Celebrating Valentine's Day

This is a little past due, but I still want to share with you what we did. We had to celebrate on the Sunday before because Christian had to go back to Baton Rouge that evening.

We started out at the new restaurant in our neighborhood (adding to a very short list): Maurepas Food. It was really good!

Cheese plate

Strawberry salad

Oyster stew with a puff pastry top!

Goat Tacos

After lunch we headed to the quarter on the scooter for a couple massage. We weren't able to get far before we were stopped by Barkus, the dog parade. There are some pics below, but they are dark...

After massages we went to my favorite restaurant in New Orleans, Dickie Brennans's Bourbon House for more oysters!

tired!

A whole lot of love

Valentine's Day is best seen from through the eyes of high school students; it's really a magical place to be on February 14th. There are giant bears, chocolate, roses, and boys showing affection who would never seem like the type. It's a beautiful thing! It's also mine and Christian's dating anniversary: the first time we decided eating out together would be a date. Here are some gems from my favorite card website, to get you in the V-day spirit:

http://www.storypeople.com/storypeople/PageInclude.do?path=/doc/dig/greetingcards.html

This week has really flown by! And carnival is in full swing! Beginning next Wednesday the city will be all but shut down to driving after 5; it's an amazing sight to see!

Some highlights from the week:

1. I woke up to a dead mouse (my cat is a true hunter) in by bathroom (possibly TMI) but I am really proud of myself because Christian is out of town and for the first 15 minutes of my morning routine I had all but resigned myself to leaving it for one of my male friends to sweep up later in the day. But, "no!" I said to myself. And I swept it into a dust pan and tossed it in the garbage, still twitching, all by myself. Go me!
2. I had a very sobering conversation with one of my students while we worked on test prep. He told me sometimes he cries at home because school is so hard for him and he knows he'll never catch up. I was stunned by his honesty, and asked him if he had always felt this way about school, or if this was a new thing this year. He said it was new this year, because being a junior is harder than he thought and he worries he will not pass to the next grade. The hardest part of my job is difficult conversation with students, because he will most definitely be with us for at least two more years, and I just don't know how to have this conversation in a constructive way. 
3. My star student I spoke about last week cursed out one of his teachers and we had a really long conversation during his hour detention about respecting women and things a person should never say. One step forward, two steps back. 
4. It's almost Spring and time for teachers to decide whether they will return or not. Teacher retention is an issue for every Charter in Nola, and has a huge impact on the students. It's always a high anxiety time: finding out who will be asked back, who will leave on their own, and who will stay in the trenches for at least another year.

Christian is coming home from Baton Rouge today, and I can't wait. It's been a long week apart. Tonight is the Apocalypse Ball and tomorrow is the official opening of 1239 Congress; they will be a part of the Second Saturday St. Claude gallery walks from now on. Christian's showing his "Looking down series" and all the prints are literally taped to the ground. There's some symbolism here about the viewer interacting with the art, and I love it.  I'll take lots of pictures.

An interesting article from the New York Times about how the Achievement Gap now has more to do with income inequality than racial inequality:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/education/education-gap-grows-between-rich-and-poor-studies-show.html?_r=2&hp 

Krewe Du Vieux and a busy busy weekend

This weekend was big. Christian had an opening on Friday at a new gallery, Saturday was Krewe Du Vieux (the first big party of Carnival season) and we had friends in from New York for a bachelor party and a friend in from Mobile! Whew...

Here are some highlights, more to come:

A low country boil on Saturday

corn and sausage ready to go

pot is boiling

getting the shrimp ready

the ingredients go in

Our Low Country recipe:

liquid crab boil and ground crab boil seasoning, sausage, red potatoes, corn, shrimp, brussel sprouts, mushrooms, whole garlic, lemons (you can alos add crab legs)

Add lemons and garlic. Potatoes go in first, cook for 20 minutes, add everything but the shrimp cook for 10 min, add shrimp and cook for a little more than a minute (until shrimp float) turn off the heat and soak for up to 10 min to fully season. 

West Indie salad and Boudin sausage

And then it poured

Pics from the parade: not so good, but you can get an okay idea. Krewe du Vieux is a political satire parade.

A walking tour of the French Quarter with Morgan 

Vera shopping for costumes

The Sprout and the third try

I have always been interested in gardening; my mom and I spent every Mother's Day when I lived at home planting her garden and this is my fourth winter attempting to sprout my own seeds. The first three attempts were to fails. I have outlined them below:

#1. Planted seeds in a green house box of sorts in my house, nursed them for four months, grow light and all. After putting all the sprouts in the ground I proudly headed off to work. I later called Christian all excited like, and he said everything was gone!

#2. Planted seeds in Nola last season, everything was going well until one weekend away. I came home and everything was a wilted memory of a plant.

2011: I drilled holes in a plastic moving box and flipped in upside down to use as a greenhouse.

#3. Things I am doing differently this year:

• I started earlier
• I am watering less
• I planted more
• I checked out this awesome site for lots of advise on Urban gardening, most of the tutorials on this site would be relevant in any city in the States.

Here are the results two weeks after planting:

The mint that has survived since last summer

The box this year has a lid to trap in more heat 

Sprouts already sprouting

More signs of Spring