N'Awlins

We are here in New Orleans. We got here yesterday and met up with a friend of Kevin's from MSU ROTC. We wandered the French Quarter and some unnamed area of New Orleans all afternoon and evening. We had to have walked for miles. And lucky us, we arrived just in time for the Southern Decadence 2009 party, the gay/lesbian extravaganza! It was awesome - made for some fantastic people watching.

We saw the usual N.O. stuff: Bourbon street (a once-in-a-lifetime and never-again experience), Magazine Street, Canal Street, bars, naked ladies, half-naked gay men, the Mississippi River, Cafe du Monde, big ass beers (aptly named), Tropical Isle grenades (disgusting Midori-type concoctions that give one a horrendous hangover the next day [something I chose not to experience]), and more.

Today we ate breakfast at Surrey's, a place on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives (on the Food Network). Awesome breakfast!! Of course, I was the only one who really enjoyed mine, as Kevin and Jared were feeling a bit "grenade-ed" if you know what I mean.

After bidding Jared a sad farewell (what a fun guy), we headed to the 1870 Banana Courtyard B&B. The only way to describe this place is through a series of oxymoronic phrases: huge but claustrophobic, musty but clean, old but modern, bright but dank, nice but mildly dingy, overwhelming but understated, colorful but brown. Our room is the Canopy Room. Nice-ish. The owners are very nice, very knowledgeable. Right now we are waiting to actually unpack our car and take our stuff to our room. It's POURING outside and the only way to get into our room is to go outside and up some stairs. Not a good time to lug 4 bags with you up 2 flights of metal stairs.

So we're just chillin'. More later.

A Case of the Happies

When the eye doctor told Kevin a list of all the side effects of having Lasik, he did not specify that Kevin would experience the Happies. This is a rare side effect associated with very few surgeries in which the patient is extremely excited and happy before, during, and after the surgical procedure (unrelated to any drug intake whatsoever). Similar symptoms of giddiness, pure joy, and optimism may also occur. Warning: these are contagious to individuals not associated with the surgery. The Happies can negatively affect these other individuals and cause irritation, annoyance, and at worst cases, extreme panic from worry associated with the patient being too happy and careless with his eyeballs. Warning: even nagging has no negative effect on the Happies. This may cause additional panic in the non-surgery individual, but try not to get hysterical. Based on past experiments, nagging is a powerful tool. Never give up.

Surgery = accomplished! Cake = it's debateable.

Kevin got his Lasik eye surgery this morning. He was as excited as a man in a brewery without a brew master. It lasted about an hour (including pre-op and post-op stuff) and now he's upstairs snoozing away, enjoying the last effects of his Valium. He kept stopping me on the walk out of the hospital and up to our room to say "Hey, I can read that!" The doctor said the recovery time should be short and easy. Hopefully it'll actually be that way. He has to have eye drops every hour for the first 24 hours then every 4 hours every day for a week. Because I'm anal, I set up alarm reminders on my phone to help me remember to wake him up and give him eye drops. Which reminds me, his eyes have ink in them. When I first saw them, I thought it was blood and I was horrified, but then when the doc said it was ink, I was less horrified. Still slightly disgusted, but oh well. As long as Kevin is happy and sleeping and pain-free, I'm good.

On the topic of my Splenda pound cake, I'd judge the results as falling somewhere in the middle of disaster and success. It tastes and looks like pound cake, but it's dry. My standards are much higher because of this cake that somebody brought to a training I went to: it was so moist and delightfully decadent, that no pound cake will ever taste good unless it tastes exactly like the one I ate at the training. I simply have to track down the recipe.

That's all. Keep Kevin in your prayers that his recovery goes well.

I've been commissioned

While Kevin's been off gallivanting with doctors about getting Lasik (which, by the way, he found out he's getting the Lasik surgery, not the one that uses blades), I've been hanging out at the Fisher House with the manager guy, Larry, and the housekeeper, Mary. Both are colorful people who are making the visit much more enjoyable than it otherwise might not have been. So Larry and I were chatting over breakfast and somehow I got commissioned to bake a cake for another guest's birthday. Easy peezy, no problem, I said. Then Mary decided that since I must be a great baker (this assessment of my ability was based on one observation of me making a Betty Crocker boxed mix cake, but whatever), so she commissioned me to make a pound cake. With Splenda (since she's diabetic). Great, I said. I've never made a pound cake, let alone with Splenda, but what the hey? I'll give it a try. Now, I am not a baking master, but I am aware that making a good pound cake is difficult. This little experiment will either yield a royal mess and much wasted time, ingredients and energy, or either you will see a photo of my creation proudly displayed on my blog. Stay tuned.