Things I've Learned

Things I've learned while being in Louisiana

1. Southern hospitality is alive and well. The people are very friendly.

2. Most things here are either trying to bite you, sting you, or eat you.

3. Going to the pool when it's 100+ in the shade just means that you're wet. Not that you've cooled off.

4. The spiders/insects are on steroids. I've never seen such nasty, huge things since the last time I was here 9 years ago.

5. Road rage is a real problem so don't honk at the tricked out SUV cause they'll shoot you.

(see number 1 to remind yourself not all are like this)

6. Why's the alligator cross the road. Why to get to the other side of course. (see previous posting)

News from around LA

Saw this article in the Shreveport Times, we thought you'd all like to see some of the "Traffic" delays you can have here in LA. Have fun reading. The hyperlink is also on the bottom of the article if you are interested in reading what is happening here in "Sportsman Paradise".

Alligator disrupts traffic on Interstate 10

LAPLACE — Commuters heading into New Orleans are accustomed to dealing with traffic snarls, flooded roadways, wrecks and fog.

Now they can add an alligator shutdown to the mix.

State police say an alligator somehow got into the elevated eastbound lanes of Interstate 10 — miles from an exit — and was hit by a car Tuesday morning. Rush-hour traffic slowed to a crawl on Bonnet Carre Spillway across the western edge of Lake Pontchartrain.

State police were summoned about 7:15 a.m.

The alligator had been struck by a vehicle and authorities initially thought it was dead, state Trooper Joseph Piglia said.

"They walked up to it and its mouth opened and it started coming at them. They got back in their cars! It was still feisty."

The troopers used their vehicles to corral the reptile on the roadside.The alligator was removed at 8:45 a.m., allowing eastbound traffic to flow again.

But the mystery of the tagged, 5-foot gator's ascent to the elevated highway was still unsolved.
St. Charles wildlife nuisance control officer Kenny Schmill said the state Wildlife and Fisheries Department is attempting to track its origins.

"I think someone put him up there for a joke," said Schmill, who had to euthanize the alligator because of its injuries.

If farm-raised, the alligator's tag should reveal its gender, where it was raised and when it was released, Schmill said.

The animal was at least seven miles from the interstate's nearest exit.

Had it fallen from a transport truck, Schmill said, its mouth would have been taped.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080730/NEWS01/807300374/1060

Morning Bike Ride

Kaye before we began our ride this morning. As you can see, it is pretty early, around 6am the cicada's weren't up making noise yet so you know it was early. She has become quite the early bird since moving to LA. 4:30am to run 6am to ride, sleeps in on Wednesdays til 7am. No wonder we take naps in the afternoon here. We got 14.7 miles in this morning, only saw three dogs, chased by only one and hit by several flying insects, those things hurt at 15 MPH. After the ride she went to work to go sweat for some cash, gotta keep Chris in his comfortable lifestyle.

You found WHAT in the toliet?

I know it's hard to tell but that a Louisiana tree frog. Nathan came out of the bathroom to tell us that there was a frog in the toliet. Of course we didn't believe him at first. (Like you can make this stuff up) So I'm at work and Chris is doing two things. First, he got the camera to take the picture. Second, he got gloves to get said frog out of the toliet. While trying to extract the frog it disappeared. Seriously. We had no idea where it went. So we close the lid and a few hours later Chris comes back to check and the frog is still in the toliet. (The million dollar question is...where did it go right? No idea). Anyway, we (aka Chris) captured said frog and it was released w/out harm in our front yard. If it wasn't so creepy it'd be funny.

SeaWorld

Nathan and I doing our type of rollercoasters. Chris wanted to do some bigger ones but Nate and I weren't too keen on the idea so....Chris went and did his and we went and did ours. Everyones happy.

Nathan doing the tourist thing with Shamu.

Chris and I rarely get pictures together but Nathan is getting old enough where he can take some so we get excited if we're in a photo together.

Dinner with Shamu. We got into SeaWorld for free with the Salute to Heroes so we decided to spent the money we'd saved for tickets for dinner with Shamu. It was awesome. As you can see we were up close and personal. Dinner was pretty good too considering it was buffet style. We couldn't actually eat enough food to pay for the tickets but we figured getting this close was worth the money.

As you can see our seats rocked.

SeaWorld San Antonio

Nathan at the end of the day. I think we had all reached the boiling point by now. It's hot we're all getting tired of standing in lines but after some "encouragement" (aka I am going to beat you child if you don't stop whining) we were all able to enjoy the rest of the day.

Hotel Life

Yesterday we got the house cleaned and after 5 trips to either the storage unit or the hotel we are officially moved out of our home of the last 2 years. A very sad day. We love our house, neighborhood, schools, and I love my job. Not to mention that fun trips to Europe every September. Definitely going to miss those.

This move has NOT gone smoothly. The movers left Saturday morning at 1am. It took 4 burly men over 12 hours to move only 7,000 lbs. of household goods. Those southern boys just wouldn't move. That's a really LONG time for not a lot of stuff. We had gotten rid of a couch and love seat as well as old bedroom furniture so we didn't have that much stuff.



We finally got the closing on the house done today. It was suppose to be at 11:30am but then it got pushed back to 1pm and finally at 4pm we closed. We were definitely taken to the cleaners losing over a 5 digit number of money but the house is done and we don't have to have renters or leave it empty. Either options that scared me to death.



We now get to stay at the hotel for 3 days to MOVE AGAIN to move AGAIN to then FINALLY move to Louisiana. We like to live as carpetbaggers. It makes life more adventureous.



It looks like I've got the cycling bug as well. I am going to get a road bike so Chris and I can have quality couples time sweatin' like pigs in the Louisiana heat. There's a 62 mile ride in September that I've decided to train for. It'll be good cross training for my marathons.