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Sweet smell of honeysuckle
April 28, 2009We used to have a small honeysuckle plant/vine/bush (I don't know what you technically call them) growing outside one of our living room windows back in Paducah. Every spring, it would release the most fantastic smell, but since cool spring weather was rare in North Texas, and would quickly turn to hot summer sun, the smell would stick around for a few days and vanish.
So you can imagine my delight when I walked by this one home on my way to class the other day and the familiar smell of honeysuckle drifted through the air. At this particular house, the vine runs the entire length of the homes fence and even all the way up the nearby telephone pole.
It's such a fond memory of home. And for the past two weeks, I've taken a detour past that particular house just to smell it.
Posted by Lara Richards at 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
My neighbor bow-flexes
My neighbor bow-flexes. (Yes, I know, I'm a writer, and technically, bow-flexes isn't a verb. To be proper, I'd need to say, "My neighbor uses a bow-flex" or "My neighbor works out on a bow-flex." But alas, it just has a better ring to it when I make it a verb. Forgive me, grammar gods!)
Anway, my neighbor bow-flexes. I know this because anytime he bow-flexes my apartment shakes like a train is rumbling by.
See, my apartment is actually an old house split down the middle for two living quarters that was later split into three when remodeling lopped off the back rooms and turned it into a separate apartment.
The home was probably built back in the 1920s, at least, and has the most amazing wood floors. But since it was built originally as a double, and then later remodeled, the support system doesn't take into account the different movements going on in the three separate apartment. One of my neighbors likes walking around in her high heels all the time, and I enjoy her clippity-clop throughout the home.
But the bow-flex has just got to go. It produces this kind of whoosh wave throughout my apartment everytime he uses it, which is often, and it's loud as heck with those cheap weights clanging down.
The saddest thing is that it doesn't appear to be doing any good. My neighbor seems as scrawny and lifeless as usual. That boy doesn't have nothing to flex.
Posted by Lara Richards at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
A swine ole time
Just when I get hooked on sausage (see previous entry titled "My Apartment Smells Like Sausage), in comes the swine flu.
Geez, Louise. What's a girl to eat these days? And just when I'd really hit a pork groove. You see, once you open the door to thrice weekly sausage (at least!), well then in comes bacon, which I've eaten more of in the past two weeks that probably all year.
What am I to do? Not eat swine? That's like saying don't breathe air these days.
Posted by Lara Richards at 4:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
They're back!
April 20, 2009So we've been having regular afternoon rains here in New Orleans for the past month or so, which is bringing out tons and tons of bugs and flies and gnats and garden critters.
I noticed a few weeks back that there was suddenly an influx of cute, furry caterpillars all over my front porch and walkway. Since I'm a lover of all things critter, I really wanted to bend down and pick one up. Thank goodness I didn't!
I was talking with my neighbor later that day and she was griping about the caterpiller invasion. Turns out, those cute, furry creatures are cute, furry balls of poison. My neighbor said they sting like crazy and cause horrible blisters. The extra cool feature is that these caterpillers like to hang out in trees and then fall on you when you walk underneath. Gotta love Southern bugs!
Posted by Lara Richards at 2:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
My apartment smells like sausage
April 19, 2009My apartment smells like sausage.
Maple blueberry pork breakfast sausage, to be exact. And it's not exactly big city living for someone to walk into your apartment and immediately smell sausage, eh?
I hadn't planned to bathe my apartment in sausage savory-ness, but I went into the fancy schmancy grocery store here in town to get some fresh rosemary. And, like any country girl, I was immediately drawn to the sausage counter. I bought a pound of the homemade breakfast sausage, and I'm officially hooked.
(On a side note: After the sausage counter, I was immediately drawn over to the ice cream section where I noticed a new flavor of whipped goodness -- bourbon vanilla -- but I drew the line at buying both sausage and liquor-flavored ice cream that day.)
Posted by Lara Richards at 7:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Celebs on the loose
April 11, 2009So last week, Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa were in town for a few days filming their daytime talk show. (Nope, didn't get down to see the live taping. Mainly because I'm too busy studying for finals now, but also because I'm not a big fan of The Rege.)
Anyway, looks like lots of celebs -- and even pseudo reality show celebs, like Kimmy dear -- are around these days. Check this out!
(Sorry, technical glitch. I can't figure out how to insert a hyperlink into my blog. So, I'll just give you the Web site addy and you copy and paste it yourself. But only copy and paste if you really, really have time to kill because it's not that interesting of a story and I'd feel bad if you copy and pasted and then the link came up and you were like, "That crazy Lara. Why'd she send me here? I couldn't been playing online poker instead. But I've been wasting time copying and pasting.")
Anyway, here's the addy:
http://www.usmagazine.com/news/kim-kardashian-spending-easter-with-reggie-bush-new-orleans-2009114
Posted by Lara Richards at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Strawberries
Earlier this week, photographer Torin Halsey went out to Young's Orchard and Berry Farm in Charlie.
Without me.
And yes, right now, I have on one of those little kid sad faces on, with my front lip all pooched out.
Going out to the orchard was one of my all-time favorite excursions as a journalist. The drive to Charlie is always a pleasant distraction from being in the office, and going to the orchard always means meeting up with two of my favorite people in North Texas - orchard owners Jan and Steve Young.
And then, of course, there's the added benefits of doing this story. (And by benefits, I mean BENEFITS.) Whenever I'm doing the annual strawberry crop story, for instance, the Youngs let me roam down the rows of strawberries, picking as many as I can and eating them right there, dirt and bugs and all, just like a little kid.
Whenever the photographer and I are ready to leave, the Youngs always make certain we have a couple of buckets of the in-season fruit to take back to the office.
One of the great things about technology these days is that I can just call the Youngs on my cell phone, do an interview about their strawberry crop, and then e-mail the story to my bosses in Wichita Falls, all from the comfort of my apartment in New Orleans.
But fresh picked strawberries don't travel over the phone lines. Nor does the joy of picking them from the patch myself.
Posted by Lara Richards at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Le suit
April 7, 2009So I've got thing big time fancy-schmancy law clerk job this summer in New York City. Which meant that this country girl had to go buy herself some grown up, professional suits.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that knows me that I've never owned a suit. I went straight from college into journalism, with one of the obvious perks being no suits.
Going suit shopping is just a very strange experience for me. That first day I went, I literally felt like Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman" when she was in the fancy store trying to buy a dress. (Minus the prostitution, of course.)
My main problem with buying suits so far is that, well, they are very plain. And boring. And shapeless. And drab. But apparently, that's how I'm supposed to look?
Well, I hit the un-boring/un-drab jackpot the other day in this one store. From afar, at first, the suit was the most hideous garment I'd ever seen. And then it started growing on me. I walked past it several times before I just decided to go ahead and try it on.
The first sign that this suit spelled trouble: it wasn't made by Calvin Klein or Ralph Lauren or Banana Republic. This suit's brand is, and I'm not joking: Le Suit.
And I can't really describe the fabric in words (which is probably the second sign that it's inappropriate for my schmancy law job). It's a subtle brown/gold/pewter leopard print pattern, if such a thing can EVER be called subtle. But I put the suit on and it was like it was made for me. The brown brings out my dark hair, the pewter brings out my blue eyes, and the gold adds some shine. Fa-bu!!
I debated for a while, and then I just decided to buy the dang thing. And so now, I have two navy suits, two black suits, and one fabulous Le Suit. Whether or not it's a hit in NYC this summer remains to be seen.
Posted by Lara Richards at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Cold spell hits
April 6, 2009I know that North Texas is enduring a bit of a cold spell right now, and it hasn't spared New Orleans as well. I actually had to crank up the heater today.
But of course, it's nothing compared to what my sister in Michigan is dealing with right now. Here's the e-mail and picture she sent to me today:
April 6, 2009. Another beautiful Spring day* in Michigan.
Love,
Sister
*The term "Beautiful Spring day" should be construed broadly so as to include temperatures in the mid twenties, gusty winds, icy sidewalks, and an expected snowfall of at least three inches.
Posted by Lara Richards at 9:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
