Exploring Kenner

Friday, Dustin was off work, so we made a trip to Kenner to Aquatic Specialties, a cool fish store specializing in salt water creatures where we spend entirely too much money. We were absolutely starving, though, so before buying some live fish, we went to eat some raw fish.

Using my handy dandy MyTouch, I found a few listings for sushi on Williams Boulevard, and decided whichever one we came to first would be the winner of our patronage. Sake Sushi claimed the prize. The place was empty As in, other than us, the only people sitting at a table were the waitstaff because they had nothing to do. That worried us. Dustin said it was like the beginning of Kitchen Nightmares when Gordon Ramsey makes his first visit to the abandoned dining room of the ailing restaurant. Luckily, this place wasn't a candidate for the show (at least not by judging the food). Dustin had two glasses of the house chardonnay (I didn't care for it whatsoever, but it was only a few dollars). I ordered the miso soup and the Sake roll; Dustin a snow crab roll, spicy tuna and Philadelphia roll; and we ordered Shelby a terriyaki chicken bento box. Dustin's looked good, my Sake roll was huge and incredibly filling, as well as insanely delicious- tempura shrimp and a Japanese mayonnaise sauce (not too much) rolled in nori and rice, topped with snow crab, topped with raw tuna, topped with avocado. Holy crap that thing was good. Dustin and Shelby each had a piece and I was still stuffed when I was done. Shelby really did us proud with her bento. I was thinking it would be a small-ish box, but it was about the size of a standard school tray. There was a whole chicken breast, one broccoli floret, one baby carrot, one baby corn, two dumplings, a peeled and creatively sliced orange, a whole California roll and fried rice. Did I mention it came with miso soup and a salad, too? For $7.95. And Shelby finished it! It took about an hour, but she did it, minus the dumpling Dustin and I stole and the broccoli. She also didn't finish the rice, but seriously, she had just eaten an entire sushi roll. I let it slide. The total came to $50-something. Which I don't think was bad given that the service was extremely friendly (almost creepy friendly) and quick and the food was good.

Having filled our bellies with aquatic goodies, we headed to the fish store. While Dustin talked shop with one of the staff, Shelby and I browsed the fish, crabs, urchins, starfish and the lone beige, bright blue spotted ray. He is so funny. If you get near the glass, he faces off with you and bumps the glass with his.... lip? Whatever the front-most part of his pancake-like body is. Doing this makes his "face" crinkle and his eyes look as though the brows have come down, causing him to look as though he's quite angry with you, as well as very much like a cartoon character. I'll see if the computer will allow me to upload the picture I took of him. Dustin settled on a reddish, skinny hand shaped tree thing, an emerald crab (which is not bright green, I was sad to find) and a koko worm- a long, twisty purple tube about the width of a finger that has a red and white stripped feather duster thing that comes out of the end. The feather duster is the animal, I'm not really sure what the tube is. I wanted a bit more color, so I got a cute little electric lime green soft coral. I ca't remember what it's called, but it sure is cute. It's a "baby," meaning it was a new cutting not quite ready to be in a tank with other things, but he let me buy it anyway. It's the brightest green I've ever seen, and it glows under the black light like a neon sign. I like it.

After going fishing, we went to Academy (where Dustin bought some golf stuff) and the Dollar Tree (where I bought some stuff). When I was in the Dollar Tree, Dustin and Shelby went into PetCo. Imagine my surprise to walk out of my respective store to see them coming out if theirs, Shelby with a mouse in her hands. A mouse. That her daddy bought her. I said it then and I'm saying it now, the care of this animal will not be added to the list of my household duties! She is kinda cute, though. Shelby named her Tinkerbell, and she's a light honey color.

Upon leaving Kenner, we met Frank for pizza and brews, though I just had a beer, still being full from lunch. Shelby regaled everyone in the place with her tale of finding the perfect mouse and talking her daddy into buying it. We stayed and chatted with Frank and Tim for a couple hours before finally heading home, where we aquainted the new corals to their new home and readied the cage for Tinkerbell.

Again I say: Mouse-keeping, not my job. Even if it is a cute little thing.

Family Outings And Unique Finds

As I'm sure you've noticed, any given post written here is seldom about a single place or event. There'll be a few days- or a little longer- with nada, then suddenly five paragraphs detailing a trip all over town throughout the course of an entire day. That's just what we do, I guess. It comes from before we lived in Beaumont ( or "in town") and would save all of our outings for one long, busy, fun-filled day as a family. Every two weeks on payday, we'd do it all- lunch at our favorite chicken wing eatery, the same order in the same booth every other Thursday; then we'd go to the mall or run where ever we needed to go to pick things up; a quick trip to Spec's to refill the wine cooler and then off to the grocery store before heading back home to unload groceries and cook supper, usually followed by a rented movie. I know that sounds terribly routine and mundane, though there's something comforting about having that one regimented day per week to look forward to. I miss those much anticipated regular outings, but we're starting to get into a rhythm here. There's much more fun to choose from, and we're learning to incorporate it!

Now that I've given you a tiny glimpse into how we roll, let me share where we've rolled it (you know you love my dork-ness)! We started by heading down to the Quarter, since most of the tourists had left post-Mardi Gras. Greg's was having a The Tourists Are Gone, Let's Celebrate! sale, so we wanted to see what they had this month. We found a gorgeous antique armoire that we picked up for just a little over $200, as well as vintage milk glass cosmetics pots I'm going to turn into candles (at some point...). Being the most successful lagniappe [lan-yap] magnet I've ever seen, Shelby was given a tiny glass bottle and a pin that says "Shoney's is #1!" that she picked it out of the trinket box they usually have at the counter, for free. I swear, by the time that girl is 16, she'll have been given a free car and a full ride scholarship (let's hope that last one really does happen!). Along with an extremely heavy, three dimensional metal fleur de lis, little did I know that we were also making another purchase. There was a headless, handless statue of a Roman or Egyptian slave we had seen the last time we made a trip to Greg's. It was genuine marble, carved by an American sculptor in Italy back in the mid 1800's. It had been salvaged from actress Becky Allen's home after her death. I'd made several comments about how much I loved it, and to my great surprise, when I got back from Texas last week, it was standing in my living room! Dustin bought it for my birthday this coming Friday and had it delivered just hours after I left. And at 400+ pounds, I'm glad I wasn't here to watch those poor men deliver it. We're having some local sculpture aficionados from one of the auction houses do an informal appraisal, and things are actually getting quite interesting! Whether it's worth a fortune or barely what we paid for it, I love it just the same and love that Dustin surprised me with it.

After yet another rewarding trip to the antique store, we walked around Decatur a bit. We had coffee and their amazing flourless chocolate cake at Envie, then explored a few of the other kooky antique/thrift shops in that part of the Quarter. One such place had an interesting array of vintage military uniforms from all over the world, old Mardi Gras outfits, hats and a bunch of creepy, naked child-clown dolls.

Once we were done browsing, we got the car and drove to Dauphine where I wanted to buy some books for my grandparents. I'd been to Dauphine Books once last year before we moved. I love it. Over crowded with stacks of books everywhere and a lazy cat roaming around. When I told the woman what I was looking for (who actually remembered me from almost 10 months ago)- books about Uptown and the history of the area- she handed me an old aluminum flashlight and directed me to a thin, dark space between bookshelves to find my treasure. It sounds annoying to have to use a flashlight to find a book, but it added some excitement and adventure to the experience, and with the unique collection of books they have, it's why I'll keep going back. I decided on a small book with photos and histories of the iconic establishments in town, as well as a purple cookbook with about 50 or so New Orleans recipes that came to a little over $20.

Afterwards, I headed back to the car where the rest of the family waited patiently and we went to Samurai for sushi. It was great, as always, but be careful where you park. We didn't see any problem with parking near the House of Blues as there were several other cars. But when we came out, they were all gone, the HOB barricades had come out and we'd gotten our very first City of New Orleans parking ticket.

We drove around Uptown a while, just enjoying the scenery when our dear friend Frank, a paramedic with Dustin, called to say he'd be getting off work soon and would like to meet us at New York Pizza for a drink. En route, we got to see another common fixture in our community- a stumbling drunk. Stopped at a red light, we saw a man holding a beer can and walking his bike down the sidewalk, right next to the car. He paused, looked around, and then in slow motion half fell, half laid down on his bike. He just kind of held that pose for a minute, then started shaking his foot and talking to himself. I asked Dustin if we should call anyone, but there were already people taking notice (and cruel though it may seem to some, it's a fairly common occurrence) so we continued on our merry way. Frank was late, and he told us it was because he'd responded to the call about the drunk we'd seen. The man was unhurt, refused medical care and asked to be pointed in the direction of home. Having heard the joyous news of another bum left unscathed by their degenerate lifestyle, we had a few beers and some pizza to cap off a perfectly New Orleans day.