favorite picture 17

picture #17

year: 2007

location: paris

description: one of our many afternoon walks in paris. kp in père lachaise.

favorite photo 16

picture # 16: "lazy sunday"

location: dallas, tx

year: 2011

description: this is what happens when i don't make the bed.

missin' the ladies

the other day i dragged my husband into a shop because i *needed* to buy a dress. okay, *wanted,* but whatever. this has been a long, stressful summer, and sometimes nothing puts a smile on my face like a pretty new frock (hooray for retail therapy!) plus, between all my weight-lifting and texmex-eating this summer, i've put on almost 10lbs, and the old stuff is fitting a wee snug these days.

but i digress. the point is that i took my husband with me to try on dresses! poor thing, he was bored out of his mind... and did not care to learn the difference between shift and sheath (is there one? i don't know). anyway, while he is definitely my best friend and while i thank my lucky stars every single day that he loves me in spite of all my flaws (including my shopping habit), i found myself wishing i had more girlfriends... actually i just wished i could teleport one or two of my favorite ladies to the dressing room so that they could advise on my choices. i have some really wonderful gal pals, but they're spread out all over the country. even my best dallas girls live outside dallas!

all this to say that i miss my girlfriends. there's barely any time to make friends these days, and really, why bother? i make them and then they move. or i move. it's sad, but it's my lot for now. fortunately, the friends i do have make an effort to stay in touch. last april i got together with a handful of old friends from college. we met in san antonio for the weekend, but we could have been anywhere - in fact, these three pictures document the only few hours we spent outside the house and (for some of us) out of our pajamas! i just wish i could lure a few of them to new orleans. with my husband and best friend on the other side of the planet, i'm going to be pretty lonely.

laura and jen

jen, me, amanda

karen, erin, daphne

next thing you know, i'll be taking bob shopping with me.

favorite photo 15

picture # 15: "the case of the adorable nephew"

location: dallas, tx

year: 2011

description: if my nephew were a comic-book sleuth, this would be the cover of book #1.

how i spent my summer vacation

you know, some things just don't work out the way you planned... take this summer for instance. in no part of my plan for the summer did i see myself in pjs at 6pm on a thursday afternoon, trying to pull myself back together after an out-of-nowhere-i'm-dead-to-the-world-for-two-hours nap, and struggling to type a blog post with 9 of my 10 fingers, the 10th wrapped in a comically large bandage. but hélas, c'est la vie.

let me back up a bit... kp and i were supposed to have left for australia in early june. he's got a 3-year position lined up in queensland, and we were going to settle him into his new aussie bachelor pad in brisbane this summer. we bought our tickets and packed up our sweaters (it's winter there!), we shipped our books and sublet our apartment in new orleans. during our pre-departure visit with the family in big d, however, we changed our plans rather last minute and decided to spend the summer here in the old neighborhood. my dad is ill, so we decided that for now we were better off here than in oz.

and aside from the often mind-bending heat and the stress involved when a family member is very ill (and there is a lot, i've discovered - hence my constant need for sleep, i guess), it's not too bad. we managed to score a sweet little cottage just around the corner from my dad's house, so at least we haven't been underfoot. more importantly perhaps, we haven't had to interrupt, hide, or explain our 2-bite brownie habit or the frequency with which we re-watch old "office" episodes.

our summer cottage

la chambre

kp readies the salon for cocktails with j&j peden

bob's favorite hangout - on top of the fridge

it's really a great little place, but we should have known that our luck wouldn't hold... and sure enough, everything changed last sunday. in less than a week's time and thanks to only the slightest of gestures, we have each managed to irrevocably damage two of our most cherished possessions: kp's ride and lb's finger. neither will ever be the same.

accident number 1:

kp leaves the lights on in the pathfinder over night, and the car is dead in the morning. no big deal, right? he attempts to jump her off with my dad's car only to realize, belatedly, that the charges on dad's *unmarked* battery are the opposite of his own (and in his defense, every other car battery i've ever seen). he totally ZAPS the electrical system - bye bye air-con, power locks, headlights - there was smoke and everything! but my man is no dope - he downloaded the electrical system map for a 1993 nissan pathfinder on his laptop and set to work repairing the damage.

look at that wrinkled brow - this is serious stuff!

i sent luigi out to help. luigi is the 3-foot tall italian butler who lives in j&j peden's bar.

he's focused and efficient, but not much of a conversationalist...

kp and luigi managed to get the engine running again and saved us a tow charge (awesome!). but despite their efforts, they were unable to repair the blown fuse, and the pathfinder ended up in the shop.

ray lewis's belmont garage - a lakewood institution

they managed to get the headlights and the air-conditioner back on, but our alarm and lock remote are toast. totally dead. forever.

accident number 2:

dinner prep at the end of a long, stressful day at baylor hospital, where dad was in for a risky procedure (he's come out of it better than any of us expected, which is great news). on the menu: spaghetti puttanesca, a kp classic. he puts me on parsley duty... and i promptly slice off a small chunk of my index finger, nail and all. so back to baylor we go...

baylor medical center

they couldn't do anything for me. in fact, they laughed when we handed them the ice-filled dixie cup in which we transported the severed finger chunk, laughed and then tossed it in the trash. of course, it turns out that kp had run in saying "my wife chopped off part of her finger," which is technically true, but which led the emergency team to believe they were going to be dealing with a digit and not a sliver... apparently there aren't enough capillaries in the tip of the finger to support reattachment. so i'm out a bit of nail, and my finger tip will probably never regain its original shape... this definitely dashes any hopes i may have had for becoming a hand model. worse still, i look like a fool.

lb takes the finger out for a walk

lb and the finger sit down for a cup of coffee

i'll probably only be in this cartoon bandage for another few days, and before long, we'll forget we ever had on alarm on our car... and with my dad's health stabilizing, we'll make it to australia in late july, and get to spend 2 weeks there together before i head back to new orleans for another year... so, while this is hardly what i had in mind for my summer vacation, it could be worse. and as it turns out, there is one unexpected perk to my embarrassing and rather inconvenient accident (the second knife-to-left-index-finger accident i've had in less than 5 years): i've been relieved of all kitchen duties until further notice!