Posting

Recently Kate and I went to New Orleans for a girls weekend with Spook who s working on a film with Will Ferrell and Zack Galafinakis but as they work during the week and we were there on a Saturday/ Sunday we saw no stars but had a great time none the less. It was warm enough that we could have lunch al fresco and sit a charing garden and never shivver. That's something in January. But since the weather all across the country is not the norm, maybe that will become the new norm. Now that we are back in New York there is plenty of time to shiver and worry about snow which we had this weekend in small does. But it's nice to hunk back on New Orleans where we went to Preservation Hall to hear Dixie Land Jazz, had Sunday lunch at the iconic restaurant Galatoies with its generations of N'orleans natives who have been tucking into etouffes, gumbos and shrimp remoulades for generations, toured the Frances Parkinson Keys house, she of the 50+ novels and bought Mardi Gras masks. I promptly lost mine. But I also bought pralines which I did not lose...I liked New Orleans much better this visit where we had a great room with windows on the Mississippi with a perfect view of the heavy boat traffic.

A sunny but cold watershed day

Well, today was my watershed day. Kate decreed that yesterday was her watershed day because she walked Miss Murray this morning at 6:00 am when it was 12 degrees. And this, I am happy to report, is just the beginning because Kate is going to walk Miss Murray every morning and feed her. Plus she is going to get a 85 in her course on Digital Design Planning. How do I know this? I just do.

And today was my watershed day because Kate walked Miss Murray again and was up and showered by 6 am without any prodding. All of this momentous change came about because we got Kate a new phone. Her 3rd new phone. She always wants something better. This time she wanted a touch screen and the ability to have more data. I didn't want to pay for it so we came to this accommodation: She would walk Miss Murray for $1 a day for basically the rest of her life to pay the $30 monthly data charge. Woof. What is this hole in my schedule. I have been walking dogs for so long that it almost seems really strange to me not to go out with Miss Murray at the crackers of dawn. But I imagine that I am flexible and will be able to manage this deprivation.

Do I look deprived yet?