b.rox

I’ve been in a bit of a flame war on an e-mail discussion list over the last couple weeks. I thought it was all rather silly, but my main combatant sent me a private message last night, off-list, that has really thrown me for a loop. Here’s the pertinent extract:

I am still restrained about this. [...]

I salute the people of Louisiana who made it to the polls Saturday. Obama beat Clinton by a big margin; Huckabee beat McCain.
Locally, a few friends and fellow bloggers were in the running for some Democratic executive committee seats. Karen and Danger won, Michael and Oyster did not. I was also glad to see Ed [...]

Our friends DJ and Daisy and Anna and Lili came over, and we spent the day moving furniture from room to room.
My office has moved in to the front room which had been serving as our “living room” (such a strange name for a room!) since our lower floor was flooded. Our bedroom has moved [...]

I’m not sure who said what, but in this CityBusiness article I seem to have merged with Michael Homan.

Today’s the Chinese New Year. I’m a bit disturbed that our child will be born in the Year of the Rat, because I don’t particularly care for rats. But maybe I should learn to respect the rat. Did you know rats share the gift of laughter with us?
I got a card from my friend MF [...]

Well, we did it. For a while I didn’t think we would be able to pull it off. First there was my sprained ankle. Then Xy came down with a cold. Then I came down with some kinda low-grade sore-throat thing. I was very close to canceling.
But in the end it all came together. We [...]

Kalypso surveys her street and finds 70% of the houses are uninhabited.

Today it’s been a year since Helen was killed, and like Cristin, I don’t know quite what to say.
The superintendent of police was on TV last night saying that they had a suspect, but he couldn’t reveal anything more about the case. To be honest, my first thought was: He’s lying. It’s been a year, [...]

Xy made one circuit of the bonfire, not easy for a pregnant lady given the general rowdiness.
Next year, prob’ly not.
Our old friend Tony stopped by. Living in Seattle seems to have softened him up. In the old days, I had to be careful, as drinking around him had a high correlation with major hangovers. Now [...]

Last night Xy and I took one of her students out to dinner at Venezia’s. We had pasta and pizza and then got desert at Angelo Brocato’s. After that we went to see The Golden Compass at the Prytania.
Caitlyn is very quiet and serious, one of Xy’s smartest students. In fact, Xy’s says Caitlyn is [...]

A friend of mine celebrated her first birthday today. (Yes, I’m also friends with her mother, but after watching the girl bury her face in cake I feel a special bond.) What was really amazing to me was how many people showed up for the event with kids the same age in tow. There must [...]

Jaylene and her friend Tom came down from Indy for a quick visit this weekend. Saturday night we had dinner at Jacques-Imo’s, with just a bit of trepidation since we kinda thought they were slipping a while back, plus Xy had a major meltdown last time we visited. I’m happy to report we found Jacques-Imo’s [...]

After the culinary fiasco of 2004, I approached this year’s Thanksgiving with some trepidation. My confidence was not bolstered when Xy finally read the creme bruleé recipe and asked the following immortal question:
What’s an egg yolk?
I couldn’t believe she was serious, but it turns out she’s never separated an egg before and couldn’t remember [...]

I’ve gotten the staining done. It took four days of solid work, plus a half-day of touch up this morning, not to mention a day of dicking around prep work, but it’s done.
Next step: varnish. I hope the varnishing doesn’t take as long. I’ll get started on that tomorrow. I’ve got three days before [...]

Please take a moment to contact your local PBS affiliate and ask them to air the film Helen Hill: Celebrating a Life in Film. You can get further information about how to do this here.

Jeff and Laura came over to watch the Saints game today. Like us, they’re Hoosierleanians — transplants from Indiana who’ve come to call New Orleans home. Only Jeff is also a radiologist, and he’s doing his residency right now, which means that he and Laura are living in Michigan for a whole year. They’re taking [...]

At lunch today Frank said that I was part of the reason he and his wife decided to stay in New Orleans. Whoa, I thought. That’s heavy. But how could it be? By deliberate choice, I’ve never encouraged anyone to stay here. He said it was not because of any one specific thing, just the [...]

Before the panel, Chris and Sandy and Alan and Ted and I were sitting together, having breakfast and chatting.
Chris asked each of us for a tidbit of personal info he could use in the introductions. I told him I put the first TV series on the internet. Alan considered for a moment and finally said, [...]

Today I went to see the Saints game with Michael. We rode our bikes to the Superdome. It was the first NFL game I’ve ever seen. The Bloody Mary was good and so was the alligator sausage. Pretty cool that the Saints won. That’s four straight wins after four straight losses, a crazy season so [...]

Last week I moderated a blogger panel. I was disappointed with the low attendance, but at certain times of the semester it’s hard to get faculty to turn out. However, I was very pleased with the actual content — the bloggers were articulate and thoughtful and passionate. It was a great discussion. A big thank [...]