The Adventures of Oscar & Lele

You were a wonderful friend, companion, and protector.  The whole family is going to really miss you.

Jimi

Lele and I decided to evacuate early and head towards Lafayette.  My mom joined us the next day and we had delicious dinners thanks to our moms and Lele.  Gustav hit us around 2 p.m. Monday and we lost power for 23.5 hours (when you have no a/c time passes very slowly).  We played spades to pass the time and tried our best to stay cool.  Tuesday, we went hunting for ice and canned food.  The Albertson’s was gracious enough not to charge for ice.  A couple hours after we came back home electricity and sweet sweet air conditioning was restored.

We stayed in Lafayette the rest of the week since Jefferson Parish wasn’t letting anyone back in until at least Wednesday or Thursday, but there was no power for most of the parish and New Orleans was still blockaded.  Upon our return early Saturday we found a fridge that didn’t smell as bad as I thought it would be since we only lost power at home for two days or so.  Cable came back on the following Sunday morning, but then we had to mentally prepare ourselves for Hurricane Ike.

As of tonight, it seems likely that New Orleans will be spared from a back-to-back hurricane punch, but we’re already weary from all this.  We had a pretty good time spending over a week with Lele’s mom, dad, and brother, but I’m pretty sure this will be our last hurricane season in the New Orleans area; it’s just too expensive mentally and monetarily.

Here’s a delicious pancetta and arugula quiche that Lele made:

Delicious and Healthy-ish!

LULULikes:

•  Naps
• Chasing Bella
• Jumbones mmm
• French fries
• Sitting on laps

 BELLALikes:

• Bones, bones, bones!
• Belly rubs
• Jumping
• Wrestling with Lulu
• Running Lulu down

 Obligatory Cuteness  

For the honeymoon we spent a week in a very nice cabin in Gatlinburg. Coincidentally, Lele’s parents also went to Gatlinburg for their honeymoon oh so many moons ago. It wasn’t really intentional on our part, but we really got a kick out of it.

The cabin was fully furnished with a hot tub and pool table. At night we snuggled in front of the fireplace while watching season one of Heroes. Occasionally, we would sit in our rocking chairs enjoying the peace and quiet and top it off with an extremely relaxing break in the hot tub. Our time there was so peaceful that my mind is still in Tennessee.

We wandered into the tourist area of Gatlinburg (really difficult to miss) and glared at the cheesy attractions there. Since we were there during the off season, we had the town to ourselves and saw very little traffic. That area wasn’t really to our liking, but by the third day we discovered the Arts & Crafts District. You can get to it by going Southbound on Parkway and left on traffic light 3. Yes, street names are eschewed in favor of traffic light numbers. Being database minded I found the naming convention quite elegant.

The Arts & Crafts district was mostly devoid of many of the T-shirt shops, cheesy attractions, time-share brochure pawning scammers, and big hair Americana that oozed the main strip. The A & C was what we expected of Gatlinburg; homemade jams, crafts, pottery, and very nice people. We certainly intend to spend more time in the A & C next time we’re there.

On the way out we stopped by The Old Mill in Pigeon Forge. I highly recommend the restaurant there. Our huge breakfast was reasonably priced and the freshly milled corn grits (they mill the grits and flour on-site), and smoked bacon were pure heaven.

Here are some pictures from the honeymoon. Hey, that’s what you folks really want, right?

* Note: Lele = Jenni *

Well we’re back from the honeymoon and it’s back to work for me. Before I write about the trip to Gatlinburg I’d like to say thanks to all our friends and family. Special thanks to our parents, Reverend Swatt for marrying us, Hattie the maid of honor, Mike the best man, Eddie for photos, Miss Julia for the venue, the Levys, Miss Janice, and Matt for his mad DJ skillz!

As soon as we get the wedding photos back I’ll post them up. We had a great time and really appreciated all who attended and sent their love. For the folks who were unable to attend the wedding thank you for your love we will send you a dvd of the photos if you want one.

Special thanks to Mama for the great food and her hard work into preparing the wedding and dinner. Personally, I loved the roast pig. Many of us also enjoyed the honey-walnut shrimp - immensely.

Lele and I also loved the dance party U.S.A. session we had after we ate and I apologize for anyone scarred by my poor singing during karaoke ; ) . We both feel that every wedding should have karaoke.

Sorry folks! With the move, job, and marriage planning, I failed to install the RSVP admin in time. Luckily, it won’t be a huge wedding and just about everyone has already called or emailed us.

I doubt we’ll have decent (or any) internet access in our honeymoon cabin, but I’ll update this blog (I swear) and pictures  as soon as I can.

Ok, time to get ready for the wedding! w00t!

-Oscar