Camping

Tomorrow we're taking Viv on her first camping trip at a state park in Mississippi. She'll be staying in an air-conditioned cabin so it's not like she'll have to fight off wolverines and dig her own latrine. We'll give her a year or two before that. The park is in a pretty backwoods part of the state though. Here's a sampling of the local attractions: Mary Lou's Biscuit Bar (breakfast only, even Mississippians have a limit to how many biscuits they can eat) and a firetruck museum open by appointment only. Actually those are pretty much the only local attractions. Fortunately, Viv is easily amused.

No new pics of Viv, but here's an oldie but goodie of Angus:

Viv-a-versary

Today was Viv's one year birthday. It's gonna be rough for a girl growing up in New Orleans to have her birthday on August 29th, since the local TV has been nothing but non-stop Katrina coverage/memorials/interviews/etc. George Bush spent the morning at a school about 16 or 18 blocks from our house- it took me 30 minutes to negotiate all the secret service dudes and cops to run errands for her party. It only went to further convince me that Bush is a complete asshat.

On to the party. Viv had her first bit of cake today and, as expected, smeared most of it all over her. She seemed to really enjoy all the attention and she had an enormous number of presents. We cleared her corral of toys before the party so she could open them in there, and by the end of the night the pen was completely full of new toys.

I'm pretty sure we're spoiling her.

Hey Y'all

just photos today- I'll put a longer deal up shortly

This Weekend

We went to a bbq at Dollie and Ralph's on Saturday then to a free concert in Washington Square in the late afternoon. We've also discovered that Viv's new favorite hobby is taking smaller items out of larger items, such as unpacking bags and dismantling drawers- she's at it in one of the pictures below.

Today we went out to the west bank and explored a little. We hit an Asian grocer and bought 4 or 5 bags worth of stuff we can't pronounce for less than $40. We were mostly going off the picture on the label to figure out what everything is, so there's bound to be a surprise or two. Word of warning though- don't ever get a hawthorn berry soda. It tastes vaguely like juice that's been steeped in greasy charcoal before being used to rinse off an elephant's ass. It's one of the more foul things I've ever had.

Dean

Well, The governor has declared a state of emergency. The forecast models have been bouncing all over today, an earlier run of the GFDL model had it coming about 50 miles to the west of New Orleans. The last run has it in south central Texas while the other models have diverged across various parts of Mexico. The problem is that wind shear is low and the high pressure over the Gulf is dissipating which means Dean basically steers itself by internal changes and contact with land. By Sunday we'll be within 3 day model projections, which are way more accurate. If an evacuation is called here, it'll happen Sunday evening. Here's the latest model run:



Anyway, people are here are starting to sweat a bit. I think it's unlikely we're going to have a problem but we're starting to think about getting ready to evacuate.

Thursday

It looks like Hurricane Dean is going to stay well to the south of us. The current models have it hitting the Yucatan as a cat. 4 then wandering back into the Gulf as a cat. 2 then hitting again somewhere in northern Mexico/south central Texas.



Here's some pics of Viv:

recent goings on

Lucy came down from Seattle to visit this last weekend and we all had lots of good food and drink (except for Viv, who had the same old food and no good drink, but water and milk). Lucy, Al, and myself went out to K-Paul's on Saturday night and the meal was pretty dang tasty. I had pan-fried rabbit and a rather zippy pasta with cream sauce. Good place, I highly recommend it.




In other news:



This is Tropical Storm Dean which will likely become Hurricane Dean in a day or two. It was originally forecast to skirt the Eastern seaboard but the current models have it moving into the Gulf early next week. There's also another depression that just formed off of the African coast and is blowing west. I'm really hoping we don't have to evacuate this year, but we'll have to wait and see. Also, a link to the National Hurricane Center is now on the right hand side of the page.

Global warming folks- it's real and is definitely causing us some hassles down here with the warmer water. So, buy those compact fluorescent bulbs and turn the AC up a degree or two. Every little bit helps.

Out and About

Viv is now fully mobile. She did a couple of laps between the living room and kitchen tonight, even rifling through some plastic cups in a bin in the kitchen on the way. I have video as well and I'll get it up in a day or so.

Also, we took her to her third 'happy hour' at a local art gallery that has a band and crafts for kids, and beer and wine for the adults. Everyone seems to have a good time.