May 2008

May302008

Week of May 26

With my little vacation over it was back to work. While I was gone Dad hired a new doctor as Dr. Stephenson is ill and won’t be back any time soon. Unfortunately the new one doesn’t seem to be working out too well. As this entry is over a week late I don’t really remember much from this week.

Comments Off

May262008

Western Omelette

Before Krystle left to go home today I wanted to go out to lunch at Camellia Grill. On the way there we stopped at an O’Reilly auto parts store to buy her some new windshield wipers. She was in dire need of new ones as demonstrated by our previous trips to and from New Orleans. With that out of the way, we went on to lunch.There was a short line outside of Camellia Grill and we waited about 20 minutes for seats. Having looked at the menu during the wait, I knew I was getting the western omelette with ham, cheese, onions and bell peppers. Krystle had a cheeseburger. The food was excellent of course and the service was fun as always.After we got home from lunch we cleaned her car a bit, topped off the pressure in her tires before she left to go home. Later in the day, I got my car started and Dad and I took it to a nearby repair shop to be repaired on Monday.

Comments Off

May252008

Indy, Lasagna, Ice Cream

I was at home for the better part of the afternoon. I wanted to watch the Indianapolis 500 and Krystle didn’t seem to mind too much. I was interested in seeing Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick do well but neither of them finished. This evening, Krystle and I went out to dinner at Venezia. I had the lasagna and she had the stuffed shells. Afterward we went to Angela Brocato for ice cream before heading home. Later on we watched a couple movies if I remember right. The second one was Ikiru.

Comments Off

May232008

Vizard’s, Otra, Sake

I don’t remember doing much with my afternoon outside of chores around the house. I cleaned some of the vents in the living area and a ceiling fan.Later this evening, Krystle and I went out to dinner at Vizard’s on Magazine Street, the place owned by Patrick’s dad. We arrived at 7:15. Having not made reservations, we were unable to get a table in the cramped restaurant so we sat at the bar. The sparse menu has about six choices for two courses. We both started with the andouille gumbo, which was quite good. It had an unusual sweet taste. Later, I had fish, the name of the entree escapes me. Krystle had the lamb chops, which were also excellent. We were to meet some friends of mine this evening but we still had time to kill so I suggested we go somewhere on Frenchman. We couldn’t get any attention at the Marigny Brasserie so we went to the Praline Connection for some dessert. I had the bread pudding and Krystle had the praline cheesecake.After dessert we eventually made our way to the Blue Nile. Otra was playing there this evening. The music didn’t start until 10:30 but we were able to carry on conversation before then. Andrey and Patrick joined us sometime after ten. We remained there for a while to hear Otra and later wandered around a bit to a couple other places over the course of the evening. We stopped at a reasonably new sake bar called Yuki. I had not had sake before and I was impressed. Unfortunately the place had no air conditioning so we did not stay long. We later met up with a familiar face from high school, Darryl Cook who tagged along with us for a while. One of our last stops was another establishment with pizza and lacking air conditioning.I think we called it a night sometime after one. I don’t remember doing anything before bed. I would have been pretty tired.

Comments Off

May222008

Brookhaven and Home

Today was the day to go home. Yesterday or the day before that we arranged to drive down with Bianca, who is moving to Brookhaven, Mississippi. The town near where she will be employed is on the way to New Orleans so it was no trouble. Krystle and I arrived at Bianca’s place sometime around noon if I recall correctly. She had most of the packing done but there were a couple things she still needed to load like her dog. I volunteered Krystle to take a couple of Bianca’s pieces of luggage.We didn’t make the time for lunch so we just stopped at McDonalds on the way out of town. Bianca just started driving not long ago and wanted some company for the drive so I rode with her in her new Honda. Krystle led the way in front of us. The ride was uneventful for the first hour or so and then we ran into some heavy rain which made for rather unpleasant driving. The rain continued on and off for the rest of the ride to Brookhaven. Krystle got pretty far ahead of us after we both stopped in separate placed outside of Jackson. We caught up with her in a funeral home parking lot and went the rest of the way to Bianca’s place. She’s rented a nice little duplex off a small road. When we arrived, there was no electricity. Apparently there was an issue with the previous tenant. Luckily there was still daylight so we were able to unpack her car without any trouble. She managed to pack an impressive amount of stuff in her small car.After we finished unpacking we all went to the local Wal-Mart to get some things for her house like detergent and other cleaning supplies. With the shopping done, we drove around a bit to find a place to eat dinner. We eventually decided on a place called Mitchell’s Steak & Seafood. I can’t quite remember what I had but it was decent.After dinner we drove back to Bianca’s place. It was still without power but her landlord arranged for her to stay at a hotel for the night. Krystle and I said our goodbyes and drove the rest of the way to New Orleans. There was more rain and more stressful driving the rest of the way down. We got home safe around 11.

Comments Off

May212008

Wednesday

I met Khadijah for lunch at Monjunis this afternoon. Krystle was with me and Gerard accompanied Kali. I showed up at noon and Khadijah arrived at 12:30. There was some food to much on while we waited. I last saw Khadijah during my previous visit to Ruston last March. A lot of the conversation over lunch was about what we’ve both been up to lately. I had the lasagna and a piece of milky way cake for dessert.A little later in the afternoon, Khadijah and Gerard came over to Krystle’s apartment for a while. Krystle had Guitar Hero and DDR to amuse ourselves. They visited for a couple hours before Khadijah had to leave because she was working this evening.Later tonight Krystle and I watched a couple episodes of House that she wanted to show me. We drove to Hong Kong Buffet to get some carry-out for dinner. I tried my hand at painting toenails(not mine). I think we watched a movie later on too but I don’t remember which one.

Comments Off

May202008

Iron Man

I spend the better part of the afternoon doing just about nothing. I was expecting to have dinner with Khadijah this evening but I couldn’t get in touch with her until she finally called me back around 6:30. By then, Krystle and I were on our way to Monroe for dinner and a movie. We had dinner at Copeland’s. I ordered stuffed shrimp which was butterfly shrimp stuffed with crabmeat dressing, then battered and fried.After dinner we went to a movie theater in West Monroe and saw an 8:15 showing of Iron Man. I wasn’t expecting much in spite of the good reviews but it was actually pretty decent and the suit was pretty cool.

Comments Off

May192008

Monroe

Krystle and I had lunch at the Dawg House this afternoon. When I was staying here after Katrina I went there a few times. The bar was moved since the last time I was there. Yesyerday, Krystle’s mom recommended the steak here so I decided to give it a try, having already had more than a couple burgers here. I wouldn’t have guessed it but the steak was actually quite good. I was a bit careless in cutting it and got some steak sauce on Krystle’s shirt.Krystle had a three o’clock meeting with the dean of liberal arts at tech today so the better part of the morning was related to that. We had to stop in a computer lab in Wyly tower and then the elementary school her mom works at. Apparently the meeting went pretty well but she didn’t get the final result she wanted.After a stop back home, we drove out to Monroe to go to the mall there and dinner. We browsed the mall for a couple hours. I bought a couple shirts and a game for my Nintendo DS. After shopping we went to dinner and Olive Garden. We both had a dish with shrimp and ravioli, which was quite decent.We stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home because Krystle needed laundry and dishwasher detergent. Later that evening we watched game seven of the Hornets/Spurs series. Unfortunately the Hornets didn’t have it tonight. Later on we watched Fargo. Krystle was too annoyed by the funny accents to enjoy the movie.

Comments Off

May182008

24

Today was my 24th birthday. They are sucking less these days. Krystle and I had lunch at a restaurant called Old Mexico. After lunch we went to Wal-Mart to pick up some cake mix. Krystle called her mom while we were there who told her that a cake was already in the oven. I got a call from Bianca. Her mom wanted me to buy an SD card to and put all the pictures I took of her on it. I also decided to pick up a multi-card reader so I’ll be able to read compactflash cards on the road in the future. Getting the pictures directly off my camera yesterday was torturously slow.Afterward, we went to Krystle’s parent’s house for dinner. We were there visiting for a few hours. Her little brother Jacob was there, who I hadn’t met yesterday. While we were there we took Jacob for a ride to his aunt Dorothy’s house, whom I also had not met yesterday. Krystle’s mom, Shalaine, grilled some things for dinner, all of which were pretty good.After eight, we drove over to Bianca’s house at her invitation, mostly to hang out for a while. Her boyfriend, Roy, was there as well. We’ve spoken briefly on the phone a couple times but this was my first time meeting him. We talked for a while about a number of things. They bought me a birthday cake with magic relight candles and we watched a movie, Untracable. Later on we went for a whort walk with their dogs, Kyle and Kozuma. We went home not long after one.

Comments Off

May172008

Louisiana Tech Commencement – 2008

Shortly after one this afternoon, Krystle and I went over to the Thomas Assembly Center where Louisiana Tech’s graduation ceremony was to take place at two. I wasn’t sure when the doors were to open but it clearly wasn’t one o’clock as most of the good seats were occupied when we arrived. We eventually got pretty lucky and found some seats with a good view, but as the venue is a basketball stadium, we were pretty far back, which did not bode well for my photo aspirations.The ceremony itself wasn’t too bad considering the large number of students receiving degrees. There was a comparable minimum of crap prior to the presentation of the degrees. There were a couple award presentations for people other than students and a speech by local congressman Rodney Alexander. I remember him talking about politics but not much else. The presentation of degrees went smoothly and looked like just about any other graduation. There were about 500 graduates though so it did take a while. In addition to Bianca, I recognized a couple other graduates like Sara Shafer and Joy from high school. I tried to take pictures of them, a couple of Krystle’s friends as well as the daughter of a gentleman I was sitting next to that caught sight of my big camera.After the ceremony I met with Bianca and her family. About a dozen relatives made the trip to Ruston for her graduation. At about the same time Krystle met up with her friend Kristin, who I first met yesterday. Her family posed for several pictures.I didn’t want to impose on her family this evening so Krystle and I went out to dinner this evening. We went to a place down town called Ponchatoula�s. It’s an interesting little college hangout, especially if sorority waitresses are your thing. The food had potential but the stuff I ordered was a bit flawed. While they got the fried food right, the etoufee was too thick and the file gumbo was far too salty.After dinner we drove out to Krystle’s parent’s house to visit for a little while. I had not met them before. Long story short, she has a very colorful family. Later that evening we continued watching Citizen Kane.

Comments Off

May162008

To Ruston

Krystle and I left the house to leave for Ruston shortly after 11 this morning, later than I would have liked. We stopped for “breakfast” at IHOP at the end of DeGaulle. I had the banana caramel stuffed French toast and Krystle had something similar with strawberries. After eating, we made our way Ruston. We stopped once for gas and beef jerky just after Jackson, Mississippi.We finally arrived in Ruston at about six. Krystle arranged to meet some friends earlier in the day and since we were arriving late we didn’t waste much time going out for dinner. We met up with three of her friends, Kristin, Aaron and Jessica at one of their houses and eventually decided to go to Applebee’s for dinner. Apparently their menu has changed much since I was there last, quite some time ago, and I had trouble finding something I thought I’d like. I ended up with just a hamburger.After dinner we went to the movies and saw Made of Honor, mostly because guys were outnumbered 3-2. Suffice it to say, it was not one of the better movies I’ve seen.Krystle and I went back to her place afterward and watched the better part of Citizen Kane.

Comments Off

May152008

Arrival

I took the day off of work today to clean up around the house and get some things done this afternoon before Krystle showed up at the house this evening. She drove down to New Orleans today to take me back up to Ruston for Bianca’s graduation at Louisiana Tech on Saturday.She arrived at my house at about 5:30 this afternoon. We originally planned on going to the Tulane/Rice baseball game but it started earlier than I thought. She was tired from the long drive anyway so we didn’t bother going anywhere far. We did go out to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant on the west bank that my mom recommended called Hoa Hong 9 Roses. I don’t think I’ve seen a bigger menu in my life, they have an overwhelming selection of Vietnamese and Chinese food. I couldn’t begin to choose so Krystle and I both had recommendations from the waitress.After dinner we stopped at Oakwood mall for a little bit. I had not been there since their post-Katrina reopening a few months ago and I wanted to have a look. We looked through a good handful of stores but didn’t buy anything. The mall looks pretty good, a lot brighter than I remember. The light fixtures are a bit childish through. Later tha evening after we got home we watched some TV and Casablanca.

Comments Off

May152008

Catch Up

Although I haven’t been particularly busy since school ended on Sunday after my weather and climate exam, I’ve been neglecting the log. Not a great deal has been going on. I’ve been working in the day and had my evenings free. I’ve been blowing the extra time in front of my computer and getting things cleaned up around the house. Last Thursday night I went to Andrey’s house for a small party before all his friends left town for the summer. There were several familiar faces there, Andrey cooked hamburgers. This week I also spend some time preparing for an upcoming trip.

Comments Off

May062008

Pirates Exam

Dad left the house early this morning to work at the west bank this morning leaving me at the house for a while. I probably should have spent the free time studying but I read that there was a Zune software update so I fooled with that for a while. There was no large noticeable change for me as I don’t use the marketplace. Both the firmware and software seem a bit more polished, however.Dad swung by around noon to pick me up and take me to the mid city office. I spent most of the workday studying for tonight’s exam. I did stop at about 1:30 to get lunch at Subway. At 4 I left for the day to take the streetcar downtown so I could catch the shuttle to campus.This evening, I took the final exam for pirate societies class. It was another written exam with 10 short answer identifications and three essays. Thanks to my studying I think I did well on the IDs. I did well enough on two of the essay questions but I didn’t know enough about buccaneers to flesh out the third essay.Dad picked me up after class. Later this evening I watched the Indiana primary coverage, which dragged on after midnight, with Hillary Clinton winning just barely.

Comments Off

May 2008

Recent Posts: