The truth is I started this blog entry several days ago and then my Internet crashed and I lost it. I started to write it again, but I was so disheartened, I gave up. Let's give this one more go. One of the first places we took Matty, Izzy, and Claire was to the French Quarter, and when you come to visit, it's one of the first places we'll take you, too, because it's the French Quarter. We started off at the French Market, where you can buy beads, jewelry, crocodile skulls, Asian products, and more. Claire received the most significant souvenir while we were there - a princess mask.

It didn't leave her side for the rest of the day. Then we went for beignets. At first Claire only wanted the mounds of powdered sugar piled on top, just like her Grandma Armstrong.

But eventually she discovered how delicious the rest of it is, too.

Matt and Izzy liked them, too.

{Izzy was the only person I've ever seen not covered in powdered sugar at the end of a trip to Cafe du Monde.}

And Amanda and Peter enjoyed feeding the birds again.

Usually, there will be some good street jazz just outside of Cafe du Monde. When we arrived, there was a soloist playing acoustic 80s rock ballads. Fortunately, after he finished playing "I Just Called to Say I Love You," a jazz trio took his place, featuring an upright bass, a trumpet, and a banjo player from Austria. Much more conducive to the atmosphere.

Plus, Claire loved to dance to it.

At this point, Amanda had to say good-bye to take Peter home for his afternoon nap while the rest of us explored the Quarter. Claire led the way.

We had bought a huge muffaletta at Central Grocery to share and got some drinks at the tiniest corner store you'll ever see and had a picnic in Jackson Square. Claire, as usual, was the entertainment (sorry the video is sideways). We peeked inside the St. Louis Cathedral while we were there.

After lunch, we really needed to use the bathroom, which meant it was either a long walk back the French Market or pay the entry fee for the Cabildo Museum. We chose the latter. It's housed in a beautiful building that looked down on Jackson Square.

I keep thinking I want to start collecting teacups. I saw some last year in an antique store in Seattle, and now these at the museum. My grandmother had teacups displayed in her curio that were destined to be given to my sister and me when we were older. We would argue over who got which one all the time. The irony is that at one point, I bargained my half of the teacups for another heirloom I wanted.

If you buy a ticket to the Cabildo, you get a discount for the Mardi Gras Museum next door, so we figured we might as well take advantage of a deal. However, we didn't have a lot of time to spend in either museum, really, because my car was at a meter (because cheap) and the time was almost up. I definitely want to go back to the Mardi Gras Museum at some point, though, and get a better look at stuff like this:

We didn't get to see as much of the Quarter as I would have liked, so I offered to watch Claire that night while Matt and Isabelle went on the same Haunted History Walking Tour Liz and I enjoyed when I first moved here. I had fun playing games with Claire. I just can't get over how grown up she is now.

(Hopefully it won't be so long before I can post about the next segment.)

I'm still working on photos from Matt and Izzy's visit, so in the mean time, I'll leave you with this one of the cousins, Peter and Claire. Peter loved having another kid in the house and would follow Claire around wherever she went and wanted to do whatever she did. Claire, on the other hand, wasn't quite sure how she felt about that. I think she liked the idea of Peter (of having a cute younger cousin), but got frustrated because he didn't quite know how to play pretend with her, or really even how to play the Nintendo.

As I mentioned earlier, Matt, Izzy, and Claire came to visit this past week. They arrived late on Monday night, and I got to pick them up at the airport. I parked the car and met them at the baggage claim because I couldn't wait to give them all huge hugs! It has been over four months since I moved from Salt Lake, and I couldn't believe how much Claire had grown. Since we got home late that night, the festivities didn't start until the next day. Matt and Izzy couldn't have chosen a better time to visit. The weather was perfect (mid-70's and sunny!) but more importantly, since I was unemployed, I had no other obligation than to help show them a good time.

Claire has only gotten more stylish and cool as she's gotten older.

We took a walk around the park afterward and showed them the turtles and birds. We hoped the crocodile/alligator would show up, but we never spotted it.

Of course, we stopped by the fountain on our way out and let Peter and Claire splash around a bit.

Our final stop was Mike's office at Tulane overlooking the park. Matt and Izzy were impressed by the math on the chalkboards.

Claire was more impressed by the wind-up crab that scuttled across the desk.

Matt and Claire left their mark before we headed back to the house.

While Peter napped, I took Matt, Izzy, and Claire on a drive through past my old school and the 9th ward. We also stopped at St. Luis Cemetery. Since I blogged about it before, I'll just post a couple of new photos (the rest will be on my flickr, if anyone is interested.) Last time, it was a silvery, rainy kind of day. This time, the sun was bright overhead.

I thought this was a sad sort of Family Tomb with only one name on it.

We gorged on barbecue at VooDoo BBQ that night and then went home and waited anxiously for the election results. Mike and Amanda went to bed early, but Matt, Izzy, and I waited to hear President-elect Obama's acceptance speech. I'm not one to get patriotic, but that night I felt absurdly proud to call America home, and I look forward to the coming years.

This experience, and the leisure for thinking, once again, about what I want in the future and career choices and the meaning of life, etc. etc. has helped me realize something that I'll probably forget in a month or two when I once again hate my job and want to do something different. That's why I'm writing it down now, making it as permanent as this blog that doesn't seem very permanent because it's just hanging out there in cyberspace somewhere. What I've learned: A job for me is a means to an end. I'm tired of trying to find something that defines me. When I would think about finding a new job, I would often think about it in terms of who I am, not what I would do. And what I've come to realize is that it's okay to have the real me, the who I am, be reflected by what I do outside of the hours of 9 to 5. Seems so basic, I know, but it's taken me a long time to figure it out.

Matt, Izzy, and Claire have been visiting this week. I have loved showing them around and showing off my new city. It's given me an opportunity to explore it more, and I have lots of upcoming blog posts about our adventures.

Halloween is one of those holidays that I love more in theory than in practice. Mostly because I always want to have a better costume than I do. I love the idea of dressing and being creative and witty, but I hate the effort that goes into a) coming up with the idea and b) executing it. This is how I ended up going to school as a Mexican for Halloween in the third grade. I simply put the tablecloth my parents had bought in Mexico over my shoulders and voila! costume. It should come as no surprise that this year, I found something on the clearance rack at Kmart and voila! whoopee cushion. I added some fake eyelashes for dramatic effect.

New Orleans, on the other hand, takes Halloween very seriously. The decorations came up at the beginning of the month and at some houses tombstones and ghosts continued to be added throughout the month. I never did get any fantastic pictures of some of the best houses. Rather, I got some bad pictures of houses as I was driving home one day, but they will at least give you an idea of how New Orleans prepares for the events.

Amanda has a friend whose husband went all out for Halloween this year. I snapped a few photos of their house in progress when we went over to watch the finale of Project Runway not too long ago. I kept meaning to return and see the whole effect, but I never got around to it.

Amanda had planned a Halloween activity for the kids at the church, so I went to help out with games and festivities.

Some of the cute kiddies:

I had planned to wander along Frenchman St. after the party to take in the craziness of the French Quarter in costume, but it turns out I'm getting old fogyish and didn't want to deal with traffic and crowds and blah blah blah, so I watched a movie with friends instead.

Can't believe October has come and gone. Welcome November.

I've had to come to terms that fall in New Orleans is not like fall in Utah. I keep seeing photos of gorgeous fall colors in the canyons while for the past month I've continued to wear shorts and flip flops and felt like the temperature would never cool down. Luckily, last week it dropped from the high 80s to lower 70s. I can wear long-sleeves and jackets and actually enjoy the park.

Peter enjoyed splashing in the fountain.

And then we went across the street and played ball for a while. Afterward, Amanda and I both whipped out the camera and kept taking photos of Pete (it's so hard not to). At first he was smiling and having fun.

But after a while, he wearied of the cameras and started to get grumpy. Poor kid. Must be hard to have people fawning all over you.

I almost waited in line for his autograph but then realized I wasn't dressed appropriately for meeting Clinton Kelly. On second though, that could only have worked to my advantage. I could use a wardrobe makeover.

Just discovered the poladroid application and now I want to turn all of my photos into old polaroids. You can save it mid-development for varying exposures.

I can't get over how adorable he is. Amanda took this photo back in July, and he just gets cuter and cuter. I would warn you against visiting their blog, though. You just might OD on cute, and I don't want to be held responsible.

I find myself listening to Francoise Hardy quite a bit lately. My parents had a record collection when I was growing up from which I would play three records: The Fantasticks, Camelot, and a Francoise Hardy album my dad brought home from France on one of his trips there. I didn't understand anything she said, but I knew she was cool from the album cover. It was the leather jacket and eyeliner. My first trip to Chicago, when I was 19, I bought a double disc CD of her music that came up missing while I was on my mission and have still never found. I recently decided that I needed to fill that gap in my collection again. I mean, look at these album covers:

She's just cool. And it makes me feel cool to listen to her while I drive around at night in the French Quarter (or thereabouts). Here's a favorite:

le maison ou j'ai grandi

It's a nostalgic song about the house she grew up in that is no longer there. And for a more modern look at Francoise Hardy, a collaboration with Air.

Jeanne

One last thing, a video I found while searching for pictures. I always forget to check youtube.

That song, "tous les garcons et les filles," was one of the first songs I loved from her. Even at 14, especially at 14, I loved music, movies, and books about unrequited love.

Here are some songs to help you be a Broadway star and a cleaning machine, too.

From Miss Saigon:

I Still Believe

Room 317

Now That I've Seen Her

From Chess:

Quartet

Nobody's Side

I Know Him So Well

A couple of weekends ago, we attended a birthday party at Audubon Park. It was a perfect evening as far as the weather was concerned. Fall in New Orleans is very different from the fall I would be experiencing in Utah. Case in point, it's cooled down to 80 degrees here for the most part. We can all go outside again. But I still get to wear shorts and flip flops.

I love the trees here. They seem primordial.

Walking through Tulane's campus on our way to and from made me ache to be back in school. I love college campuses.

Wandering around this library:

Staring up at buildings like these:

Taking advantage of bathrooms wherever they were found. Some of them cooler (and nicer) than others, such as this one at a little cafe:

Exploring this cemetery tucked quietly away:

Paying tribute to the falling stock market, aptly draped in a flag like any proper casket:

Ferrying past this:

Catching up with this fellow:

Inspecting the Fragonards at this museum:

Feeling sophisticated while trying to keep my eyes open at one of these events:

And aimlessly wandering through this park:

Today, I spent a lot of time wishing the weekend had never ended.