Beth is the world’s biggest fan of True Blood. She throws viewing parties every week, complete with a patented drink concocted for your viewing pleasure, so when I saw this shirt there was no question who it was destined for:

Happy Birthday, Beth!

The last few weeks have been strange ones. There was nearly 3 weeks of jury duty for an ungodly Katrina death case. To call it exhausting and miserable would be an understatement…and after all that time, they settled. Which was a good thing, ultimately, but still.

And as we come to the one year anniversary of the business closing I’ve finally gotten rid of the last of the stuff. I feel like I NEVER stop thinking that, but every time I think I’m done I open some cubbyhole and find yet MORE stuff.

The dregs seem to be really and truly gone now- the filing cabinets that used to hold several thousand beads were picked up yesterday and dropped off to their new homes, and the huge box of leftover gift boxes that I couldn’t bring myself to throw away have found new lives.

In their Notably New Orleans lives, they would’ve looked like this:

In their new lives they’ve found a much higher purpose:

PRC’s Education & Outreach department does a fantastic job of working with local public school kids, giving tours and setting up different long term programs with the schools. This display came at the end of several months of working with a classroom and exploring what community really means and what goes into building a livable space.

They all did an amazing job, and it’ll be on display for another couple of weeks at the Preservation Resource Center (923 Tchoupitoulas) if you want to come check it out. There are quotes from the students and all kinds of other interesting things to check out.

And then of course there was the hard freeze that went on for days- the worst New Orleans has seen in 15 years. The carnage was fairly complete- all the hibiscus are dead. Ditto the passiflora, bougainvillea,and on and on- even the ginger took a huge thwacking, and I thought that stuff was indestructible.

Well, here- let’s save some time. Allow me to point out what survived using a photo from the fall as illustration: Arrow=survivor. No arrow=fallen soldier.

So yeah, that was freaking depressing.

But a good culling is like a forest fire, leaving behind newly excavated mental and physical space that needs to be filled up with new exciting plans. Some of those are writing based, and some are photography based. Some involve shopping for new and ever more exotic plants to fill up the yard with color.

And just maybe some might even involve finally making an honest man out of poor, long suffering Charlie.

It’s been a long year of post-going-out-of-business recovery- time spent clearing deadwood both practical and metaphorical. Here’s hoping it was time well spent.

I couldn’t stop laughing, despite myself. Hat tip to MK for sharing.

(Also, I had no idea that redubbing this same scene was something of a cottage industry, but check out the related videos, and marvel at how much free time there is in the world…)

and this about covers it:

Okay, well, one more thing:

And btw, how classy was it that they brought Deuce back?

I posted the text to my Facebook and emailed it to friends on NYE. What better words to send a new decade off on?

Jack took the longest time to decide he wanted to eat his veggies, but once he did, he became quite the piggy…

And now he doesn’t only like his greens, but his pinks and reds and yellows too.

Whew.

I’m just realizing the whole Christmas thing is over already. Thankfully. Sadly.

Okay, there’s still New Year’s to get through, and that’s a whole other kettle of fish, but the bulk of it is gone. Charlie and I both stayed home this year, no December travelling for the first time, and there were lists and lists of things we wanted to do, some of which we got to, some we didn’t. (I really really really will get myself over to the concerts in St. Louis Cathedral and/or the caroling next year. Really truly.)

It all culminated in an Orphan’s Christmas Eve feast- a dinner party for wonderful friends whose families are also miles away. Charlie took the theme to heart and went into full on Dickens mode, making a scrumpcious goose with fruit stuffing and suchlike (tho no figgy pudding, thankfully). I intended to take pics of the goose before it got gobbled, but I was nicely buzzed on wine and company, so there ya go.

After Christmas Day’s Annual Low Key Open House thrown by our wonderful neighbors and a day of recovery we went and saw some of the holiday stuff Downtown and crossed off a few more “we have to get to”s around town.

It was meant to end in a lovely dinner at Antoine’s Hermes bar, but that was packed. We scaled down to Arnaud’s bistro, Remoulade, but they were closing by the time we got there. So dinner, for those brave of us to accept the mission, was an honest-to-god Lucky Dog with the works.

Ug:

Note there are only boys in that picture. The ladies wisely took a pass.

So that’s that. Christmas 2009 in the bag, for better or worse. Lots of all the stuff you’re supposed to have, and little of the stuff everybody hates. And yet I find myself in a bit of a post-holiday slump. This was the first year in a long time I really participated and wasn’t just a bah-humbug, largely because the business is gone, I think. I used to have to shop constantly, so more holiday buying just made me nuts, and Christmas also started the roller coaster of Carnival season, so to say I was distracted is an understatement.

I guess this is the first real event that’s made me acutely aware of the business’ loss on a day-to-day, nuts and bolts level. Bittersweet, as always. I’m very happy to not be pouring over catalogs, scrying for clues as to what kind of season it’s going to be, laying in supplies, and making even more of a mess than I do usually. Mostly I’m very happy about it all.

Sometimes I just have to remind myself of that.

I really didn’t used to do this kind of thing, this putting clothes on the animals. I made fun of it, and still do, generally.

But Bruiser actually needs to wear sweaters and stuff, because his fur is as short as the rest of him, so he’s always shivering. So it’s off to Petco for something, and of course it’s all cutesy, and then the holidays come… and I snicker semi-evilly, and we end up with something like this:

Kassie’s pretty stoic about it, but Sammy just wants it gone. Now, if given a preference:

But Bruiser actually loves it. And I’d heard that from other small dog people and shook my head at them. If I pull out some tee shirt he knows is his he can’t wait to ram his head in and lifts his paws for the armholes. In fact, he was NOT happy that the other dogs got into his act and made off with the goods…

Luckily he’s cute and Santa forgave him anyway. Hope everyone’s Holidays were merry!

I picked this hardy hibiscus up at the Farmer’s Market last year not quite sure what I was getting, but fell in love with it once it bloomed. It comes in bright white and fades to a deep pinkish red over the course of several days- the whole bloom lasts a good 10 days, which is fantastically long for these things.

Here are two blooms on the same bush- one had been out for about four days and had gone pink, and the other had bloomed that day:

And here’s two days later, the pink’s gone much deeper, but the white’s still white:

I just love how it’s chaos at its center, much more than a tropical hibiscus:

I’m working on trying to unravel this mess. Some jackass got into the server and screwed everything up.

The site is red listed everywhere now. I’m not sure how I’ll be able to fix that, but…

Well, I’m working on it.

UPDATE: most of the database has been recovered (the posts if not the categories, keywords, etc etc), and that’s the most important thing. Time for a big drink and bed. All the other stuff will have to wait for now.