Life as we know it ...: Poor Wendy . . .

We ended up spending just a little while down in New Orleans this afternoon because there were SO many people and the traffic was SO crowded and slow, that we were afraid to stay very long for fear we wouldn't make it to the airport in time for Wendy to make her flight. But as it turned out, we got her there a good hour early. AND . . . as if THAT weren't bad enough . . . she called when we were almost back to the house to tell us they had delayed her flight for another two and a half hours! Poor baby! But on the plus side, she did have her laptop and several books with her AND her plane change was switched from Detroit where it was storming to Atlanta. Much less worrisome. Of course it's going to be nearly midnight by the time she makes it all the way home. Oh, my.

Look how cute.
I'm telling you, I'm starting to wonder if she's figured out how that "Dorian Gray" thing works!

I didn't take as many pictures this week as I would have thought I would, but we did take quite a few today. I'm looking forward to getting the ones from Wendy that she took. But in the meantime, here are some of the ones I took.

As I said, New Orleans was PACKED today. Not sure what on earth is going on this weekend -- maybe more folks head down there for New Years than I was aware of. But there sure were a ton of people around for a non-Mardi Gras weekday!

We thought we'd never find a parking space, but eventually we did. Walked around for a little while before we decided we better go to the airport in case it took ages to get out of there. It was a bit bizarre, actually . . .a beautiful, sunny, 75 degree day -- with Christmas decorations still up. Hmmm.

Now THERE is a real New Orleans-style Christmas wreath!

Very nice, huh?

No horses pulling the carriages in New Orleans anymore - a couple of them did die from the heat one summer so maybe they outlawed the use of horses - not sure.

There were actually THREE pit bulls hanging out on that balcony. And none of them ever barked at anyone or anything -- they just seemed to enjoy watching folks walk by under them! (If any of our dogs were out there they'd have not only barked their heads off, but at least two would have gone over that railing after someone in no time!)

Those red Christmas lights look for the world like flowers, don't they? Love them!

Now THAT's an "interesting" paint job, isn't it!

I'll tell you what - it's been down in the 20's here in the Baton Rouge area a couple nights already this year and our ferns have turned brown and the trees have all lost their leaves. But New Orleans - only an hour away? Apparently that hasn't happened there. Everything still looks lush and lovely down there.

This carriage said "just married" on the back.

All the "secret" garages down there in the Quarter fascinate me.

Look at all those vines and plants that still look like summer!

Wendy and Mark -- look how cute. (And look at the shape of that tree! Love it!)

When we were almost home, we made a turn down our road in the opposite direction and went down to our old property on the other end of the road to take some pictures of the house that's being built there now. We meant to go by there with Wendy but forgot to do it, so . . . Wen, here's that new house I was telling you about:

They're building very close to that very old (more than 150 year old) live oak. The property is three acres. When we owned it, it was very wooded in back. Now they've cleared out the wooded area and the neighbor's stables are very visible now there just to the left.

Here's the view from the road that runs down the side of the property. Nice, huh?

And here's how it looks from the back. I love that it's going to look like an old house from the start!

Then as we drove back down the road to our house, I took these pictures of some metal sculptures one of the neighbors does. He's always changing out the ones he's got sitting in his front yard! And they're always fascinating. And HUGE. (I keep meaning to stop and see if he ever does horse sculptures -- and for how much -- but I haven't gotten around to that so far.