Just a bit of update.

I've been really busy with work, something that tends to happen when I like what I'm doing...

We've reset a lot of the department and it's looking great, in fact, some of the work we've done has been featured in the regional vice presidents "best practices" e-mails. And all of the performance indicators for the department are coming up roses, which is sweet. I've been able to do a lot since I moved from one of our newest stores to our smallest and oldest store. It's not the career choice that everyone would have made, but I saw a chance to make a mark and I have. My department appears weekly on the regional best performers list, even though we have the least resources of all the stores in the region.

This week I was the first to offer a cheese, Smoked Gubbeen from Ireland, (a cheese from one of the people that I visited this spring) for sale in the United States. Our store (just our store here in New Orleans) has a national exclusive... and this weekend, I will also feature this cheese at the New Orleans Food and Wine Experience. It's an event that pulls in a lot of foodies from around the country and I hope to get a bit of notice for this cheese at the event. We will also be featuring cheeses that we get from Neal's Yard of London, the wonderful exporters of the cheeses of Great Britain to the rest of the world.

This entire week is a bit much in terms of the hours I'll put in, but it should be worth the time.

On June 16, I'll be flying to upstate New York to join my family, it's a sort of family gathering. My sister and her lover Chris, (you've seen them here in the journal just recently) will be there. My Dad, who has just moved into an assisted living facility will be there. A lot of why I am going there now revolves around the fact that I need to visit my Dad in this new living space for him. As his Alzheimer's condition progresses, it's something that I need to do, to be with him in this new place.

Also, my brother and his wife will be there with my niece and my new nephew, Evan, who I haven't yet met. He'll be about three months old when I meet him. (The same age as Emma was when I met her...) I can't wait to meet him!

We will be taking the new ferry from Rochester to Toronto and staying over night, returning the next evening. We'll probably go to Ikea... and I will definately visit the Whole Foods store there, (my family is used to this thing where I have to visit every WFM store, as are most of my friends, hehe). And with any luck, I'll meet Mickey for drinks, since the rest of the family, babies and all will surely be asleep early. My brother has gotten us some choice hotel rooms right down town, convenient to everything.

Looks to be a trip that will be fun, as well as satisfying a lot of family things. We (my bro and sis and I) have to talk about dealing with my Dad's house, which we will probably sell when the market is right. I get to spend Uncle Bunny Time with my neice and new nephew. I get some time with my brother and his wife, my sister and her lover... my Dad; the whole family. And the last day that I'm there, I'll spend just with my Dad in his new place; we'll have lunch and hang around with the people that he lives with now at the assisted living place.

My Dad has only one complaint about this place, it's not his house, the place where he was used to living, but he seems to be enjoying it none the less. He loves the food, his apartment is more than comfortable and he has what seems to be the right amount of freedeom, without too many choices. As his Alzheimer's progresses fewer choices are better for him, much less stressful as he has trouble making decisions.

I'm looking forward to this time with him. About every six months or so, there's a significant decrease in his ability to deal with his surroundings, or to remember what happened in the short term, and to an increasing extent, what happened at all. Every time I see him now, I say goodby is some way. Each time I look for some way to connect to our past, our shared experience, and usually I find something, but each time the thread grows more tenuous. Each time I see him, he is farther away.

I was able to live with my Dad for four months after my Mom died, the disease was already taking him away from us, although we didn't realize it then, we were in a complex haze of denial...

For me, staying with him then seemed like career suicide, (and fortunately it was not), but I am so glad that I did it. We had a chance to tell each other how much we loved each other, not all at once... just a bit at a time just as much as each of us could handle from one moment to the next, until we had said it.

To be a man, you have to tell your dad all about who you are without telling any lies, no matter how loud you yell at each other while doing it.







durlx

Wild Life...

I live very close to the French Quarter, just ten minutes walk, and you might think that it's quite the urban setting where I live being so close to all the action. It's only a half mile to Canal Street from my house...

But I also live only five blocks from the Mississippi River and no matter where you live in New Orleans, well, you are still living in the midst of the big mother swamp. I live on relatively high ground, a place with a lot of history.

A History of the Faubourg Marigny Historic District

Faubourg Marigny is named for the plantation's last owner, Bernard Xavier Phillippe de Marigny de Mandeville (1785-1868), the son of Count Pierre Enguerrand Phillippe de Mandeville, Ecuyer Sieur de Marigny, Chevalier de St. Louis (1750-1800), and grandson of Antoine Jacques Phillippe de Marigny de Mandeville.
Marigny plantation was owned by one of the wealthiest families in the New World. Their plantation house stood near the foot of Elysian Fields and was described as being nearly twice the size of other plantation homes. Money was spent freely by its owners. Legend has it that Pierre poured 1000 silver dollars into the melting pot from which his plantation bell was cast to give it a sweeter tone. The bell today is in the Cabildo Museum, property of the Louisiana State Museum.
In 1798, Louis Phillippe, Duc d'Orleans (who became King Louis Phillippe in 1830) and his two brothers, the Duc de Montpesier and the Compte de Beaujolais, visited the plantation. They were lavishly entertained. One story recounts that special gold dinner ware was made for the occasion of the Duc d'Orleans visit and was thrown into the river afterward because no one would be worthy of using it again! The Marquis de Lafayette was another famous person who was a guest at the Marigny Plantation in 1825.
When Pierre died in 1800, his son, Bernard (then 15 years old), became one of, if not "the", richest man in the new world. He inherited 7 million dollars (remember, these were '1800' dollars--he would have been a billionaire in today's currency!).
Bernard went to London to finish his business education and returned to New Orleans in 1803 bringing a new game called "Craps" which he introduced to America. The game was initially called "Le Crapaud", meaning "the frog", because of the position the players assumed while playing it.
As early as the 1790's a few parcels of land in the Marigny Plantation had been developed, but in 1805 Bernard de Marigny began subdividing the plantation and Faubourg Marigny was created. New Orleans first Creole 'suburb', was settled primarily by Creoles, free men of color and new arrivals from Europe.
The Pontchartrain Railroad, the first railroad west of the Alleghenies (and second oldest in the country), was completed in 1831 running along Elysian Fields from the river to the resort area at Milneburg on Lake Pontchartrain. The line was nick named "Smoky Mary" because the train was fuelled by coal which belched smoke and left a sooty residue in its path. The rail was later converted to electric but was discontinued and the tracks removed in the 1950's.
Bernard de Marigny named the new streets of his faubourg including one he called "Craps" because of his passion for the game. The name was later changed to Burgundy since the street address was a source of constant embarrassment to the four churches located on that street.

This "history" is perhaps a bit high minded... it doesn't mention that Bernard lost a lot of his wealth at "craps" and had to subdivide the plantation to maintain his lifestyle.



But to get back to the swamp...

My back yard this time of year is full of life. The banana trees are starting to shoot up, sometimes as much as a foot in a day, and as it gets hotter and wetter, some of the vines grow as you watch. This year there seem to be an extraordinary amount of birds all singing all day long with the morning doves starting just before dawn and the rest of them carrying on for the rest of the day. Usually it gets quiet once it's dark. But not now....




The damn frogs start singing! You can just see the two of them in this pic. And they are singing songs of love. And they will not shut up!

Frog movie with sound. ....don't complain to me about how long it takes to load, I know how long you've waited for porn downloads...)

Actually, they are toads, not frogs, but they are annoying just the same. The reason the movie is dark is because there's another creature about this time of year, one that is much more than annoying, a small but very ferocious creature capable of destroying homes, buildings, trees. It's the Formosan Termite and when they swarm, the male and female nymphs mate in the air and then fall to the ground to start a new colony capable of eating a wall of your house in just a year. They are attracted to light, so we keep it dark during the week or so when they swarm. In the worst case, a swarm of Formosan termites looks like a heavy snow fall. Our native termites have an important function; to get rid of the dead wood and turn it into soil again, and if there were too many of them, the toads would probably eat the excess in order to have enough energy for more toad-fucking and gooy egg making. (The just gum up the pump in the pond sometimes!)

But the Formosan's are a new arrival, coming to this area just after WW Two, (this was a big Navy base...) and there just isn't much to hold them in check, except for the local entymologists who seem to be making some headway. They've been able to treat an area of the French Quarter and the termite population there has dropped by two thirds. This effort required an enormous amount of cooperation between private property owners and public entities, but amazingly it happened. (It has not happened in Paris where Formosan termites are destroying the old buildings at an incredible rate. Successful treatment requires everyone to treat their areas and apparently the Parisians have not been able to cooperate on this level.)

I used to be a little freaked out about all this ferocious, vibrant life outside my back door. It was much more intense than what I was used to in my life up north near the Canadian border; things grew much more slowly...

I kind of like it now, it's like having the Nature Channel live! Kind of fun to watch.

But you do not even want to hear about the nasty stinging Buck Moth Caterpillars... they are nasty and painful should you accidentally touch one, which is not hard to do because they are every-fucking-where right now, crawling all over everything!... hehe.)

Never mind.


durlx

Mo' Jazz Fest!

Karen and Chris arrived last Tuesday evening and I welcomed them into my freshly cleaned home... (well almost all of it was cleaned, my room was the notable exception... but I had painted the bathroom and put in new floor tiles in honor of their visit so they hardly noticed my room.) I always love seeing my sisters Karen and Chris, (they have been together for over 25 years now and I think of Chris as my sister as well). We did all the hello things and eventually got to sleep for the night.

The next morning we went to meet their friends Velma and Linda at the Maison Dupuy (a rather lovely French Quarter Hotel) where they were staying. It was their first time here together. We headed to the Coffee Pot, which is our favorite breakfast place, and had a very pleasant breakfast in the courtyard. The waitstaff were totally amusing as always. When Linda was the only one to order a Mimosa, our waitress said "What! Only ONE of you is havin' a Mimosa!" Chris said that perhaps some of us were just too old to be drinking this early in the ayem. Our waitress gave us all a pitiful look and said, "Honey, ain't nothin' gettin' old but the shoes and the clothes!" and went off to the kitchen laughing. (That "shoes and the clothes" line is an old southern country thing, great to hear it). Over breakfast I started to get to know Linda and Velma a bit and realized right away that I was going to like these gurls.


We left the Coffee Pot and headed towards the river. Just as we were entering Jackson Square, I had gotten a few steps ahead of the others as they had drawn closer to each other to talk about something that had happened at home, and this guy pops up in front of me and yells, "Man! HOW many women DO you HAVE! Are you a PIMP or a PREACHER?!" We all totally lost it. And I think it was about this time that Velma and Linda started to think that they were going to have a really good time in New Orleans.


We walked through the square and along the river and then back to Decatur Street to make a stop at the Cigar Factory, a place that Karen and Velma very much wanted to visit.



Quite amusing... Karen and Velma looove cigars! Chris and Linda do not love or even much like cigars... but they both make accomodations for their mates' peculiar tastes, hehe! It was sweet to sit there listening to the cuban music and watching the guys roll cigars and watching Karen and Velma smokin' away... and watching Chris and Linda rolling their eyes and smiling...


Next we did the river cruise on the Steamboat Natchez.




I've done the river cruise over a hundred times over the years, but it's always fun... it's all about the river here after all.

I took two small movies of the steam engines in the Natchez and the paddle wheel as we steamed down the river. The engine room is one of my favorite places on the boat. Perhaps you can see why that is... (These are QuickTime movies with sound).

Engine Room

Paddle Wheel


During the cruise we passed Paul Allen's private yacht...



You don't hear much about him in the press, but he co-founded MicroSoft with Bill Gates. This is his newest boat. It has a crew of 28, 12 state rooms, a couple of tenders, (the boats that go back and forth to shore) and... a submarine! Now, don't you wish you were a computer geek when it wasn't cool? A friend who should know tells me that money does not buy happiness though... can't say more...


After the boat, we shopped the French Market where Velma found some wonderful pens and then walked the few blocks to my house. I poured a few glasses of the new Bonny Doon Big House Pink and everyone had a chance to sit and rest. The gurlz went off to dinner and I took a brief nap and then went to work at ten PM to do a reset of our tea area. I had gotten a bit sun burned during the day, (not at all a good thing for me!) and ended up working until three ayem. The next day, Thursday, they all went to Jazz Fest, but I stayed home and slept until it was time to meet for dinner.



Linda and Velma took us to NOLA, one of Emeril's restaurants.



We did a four course tasting menu with three wines. I must say that this wouldn't have been my first choice of places to dine, but it was a very memorable meal! The service was impeccable, the food was very good and the wines were well matched. It was good to have a very good and pleasant meal in a restaurant owned by a famous chef; it rarely happens, so this was a pleasant surprise. After dinner, we went to the Maison Dupuy for a cocktail. I called luca and chatted for a while and then we went home.


an aside here... years ago I was chef at a small Garden District bistro called Indulgence. Emeril was the chef at Commander's Palace just a block away. (this was well before he was famous..) and he would come to eat every Tuesday, his day off. It's a good thing to cook for another chef and when he returns every week, it's a really good thing. We used to talk and I liked him, nice guy.


It rained a lot on Friday and the fest was cancelled for that day. But Saturday it cleared enough and the gurls went out to the fairgrounds again whre they saw Odetta.




And spent some time in the always rockin' Gospel Tent.




I worked and met them at my place. We went to a seafood place called Deanies, a place of worship to those who love and desire fried local fried seafood. We ordered some appetizers and a soup or two and this emormous plate....




It was yummy. We walked Linda and Velma back to the hotel and hugged them as they had a six ayem flight on Sunday morning. I'm looking forward to seeing them this summer when I visit my Dad in Rochester... Karen, Chris and I went to my house and crashed. I went to work on Sunday for a few hours and met up with my sisters around five at my house. We ordered a pizza and watched "Something's Gotta Give" with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton. (You might remember that I saw it on the flight back from Dublin and was amazed at the laughter from my fellow travelers). We enjoyed totally! Old people in love rock! Hehe.

We had breakfast at a local joint, "La Peniche" and stopped at the water garden shop on the way home for a bit of last minute shopping. Karen and Chris finished packing, called a cab and then Robert came out of his house to stand weeping loudly and waving his hankerchief and blowing his nose just to amuse us, then his cat Paddy caught a morning dove and we had to convince Paddy to let the bird go and it flew away, and then we all hugged and the gurls got into the cab and left for the airport.

It was lovely morning.




durlx