Dive Log: Day 1

Molasses Reef

So today is the first day I used my old canon digital camera with the digital underwater housing i found for it on the internet. I'm really stoked to have it! Today we dived Molasses Reef.

Spanish Anchor

This anchor wasn't exactly left by the spanish. I was told that it's another bullsh*t Key Largo story. Apparently a boat crashed into the reef, and the locals came out to help. Their help included dropping the ship's anchor and purposely dragging the boat across the reef demolishing it. They then charged the survivors to bring them back to shore and then went back that night and stole everything off the ship.

This dive was a min depth of 15 ft, max of 40 ft, and was supposed to be 60 minutes bottom time. My dive buddy had an issue so I ended up leaving with 1500 psi left in my tank. I did catch a bunch of cool pics though... lookey for yo' self:

Here's a barracuda



A red-eyed squirrel jack



A striped grunt



And a parrot fish

North Star

We went to the other side of the reef. This reef is named for a play on words of the huge coral that are the outer edge of the dive. This dive was a little deeper. It went between 15 - 40 ft and we got about 58 mins of bottom time and I came back with around 500 psi in my tank.

I got a 7-foot grouper on film as well as a blue tang, a french angel fish, and a trumpet fish, some fan coral, and a pork fish amongst other things.

A Blue Tang



A French Angel Fish



A trumpet fish



A trunk fish



Fan Coral



Grouper

Kick-Azz Surprise

So a friend of mine moved to Miami 1 year ago and I've been mailing him CDs for his car stereo. He told me Miami radio sux. I e-mailed him when I decided to head to the keys as I thought it would be cool to check out Miami. I was expecting crash space and hopefully to hang out with him for a minute if he had the minute. I had no idea he lived in this fat-azz pad.

Awwww

Whilst in New Orleans, I had the pleasure to meet my friend's über-cute critters... see for yo' self:

It's Senor Iguana to you, man

New Orleans Food Explorations

I thought I would pass on a few tips about restaurants if you're in the local area.

Restaurant to do's:

• Adolfo's on Frenchmen Street
This restaurant is fabulous but beware... it's cash only. I had a fantastic telapia dressed with crabmeat, prawns and a rad sauce. It came with a choice of pasta or salad and garlic bread that knocks your socks off. Yum, yum... i said YUM!


• Mimi's This restaurant is located in the Marigny district. It has fabulous tapas. The food here is fantastic! We had Gambas Ajilla, Calamari, and a cayenne brownie topped with creme fraiche for dessert. I could say wow 500 more times and it still doesn't cover it.


• The Gumbo Shop Local recommended for some serious gumbo. You'll need to tell them to give it a kick as it's located in the midst of tourist central... Tourists are notorious for not having the constitution to take that southern spice. I do... Giddy up!


• Croissant D'Or Patisserie This is where the pics in my other post are from. My local friend explained it best when he said the decor is a match of at minimum 4 different styles... The food is great, You can get desserts, pastries, chocolates... yummy yummy to the tummy

Restaurant to don't's:

• Angeli's on Decatur - Had a great meal here two years ago... It's changed owners and gone downhill apparently. My friend who treated me to food there last time told me not to go there this time.


• The Praline Connection... The food here just sux. Sorry. Nothing good to say.

From Last night's opening of Mahlia Jackson Center for the Performing Arts

Checkpoint Charlie's in New Orleans

I recorded this schweet slide guitar clip outside Checkpoint Charlie's last night.

More NOLA pics... Wow what a pretty city!

So while I wait for the video to upload I figured I'd show you some more pictures. These are from last Sunday when I wandered around the French Quarter. I found this absolutely fantastic coffee shop with yummy desserts, and french music rocking le radio.

See for yo' bad self:

Here's a pic of a house with some of that New Orleans cheer:




Here's some pictures of Esplanade Street and a house I passed on Esplanade Street

Here's a few photos from N. Rampart Street which is where I am staying whilst in New Orleans proper.

Greetings from Arabi

Another St. Bernard's Project homeowner stopped by today @ our site to tell us how grateful he is and he shared his story. I am in this coffee shop while the video uploads to You Tube. I stopped by the project office and made sure I had their permission to do so and also asked the homeowner his permission.

I'm going to add the video to my blog when it's finished but be warned... it's 7 minutes. I'm gonna be in this coffee house a while.

Here's some pics of where I am this minute:

A couple of NOLA pics

So here's a couple NOLA pics to wet your appetite

Genet Street House Rebuild

If you're wondering what's up with my prolific use of the green & purple color scheme... be advised that Mardi Gras began yesterday (tuesday yo') and lasts for a good long season. the official colors and green/purple/gold.

We're working on a house in Arabi right now on Genet street. Out of respect for the owner's privacy, I'm purposefully omitting the exact addy.

Here are pics from the house we're working on... Just a couple of teaser pics until I can get home and put the galleries online:

Here's the facade.



Here's my site supervisor. She's 18 years old and also from San Francisco



Here's the room I'm working on. I'm sanding and mudding the whole thing myself! I've been working on the ceiling for the last 1.5 days or so.



Here's me with a sanding sponge. It's my sander of choice when wrapped with an extra sanding paper or two (it's not in the picture... i do that when it's worn down). I know it's more work this way but it's easier to use in my opinion.

Video from Friday night after Sugar Bowl (2 Jan 09)

So it's been rainy here which explains some of why there weren't that many people around. I think the other reason is because most of the town got WASTED for sugar bowl early on so they weren't still standing 'round about midnight. I dunno.

Here's a video from the spot where Decatur crosses Esplanade and turns into Frenchman street.

Greetings from St. Bernard's Parish in Lousiana

So I survived my Sugar Bowl weekend in the French Quarter and am now onto the volunteer part of my adventure. This post is from the volunteer dormitories for the Habitat for Humanity. I'm not volunteering with them per se... but my group is one of many that has a partnership with them.

I'm really excited and happy to be here! Keep an eye out for photos towards the end of this week or maybe early next week...

Best Birthday Ever

I am convinced I have the best friends ever and am the luckiest girl in the world. Not only are you guys awesome fun... It's your unconditional love & support that has helped me grow into the woman I want to be. I'm truly blessed to know you guys and look forward to showing you guys how much you mean to me throughout 2009.

Mad kudos to you my lovely, intelligent, fantabulous friends!

I had so much fun yesterday, honest! Thank you thank you thank you!

One B*tchin' NYE

A special thanks to Kok for having a fun New Year's Eve party! I had a fun time playing records and it was great to catch up with peeps who I hadn't seen in a bit! I also met some fantastic new people, too! So if you met me NYE and I gave you one of my CDs and you're checking this blog out for the first time... It was great to meet you!

See you in 2009!

Yes, I WILL be DJing Kok's party

if you don't know who Kok is then you should text me to find out where. It will just happen sometime after I get there.... Very low key, very low muss, very low fuss

Mighty Lessons

So Friday night around 11:30 PM I headed over to Mighty. It was K.'s b-day party and he'd asked me to throw a few tracks.

When I got there K. informed me that I should just go up to the queue and tell them I'm here and get in queue. He explained that they had an order going and I should just go up there.

I almost left right then. Why you ask?

Well. I swear, the sexism it hurts. I have been really deeply hurt by some of the sexism I have endured in my own backyard so to speak this year... And I guess I was expecting to experience some sexism with like 8 guys in a group.

I was WRONG. Dead, dead, wrong.

I was around at least 8 sausages who didn't even seem to notice i was a girl, really. I asked the one guy about serato and explained that I had brought mine and this guy explained that Mighty's good like that, they have serato wired.

It's a credit to them that they made sure I played. That's the other mighty lesson I learned. I didn't really have much in my collection to go with that dirty electro sound broken beat they had going.

I did fine but I coulda done better. Lesson learned.

I'm purchasing a shEEt load of music right now.

Tonight, Friday Night @ Anu, Happy Boxing Day

Party is FREE!

Party goes from 6 PM - 2 AM and it will cost ya' nothing!

I play from 7:30 - 9 PM

More Holiday Decorations

This just in...

So I saw a friend of mine on the way to work this AM. He has asked me to head over to Mighty this Friday night after Anu to drop a few records for his birthday shindig. There's no cover. That's right! It's FREE, FREE, FREE. So if you can't make it to Anu then maybe you can catch me @ Mighty.

If you're interested in meeting up with me @ Mighty, shoot me a text message when you know what you're plans are and we'll handle it from there.