Tango til They're Sore

Oh my lord, New Orleans.

Really, if it weren't for some big ol strings attaching me to California, this blog would be coming at you from the French Quarter. We only had 4 days in NO, but what a glorious four days they were.

I ate breakfast almost every morning at Cafe Beignet, which provides those of us missing our beloved cats with travel substitutes:

The cat in the above photo looks almost exactly like a bigger version of Eris, who I was missing quite badly towards the end of vacation.

The neat thing about the quarter (where I spent the majority of my time - the garden district is gorgeous, but just not as fun) is that almost all the buildings have these fascinating hidden courtyards in the back. This next picture was taken behind an antique shop.

The antique shops, by the way, are like going into a museum where everything is for sale. Needless to say, I couldn't afford anything in them ("Honey, get me that $24,000 chandelier for my birthday?"), but the wares were just stunning.

Like any good tourist, I did the requisite cemetery tour. We visited St. Louis #1 and saw the infamous tomb of Marie Laveau. It's really sad how people have vandalized the tomb - urban legend has it that drawing 3 "x"s on the tomb will get your wish granted. The Laveau family, naturally, sees it differently.

While the tour was interesting, and I do recommend going the first time with a guide who can explain a lot of the burial trivia, I decided to do the rest of my cemetery visiting solo. I made it to Lafayette cemetery number one (in the Garden District) on a cold, foggy day and spent several hours wandering with Tom Waits on the iPod. I have loads of pictures, but I don't know if any of the blog-readers would be interested. Let me know if you want to see them.

Speaking of Tom Waits, there is NO better city to listen to him in than New Orleans. It's funny, but music seems to have places where it is more "right" (for lack of a better word) than others. Certain albums I have are distinctly seasonal - Tori Amos' "Scarlet's Walk" works better for me when it's freezing cold outside, Hagalaz' Runedance's "Volven" is my early autumn music. I don't know if this is just a crazy "me" thing, or if it's true for other people. Let me know in comments?

As for current, non-vacation knitting, I'm back to the Log Cabin blanket that has been so neglected:

Log cabin-ing is such a strange phenomenon with me. It will absolutely obsess my every waking moment for about a week, and then I put it down and don't think about it for 2 months. Luckily, I've got a lot of left-overs from the Christmas Socks (done in Cascade Pastaza), so I have a lot to add to this blanket.

One final note:

Beware the roving Chickens of New Orleans. They will try to eat your hands.

Coming soon: Must... Log... Cabin...