Thursday, 16 NOV 06 

(link removed)
(the) Melvins - 'A History of Bad Men' - (A) Senile Animal (Ipecac Recordings)

It's been an up and down week. Last Friday was our off day, so we got to take Josie to the vet for her annual check-up. She was pretty good about it though, and took her shots and we also had her microchipped in case she ever is found and taken to a shelter and it's discovered she is FiV positive, we can be contacted if she's lost her collar. She's already managed to do it again in the past week, but we had a back-up spare this time, so it was easy to giver her the 'key' to the kitty door. After the vet we went to get the oil changed in the Altima and had a small lunch at Ruby Tuesday. We timed it so we could catch the early showing of 'Stranger Than Fiction', the new movie with Will Ferrell and Maggie Gyllenhaal. It was really good, and Will Ferrell can act in roles that don't have him as a buffoon character. After the movie we drove out to my office in Pascagoula because I had stupidly left our kolaches in the fridge the previous day, and that was about two meals (breakfast for the next two mornings). I changed my clothes into something nicer for dinner while Kelly chatted with Gary. We then drove back to Biloxi where we were meeting friends at Bragozzo, the new Italian restaurant at Isle of Capri Casino. It was opened by chef Luke Palladino, and seemed promising. Overall though, the experience was somewhat disappointing. It's not that the food was bad, but it wasn't great or spectacular. Kind of pricey, and the flavors of some items, like Kelly's fish and my supposedly spicy pasta, were actually a bit more bland than we had expected. The group had shared some appetizers as well, which were pretty good, and I think the overall favorite was the fried risotto 'balls' filled with truffled cheese. Now those were tasty. We probably won't go back though anytime soon. After dinner we went to Walmart to get some groceries for the party food we were making the next day (oatmeal/chocolate chip cookies and spinach & artichoke dip). We got home and watched Battlestar Galactica and CSI before going to bed.

Saturday we slept in, then Kelly cleaned the bathrooms while I made a double batch of cookies. We were going to an early holiday party at Pete and Lauren's because Lauren was going out to sea until late December. Pete works at the Beau Rivage and Lauren works at Navo with Kelly, so this was their annual party where they try to get co-workers from both jobs to mingle. It usually ends up segregated though. After I finished the cookies I went out to the mountain bike trails where I did some heavy raking of debris for two hours until the sun started to set. We were supposed to have a night bike ride on the trails, but the others initially interested bagged out. I guess we'll shoot for another time. I came home, showered, and we went to the party and ate, drank, and mingled with everyone for a few hours.

Sunday we got up early and headed over to Mandeville/Covington to their arts fair, which is really much more diverse and less crafty than the one held in Ocean Springs. We found one last gift for Kelly's aunt, a gift for my brother and his girlfriend's new home, and some photographs by different artists for ourselves. We then went to Old Navy where I found some new pants to replace the ones I don't fit into anymore (that's going to change though because Gary purchased a Bowflex which should arrive soon and we both plan to get into better shape) all on sale. We then headed home. We didn't really do too much else the rest of the afternoon that I can remember.

Monday was the state celebrated holiday for Veteran's Day, so I took the Element in for an alignment early in the morning, then walked down to Barnes and Noble to read while I was waiting. After it was done I got groceries for the week, then came home and went to the gym for about 45 minutes and biked a loop around Diamondhead. We watched the Avs play poorly and lose their third game in a row, which was pretty sad.

Tuesday night I left work an hour early so I could get home when Kelly did and we could head over to New Orleans for the Melvins/Big Business show at One Eyed Jacks. We went over early so we could see how much more things at Tower Records had been marked down. It turned out that everything (which was significantly less than the last visit) was 40% off, with an additional 10% off cd's, making them a steal at 50% of the listed price. Needless to say, Kelly and I both admit to an addictive problem of purchasing cd's. We spent a total of $150 (including tax) on 15 cd's and an anime figure by Monsieur Bome (click on the 'main menu' and check out the official series figures, mine was #10- Carmine), which Kelly rolled her eyes at, but still let me purchase. We dumped our purchases in the car and had dinner at the House of Blues. Not too bad, and relatively quick, although we discovered when we arrived at the club that we had plenty of time because the bastards didn't start until almost 11pm. The doors and music were supposed to start at 9pm, but that didn't happen. I did see Jared briefly as he was heading upstairs to the band area and gave him a hug and the leftover cookies I had saved for them from Saturday. While waiting it got way too smoky (damn metal fans must have blackened lungs from the cigarettes they inhale), so we went outside for a bit until the openers, Porn, started. They were instrumental sludge, and not really all that great. Quite redundant. Big Business were next around 11.30pm. They played mostly new songs and Dale from the Melvins came out and played guitar on a few songs, then Jared dedicated a song to Kelly and I thanking us for the cookies, and when the song was finishing Buzz and Dale came out to complete the new Melvins line-up, which was a super smooth transition into their first song. Fucking brilliant. The album they recorded is really good, but live is so much better. With the two drummers it really plays out well. The crowd was going nuts, or as much as a New Orleans metal crowd could. A truly awesome show. No David Yow like they got in Atlanta and Athens for the Chunklet 13th Anniversary party, but we still got a rockfest.

Wednesday morning we had strong thunderstorms early in the morning, after going to bed late anyway, and it rained pretty much all day long before the strong winds and colder temperatures came that night. I was dragging a bit at work. We watched the Avs play San Jose and look better through the first two periods, then fall apart by taking stupid penalties and having a failing penalty kill giving them their fourth straight loss. Sigh. I did talk to my parents on the phone, which was nice. We were discussing some of our plans for Hawaii in December. My dad and I are going to rent full suspension mountain bikes one day and hit some of the trails on the volcano. I stayed up too late again as well.

Staying up late two nights in a row and not fully catching up on sleep hit me hard at work today. I was dragging for a couple of hours this morning, but it was just as well since the computers weren't functioning correctly anyway. We also had to deal with some productivity and administrative issues, so it's turning out to be a taxing month. I did leave early again so I could attend a Focus Group discussion that I had been selected for by answering questions on a phone call a couple of weeks ago. The focus group was concerning Mississippi Public Broadcasting television and radio. There were 11 of us on the panel (3 men and 8 women) and the moderator. The moderator asked different questions and the group responded. It was interesting and only took about 90 minutes. I even got paid $75 for it, so it was worthwhile, especially if they take some of our comments and put them to use.

Now it's late again and time to head to bed. Not really any big plans for the weekend, but I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday.

-posted by Chris

Thursday, 09 NOV 06 

(link removed)
Laura Veirs - 'Parisian Dream' - Year of Meteors (Nonesuch)

Paris pt. II

So where did I leave off? I think I had walked all over Paris on that Friday and was dead. But after Becca & I rested for a little while, our growling stomachs (well - primarily mine, since she had oysters and wine for lunch) took us out once more. We wandered down towards the Seine and found a French restaurant on a street with lots of little restaurants and lots of people wandering around. The food was pretty decent, not spectacular, but it didn't take much to be a huge improvement over what we had been eating the previous 2 months at sea. After eating we wandered around looking for a little jazz club or some live music somewhere. It's hard to believe how few little jazz clubs or other live music happenings there were. We ended up in front of Notre Dame, where people were gathered to watch fire-jugglers and assorted street acts. We then headed back to the one place where we heard at least a piano. We sat outside, listened to the piano & singing, and had a few drinks (where Becca discovered a new favorite - Kir Royale - Kir is a currant liqueur and the Royale part means with champagne). We talked on and off with one of the waiters. At one point American politics came up - he said something like "You're voting soon". The point was made that neither of us much liked the current administration, something along the lines of "Bush is an asshole" and the French guy says "Well, we all know this." If you add the French accent, it was pretty funny in a sad kind of way. It's amazing how much people in other countries know about our elections - probably more aware per capita than our own citizens.

On Saturday we got up and headed off to the train station in Montparnasse. We passed a a boulangerie along the way and stopped for croissants and coffee. Then we walked through a farmer's market and bought a couple of healthier items before getting to the station. It took a little bit of time to figure out how to buy tickets and where to catch the train, then we were on our way to Chartres - about 1 hour outside Paris. It was a really nice train ride through some beautiful country side. The main reason I wanted to go to Chartres was to see the big gothic cathedral there. It didn't open for a couple of hours, so we wandered around and did a little shopping (plenty of nice stores around). I picked up some French jam - which was kind of stupid since my backpack already weighed a ton with Grandpa's old Leica in there. We stopped off for a quick bite (another chocolate and banana crepe for me). Then we went to the Notre Dame cathedral of Chartres. It was another one that I had studied in college, and aside from not being in as good a shape as the one in Paris, it was amazing. The sculpture on the outside entranceways are amazing and bizarre - religious symbology alongside astrological symbols. That's probably why I was so fascinated about this particular cathedral in college. We wandered inside and out for a bit and then caught the train back into Paris. We had enough time to do a little shopping, rested for a short time and then headed to Montmartre for the evening. We took the Metro to Pigalle (the "seedy" red-light district) and walked through Montmartre looking for some place to eat. We ended up at this small Italian place that looked nice, but ended up being so-so and full of Americans. Oh well...the food was ok. We then took the lift up the hill to the Sacre Coeur Basilica. It was a little more modern (built in the late 1800's), but gorgeous. There was a service going on inside with nuns singing. We were still allowed to walk around and doing so with the choir resonating around us was an amazing experience. After the basilica we headed downhill to see one of the moulins (windmills). Along the way two French guys tried to befriend us, but gave up after we sent out enough "leave us alone" vibes. Then we headed back on the Metro and back towards the Jardin du Luxembourg and to our hotel. And that was pretty much it for Paris, other than the airport bright and early the next morning and the long flight back home. I'll definitely go back some day and spend more time there!

-posted by Kelly

Monday, 06 NOV 06 

I've been back for over a week now. It took me at least that whole week just to get over the jetlag. I was sound asleep by 9pm every night last week. We had poker here Saturday night, and I was just barely holding on until the last two players (Pete & Christy) finished up. As soon as everyone left (right after 11pm), I was out. Pretty sad. It is good to be home though. Sleeping in my own bed w/ Chris and the kids (it's been cold outside, so the cats have been in snuggle-y moods). Other than poker Saturday - which I did crappy at - we had a pretty laid back weekend. Friday night we went to the Imperial Palace to eat at the new Carnival de Brazil restaurant. The food was pretty good - a nice salad & soup bar and all you can eat grilled meats that the "gouchos" brought by our table. Still, it's not something we'd do very often because it was expensive ($40+ per person). After that we headed to the Grand to get coffee and check it out (first time we'd been back since they reopened). The gaming floor was pretty small and not very crowded. The Starbucks was, well you know...it all tastes the same at Starbucks. We were hoping the coffee would wake us up enough to go see a movie, but no such luck. We went home and I passed out. Sunday we went for brunch at the Boomtown Casino. They used to have a nice Sunday jazz brunch. The brunch was pretty much the same, except minus the jazz. Oh well. That evening we went to Bobbie & Jay's for grilling and chilling, which was a nice way to cap off the weekend.

So I ought to tell you about Paris. It was grand! We had 3 days there. On Thursday when we (me & Becca) landed, we first had to wander around the airport ensuring that we got our 3-day holiday in Paris (all because the airport / staff in Dubai are mentally challenged and tried to screw up our plans). We got to the hotel too early to check in. So we dropped off our bags and wandered over to a crepe restaurant that we saw nearby on the cab ride over. The crepes were awesome, especially after having eaten fake food on the ship for 2 months. We then went back to the hotel and rested for a short while before heading out to a hammam at a nearby mosque. It was women's day at the hammam, so we enjoyed a nice relaxing couple of hours in there soaking up steam, getting scrubbed and massaged and wandering around confused as to proper hammam etiquette. Oh well, it was still pretty nice. On the walk back to the hotel, we went around the neighborhood collecting ingredients for a dinner-picnic: brie and goat cheese at the fromagerie, fruit at the market, champagne at the wine store, a baguette at the boulangerie and a couple of fresh spring rolls at the Asian food store. We waited too long in the hotel room before heading to the park for our picnic (had to let the champagne chill some) and the park was closed. So we headed back to the hotel room, opened up the windows and had a picnic in our room. It was awesome! The champagne went down pretty quickly and the night was still young, so we headed out to a bratisserie relatively nearby and split another bottle. Surprisingly we weren't too tipsy and we didn't wake up hungover. Let's hear it for real champagne!

Saturday we got up relatively early and headed out to be tourists. We had a nice breakfast down by the Seine and then walked over to Sainte Chappelle - a beautiful chapel with lots of stained glass. From there we walked over to Notre Dame Cathedral, which was pretty much at the top of my list of things to see in Paris. The cathedral was magnificent. I had wanted to see it ever since studying it and other Gothic/Romanesque structures in an Art History class at U-Dub. I stayed there for awhile just taking it all in, lit a candle said a sort-of-prayer and then walked around the outside to see the flying buttresses. Becca and I split up by this point - she headed off for shopping and oysters and I walked all over the place. Next I walked along the Seine towards the Louvre. Since I was there and the line didn't look too bad, I headed in for a fairly brief visit. The Louvre is huge and definitely deserved more time than I gave it. But I did a quick tour to see the Mona Lisa and Da Vinci's lesser known paintings (like the pointing John the Baptist which is as interesting if not more so than the Mona Lisa). I also saw the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory and several other statues and paintings before heading out towards the Champs Elysees. Before hitting the main drag, I walked through the park outside the Louvre that had several modern sculptures on exhibit. One was this Russian submarine in a pond with painting (almost graffiti-like) on its sides. I sat near the pond to look in wonder at this sub, and was surprised and amused when at the top of the hour Russian singing and other audio effects started coming out of it. It was really cool & made my day. I listened to the various sounds coming out of the sub for about 12 minutes, before heading on down the Champs Elysees. I stopped off for a quick chocolate and banana crepe for lunch (yum!) and then hiked past some haute couture stores towards the Eiffel Tower. I was thinking about going up the Tower, but the lines were very long and I was pretty beat by that point. So I ended up taking a quick nap on the grass below the Tower before hiking all the way back to the hotel (near the Jardin du Luxembourg). I then collapsed in bed for about an hour before Becca got back to the room.

The rest of Paris is to be continued, as it is past my bedtime and I'm getting kind of sleepy. Au revoir until tomorrow or the next day...

-posted by Kelly