Anniversary

A year ago R and I said "I Do" at Oak Alley Plantation.

I woke up to this...roses that R has nurtured from our garden.

Isn't love grand?!

You say "Toe-may-toe" I say "Toe-mah-toe"...

Take a look at our first picked Creole Tomato!!! A while back R asked if I ever had a tomato sandwich. I looked at him confused. "Awwww, nothing like a home grown tomato, mayo, salt and pepper on some fresh white bread...you don't know what you've been missing...that's some good!" R said. So, that's what we made with our first tomato. I have to say it's quite tasty. We both had a bite of the tomato and let me tell you, nothing beats home grown.

K, R and I attended the premiere of Little Chenier at the Cinema at the Bayou Film Festival. Talk about a great movie. Little Chenier captures the lives, culture and meaning of the Cajuns. I'm Filipino and was raised in Hawaii with many different cultures and I truly can relate to heritage and traditions. I've lived here in Lafayette for 3 years now and Louisiana has many similarities to Hawaii. The Cajuns are like the Hawaiians staying with tradition and true to their culture. K and I had the opportunity to meet and take a picture with Chris Mulkey who plays the Sherriff of Cameron Parish. We realized how busy he was meeting and greeting everyone at the movie premiere, but he took a couple of minutes to chat with us. He is a genuinely nice man. If Little Chenier comes to your town it's a "must see" and I highly recommend it.

Bayou in our backyard

We got 1 1/2 inches of rain yesterday within several hours. If the rain continues we'll soon have to get us a Pirogue to get around in the garden. With the rain in mind hurricane season this year will be active...

Rub-a-Dub-Dub...

I'm on a dish/face/wash cloth kick. Basically, you can use this cloth for all three of these. I use Sugar n' Cream, Bernat cottontots, or Peaches & Cream yarn. All 100% cotton of course which feels like heaven on your face and body. I am planning to make these for Christmas gifts. Yes, I said it "Christmas"...only 218 days away, go here to get the exact time...

I'm just a Squirrel trying to get a nut...

Well the squirrels in our yard don't have to try to get a nut from us R feeds them dried corn. Check out the handmade squirrel corn feeder R made. It's quite nice that I have my very own "MacGyver"! Our corn in the garden is up to 6 ft. tall and hopefully the squirrels will be content with what R gives them. It's a blessing that the squirrels don't have to go through this to get a nut!

Sowing the Seeds of Love

All credit goes to R who has nurtured our plants from sowing the seeds properly. Look at what has appeared!

Tomatoes!

Bell Peppers!

I can't wait to pick fresh veggies from our garden and eat them! R and I are going here for some R&R. I can't imagine what will pop-up in the Hodge-Crop when we get back.

The Seeds of Love is the third album by the band Tears for Fears, released in 1989. The album reportedly cost over £1 million (UKP) to produce. It retained the band's epic sound while showing increasing influences ranging from jazz and blues to the Beatles, the last of which is extremely evident in the hit single "Sowing the Seeds of Love".

To Felt or not to Felt

Definitely felt! I'm sure everyone has ruined a sweater once and not realizing that they've actually felted! Take a look at my first felted project...a wine cozy. The pattern is compliments of Lydia at Dropped a Stitch. I used Caron Felt-It yarn in Adobe.


I definitely will be making more of these. You can knit this in a couple of hours. They make great housewarming gifts. R and I will be taking that bottle out of that cozy and enjoying that wine. Cakebread Cellars is one of the few wineries in Napa Valley that ship to Louisiana, so R and I jumped at that chance and joined their Bakers Club.

May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii

Happy May Day everyone! I grew up in Hawaii and celebrating May Day in Hawaii is a big event. I remember planning and practicing our hula performances for the May Day program. My Mom strung leis for a local company and the day before May 1st she would be up late stringing all sorts of leis, primarily Plumeria Leis. I guess you can compare her madness to a florist the day before Valentines Day. R did plant a couple of Plumeria trees a couple of weeks ago. I've been told it won't be full grown for another 2 years. I'll have to wait until then to string a Lei. Below is a picture of the flowers that are presently planted in our front entry...a Snapdragon or White Lilly Lei anybody???
According to Harry B. Soria, the celebration of May 1 as Lei Day was invented in 1927 by island artist, writer Donald Benson Blanding and Grace Tower Warren. Don Blanding is also credited with the invention of the custom of tossing your lei overboard when you sailed from Honolulu. If the lei came back to shore (and most did) it supposedly meant you would return.

More More Mojitos please...

It's been nice and in the 70's-80's for the past couple of days. Here in the South we are enjoying every second of it because it won't be long until the heat of the summer and the humidity kicks in. You know what they say, "It's not the heat it's the humidity". With this lovely weather a nice cool Mojito quenches our thirst. Our mint has come back from last Spring and Mojitos are being made by the pitcher at the Hodge pad.

Before:

After!

Check this out. I spotted that Orbit has a new exotic flavor which is Mojito. Cocktail flavored gum, now that's my kind of gum! Or course it doesn't have the rum flavor but I give this a 5 star rating!

B & B

No, not Bed and Breakfast...Buddy and Bruneaux Hodge (our other Boys). I've mentioned them here. Here's their arrival story...

June 25, 2005


R's friend who lives in our neighborhood had lost his Black Lab and sent his girls out to find him. They found their dog which they thought they did but their Dad said, "That's great but that's not him. So the next day they found another Black Lab and their Dad confirmed it was theirs. So, here they were with two Black Labs. They posted "LOST DOG FOUND" posters and contacted Veterinarians in the surrounding area and had no luck. Mind you R's friend already has four dogs and two cats so they weren't in any position to take another dog. He called R and said, "I have a great dog who needs a good home and a loving family!" So the rest is history... Buddy is absolutely the best dog I've ever had. He's extremely docile and is very loyal. I mean what other Labrador will wear Mardi Gras beads and pose for a picture?!

October 22, 2005


Since we've had Buddy for a couple of months I felt guilty leaving him alone all day when I'd leave for work, the market, the gym, OK I was torn every time we'd leave the house and weren't able to take him with us. That's when I mentioned to R, "Buddy needs a Buddie!". He was hesitant at first and eventually gave in. R and I agreed that we wanted to adopt a dog from our local animal shelter. Now, what kind of dog would be a great playmate for Buddy? If we were adopting a dog you can't be picky. After all, their mission is to provide care, shelter and medical attention for stray, abandoned, and unwanted animals. The breed of dog didn't make a difference anyway because Buddy is very social and gets along with everyone! (that was quoted by our Vet) And, so this is where we found Bruneaux (Bru-no - it's spelled the Cajun French way!) We rescued Bruneaux from here. When people meet our dogs they always have a peculiar look on their faces and question how they can't possibly live in the same household. Yes a 85 lb. Lab and a 5 lb. Chihuahua are a great match! Let me tell you they are the best brothers and enjoy each others company. Bruneaux at times thinks he's as big as Buddy (little man syndrome!). When we rescued him his name was Scrappy. Bruneaux definitely fits his personality. He's my "Little Man".

"Everythings Coming Up Roses"

Well I'm back in Cajun Country and getting ready for our Festival International deLouisiane. Festival International de Louisiane is a community-based, non-profit arts organization formed in 1986 to produce an annual visual and performing arts festival celebrating the French cultural heritage of southern Louisiana – primarily a combination of French, African, Caribbean and Hispanic influences. The largest outdoor, FREE Francophone event in the U.S., the Festival places special emphasis on highlighting the connections between Acadiana and the Francophone world. Each year performing, visual and culinary artists from Europe, Africa, Canada, the Caribbean and the Americas are invited to share their talents with Louisiana artists, residents and visitors.

The Hodge Crop is doing quite well. We had a couple of storms come through last night and the sun will be shining for a couple of days. In addition to the Hodge Crop we have other plants to show. We planted these Antique Roses in the Spring of 2006. The red one is called the All Ablaze Climbing Rose. Not quite sure what the pink ones are. I'm certainly not the "green thumb" of the family and lucky that R is. He nutures our plants/yard like they were his own babies!

Everything’s Coming Up Roses is a song from the Broadway musical Gypsy: a musical Fable famously sung by Ethel Mermen. It was composed with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and music by Jule Styne.

Live Large Think Big

That's Dallas' new slogan. I'll be there for a week-long Sports Conference. I will also get to spend time with my highschool friend N which I'm excited about. I'm still exhausted from Cycle Zydeco this past week and getting over a cold or it could be allergies. It's that time of year. I found this article. That's just great, hopefully I won't feel miserable again...

Our "VeggieTales" begins

Take a look at the Hodge-Crop! It's so exciting to go out in our garden and see what's popped up. Remember in grade school planting that seed in dixie cups? The cups would all be lined up on the window sill. Yes, that's the same excitement I get when I see that little sprout busting out of the soil. R gets all the credit. He has the "green-thumb" in the family and B and M are taking after him as well. The boys' rows of their veggies are doing quite well. They are responsible for maintaining their rows; pulling weeds, trimming, etc. My job is to cook and prepare dishes with the veggies...not a bad deal since I enjoy my time in the kitchen. The last picture is a diagram of what we planted...ahem what R, B and M has planted...

If you have a hard time viewing the diagram here's a detailed listing starting from the top row:

• Grape Tomatoes; Cherry Tomatoes; Roma Tomatoes: Creole Tomatoes: Hybird 444 Tomatoes (no clue what kind of tomatoes these are); Sweet Corn


• Sugar Snap Peas; more Sweet Corn


• Crowder Peas; Green Beans


• Cucumbers; Purple Hull Peas; Mint; Cilantro; Green Onions; Parsley


• Zucchini; Jalepeno Peppers; Serrano Peppers; Basil; Carrots; Bell Peppers; more Creole Tomatoes


• B's row: Sugar Baby Watermelon; Cantelope; Mint


• M's row: Peanuts (yes peanuts!) Cantelope (he's NOT copying his brother B!); Black Diamond Watermelon

...Hipity Hopity Easter's on it's way....

Back from Houston and back to the "grind" here at work. It's that busy time of the year and we are already spear-heading our big event next week...Cycle Zydeco which is our annual Cajun/Creole Food and Cycling Festival.

Happy Easter everyone!

"Houston, we have a problem....

Meaning
Originally a genuine report of a life-threatening fault. Now used humorously to report any kind of problem.
Origin
John Swigert, Jr. and James Lovell who, with Fred Haise Jr., made up the crew of the US's Apollo 13 moon flight used (almost) this phrase to report a major technical problem back to their Houston base.

Swigert: 'Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here.'

Duke: 'This is Houston. Say again please.'

Lovell: 'Houston, we've had a problem. We've had a main B bus undervolt.'

The phrase was later used as the tagline for the 1995 film - Apollo 13.

Going to Houston, Texas for work and shopping!!! Driving in Houston is CRAZY!!! S is driving and I'm her co-pilot which is even scarier 'cause I have no sense of directions. Ask R, he'll tell ya.

Addiction....

1. being abnormally tolerant to and dependent on something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming. In physical addiction, the body adapts to the substance being used and gradually requires increased amounts to reproduce the effects originally produced by smaller doses.

2. an abnormally strong craving

3. A habitual or compulsive involvement in an activity

I confess, I have an addiction to...KNITTING. I started this addiction in January 2007. I've always wanted to learn how to knit for years and finally got around to sign-up for lessons. I'd like to also mention that because of this addiction I've joined a group that meets weekly with the same addiction. Meeting with this group helps me cope with my addiction. This is my 1st knitted project, a scarf of course. I will soon post a photo album of my finished projects and my WIP's (work in progress).

Spring Fever!!!

Happy Friday everyone! We’ve "Sprung Ahead". Daylight savings is much earlier this year and will end much later. R just says more time in our garden after work, which makes me happy 'cause I'm looking forward to hearty homegrown veggies this Spring/Summer. I've never planted a garden before, only herbs and peppers in pots so this will be very exciting. I'm blessed to have R with his expertise in gardening that he learned from his Grandpa and Granny in Mississippi. I need to get a list down and decide what I want to plant. B and M have the two first rows and have an idea of what they want to plant. They've mentioned watermelon, pineapple and peanuts. We'll have to do some research on the pineapple and peanuts! I'm really looking forward to homegrown tomatoes. Haven't had a good tomato in a long time. I'm sure ya'll know what I'm talking about. Veggies don't taste as good as an adult as they did when I was younger. R sent me a list of oriental/asian veggies as well. How thoughtful of him! Here's R cutting up the grass with a sod cutter and prepping the area. Notice on the deck and grass B & B putting in their two cents and giving R some gardening tips!!!

My 1st Blog

If a beauty product or the latest hot trend is advertised...I'm buying it. I can't help it, I'm a "Slave to Trend" and that's why I'm here starting a Blog. My husband says I'm silly and thinks I'm 12 that I have a My Space and now... a Blog, that's alright, it keeps me young! You may ask what's Lagniappe....it's what we call "an unexpected something extra" here in South Louisiana and that's what you'll find here on my Blog.