Tuesday, March 25, 2008

On a happier note... we went up to see G's folks out in the country for Easter... a beautiful day for a walk.






I guess this will also serve as my Weekly Photo Challenge Entry which I just now saw is "Spring" - I'm waaay early for once. Sweet.

UPDATE: Dave has the list of other entries on his blog. Lots of flowers!
A few weeks ago, I did a post about my car being in the shop and that I was considering a new car. Well. I got my car back that Friday $700 poorer but with a new Intake Manifold, belts, spark plugs. The following weekend was the Irish Channel Parade so my car didn't move all weekend. Monday when I started to leave for work I heard a horrible dragging sound. I stopped the car and a woman walking down the sidewalk pointed to the front of my car. I hop out and what looks to be a milk crate is now wedged under my car. The guys painting the house across the street came over, jacked my car up and extracted the crate. I was pissed. I drove the car with the radio off and windows down to listen for any sounds. One sound I did hear was the high pitched squealing I just paid $700 to fix! So I went to my mechanic, told him the noise was not fixed and to check out my front end for possible damage. He had my car for four days, trying a number of things. He told me every time he'd do something, the noise would stop, but then return later. He admitted he was stumped, said I should probably take it to the dealer and refunded my money for the Intake Manifold since they had misdiagnosed the problem. I was shocked - a mechanic, admitting fault and refunding my money. He said he thought it was safe to drive but said I should take it to the mechanic sooner rather then later. The beauty of my mechanic is he is two blocks from my office. I can drop it off and walk to work. With the dealer I need to coordinate with G to drive there with me. I drove the car a few times this weekend and to work Monday with no problem. This morning I got in turned the key... nothing. I tried some of the tricks from the past - turn the steering wheel, put in the car in and out of gear, wiggled the connectors on the battery, nothing worked. I was so frustrated and fed up. I decided I am not going to deal with it today. Who knows, may it will start right up tomorrow. Maybe not but I'll be expecting to deal with it. I can call Triple A and have it towed - but where? My regular mechanic is stumped. Some one recommend Donald on Tchoupitulas. Or should I go to the Nissan dealership? Whatever I decide I've definitely decided I'm tired of dealing with this car.

Monday, March 24, 2008



Even though I've lived here since '92 I didn't realize that Easter weekend was THE weekend for crawfish. The Mad Irishman text messaged G and I that he was buying and to meet at the Rendezvous (our usual Friday hangout). When we got there, he had a table covered in newsprint and two paper bags full of crawfish, potatoes, garlic and corn. We chowed down, washing the spicey goodness down with cold beer. What a wonderful way to end the week.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Here is my belated entry for the Weekly Photo Challenge. This week's work was "JUXTAPOSE." I decided to show some before and after photos of the bedroom.

Before #1


After #1


Before #2

After #2

Hard to believe huh? Dave has links to the other entries.

Monday, March 17, 2008


Shhhhh... I'm still recuperating from Saturday's Parade Party... More photos to come.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

My car was emitting a high pitched squeal whenever it was idling. G said it probably was a loose belt so I took it into my mechanics yesterday. They still haven't figured out what it is and need to keep it a few more days. ugh. My mechanic told me he thought it might be the air exhaust manifold - whatever that is - and he has to take something apart but they are slammed. Great. Times like these I think about selling my car. It's a 1996 Maxima with really low mileage, but I've been having shovel money into it that last few years. Still less than a new car note but... The Nissan Murano caught my eye and got me thinking about a "new" car. It's more than I want to spend, the new Nissan Rouge is more in my price range. Not quite as stylish but with excellent reviews are the Rav4 and CRV. Anybody out there have any of these and like to share their opinion? Too bad none come as a hybrid. Or maybe I'll just get a Vespa for short jaunts and as a back up when Max is in the shop...

And the whole reason I did this post is because I'm killing time waiting for my friend to pick me up for book club.

Monday, March 10, 2008

If recycling matters to you, listen up.

On page A-26 of Sunday's T-P there was a "Recycling Survey" by the City of NO Dept of Sanitation. You have the option of 1) cutting out, filling out and mailing in the survey in the paper, 2) calling 311 or 3) "completing" it on-line.

I, of course, decided to complete it on-line. Going to the city's web site, you have to figure out how to navigate to the Sanitation section. Which is here. Once there, you can't exactly complete the survey on-line, all you can do is download a PDF of the survey, which you then have to print, stamp and mail. I guess I'll try calling 311 and see how that goes. Seems like they could make it a little easier. Fax? E-mail? Hello?

And have you noticed on the home page of the city's website site says off to the right hand side:

The City of New Orleans is currently updating
our website to better serve our citizens and
businesses. We apologize that some content may not be current
while we build our new site
No, really?

UPDATE: I called 311 and it took less than 1 minute. And I spoke to a human being. Will my comments go the way of all the properties I listed with the Good Neighbor program? *snort*
I hate daylight savings time. I always get thrown outta whack when the time changes. Last week I was noticing that it was getting light early enough I could start walking in the morning before work. But now, it's almost 7:00 and pitch black outside. *grumble* And now everything has a freakin' clock on it so you have to walk through the house trying to find everything with a clock and change the time. The only plus is that the cats' stomachs are still an hour behind so at 5am they weren't jumping on us wanting to be fed.

Friday, March 07, 2008

Bamboozle is the word for the Weekly Photo Challenge.
I present to you, hizzhonor, C. Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans.

The photo belong to Nola.com and credit goes to T-P

Seems like the best time I get blog ideas is when I’m driving in my car. Since I do not talk on the cell phone when I am driving, it gives my mind time to wander. Maybe I need to get one of those pocket tape recorders so I can record the thoughts and idea that come to me as I’m driving. Can’t very well jot things down while driving – I know because I’ve tried.

This morning I headed over to the Westbank to get my driver’s license renewed. It expired last week with my birthday. Didn’t get any notice in the mail. This morning it was gray, cold, windy and wet. I’m hoping it will keep others away from the DMV. Nope. Friday at 8:30 a.m. it was packed. At least I was standing in line inside the DMV office. The line stretched out the door behind me. Stand, shuffle, stand, shuffle. Took about 15 min. to get to the front of the line. As the man was pulling me up in the computer I said “I didn’t get a notification in the mail; should I have?” His answer was a vague “Yes or no. It depends.” I said “I haven’t received any notification about my driver’s license or car registration renewal in the mail since Katrina.” He nodded his head. He handed me a slip with a number on it and told me to have a seat. I sat down and my butt barely had time to warm the seat when my number was called.

At the DMV on Harvey, they have a very sophisticated system. A slip with your number is generated. There’s a LED board that lists the next 4 numbers on it. You number gets read out over the PA by a recorded voice and tells you what counter number to go to. As your number is being called, it will flash, and the number over your counter will also flash with your number on it. I looked at my number and looked at the flashing screen, then looked at my number again. That can’t be right, it’s only been a minute or so. But it was. I cross the room and sit down in front of a lady. She tells me to read the top line of numbers in the eye thing. Confirms my address. Some other woman came up and said something about calling maintenance. The woman helping me mumbled to me “I don’t know how to call maintenance. Why don’t she call?” I just shook my head, rolled my eyes and said “mmm hmmmm” in empathy. We finish up, she hands me my old license and says “You’re new license will be $21.50. Pay at the cashier when your name is called.” She barely had “called” out when I hear my last name. I scoot over to the cashier. “Stand in front of the blue screen. Smile if you want.” CLICK I have a slightly dazed look in my picture. Probably because I’m in shock this has happened so quickly. I didn’t even crack open the book I brought to read. My last license had a terrible picture. But the expression was akin to what a cop would see after pulling me over. I get in my car to leave, the clock says 8:59. Wow! And by the way, they stopped printing your social security number on the licenses. Good.

You know how people get in sync when they’ve been together a long time and especially married people. Our cars have a habit of messing up on us at the same time. The last time, G blew out a tire hitting a pothole, the same day my car overheated because it had sprung a leak. We both had driver’s license issues at the same time too. Last week he got pulled over, along with 10 other people, in a school zone. I guess the police can’t solve murders, so they enforce school zones. So be aware. With so many schools closed and none of the flashing school zone lights working it’s easy to do. The cop took G’s license and said to wait 5 days before going to pay his ticket. Fast forward 5 days… when G goes to pay the fine, he finds out that his license has been suspended for years because of an unpaid parking ticket. This is news to him. The notices had been sent to an address that he hadn’t lived in for years when the ticket was issued. He has even had his driver’s license renewed AFTER it was suspended. G told the man helping him that had he know about the ticket he would have paid it. Thankfully they waved the “late fee” and reinstated his license. The DMV and the state have our correct address, and that’s the address traffic court should have had. In fact, he had a new car at the time of the ticket, a car he bought after moving from the address the violations had been send. Go figure.