My house

I am starting to upload pictures of my house to my Picasa account. For starters I have the original pictures from when I bought the place. Check it out and standby for updates as I upload more pictures showing the work before and after Katrina. If you check out the whole public gallery you will see the garage being built.

Back.........AGAIN!

So I spent the better part of a week in NO. It was great and I got a ton of stuff done on my house. There is just one ceiling left to be ripped out from Katrina, the kitchen ceiling. I got the "living room/den" gutted, wired, and insulated. The room is ready for sheetrock, but then I realized I have no way at this point and time, to bring sheetrock into the house. I used to carry it up the back stairs, but they are gone. So sheetrock will have to wail awhile.

I also got to see my neighbor's progress. He told me they were going to build a fence...okay, a bit annoying but no problem. Lo and behold they are building a garage and carport in the middle of the historic district of Old Gretna....without a permit....perhaps the new building inspector will deal with it.
I also got to drink quite a few Guinness with my friend Mike at Crown and Anchor . Unfortunately, La was still in her birthday celebration mode and tried to match my Guinness consumption with her bourbon consumption....she was hurting the next day. I received this text message from her after she was at a wedding reception (and she knows why the purple type):
Seven or diggit o mind bourbon s oh my. What a fun reception that makes. ---Happy 777 day (sent at 11:53pm 7/7/07)

The translation is "Seven or eight or nine bourbons, oh my!"

And one last thing....a MIRACLE!
One of the 2 Kroger's in town is now carrying Abita Amber and Turbodog!!!!

Back in Greenville but not for long

The trip home this weekend was a lot of fun, but busy. I got to see one of my sisters and her daughter. I also got to see my friend La while hanging out at Cooter Brown's. Which is always a good place to grab a beer and some awesome food. I also got to have the fun of installing a door at my parents' house which was not exactly fun or as straight-forward as it should have been. The best part though, is tomorrow I am headed back home AGAIN. I am taking the rest of the week of so I might even get some work done on my house.

As I have said before, I live in the birthplace of Kermit the Frog, so with that in mind, I found this article about Rubber Ducks . (For an extra laugh read the actual web address of the article) A shipment of rubber duckies (and frog and turtles) got knocked off a ship on their way from China to the USA more then 15 years ago. Since then they have been used to track the ocean currents and a large group got caught in an ice pack in the arctic and has gone from the Alaskan coast, across the top of Canada, and are now melting pack into the ocean in the Atlantic. So everyone join in:

Rubber Ducky, you're the one, You make bathtime lots of fun, Rubber Ducky, I'm awfully fond of you; Woo woo be doo Rubber Ducky, joy of joys, When I squeeze you, you make noise! Rubber Ducky, you're my very best friend, it's true! Doo doo doo doo, doo doo Every day when I Make my way to the tubby I find a little fella who's Cute and yellow and chubby Rub-a-dub-a-dubby! Rubber Ducky, you're so fine And I'm lucky that you're mine Rubber ducky, I'm awfully fond of you. Every day when I Make my way to the tubby I find a little fella who's Cute and yellow and chubby Rubber Ducky, you're so fine And I'm lucky that you're mine Rubber ducky, I'm awfully fond of - Rubber ducky, I'd like a whole pond of - Rubber ducky I'm awfully fond of you! Doo doo, be doo.

Oh yeah, check out the Kwik-E-Mart near you. Jacqueline, if you see one....I want pictures! There is one near you!

New Assignments and Home Sweet Home

We had our meeting today and it appears that shortly I will be the only mechanical engineer at the lab. As a result of that development and the meeting it appears I will be working on Lint Cleaners, Energy Efficiency, Energy Recovery and Cogeneration, and Length Distributions. This should at least get the ball rolling so I can dig into some work now.
In more important matters, this time tomorrow I will be home! Going to NO for the weekend and then back on Sunday and then hopefully back in NO on Tuesday evening until the following Sunday, if my boss lets me take the last part of next week off.
La has started a blog...lots of pretty pictures and since she is an artist I expect it to be much more creative then my ranting here, check it out Chez La.
Speaking of ranting, anyone else think the SBA (Small Business Administration) is more inept then FEMA? I believe my favorite statement from them is "What do you mean you are having problems getting insurance? Just call an insurance company and get it." Right, it is just that easy....morons! I have fire and wind and they want contents but so far that is not happening, I have a plan though. Once I get my contents coverage I should be able to get my last SBA disbursement I can make some major progress on my house!

Stress Management

Today was typical government employee fun. The headquarters building was hosting a presentation on Stress Management today. The government offers all employees to take advantage of the EAP - Employee Assistance Program; as part of this they wanted people to know about Stress Management. My boss had a conflict with the scheduled time of the presentation but he wanted one of the scientists to represent the unit at the meeting. Any guesses who got the "honor"? Yep! 90 minutes of my life I will never get back. I think the 2 highlights of the presentation were 1) the suggestion to write what is causing you stress on a piece of paper and draw a box around it and then cross it out with a big red "X" and 2) telling people to say "No" and not give any explanations. Yes, I want federal employees to be encouraged to say no to assignments and be told they do not need to explain the reason.

Ahhh the fun of being a federal employee!

On the Road Again

Headed out to Ruston right after work on Friday. And when I say right out, I mean the only stop I made was at Doe's Eat Place to grab 9 dozen (yep, 108!) tamales for my grandma to try. My grandpa's doctor raved about them and even flies up here to load them up and bring them home. The final conclusion....they are good but not great. Like so much of the food in the Delta it could use more seasoning. I prefer Manuel's in NO. I guess that is why they call them "tamales" and not "hot tamales" here. Manuel's is another casualty of Katrina. If you want a good, and very large, steak (and are willing to pay for it!) they have locations in Oxford, MS, a few places in AR, Tulsa, OK, and Lafayette. Baton Rouge will be getting a location at the end of July...check them out, it is good.

The trip to Ruston was good, but tiring. Somehow I managed to make it back in only 2 1/2 hours, and I swear I was not speeding...guess I just hit it right.

At least next week is a short week and after this Thursday I will know what I am working on for work. The good news is that it does look like I will get to do some energy conservation and alternative fuel research....helping the environment a wee bit would not be a bad thing.

Pea-Soup's Lott-A-Freeze

The title should have your attention. This is a burger joint in Indianola. We hit it up on Wednesday after working at the Holly Ridge Gin. I have no idea what is up with the name, but they make a pretty decent burger for just a couple of bucks. Good thick crinkle cut fries and free refills on your drinks....not a bad combination. A large burger with everything on it (or dressed as I prefer to say), large fries, and a sweet tea came out to around $6. they even have "Po-Boys" listed on the menu along with hot dogs and tater-tots. I appreciate any restaurant that serves tater-tots for some strange reason.

Off to Ruston to visit the grandparents this weekend. It should be a nice change of pace. Work has been very productive this week between the project at the big gin and the Holly Ridge gin and now I have 2 new project proposals to talk to my boss about when he returns.

Oh yeah, I found an interesting house for not much money....not sure if I will move on it or not.