Sweet Taste of Summer

"In the South we go back to our home in dreams and memories, hoping it remains what it was on a lazy, still summer's day twenty years ago."

There's nothing better than summer is the South. I love everything about it. I love the feeling of the steam building throughout the morning. I love magnolias and weeping willow trees. I love the crickets chirping around 7 o'clock in the evening after a scorching day. I love finding a good shade to sit under in the middle of the afternoon. Nomatter how old I get, I will always catch the first glow-bug that I see every summer. I love coming in the house for a cold glass of sweet tea, dripping in sweat after working in the yard. I love grass-stains and dancin' around barefooted to keep from being severely burned by the hot asphalt. Country music has more soul in the summer. I love wearing searsucker shorts and grandpa' beach/fish shirts. If I had my way, I'd start every one of my mornings with my pops on the glaring water chasin' fins and smelling like fish. If I had it my way, I'd finish every one of my days on the backporch grillin' cheeseburgers with Amanda and telling her all about my day fishing over a frosty bottle of Abita brew. I love driving my truck around town, windows down late at night. Truth be told, Amanda might even tell you that I get a little more redneck in the summer - and I'm alright with that.

I was thinking about all of this earlier this week while I was getting ready for an event that one of our radio stations was working. The event: Harnett Regional Agriculture Fair. I don't know if it was the smell of fried turkey legs or whether it was the sound of a pig race taking place in the background (Little Anne beat BBQueen if you were wondering), but while I was waiting for our station van to arrive all I could think about is how much I loved summer in the South. Sure, summer is great everywhere. But summer doesn't seem to have a soul everywhere else if you ask me.

All that goes to say, I couldn't be happier that it is May. That means we have four months of good-living directly ahead of us. I love summer so much, I didn't even wait for summer to officially begin to start the good times. Every summer, me and my buddies get together for a big cookout in April and this year was no different. A few weekends ago we hosted the Dixie Boil and filled the backyard with music, food and close friends. The Masters was going on in the background, the sun was shining and it was even the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Everything was right. I swung by Earps' Seafood Market and loaded my truck up with tons of seafood. We had a cajun boil (15 pounds of shrimp, potatoes, corn on the cob, creole sausage, garlic, hot sauce and Zatarains) and we steamed a bushel of oysters (around 125 oysters). Just to top it off, we also threw 15 marinated mahi-mahi steaks on the grill.


Not too long after the Dixie Boil, I snagged enough Jimmy Buffett tickets for a group of us to bring in the summer Margaritaville-style. Jimmy is one of my favorites. You see, let's be honest: Jimmy isn't a great singer, he doesn't dance around the stage, he doesn't have insane stage sets or even wild pyrotechnics. In fact all his has is a guitar, a few part-time hula dancers/full-time backup singers, and a huge screen behind him displaying a tropical slideshow. The reason I love Jimmy and the reason why I've seen him perform a handful of times is because of the atmosphere. You'd be hard pressed to find a more friendly crowd. Everybody sings along and sways together like hundreds of thousands of palm trees. Sure, maybe the margaritas have something to do with it. But what is a margarita without Jimmy Buffett playing in the background? Just frozen juice.


The summer is young and we have a lot of things left to do on our checklist. We have a trip to Alaska to see my brother, Sarah & the kids - I can't wait. I hope to fill a few of my Saturday mornings with a little golf with the fellas. There will be many days on the lake - tubing, wakeboarding, esc. We have kayak day-trips. We have a Cross (Amanda's side) family trip to Hilton Head in July - I've even been watching Swamp People on Discovery Channel to prone my gator catchin' skills (Hilton Head is crawling with gators). I'm not going to lie, we also finagled our way into a few friendships with people who have beach house connections (Just kidding, guys. We genuinely like ya'll for all the right reasons). We can't wait for everything ahead of us this summer. HAPPY SUMMERTIME, EVERYBODY!

Cats are evil

I have been a dog person my entire life. Growing up my family always had labrador retreivers. They were truly a boy's best friend.

Then I married a cat person.

Our first year of marriage we had the dog vs cat argument. During our second year of marriage we compromised. What does compromise in marriage look like? Well, we got two kitten, named them after a New Orleans Saints player & coach and called a truce.

Don't get me wrong, I love our two cats. I have taught one of them (Payton) how to fetch and she has been trained to be my dog. The other one (Bell aka "Belly") is overweight, is great to snuggle with and is lazier than roadkill. I love my two cats - I do not like any other cats.

Belly in full-character (above)

But all cats are evil. All cats spit on their hands and rub it all over their bodies. I don't trust any thing that sleeps during the day and stays up all night - ie: bats, cockroaches and crackheads. Once again, I love my cats but I do not trust them. Actually Belly sleeps throughout the day and night - I trust her. Payton is the culprit.

Why? Because Payton knows my schedule and she abuses it. Say I set my alarm for 6:30am - Payton will attack me around 6:15am. It's clockwork. She pounces in fragile places, she burrows between my head and my pillow. She will do anything to wake me up. And when Payton finally does wake me up, all I do is go straight to the shower and she just watches me - creeper style.

Don't believe me? That's fine. I woke up the other morning while Amanda was out of town and I set up a sting operation. I turned on the morning news and went back to sleep.

I present Exhibit A, your honor...

My (Andrew's) Legacy

A couple weeks ago, my pops let me borrow the family's heritage book tracking the lineage on my father's side all the way back until the 1720's. A family member spent nearly 10 years studying hundreds of documents, books, articles and government records from 1984-1994. These type things always grab my interest and my nose has been stuck in the book ever since I brought it home (the book is just over 600 pages).

My pops (above) and Uncle Mike playing with a rabbit trap

Let me tell you, my father's side of the family has some interesting family secrets. It was so interesting I had to share some of the highlights:

-My great (x8) grandfather, John McElveen, was Scottish-Irish and came to the New World around 1720. That's all we know.

-My great (x6) grandfather, William, owned a slave-trading company and over 500 acres outside Charlestown, SC. He was recruited at age 18 to fight in the Revolutionary War because he "was raised in South Carolina backcountry." Enlisted in Charlestown at the beginning of the war. He fought a few years under General Francis Marion (better known as "the Swamp Fox") then served for the Militia of SC. Once he was out, he bought a plantation in Pudding Swamp, SC. Basically, watch the movie "The Patriot" and imagine Heath Ledger playing the role of ol' Gramps Willy.

-My great (x4) grandfather, Andrew, fought in the Civil War (aka The Invasion of the South, The War of Northern Aggression). It is believed he very likely fought during the Battle of Fort Sumter. After slavery was abolished, the family gave their 33 slaves (1 of them being a white man) a small farm near the family plantation. Apparently a few of the slave-families decided to continue working on the plantation. Records indicated that many of the slaves knew how to read. Eventually Andrew moved to Louisiana after re-marrying "a negro woman named Hannah." It is noted that Andrew had a drinking problem and left the Presbyterian church (I'm sure he found a welcoming home for him and his bottle in Louisiana).

Great (x3) granddad Joseph.

The details listed in the family's book are blunt - sometimes honorable and sometimes embarassing. All this got me thinking about what is going to be said about my life and I'm really worried about how my story will read in the family heritage book.

As of right now, it would look like this:

"Andrew, third son of William Earl, was born in 1982. When a young boy, Andrew had a speech problem and a large head. Struggled to behave in school. Stumbled through his college education and upon a degree. Married Amanda Cross of Winston-Salem and fathered two cats."

I need to do something about this. Let's say I live until I'm 98 - that gives me 70 years to write a better paragraph about my life. I need to own a dog. I need to kill a bear, a large shark and/or a wild jungle cat. I need to grow a good mustache for a picture that will be passed down generations (just like ol' Granddad Joseph in the picture above). I need to grow into my large head. 2011 is the year I am going to begin the journey of becoming the man my great, great, great grandchildren need me to be.

You say 2010, I say Lady Gaga

It's hard to believe that 2010 is long gone. It feels like just yesterday we were in New Orleans for the playoffs in January or enjoying a snow (ice) day in early February. Such is life.

I heard a guy on TV (confession: it was "Jack" from Will & Grace - please, no jokes. Amanda sometimes falls asleep with the TV on) say that we only remember a few things from each period of our life. So that got me thinking that I should make a list of things that I will forever associate with the year 2010. For instance if you say "1990", I say "Milli Vanilli." So here goes...

If you say 2010, I say... New Orleans Saints Super Bowl XLIV champs.

I don't know how many of you actually watched the game or if you just attended a Super Bowl party, ate off a cheeseball and mingled with other people that didn't care about the result of the game. But that wasn't us. I was glued to the TV. We met up some friends at a local bar & grill, and as my luck would have it, my truck was broken into (window busted out, GPS stolen) during the 1st quarter of the game. When I found out about it I called the cops and told them to come around halftime.

My mother could tell you where she was on her elementary school playground when she heard President Kennedy was assassinated. I will tell my children where I was when Tracy Porter intercepted Peyton Manning's pass to Reggie Wayne and ran it back for a touchdown - securing the game for the Saints. I will also tell them how I was smiling all the whole way home (window busted out) on a cold February night.

If you say 2010, I say... family time!

If you know me, you know I love my two older brothers (and their families). One of my brothers is up in Alaska and the other one is down in Georgia. It's a rare occasion that we're all able to get together. The last time all of our families were together was in 2007 and the last time I saw my oldest brother Ash was the day of Amanda & my wedding in 2008. So with that said, having both of my brothers (and their families) around for a week was the highlight of my year.

If you say 2010, I say... fantasy football championship

NERD ALERT: this year I finally came out victorious in fantasy football. Adam (my middle brother) and I have a league with a bunch of my high school buddies. This is the third year it's been going on and after two years being won by Adam, I finally came out on top this year... beating Adam in the championship game. I promise there are other people in the league. It's not just the two of us having a Brown Brothers nerdfest. Even though it looks like that is what the league has become.

If you say 2010, I say... Andrew vs. Our Neighborhood HOA

This year I've discovered the many joys of living in a great neighborhood. We love our neighborhood, almost everybody we've met has been wonderful and the neighborhood has some of the best ammenity perks in the area. However, 2010 will always be the year we really learned what it was to be apart of a neighborhood HOA and to try to get along with everyone living around us (that sounds evil - I am aware).

Back in the apartment days, I had a guy that cooked cabbage (what seemed to be) 3 days a week and wrank Indian dishes the other days. While I'm sure he was a good cook, his meals smelled horrible and the aroma rose through the floor into my apartment. I also had a neighbor in my old apartment that use to bark at his dog when his dog barked. Some people spank their dog; this guy just tried to get in a barking match with his dog. I'm not sure who won those duels but they always seemed to go into overtime and late into the night. The point being is that back in the apartment days, it wasn't a big deal if you had a crazy neighbor because you knew that everybody around was a short term problem. Give it a couple months and they most likely would be gone.

But when you buy a house, you are locked into a 30 year fixed commitment to the crazy lady down the road that covers her yard in garden gnomes, concrete statues, buddhas, Santas, Easter bunnies, snow globes, Halloween goblins, esc, esc, esc. I'm all for a little festive home decor. Heck, I love the Easter bunny, Santa and all things Halloween. But there is a time for each... not all.

Don't get me wrong, Amanda and I love most of our neighbors. But somebody needs to tell me why our HOA prohibits parking on the left side of the road but the crazy lady down the road is allowed to recreate Adventure Landing Putt-Putt in her yard. Between you and me, there might be a few gnome kidnappings in 2011.

If you say 2010, I say... the year I met Saints' owner Tom Benson

My good buddy Chip hooked me, Amanda and a couple of my high school buddies (Clay & John) up with a few Saints sideline tickets for a game at Carolina. Not only did I have a moment with Reggie Bush but I also was able to talk with the Saints' owner Tom Benson. He was extremely nice and I made it out of the situation without a restraining order.

If you say 2010, I say... good year on the Deep Blue

My goal this year was to catch a nice size billfish (sailfish more specifically), but it didn't happen. My pops and I had a few good trips to the coast but when all was said and done, the year was full of mahi-mahi, tuna and one big shark. So a citation sailfish has become my Moby Dick and we'll have to see if 2011 will be my year. The highlight of my year (in regards to the fishing world goes) was when my parents and I attended the Big Rock Blue Marlin tournament weigh-in and witnessed the landing of a North Carolina blue marlin record. It was a once-in-a-lifetime fish that I'm so thrilled I was able to see.

If you say 2010, I say... job/career change!

For a while now, Amanda and I have really been feeling like I needed to move on from my position at APS and find a position elsewhere. I enjoyed my four years with APS but it became clear over the last year or so that it wasn't the place where I saw myself long term. So I put together my resume, pulled out my ol' power tie and went on a few interviews.

Truth be told, I killed the first interview. And no, not "killed" as in "dominated." "Killed" as in "Thank you for coming, we'll call you if we ever want to scrap everything good we have going with our company." It was what my father would call a "learning experience." The second interview, I found a new power tie - a silk blue and white striped tie. I got an offer but it just didn't seem like a good fit or the step that we wanted to take.

Then I mixed things up and went with my new power tie - I went with the light blue (to show a flash of masculinity) and light green striped tie. The interview process went great. I felt comfortable, not just in my light blue/light green striped tie, but also with the company and the managers involved. So after some real thought and after a couple sleepless nights, Amanda and I took a step of faith and accepted the Account Executive offer from Clear Channel.

I have loved my time with Clear Channel so far and it's been great being able to face new challenges and meet so many wonderful, new people. And at the end of the day, they have a wonderful break room. So yeah, there's always that.

Ten Things I Think I Think...

It's about that time - the Quarterly blog post from our little family. I often tell myself that I'm going to update our blog more frequently, but I'm awful at taking pictures on a daily basis and so I never feel like I have anything to share with the group. But because so many of Amanda and my family members are so far away, I figured it would be nice if we at least checked in every once and a while.

But then comes the hard part. The part of the blog where I add substance... or at least try to. I'm fresh out of original ideas and relevant pictures, so I'm going to copy my sister-in-law Sarah's recent post on their family blog titled, "10 Confessions." But instead, I'll title this one "Ten Things I Think I Think" so I don't completely swagger-jack her blog.

"TEN THINGS I THINK I THINK..."

1. I think being a true "cat person" is harder than it looks. In fact, it's a lot of work. To be a full-fledged Crazy Cat Lady takes a lot of sacrifice and I realized this lately early in the mornings. You see, as you already know, Amanda got two kittens a few months ago. Now fastforward to present day. Little did I know baby kittens grew into alarm clocks a couple months in.

Payton's new thing is to wake me up early in the morning. It's awful. Terrorists being held in Guantanamo Bay now receive more pleasant wake up calls than I do. Payton (our hunter) gets up... stretches... surveys the scene... and then attacks my body lying defenselessly under the blankets. Amanda and Bell (the lazy kitten) sleep through it. I can't.

What makes it worse is this week Amanda has been gone out of town for business. When Amanda is here, Payton will pick on one of us and then switch after a while. With Amanda being gone, I suffer alone.

Today Payton started off playing Mr. Nice Guy - she held her face in front of my face for a few minutes, purring loud enough that I dreamed that the vacuum cleaner was left on. Purring didn't wake me up though, so she proceeded to gnaw on my throat, simultaneously put both paws in both my eye sockets, tried to lick the inside of my nose, pounced on my stomach and even took a below-the-belt shot.

As I write this entry, Payton is staring at me with a very sinister grin, like "You have to fall asleep sometime buddy..." Such a creep.

2. I think the coolest thing about me is my wife. Without her being around this week I have managed to eat pizza for 4 meals, I spent 1 night trying to fix our 1993 Super Nintendo system, and my only social interaction (outside working hours) was to go across the street to play "Call of Duty" on my neighbors XBox360. Oh, and I did go to a fishing club meeting (which was great). Basically, what I am saying is that without Amanda being around I morph into that loser that we all know who has been living in his parent's basement since high school. Pizza, video games, and a fish club meeting... really? That's all I got?

3. I think the Georgia Aquarium is the most outragious thing I've seen in quite a while. Two weeks ago, we headed to Atlanta to celebrate Sue's (Amanda's mom) birthday. We had a blast eating at some great restaurants, playing board games at night, and shopping during the day. But my personal favorite was our visit to the aquarium in downtown Atlanta. It was amazing. At one point I was looking at a 400 lb. grouper and a tour guide was telling visitors nearby about how this species of grouper was overfished. Confession: At that exact moment, I was thinking about how if I ever had one last dying wish, I would wish for a day of unlimited fishing inside the 6.3 million gallon ocean tank.

4. I think I had the time of my life the other day, despite not understanding the majority of what was taking place around me. Amanda and I went to a neighbor's birthday party with their family. Everyone there was from a variety of Slovic countries and we had a blast. In true Eastern European fashion, the food was plentiful and the people were extremely welcoming... and in true Andrew Brown fashion, I sat next to the family's Crazy Uncle who drank a little bit too much. Just my luck. I forget his name, so we'll just call him Uncle Slovicstan. Anyways, Uncle Slovicstan spent an hour telling me about how he looked in his (road) biking uniform. Minor detail, Uncle Slovicstan was large enough to eat Lance Armstrong - so yeah, I spent my afternoon trying not to imagine him in his biking gear. But don't cry for me Slovicstan, I ended up having a really good time.

5. I think ESPN needs to give me a job. Who picked the Kansas upset? Who had Butler in the Elite 8? Who has all four of his Final Four teams alive in the tournament (Duke, WVU, Tennessee, Kansas State)? Yours truly. For the record, I have West Virginia winning it all.

6. I think summer couldn't come soon enough. I turn 28 years old (which has no significance), we celebrate our anniversary, cookouts in the evenings, warmth in the mornings, numerous beach trips, days spent on the boat, lots of fishing (my goal is to bring in a large sailfish this year), July 4th, lightening bugs, esc. There's so much to look forward to this summer, but the thing that I look forward to the most is my oldest brother's family visit! Ash, Sarah, Charlotte, Liam and Alistair are coming in August and I can't hardly wait!

7. I think I have a new favorite quote in life. I wish the quotation was from a virtous man who changed the world, BUT...

"Wrinkles will only go where the smiles have been." -Jimmy Buffett

Ok, so Jimmy Buffett hasn't changed the world, but he has made enough fruity drinks and footprints in the sand to be considered thee expert on having a positive attitude and a good time. And I like people like that.

8. I think I am going to write a book within the next year or two. Truth be told, I have already started writing. The book is called "The Panacea" and is about two brothers who share a common childhood dream to own a boat and own a fishing charter business. But when they grow older, the older brother choses to take a different career path, leaving the younger brother to chase their dream alone. When the younger brother wife passes away due to illness, the boat ("The Panacea") becomes his refuge and escape. The meat of the story is about one brother trying to help his younger brother deal with the pain that is left on land.

Please don't feel obligated to compliment the storyline, that's not why I share. It's just something that I am working on, along with painting more often. I don't know if I will put the time and effort necessary to try to get the story published, but I've always wanted to write a book and I don't want to find myself at age 90 one day wondering why I never put a pen to paper. FYI - "Panacea" means a remedy for all ills. Fun fact: Panacea was the Greek goddess of healing.

9. I think my new thing is grandpa-style shirts. I have two shirts, specifically, that Amanda hates and restricts me from wearing them at will. I have been given two strict guidelines to wearing the shirts: 1) I have to be fishing; AND 2) we have to be at our house. Confession #2: I have worn both shirts out-and-about while Amanda has been gone.

The shirts aren't nearly as bad as Amanda makes them out to be. They are nice button-up beach (yes, like a Luau) shirts with different type Saltwater fish on them. One is blue and one is white. I have worn them at least 5 times out in public and two different occasions I received compliments from complete strangers. Catch was, they were both grandpas... I like to think I'm ahead of my time.

10. I think Payton finally fell asleep on our bed while I typed out this blog and I think it's my turn to pounce on her...

Trip to the Big Easy

"If there was no New Orleans, America would just be a bunch of free people dying of boredom." - Chris Rose, Times-Picayune commentator - September 5th, 2005

I have spent time in India, Brazil, Mexico, various parts of Europe and I have visited the vast majority of states in the U.S., but there is no culture that I love more than the New Orleans culture. Now before you rush to judgment, I am not talking about a tacky Bourbon Street sideshow on a Saturday night. That's not the New Orleans that I'm talking about - that's tourism at its weakest moment. And furthermore, I understand that not all parts of New Orleans are beautiful and alluring. If you asked my mom & dad about New Orleans, they would instantly refer to the more working-class (or not working-class) side of New Orleans that visitors don't see and the area that my family lived in when I was growing up. The New Orleans that I love is the city that is filled with smells of cajun cuisine, sounds of a brass band forming a Second Line in a nearby neighborhood and a waiting conversation with a stranger at every street bench. Magnolias, lushful gardens, cobblestone streets in the French Quarter and streetcars in the Garden District. The South at its best. This is the New Orleans that I wanted to show Amanda.

So, here's my "Top-10-Things-We-Loved-About-Our-Trip" List:

#1 - Witnessing the New Orleans Saints WIN a playoff game. On my own personal "bucket list" (compiled circa 1998), I listed "Attend a Saints playoff game in New Orleans." When I first pitched the idea to Amanda that we should try to get tickets for the game, her response was "maybe we could do that next time we go to New Orleans." Haha, NFL rookie. Needless to say I gave Amanda a brief history lesson about the New Orleans Saints franchise and how they had only played in 5 playoff games in the 43 year history of the organization before this weekend (only winning two). Amanda didn't need to fall back on her college education to understand that if she was going to be a fellow Saints fan, it was this weekend or no promise of a Next Time. So we found tickets and I had the time of my life. I will never forget it... and Amanda, she'll even tell you that it was the most fun she's ever had at a sporting or entertainment event.

"The people of New Orleans love the Saints not because they provide a distraction from their fall, but because they are a reflection of their rise." - Saints Linebacker Scott Fujita

#2 - The food. Shrimp bisque, shrimp po'boy, beignets, BBQ fried oysters, Royale Street Lucky Dogs, crawfish, gumbo - of course - with all the fixin's! I was spoiled to the point that when I returned from our trip, everything that I ate tasted like Purina - Correction: Walmart Maxximum dog food.

Amanda enjoying a beignet from Cafe du Monde

#3 - Visiting family. We were able to spend a little time in the French Quarter with Eric, Mimi and their sweet children. Their children are as sweet as can be and Amanda and I really enjoyed spending some time with some of my family in the area.

#4 - Jackson Square. Perhaps it was St. Louis Cathedral or the beignets at Cafe Du Monde, but Jackson Square was Amanda's favorite part of the city. We visited with all the artists, bought a couple pieces of art, listened/watched all the street performers and even took a nap at the feet of Andrew Jackson's statue.

#5 - Post-game celebrations after the Saints win! After the game, Amanda and I headed back to the hotel to re-energize ourselves and change clothes before reuniting with another couple that we met at the game. The sights and sounds were amazing - the city of New Orleans broke out into one huge parade. People were dancing in the streets, hugging, cheering - all good fun. In fact, because New Orleans often times gets such a bad wrap, (without trying to preach) let me say this: I have seen Franklin Street in Chapel Hill after a win over Duke and I can honestly say that people were acting much more pleasant then that. Nobody was flipping police cars over. Nobody was starting bonfires in the middle of the street. Nothing was exposed, nobody was offended and the police reported no acts of vandalism. In ACC country, they storm the court after a big win... in New Orleans, they storm the Quarter. It's all the same. I saw fans from both teams respectfully rehashing the game and offering earnest well-wishes. One Arizona Cardinal fan told me that he had attended over 15 NFL games in different cities and he had never seen the hospitality and respectfulness that was shown to him in New Orleans. We spent hours after the game just engaging in the "Who Dat" dalliance with a city full of strangers who shared a common love-affair for a group of 53 men that rarely ever delivered anything close to a successful season in each of our lifetimes. When put in those words, it really doesn't sound like a healthy relationship. However, I did not want the day - or the night for that matter- to end. Simply put, it was thousands of people cherishing the exact same moment.

#6 - Conversations with complete strangers. Only in New Orleans can your waiter say, "how you doin', baby?" when they greet you and not come across at all crazy-man-at-the-playground creepy. PS - Mom, the streetcar driver said"tell your mama & 'em hello" when we got off at our stop for a Garden District stroll. So "Hello, Mom"... from the streetcar lady.

#7 - Garden District strolls on a sunny, 66 degrees late-January afternoon. Amanda and I agree: One day we will both retire, buy a home in the Garden District and spend our days writing and painting. She can wake up and go for a morning jog in Audubon Park, while I sit on one of the park benches comparing college stories with much younger Tulane undergrads. Maybe Amanda and I will even earn enough clout in the neighborhood to claim a spot under an old oak along St. Charles Avenue that our family could revisit every February/March to catch a few throws from a quickly approaching Mardi Gras krewe.

#8 - The houses. Every block in the Garden District has a house that could be mistaken for the Wilkes' Twelve Oaks plantation. I don't think Amanda has ever seen "Gone With the Wind," but subconsciously I'm quite sure she imagined living the life of Scarlett O'Hara many times during our Uptown visit. Every other house was declared "our dream house."

#9 - The Jackson Square artists. If I could have a mulligan on one of my wasted college summers (circa 2004-06, you know what ones I'm talking about Pops), I wish I signed a 3-month lease on a little French Quarter studio apartment and try to make rent selling my paintings to French Quarter tourists who had a poor eye for good art. I understand that I wouldn't be near as talented as the other artists that make a living every year selling their pieces in the Quarter - and I know that I would most likely exhaust my summer days struggling to make an artist out of a seafood restaurant dishwasher - but it would be fun. My traveling tip for any future tourist: spend a morning talking to different French Quarter artists. Their stories were remarkable and inspiring. Their backgrounds & futures were promising and they each were more than capable of working a 9-to-5... of course, if they had wanted to. After every conversation with an artist throughout our visit, all Amanda and I wanted to do was go home and paint.

This statue of Jesus stands in a courtyard next to St. Louis Cathedral. During Katrina, the only damage suffered by the statue was Jesus' index finger and thumb were missing. Yats (NOLA locals) will tell you Jesus "flicked" the storm east at the last moment - explaining the missing digits. Owners of the statue decided not to replace the thumb and index finger so that visitors of the statue would be reminded of God's mercy. (Katrina was aimed directly at NOLA, only to veer east at the last minute - possibly sparing the city from an even-worse scenario.)

#10 - Shopping. Ok, so this was Amanda's favorite activity. But we did find some treasures that made me happy, though - such as a signed copy of coffee table book about historic homes of Louisiana (found in used book store) and a painting of an old oak tree (painted on a scrap piece of board, recovered during the reconstruction of a home damaged by Katrina). We found a few other things, but these were my two favorite purchases.

I will let the rest of our trip to be told by a few pictures...

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009 will go down as our first Christmas in our house, the Christmas that we got our first Christmas tree, and the Christmas we headed to Maryland and had a white Christmas. Here are a few pics of our Christmas season...

Payton and Belle

A lot has happened since our last post; the New Orleans Saints have made it to the NFC Championship game (to be played tomorrow), Thanksgiving in Cheraw, Christmas in Maryland, just to name a few. But perhaps the most important, at least in Amanda's eyes, is the addition(s) that we have made to our little family. Sometime shortly before Thanksgiving, we adopted two 6 week old kittens, which we named "Payton" and "Belle." On the day that we got them, the Saints defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to go 10-0 for the season - so in honor of that great achievement, we named one of the kittens "Belle," after Mike Bell (who scored 2 TDs against the Buccs) and "Payton," after the Saints head coach Sean Payton.

For a long time, I insisted that we didn't get cats. I didn't want to be the "crazy cat family" and everytime Amanda lobbied for one (or more) kitten(s), I would make jokes about her being the neighborhood Crazy Cat Lady. But after a while, I folded - but with one stipulation. I made Amanda agree that we wouldn't name them something like Buttercup or Princess Penelope Pumpernickle. While I would still love to get a yellow lab one day (when we have a big backyard), Payton and Belle have added a lot of joy to our lives. In fact, it's a win-win for Amanda (a cat person) and myself (a dog person) because I'm convinced that Payton and Belle think that they are mighty jungle cats.

During the Christmas season, Payton became our Christmas tree squirrel. This picture fits Payton's personality perfectly. There is nothing she doesn't want to climb and there is no adventure that she doesn't want to conquer. She loves to pick fights with her napping sister and she loves to wrestle our shuffling feet. Payton is black and white and looks like an Dairy Queen Oreo blizzard. Just like her sister though, Payton is a great snuggler when she is tired.

...then there is Belle. Belle has the heart of a labrador. She is amazing at two things: napping and eating. In fact, this week I took the two of them for a check up and the vet was shocked to find that Belle weighed a little over a pound more than her sister. Belle is white, orangey/brown and a little bit of black. She looks like a Disney version of a baby Bengal.

Halloween & Monday Night Football

I won't take much time on this post because the Saints vs. Falcons Monday Night Football game is about to come on, but I figured we'd share a couple pictures of our Halloween pumpkin. I have been a Saints fan since we lived in New Orleans and I've waited nearly my entire life for the Saints to have this successful of a season (so far). So in honor of this spectacular start, we ditched the traditional jack-o-lantern and opted for a New Orleans Saints' fleur de lis. Wish all you guys were here watching the game with us - I've made my Halftime Chilli and Frito's for the game. Yummm...

the Life of a First-time Homebuyer

It's been a while, I know. I've had a few requests (mainly from family members) wanting to see our new house. I took a few pictures today and I figured that I could give you the typical "here's Bedroom #1 tour," but I figured I'd throw in a little more personality into it. Because after all, it is just a house and I'm assuming you guys want to see our home. So instead of giving you a tour, I'll just give some snap shots of our home and the five rules that I have learned about being a homeowner. I think that you will see that Amanda has taught me a lot.

Homeowner Rule #1- "The pillow rules"

Not all pillows in this world are meant to be used. Apparently my head is rather large and heavy and some pillows Amanda buys are for display; not to be smooshed. Amanda taught me that fashion beats function more often than I thought. In fact, my one piece of wisdom to any future husbands: err on the side of fashion.

Another pillow rule that I have learned is that if you have two or three different colored pillows or patterns, you are suppose to separate the patterns and colors. Sometimes I put the blue pillows on one side of the couch and the green ones on the other - just to keep Amanda sharp.

Homeowner Rule #2 - "Pottery Barn is for inspiration, HomeGoods is for shopping."

It doesn't happen all the time, but every now and then Amanda asks to stop by the mall. It still puzzles me why we would stop at the mall, considering the fact that we rarely buy anything. When the men in my family go shopping, there is no browsing - there's a purpose. If you need a pair of jeans, we go straight to the pants section and grab our size. The women in my life have fought me for years to get me to even try on the pants. If I know I'm a size X, why would I try on a size Y? Makes no sense. However, what I've learned from Amanda is that we aren't always at the mall to shop; sometimes we are simply scouting. For instance, Pottery Barn has nice sand. I didn't know anyone could actually sell sand, but they do. And they make a killing off it. Pottery Barn makes $12.95 on a little bag of sand. Amanda knows that I won't pay that for sand - why would I? If I'm going to spend that much money on sand, then I'm simply going to spend a couple extra dollars on gas and just visit the beach... and I'll bring back as much sand in the back of my truck as my wife wants. So needless to say, we don't buy Pottery Barn's sand. Why? Because our neighborhood HomeGoods has sand for $3.99 - and even if I don't like paying anything for sand, I can't get to the beach for anywhere close to $3.99.

I know this last picture just looks like I threw in a random picture of the letter "B." But Amanda brought home this big letter "B" from the store the other day and we hung it in our bedroom. Very artistic & simple. Very Pottery Barn - but without the Pottery Barn price.

Homeowner Rule #3 - "Good staging is a convenient accident."

If Amanda asked Engaged-Andrew if he could put a little pot of flowers on the coffee table, he most likely would have taken the pot of flowers and put it directly in the middle of the table. However, Married-Andrew quickly learned that being symmetrical is good when it comes to people's faces, but not always when staging props in a house - except the occasional picture frame on the wall. Now that I'm more domestic, if Amanda asks me to put something on a coffee table, I know that I'm suppose to find a book or something to set it on. Apparently it looks "less planned." (side note- is anybody else impressed that I'm using the word "staging" instead of "decorating?' Tip for the fellas: decorating is what you do for a 5 year old's party... staging is when you create ambiance.)

Homeowner Rule #4 - "Not everyone wants to see our toys."

When I got my first Huffy bike, I wanted to leave it in the driveway so all my neighbors could see my hot ride. When we got our first Ninetendo (NES) I liked to scatter the games all in front of the T.V. right before my friends came over, just so they could get the feeling like an arcade was available if they were up for it. When I got my first car, a 1993 Geo Prism, I parked my sleigh in the front line of my high school parking lot just in case none of my friends had ever rode in a car with a hatchback before - which, as unbelievable as it may sound, most people hadn't (it was more of an "Asian hustle-car" than an "American muscle-car.") When I got to college, I had a movie shelf right in the middle of the living room just so nobody ever felt the need to run over to Blockbuster Video (another side note: I actually had enough movies to charge my roommate's friends $3 per barrowed video). But now that I'm married, I've quickly learned that not everybody wants to see my collection of 1960's monster movies or video games. So now we hide them. So if you are ever a visitor in our home, feel free to open the big black cabinet shelf in my office if you are ever in the mood to watch the 1984 classic Red Dawn. In fact, while you're at it, crawl down the upstairs hall and plop in front of our TV in the loft... inside the drawers is a Playstation and a Super Ninetendo. I heavily recommend Star Fox.

Homeowner Rule #5 - "A walk-in pantry beats a walk-in closet any day"

Before we moved into our house, Amanda was looking forward to her walk-in closet. Me? I was probably most looking forward to my walk-in pantry. In the perfect world, every man would be permitted 1 Man Cave (theatre/game room) and 1 walk-in pantry. I'm still lobbying to put our small fridge in the pantry for all my drinks, candy bars and other snacks. I don't know if that will happen but at least I can walk into my pantry every morning and stare at my cereal selection. It's like having your own 7-Eleven convenience store in your home.

Here are some other shots of our home...

The piece of art in the picture directly above is a Mahi-Mahi - my favorite type of fish. My Mahi is hung in my office. My office is my favorite room and Amanda has let me go crazy with a Nautical/fishing theme. In fact, you can kind of see a couple pieces of art that I did hanging on the wall two pictures above of a marlin and a spanish mackeral.