Food I Miss When I'm Away From DC

Good thing I'm in DC this week and next so I can enjoy some of my favorite eats. Here are some of the places I'll be visiting. While many of these restaurants are chains, they do not have Lafayette, LA, locations and I miss their yumminess when I'm telecommuting from Timbuktu!

Super Pollo — Peruvian chicken and yucca
Panera — Fresh baked and soup
Chipotle — Tacos
Cosi — TBM (tomato, basil mozzarella on white)
Rio Grande Cafe — Queso and tortilla chips
Matsutake — Susi
1 Gen Thai Cuisine — It's all good!
Jaleo — Tapas and sangria
Indigo Landing — Beautiful waterfront dining. The weather is fabulous this time of you and you can't beat the view!

There are many more to add to the list but these come to mind quickly. It's nice to be back with friends enjoying "the old life."

Oh, those smart Norwegians

According to this New York Times article, thriving Norway provides an economic lesson.

It's a familiar story to me. Oil rich country demands revenue for the State, invests wisely on behalf of its citizens, huge federal government oversees citizen's lives, fabulous work and "welfare" benefits, great opportunities for outdoor activities and beautiful cultural centers. I've always been a proponent of Socialism. Maybe Shane and I should consider moving to Oslo rather than Boulder!

Sister-In-Law Awarded Mother of the Year!

Happy Mother's Day to Mary Pat Julias, Linda Julias, Amy Julias and Mona Wentworth. Mary Pat, you've got the rest of them beat with your knowledge of technology. You're a crafty one! Check out Mary Pat's award video.

Wear Your Sunscreen

It’s pool season in southern Louisiana and we plan to spend time relaxin' by the pool this weekend. Wish you were here!

Neil Young Rocked the Free World

Shane wanted to see this musical great rock Jazz Fest and I can tell you the show was one for the history books! The set list included Heart of Gold, Cinnamon Girl, Down by the River, Rockin’ in the Free World and many more greats. The encore was a Beatles cover, A Day in the Life, and Mr. Young literally beat the song (and his guitar) to death. During the encore all the string s came off his guitar and he kept playing! Here’s the video.

For great photos of the event and a review visit this blog.

It's festival season. Campers, remember to write!

I’ve been remiss at regularly posting so a lengthy update is in order. To prevent this from becoming a diary entry I’ll just stick to a few key highlights.

• The Julias parents came to Lafayette for a week and Shane enjoyed some time off and showing them around Cajun country. The highlight of this trip for the boys was a fishing expedition in the Gulf of Mexico where they caught red fish and something else I’m told is tasty. You can view pictures of the entire trip.


• The last weekend in April was the annual Festival International de Louisiane and Shane’s parents were very accommodating and joined us for our second-favorite music festival in Lafayette, our first favorite is the Zydeco music festival in the fall. (In case you’re wondering, Zydeco (French: "les haricots" or "le zaricot", English: "green beans") is a form of American roots or folk music. It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 20th century from forms of Louisiana Creole music. The rural black Creoles of southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas still sing in Creole French.


• The first weekend in May was spent at Jazz Fest in New Orleans with our friends the Kirkman’s and some boy their daughter brought to visit from England. I still can’t figure out if his name is Steve or Ste. Must be an English thing that this American just doesn’t get. Anyhoo, the best part of Jazz Fest was Bon Jovi and Neil Young. As you can imagine, we slept through the late-nite shows.


• Sometime during the Julias parents visit I got really sick. So sick, we wondered it was swine flu. After a week of fever, chills, aches, pains, sore throat, stuffy nose and a headache, I took my little self to the dr. where he not only didn’t swab my throat (in all reality Shane thought I had strep) but offered me a cortisone shot to feel better immediately and tried to give me crappy antibiotics. I insisted on a z-pac. No worries though, I have my Mexican friend picking up all the antibiotics I could ever want so we have a store of them and don’t have to visit Louisiana doctors. The whole experience was a little disappointing since Lafayette is a regional medical center and somewhat known for the quality of their doctors. As I so often have to conclude, they just do it differently down here.


• The kitties are doing well but for some reason Apollo keeps trying hump Maia. He must have finally reached sexual maturity. It’s kind of sick to watch and I don’t know if I’m supposed to keep him off her or let him “play.” She doesn’t seem that bothered by it so for the most part I just try to pretend like I don’t see anything.


• Work is going well for both of us. I’ve been asked to take on a highly visible multi-year project (job security!) and Shane had two job offers this week. Our plans to move to Boulder could be changing so stay tuned for more updates.
  

I’ve gone on long enough. I’ll try to post more regularly. We seem to keep ourselves busy enough these days that I should have plenty of fodder for the blog.