Our office often gets the chance to explore neat buildings, and today we had one of those chances. There is an old gutted Federal building in Biloxi, that used to serve as the Federal Courthouse, but has been empty for a long time (before the storm even)
Anyways, I took a bunch of pictures, and thought I would share them. I love the colors of this place. The picture of the wood is my favorite, and the picture of the wheelbarrow is my second favorite. 
During my dad's visit, we did more than just eat BBQ and watch blues bands. We did do some more eating though.
We started the day with coffee, and headed for Phonecia for breakfast. I got eggs, asiago grits, and a short stack with their beautiful blackberry syrup. Dad got the western omelet, which is amazing, asiago grits and the short stack with some of that amazing syrup.
Then we headed for the farmers market, and walked around town. I got a sack of satsumas. By this time, around9:30, Dad was ready for a nap, but I had one more stop to make before we headed home. See, James called, and offered to take us out to ship island, but I had to make the lunch. So dad and I went to the grocery store, picked up the supplies and then headed home. While dad napped with the little chihuahua Isabella, I assembled our lunch of turkey sandwiches, beer, soda, satsumas and zapps.
We met James and the rest of the crew, Tim and Donna, at the yacht club and headed out. We ate lunch at Ft. Massachusetts(which was not really open at the time, but thankfully we could all crawl through one of the windows) , and wondered around the island. We found so many shells and sea things. On the way back we stopped at the Biloxi Yacht club and then back to the Ocean Springs Yacht Club for dinner. Then we headed to Ben and Dawn's for a little time around the fire, and when it seemed like it was Midnight, but was actually 7:30 we headed back to my house and crashed out!
Below are some pictures of our day!
Dad on the boat. 
James Driving the boat and Tim and Donna behind him. 
Ft. Massachusetts
A crab that wasn't to happy to see us
Some fishermen and Deer IslandMy Dad came to visit me for the first time in my new house. I think he was shocked that I wasn't making him sleep on the couch, but instead, he had a guest bed to sleep in.
Once he got settled into Mississippi (had a beer and some hummus, and said hello to Deloris) we headed for the Shed for some BBQ, friends and music.
Dad and I both got the beef brisket and we got a pitcher of the Lazy Magnolia Beer, and headed outside to find a spot to spend the rest of the evening. There is a great fire pit, but all of the seats around the fire pit were already taken so we found our seat out at a pick nick table near the stage.
The Shed has the best BBQ on the coast. In addition to the yummy meat, on the weekends they have great music on their outdoor stage. Ft. Bayou Slim was playing and my friend James played with them.
It was a fun night, and I was glad Dad got to meet my friends and see how I spend some of my Friday nights.
I had the perfect costume all planned out for this year's Halloween. I was going to be Hurricane Jessie. I even made a blue and gray tutu for the costume. But when my friend James had one of the worst weeks anyone could have and he wanted to get out of town, and didnt really want to be around too many people, and asked me to go with him, I decided that Hurricane Jessie would have to wait to strike land until 2010.
Saturday after lunch, we gassed up my car, threw our toothbrushes and a change of clothes in bags, and headed East for Orange Beach. One of his clients has a condo there, and was generous enough to let us stay there for a few days. It is located on the bay, and our balcony had a beautiful view of the wetlands and the water.
While it was early, we headed to the FloraBama. That place is amazing. We listened to some music, and watched the band for a while.
We started to get a bit hungry. The FloraBama is equiped with a bear claw game(the ones usually full of stuffed animals) that was full of lobsters. It was $2 a shot, and they would cook it if you caught it. As tempting as that was, we decided that was not the day for a lobster to die at our hands so we went to Tacky Jacks and got a Burger and fries.
The sunset was beautiful that night over the bay. We headed back to the condo, and crashed out. We were both exhausted.
Sunday morning we woke up and headed to Hazel's in Gulf Shores for breakfast. OMG that place is amazing! It is an all you can eat breakfast buffet. I dont usually go in for buffets, but this one was beautiful. I got an omelet with mushrooms, jalapenos, and tomatoes. James picked and chose from the beautiful selection of grits, various porks, veggies, gravies, fruits and cheeses.
After we completely gorged our selves, we headed to Ft. Morgan to stretch our legs. It is such a neat and huge place.
That is the entrance to the man part of the fort. Although it is a bit of a drive down to the end of the peninsula It is completely worth it.
We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around and looking at all of the cute beach houses. James showed me a house he worked on right after the storm. We made our way back to Gulf Shores and found the Hangout, a cute beach restaurant on the beach. We watched the race, and had a few drinks. I got a cute little octapus wallet from their gift shop, and James got a pirate sticker for his new laptop.
We headed back to Tacky Jacks for dinner, because it was close to our condo. I got the blackened chicken sandwich and he got wings. Both were delicious.
This weekend was what both of us needed, a recharge. We returned to Mississippi early Monday feeling charged up and ready to go. It was a perfect weekend.
A few weeks ago, Travis of Crosstree asked if I would like to be a researcher on the 2009 Solar Decathlon. That included a trip to Washington DC to see the buildings in action on the National Mall. The answer was: OF COURSE!
I will get into the whole research process in a post to come, mostly because I still have quite a bit of work to, but here are some pictures of my trip. 
I left really hot Biloxi, I was wearing flip flops and tank tops, and arrived in a rainy cold DC. Now this sounds like it would be uncomfortable, but it was so nice to be cold, and I got to use an umbrella, something I haven't used since college. 
It was such a pleasure to get to see a bunch of good Architecture. In Biloxi, we rarely get to see beautifully detailed buildings, and in nature of our work, we also rarely get the chance to be that detailed or spend that much money. 
I got to see so many different types of solar panels and solar collectors, as well as other ways to run an energy efficient house. 
The above picture is a close-up of the rain screen on Penn State's entry. I love rain screens, and they did a beautiful job.
Our trip was not all research. We walked from our hotel to the monument area in the rainy evening. We started at the Washington Monument, walked past the reflection pool, and made our way to see the Lincoln Memorial. Then we headed to Foggy Bottom(is this right?) in search of Indian food and a beer.
I also stayed an extra evening and got to see my friend Jenny. We saw that cute movie Whip-it, and retired for the evening.
It was a good trip and there will be more posts about the actual work part, and maybe some more about the not work part.
It has been a while since I posted on my blog. I have been super busy, and although I cannot catch up with everything, I am going to post a few things that have happened in the month of October.
One was that my Cousins Kathleen and Becky and my Aunt Marie from Texas decided to come to Auburn for a visit. This got my brothers and their wives and kids to also come to Auburn. Well, I couldn't miss this. I got in my car and drove home, with 12 lbs of huge shrimp in the cooler and my dog in the back seat.
I arrived at my mom's house, had a beer, and because I was extremely tired, I went to bed pretty quickly.
Saturday morning, I woke up, hung out with my mom for a while, worked on some knitting, and went to Dads to begin the Zenor Family Time!
It was so good to see everyone. I have not seen my aunt or cousins in several years. 
Above are a bunch of Zenor! From left to right starting at the top, Becky, Me, Lee, Kathleen, John, Marie, Eli, Abby, Dad, and Annie.
Below, are Me, My brothers and my Dad! 
I got to show off my cooking skills for the Zenors, which for some unknown reason they have never experienced. I made a shrimp boil. It turned out pretty yummy and was my first time ever making it. 
I should do this again soon! I love shrimp! It is super yummy!
One of the highlights was getting to go through a bunch of old family pictures, and by old I didnt know most of the people who were in the photos. Soon, I will post some of the photos I got from that weekend, ones that my Grandpa took.
Saturday was such a pleasant day. I woke up early, well rested and ready to go. I grabbed a cup of the free coffee at the hostel, got cleaned up, and caught the street car to the french quarter. I really like quarter early in the morning, much more than late at night. I guess I am weird. Anyways... I was slowly making my way to a place to eat breakfast, but I was not in a hurry. I read the menu's of all of the open cafes i passed until i found one that suited me. Finally I found one in the Marigny area and ate a delicious breakfast burrito, and read my book, running with scissors, over a cup of coffee.
I wandered to the St. Charles street car and took it to my stop where I would walk to meet up with some friends. Emily just bought a super cute fix-er-up and I am completely jealous. I was meeting up with Emily and Seth to work a little on the cute camel back shotgun house. Seth and I cantilevered floor joists out the back of the house, to make the structure for the balcony.
I must say that I am so impressed with Seth and Emily's organization. I am sure it helps to work on the house every day, and you really get a feeling for the next step. I am also sure that it helps to run construction sites for a bunch of students, like Emily does, but, it was so nice. Right when I arrived, after I got the tour of this amazing place, we got to work, and we got it done.
In addition to the balcony, i helped move a heavy cast iron tub into the bathroom, helped frame a wall, and went on a materials run. I didn't really do too much, i was just an extra set of hands. Those two are amazing though.
At lunch, their friend Carrie arrived with sun tea (which was so refreshing) and an offer to pick up lunch. She surprised us with four po-boys, of different flavors(Ham and swiss, roast beef, catfish, and couchen de lait) , each cut into four pieces. It was a great lunch. My favorite was definitely the roast with the couchen de lait following close.
We ended the workday with a trip to a Creole Creamery for ice cream. I realized that i could happily eat there every day. I sampled the Mexican hot chocolate, which was delicious, but i chose the Black and Gold crunch because they only offer it during the Saints Season.
I headed back to the hostel by way of the street car. I rode the car quietly with my nose in the book, and apparently i didn't look that dirty from far away because a woman sat down with me. Once she got site of my grimyness she must have thought I was homeless, and got scared, because she moved to another seat. I was then proud of my filth. Messy Jessie!
I was ready for a beer once i got to the hostel. I grabbed one that i had brought with me, and next to the beer fridge, there was a tv playing with the Auburn game on. I watched it for a little while, extending the time that i could basque in my filth. I talked to a few folks, and by the time i finished my beer, i really felt the need to get clean.
Newly squeaky clean, i jumped back on the street car and headed out for dinner. I got a burrito at Fillipe's and wandered around. I stumbled across a brass band in the street. I stood there for a while watching the band play and folks dance. It was so wonderful.
I was exhausted, and not much in the mood for partying, so i made my way back to the hostel, and talked with some folks there for a while before heading to bead.
I really needed a day like that; one where i work hard, get bruised up and dirty, spend time with friends, make new ones, eat well, listen to good music, watch football and relax. Although i generally have a good time, it is nice to have a change of pace and change of scenery for the weekend.
Now it is Sunday, and I have already had a very New Orleans morning. I walked to Betty's Pancake house for breakfast, and sat at the counter. A NOLA cop sat next to me. He noticed i was fiddling around with my sketch book and started talking to me. He was telling me about the stories he writes. He told me one about a love story that extended for centuries. About half way through my meal, a family of three sat next to me. The mom was a stripper at Barely legal. The waitresses knew her, and were talking to her about how her work was going. It is a weird feeling eating eggs and hashbrowns between a cop and a stripper.
Anyways, i have a bit of work to do. I am sitting at a big table at the hostel, procrastinating and writing this blog. There is a big saints game this afternoon, so i had better get at it if i want to watch the game.
