An outing

Scarlet globe mallows at Gran Quivira

Yes, dear reader, we took advantage of a federal holiday for another day trip in New Mexico. This time is was a visit to the Salinas Pueblo Missions.

These are the ruins (now part of a national monument - see link above) of Franciscan missions built by the pueblo peoples who lived near natural salt beds (Las Salinas).

We went to see two of them today, at Quarai and Gran Quivira. We did not visit Abó.

Window in the church at Quarai

Bill takes in the view at Gran Quivira

The BB in the apse of the church at Quarai

More later.

--the BB

There was some mild sibling rivalry

Last weekend there was some gentle dissension on the home front. In short, the rest of the kids are jealous of Maggie and Belle having their NOLA adventures. I even heard a cry of "can we have our own blog?" to which Daddy replied firmly, "No."

I know. I am an old meanie. Love my kids but I am simply not up to such an adventure. However, I did promise that other kids may have adventures that get shared online. Eventually. Over time. I have a lot of kids. You'd think I were a Mormon, a Catholic, or a passionate Baptist. But y'all know better.

Anyway, here are Belle and Maggie checking out a photo of Her Ladyship, the Right Rev'd and Right Hon. Maya Pavlova of North Carolina, who kindly sent me a pastoral letter to cheer me up and encourage me, which is certainly did.

We all need some kitteh love now and again, even those of us who sneeze around kittehs.

Actually, as four of us rode home this evening after work we joked about it feeling like playing hooky. We split at 7:30 when the boss wasn't looking and it was still daylight. Woohoo, don't we know how to be wild!? That is purely ironic and rhetorical, y'all don't need to comment, as if I needed to say so.

So I have already been able to do a fair chunk of blog reading and have munched on some lovely extra sharp cheddar and crackers with my Coke (yes, we may have preferences but we don't discriminate) enhanced by three fingers of rum (in the first go around and some more in the second). Feeling very mellow at the moment. Lest y'all worry, I eat large lunches and really need very little food in the evening. And I almost always get either my oatmeal or an omelet in the morning. Most nights involve zero alcohol also, so I'm not dissipating down here, no matter what rumors you may have heard.

Godde bless the kittehs and all the other critters!

Don't forget to send some love over to the Cunning Runt who's got the blues but can't sing about them on Basin Street, as I can these days.

La K has begun her interferon treatments. Let's knit her a virtual prayer shawl (while others work on an incarnate one).

Nice to get home and have some energy for blogging.
--the BB

Maggie and Belle's Grand Adventure

In which the denizens of Desert Farne run amok in the Big Easy

Belle the Hippoposterous: Why does our deck seem like some kind of prison, Mags?

Margaret Macrina Dolphin, aka Maggie: Wrong kind of bars, Belle. Daddy drives downtown every day - just blocks from the French Quarter - and leaves us here to perish of boredom.

Belle: Tell me. I had to spend the first week here by myself during the day. I'm so glad you got to join me or I would have done something desperate. What, I don't know, but hippos have their limits.

Maggie: I was hoping I'd get to join you. It's been too long since I got to go anywhere and I'm not a stay-at-home girl.

Daddy (of camera): Maggie, I'm beginning to worry that you take after your older sister Selena more than I thought. Ever since she ran off with Taylor the Walrus I've hoped the rest of my daughters had better sense.

[Belle and Maggie roll eyes in unison and don't even both to respond to the old man.]

Maggie: Let's blow this pop stand. I'm up for a romp.

Belle: And Grandmère is coming to see us today! I'm so glad she was willing to be our honorary Grandmère.

Maggie: So that's the fountain we listen to day and night.

Belle: We had some rain when I arrived here and for a while I thought it was raining all the time. Silly me, but it does sound like rain.

Belle: Wow, this is fun. Here I used to live about a mile from the streetcar line on St Charles but never got to ride one before. Hooray for Mimi!

Maggie: Hi, Grandmère. You're so pretty. Btw, popster, is that woman behind you licking her lips or sticking out her tongue? Should we be concerned?

Daddy: Now girls, behave. I don't want us thrown of the streetcar before we've even traveled a mile.
Belle: There's Audubon Park. We took a walk there two weeks ago.

Maggie: Just checking, Dad. I wanted to make sure your very first Sazerac was mixed right.

Daddy: And what do you know about Sazeracs, my precocious sea creature?

Maggie: Don't ask. Don't tell. Don't pursue. And can you order one each for Belle and me?

Grandmère: Are these girls old enough to drink?

Daddy: Well, a gentleman does not discuss a lady's age, but yes, they are.

Grandmère in the Palace Cafe on Canal Street, a truly lovely spot for Sunday brunch.

With live music, no less. Bass, guitar, and saxophone/vocals.

Belle: Eat your heart out, Dubya. I'm not afraid to come to Jackson Square in the daytime.

Maggie (off camera): And you didn't start any wars, big sister!

Belle: He is such a [expletive deleted].

Daddy (off camera): Language! Grandmère is here.

Maggie: She doesn't think much of him either.


Belle: Grandmère is such a good sport. She poses for fun pictures.

Maggie: I worry about this one. If the Mad One gets hold of it, anything could happen.

Belle: If he doesn't want a hippo attack, he'd better behave.

Maggie: That's right. We stick up for our grandmothers, honorary or otherwise.

Belle: Solidarity with the Sisterhood!

Daddy, muttering: And I chose to have daughters.

Maggie: Stuff it, Pops. We brighten your life and you know it, even though we have more brothers than sisters.

Daddy: Yes, you do brighten my life. If only you'd behave in public.

Belle (dripping with sarcasm): And you do.

[Audible snickering]

Belle: Well, Maggie, that was fun.

Maggie: I'm so glad the Shriekster and Red Boy suggested we get our own series. Do you think Hollywood is ready for us yet?

Belle: I hear that New Mexico has been making quite a grab for film production. Do we have any connections with Richardson's office?

Maggie: Not yet. Let's work on it.

With a shout out to the Dance Party crew, whom we could never match, and to whom we send fond regards.

Daddy's post script: Bunrab, my girls are lovely but you'd better keep your paws to yourself. Just saying.


-the BB and the Desert Farne traveling players

Art imitates life imitates art imi... oh my, my head is spinning

Margaret Macrina Dolphin (aka Maggie): Good gawd, girl, we've got fans in the Global Center!

Belle: But of course, darlin', and aren't they just the cutest things?

MMD: Bet that shrieky one could show a girl a good time.

Belle: Maggie, this is NOT one of those adult blogs.

MMD: Lucky thing because our daddy doesn't look to be growing up anytime soon.

Belle: Looks full grown to me. Have you seen the weight he's put on?

MMD: Shh. He doesn't really like to think about it.

Belle: Can you just imagine? There's a chance we get to star in our own adventures - in this exotic locale, no less. Just like my heroine, Miss Egyptian Hippo of Love, only here in my own home town.

MMD: That penguin's kind of cute too, but I think I'd get in trouble with the moose.

Belle: Honey, you're liable to get in trouble with any of those men. Better stick to picnics.

MMD: Sigh. Why did I get stuck with picnics? Do you know how much work it is to organize one of those suckers? And let me tell you, a really good potato salad is more labor intensive than folks realize, especially when you don't have opposable thumbs.

Belle: Men never appreciate all we do behind the scenes to make their lives pleasant and their food yummy. But with a tail like yours, honey, you don't need thumbs.

MMD: Well, I do like to flirt a bit now and then and men do notice me.

Belle: A few of the women do too. Me, I'm a BBW with the full kind of figure that makes for one helluva snuggle. Something to hold on to, if you know what I mean.

MMD: And you a right proper Anglican lady!

Belle: You can pray, play bridge, and still have fun.

MMD: Amen to that.

Daddy (off camera): Patience, ladies. I promise we'll have an adventure on Sunday WITH the camera (and Mimi, we hope). Until then, you've got to let me catch up on the news. And remember, some of us work 6 days a week.

The girls: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Daddy: Ahem.

MMD and Belle: Yes, daddy. But you're more fun when you're "retired."

Daddy: True, and poorer too. Let's praise King Jesus and Holy Mother Mary that there's an income these days.

Belle (as the girls wander off): "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille."
MMD: More like the nuthouse. Where's your dead chimp?
Belle: Max!
MMD: Teehee.

Daddy, aka the BB, here. Not sure if I can stand the star-struck ladies with dreams of Bollywood and beyond. Hope they know the way to San José. It's not like they're teenagers, but a good gossip magazine never gets ages right.

At the end of the day I slipped across the building to shoot this pic from an empty conference room. The casino and the Mississippi.


This is one shot of the buildings across the street as I exit work in the evening.


And, shifting the camera toward the left, one sees this. Love the restaurant name: Nacho Mama's. Lots of restoration lies ahead. Just before I exited to take these pics I crossed a marble lobby that was being polished. Quite a contrast.


This is a detail of the exterior of the parking garage where I drop the car off each morning. Portions of the building skin are just plywood boards, though the frame is reinforced concrete.


This is a mostly abandoned high-rise across from where I was working until Tuesday afternoon. I am told, by those who have worked on Sunday mornings, that some rather colorful party types emerge here to face the daylight. We suspect its a rave locale on weekends. Or something like that. We're all old farts, of course, and this gives us something to talk about. The gents seem to have enjoyed the very skimpy dresses the partying ladies wear.


Looking slightly farther to the right there is the boarded-up Vietnamese restaurant and other buildings still waiting their turn.


Here are more of the NOLA sidewalks I referred to in my thoughts on uneven ground. I walk past this each time I head over to Walgreen's or the Tulane Medical Center hospital cafeteria.


And this is the section of sidewalk I actually traverse when doing so. In between these two photos stands the monument shown in yesterday's pictures.


But if you turn slightly you look down this lovely strip with trees. This is looking up Elk toward Canal Street.


And that's the tour for today.

Y'all have to be patient about the Adventures of Maggie and Belle.
--the BB