Scent: The Magical Time Machine

I was talking to a friend today about New Orleans coffee today and as soon as I typed the word "chicory" my brain had me sitting at my favorite table at Cafe Du Monde with Nicky at dawn, watching the folks who were just getting off work and the people in the Quarter who are always walking around carrying insanely random items they found somewhere. The Quarter is always under renovation. It must be fun to get new window casings, put the old ones to the curb and show up at a friend's house a month later to find your old windows painted, turned into picture frames and hanging on someone's walls! There seems to be a very fluid definition of "trash" in New Orleans. Nicky loves it as much as I do, we ride the trolley cars, explore the Garden District and Magazine street, play in the parks and walk the city for hours. He loves the warehouse district, the Children's Museum (cheap, air conditioned and free wi-fi for mommy, what's not to love???), Crawfish Etouffee, and wants to go to Tulane when he's a big boy. I love shotgun houses, the WWII museum, the Mint, Jackson Square and the French Market. Last time we were there we got to see my favorite C.A.Cajuns at the Convention Center and I met...well, with Nicky along for the ride, I met nearly everyone in New Orleans. It was quite a switch, usually I just meet the bartenders!! We toured a plantation with Tomkat and Mark and Nicky and I had more that a few amazing nights hanging out being a family. We are saving the Cemeteries and all the other wonderful things I haven't shown Nicky yet for future visits, but we can usually swing one or two trips a year. Now I have to go search out my soundtrack to "Love Song for Bobby Long" which derserves a post of it's very own but since I will probably forget...It is amazing, the movie the soundtrack, the whole thing. Incredible songs, Travolta is wonderful, "My heart was a lonely Hunter" will make you cry. If you love Faulkner, love New Orleans or love the Delta music, it's a must see/listen. All this just from the memory of a whiff of chicory...has anyone read Swann's Way with the madelaines? Hahaha. So true, nothing takes you away into memory quite like scent.

PS Nicky asked what I was typing and heard the music and has now packed his suitcase for a New Orleans trip that is only in his head...The kid is a riot



Oh yeah, this one is for Georgie Girl, thanks for the concert, love ya sweets!

The Mundane Bane

Always in the car.....Hi!

I really hate the drive to the airport. Why didn't I speak up louder when we were choosing a place to live? Why did I let the guy who is NEVER here pick the spot?? In my next life, the one where I get to be Queen, I am going to live a LOT closer to the airport! Mark has about 8 trips this months, I am leaving Friday and My Mother in Law in going to Poland for a while so I am looking at many many trips to Hartsfield this month and it is a very long and boring way away. The good news? Look how utterly mundane the bane of my existence is! Really, my biggest problem today is just that lame! That makes me one lucky duck!



This picture is apropos of...nothing! I love this qictures of my "twins".

Oopsie!

Yup, it got past me again. I keep meaning to update this thing then I forget until someone reminds me. So, since March...I am no longer with Zenith (after 12 years I miss everyone tremendously and what WILL I do without my "Office" stories of the crazy and unusual??). I have started back to school and will hopefully be entering the Nursing program on the next submission group I qualify for in Jan 2012. Seems like forever away but I am constantly amazed at how quickly time passes. I am doing my pre-requisites now so I doubt I willl be bored in the meantime! Nicky started preK 4 and is having fun, look how old he looks in the picture! He had a big party for his birthday and had so much fun he decided he should have a bunch of parties throughout the year. It really was fun, although in the pictures all the kids look like they are waiting for the dentist. Kind of funny, kids do NOT LIKE watching another kid open presents. Mark is staying busy as ever and we will be leaving for Spain in a week - I am sooo excited! Not only a fun trip to another country but grown up time like we are married?? This should be great!

On the home front, I am actually


staying home

as in, staying put in the town I live in...and I am enjoying the hell out of it! I joined a new "club" out here, hahahaha. I have met the greatest people and I am finally having fun out here in the boonies. I even found a hairdresses I love that is not a hotel/per diem trip away! For those of you familiar with my sad tale of woe this is really really big.

Mom is doing great, Granny is okay, plodding along and we are still covered up in Horses, Dogs, Cats and People and my new pet Porch Possum. His name is GIT!!
More later, and if I love you, you know it and I love you! If I don't love you yet, I am sure I just haven't met you yet and you are just a really nifty person.
Alli

When I grow up....

I want to be as good a mother as my friend and I would be overjoyed to have a kid as good as hers. The stupidest thing in the world happened at my favorite kid's school (favorite outside of Nicky of course). It was one of those things that our parents would have just smacked the hell out of us as kids but now requires police involvement, expulsion and long therapeutic discussions. I am just so damned proud of C for not being an idiot I can't stand it!! Would that I made as intelligent decisions as my fav 12 year old.....

The most boring person in the world.

I was wondering the other day why I so rarely spoke to my friends on the phone. We used to all update daily like it was our jobs. We actually did most of our talking while AT our jobs. Maybe that explains why I am the only one still at the same job...my coworkers thought we were all interesting and tried to listen in: but most jobs frown on employees being on personal calls more often than a tweener with boyfriend troubles. Since then, I have had a child, two friends moved away, a couple got day jobs, a couple of us (ME Included!!!)have decided to have our midlife breakdowns and depressive episodes to celebrate our new President and our economy and all of their kids have joined the ranks of FULL TIME sports and activities right when mine became a very active toddler. Now I spend all of my time either at work or playing with Nicky or cleaning / running errands and suddenly realize that I have become The Most Boring Person in the World to talk to on the phone. Unless you want to hear me carry on about my new Shark floor steamcleaner (Do you? Do you? Because this thing is the best invention to come along since Gmail! No kidding, I really have an inappropriate passion for the thing)or my new washer and dryer (Don't EVEN get me started on the front loaders, it sounds like porn when I talk about them) or my big day at the office or my kid...I got nuttin'. No stories about my fabulous dinner or my wild night of dancing or my evening at the theater. Now my idea of a great big time is going to sleep at 8pm and actually staying asleep until at least 6am, if I am lucky....No wonder I am so boring on the phone. Sorry kids, you know I still love you...right???

So begins the official Summer of 2010 at The Compound!

Ok! The Dr. took the stitches out, Mark is home for a while and Kaktus (with a little help from Nicky) finished the tiles on the porch, the carpet is in and it is a Great New Year. Let the Good Times Roll!






Good bye cruel winter...



When I began this blog I was in a very different place in life. For one thing, Nicky stayed put when I set him down somewhere. I could not have fathomed how much that would change! I used to just tickle him and gaze at him and take pictures every minute or so...I must have about 10,000 pictures of him from the first year. Every time he blinked or gurgled or something - CLICK! I looked like the paparazzi I am sure. I had grandiose ideas of updating my blog so I could keep family and friends (especially those in Europe or across the country) informed on what was going on at the Compound and the parties and with Nicky etc. Well, once that kid got mobile all that went to hell. I have spent the past two years chasing Nicky around and really doing not much else but playing with him and having fun and not keeping up with anything. Even when I start to do something he gets all funny and cute and we are off on another round of make believe or off to the library or to play Top Chef and make up crazy food out of whatever we find in the pantry. I have taken about six pictures in the last six months and forget to update anyone on anything. It has been really fun and I have loved it and a definite upside is that chasing a three year old around really helps melt off leftover baby weight! However, it is time for me to recapture some semblance of a grown up life and for all of us to move into our new phase of family life. I am about to update the blog and I would like to put everyone on notice that The Compound is officially reopening for pool parties, horseback riding, goKarts, croquet, BBQ, the Smokehouse, fishing trips on the boat (don't worry my girlies - Mark knows we will just prop on the front of the boat and tan and preen while they catch dinner) and a Grand Reopening of Camp Alli. Tell the kids I am coming out of hibernation and Nicky is big enough to tackle and be a general camp mascot! Welcome all and if you don't know the way send me an email!
Love
Alli and the Compound Gang

ps - For those of you who think I have lost my marbles, I know it is still colder than a well digger's...well, you know. But it is spring in my heart so I am starting today!

Sooo, Thanksgiving.

Well, I am thankful that my heinous (and expensive) chest cold did not turn out to be pneumonia and I am thankful that Nicky only got 10 stitches IN HIS FACE when he took a digger instead of 20 stitches and a concussion. I am thankful to have insurance, even if it stinks. I am thankful to have a great mom and a great MawMaw next door. I am thankful that the gallon of milk Granny downs every day gave her strong enough bones to survive the 4 falls she took last week with no broken bones. I am thankful to big evil Hollywood for making a lot of cute dog movies this holiday season. I am thankful to the nice insurance company that is replacing my bumper after I got tagged in the FREAKING DROP OFF line at preschool. Really, what the heck else do you have to do but concentrate when you are dragging ass at 2 miles an hour?? Despite being aggravated half to death, I am thankful the Christmas season is here. People are just nicer at Christmas. Last time people in public were this nice to me I was pregnant (but now they can be nice without rubbing my belly like creepy fortune tellers- why do strangers think that is ok?)but the holiday spirit seems to be in force. As far as I know, no one even got killed or trampled on Black Friday this year, hey, good times huh? And all this even with the run on those fuzzy Japanese thingymajigs! I am planning on getting Nicky one of those air ball things that I can put him in, shove him down the hill and turn him into the "Boy in the Bubble". I forgot what it is called but it looks like fun and has anyone seen that movie? Funny funny stuff.