Enduring Plum

I've learned that a lot of the Boswell and Andrews Sisters' songs that my mom's band does are MUCH harder than they first seem. Especially songs like "We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye" and "Mr. Sandman." We're having another real rehearsal on Thursday, which I will very much appreciate. I've certainly improved since I first began dropping in on their gigs a week or two ago, and I feel much less nervous about singing with a microphone.

The husband and I have expanded our home search to include LaPlace and the surrounding area. We would prefer to live in New Orleans proper, but we must also recognize that we can afford a much nicer, larger, easier-to-insure, etc., property if we move just forty minutes from Bucktown (where my parents live).

Triple_Phoenix and I spent most of the morning and afternoon helping my mom clear the last of her belongings out of her classroom, then we all enjoyed lunch together at the Doson noodle house, which was very yummy. That restaurant must have the best air conditioning in town, because it's always totally frigid inside.

I'm still tracking my basal body temperature (BBT), but I can't decipher any real pattern from it; my temperatures just seem to fluctuate completely randomly from day to day. I have to go back to my doctor on Cycle Day 21 to have a test to determine whether or not I've ovulated during this cycle.

I don't know why, but I haven't felt like updating my LJ or journaling lately, but I really should get back to it.

The wedding on the twenty-second was a lot of fun! The rain cleared up long enough for our ceremony on the river and we had a good turn out. I did discover that RSVPs are fairly worthless, because plenty of people who didn't RSVP came and quite a few who did never showed; it didn't bother me and didn't even occur to me until sometime yesterday - I just thought it was funny.

Since we got the Crescent Ballroom at the Double Tree Hotel New Orleans at no charge, all the food at cost, and a great discount on both bands the most money my parents have spent on the whole affair has been on the photographs and wedding albums. I think Michael Caswell does good work and he also seems like a really nice guy, but most of all his prices were the most reasonable of the New Orleans-area photographers I looked into and my parents still spent more than two thousand dollars on the package we chose.

We received many generous and thoughtful gifts from all our friends and family, but the most beautiful gift was from Mischa and Cat! When I take a picture of it, I'll edit this entry and post it here.

I spent the day helping my dad prime the "master" bedroom of the little house; triple_phoenix helped, too. Tomorow I get to go back to help paint! :O Sometime today or yesterday all the plumbing in the house went out because the previous plumber did a shoddy job, so now it's going to cost around five thousand dollars to repair.

The good news is that our house is legally ours and we can now work on trying to sell it, then we can take out a new home loan and use the money from selling our house for our down payment and for any renovations which will need to be done, not to mention furniture. Our apartment is nice enough, but it will never feel like home because it belongs to someone else and I just hate that. Our lease doesn't expire until July, but I'm already beginning to look for houses again to get a good feel for what's available right now as opposed to what was available last year, when we first got back to the city. We're not opposed to having to work on the house we buy, because it seems like much of what's available in our price range has some storm damage - either a flooded downstairs or some wind damage. Sometimes it is very tempting to start looking for homes and jobs out-of-state, but we're too committed now to leave so soon after The Storm.