Bonnie and Snide

Hi everyone, Just wanted to let you all know that Adair and I are doing OK in the midst of Hurricane Isaac. By some miracle, we still have power (at least for now), and we got at least a little bit of sleep. The storm seems to be stuck in our area, and it's just dumping rain and wind gusts. It could be a while until it leaves our area, but we are within serious levee protection so we should only get flooding from the heavy rain. I'll try to post updates for as long as I can. We'll be in touch. Dane

Hi everyone, Today Adair and I made the decision to stay in our apartment for the duration of the storm, rather than evacuate in the face of Hurricane Isaac. After carefully considering every option and the pros and cons of each, it just made sense for us to secure ourselves in the only place where we really feel secure down here. We are very prepared for an inevitable loss of power, the length of which could depend on how strong the storm is in our area, and how much damage it causes. It looks like most of the issues will be with the heavy heavy amount of rain, rather than the hurricane winds themselves. It's a really slow-moving storm, which means it will just dump and dump rain for several days, but we have provisions for the two of us that should last us quite a long while, should that sort of thing become necessary. Nobody is still quite sure about the path of the storm, so we really don't know what the extent of the damage is going to be in New Orleans. However, as

Hey folks, Some people told me they tried to comment but it didn't work. It seemed to work when I tried it (after first signing out of my Google account), it still requires that you choose a "profile" or something like that. This is ok though, because one of the options in the dropdown menu is just to type your name, or you can even post anonymously. Let me know if you are still having trouble. Dane

Hey everyone, Apparently there are a few gusts and maybe a rain shower headed our way, so I thought maybe I should update all of you on our status and our current plans. As you can see from the chart below, there is no guarantee that Isaac will be coming through New Orleans, but the odds aren't great for us. Personally I am rooting for that little white line, but most of the projected paths seem to be heading straight for our little town. At the moment, we are weighing our options. We can stay in our place, which is far from the Gulf and the Lake/River, but we will almost certainly lose power for several days. We have plenty of food and water, so it seems like we could hunker down and be fine. On the other hand, we may try to head out of town tomorrow, probably toward Dallas, TX, with some friends from Adair's work, and get out of the way of this monster. In any case, we will definitely let you all know. We aren't exactly excited about this experience, but we ar

Hey, Just wanted to let you all know that I found the setting that allows anyone to comment on our blog posts, not just those of you who have google accounts. So remark away! Dane

Hey everyone, Another week down, and it was a pretty enjoyable one. My first week of classes went well, I am noticing that it is so much easier to pay attention when the professors are saying interesting things! All but one of them is a currently-practicing lawyer, which is pretty cool. These guys really know their stuff, and their focus is much more on real-world practice. One professor in particular warrants description. My Marine Insurance professor is originally from South Africa, and has lived in New Orleans for like 35 years, sooooo he has the absolutely the strangest accent I have ever heard in my life. One moment he is in full South African mode, Matt Damon in Invictus style, and the next moment he might as well be Tennessee Williams. It's pretty amazing, I think the first class I just stared at him with my mouth open the entire time. Couple that with the fact that apparently South Africans don't know what political correctness is (he addressed this fact, but in adva

Hey everyone! Just got back from a nice jog and a rainy swim in between thunder storms. The best part of exercising down here is that the sweat comes so quickly and so ferociously that you really feel like you completed something. Anyway, while we were swimming we saw a tiny little frog drop from a tree into the pool, personally I thought it was dead. Adair took it upon herself to grab a leaf that I was quite sure was far too small for the job, and attempted to save the little bugger. As it turned out, she had gotten there just in time! He clung like his life depended on it, and after a short recovery time, he hopped back into the foliage. In other news, I finally start school this week! I'll be honest folks, I'm rockin a pretty solid schedule this term: 12 credits, 5 classes, aaaaaaaaand no class on Monday or Friday. Classes: Admiralty I, Marine Pollution, Collision & Limitation of Liability, Marine Insurance, and Personal Injury & Death. All maritime law classes,

 This is at the southernmost tip of the Tulane campus, near Audubon Park. Administration offices and such. Several of the buildings have a really cool old feeling to them. School crest. I'm getting it tattooed on my lower back real soon.  Campus has a really nice wooded feel. It's nice to have some shade walking to class.  The famous streetcar has a stop right at the top of campus. That's Audubon Park on the other side. There's a zoo in there! We are gonna go check it out soon I think.  This is more toward the northern part of campus (it's a huge campus by the way, about as big as UO), where most of the athletic facilities are located.  Another nice shady spot. That building in the background is the main "quad". Pretty cool open field right in the middle of campus. I haven't yet figured out what that building is way out there in the far background.  Some kind of ceremonial bell. Not sure when they ring it. On

Rage. That's what I feel...because I left my damned Cheetos at the checkout stand. Lets start at the beginning. As we may have mentioned before, recycling basically doesn't exist in New Orleans. I know this city/state has some bigger problems, but for whatever reason any hint of sustainability has never been made a priority around here. Adair told me that at her school they do teach the kids to sort out the recyclables, but it's all a ruse, as the teachers just toss it all in the trash at the end of the day. I'm not sure that the thought really counts on this issue, but oh well. I'm not trying to push my granola Oregonian agenda on anyone, but I feel like most of us can agree that recycling is generally a good thing; especially in a city that finds itself with such a wealth of glass bottles week after week. So, fine. No recycling, I can live with that. Putting a juice container in the trash once in a while won't kill me, no matter how strange it feels. Howev

Hey so I know I basically already posted one of these, but this was my first opportunity to get one of our big thunderstorms on film, and it didn't disappoint. You can see just a flicker of lightning at about around 0:20, and it pretty clearly scares the crap out of me. We basically have gotten one or more storms like this per day since arriving here! In other news, it looks like Hurricane/Tropical Storm Ernesto has weakened, and probably won't make it here, so...yay.

Hey everyone, Now that Adair and I have settled into our place, I thought I would post a few updates regarding what we have been up to for the last few days. We found a nice bed at "Rooms to Go" and it was delivered yesterday. At the time of purchase, I was given clear instructions that I would need to be in the apartment from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm! The delivery guys could show up at any time, and they would not call ahead. I figured I was in for a long, boring day, so when they showed up at 9:00 am and I was still in my boxers and unshowered, I was surprised but excited that I wouldn't have to wait around all day. So far, the bed is glorious. We have begun using the pool, which is definitely the warmest outdoor pool I have ever been in. I am absolutely loving it. Today was Adair's first day with the kids, although in classic Louisiana fashion, only about half of them showed up due to a mistaken news report regarding the first day of class (they thought it star

Hey everyone, for some reason our apartment tour video isn't properly uploading at the moment, so for now, enjoy this!

Hey all, Adair and I officially got the go-ahead to move into our new apartment today! Once Adair gets off work, we are going to head over, grab the keys, and finally unload our poor car. It's an awesome looking place, on the second floor with pool views. I'll put pictures up as soon as possible, but I don't think we will have internet until some time tomorrow, so as soon as that happens, I'll get to work. Talk again soon, Dane

Hey everyone! Just thought I would give a little update about our status down here in the hottest place ever: Adair is off to her second day of work today, leaving me as usual to take care of the housework. Sounds like yesterday went quite well (aside from some minor difficulty in, uh, "performing" during the urine test). She has met some really nice people, and her school has fully-functional air conditioning, a must-have for us northwesterners. On top of that, some people at Adair's school recommended that we look for apartments in a development a few minutes west of town, and I think we are going to go for it. Some of them have already offered to carpool with her, which would solve many of our transportation concerns, and it looks like a really nice area as well. We have an appointment to see some places around 5:00 today, and if it looks good, we plan on applying and getting in there as soon as possible. It's a little uncomfortable not yet having a place of ou

The Pelican State! I think people judge me for wearing sunglasses down here...it's like using an umbrella in Oregon Adair pumping gas for the first time in her LIFE