friends from home & chargrilled oysters. october 12.

In the middle of September I received a random phone call from a random phone number. Lo and behold it was Taylor Moss, the husband of the Heather, one of the girls I visit taught in our BYU ward. Heather and Taylor have an adorable little boy named Will that Michael and I babysat a couple of times, but they graduated and moved to California to start a business around the same time we came to Louisiana. (You can see their cute blog and Will's hilarious faces here.) Taylor and his coworker Jordan (also someone that Michael knew from Idaho Falls) came to New Orleans for a trade show, and we got to save some packages for them and welcome to New Orleans! I was just pleased as punch that we had someone from home coming to visit.

Well, we hadn't been to A.C.M.E. for char-grilled oysters yet, so we thought we might as well introduce these Californians to some real Southern food: seafood po-boys and catfish. I've never had oysters, and I'm not much of a slimy food fan, but smother it with garlic and cheese and butter, and I'm all over it. Taylor and Jordan were too kind and bought us dinner-- thank you!!

We told them they had to try beignets too, but going into the French Quarter was out of the question because of traffic, so we opted for the Cafe du Monde experience in the mall.

We had a great time telling them about all the things they needed to do during their time off and seeing some friendly faces!

the battle for the paddle. october 5.

It took me a little while to buck up the courage, but Michael finally helped/forced me to write an email to the editor of the L'Observateur to ask for another assignment, and the assignment I got was to go to an event we were already excited about going to already!

The Battle for the Paddle is the annual jambalaya and gumbo cook-off for St. Charles Parish under the West Bank Bridge. We met up with Andy, the Hall's, the Rich's, and the Guilfou's to enjoy the $5 you-can-eat-as-much-food-as-you-can-stuff-into-your-mouth. Well, if you really want, you can read my article that explains it a little better here (just accept my shameless plug). I even got in for free because the lady I was getting all my information for the article called me "press." Ha! I guess it's almost true, but it still seems deceitful because I don't have any idea what I'm doing with my little point-and-shoot and borrowed tape recorder.

And voila, my article appeared on the front page! The guy in the picture, Randy, works at Monsanto with David, one of the guys Michael shares an office building with. As soon I showed up to interview David, David brought Randy over saying, "Here. He'll talk your ear off." It's true. He was a hoot. The picture on the right is much more his personality than the one they put in the newspaper.

By the end of the interview, he was telling me about how he picks up roadkill along the side of the road on his way home from work if he didn't see it there on the way to work, and make jambalaya and gumbo out of it. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Truth be told, I wouldn't mind hanging out with slightly-drunk Cajuns more often ;)

And getting to eat some seriously good Cajun food.

insectarium. october 6.

Like I told y'all in this post, we picked up the Audubon Experience package, and on October 5th, we ran off to the Insectarium and another walk up and down Canal Street. Much of the museum was geared toward kids, so maybe we're childish for enjoying it as much as we did, but what of it?

But we really did enjoy petting cockroaches, sampling the waxworms and crickets (we even got a stamp that says "I ate a bug!"), and gawking over millions of beetles pinned in lovely ways and the biggest wasp we've ever seen (cracker jackers, anyone?).

As a note: we did find the Butterfly Garden beautifully decorated, but with a disappointing lack of butterflies.  I remember going through a Butterfly Garden at the Hogle Zoo long ago, and it was a magical experience, so maybe I've been tainted, but this one just couldn't compare.

playing catch up... bear with me

I'm on my way back to blogging (maybe. That is what I said last time...). I think I'll do a couple of quick posts in succession. We'll see if it actually happens though.

Just bear with me as I half-rush through the next couple of posts. I'll try to go chronologically, and hopefully add some decent pictures, too.