiffness and not moving. The judges liked it more than I did.

Mya & Dmitry Chaplin

Dance: Rumba
Score: 10, 7, 10 = 27
The rumba is supposed to be sensual and passionate. This one was! They had chemistry and danced really well. There have been hotter rumbas, like Cheryl and Gilles and Maks and Mel B, but this had passion. Len was the 7 of course. He thought too much was going on, and last time he thought they didn't have enough content.

Melissa Joan Hart & Mark Ballas

Dance: Samba
Score: 6, 6, 7 = 19
After watching rehearsal, I didn't think she would do this well. She still looks as if she's trying to remember the steps and isn't letting go enough but is farther along that she's been.

Louie Vito & Chelsie Hightower

Dance: Rumba
Score: 8, 5, 7 = 21
Wow! I don't know how his technique was because of the chemistry!! That was hot! He said in rehearsal that he was looking forward to this dance and loved rehearsing it. Len put a damper on the whole thing saying it was hectic and frantic. The rest of us loved it. The audience booed Len. Tom said Len was going to read from his essay, "Beethoven Was A Hack."

Debi Mazar & Maksim Chmerkovskiy

Dance: Samba
Score: 6, 5, 6 = 17
Mel B came to rehearsal to talk to Debi because she was upset about being in the bottom two. I'm afraid this dance showed that. She seemed nervous and unsure of herself. With her personality and how she looked during rehearsal, I thought she would have more hip action and fire. Not so much.

Donny Osmond & Kym Johnson

Dance: Rumba
Score: 7, 7, 7 = 21
I wonder if Mr. Wholesome Donny Osmond can perform a rumba with passion and sexiness. I know he can do the moves. Kym got him to do it! He stayed serious, and it was pretty and romantic until he rushed over to Bruno and carried on giving him a dipping hug and acting like they were making out.

Michael Irvin and Anna Demidova

Dance: Samba
Score: 5, 4, 5 = 14
He was having fun and moved, but his footwork was off. The judges didn't like it, but it was better than some of the others tonight. I think the judges' scores were too low. They do this sometimes to the black athletes. Emmit Smith almost won, but they scored Jerry Rice and some others lower than they should have at times.

Natalie Coughlin & Alec Mazo

Dance: Rumba
Score: 9, 8, 9 = 26
Natalie had trouble in rehearsal with the romantic part, so Alec had his wife Edyta come in and show her how to keep eye contact and put herself into the dance. It's easier for actors since they are used to getting into character and playing a part, but the athletes have so much control of their bodies and rise to the competition. She had good lines and maintained the intensity.

Chuck Liddell & Anna Trebunskaya

Dance: Samba
Score: 6, 5, 6 = 17
It was entertaining but rough and like a zombie according to the judges. Was that Mickey Rourke in the front row of the audience last week showing support of Chuck? It definitely looked like him, and he would have friends in Ultimate Fighting.

Aaron Carter & Karina Smirnoff

Dance: Rumba
Score: 8, 6, 7 = 21
He was nervous about this dance, and it showed. Karina said they both were since Len's been giving out all those 5's. His moves were good, and he was able to focus and be romantic. Some of his arm movements were choppy, but he did well.

Tom DeLay & Cheryl Burke

Dance: Samba
Score: 6, 4, 5 = 15
Tom DeLay has stress fractures in both feet, so they don't know if he'll get to dance or not since his doctor and the producers told him to withdraw from the competition. Maybe Cheryl will get a break herself if he can't. He will get no sympathy vote from me - all my sympathy goes to Cheryl for having to dance with him. I think I'll gag if he does the rumba. Thank goodness, it's the samba, a party dance, which Cheryl told him he danced like a robot. He said his father drilled into him never to ever give up, so, "What's a little pain when you can party?" he said when Tom asked him why he's staying. Do you think he'll be saying this in prison? I hate to say this but he danced like his feet weren't hurting and had rhythm. They danced to "Why Can't We Be Friends" with a sequined elephant on his costume and a donkey on Cheryl's. Not bad actually.

Kelly Osbourne & Louis Van Amstel

Dance: Samba
Score: 7, 6, 7 = 20
Who is this blonde boy who sits next to Sharon in the audience? He's been there every time. OK, I googled. He's her boyfriend Luke Worrall. What a fun samba she danced! The judges told her she needed confidence because she dances well. Her smile is just like Ozzy's, so I can't look at her without thinking about him when she smiles.

Who do you think will go home this week? I think it might be Debi or Chuck. Tom will probably stay another week anyway because of the fan base.

Nose?

I just saw on the news that they're giving the H1N1 vaccine in the nostril. It's not a shot in the nose, is it? Or do they squirt it in there? That doesn't sound so great. My eyes are watering just thinking about it.

Moment of Eye Rolling

Jennifer Love Hewitt - overconfident or playing tennis with a ghost?

Buzzed Bee

The orchid releases a chemical that makes bees drunk. When the bee becomes disoriented, it dumps its load of pollen into the flower, thus pollinating the flower.

Question

Is Michelle Obama pregnant? I don't mean to be rude, but have you noticed any difference lately? I have. Not just this dress. I thought so in that orange dress she wore in Copenhagen and the photo on Nutwood Beth's blog, too.

Wouldn't that be wonderful and exciting! If so, I hope it's a boy.

Hippo Birdies 2 Moi

I'm getting a six year old for my birthday. Brendan and I are going to the Celebration of Cultures at Centennial Park, and then he's spending the night with me. Brian will come down and visit a while Sunday and take the boy home. Good times!

Could it be ... Satan?

Well, it's my birthday today, and numerically my age is 2/3 of Satan. Yes, 66. All year.

Sorry

Britney Spears’s name is an anagram of "Presbyterians"!

Karma

Did you hear that Kanye's North American concert tour was canceled?

Just Because

For David

Remind Us of Anyone?

Desi Arnaz’s, from I Love Lucy, heavy Cuban accent often made retakes necessary. His enunciation of "recognized talent" came out as "recognize Stalin," He said "ever thin" for "everything" and "mushing peectures" for "motion pictures," while "won’t" was "wunt" and "Fred Mertz" was "Frat Mers."

Castle

Do any of you watch Castle? I'm so glad it's back and really like it. Nathan Fillion is perfect in that part, but I've liked him since my son introduced me to Firefly. I watched Waitress because he was in it but didn't see him on Buffy. I'm glad his character left Desperate Housewives because he's so much better on this and is on screen much more. The chemistry works with his c0-star Stana Katic, too. Fillion plays a mystery writer who works with the police department and helps solve murders. If you don't watch, check it out HERE. This week a murderer misused "your" for "you're" which he of course commented on quite a while. Castle is talented, cute, intelligent, and a smartass. My kind of man! Mystery writers make guest appearances when they play poker with Castle. I tried to find a picture of him in his bullet-proof vest with WRITER on it since the others say POLICE.


They even have a novel written by the fictitious Richard Castle for sale on the website and Amazon.