Etymology of "Foo"

I have long claimed that I invented the term "foo", but it turns out that the concept has been around for a lot longer than I thought.  It turns out that the day I inadvertantly injured myself and yelled, "Foofoomonkey!" instead of other possible exclamations, I was apparently building upon a long tradition of folks with a different sense of humor.  Here is some essential reading on the history of foofiness in popular culture.

Etymology of "Foo"

D. E. Eastlake III, C. U. Manros, E. S. Raymond

Abstract

Approximately 212 RFCs so far, starting with RFC 269, contain the terms `foo', `bar', or `foobar' as metasyntactic variables without any proper explanation or definition. This document rectifies that deficiency.


Introduction

Approximately 212 RFCs, or about 7% of RFCs issued so far, starting with [RFC269], contain the terms `foo', `bar', or `foobar' used as a metasyntactic variable without any proper explanation or definition. This may seem trivial, but a number of newcomers, especially if English is not their native language, have had problems in understanding the origin of those terms. This document rectifies that deficiency.


Definition and Etymology

bar /bar/ n. [JARGON]
1. The second metasyntactic variable, after foo and before baz. "Suppose we have two functions: FOO and BAR. FOO calls BAR...."
2. Often appended to foo to produce foobar.

foo /foo/
1. interj. Term of disgust.
2. Used very generally as a sample name for absolutely anything, esp. programs and files (esp. scratch files).
3. First on the standard list of metasyntactic variables used in syntax examples (bar, baz, qux, quux, corge, grault, garply, waldo, fred, plugh, xyzzy, thud). [JARGON]

When used in connection with `bar' it is generally traced to the WW II era Army slang acronym FUBAR (`Fucked Up Beyond All Repair'), later modified to foobar. Early versions of the Jargon File [JARGON] interpreted this change as a post-war bowdlerization, but it now seems more likely that FUBAR was itself a derivative of `foo' perhaps influenced by German `furchtbar' (terrible) - `foobar' may actually have been the original form.

For, it seems, the word `foo' itself had an immediate prewar history in comic strips and cartoons. In the 1938 Warner Brothers cartoon directed by Robert Clampett, "The Daffy Doc", a very early version of Daffy Duck holds up a sign saying "SILENCE IS FOO!" `FOO' and `BAR' also occurred in Walt Kelly's "Pogo" strips.

The earliest documented uses were in the surrealist "Smokey Stover" comic strip by Bill Holman about a fireman. This comic strip appeared in various American comics including "Everybody's" between about 1930 and 1952. It frequently included the word "FOO" on license plates of cars, in nonsense sayings in the background of some frames such as "He who foos last foos best" or "Many smoke but foo men chew", and had Smokey say "Where there's foo, there's fire". Bill Holman, the author of the strip, filled it with odd jokes and personal contrivances, including other nonsense phrases such as "Notary Sojac" and "1506 nix nix".

According to the Warner Brothers Cartoon Companion [WBCC] Holman claimed to have found the word "foo" on the bottom of a Chinese figurine. This is plausible; Chinese statuettes often have apotropaic inscriptions, and this may have been the Chinese word `fu' (sometimes transliterated `foo'), which can mean "happiness" when spoken with the proper tone (the lion-dog guardians flanking the steps of many Chinese restaurants are properly called "fu dogs") [PERS]. English speakers' reception of Holman's `foo' nonsense word was undoubtedly influenced by Yiddish `feh' and English `fooey' and `fool'. [JARGON, FOLDOC]

Holman's strip featured a firetruck called the Foomobile that rode on two wheels. The comic strip was tremendously popular in the late 1930s, and legend has it that a manufacturer in Indiana even produced an operable version of Holman's Foomobile.

According to the Encyclopedia of American Comics [EAC], `Foo' fever swept the U.S., finding its way into popular songs and generating over 500 `Foo Clubs.' The fad left `foo' references embedded in popular culture (including the couple of appearances in Warner Brothers cartoons of 1938-39) but with their origins rapidly forgotten. [JARGON]

One place they are known to have remained live is in the U.S. military during the WWII years. In 1944-45, the term `foo fighters' [FF] was in use by radar operators for the kind of mysterious or spurious trace that would later be called a UFO (the older term resurfaced in popular American usage in 1995 via the name of one of the better grunge-rock bands). [BFF] Informants connected the term to the Smokey Stover strip. [PERS]

The U.S. and British militaries frequently swapped slang terms during the war. Period sources reported that `FOO' became a semi-legendary subject of WWII British-army graffiti more or less equivalent to the American Kilroy. [WORDS] Where British troops went, the graffito "FOO was here" or something similar showed up. Several slang dictionaries aver that FOO probably came from Forward Observation Officer, but this (like the contemporaneous "FUBAR") was probably a backronym. [JARGON] Forty years later, Paul Dickson's excellent book "Words" [WORDS] traced "Foo" to an unspecified British naval magazine in 1946, quoting as follows: "Mr. Foo is a mysterious Second World War product, gifted with bitter omniscience and sarcasm."

Earlier versions of the Jargon File suggested the possibility that hacker usage actually sprang from "FOO, Lampoons and Parody", the title of a comic book first issued in September 1958, a joint project of Charles and Robert Crumb. Though Robert Crumb (then in his mid-teens) later became one of the most important and influential artists in underground comics, this venture was hardly a success; indeed, the brothers later burned most of the existing copies in disgust. The title FOO was featured in large letters on the front cover. However, very few copies of this comic actually circulated, and students of Crumb's `oeuvre' have established that this title was a reference to the earlier Smokey Stover comics. The Crumbs may also have been influenced by a short-lived Canadian parody magazine named `Foo' published in 1951-52. [JARGON]

An old-time member reports that in the 1959 "Dictionary of the TMRC Language", compiled at TMRC (the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT) there was an entry for Foo. The current on-line version, in which "Foo" is the only word coded to appear red, has the following [TMRC]: Foo: The sacred syllable (FOO MANI PADME HUM); to be spoken only when under obligation to commune with the Deity. Our first obligation is to keep the Foo Counters turning.

This definition used Bill Holman's nonsense word, then only two decades old and demonstrably still live in popular culture and slang, to make a "ha ha only serious" analogy with esoteric Tibetan Buddhism. Today's hackers would find it difficult to resist elaborating a joke like that, and it is not likely 1959's were any less susceptible. [JARGON]

4. [EF] Prince Foo was the last ruler of Pheebor and owner of the Phee Helm, about 400 years before the reign of Entharion. When Foo was beheaded by someone he called an "eastern fop" from Borphee, the glorious age of Pheebor ended, and Borphee rose to the prominence it now enjoys.

5. [OED] A 13th-16th century usage for the devil or any other enemy. The earliest citation it gives is from the year 1366, Chaucer A B C (84): "Lat not our alder foo [devil] make his bobance [boast]". Chaucer's "Foo" is probably related to modern English "foe".

6. Rare species of dog. A spitz-type dog discovered to exist after having long been considered extinct, the Chinese Foo Dog, or Sacred Dog of Sinkiang, may have originated through a crossing of Northern European hunting dogs and the ancient Chow Chow from Mongolia or be the missing link between the Chinese Wolf and the Chow Chow. It probably derives its name from foochow, of the kind or style prevalent in Foochow, of or from the city of Foochow (now Minhow) in southeast China. [DOG]

foobar n. [JARGON]
A widely used metasyntactic variable; see foo for etymology. Probably originally propagated through DECsystem manuals by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1960s and early 1970s; confirmed sightings there go back to 1972. Hackers do not generally use this to mean FUBAR in either the slang or jargon sense. It has been plausibly suggested that "foobar" spread among early computer engineers partly because of FUBAR and partly because "foo bar" parses in electronics techspeak as an inverted foo signal. foo-fighter n. World War II term for Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) noted by both German and British military. See [FF] and entry above for “foo".


Acronyms

The following information is derived primarily from the compilations at University Cork College http://www.ucc.ie/acronyms and Acronym Finder http://www.acronymfinder.com/ generally filtered for computer usage.

.bar:
Generic file extension which is not meant to imply anything about the file type.

BAR:
Base Address Register.
Buffer Address Register.

FOO:
Forward Observation Observer.
FOO Of Oberlin. An organization whose name is a recursive acronym. Motto: The FOO, the Proud, the FOO. See http://cs.oberlin.edu/students/jmankoff/FOO/home.html.
File Open for Output. An NFILE error code. [RFC1037]

FOOBAR:
FTP Operation Over Big Address Records. [RFC1639] (Particularly appropriate given that the first RFC to use "foo", [RFC269], was also about file transfer.)

FUBAR:
Failed UniBus Address Register - in a VAX, from Digital Equipment Corporation Engineering. Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition/Repair - From US Military in World War II. Sometimes sanitized to "Fouled Up ...".

FUBARD:
Past tense of FUBAR.


References

[BFF] "Best of Foo Fighters: Signature Licks", Troy Stetina, Foo Fighters, October 2000, Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation, ISBN 063401470.

[DOG] http://www.rarebreed.com/breeds/foo/foo.html.

[EAC] “Encyclopedia of American Comics", Ron Goulart, 1990, Facts on File.

[EF] "Encyclopedia Frobozzica", http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=Prince%20Foo.

[FF] Foo Fighters - "The Rainbow Conspiracy", Brad Steiger, Sherry Hansen Steiger, December 1998, Kensington Publishing Corp., ISBN 1575663635. - Computer UFO Network http://www.cufon.org/, particularly http://www.cufon.org/cufon/foo.htm.

[FOLDOC] "Free On-Line Dictionary Of Computing", http://www.foldoc.org/.

[JARGON] The Jargon File. See http://www.jargon.org/. Last printed as "The New Hacker's Dictionary", Eric S. Raymond, 3rd Edition, MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-68092-0, 1996.

[OED] "The Oxford English Dictionary", J. A. Simpson, 1989, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198611862.

[PERS] Personal communications.

[RFC269] Brodie, H., "Some Experience with File Transfer", RFC 269, December 1971.

[RFC1037] Greenberg, B. and S. Keene, "NFILE - A File Access Protocol", RFC 1037, December 1987.

[RFC1639] Piscitello, D., "FTP Operation Over Big Address Records (FOOBAR)", RFC 1639, June 1994.

[RFC2606] Eastlake, D. and A. Panitz, "Reserved Top Level DNS Names", BCP 32, RFC 2606, June 1999.

[TMRC] The Tech Model Railroad Club (The Model Railroad Club of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Dictionary, http://tmrc-www.mit.edu/dictionary.html.

[WBCC] "Warner Brothers Cartoon Companion", http://members.aol.com/EOCostello/.

[WORDS] "Words", Paul Dickson, ISBN 0-440-52260-7, Dell, 1982.


Full Copyright Statement

Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001). All Rights Reserved.

This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than English. The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

(Source: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3092.html; accessed 12/05/10)

Grandma's 80th Birthday Party and more

Last weekend, Andrew and I went to Kentucky to visit Madison and go to Grandma's 80th birthday party. 

We left Memphis Friday morning and got to Jeffersonville at about 5pm.  We picked up Madison from her house, and she was all ready and was happy to see us.  We went to the mall section of New Albany and went window shopping at one of the malls until it was time to go to the nearby theater to see the new Harry Potter movie.  The movie was great, and it was fun to do such a typical Team Saunders activity together.  After the movie, we headed over the bridge to Louisville, to the Brown Hotel (which Andrew had managed to get on Priceline for some ridiculous deal) and checked into our "Club" floor room on the 13th floor. 

The lobby of the Brown is amazing, and Madison was suitably impressed (no small feat when you're dealing with teenagers).  The room was lovely also, with a great view down Broadway to the west.  Being on the "Club" floor had some nice perks (in quotations because I have no idea what club they were referring to nor was it ever explained - I think we were just supposed to be "in the know"), with a room where fruit, water, and sodas were available throughout the day, a cocktail interval from 4 - 7pm which we unfortunately missed, and a lovely continental breakfast spread (as in European continental, not Days Inn continental - ooo, I am in the know on that one).

On Saturday morning, we had breakfast and got ready to meet up with Carter, Rachel, and Noah.  We went to their apartment in Germantown, which was cute and had a great second story porch.  Noah was just too fun!  He played and showed off and is saying some words now (At the party, he said, "I want Momma!").  He iniated hide-and-seek with his blanket and brought out a bunch of his toys, one at a time, to show to us.  Andrew had him in giggling hysterics throwing and bouncing him in the air.  He's a sweet little guy.

From there, we headed down to Hodgenville to the church.  The Wesley Meadows Methodist church basement has been the location of many kinds of family celebrations, from baby showers to anniversaries and everything in between.  The Methodist Women do the catering and can't be beat with comfort food favorites.  It was very festive with decorated tables, balloons, and picture shows on a digital picture frame and a laptop. 

The whole family was there!  Grandma, Aunt Bonnie, Aunt Debbie, Uncle Sean, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Mitch, Shannon, Robin, Kaleb, Olivia, Trent, Seth, Jessica, Landon, Amy, Carter, Rachel, Noah, me, Andrew, Madison, and so on...  And, of course, the church family of folks I've known my whole life were there too.  The last time I saw most of these people was at Mom's funeral almost 2 years ago. 

I have to say it was a little overwhelming, and I was really feeling Mom's absence.  Aunt Debbie and I started springing tears as soon as we saw each other.  Aunt Kathy gave me a silver and turquoise ring Mom had made when she worked at the jewelry shop in Daytona, which was amazing and moved me to the bathroom to regain my composure.  A couple of Mom's best friends stopped in, and, while it was great to see them, it was also really tough too.  The whole event was kind of like that for me:  alternating bouts of happiness from seeing everyone to saddness from missing Mom. 

Otherwise, the party was a great success.  The weather was lovely; the food, punch, and cake were tasty.  It was repeatedly noted how nice it was for everyone to get together for a happy occasion.  Grandma seemed very happy, and it was touching to see how many people came out to celebrate her.  As a poor move on my part, I forgot my camera for the event and will have to borrow some other pictures from folks' Facebook pages (thanks Shannon and Aunt Bonnie!).

Afterwards, we took Madison over to Elizabeth's house.  They hadn't seen each other since I don't know when.  They were supposed to get together when Maddie moved to Indiana, but that never came through, so they were SO happy to see each other.  Andrew and I went over to Grandma's house to visit with the family for a while longer.  This trip was replacing Thanksgiving for family togetherness in Kentucky, and I wanted soak up as much as I could.

Before long, it was time to head back to Louisville.  On our way to pick up Maddie from Lizz's, I had a great idea:  invite Elizabeth to spend the night with us in Louisville!  Christy agreed, and the girls were ecstatic.  We picked them up and headed to the hotel.  We just hung out in the room, nothing exciting, but the girls had a blast.  Madison and Elizabeth have been BFFs since birth, and it's always so much fun to get them together.

Andrew and I went across the street to the BBC for some dinner since the girls had eaten at Elizabeth's.  We had a nice dinner and enjoyed trying the excellent original brews on offer.  I loved the Thick Jimmy's Malt Liquor, and Andrew liked the Raspberry Meade so much that he got a growler (1/2 gallon jug) to go.  We walked back across the street and got ready to turn in.

Sunday morning, we all had breakfast and packed up.  We checked out of the hotel and then went to the Falls of the Ohio to check out the fossils.  It was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed walking out on the exposed fossil beds and looking at the ancient creatures beneath our feet.  Afterwards, we ate lunch at Subway and then headed over to Maddie's house.  Jerry and Meghan weren't home from church yet, so the girls played at the playground for a while.  All too soon, we were discussing Christmas visitation with Jerry and Meghan while Madison showed Elizabeth her room.  Then it was hugs goodbye and I-65 South.  We dropped off Elizabeth to Christy who met us by the interstate, and then finally it was just Andrew and me and the road back to Memphis. 

All in all, it was a good visit, always too short and always a little too bittersweet.



Great is great!



Left to right:  Aunt Bonnie, Grandma, Aunt Kathy, Aunt Debbie



Caroyln's clan:  Rachel, Andrew, Noah, me, Carter, Madison



Partying down



Maddie and Liz, BFFs since birth

 





They loved the Brown!



Near the Falls of the Ohio State Park, Indiana



 

Falls of the Ohio with Louisville skyline





Fossil beds



Interesting erosion of the rocky banks along the Falls







Fossil







Fossils




Fossils



Fossil imprint





Madison and Elizabeth kick it old skool before dropping off Maddie on Sunday





Fall Break in Monteagle

We arrived in town late on Friday.  Andrew picked up Madison from the Nashville Greyhound station.  The dogs and I came along behind and met them at the house.  We had dinner at Papa Ron's and turned in early.

On Saturday, we woke up early and headed to the Dutch Maid Bakery for breakfast.  Then we hit the Fiery Gizzard trail, starting at Foster Falls.  That evening, Andrew made lasagna for dinner, then we went on a night stroll through the Assembly before going to bed.

We visited the Sewanee Natural Bridge on Sunday morning.  In the afternoon, we took a walk around the Assembly and played on the swings.  We went down the mountain in the evening to Manchester to visit Wal-Mart for a few essentials.  We ate dinner at the O'Charley's next door, and Nick Northcutt was able to swing through and have a beer with us before heading home from the office.

Andrew, Maddie, and the dogs left Monday morning.  Andrew took Madison back to the bus station, and she headed back to Indiana.

I stayed behind for a couple more days, and, after the family headed out on Monday, I hiked to Lost Cove Cave.  Afterwards, I drove to Alabama because it was so close and the countryside so beautiful.

On Tuesday, I drove over to Fall Creek Falls State Park for fall foliage photos.  That night I had a relaxing time hanging out on the porch and painting with watercolors.

I spent most of Wednesday cleaning, packing, and grading midterms.  Before hitting the road back to Memphis, I took a bunch of pictures of the cottages in the Assembly.

Here's a movie of some of the best pictures from the trip.  It's pretty long (10 min.), but I hope you enjoy.

Serendipity VIII

Carnival Cruise from Mobile, AL to Cozumel, MX; September, 2009

It happened again. Andrew, Madison, and I went on a cruise for our 5-year anniversary. Presumably, this was a ship of 8,000 strangers. While checking out the televised activities onboard, a contestant of the “Newlywed Game” stated that she was Susan Something from Hodgenville, Kentucky. I didn’t recognize her new last name, but that was certainly Susan Burns from high school on the TV and apparently on the cruise ship. I marveled at the coincidence of two Hodgenville girls winding up on the same cruise. The happenstance high point came when Andrew and I actually ran into Susan on one of the ship’s stairwells, and, after a round of introductions, we all had a chuckle over the coincidence.

Maddie and me on board our first cruise

Serendipity VII

A coincidence among scientists of three nationalities.

Dr. Fukuju Yamamoto’s photos; Memphis, TN; March, 2009

In my work as a graduate student, I have had the good fortune of being a participant with the research of Japanese scientists studying the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the wetlands of Louisiana. On this particular trip, Dr. Yamamoto showed me some photos he took during a recent research trip he’d taken to Arizona. He told me that he stayed with a friend of his that he knew for many years. As I looked at the photos, I realized that his host and friend was a guy I had worked with as an undergraduate in Dr. Jack’s lab at the University of Louisville. I asked Dr. Yamamoto if that was Kumud Acharya, and he looked amazed that I knew his name. He was rather astounded when I explained how I knew him. Then I listened amazed at the story of how Dr. Yamamoto knew Kumud: Kumud had come from his home in Nepal to complete his Master’s degree in a lab in the same department that Dr. Yamamoto works in, in Tottori, Japan, and they had remained friends ever since. Even the usually unflappable Dr. Yamamoto looked pretty surprised by this happenstance.

Serendipity VI

Another surprisng coincidence.

Disney World, Orlando, FL; March, 2008

Grandma Marie, Andrew's grandmother, treated several children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to an amazing week vacation at Disney World for spring break. It was a family affair to remember. Since it was March, in the evening, many of the resort’s TVs were tuned to the NCAA March Madness games. Little ol’ Western Kentucky University, where I attended a 6-week summer camp when I was 12, made it to the Elite Eight that season, quite an achievement for the Hilltoppers.

On our last day, we ate lunch in the resort cafeteria like we had several times. Our cashier’s nametag said that he was from Bowling Green, Kentucky, so I had to chat with him for a moment about the good showing by WKU. It turned out that before he went to college there, he was from Hodgenville. I couldn’t believe it and had to call Mom to see if we were related. We weren’t, but she knew his grandfather really well. Two kids from Hodgenville running into each other at Disney World – it’s a small world after all.


Me at a cool mural in Animal Kingdom



Seredipity V

Back to my tales of surprise coincidences.

Lincoln Days Festival, Hodgenville, KY; October, 2007

When Madison was almost 5, Santa brought her her first cat. I chose to adopt a kitten for her Christmas surprise from the first no-kill animal shelter I had ever heard of, in Vine Grove, about 1 hour from where I lived with Mom in Buffalo. I went into the young cat room (they didn’t have any kittens), and a black cat immediately ran over from the back of the room to greet me. We locked eyes as he approached, and I swept him up in my arms. It was love at first sight. I looked around at the other cats, but I knew that nothing could match that initial spark. My new friend came with the name Henry, but I quickly rechristened him JoJo (as in, “Get back, Jojo,” from the Beatles song).

Obviously, Madison was thrilled with her gift from Santa. JoJo has come to be my best friend too. We have dogs and other cats, but JoJo and I have something special. Six years later, the animal shelter from which I adopted JoJo had a booth at the annual Lincoln Days Festival in Hodgenville. Andrew and I stopped at the booth to make a donation when we noticed a photo album of pets adopted out by the shelter. As we looked through the album, we told the lady attending the booth about adopting a much-loved cat from them a few years previously. The lady asked the cat’s name, and when I told her “Henry”, she said that she remembered him well and immediately turned toward the front of the album to a picture of him at the shelter. We had a great conversation telling her all about JoJo’s role in the family. She loved to hear about how patient he was with Madison when she was a little kid and carried him around constantly, putting him in strollers and high chairs, which he tolerated with grace and composure.  JoJo is certainly a memorable feline, and it was great to reminisce with someone who remembered him from a different time and place.


JoJo (black) and his play brother Kesey (gray)



Shells and a sketch

Our sea shell haul from Gulf Shores

My sketch of the view from the porch of our house

Anniversary in Gulf Shores

Thursday, Sept. 2

Our crew got on the road right at 1:00pm as planned. Andrew got home from work a little early, and Ben got dropped off. We picked up Heather on our way to the interstate, and then we were on the road, headed to the Nashville Greyhound station where Madison was due to arrive at 4:00pm. We would have been right on time if we had not run into Nashville holiday weekend rush hour gridlock. We rarely go through Nashville, instead utilizing Briley Parkway to get over to I-65N when we head to Kentucky. Because of this, I had kind of forgotten the way that I-65N/S, I-40E/W, and I-24E/W all converge in a pretty tight area of numerous interchanges.

Getting to Madison was a relief. She called us to say she’d arrived at the station as we sat in the car with 8 blocks of bumper-to-bumper traffic between us. She was fine when we arrived, and it was so great to see her. I tried not to make too big of a deal, but I was so happy. From the bus station, we decided to brave the snarl of traffic we could see on the interstate above us and try to get out of town before stopping for dinner. The traffic turned out to be a hellish hour and a half of about 20 miles progress – extra frustrating when you’ve just driven 3 hours and have 8 more to go.

Once we finally escaped Nashville, we stopped for dinner at a Cracker Barrel. We all needed to get out of the car and unwind a bit after that intense aggravation, so we went in and ate and relaxed. It was a long rest stop but time well spent.

From there, we just drove and drove and drove and drove. We soon entered Alabama, passing through Huntsville and Birmingham. Outside Montgomery, however, we hit night road work that required 3 lanes to merge into 1, causing another hour of delay. Beyond Huntsville, we exited onto Highway 59, which dead ends into the ocean. After 40 miles on that highway, Andrew and Ben were recognizing landmarks and soon I was too.

We had to stop at the realty place to get the check-in stuff for the house. We were going to grab some groceries but the usually 24-hr grocery, Bruno’s, was closed. We headed down to the house, carried up a bunch of luggage, then opened up the house to check it out. It was even cooler that the realty website pictures. Andrew and I got the main floor master suite, Maddie and Heather got the downstairs front bedroom, and Ben took the upstairs front bedroom, leaving the upstairs master suite for Kim and Derek.

Since it was 3:00am, the girls went to bed, but Andrew, Ben, and I took some time to unwind on the deck before turning in. It was a beautiful night, and I had to go down by the water to see and hear the waves. It was a short walk and then time for bed.


Friday, Sept. 3

Everyone slept in. I was the first one up and found the note from Kim and Derek saying that they had made it in safely. I certainly didn’t hear them come in. I drank coffee and started on a drawing that wound up taking all day to complete. When Andrew and Ben got up, they went and got a few groceries. Then girls got up, Andrew took them up the road to see Vicki, Kate, and Jose, but I opted to stay behind to chill and work on drawing. I finished up about the time that they returned.

Before long, we all went to the Shrimp Basket for dinner, which was great. Afterward, we went to a public beach past the state park. Ben had recommended this spot as a good one for finding shells, which I’d previously had very little luck with in Gulf Shores. This was definitely a good spot, as evidenced by all the olive shells that Ben and Andrew found. Ben had a knack for spotting them in the surf, and Andrew quickly developed his eye for finding them too. I got a few nice pictures during the glorious sunset, and everyone got as many sea shells as they wanted.

We headed back to the house from there. Andrew packed up lunches and drinks and snacks for our deep sea fishing expedition in the morning. We took a short night walk on the beach but called it an early night since we were getting up early.


Saturday, Sept. 4

6:00am came brutally early, but I forced myself to get up and get ready, since I hadn’t done much preparing for the night before. I managed to get myself together, and Kim and Derek got up and started getting ready, then Andrew too. Ben wasn’t feeling well and opted to stay behind and rest up. Maddie and Heather were going to get picked up by Vicki later in the morning to go shopping and hang out.

Kim and Derek left ahead of us to get some Dramamine and breakfast on the way, and Andrew and I picked up Jose. Soon we all met at the marina and were boarding the boat. We set out on about an hour and a half voyage that took us 20 miles from the coast. The water along shore was glassy, but out there, things were a little choppier. But the sun was shining, and the breeze was blowing, and the first spot we stopped had a lot of action right off the bat.

Jose caught the expedition’s first fish, a little red snapper that they threw back since they weren’t in season. Kim, Derek, Jose, and Andrew each caught a couple apiece, including several keepers. I wasn’t having much luck with only a little red snapper throwback but was having fun trying. Then I felt some strong hit the line. The end of my rod bent in an arc, and I began reeling for all I was worth. The shipmate came over to supervise my efforts and, after what seemed like forever, he said that he saw something big coming up. It was a big red snapper, not in season, so we couldn’t keep him, but he was easily the biggest fish I’ve ever caught.

Shortly after that excitement, I looked over to my right to see that Andrew was holding the deck rail and looking down over the side. I asked him if he felt okay and first he said yes then he said no. I told him to look at a fixed point on the horizon but he told me to move and starting yakking over the side. I foolishly assured him that he would feel better now that he had gotten that over with. Unfortunately, he had the worst case of sea sickness I’ve ever seen and that was just the beginning, about 2 hours into a 6 hour trip. He took a Dramamine and almost immediately threw it up. He tried to push through it but without success and eventually went to lie down in the air-conditioned cabin. Even still, he was pale, sweaty, and sick for quite some time. Admittedly, I was also affected by the boat’s motion and threw up once over the side and once in the trashcan in the cabin. Luckily, I didn’t feel bad afterwards. When the trip was over, Jose informed us that the side of the boat where Andrew and I were fishing was the most susceptible to sea sickness. So now we know.

On the whole, everyone had fun fishing, except Andrew who described it as one of the most miserable experiences of his life. Kim, Derek, and Jose had the fish cleaned and filleted while I took Andrew home. He laid down for a nap, and I read on the porch. Maddie and Heather returned to the house after spending the day at the outlet mall with Vicki.

Once the sun went down, we cleaned up and Andrew, Madison, Heather, Ben, and I went to eat dinner at our family favorite, Bahama Bob’s. We got a nice table on the porch by the beach and had cocktails and frickle pickles and lots of good seafood. It was a delightful meal, one of those perfect Gulf Shores experiences.

That night, we lounged around until everyone turned in pretty early. I couldn’t sleep though and spent a while on the porch watching TV on my laptop. I woke up in my beach chair at dawn and then crawled into bed.


Sunday, Sept. 5

Andrew woke up early and made breakfast for the girls and me. After breakfast, I gave Madison a present in honor of our wedding anniversary: a picture frame with pics of the three of us on our wedding and from this last cruise, of Maddie with my mom, of her birthday and going-away parties, of Vicki, and of her spring band concert. She seemed quite pleased with it, which thrilled me. I had worked hard on making it in the hopes that she would like it.

The girls went down to play on the beach, and after reading for a bit, I dozed off for a nap. The adults all wound up lying down for a while, so when I woke up from my nap, everyone was asleep except the girls, who were hanging out and watching TV.

I did some dishes and then made a pitcher of strawberry daiquiri and retired to the porch with a glass and my book. As the afternoon turned to early evening, Madison and Heather went down to play in the sand and surf. I decided that sounded like a lot of fun too, so I changed into my bathing suit and headed down to the water’s edge. The girls were climbing a sand hill and having fun on their own, so I decided to go down the beach a little ways and take a dip. I took my camera along and grabbed a few sunset pix.

As I walked along in the surf, I saw big schools of little pinfish in the waves, and I saw several skates moving through the schools of fish. I found a spot and waded out to thigh-high water. While doing so, I had a weird apprehension about going out any further, nothing definable really and was initially a vague feeling. After bobbing in the waves for a few minutes, I had a distinct feeling that it was time to get out. I tried to shake it for a moment, assuming that I was being paranoid. It was undeniable at that point, and I got out and dried off.

As I was walking back up the beach, I saw that, 20 yards from where I had been wading, a man that was surf fishing had caught something that looked a lot like a shark. I scampered over along with about 15 other people on the beach. I was pulling out my camera as I ran over and, sure enough, the guy had a roughly 5 ft black-tipped shark hooked in the surf. I was snapping as many pictures as I could, and, the next thing I knew, Madison and Heather were running up into the crowd.

At about that point, the shark broke the fishing line, and a guy with the initial angler lassoed the shark’s tail. Everyone was taking pictures, and the guy with the rope worked the shark back into the shallow water. Then he let everyone that wanted, to run up and snap a picture or touch the tip of its tailfin. Maddie, Heather, and I each took a turn touch the fin after watching the other folks in the crowd do it without incident. It had a sandpaper texture and a rubbery consistency. After everyone took their turn, the guy took the rope off its tail and grabbed it by the back of its dorsal fin and pushed it into the waves. After a moment’s hesitation, it swam out of the surf, its dorsal fin disappearing beneath the surface of the water about 5 feet from the shore.

That's Madison and Heather in edge of the bottom right frame!

It was an exhilarating, once-in-a-lifetime experience. I love those spontaneous moments when nature decides to interact with you, rather than when you force nature to show her gifts under contrived circumstances. From swimming with dolphins in the Chesapeake Bay, to rescuing a lost fawn on Grandma’s farm, or stroking the nose of a wild baby skunk in my mom’s yard, I’ve had some pretty amazing encounters with nature’s best, and this shark experience ranks up there.

After we saw the shark off, the girls and I headed back toward the house to tell everyone all about it. Andrew had seen the group of people on the beach and that we were among them and was heading our way already, missing the whole thing by about 2 minutes.

While I had been out on the beach, Andrew and Kim took care of pretty much all of the dinner preparations. They broiled the fish, made roasted new potatoes, and fixed some squash. It smelled delicious. After a bit, Andrew, Ben, the girls, and I headed down to Vicki, Kate, and Jose’s house with our great smelling goodies. Kim and Derek opted to stay behind and watch the Giants game.

We had a lovely dinner. The food was excellent, and it was nice to have the family experience along with the friend scene. We took a few pictures on the porch after our meal and reminisced about our wedding 6 years before. It was just perfect.

After dinner, we went back to the house and worked on packing and tidying, so we could get a timely start in the morning. The girls turned in early; then Andrew, Ben, and I took a last night walk on the beach, with Kim and Derek joining us. It was indescribably pleasant and a most satisfying nightcap.


Monday, Sept. 6

We woke up on time, got loaded up efficiently, and were on the road at the appointed time. Unfortunately, so was every other family leaving Gulf Shores. We were stuck in traffic for 2 hours, traveling only 20 miles from the house in that duration. Eventually, we made it to the interstate and had limited difficulties from there other than some construction traffic.

We had aimed to get to Nashville by 6pm but it was more like 8:30pm. Jerry was cool about it, fortunately. In fact, he and Meghan were quite accommodating in helping us with the logistics to include Madison in our trip, which means a lot and hopefully is a sign of future cooperation in such matters.

And, just like that, she was hugged and loaded into their van, heading the opposite direction from me. It’s not as though I had expected this parting to be easy, but it was a lot more difficult that I had expected. While we were all together, it felt like old-times (well, since a month ago “old-times”). It just felt like she should be going back to Memphis with us, even though that wasn’t under any kind of consideration. It’s just how it felt. So, when she was gone again, the pain of separation felt pretty raw. I don’t know if it will get easier for future partings. I hope so.

Anyway, Andrew, Heather, and I hit the road for Memphis, the last 200 miles of our trip taking what felt like an extra long time. We dropped off Heather at her house at almost midnight, and finally got home ourselves, just the two of us.

Palm inflorescence

Serendipity IV

Andrew and I celebrate our sixth year of marriage today, and this remembrance is a fitting reflection on where we've been.

West Beach, Gulf Shores, AL; September, 2004

When Andrew and I met, his family had a beach house in Gulf Shores. He and his family had spent a lot of time here over the years during holidays and vacations, and our first trip together was a spring break excursion here. We were already really into each other, but I think it was on this trip that we really fell in love, in that never-look-back kind of way.

When it came time to plan our wedding, Andrew and I both immediately thought of the beach house as the perfect setting. This plan encountered some resistance at first, and we even booked another location for our date. Eventually, everything came together, and we had the wedding of our dreams on the beach at the house, in the company of about 200 friends and family. Everyone in attendance had a great time.

Our wedding was on Sunday and was a dream come true. We had a great time at the reception and an exceptional time at the after party. Some guests left on Monday, but we were leaving Wednesday. Several members of my family, including Mom and Madison, were staying through the next weekend. That was until Hurricane Ivan started wreaking havoc on in the Caribbean and Florida, leaving a path of death and destruction in its wake. One of the projected paths had it headed straight for us, while another had it hitting New Orleans. An evacuation order was made for many of the areas of the Gulf Coast, prompting the early departure of my family.

One week after our wedding, the hurricane made landfall about 10 miles east of the beach house. The accompanying 14-foot storm surge badly damaged the beach house. The giant Victorianesque house next to ours and many others were completely gone. In assessing the damage afterwards, Clayton, Andrew’s dad, said he thought that the vanished house had floated up and hit our house on its way out to sea.

The family spent the next year working on the repairs, overseen by Clayton. The sadness and misery of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was eclipsed, for us, by Clayton’s sudden and untimely death a few days later.

As for the beach house, the repairs of the previous year were mostly undone by Katrina. With a grieving family, no one to oversee further repairs, and a 400% increase in property taxes, the decision was made to sell the house. Our wedding was the last shebang for the house, which is amazing. The whole family and many friends with ties to the house got to see it off on its last hurrah ever but unwittingly, so that the last event lacked the bittersweet pain of saying goodbye. And, most bittersweet of all, this event was the last time we were all together with our families intact: since then, we’ve lost Clayton, Uncle John, and my mom.  But the love in our families remains strong and grows ever deeper through it all.

Serendipity III

Here's what was one of the biggest surprises of my life.

Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, NL; July, 2003

Andrew and I were in the Amsterdam International Airport waiting to fly back to New Jersey when I was certain I recognized a guy I had worked with at Masterson’s. Andrew was sure I was crazy, and I wasn’t sure that he was wrong.  But I couldn’t shake it and had to go over and ask.

It was Seth! He had been the only decent person I met when I went to work a shift at Masterson’s sister operation, a foofoo restaurant on the Ohio River named Captain's Quarters. I really didn’t fit into the scene; all the servers were standoffish, except one. Seth did his best to help out a stranger in a strange land, and maybe he recognized me as another kindred spirit.

As it was, I didn’t see him again until he too was headed home from a month-long vacation in Europe. Unlike Andrew and me, who backpacked around and made our own itinerary, Seth had gone with his mom and sister on a bus tour of many of the same places that Andrew and I had visited during our trip of the same duration. It was awhile before I saw Seth again after Amsterdam, randomly running into him on the lot of a show and introducing him to Carter. Since then, he has become one of Carter’s best and most reliable friends.

Me, Seth, Carter, and Noah at this year's Louisville Waterfront Independence Day festivities

Serendipity II

The next installment of anecdotes about my life's many interesting coincidences.

Boardwalk Pizza, Virginia Beach, VA; June, 2003

Andrew and I made a trip to the East Coast to visit my dad and brothers, and this visit was Andrew’s first encounter with that side of the family. Jamie and Selma, my brother and sister-in-law, and Andrew and I went for lunch at a pizza place on the boardwalk. We had a great time, catching up, everyone getting to know Andrew.

Imagine my amazement when our server was a girl I used to work with at Masterson’s: Pavlanka from the Czech Republic. She had even lived at my best friend's house for a few weeks, so I knew her pretty well. She had been in Virginia Beach for a few months, lured there in a pretty strange scheme that had her living with several other Eastern European girls in a small apartment. When I reflect on this story now, it occurs to me that Pavla, as she preferred to be called, may not have had a legit immigration status. Anyway, it was crazy to run into her again 700 miles from where I knew her before.

Serendipity I

I have decided to share several of my life's many interesting coincidences as a series, starting with this one from back in 2000.

Masterson’s Catering, Louisville, KY; 2000


I had been working at Masterson’s as a caterer for about a year, commuting 70 miles from Hodgenville to work in Louisville, right next to UofL (thus working there actually made sense since I was in undergrad at UofL at the time). On a busy weekend, we would have 4 parties in house and numerous off-site caterings, employing around 60 servers. It was a weekend such as this that I was lucky enough to get to stay in-house on one of the easy banquets.

As service began, a new server walked in to start their first shift. It was Leslie Walters from Hodgenville; she graduated a year before me from the only high school in the county and had moved to Louisville to attend UofL. Mom was really good friends with her dad, who was the high school guidance counselor. Carter had more than one run-in with Mr. Walters back in his high school days. I could have easily been on a different event and not even met her before she quit a few weeks later. As it was, it felt surreal to see someone associated strongly with one environment in another setting, which has become somewhat of a theme in my life.

I also find it serendipitous that, while working at Masterson’s, I met my BFF, Emily, and Andrew, my soulmate, there, as well as getting my first dog, Cuba, from a fellow employee (I’ll never forget you, Juan Carlos!).

Missing Madison

On Saturday, we took Madison and most of her belongings to Kentucky.  We spent the night at the Galt House and got to see Carter and Noah.  We walked over to Bearno's by the Bridge for some of Louisville's best pizza.  Afterwards, we hung out in the hotel room and played with Noah.  Rachel came over when she got off of work, and they were going to spend the night.  But Noah got fussy and wouldn't go to sleep, so they wound up leaving. 

Sunday morning came too quickly.  After checking out of the hotel, we met Carter and Noah for breakfast at IHOP then told them goodbye.  From there, we drove to Jerry and Meghan's condo.  Jerry wasn't there, but Meghan helped us unload and showed us Maddie's room.  She had a nice double bed, but they hadn't gotten the mattress for it yet (apparently they got it that night), as well as a bedside table and lamp. 

Madison didn't seem to be sad to be leaving, but I could barely hold it together to get out of there without breaking down.  We hugged her, told her goodbye, and got in the car and left as empty nesters headed back to Memphis.

This week has been terrible.  I didn't get out of bed for almost 3 days.  I haven't been eating (this is certainly the first time depression has affected me in that way).  I don't want to see or talk to anyone except Andrew.  It was so depressing to go to Wednesday night dinner with the family that I almost couldn't bring myself to go.  I did though, and that felt like a big step.  Afterwards, I visited with Missy since it was our night to spend the night over there, but Andrew had to work late.  I stayed there until he got there and then went home.  I usually enjoy spending the night over there, but I just wanted to get back to my house.  In the past couple of days, I've resolved not to go back to bed after getting up and to do some chores around the house. 

Andrew has been so incredibly patient and supportive, but I know that he's having a hard time too - dealing with his own sadness and with a nonfunctional adult.  He shouldn't have to shoulder all that, so I'm trying to be a little more functional.  He's had to work doubles all week to cover another instructor's class and has been taking care of the garden, the pets, the dishes, the laundry - pretty much everything.  I really want to step up for him.

Also, I feel so ambivalent about my research.  It takes a ridiculous amount of will power to go to campus and water my plants every couple of days.  If I don't do at least that much, they will die, but it's hard to care.  I really need to be setting up for my experiments, but, while the plants are still too small to work on, it's hard to get motivated to do that either.  I had been planning on doing a bunch of plant grinding, but we've been in the middle of a heat wave, and the building I work in at NSL doesn't have air conditioning, so I'm going to wait on that until the weather gets back to some bearable temperatures, like in the 90's.

In spite of all this ambivalence, I still really want to be successful.  I have some things that should be motivating me to be more productive (upcoming conferences and my departmental research update), but I can't even wrap my mind around it all.  I was thinking about taking the semester off, but I'm not sure that's really the best plan.  I know that all grad students go through periods where they feel like they are failing in their research, but it's hard to feel like that in addition to all the other depressed feelings I have.

The worst part of this situation is that I am still completely in mourning for my mom, and everything with Madison leaving has left me at an all-time low.  The sadness I feel for each event feeds into the other, and I just want to go back to sleep.  I keep trying to tell myself all these self-help maxims, like "fake it 'til you make it" or "this too shall pass" or "the only way forward is through it".  I was even seriously getting the Serenity Prayer tattooed on my forearm, but that's probably something I should think about more before something so permanent.

Anyway, I thought that maybe writing about how I'm feeling would make me feel a little better.  It hasn't yet, but maybe it will.

Warning: water contains high levels of hydrogen

While visiting Waterfront Park in Louisville along the Ohio River, we saw this sign.

Andrew, Carter, and I were all incredulous as to what the sign was implying and found it pretty funny.

I found a newspaper article in which the Louisville Parks and Recreation Director is quoted as saying that, by posting the sign, he was hoping to deter people ignorant of chemistry from swimming at that spot.

Here's a link to an entertaining hoax website warning of the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide:

http://www.dhmo.org/

4th of July in Louisville collage

Spending time with Carter and Noah did my heart good. 

Noah is the sweetest little guy, and I love being an aunt.

Kate and Jose's Wedding

While I'm on a roll with the picture videos, here's our pix from the wedding reception at the University Club.

Underwater Wonders

I have discovered that making movies of our pictures is a great way to share them. 

Here's the pictures we took while snorkeling on our trip.

Family Vacation 2010 - the movie

Here is a movie I made of our  vacation escapades. 

New Orleans for Andrew's birthday

Thursday, June 3
We got kind of late start from Memphis, getting on the road around 2:30pm. The drive went well, only hitting traffic going through Jackson. We arrived at about 8:30pm at the bed and breakfast that we got hooked up with through Angela Wilson, chef with Andrew at L’Ecole and displaced New Orleanains.

We got checked in and couldn’t believe our luck with our accommodations. The place was fabulous, an adorable camelback at the edge of the Marigny, a few blocks to the French Quarter in one direction and a few blocks to Frenchmen Street the other direction. The first floor had a living room with 20 ft ceilings, an eat-in kitchen, a half bathroom and laundry closet tucked under the stairs, and a cute little patio outback shaded by a wisteria arbor. Upstairs was the bedroom and a full bathroom. Antique furniture, framed prints of Paris and by Parisian artists, and original photography by one of the b&b’s owners decorated the space. Thoughtful amenities included cable TV, a great library of many local and regional authors, ceiling fans, umbrellas, iron and ironing board, hairdryer, bath towels and pillowcases embroidered with “The Little Yellow House Bed and Breakfast.” In short, we had everything we needed to have a pleasant, comfortable time.

After settling in, we hit the town to head over to Frenchmen Street. We strolled along listening to music coming from out of the clubs. We decided to head into the Quarter but were stopped at the corner of Decatur and Esplanade by a loopy lady trying to act clairvoyant. It was an interesting encounter to kick off the trip.

Once in the Quarter, we headed to Remoulade on Bourbon Street, which is a subsidiary of the pricier, fancier Arnaud’s. We like this place for its delivery of New Orleans staples from a kitchen open later than most places serving that kind of fare. We strolled down Bourbon Street back toward the Marigny, undecided about whether to stay and hang out in the area or to try to find our way to Vaughn’s Lounge to see Kermit Ruffins.

Eventually we decided to take a taxi there and see what was going down. We were delighted that we did. The music was outstanding in a bar that was clearly dominated by locals. We had a great time taking part in a Thursday night tradition that’s been going strong for 14 years. Afterwards, we collapsed into our comfy bed to rest up for the next day.

Vaughn's Lounge

Friday, June 4

We woke up early and headed to Croissant D’Or in the Quarter for breakfast, a perfect way to start the day with croissants and café au lait. We decided to make our way along Royal Street to the Canal Street trolley to take us to the art museum. We stopped to enjoy a group of musicians, a lady singer, and a couple dancing swing moves.

On our way, we stopped at the Hotel Monteleone which contains the Carousel Bar where we had cocktails at the slowly rotating merry-go-round. It was a much tamer version of the bar in Circus Circus from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but I still enjoyed my Thompsonesque moment.

 While we found our way onto the trolley just fine, when it came to getting off the trolley, I relied too heavily on my memory of how things went a couple of years ago when I took the same route with Dr. Yamamoto and company. A period of confusion and consternation frustrated Andrew and me before we got things figured out and back on an even keel. As it was, we wound up walking from the Canal Street trolley line to City Park, which in the end worked out okay.

Live Oak in City Park

Odd Fellows Rest
One of the many cemetaries at the end of Canal St.

We took a moment to relax by the large pond area at the park’s perimeter and then grabbed a coffee from a little restaurant situated behind the museum and sculpture park. The sculpture park was closed, but we needed the time at the art museum. We tagged along behind a tour group at the Blues and Beyond exhibition, getting the guide’s expertise about the collection of pieces by a variety of African-American artists. We only had time to make it through this wing and the one of Dutch and Flemish artists.


Afterwards, we got a taxi back to the Quarter and went to Stanley’s for dinner. The people-watching was great from the restaurant’s floor-to-ceiling windows facing out on Jackson Square. Here, I had the best Reuben ever. I don’t even want to eat another from anywhere else, now that I have experienced Reuben perfection.

After dinner, we went to Rouses to make groceries and then headed back to the house. Andrew did a little cooking, and we chilled at the house until calling a cab to take us to the Howlin’ Wolf. Rebirth Brass Band was playing for their 27th birthday celebration, and the opening act was Joe Krown, Wolfman Washington, and Russell Batiste Jr.

We wound up getting to the venue way early, and so we walked around and found Cochon and its simplified offshoot, Butcher. We had already eaten dinner not so long ago, but we couldn’t resist the temptations of the pork products curing in a dry case at Butcher. We got some andouille and cheese and crackers and beer. The kitchen sent out some summer sausage, and there was green tomato ketchup that would have made Grandma proud.

After noshing and some more strolling, it was time to get down with some great music in an awesome venue. It was my first visit to the Howlin’ Wolf, and I really loved the carved wood bar and the Creole cottages adorning each side of the stage. Aside from visual aesthetics, the music was rocking. Andrew and I (and, doubtless, dozens others) recognized Joe Krown from the HBO series Treme (my favorite!). That band was so hot! They also had a guitarist with them, but I didn’t catch his name.

Then Rebirth came out and gave a solid throw down performance. We left the venue as they were finishing the last song, and I discovered that I had lost my voice, presumably due to a combination of a screaming between songs and aggravated allergies. It was about 2:30am when we got back to the house, exhausted and happy.

Saturday, June 5

When we woke up, we got ready to go to Commander’s Palace for Andrew’s birthday lunch. We drove my car, which turned out to be the beginning of a debacle. On the drive, I discovered that my power windows quit working while the back two were open about 4 inches. This is problematic but not tragic. We had to tell the valet guys to keep an eye on it while we ate, but it wasn’t a big deal.

We had a great time at the restaurant. We were seated in a dining room that was apparently full of people celebrating special occasions. All the tables had balloon, and there was a jazz trio playing to each of the tables. Our table was distinctive in that it had a wide green ribbon laid diagonally across beneath the place settings. The staff was extra gracious as (I guess) they had been told Andrew is a chef.

We ordered cocktails and placed our orders and sat back to enjoy. We received an amuse bouche while enjoying our appetizer. The food was amazing, and the atmosphere thoroughly pleasant. The jazz trio came by and sang “Happy Birthday” to Andrew. Near the end of the meal, the chef came out and sat down at our table and talked shop with Andrew, who made a business contact to hook up L’Ecole externs at Commander’s. He was really personable and offered to give us a tour of the kitchen after we finished eating. The kitchen sent out two extra desserts with the two we ordered, and, of course, we could barely touch any of them after the previous courses. It was so much fun to be so pampered and to be extra indulgent.

I decided to forego the kitchen tour, knowing my general clumsiness and lack of familiarity with high volume kitchens could make me a real obstacle in a very busy kitchen. Unfortunately this meant that I missed the tour Chef Tory gave Andrew of most of the premises, telling about all the history stuff I would have enjoyed hearing. Andrew really enjoyed it though, and we both had an excellent time overall.


Then we picked up my car from the valet and now, in addition to the windows being inoperative, the air conditioning, locks, lights, clock, and pretty much every electrical thing inside the car had stopped working too. This presented a pretty profound problem, as the car was now a solar cooker and couldn’t be driven back to Memphis in that condition. It was Saturday, though, and there weren’t any car places open to try to fix it. Also, we couldn’t park it just anywhere now that the rear windows were partially open.

Andrew decided that we could park the car at the parking garage at the Hilton, where we were moving to the next day. At least, it would be less of a target than parked on the streets. I drove to the garage, and Andrew then sent out some text messages to our friends back in Memphis soliciting them to look up a fuse diagram for our car and email it to us.

With that squared away as well as possible, we got a cab and rode back to the house to change and decompress. I was really upset because I had rather insisted that we take my car on the trip instead of Andrew’s, and now that had turned disastrous. After some inappropriately expressed frustration on my part, Andrew and I found our way back to a more pleasant mode of interaction.

Eventually, we ventured out again to head to Patios for dinner (the setting for the restaurant from Treme). It was quite a long ride down Tchopitoulas to the restaurant, but it was cool to see another part of the city. Our table was featured in the TV show where the restaurant critics were seated when they visited the fictional DeSeautel.

After dinner, we headed back to the house to prepare to change lodgings to the Hilton in the morning. We strolled down to Frenchmen’s for the last time and saw some really great string band buskers.

Interior of Cafe Rose Nicaud

Artist on Frenchmen St.

Nifty Marigny intersection

Sunday, June 6

We woke up early and finished packing and tidying up. We loved staying at the Little Yellow House Bed and Breakfast and can’t wait to return again. We called a got a cab to get us moved over to the Hilton, where we had a lovely room with a great view of the Riverwalk and area around Harrah’s.

After getting settled into our accommodations, Andrew headed to the parking garage to attempt to repair my car with some diagrams on his Blackberry and a book light. With no success, we decided to head into the Quarter for the First Annual Gulf Oyster Festival. This event had lots of the local restaurants vending food, so we noshed around. They also had my favorite drive-thru daiquiri shop set up there, so I had to get a breakfast daiquiri (not from a drive-thru but still nice).

We got a call from a guy we met up with last night, Will the Awesome. We were glad to run into him again and hung out with him for a little while before he had to go to work. He recited some original poetry for us, and we were really impressed. Andrew stopped in at Peach Records, a former southern chain of music stores that Andrew had spent a lot of time in when one was open in Memphis. It was a good chance to get some souvenirs from there and Hard Rock Café next door.

An afternoon shower sent us back to the room for a little while. After the weather cleared up, we went ambling through the Quarter, taking lots of pictures as we went.

We made a stop in at the much-loved MRB and enjoyed the courtyard immensely. We went down to the French Market to finish up our souvenir shopping then headed back to the hotel to drop off our packages

and to get ready for that’s night show: the Hot 8 Brass Band at the Howlin’ Wolf lounge.

When we pulled up in the cab and saw the lights were all off at the Howlin’ Wolf, we were totally bummed. The venue, it turned out, was a small bar on the block’s other corner and, in the back, a 30’ x 30’ cinderblock room with a few chairs along the walls was the performance space. The 10 piece band produced a sound in that space that is indescribable. It was an amazing, intimate experience that’s difficult to compare to any other. The bar also had Magic Hat No. 9 on tap, and I was drinking it like water while I was dancing. We had a great time and left even more in awe of the quality of the local musicians. We caught a cab back to the Quarter after the show and stumbled into the scene.

We made the rounds along the Jackson Square perimeter, but we decided it was time for Yo Mama’s. Once when I was in town with the Japanese, someone ordered a peanut butter burger from here and had shared bites with all those along. I was immediately addicted and couldn’t wait to return. It was everything I remembered it to be and a perfect stop.


We walked around the Bourbon Street scene afterward for a bit but soon decided to return to the hotel to prepare to check out in the morning and start trying to find a way to fix my car so we could return home.

Monday, June 7
We got up at 8am and started calling all sorts of car places. Someone had suggested that we attempt to get some help through AutoZone, but they said that they wouldn’t be able to help once we explained the issue. They suggested a place that only did automotive electric work, which we called and were told there was no way that they could get us in that day. I thought it might be a good idea to try some of the Ford dealerships, both in the city and in some of the outer-lying towns. All of the parts desks I spoke to acted like I was requesting parts for a Pinto when I was asking about my 1998 Crown Victoria.

We were running out of ideas and out of time before we were supposed to check out of the hotel and get on the road back to Memphis. We decided to schedule with the shop doing automotive electrical work for the next day. Then we tried to book another night at the Hilton, but, since they were hosting 2 conferences that week, they didn’t have any vacancies. I called up my old standby, the Hotel St. Marie, and was able to get a balcony room for a great rate. So, we loaded up into another taxi and headed to our new hotel on Bourbon and Toulouse.

Views from Hotel St. Marie balcony

Andrew was really impressed with the hotel, which is really nothing fancy but has everything you need and is in a really excellent location. The balcony was great too. We decided to make the best of our day “stuck” in New Orleans and went down to Café du Monde to chart our day. We remembered that our friend, Brandy, who had been in Port St. Joe, Florida with Madison, was now back in town. We gave her a call and were able to go over to her house in Metairie and hang out for a while. We stopped in Mandina’s for lunch since we were out that way – always a treat. It was great to see Brandy and family as always, and she was full of stories about Madison’s behavior while she was on vacation in Florida.

After Brandy’s, we decided to try a pretty-well reviewed bar and grill called Coop’s Place. Maybe this place had its heyday in the past or maybe we were there on a bad night, but that was the least exciting food we had on our trip. Afterwards, we picked up some stupidly large frozen daiquiris and walked around and people-watched until time to head back to the hotel. When we got back, it was quite pleasant to relax on the balcony and absorb the mayhem from a distance.

Tuesday, June 8
Rise and shine and pack the car. We headed to the automotive repair shop and found it with little difficulty. The mechanic already had an air of superiority before he asked Andrew for something flat to open my hood, and Andrew helpfully responded that he might have a butter knife. The mechanic kind of scoffed and said something about a screwdriver being more what he had in mind. Ever the diplomat, I pointed out that those were tools from each of their respective trades and made sense and tried to imply that Andrew was not stupid for making such a suggestion.

After about 30 minutes, he informed us that we had a missing fuse for the lighter/outlet, which we knew because it frequently shorted out so we had removed it since we didn’t use the cigarette lighter anyway. Since then, I had filled that area with change and now, somehow, a coin had made contact with all the electric contact points in the lighter, resulting in a massive shorting out of most of the interior electrical components. So, he took the coins out, permanently disconnected the lighter electrical connections, put in a new fuse, and sent us on our way to the tune of $30. All’s well that ends well, and it was really hard to complain about having an extra day in New Orleans.

After the car was done, I realized that we were near Angelo Brocato’s Gelateria and suggested that we get a treat before hitting the road. We did and were so glad that we had. Its fame was well earned and, even at about 10am, they had a steady line of customers. From there, we hit the interstate and had an easy drive back home to Memphis.

All in all, I think Andrew had a happy birthday extravaganza.