CS had today off. Oh, what to do? How not to waste the day? I read the newspaper and scanned what events were going on today.  There was a book sale at one of the libraries.  That’s always a good thing to me.  Then there was a party for the streetcar beginning the route from Carrollton to St. Charles Avenue again post-Katrina.  Well, I am all about streetcars these days.

But then my eye settled on a third event.  A book reading at New Orleans Main Library.  The book was “Cooling the South: The Block Ice Era, 1875-1975,” by Elli Morris.  See, my family, way back when, was a very major player in the New Orleans block ice business.  A great-great-great uncle made a fortune in the business and sold it just before the Stock Market Crash of 1929.  And his line of the family sailed through the Great Depression flush with cash.  My great-great-grandfather had a small piece of this family business and my great-grandfather worked in the business, too, until it was sold.

So, with my curiosity piqued, we were off.  Getting off the elevator on the Main Library’s third floor brought me back in time to the countless hours I spent there researching my family.  How coincidental that that research had brought me back where I started for a book reading.

Inside the auditorium, there were few people.  Elli Morris talked for about 45 minutes.  Her family owned the Morris Ice Company in Jackson, Mississippi.  She grew up around all the machinery.  Her photographer’s eye drew her to the icehouse over and over.  Their icehouse is no longer working (like so many other block ice plants) but it is still every bit in tact.  She lived there for a year in 2001.  And explored and photographed.

Then she researched and learned that her family played a role in a much bigger piece of southern, even American, history.  And so her little story about her family’s business mushroomed into a much bigger project.  Her book is the result of her hard work.

She talked about the inventor of the first ice machine and ice deliverymen, and the ice trucks that were pulled by mules.  She explained that some trucks did not have a spot in the front for a driver; that the mule knew the route and didn’t need to be steered.  And she talked about the switch to refrigerators and the customers who returned their refrigerators because they were too noisy!

She intimated to the decline of the block ice industry, but “didn’t want to give away” the end of her tale.

Morris then opened the room for Q&A and then signed and sold her books and blank cards of her beautiful photographs.  Her book is wonderful–it is hardcover and filled with lovely photographs along with her thoroughly researched story.  The cover of her book shows a block of ice “feathering” as it freezes from the outside in.

Elli Morris will be in the New Orleans area for about a week and then she is moving on to other parts of the country with her book tour.  This is something that is truly fascinating, and hearing her tell of her story and read from it was just a delight.  Click on her site here and check out her schedule.  You won’t be disappointed.

I prepared my longest post ever. Then broke it into three shorter posts. Then wasn’t satisfied at all. Then the Supreme Court ruled that we have a Constitutional personal right to bear arms. Then my head exploded. And I got political on twitter about local politics. Then a recording of one of those local politicians called my house. And my head exploded again.

Earlier, I wrote about knitting and how whatever I experience as I knit goes into the piece and becomes a part of it every bit as much as the yarn. Cue the awwws. Yeah, well, the warm and fuzzies have left the building.

And instead of going on a political rant that will generate comments that are certain to make me seethe, I will only quote the philosopher Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.” And I will be pissed if I am repeating a past others failed to learn.

Goodnight and good luck.

I am starting to feel a good bit better.  Thanks, Katie, for all your e-mails of support and for everyone else’s comments and twitterings; it all really helped!

Today I had the privilege of meeting Jane Moneypenny from Variety is the Spice.  I don’t know how many of you have read this blog, but it’s special.  It is co-authored by two 20-something girlfriends in a conversational setting–as though they are talking over a cup of coffee or a beer.

My suspicions were confirmed today.  Jane and I were separated at birth.  Yes, she is 13 years younger than me (not that she pointed that out, she is no way that rude!), and yes we don’t look all that much alike.  But we are one in the same.  We share the same childhood, the same all-girl NOLA Catholic high school experience, the same values, the same morals, the same opinions.  Hell, we even share the same philosophy about clothing and shoes: they are nice, but there are so many more REASONABLE things to spend our hard earned money on!

But here’s where she and I differ.  When I jumped into life, I jumped into law school.  And living 8 hours from NOLA.  Then came home and settled in for the long haul.

Jane, she went to college in St. Louis then stayed for a job.  But then she realized that wasn’t her life’s ambition.  So how did she jump into life?  She jumped off a cliff.  Literally.  And figuratively.  Because if jumping off that cliff wasn’t ballsy enough (and it was way more ballsy than anything I’ve ever done), she’s quit her comfortable, secure, 401(k)- and health insurance-provided job.  And she has no job lined up.  And she’s going to Europe for three (3!) weeks.  She actually does those things that I hardly allowed myself to dream.

She’s saved her money so that she can have this amazing European experience with a few of her friends.  And once back in the States, she’ll start looking for that right job, that right city, that is the right venue for her to continue her life’s great adventure.  Aren’t you dying of jealousy?  Didn’t you wish you’d have had the nerve to do that at 25 years old?

Well, you can!  Sort of.  You, like me, can live vicariously as Jane starts her life’s big adventure and blogs as she goes.  I am sure she will have a great time and have not one single regret about leaving St. Louis.  I am still in awe with what she’s already done, and she hasn’t even gotten on a plane yet.

Bon voyage, Jane!  Send us postcards!!

CS and I are driving to Dallas today to visit family.  I have been looking forward to this mini-vacation.  But I got news last night that the place in Dallas that made the best Frito Burger I ever ate (ok, so it was the only Frito Burger I ever ate, but it was so good I never wanted to eat one elsewhere) is now a *gasp* 7-11!  And if that news isn’t bad enough, CS then told me that our new laptops don’t have the slot to accept the internet card we’d used for years when travelling.  So, in addition to no Frito Burger, I will have no internet.

No internet.

No internet to check e-mail; read blogs; look up local yarn stores; read news; and do all the other things I do online all the time without even thinking about it.  And though I do have the internet on my phone (and can still twitter, thank God for that), it isn’t fast or accessible enough to have “real” internet.

So have a lovely Memorial Day weekend.  I’ll be shaking from withdrawals in just a few short hours.  I can do this, can’t I?

Captain Sarcastic is many things.  For one thing, he is good at getting the latest gotta-have electronic item.  Today, he asked me to help him unload the car.  I assumed there were groceries.  I was wrong.  Wii Fit was sitting in the back of the car.

So, after determining that I am overweight (not a secret–still gotta lose that baby weight), I jumped on my Wii Board and started to hula.  And what did it show?  That I FAILED!  Wha?  Screw hula hoops.  Let me balance.  I have GREAT balance.  I took yoga for years.  Well, according to Wii Fit, my balance is off, way off.  So, what’s a girl to do?  I broke for dinner out with a friend.

But after dinner, we returned to the Wii.  And I did the hula hoop thing over and over until I finally “passed.”  Then we hit soccer balls (and the occasional shoe and panda head) with our heads.  Then we moved to the slolum.  I had trouble getting between the flags but got the hang of it about the fourth time.  And we ski jumped.  And I eventually passed each task I started.  And it was a lot of FUN.  And a good bit sweaty.

So if you don’t see much of me here for a while, don’t worry.  You can find me on my Wii Board.  And maybe the next time I am here, I’ll have a BMI or Fit Age of 21!

Also posted at Pontchartrain Pete.

The NOLA bloggers have been doing great work covering the first weekend 2008 Jazz & Heritage Festival. Chronicling the rising prices, the food, the rain, the influx of tourists Foreigners taking over and most of all the music, NOLA bloggers have written of their experiences for all to read. We therefore bestow the following Lucky Blog awards for excellence in all things Orleanian and Jazz-Festy, First Weekend of Jazz Fest Edition:

Best Overall: Wet Bank Guy at Toulouse Street’s Battling Fortuna at the Track, and his posts that follow.

Most Thorough Coverage: Minor Wisdom’s posts starting with Where I’ll be on Friday (maybe) and continuing for each day of the fest so far.

New Orleans Music’s Best Friend: Bonerama Freak Stacey’s Jazz Fest or Rain Fest?

Best Jazz Fest Newbie Post: Kiss My Gumbo’s My 1st Jazzfest.

Best Jazz Fest Post From Someone Who Didn’t Go; also, Best Atmospheric Post: Tim’s Nameless Blog’s The Sounds of New Orleans.

Best Rant on the Foreigners Taking Over: Mosquito Coast’s Jazz Fest Musings.

Good Solid Posts That Do Not Necessarily Fall Into Any Category: Prytania Water Line’s Jazzfest Story and Drive By Blogger’s advice to the Foreigners at New Orleans Jazz Festival 2008.

So here are your awards to claim, if you so choose.

Full size:

Or bling-sized:

Disclaimer: Read these other blogs at your own risk. We don’t vouch for other peoples’ content in posts and comments we didn’t read. Also, Pete and Nola bestow these awards in appreciation of everyone’s hard work, wit and humor. If we left anyone out, sorry, we tried to gather as many as we could. You’re welcome to point out posts we should have seen in the comments.

My funk is, finally, over.  Over. OVER. O.V.E.R.  And I hate to admit what it took, but I will

It took a day completely, fully, wholly, unattached.  Captain Sarcastic took Sun to Jazz Fest today, and because I had to work yesterday I was not in the office today.  Ten plus hours of me-time!  Ah, it was a luxury just to think of it.  I wanted to do NOTHING of the things I normally do; I needed to do something other than the same places with the same faces.

Yesterday on the twitter, talks were had about meeting for drinks this afternoon.  Things were settled on Cooter Brown’s.  Then, later in the evening on the twitter, Bud’s Broiler came up.  And before long, YatPundit and I had made plans to meet for lunch for a Number 4 and Number 3, respectively, each with cheese fries.

So once CS and Sun were off this morning, I spent an hour cleaning.  I got more cleaning done in that one alone-hour than I have in the past year!  It was amazing.

Then lunch.  I LOVE a burger at Bud’s Broiler; they are char-grilled and yummy.  But today the focus wasn’t on the food; it was on the company, the conversation.  We talked about blogging, twittering, lawyering.  We talked about the proposed church closings, cemeteries, where we went to high school.  We talked about being a cultural catholic, and about being a parent.  We talked and talked and talked.  No babies, no office calls.

After three and a half hours, I needed to leave.  I had meant to run to the knitting store between lunch and my next agenda item, but that fell to the wayside.  YatPundit and I parted and I drove to Old Metairie to meet Katie at Lovejoy Spa for a pedicure.  I haven’t had a pedicure since I was pregnant–a year and a half ago.  It was JUST what I needed.  Adult activities with adults with no children.  We talked about weddings and doctors and weddings OF doctors.  It was decadent.  I could have sat in that vibrating chair for two pedicures.

Then Katie and I parted–her to nap and me to head to Cooter Brown’s.  At Cooter Brown’s, Yat Pundit arrived and then WarriorEngineer. And so did my cousin and two of his friends.  We drank beers from “around the world.”  And I ate a dozen raw oysters.  Their oysters are some of the best in the city: super fresh, ice cold and salty.  Oh, and yeah, MORE cheese fries.  Damn, their cheese fries are amazing: hot discs of potatoes SMOTHERED in dripping hot melted cheese.

At the end of it all, I got a call from CS sounding downright frazzled.  This is a sound usually found in MY voice, not his.  All day at Jazz Fest alone with Sun–including an exploding diaper and port-o-lets–had taken its toll. I was needed back home.

Walking in the front door to a bathed Sun (Sun-bathed?) and an apologetic husband (he was sorry he’d interrupted my day alone–can you believe?), I was rejuvenated, refreshed.  I AM rejuvenated, refreshed.

I am appreciative of the blessings of my life, of my family, of this lil blog o’ mine, of the comments and e-mails you, my amazing readers, sent me regarding my last post.

I am a lucky gal.  And all I needed was a bit of exclusive me-time to feel it all again.

I am slowly coming around to feeling completely like myself.  But my irritability is still high, a sure sign I am not myself.  Here’s two examples.

The cat.  Peanut has been using our bathroom floor as, well, toilet paper.  Don’t know why.  Just know that I walk in to the bathroom to brush my teeth and there’s this nice long smear.  Oh, the expletives.  CS tells me that she’s obviously needing to go to the vet because something must be wrong.  That is certainly logical and the answer that gives Peanut the benefit of the doubt.  I, on the other hand, think nothing logical.  I want to kick her in her smearing ass and throw her outside.  Twice in two days this has happened.  I will call the vet to try to get an appointment tomorrow.  In the meantime, it is best if Peanut avoids me at all costs.

My blog.  I have nothing to say these days.  I was feeling very positive about finding my voice here and enjoying what I wrote.  But lately, I feel uninspired, that my writing is flat and my topics are tired.  A friend installed a new feature for me to look at my blog stats differently.  So now I have been paying way too much attention to those numbers.  And it just annoys me because I honestly don’t blog for the comments I get or the number of visits I get.  But.  There I am looking at the stats three different ways now.  (Why do all three show different numbers for the same thing?? So confusing.  Don’t answer!  It will only feed this negative energy!)

Ah.

So if I am not posting here often, it’s a public service of not putting dull posts out there.  A public service, that is, to the ten of you that read my blog.  And to you ten, thanks.  I do appreciate the readership.

After a big excursion, be it a vacation or Mardi Gras, or in this case, two solid days of French Quarter Fest, I am always left blue.  Add to that the very little sleep I got last night (we are attempting to use the Ferber method to get Sun to omit that 3am bottle-feeding) coupled with the stress of tax time, and I have been reduced to a sappy mess.  This afternoon, I read a post on the blog of a new internet friend that literally brought me to tears.

I know New Orleans has a lot of things that are negative about it.  But on a weekend like this it is hard to believe someone can be sad here.  The weather has just been perfect–in the 70s with breezes blowing, the city is lush in green everywhere you look.  And with good food and drink (without over-imbibing), and pleasant time spent with friends and family, the blues snuck up on me unawares.

I spent part of my day at the mall.  I hate, HATE, H.A.T.E. the mall.  And I was there to return stuff I bought on sale earlier in the week.  I got sucked into the ole “the more you spend the more you save” routine.  And living with buyer’s remorse sent me back today to set things straight again.  I don’t like how much emphasis this country (the world?) puts on clothing and labels and buying the latest fashion.  And to find it in a store selling baby clothing really set me even further in a funk.  And to tip the scales to assure my misery was that while I was there returning $60 worth of baby clothes that may or may not fit Sun in a year, the mother in front of me was buying $350 worth of stuff for her five-year old daughter: dresses, sandals, tops, pants, shorts, bracelets, sunglasses.  Really?  Do you need the matching bandanna AND bracelet AND sandals to go with a sundress for a five year old?  If so, Sun will not be popular.

Once done with the mall (and I was outta there pretty fast), I went to St. Henry’s Church.  The New Orleans Archdiocese has made the decision that it will be closing this church along with several others soon.  Not because of Katrina.  But because the Archdiocese is a business and these churches aren’t turning the profit they want to see.  St. Henry’s is where my great-great-great-grandfather’s funeral was out of; it’s the church where my great-grandparents as well as my uncle were married.  It is walking distance from property that has been in my family for over a hundred years.  Its closing is very symbolic to me.  And of course, very sad.

See, I live and thrive in New Orleans because I do not like change.  And neither does New Orleans.  For better or worse, we both like to keep on keeping on.  And when we do change, that change is slow.  S.L.O.W.  But I do not attend St. Henry’s Church (I currently attend church very rarely).  I feel I have “no dog in the fight,” that it is only for sentimental reasons that I want that church to stay open.  But for St. Henry’s 300 parishioners, it’s not symbolic nor sentimental, it just plain sucks.  Maitri does a much better job articulating the feelings of New Orleanians about these church closings.

So of course, getting to St. Henry’s and finding it locked really bummed me out further.  I’ll be going to mass there next Sunday.  At least it will afford me the opportunity to ask my family members if they’d like to accompany me.  I think they will.

I know I will come out of this funk, and probably sooner on account on all this nice weather NOLA is having.  And all the spring cleaning CS and I are doing in the house.  It is helping just to have our windows open right now.  And out one of those windows I can see a bloom on my hibiscus bush.  Because that punch of red admist all the green that abounds really keeps a gal like me from staying blue too long.

First, some background. For those who are not in the know, Blog Net News (BNN) is a site that aggregates blogs by category and by major cities. My blog is listed under Blog Net News–New Orleans. The owner of this site is Dave Mastio. The local editor is Greta Perry.

Now, BNN has been getting spit upon lately by some bloggers. And this made me scratch my head because my experience with BNN has been a very positive one. So I read the rants and have found enough inaccuracies that I decided to write this post if for no other reason than to defend why I have BNN-NO listed in my blogroll.

Let’s look at something I really like: Facts. I am going to take these slowly and in number order so when you bash me later you can easily list which parts you disagree with.

1. There seems to be much loathing for Dave Mastio and much discrediting of him because, they say, he is a Bushie. He did write for the Bush administration, but not for Bush. In fact, he was the former speechwriter for the United States Trade Representative and he worked on the Australia FTA and the Central America FTA. If you can name who the US Trade Rep is (or what the FTAs do, even) without googling it, then you may have a beef. Otherwise, calling him a Bushie without reviewing the content of those speeches is nothing more than propaganda. And it is all irrelevant because BNN lists all blogs, regardless of a blog’s political bias. And, incidentally, more bloggers are liberal than conservative and I’d suspect the blogs on BNN are likewise. Moving on.

2. It is alleged that BNN does not link back to your blog. This is, bluntly, FALSE. It does link back. If you click on the title of your post, it redirects to your site. If you click on the name of your blog, it brings you to another BNN page that shows blurbs of your blog’s most current posts. Click on one and it takes you to your blog.

3. Some say BNN posts bloggers’ entire posts. Again, this is FALSE. Unless your post is really, really short. BNN posts blurbs.

4. It is argued that BNN keeps traffic from your site. I suppose the argument is that why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? In this case, the reason is to read the entire post. I can only speak to my blog, but my stats clearly show traffic coming FROM BNN. And I also know that I use BNN to GO to others’ blogs. It in no way keeps me from visiting another’s blog.

5. BNN makes ad dollars and doesn’t pay the blogs listed. This is TRUE. And this is just like all the other aggregators out there. The remuneration to the bloggers is exposure. The idea is you get more traffic. And hopefully that traffic will click on your ads. I am not the least bit bothered that BNN has ads.

6. It is argued that blogs listed on BNN are being damaged by reduced ad dollars on the actual blogs. I suppose the argument is that due to reduced traffic to your own site (No. 4) and that BNN has its own ads (No. 5), that your blog is making less in ads. Since I don’t believe traffic is reduced (and believe it may actually be increased) nor am I bothered by No. 5, I simply do not believe that blogs listed on BNN are being financially hampered is an accurate conclusion that can be reached.

7. BNN will not remove a blogger not wanting to participate. Again, FALSE. To my knowledge, everyone who has been asked to be removed has been removed in a reasonably short period of time. Of course, when you are pissed off, 24+ hours does not seem “reasonably short.” But it is.

8. Then there’s the pesky “he’s violating my copyright” argument. This is the pet-peeviest of all because it offends the lawyer in me. Let me state a few premises to begin: (a) blogs are on the internet; (b) the internet is by definition a public place; (c) if you have an RSS feed, you are allowing anyone the access to do what BNN is doing–scraping your feeds; (d) prior permission is not need by law, nor is it a violation of your copyright to not get it, to scrape your feeds (if it was, folks would need your prior permission to get your RSS feed, and I would assume for those bloggers that have that bright orange button on their blogs, that this permission is implied); (e) I am an attorney but not an Intellectual Property attorney.

I did more than I suspect many bloggers bashing BNN have done: I talked to an IP attorney about BNN, and I even had her look at the BNN-NO site. She did not do a full review of the legal issue, but her cursory review suggests that there are no violations occurring; that it falls under the fair use exception and buttressed further by a court-created exception relating to items of news. Bottom line, unless you have actually talked to an IP lawyer and have been explained this extremely murky area of sophisticated law, don’t spout the law. If you are an IP attorney, or you play one on TV, please feel free to clarify this point for us.

When you boil it all down, what seems to really be pissing people off is that BNN did not first ask people to be listed. He violated blog etiquette. And folks are really not feeling the love from BNN. If you are really worried about having your feeds scraped (sounds nasty, doesn’t it?), then look into removing the feed button, or adding a request that you be contacted before your feed is linked. It’s not too hard.

And let me close with saying that it was because of BNN-NO that I found many, many NOLA bloggers that I had not known existed, bloggers I have since met in person and really am the better for knowing. Was that worth the value of ad dollars attributed to my blurbs listed on BNN? Without a doubt.