Christmas Vacation

Is finally, officially and excitedly here. WOO!


Dear baby Jesus, thank you ever so much for the 12.5 days of straight vacation. Amen. Let's party!!

Seriously though, I am so thankful I work somewhere that get's these days off automatically, I hope to go into 2009 a little more relaxed and that many days off certainly can't hurt that goal!


So the husband is out playing golf (again since he played in 36 degree weather yesterday!) but I guess that is a good thing. He has spent so much money on golf stuff lately that his butt better be out there. And I told him he better start kicking some butt ON the golf course soon or I would be really disappointed. We'll see.


I am just at the house and I could be cleaning it. But who wants to really do that!? Not me. And I have had a soar throat so I feel that is an excellent reason for why I won't have done it when he gets back home. The only thing is that I kinda want to go to Ninfa's later... gonna have to come up with some reason I had a speedy recovery for that. Maybe a nap is in order? And when I wake up I feel SooooOOOOOOooooo much better? Hmm, maybe. I also have a hair cut appointment at 6 so I have to make that first. I probably should cancel and not spend the money, BUT it would look much better for Christmas if I get it cut. And let's face it, I need all the help I can get in the looks department these days. I am really looking older and it is sad.


We had Christmas at my Mema's Saturday. And then Christmas at MILs on Sunday. They went well, but it is just hard to believe they are over. Only one more official Christmas left. Then we go on our little beach trip with my parents for their Christmas. I think they are a little sad I am not making time to be with them specifically on Christmas Eve or Day. Well they are invited for Christmas Eve every year at Bear's family so that is there prerogative. And then we are going to church with them Christmas Day. But somehow I think they still felt like they wanted us to come over one of those times. But mom held it back since she gets upset with Mema thinking she has to have stuff on "The Day" for holidays and she thinks it is silly. But I can tell it kinda still bothers her. I can see how it would but that the same time we are spending 4 days with them on a trip.

Anywho... this post is really just to take up some of my time. And make another, probably the last, post for December and 2008.

Merry Christmas to the whole 5 of you who read this!!! And just so you know, this is my very OFFICIAL Merry Christmas to each of you because I decided not to send out Christmas cards this year. I decided I didn't feel like stressing about them, so well, I just didn't!

Project: Sorry that I left you hanging

The project is over and turned out OK. Excuse the the whole porch and columns on the house because I did those in 5 minutes. The 5 minutes AFTER I arrived at the party so go figure that they look kinda dumb. But I was DONE and that is all that mattered. Then I had a couple of cold beers. Love being from a small town German family where it is OK to have a keg at a 90 year old birthday party ... and drink with or in front of your preacher. HA!

So here is what it ended up looking like:

It was by no means perfect or an exact replica as I had hoped, but my husband did keep complementing me so that made me feel good. My mom thought I should have cut out all the places where windows and doors were so that they would be flush with the house "siding". I told her she could do it next time then.

Now, who wants a gingerbread house to decorate for Christmas? It is sitting on my kitchen table. I don't have the heart to throw it away but I don't want to keep it. Maybe this weekend I will finally throw it away!

Project: Why it is good to follow directions

With a title like that you might get the wrong opinion about this post. But I assure you I am probably going away from the obvious direction the title might take you.

It is good to follow directions. Things work when you follow them. Things go as planned as you follow them.

Which is why I am SOOOOOOooooooooooooooo thankful that my mom has let me stay at my house these past 2 weekends to do my part of this project on my very, very own. Hell freakin' yeah, people. I love her, she is my mom and I act SO MUCH LIKE her. Except in some ways that I hope are good ways. Like I DO READ AND at least try to FOLLOW ALL DIRECTIONS. And let me tell you. It works. My mom merely takes them as suggestions. And once she reads them she kinda just forgets that possibly whoever wrote them knew what they were talking about. Now maybe I am bragging a little early here... and I hate to jinx it, but so far so good on this project. And that is a wonderfully nice thing.

I finished the model and cut all the pieces apart this week. Then Friday made more gingerbread and cut out and baked all the pieces. I would like to credit some of the very good tools I used this time: A pizza cutter, a fang shaped knife I have, a Pyrex rolling pin and parchment paper. First, if I would have had the pizza cutter the first time I did this, things would have gone MUCH better. And second, parchment paper is the bomb and worth every.single.penny.

I also read online (See DIRECTIONS that might possibly be helpful to follow) that it is helpful to dry your pieces in the oven at 200 degrees over night. This worked great for a few pieces that came out softer than I wanted. However, when you do this, make sure that all your pieces are on a flat surface. I didn't have enough space in the oven so I stacked pieces on top of each other. So for most of them it was fine, but for some that were in between or on top of smaller pieces, they ended up unlevel and misshapen by the morning. So I had to redo those this morning.

Then I took a break and we went to lunch at Chili's. Gave the MIL our truck so she can finally get her wrecked car fixed this week. WOOHOO, I will be glad to no longer think about that. At least hopefully, it will all be done after this week. She has already gotten 6 warning tickets for driving like that AND anyone who wants to ride with her has to ride in the back seat. If you know her, you know this doesn't bother her in the least. Which, LOL!

So back to work... I made royal icing with meringue powder for the glue to hold all the pieces together. This is where, OMG, following the directions is amazing. A-maze-ing. It turned out perfect. Like cement! It is going to be so much easier just because of THAT. Last time I guess we tried to make our own royal icing with egg whites? Because we didn't have meringue powder or ran out or didn't want to run to town? I don't know. All I know is what we did do, IT DID NOT WORK FOR THIS PURPOSE. Maybe for flowers or something, but not this. I remember having it dripping everywhere and having to hold pieces together for 15-30 minutes to get it all to stick. This time, none of that. YYYYYAYYYYYYYY! I think there are 2 other factors here, the weather is not humid and I have an awesome mixer that made it peak like it is supposed to. I am going to have to get mom one of those.... I really think it might be an important factor.

Supplies:

I forgot to mention these supplies ;-)

The house I am trying to model. Yes is it very old... run down and dirty. I am trying to paint it in a different light. But, this is where my grandfather has lived his whole entire 90 years. So pretty cool if you ask me. If I had money, I would repair this house so it could make another 90 years.

Building.....

Done with the structural part. Sunday I will tackle the real decorating. I wish myself good luck!

Pretzels

Sunday night I made some soft pretzels. They were awesome. So awesome I ate 4 of the 6 myself. That was probably not good...

I made some with salt and some with sugar and cinnamon. The recipe is pretty easy.

1 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast

3/4 cup warm water

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Coarse Salt

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add sugar and salt. Stir in flour, 1/2 cup at a time to form soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

Punch dough down and divide into six parts. On a lightly floured surface, roll each into 14 inch rope. Twist into pretzel shape. Brush with butter and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes.

Project: Not regretting it YET

So... all of you know, that I get myself into things. Somehow. Someway. I get in involved in my mom's "projects". This can be good. Or this can be bad.


I have agreed to help with the cake for my grandpa's 90th birthday. The day I agreed, I was all pumped up about it. But by the time this weekend rolled around, I was kinda dreading it. It just gets overwhelming and my mom never takes a break! She will just keep going and it eventually annoys me and then I get cranky and we get in a fight because I just want her to stop already. And she can't let some ideas go...


Saturday morning before I was supposed to leave she called to say she had my little cousin K (2.5) at her house because his mom had the flu. Well I was not happy that she wanted me to come and be exposed to the flu bug (which the doctor had said was NOT a strain they were vaccinating for this year) and I was upset with her for then taking K over to my Mema's (who just had heart surgery 2 weeks ago). So of course we got into over that. Am I alone here, am I the only person who takes the flu seriously? I do not blame my mom for trying to help KM, I am all for it, but then contain the kid who has been exposed. Sorry, but that is how I feel. BUT I was gonna go anyway.


She called back a little later and said just don't come and I know she was mad, but I said that is fine that I will stay at my house and work on it. Have I mentioned what it is yet? A gingerbread house replica of my grandfather's farm house. I have actually done it once before and I think I can do it better this time. But it is a lot of work. Luckily, we have 2 weeks to do it. So since I didn't go home, I told my mom I would get the ingredients and make the pattern and gingerbread pieces. So yesterday I made gingerbread and it has been in the fridge since then. The pattern is quite complicated and it is taking way more time that I thought it would. Which is how it goes with this type of project. However, it has been nice to just be here working on it alone. I know that sounds horrible, but I think it has been the best thing. I seriously doubt we would have gotten anything done with a 2.5 year old running around and "helping", as much as I do love him so.








So here is what I have so far. Got to use the ridiculously RED kitchen aid mixer. Oh ye-ah!







And then, I was almost done with my model. And then mom sent me the picture I needed and now I have to redo it. Oh well. I have the part without a roof all wrong. Better to know now though.


Stay tuned. This is bound to turn out interesting. There will probably be tears. And yelling. But hopefully, my grandpa will secretly like it. He is a man of few words. So if I get a smile, mission accomplished!

Finally Fall is in the Air

I don't know about anyone else, but I love this fall weather. Finally. Now it makes me want to put up fall decorations at the house, but now it is really too late. Maybe next year.

So things have been only semi-busy. We attended another wedding this past weekend. That should be the last for quite sometime. I don't think either of us have any other friends to marry off at the moment. So no more tuxes or bridesmaid dresses until one of our siblings ties the knot. Assuming we would be in those that is... Unfortunately, I don't have not even one picture form the wedding because I made the mistake of giving the camera to my husband to take pictures of them playing golf. He came back with zero pictures, my fault of course because the memory card had Disney pictures on it, and then he wouldn't get it out of the truck at the reception. Apparently, I need to teach him how to delete the memory card. GEEZ.

Also, the middle school football season is drawing to a close. My husband could NOT be happier. He says he is NEVER doing middle school football again. I am writing this down here to get witnesses and so that we can look back at say I told you so next year. Hee!

So far so good...

October is going by fast but there is also still alot left. Seems like a long month.

Last weekend I went to Fedor to spend the weekend with my mom for her birthday. Bear went to a bachelor party and we rounded out the weekend with a couples shower. We had a pretty good time for mom's birthday making Mexican martini's (wish I had one NOW) and then making fajitas. The couples shower was ok. It was a who's who of G-town and I was over it within an hour. I hate meeting people that think YOU should know who they ARE without introduction. I could care less who you are or what you do, you stuck up snobs. But whatever. I am glad to do a shower for Z&E but I think in some respects we got ripped off. I added up that we ended up spending $55 for our part. There were 15 couples. That's right, I said fifteen. We should have been able to give a shower for less than $20 per couple. But again, although this is very whiny, I was glad to do it for Z&E, we just could have done it much more economically in my book. I mean we ate hamburgers! Anyway... better move on.

This weekend mom and dad came over and dad and Bear cut down the dead tree in our back yard. It is nice to get it all taken care of. The neighbors might mind though that we have it all stacked out in front on the street and trash pick up for yard waste is not under Friday. BUT they do it too. Today we went to church and then we went to breakfast. Just been chilling since then piddling on the Internet. Such fun... no I found Hope Floats on TV. I really love that movie!

I found something cool on SouthernLiving.com. If you have a hard time finding new recipes to make for dinner and you want a grocery list that will make 5 things without off the wall ingredients then try these:

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipes/gallery/0,28548,1844985,00.html

I made the Shrimp Salad and the Chicken with asparagus recipe. The salad was good once we got it all together. The chicken recipe was great! Except I ended up putting sugar snap peas in instead of asparagus because after the asparagus was in the fridge for ONE day it was already bad. I was not happy about that. But the chicken and the sauce are excellent!! Next up is the pasta salad.

Goodbye September 2008

Well... what can I say. I haven't felt like blogging lately. September kinda got away from me and I only ended up with one WHOLE post. Woweee.

Let's get a recap (if I can remember everything):

• First Weekend: Aggie Football started. Dee and Jason, and Maegan and Jett came to stay with us. I went to my friend Sarah's Couples Shower, without my couple of course. I saw old friends Mandi and Ashlie. I had a good time and then went back to the house to play Wii with my guests. FUN!
  
• Second Weekend: Then Hurricane Ike made his appearance. We didn't get any evacuees this time, D and J stayed in H-town. For some reason I was quite glued to the television during the 'cane and then we did discover that at our house we are really blocked from at least 30-40 mph wind by the trees in the back yard. And luckily, the dead tree in the back did NOT fall on the house. Score.
  
• Third Weekend: This is where it gets interesting. Bear went to NYC for the second to last Yankee's game at Yankee Stadium before it is torn down. I went to S's ring dunk Friday and night and we tried to go to NG but it was WAaayyyyyYYYY too crowded so I went home. Saturday I shopped with mom before she took me to DB for a baby shower for W and S. After the shower MIL was nice enough to let me take her car to Fedor. BUT, as luck would have it, I hit a deer (BIG buck with at least 8 points) with her car. Car needs repair, I am OK, but I naturally feel horrible. Sunday after church we went to Mema's to lunch. Then I had to head back to DB for a surprise bday party for Aunt A. (Yes I had to go to all this family stuff without MY HUSBAND. This never would happen had I been out of town and my family was having 2 things, but typical I suppose.) Husband calls just before the party starts to tell me he booked the wrong return flight and now has to find another way home. So needless to say, it was the most expensive weekend we have had in a long time.
  
• Last week and weekend: I went to Disney World in Florida with mom, KM and her kids K&K. It was a blast! I had the best time riding all the rides with big girl K. She is fearless and so it made it so fun!!! I even got KM and mom to ride some big rides too. I think mom forgave me but I don't know about KM. Saturday though, Bear called with bad thing #3 (please God let it be over now) that his laptop and gym bag was stolen out of his truck. So that was just great. Sunday after we came home, I crashed and I think it took me 2 days to fully recover from the trip. I was exhausted!

I don't have all the pictures that KM took, which are better than mine. But I do have these cute pictures of K&K getting their faces painted. TOO CUTE!

Much ado

about nothing...

It is Friday again and here I am for my weekly post.

Last weekend was fun and quite relaxing. We had a talk about money before our trip and I was told by my husband to stop stressing out about it. So after alot of kicking and screaming I have tried to take his advice. It made for a nice weekend where I didn't care what we did or how much it cost (to a certain degree). I think there were several factors that helped me do this. 1) Bears new job 2)excepting the fact we have bills that will not be paid off in the immediate future no matter how hard I try 3)Bear took care of all the details.

Friday we went out to dinner with D, J and C to Pancho's. Bear freakin' loves him some Pancho's and none of the rest of us can complain either. So then we went to the liquor store on the way home. We were planning on playing a game but ended up sitting on the couch watching the Olympics. D and I tried to drink a bottle of wine, but failed to finish it before we wanted to go to bed. Lame, well yes maybe, but I believe we were all totally fine with it.

Saturday D and J made us breakfast, which was awfully nice of them. Then later that afternoon Bear and I headed to our hotel and got ready for the concert with Coach G and his wife.

The concert was awesome, except for the fact that it was so LOUD. I don't mean to sound 80, but seriously it was MUCH louder than necessary. They were trying to blast the sound to China as far as I could tell and when we left I think a freight train could have been coming up behind us and none of us would have known. Bear says his ears are still ringing (let's face it, he acts 80 sometimes so are we surprised?). But, we had sweet seats on the club level of Reliant. That made things even more enjoyable. There was a bar directly outside the door. But I believe Bear and Coach G repeatedly went to this one bar where they found "the cheap beer". You know, as far as cheap goes at these things anyway.

Sunday we went shopping at the new outlet mall. We wanted to take advantage of tax free weekend and it was nice to shop without as much guilt as usual. The only thing was that I am still refusing to go up a size in clothing so I didn't walk away with too much. Bear racked up though which is good.

Work this week has been so so. Not alot going on which is both good and bad. If someone is not chasing me with a deadline, then not too much gets done. Bear has been adjusting to his new jobs and gives me either an upbeat report at the end of the day OR he has the "oh holy hell what have I done" speech waiting for me. The vibe can also vary between these 2 all in one day. I keep telling him to wait until Monday and he actually meets the kids and then tell me how he feels. On this one I don't know though... it might be an interesting year to say the least. WHO knows where he will end up next year if he doesn't like it.

So this weekend we will be out at the Fish Fry. I was more excited about it last week than I am now. Hopefully it is not too terribly awfully hot.

And I have no way to cleverly end this so BYE!

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Well... mucho has happened in the last week.

• Bear took at new job with Bryan ISD
• Bear was happy and excited and we knew we would have slightly more money to spend this next year so in true Bridget and Bear style, we went and spent the MONEY before we even have it. Oh come on, you all know it is what we do and you are laughing RIGHT NOW.
• We bought a Wii
• And Wii Fit
• And Super Mario Kart
• Bear got sad about leaving his last job a few times over the week, but then we just play Wii and he is FINE then.
• Wii hhheeee heeeee

So much of the last week, I just played VIDEO GAMES. Yes, meeee, I play the Wii. Bear is amazed and so am I. I vehemently complain about him playing the Xbox (which YES we still have) but now I am so addicted. I mean I stayed up last night and played Mario Kart until 12:30 because I wanted to play every course in ORDER. So now I have done that. I think I got first in them all except for ONE. See I even keep score. And we can even play people online. WTH is happening?

Weekend please hurry up!

I am not down with being at work today. While I have a few things to do, they are not things I want to do and they are not urgent. I have a pretty big deadline coming up so I have been notified by most of those who will submit that day, but now they have all disappeared. Only to reappear later all at once demanding me to work! So I am trying to enjoy the downtime.

However, it is FRIDAY and I just want to go home.

And today is food day so I also want to go home to get away from all the food. I used to like food day but now it kinda puts me in a bad mood. It is just not fun anymore.
1) I don't feel like cooking for such a large group
2) we have groups for main dish, breakfast, dessert, ect. and sometimes I do not feel like making something that fits in my group (and the one time I was a rebel in didn't follow orders I brought the exact same thing as someone else)
3) I don't need to eat ALL DAY and it is really, really, really hard not to do that when the food sits outside my cube.
4) It is always at the end of the month when I have no extra money.
But everyone else loves it so I guess I am the only fuddy duddy in the bunch.

Tonight a bunch of my highschool girlfriends are coming into town. We are going out to Ninfa's for dinner. It should be fun, it usually is. I always just have a wierd anticipation when I get together with them. I think it is a mix of guilt for never talking to alot of them anymore and then also just thinking will they still like me? Stupid, really, because then we get together and have a good time. And it is not like I purposely avoid them or that they do that to me either. But I still have an awkward feeling about it sometimes.

Sunday I am going to be a baptism sponsor for one of my friends little boys. I have never done that before. It should be interesting. I hope she does not ask me to hold him during the process! I don't know who the other sponsors are going to be.

Bear is going to San Antonio for a coaching clinic this weekend. I just wish it was not so far away. Gas it too expensive! But at least everything else is paid for... for once by the school.

Well this took up a few minutes of my time. Now I am going to see if I can sneak out early...

Vacation Recap

We had a very good time on tour trip to New Orleans with Dee and Jason. We tried several new places and went to the Garden District which we had not done before. We still have a few things on our list for next time, but we found a few more favorites to add to our list of MUST DOs. Here is a recap.

We left Dee and Jason's about 8:30 and made the necessary stop at Starbucks before we officially hit the road. Jason drove until we needed to stop for gas the first time, then Bear took over until Baton Rouge. Dee and I kept busy with crosswords, sudoku and Southern Living magazines.

In Baton Rouge, we stopped for lunch close to the LSU campus as The Chimes, which our friends from LSU suggested. The food was very good and they also had beer from 'Round the World. So Jason and Bear had fun sampling a few.

We had a pretty leisurely lunch and then Dee and I took over the front seat with me driving so the boys could nap after their beers. We got stuck in traffic (once we finally figured out how to get back on I-10 East!) as we usually do in Baton Rouge plus it started to rain. We finally go going and then hit traffic AGAIN once we got into New Orleans. Finally, we made it to the hotel, unloaded our bags and took the car to Harrah's to park it at the casino. Then we went to gamble for our 30 minutes so we could get the free parking.

Next we went to walk around the Quarter. We saw a sign for drink specials at the Cat's Meow and decided to go in. It was 3 for 1 beers. So you couldn't get 4, you had to get 3 or 6. So 6 it was. We sat in the outside courtyard while people inside karaoked. There was a wild bunch of older women in there, whoa!

Eventually, after going to Walgreen's for pepcid and energy drinks (I told Dee aren't we with some old men who need that stuff!), we went to dinner at Cafe Maspero. We had to wait in line a little bit but it was well worth it. It wasn't the grandest establishment, but it was good food, really cheap! We ordered the Seafood platter (10.75!) and also each of us had $1 Strawberry Daiquiri. You really can't beat that.

Bear started not to feel good during the meal, we were all guessing it the was possibly the energy drink... We walked down Bourbon scoping things out for the next day and headed back to the hotel.

Thursday morning we slept a little late. We all got going and ready by about 10:30, almost lunch, but we of course wanted to visit Cafe Du Monde. So we headed over there and had beignets and cafe a laut all around. It was so YUMMY! Even better than I remembered. Then we began exploring. We went down to the French Market, which now has a fancy covered pavilion type place with bathrooms and a business office. And we went by The Gazebo Cafe and picked up a few ice cream daiquiris. They are SO good, but very filling.

Next, Bear and Jason had scoped out the oldest bar in America, Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar. They went in while Dee and I strolled the block and finished our daiquiris.

It was SOooo HOt! And somehow I had lost my pony tail holder at breakfast. We went in the bar to cool off for a while. Luckily, Dee found an extra pony tail holder for me!!! YAY!

We walked around a bit more and eventually stopped at Chartres House Cafe for Bloody Mary's. We also decided to share an appetizer. We had the BEST Crawfish Cake ever. And the drinks were great!

Next, we wanted to go to the Garden District so we went all the way down to walk along the River. We heard what we thought was someone playing a recorder, you know like the one's you get in 5th grade music class? But really loud! It turned out to be a River Boat playing with the steam whistles.

We took the St. Charles Street rail car into the Garden District and went on a walking tour we found online. Jason and Bear were our tour guides. The houses were beautiful, but we were getting so HOT and we had to go to the bathroom and we were getting hungry. While Dee and I were appreciative, we told the boys we had been there done that and they were happy they wouldn't have to bring us back again. We passed a home owned by John Goodman and one owned by Nicholas Cage. The landscaping was beautiful as well as all the homes. Some were under construction and some were for sale. You don't get to go inside any of them so next time we said that we want to pretend we are in the market so we can go inside!!!

We went back to the hotel to rest and shower. Once we were revived, we headed out to have some fun. We had dinner at the Crescent City Brewhouse. It was good food once again. Then we were off to various bars for the rest of the evening.

We discovered the Chart Room bar. They had $1.50 Miller High Life ON TAP. That was very "unique". Cheap beer. But also THAT beer. On Tap. Plus the oddest mix of music ever. Fun, but odd.

Then we went to the Old Absinthe House. The beer there was skunky to say the least. Either skunky, or definitely NOT what I ordered. We were in and out.

Next we went to the Hotel Monteleone and sat in the Carousel Bar. It was actually moving!! Not fast, but still moving. The bartender was staying in one spot and we were going round and round. Very cool!

Then we went to Pat O'Brien's. And as I had told Jason and Dee earlier, it suddenly became a good idea for Bear to drink a Hurricane even though he swore he would not have one ever again. It did take him a while to get it down. We sat in the Piano bar for a long time. It was so much fun!!

Then we all had one more beer on the balcony of the Jazz Emporium.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped Daisy Dukes for breakfast. DO NOT ASK. It was food and we needed it. They were open all night. And yes, the girls dressed accordingly. I remember feeling like I was eating at Mel's Diner in Giddings like we used to do when we had late nights in high school!

Needless to say were not moving too terribly fast on Friday. We all felt fine, but sleeping in felt great. We didn't get going until around 11 so we skipped Cafe Du Monde and went straight to lunch. We had gumbo at Court of Two sisters and then shopped on Royal Street. We found alot of cool art places, and while I love the style of all of the NOLA art, I can't afford it. Maybe one day. We had another snack later that afternoon at The Gazebo and listened to some live music. Then we went back to shopping again. While Bear and Jason finished up looking at some places, Dee and I headed to a bar to sit down for a while. Our legs hurt so bad! And again it was hot so we decided to go back to the hotel and shower and rest up again.

But on our way back, we were finally able to stop at Napoleon House Bar. We had tried several times and it was always closed and we couldn't figure out WHY! So we stopped in and had a drink.

I had their "special drink" made with a liquor they invited called Pimms. It was Pimms, lemonade and 7-up with a cucumber. It was Ok, nothing really special if you ask me, just kinda weird.

Once we all had some energy again, we went to Harrah's to get a free drink we had acquired earlier. Then we went to The House of Blues for their happy hour specials and live music. It was really neat! I had not been before and I will definitely go back. Next, we made a stop at Red Fish Grille so the boys could have oysters. Red Fish is one of our favorites but it is a little pricey. But they had really great, guess what, Red Fish! Then we tried to go to dinner at a place that Aunt D suggested but they were not open anymore and it was only 9! So we ended up at The Original Pierre Maspero's. It was really, really good. Or what I had was. It was Shrimp Remoulade that will never forget!!!

I didn't take any pictures of the third evening or Saturday ... not exactly sure why! I guess I was tired or something...

Saturday we didn't sleep to late. We had to go to the Casino and gamble our 30 minutes to get our car out of the garage for free. It turned out, that we only had to gamble 30 minutes on the day we needed to get it out of the garage and not 30 minutes per day as we originally thought. Then we loaded up and had one last meal at Mother's. Then we had to be on our way back home.

It was a very fun, much needed and much appreciated vacation. And while we did several new things, the great thing is there is always more to do when we go back!