Web site for God

Tonight I've spent a bit of time designing a Web site for St. Paul Catholic Church. No, I'm not a Web designer. My Mac does all the work. Here's a photo of the church. It was built in the 1950s, after a tornado destroyed the beautiful Gothic cathedral that had been downtown since the late 1800s. What were those new architects thinking?!?

Earlier this evening, I put together the initial page of links for the church site, but then thought better of it. I imagine that the priest might not want to launch his Web site with links that would make the bishop have a fit. Links like this one. Women as equals -- radical, no?

Braves lost...again. 0-2 to start the year. It can only get better, right? Cards still haven't played, thanks to a rain delay.

Big day in Vicksburg

Today was a great Sunday We worked all day, and took a few well deserved breaks. First, I finished painting the dining room.

Then Ned cleaned all the leaves out of the eaves of the roof. I wanted to climb on the roof and do it, but got to the top of the ladder and chickened out. it was so high off the ground!

We marveled at our blooming scallions.

In downtown, we saw beautiful Cherokee roses. That's the state flower of Georgia.

And we ended the day with catfish tacos, Corona, and limes.

We also watched both the Braves and the Lady Irish lose this evening, but we'd rather concentrate on the high points.

So this is a bummer

When you paint a dark room a light color, you have to prime everything. For those of you who are unaware, that means painting TWICE. Ugh. I wish we were rich so I could hire somebody to do this. The dining room's a mess. Hopefully, our color choice -- asparagus -- will make it all worthwhile. Photos to follow tomorrow. Today's photos are a mess.

A gift for our house sitters

Thanks to Lauchlin and Olivia for collecting the newspapers and keeping the plants watered while we were gone all week. We've fixed you a little surprise! We'll deliver it soon... XO, MB & Ned
PS -- Same box as the one my dad sent us, but we included all new stuff.

New Orleans: Final Friday

I had the really good fortune to eat lunch at Willie Mae's Scotch House on Friday. The place was packed. The waiting area was stacked two deep. There were days when I had my doubts if that place would ever come together, but with the good guidance of John Currence and the dedicated SFA crew, miracles happened. And the white beans were delicious.

New Orleans: Day Four

Today was a good day. There was a productive morning of work. Lunch at Parasol's. Afternoon including a bit of shopping on Magazine where, nearby, I found Jesus: patron of migraines. The evening involved an auction preview party with my friend Scott (you'll see that he took the photo of me and Ned, where I'm wearing a 5 carat diamond ring). After the auction, we had dinner at Iris with my friends George and Vasser. Tomorrow, we'll head out -- unless I can convince Ned to stay a day longer and enjoy New Orleans for 24 more hours. After all, there is an auction on Saturday...with a 5 carat ring patiently waiting for a new owner.

New Orleans: Day Three

Ned worked. All day. Again. I worked all day, too, but took some much-needed break time to have lunch with my friend, Vasser, and to go on a run in the afternoon. Dinner tonight was Liuzza's by the Track. Read about it from the SFA oral history series here. Dessert was--you guessed it--Brocato's ice cream. I'm newly addicted. We also bought some candy from the Roman Candy Man. Vanilla taffy. Yum.

Big Easy: Day Two

The germophobe (and mildly claustrophobic) side of me won out this morning -- helped by the fact that it took the valet 20 minutes to get our car after we went downstairs. When Ned left for work, I went to work changing our hotel reservations. We're now at a nondescript Hampton on St. Charles, but the rooms are large, the parking is free and plentiful, and I can walk out the front door to the bar on the porch of the Columns Hotel -- not exactly Circle Bar vibe, but not a bad substitute.

The day started at the Farmer's Market, where I saw my vision for Vicksburg come alive. Plus, there were beautiful flowers from mustard plants.

I worked all afternoon, enjoyed a run down St. Charles, and then Ned and I headed for dinner. Ye Olde College Inn was our dining destination for the evening. We ate there on our way home the night we got engaged, and so decided to revisit the place tonight. Ned finished 3/4 of his monster sandwich, but he would have eaten all of it had I not begged him to stop. He finally gave in. And now he's thankful, as he sits across the room, working on his laptop, and eating Tums like candy.


My favorite part of the evening was ice cream from Brocato's. Yum. I would have taken a photo of it, but I ate it too quickly!

We've made it to New Orleans!

We've been looking forward to New Orleans for several days now. I booked us rooms at a hotel that I've always liked...from my view at the Circle Bar. Something about the pretty lights after two too many beers has always made me smile. The rooms are small, but the location is conveniently next to all the cool museums (Ogden and DDay are on my schedule during work week lunch hours). General Lee himself stares into our bedroom window. It will be our home for the next four nights (but probably not again, as the rooms really are VERY small). Dinner this evening was at Cochon. The food was so good, it's impossible to explain. We'll look forward to boring you with news of our menus all week. Anybody care to place bets on how many po boys Ned can power down in five days? Our must have list includes sandwiches from Domilise's, Guy's, Parkway Tavern, Parasol's, Liuzza's, and Ye Olde College Inn...just to get started.

Easter at the Lasseters

Egg dying concentration

Lining up at the end of the hall, before the race for the baskets -- this time with Super Sarah and Real Sarah

Ned's fabulous Easter basket

Hula hoop champs, Sarah and Grace

Valdosta's azaleas are in full bloom

March Madness

The boys have parked themselves in front of basketball. If they're not watching it, they're napping through it...

Front Porch Fodder

One of our favorite things to do in Vicksburg is hang out on the porch with our friends Lauchlin and Olivia, who live down the street. Here's a photo of us there on Sunday night (I think). We'll miss them as we travel the next two weeks. Mary Beth has already started her two week swing through the South. Did we mention that we're so sick of traveling?!?

The lawnmower has arrived

and the backyard looks so much better! Kudos to Ned for the yard improvement. And thanks to the family who contributed to this part of the Christmas fund.

St. Paddy's Day, cont'd

Here we are with our friend, Liz. Parade fun.

And here's Ned with his new beads. I'm working to make them disappear. If only I could find them...

And here's my husband, a redneck. I didn't realize he was one. Revenge of the beads.

St. Paddy's Day

The blog's been silent. We apologize. We've been crazy busy. I'm catching up with a few posts tonight.

Here we are just after the race. Don't we look fast?


Here's Mary Beth with our wedding photographer, Josh Hailey.


And here's Ned, advising our friend Nate (the professional chef) on his grilling techniques.

The St. Paddy's 5K

We both came in under 30 minutes. Ned was passed by lots of women, and MB was passed by a man pushing a stroller. Despite the humiliation, we both mustered the energy to drink lots of beer this afternoon. Photos promised tomorrow.

China night is slipping...

Last night was china night. You'll see the china, right there on the table, in front of Ned. Note that his beverage of choice is a Bud Light, in the can. We debated pouring it into a glass, but decided that'd just be one more thing to wash. I didn't slum with a can... I had Lasseter tea in a 32 oz. plastic guzzle cup featuring Dale Earnhardt and a giant #3.

The grill has arrived.

In the days leading up to the grill's arrival to National Street, there was much strategizing about how best to keep it out of the hands of thieves -- chain it to the fence? lock it to a helical anchor in the ground? lock the back gate? But now, after lugging the thing from Yazoo City, navigating it up the stairs, and pushing it through the backyard, we have a new philosophy: if you're strong enough to move this thing anywhere, you can have it.

Mary Beth thinks it weighs 400 pounds. Ned's guessing 150. Actual weight is probably more like a ton.

Garden, anyone?

Ned and I planted more seeds tonight. We're using our sun room to give slow-growing plants an early start. It'll mean vegetables earlier, plus it means that I'll have the satisfaction of green plants in the garden on the first day. The first thing we realized is that we ordered way too many seeds. Gardening, anyone? Just email us and we'll happily send you some seeds. Otherwise, they'll just go to waste. An inventory of what we have to choose from is listed below. Click the links to see the flowers and growing instructions. Go ahead. Click the links. It took me forever to add them.

DECORATIVE
nipple fruit
bells of Ireland
star of the veld
black eyed susans
irish eyes sunflowers

PEPPERS
garden sunshine peppers
rooster spur peppers (decorative)
purple beauty peppers

RANDOM VEGGIES
listada de gandia eggplant
florida highbush eggplant
black beauty zucchini squash
gourd mixture
golden zucchini squash