Jumping the Gun?

March 12, 2015

Our neighbors have been out trimming trees and cleaning out flower beds. I decided to join them.

I pulled some weeds that have been annoying me lately, and pulled out the dead remnants of tomato, pepper, and squash plants in the raised beds, making sure to set aside the stakes so I can re-use them. It will be time to plant soon! Won't it?

May 14, 2015

Then it dawned on me. Daffodils are springing up all over, but I've yet to see a crocus. The juncos haven't left yet. A few trees are budding out and people are starting to prune their roses and Crepe Myrtles back, but waaaay too early! So, I asked my neighbors if they thought we might just be making a late February snow storm head this way. They gave me a nervous little giggle and said they hoped not.

Hmmm. For many years, a columnist for the Demo-zette, the late Richard Allin, published an annual column heralding the arrival of "The Frozen Daffodil and Snow Tire Festival." I hope he's not just finishing up a column in Heaven for 2016!

I think.

One more pretty snow would be nice. And the streets are too warm for it to stick on them much, so why not?

My father would tell me I've lost my mind. But, I didn't move all the way to Little Rock from New Orleans to have to shave my legs so I could wear shorts in February!

Seriously.  Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Photo by Brian Chilson

Weekend Observations, Stolen Stuff, and Being Royal

Winter reared its frigid head around these parts the last couple of weeks. Most of the snow has melted (although there's more in the forecast for Wednesday), but we were pretty much housebound for days. The novelty wears off pretty quickly. (I know -- I hear the "wah, wah, wah" from you folks who have winters that regularly last longer than a few weeks. But you must remember that Moogie is a Southern girl!). Consequently, I've spent a LOT of time on Facebook this past week, so I thought I'd share a few giggles I found there.

Sad commentary.

Then there's the really bad pun:

Heh. A math joke that even I get!

We've all had a little cabin fever and been cooking obsessed. I had lots of help in the kitchen:

And, even dogs get cabin fever and go nuts when they finally get to romp outdoors:

We went through quite a bit of firewood. Yappy found the fire mesmerizing. She also found the firewood to be a tasty snack:

But, I think this is my favorite Facebook steal. Pepper posted it and tagged me in it with the caption, "OMG. It's Moogie!" And, of course, he was correct:

He later acknowledged in the comments that he's just a lowly unpaid Consort. It's good when a man recognizes his place.

And it's good to be Queen.

Happy Sunday!

Home again, Home again!

Just back home from NOLA and a very chilly Mardi Gras. Winter Storm Warnings for today and tomorrow here.

My internal thermostat is confused!

Pics to follow.

It's Tuesday

This is more pleasant to contemplate than Muslims, radical or otherwise, or the White House, or GEN Patraeus, or Attorney General Holder. Especially Holder.

Or Ohio State. Shoot -- I just detest Ohio State. Anyway -- stay warm!

More Good News From Your Governments

So now it seems that, to protect their citizens from their own folly, many cities are banning -- wait for it -- SLEDDING!!!

As a lawyer, I can appreciate the potential liability issues, but as an American citizen and adult human being, I detest being treated like a child. There, there, little lady. Don't tax your pretty little head -- let us do the thinking for you. After all, we know best.

Just consider the near-impossibility of enforcing such an overreaching law. It would do no good to ban the sale of actual sleds -- kids are creative and can turn most anything into a makeshift snow glider.We used to use trash can lids when I was a kid. And somebody's always got cardboard.

And, what's the penalty for engaging in said banned activity? Throw gleeful schoolkids in the hoosegow?

Sheesh. No one overthought this nifty little idea, huh.

Farewell, Rosebud and American Flyer.

We're doomed.

Landscaping, Spring?, and St. Patty's Weekend

Spring has been teasing us up one side and down the other at Moogie's Manor.  I spied a bunch of daffodils about to bloom before we left for New Orleans a few weeks ago.  They burst into flower shortly after we left, according to our friend, the Dog/House sitter.  Then came the sleet, and they never quite recovered. Here are our disabled daffodils:

And, today, I noticed for the first time that we have a Flowering Plum tree.  A BIG one!  It is sneaking into bloom in the side yard:

I am still so enthralled by the landscaping around The Manor. Every season delivers something new. Pepper and I are plotting how to add to it without detracting from any of it.  I know I want herbs and probably some tomatoes and peppers.  And daisies. He'd like a spruce or some other Christmassy evergreen. One thing we'll plant for sure, probably in the fall, is the Gardenia I rooted from a cutting of JB's huge plant in the yard at Moogie's Mansion.  I was sooooo excited to be successful in rooting it! It's presently sitting in a sunny spot in the entry hall in Moogie's Manor -- I figured that would be a good place to strengthen it before we transplant it outdoors since it's already demonstrated a liking for the sunlight there.  I wasn't able to get back to the Mansion before we left New Orleans to take another cutting, even though the new owners said we were welcome to cut as much as we'd like, but there's always next trip.  Look!  It has set flowerbuds!  (One of which has been decapitated by Mysti's excited tail. *sigh*):

And, here's my favorite pic of the day! Elder Daughter and family headed to New Orleans yesterday so that SIL#1 can join his family in the Irish Channel St. Patrick's Parade tomorrow. You read a little bit about it here once before. They split the trip into two days because they had to leave so late yesterday (and because #5 Grandchild's transportation attention span hasn't reached a full Little Rock to New Orleans length yet). So, today's second leg was filled with electronic entertainment and traffic, hence:

The Jack Kaleidoscope!

Elder Daughter can make electronics sit up ad do tricks. I think that's just too cool for school.

And, I'm still a little under the weather, so I'm easily entertained.

Happy Friday!

Moogie 1, Thieves 0!

Ah ha!!!  Victory over the thugs is mine!!

Remember when we discovered the theft of our lawn mower (and other stuff) from our garage after Thanksgiving?  Remember how I bought padlocks and heavy chains to reinforce the gate closures?

They worked!

Since Pepper has been out of town for a few days, the Bouie-poop-walk duty has fallen to me.  As we rounded the corner and approached the gate on the side street this morning, I noticed the gate to the back courtyard looked a little whoppy-jawed (translation for those not fluent in Southern: misaligned; crooked; off-center).  Sure enough, upon closer observation, I found the tongue was out of its little slot, meaning that someone had tried to unlatch the gate, to-wit:

And, this time the miscreant thief couldn't simply reach over to unlatch the clasp!  The padlock held! 

Ah, the smell of victory over reprobates is sweet indeed!  But, it's also a little creepy to know that someone was trying to gain access to the yard while Pepper was gone and I was here alone.  Fortunately, I am armed with both weapons and a large black dog who loves me.  He loves to squish plants in the sun, too. 

Nonetheless, I'm glad Pepper comes home tonight.

This has been the strangest winter -- it never got cold enough, for long enough, to kill my potted jalapeno plant, and now it has set five flowers!  And last year's petunia just went a little dormant and has now exploded in purple blossoms!  It was just too mild to kill the annuals, I suppose, except for the basil, whose remains you see beside the pepper plant.

Or, maybe I've become a magical gardener.  Yeah -- I'll go with that.  I'm magical. 

You'd best beware Moogie the Magical, thieving scum, or I'll transform you into the literal slime that you are and deliver you up to Obama's algae-based energy experiments!  At least there you'll be among your own kind, and potentially productive, instead of just another leeching wart on the nose of society.

There.  I feel better.  Can you tell I overdosed on Harry Potter movies this weekend?
          

The Winter Experience South of Interstate 10

Classes have been dismissed at LSU and untold numbers of Parish schools, there have been some pretty bad pile-ups on the long bridges around here, there's a cold rain falling, and I'm wearing sweat pants and socks!  Daughters, their dogs, and their men are having a "snowed-in slumber party" at Younger Daughter's Place in Little Rock while big, fat flakes fly.

All this winter frivolity has led to The Facebook being a pretty rich source of winter weather material today.  I cracked up at these and decided to steal them, the better to share them.  Here's a video that explains to the world north of I-10 how we approach winter precipitation in the south:

And this. We are not a winter-hardy people in the South (click to enlarge):

I may not be ready for 70s or 80s, but I could surely stand to be out of the 30s.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  I hear you all playing those thumb-and-finger record players of violin music for me.  Hush up and go make some snow ice cream -- at least you have some pretty white stuff to go along with your wrapped pipes and pets-in-the-bed! 

This woman appears to have adopted the "North of Interstate 40 Attitude" --


Does that about capture it? Heh.

The Day the Rodents Found Themselves at Loggerheads

It's Groundhog Day and that little scaredy cat Punxhutawney Phil didn't have to hide from his own shadow, portending an early Spring for folks north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

On the other hand, in Lafayette, Louisiana, Pierre C. Shadeaux, the Cajun Nutria, did see his shadow, thus dooming us to an early, long, hot, humid summer.

On yet another hand (or toes or something), it sleeted and flurried in New Orleans today, and we are now under a Winter Weather Advisory until sometime Friday!

I think there are some confused rodents out there.

Winter and Discontent

I seem to be doing hit-and-miss posting recently!  Haven't even gotten to make my blog-rounds, but life seems to be calming down a bit now.  The last snowed-out houseguests left yesterday and made it safely home to Arkansas.  I'm slowly putting the house back together -- 9+ loads of linens over the last week! -- and I have now decided that while running a Bed & Breakfast may be good exercise, like aging, it ain't for sissies.

We've also had some uncharacteristically cold weather around these parts -- below freezing!  This is what greeted me this morning while forcing the 16 year-old shih tzu to go outdoors:

The Naughty Children Fountain may be icy on the surface, but they know how to keep the water flowing!

I'm not sure New Orleans birds know how to ice skate!  And check out the gardenias buds hanging out over the frozen water.  That poor bush is really confused.

At least the pipes have stayed intact.  KNOCK WOOD THREE TIMES!!!

I'm still trying to keep myself from throwing up over that wretched display of "look at me!" and "you should dial back the rhetoric" last night presented by the Young President (perhaps we should call him the Great Healer now that he brought Congresswoman Giffords back to consciousness with his very presence), so I won't even go there.  And here I thought he did a pretty poor memorial performance at Ft. Hood.  Egad.  At least he didn't distribute tee shirts to the mourners in uniform at Hood.  (Funny, until I googled "tee shirts at Tucson memorial" I wasn't aware that so many people were just as appalled as I was by the souvenirs of a Day with the Obamas.  There must be many great minds out there.)

I do find the blame-slinging in the Tucson slaughter intriguing.  We certainly couldn't hold Islam responsible for the slaughters at Ft. Hood or at the Recruiter's office in Little Rock, but we certainly could blame everyone on the right from Sarah Palin to bloggers for setting off that fruitcake in Tucson.

I guess I went there, huh.

Oh well, maybe I'm back!

Return of "the Spring"

Although Andy thinks the signs of winter have arrived, it's "Spring" here at Moogie's Mansion.

Yep.  You guessed it.  It's b-a-a-a-ack!

We have a whole-block bombard-the-Sewerage-and-Water-Board phonathon gearing up this afternoon.  You'd think they'd get a handle on this stuff after the entire East Bank of New Orleans went under a boil order in late November as a result of water pressure levels that fell below levels required to keep the water safe and uncontaminated.

At least this one's not on Moogie's nickel.

And, no, I'm not overloading the system by draining the pool for winter!

Baby, It's Cold Outside (and inside!) in "Who Dat" Land!

So. It has been an interesting weekend at Moogie's World.

Remember Moogie's Mansion? The old girl is a fairly common example of the way things were built in New Orleans in 1906. There are still two enormous brick cisterns -- now sealed off -- in the attic that used to be the water source for the upstairs tubs and toilets. Pretty uptown, don't you think! (Not to mention being pretty indicative of how very well and strong buildings were constructed way back then!) City water was added at some point in the early 20th century, back when times were fairly warm, one must assume.

Despite AlGore's assertions to the contrary, one must assume that times were fairly warm back then because you'll note the pipes running from the City water supply up to the second floor, are on the outside of the building.

You'll also note the towel wrapped around one of those pipes.

There's a towel wrapped around that pipe because it burst yesterday afternoon, giving us a cascading waterfall the likes of which you've never seen! For some reason, Pepper thought a towel might help somehow. I'm still not quite sure how it was to be helpful, but the towel's still there, awaiting one of our buddies from Al Bourgeois Plumbing. Since we have a 104 year-old house, we also have Al Bourgeois on speed-dial. Our post-Katrina bills alone probably sent one of the Bourgeois grandchildren through some pretty ritzy private schools.

Fortunately, it was the hot water pipe that burst, so we were able to shut off the water just to the upstairs water heater instead of all the water to the upstairs. Like last time. *Sigh*

We made out much better, though, than our neighbors did in the apartment house next-door, built in 1898. They got to keep their water (at last report!), but they lost all power when the overloaded main breaker box arced out (again!). There was quite a fireworks display, complete with a visit from the Fire Department. The Fire Captain told the neighbors that this was the power utility's problem, not the Fire Department's.

I think this horrid cold snap has the Fire Department a little testy. Can't say that I blame them.

We invited the apartment tenants to come over to spend the night, or just to get warm, but they apparently all made other arrangements -- the parking area was pretty empty by about 8:00 last night. I'm really kinda glad they had others to take them in -- doing a huge bunch of linen laundering isn't on the schedule for this week, but I would've gladly done it if my neighbors were in need.

I guess the good will and cheer of the Christmas season hasn't totally faded yet. Even if it was offered begrudgingly.

Nevertheless -- Come on, sunshine!!! The foliage is failing and there's actual ice in the backyard! In New Orleans! My poor little rose bush is so very confused. And I have no idea why the frozen hibiscus photo insists on being on its side. It must be cold.