Hunkered Down

The sun has finally come out, just a little but, today. I have never been so happy to see sunshine, now if only we could get power.

The red lines represent no power

We have been hiding out in Mobile since Monday, making lots of great meals and totally relaxing. But, I'm ready to get back to work and get back home. There's only so much relaxing a person can do until you feel a little crazy. Here's what we've been up to.

Fun with candles and slow shutter speed:

it says, "Christian"

Lauren

Erin 

fun with flashlights 

Friends for dinner:

Below is a picture of our hurrication cat. She evacuated from her family's house and has been living in my mom's garage ever since. In spite of my warnings that feeding her would convince her to stay, my mom has given her Milo's food every morning. Since Milo has a Russian name we called her PussyRiot (after the Russian feminist punk band) and my mom called her Isaac (after the hurricane that brought her).

Kaia is evacuating from New Orleans as well

black bean soup with a ham hock 

seasoning the soon to be roasted beef

slicing the beef

Post Surgery and Evacation

taped up windows ready for the storm 

Sunday afternoon C and I were laying out in the blazing sun, next to the pool, not a cloud in the sky when he begins sharing with me his concern about this storm heading for New Orleans and about how surely my school will be closed this week.  And of course with no experience with hurricanes or evacuating, I say, "Look at the sky, you're being irrational. There's noway they'll cancel school." Two hours later I get a call that school is closed through Wednesday. We head to the store to get supplies and they have been all but emptied of anything nonperishable. That's when I start to believe, him and my concern about his scheduled surgery begins to build. We packed our bags and agreed to head to Mobile right after the surgery.

Preparing:

In spite of the storm I go ahead with cooking my healing chicken and dumplings for C after surgery, it's a combination of my mom's chicken soup and my mother in law's chicken and dumplings soup.

 We taped up the windows, got all the important stuff out of the way, packed our marriage certificate, passports, wedding albums, hard drives, and the family jewelry. We sat everything by the front door ready to go so that when I brought C home from surgery all I had to do was pack the coolers with everything perishable, pack the car, and drive East.

Surgery:

Before hand I cheered C up by showing him some memes. Here's a scene from our future car ride:

ready to go

after surgery, standing already!

 The car ride:

Erin, my BF from high school, was along for the ride

C in the back seat, leg propped up, pets in tow 

Dinner Lately

Christian's last project finished up a week ago and we have gotten back into our favorite past time: cooking for friends. When Christian is working, I make all of our meals during the week, so I get really spoiled when he's off. He cooks our nightly meals, packs my lunch, and sometimes wakes me up to eggs and bacon before work. A girl could get used to this. Here are some highlights of what we've been up to lately:

These are a few meals we had last week. I have been gathering recipes at the beginning of each week and buying only what I need at this store. It's been a great way to make sure we're eating in and trying new things. Christian put his own spin on each of the dishes to make them his own.

pork chops w/ red wine demi & parmesan encrusted eggplant topped with farm fresh goat cheese and rustic marinara    

fish tacos 

I've been off the hard carbs for a month so I eat mine in a bowl.  Everything but the tortilla :)

 Saturday night dinner with friends

quinoa, parmesan, and cherry tomatoe stuffed zucchini 

pork chops topped with a fresh cherry chutney wrapped in bacon and brushed with a cherry glaze 

 On Sunday night Kyle brought over all the fixings for Taco salad. He even made tortilla chips from scratch and I cheated on my no hard carbs for a couple of those.

fajita meat

grilled peppers and onions

hand made tortilla chips 

taco salad 

Experimental Art Walk on Algiers Point

It's been a really good weekend so far in spite of the constant rain. Christian and I started off our weekend at the Crescent City Farmer's Market. I've been hearing so many great things about this place and it's founder since we moved here, I'm glad we finally went.

The owner, Richard McCarthy. Photo thanks to Southern Living

After bringing all our goods home and cleaning the house, we went to a double feature (one of Christian's favorite past times). We saw The Campaign and Beasts of the Southern Wild. The latter is one of those movies that I couldn't decide how I felt about the entire time I was watching it, but have since been unable to get it out of my head. It was poetic and fantastic and I would recommend it.

We almost didn't go out because Christian taught me how to play soccer on the PS3 and I was quickly addicted. However, I'm glad we did because our friend Erin invited us to head over to Algiers Point. via the ferry to and participate in an "experimental art walk and cultural event", so we couldn't pass that up. Here's how it went in pictures:

The flyer, thanks to Common Ground Health Clinic

heading over on the ferry 

Our first stop was a Voodoo shop, with lots of interesting things:

a bone drum found by volunteers after Katrina. 

 The next stop was a gallery with two artists, one photographer and a sculpture artist. The small sculptures were made from styrofoam, wood, and other found and recycled objects. They depicted the journey of enslaved Africans as they came to America and ended with Dr. Martin Luther Kin reading to a culturally diverse group. The artist wasn't there, but I got his contact info for an upcoming 1239 show. 

The other artist was a photographer who was excited about the idea of showing at 1239. His interest was the highlight of the night. 

 We got to the art walk late, so the only other place open was the Common Ground Health Clinic, which had children's artwork on display:

I really love this one!

We walked back to the ferry along the levee. My first social visit to the Westbank was a pleasant surprise.