I would like to say that I am super lucky, because I know a lot of amazing, creative, kind and fun people. They definitely make my life richer for sure. Some times when I see one thing that one of these creative people do, I think to my self.... Man... I wish that so and so could meet this person... they would get into so much trouble, it would be awesome.
In fact I just had this thought. and honestly... it was about someone I only know about online, marc , but that I was thinking, it would be great if he and my friend great friend Dan could meet. Oh the trouble these two would get into I think. The result, I am sure would be something that would blow every one's minds.
So... I was thinking about it a little more, and came up with the idea of inviting all of these folks to a specific location, at a certain time, and having a big party and supply tools, and raw materials, and music, and food, and see what happens. Hmmm..... what a party it would be to get all of these folks together. I will think about this a little more. If you have any ideas, please let me know.
How does Labor Day Weekend Sound?
Friday, May 30, 2008
D'Iberville Shade Structure
For the last several months I have been working with Hands On on shade structures. Hands On Gulf Coast and the George Ohr museum got a grant from Jimmy Buffet's philanthropic organization, Singing for Change to engage kids along the coast in art and rebuilding. The idea was to have kids paint tiles and then place them in shade structures in different cities along the coast. This is the first one. The budget for this project was around $1000. There is still a little finish work to be done, but it is about there.
The shade structure has a metal roof with a twist in it. The table is covered with the tiles painted by kids. The Concrete blocks below are the seats for the shade structure. They are a little movable, but are so heavy that they wont be able to walk away too easily.
All of the shade structures will be different, but the little seating blocks will be in all of them.
The next one will be in Long Beach, and I think that I will be working with another architecture group to do the the ones in Biloxi and Ocean Springs.
Bill Daniels and Bozo Texino at Sweets Lounge
Bill Daniels, a filmmaker, currently from Braddock PA, visited the coast, the wisteria estates and Sweets Lounge to show his film Bozo Texino. It was ultimatly a pretty amazing evening. He set up his screen and projector and PA system out back behind Sweets, and we set up chairs and built a bon fire, and people parked their trucks around and sat in the tailgates and watched a movie. It was a really good evening. After the movie,there was an amazing question answer session, and every one came in to the bar, ready to party. That was one of the most fun evenings i have had at sweets in a long time.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Cupcakes by Nicole
Nicole made cupcakes! they were good. Her cupcakes are always good. today, they were so good i thought i would make a post about them!
Thank you Nicole! YOU ARE AWESOME, and i am sad you are leaving because that means no more cupcakes :(
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
A trip to the swamp, brunch, and spear fishing!
This past weekend was pretty eventful and adventuresome.
Friday night began with a celebration of my friend Caitlin's Birthday! I was working at sweets that evening so i missed most of the celebrations (that included dinner at cici's pizza and a trip to the rodeo) but was there for the cake. The group of marauders ended the caravan of fun at the bar, and I was able to participate in the fun! But it was a strange night at sweets. Three different groups of my friends were partying at sweets that evening. My friends from Biloxi, the volunteers, celebrating Caitlin's Birthday. My friends from the local band Ko-lija and their friends were hanging out... and if it were not enough to be surrounded by many american friends, my mexican friends were there too!Oh what a fun and glorious night it was, full of dancing, laughing, yelling and of course drinking.
On Saturday, me and 5 of my friends went on a journey west. We woke up entirely too early following a night of so much fun, and loaded up in the cars and headed towards Louisiana. Our friend Chris is leaving the coast soon, and he wanted to visit the Atchefalaya Swamp basin before he left. So that is where we went. It was so amazing. Not only were the water and trees beautiful but we got to see baby ivices, and bald eagles , and beavers, and baby spoonbills, and all kinds of birds, and baby gators, and big gators and more birds, and nutria. OH it was awesome!
When I got back, I joined up with some friends at the beach. The boys were a bit grumpy, so me and my friend emily went to my house to feed my dog, and to cut my hair. My hair cut went well, as did feeding my dog. When we returned to Biloxi, the boys were a little less grumpy and a lot more fun. We hung out there for a little while, and then headed home!
We started Sunday off with an amazingly large breakfast at my house. It was so much fun! We had pancakes, bacon, potatoes, eggs, fruit, bagels, juice, coffee, grits... oh goodness. What a good time. I love Sunday Brunches. While we were all sitting around the table in a food coma, a few of us thought that it might be a good idea to go spear fishing, especially since we had caught a flounder last week with extremely primitive tools, and at that very moment we were surrounded by bamboo, perfect for making spears out of.
We made our spears, oh how i wish i had a picture of these now, and we went to the beach. We tried several spots, but with no luck. The tide was high, and the water was too deep where we were. But it was fun to go swimming in the water, especially with spears!
So, that was my weekend! it was amazing! YEAH... I love the coast!
Thursday, May 08, 2008
My Current Work and a Berry Pickin Good Tme
Yesterday was a pretty amazing day all around. I have been riding my bike to work lately, over the Biloxi Bay Bridge, and that is how yesterday started. The view from the bridge, over the bay and out to the barrier islands is incredible. There are sea birds that fly right over your head or along with you as you cross. There is a strong breeze that smells of the salt. And, weirdly enough there is a community that is beginning to form up there. Since they have opened the pedestrian bridge in April, there are so many people who use it for exercise. And i mean so many people. In the morning it is not so congested, but in the afternoons, I have to keep my brakes on the entire time. So. It is a four mile ride from my office to my house, and that is how i started off my day yesterday, with a breathtaking, breezy and refreshing ride to my office.
At work, I have been wrapping up a lot of stuff lately, which feels amazing. For the first time in a long time, I was actually in need of some extra work. Instead of taking on projects that push me over the limit of capacity, which i actually like the feeling of, i was having to take projects to get me to capacaty. So now, i have 6 projects i am working on.
1) Reynoir Street Improvment Program. The Imperial Palace has given the center some money to fix up Reynoir Street. I have been spear heading the organization of this project, but it is kind of at a stand still at the moment.
2) Hands On Shade Structures Hands On received a grant from Singing For Change (Jimmy Buffet's Charity Organization) to make several shade structures along the coast, each of them showcasing hundreds of ceramic tiles painted by school children on the coast. I am helping them out on the project, and hopefully we are breaking ground on the first one this week. Below is the design for the first one. Each one will be different. I cannot wait to see these come up. So far, they have been really fun to work on.
3) Robert's House. I was assigned to this project yesterday, and I am meeting with Robert today, but I am pretty excited about this house. It will be my first one that is elevated high enough to park under. This project is also special because it will be the third elevated house to come out of our office on that street.
4) Jewel's House. This is also a new project. I met with the family last week. We are working to develop a program at the moment, so, no pictures for this one.
5) Habitat Development Project. This is another project that I was assigned yesterday. Habitat is working on a large scale subdivision, and my first task on this project is to help them look at different housing strategies on the site. So, no pictures for this one either.
6) Bobby and Maria's House. I have had this project for a little while, and i have been steadily working on it, but until recently, I have not had too much time to devote to it. I have a floor plan that is approved by the home owners, but we are still working out the elevations. Below are pictures of their existing house, which is set to be demolished soon, and the front elevation that I have currently for this house.
In another post I will go into all of the projects and things I have been working on lately that have kind of finished up.
That was the fun at work yesterday, oh, that and that I rode around East Biloxi on my bike and took updated pictures of all of my house projects.
After work was super nice yesterday. I joined up with a few of my friends, Sarah, Ian, and Emily, and we went black berry pickin at the golf course behind Hands On. Oh my goodness I got so many black berries. I am so excited about what i am going to do with all of them. I had a handful of the sweet things with yogurt for breakfast this morning. I plan to make a cobbler out of them soon. Maybe Sunday morning before my kayaking adventure. I will post pictures of this as soon as i get them.
At work, I have been wrapping up a lot of stuff lately, which feels amazing. For the first time in a long time, I was actually in need of some extra work. Instead of taking on projects that push me over the limit of capacity, which i actually like the feeling of, i was having to take projects to get me to capacaty. So now, i have 6 projects i am working on.
1) Reynoir Street Improvment Program. The Imperial Palace has given the center some money to fix up Reynoir Street. I have been spear heading the organization of this project, but it is kind of at a stand still at the moment.
2) Hands On Shade Structures Hands On received a grant from Singing For Change (Jimmy Buffet's Charity Organization) to make several shade structures along the coast, each of them showcasing hundreds of ceramic tiles painted by school children on the coast. I am helping them out on the project, and hopefully we are breaking ground on the first one this week. Below is the design for the first one. Each one will be different. I cannot wait to see these come up. So far, they have been really fun to work on.
3) Robert's House. I was assigned to this project yesterday, and I am meeting with Robert today, but I am pretty excited about this house. It will be my first one that is elevated high enough to park under. This project is also special because it will be the third elevated house to come out of our office on that street.
4) Jewel's House. This is also a new project. I met with the family last week. We are working to develop a program at the moment, so, no pictures for this one.
5) Habitat Development Project. This is another project that I was assigned yesterday. Habitat is working on a large scale subdivision, and my first task on this project is to help them look at different housing strategies on the site. So, no pictures for this one either.
6) Bobby and Maria's House. I have had this project for a little while, and i have been steadily working on it, but until recently, I have not had too much time to devote to it. I have a floor plan that is approved by the home owners, but we are still working out the elevations. Below are pictures of their existing house, which is set to be demolished soon, and the front elevation that I have currently for this house.
In another post I will go into all of the projects and things I have been working on lately that have kind of finished up.
That was the fun at work yesterday, oh, that and that I rode around East Biloxi on my bike and took updated pictures of all of my house projects.
After work was super nice yesterday. I joined up with a few of my friends, Sarah, Ian, and Emily, and we went black berry pickin at the golf course behind Hands On. Oh my goodness I got so many black berries. I am so excited about what i am going to do with all of them. I had a handful of the sweet things with yogurt for breakfast this morning. I plan to make a cobbler out of them soon. Maybe Sunday morning before my kayaking adventure. I will post pictures of this as soon as i get them.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Last night and a promise
So, I understand that it has been February since I actually gave you an update on my life, and as you can probably guess, a lot has happened. I am not going to try and fill it in now, I will, however try to fill you in on the important things over the next week or so. Which means I will be blogging more from now on. Sorry for the time lapse, and I will try to record life more often.
The event that brought me back to blogging happened last night. I met my friends at the beach to have a beer and watch them skim board, and when i got there, they were running around in the little puddles hootin and hollerin. I found them chasing crabs in the water, and minnows... just enjoying the water. It was a bit refreshing. I haven't had that kind of a jovial time at the beach in a long time.
So i joined in the search for life in the sand, although really not being very attentive to it, more just enjoying having my feet in the water, and the nice breeze, and my friends. All of the sudden, Sharise yells that she sees eyes in the sand. Oh, she was so good at spotting things in the water. We all ran over to look at it and sure enough, there were eyes in the sand. It was a flounder! I am still not sure how she spotted it. Everyone's spirits elevated from the relaxing wading and searching to the hunt. Armed with a skim board a bottle of vodka and a can of beer, we all discussed the best way to catch our prey. For some reason (probably the vodka) it was decided that flicking it with the skim board would be the best idea. Jeff or Baby Nick did the honors and the thing took off in the puddle. But, all hope was not lost. Where ever it went in the puddle, a ridge of water marked its path. We chased it for a few seconds until it found a stopping place. All huddling around it, we had to come up with another plan, because flicking it with the skim board was obviously not really the answer. I suggested that we gigged the thing.... but we really had no gigging tool, but it was primally fun to yell out orders to gig something. eventually(in about 5 seconds), we found this long flat piece of metal in the shallow water(surely left there by hurricane katrina). This, we decided was a good addition to our collection of useful tools. Baby Nick pinned the flounder in the sand with the skim board and Jeff [gigged?!?!] it with the blunt piece of metal. I was sure he would have gashed it but i think it just hurt it kind of bad.
The flounder took off again, but it had been weakened by our mighty tools. They were finally able to flick it onto the sand where it spent its last few minutes alone as we searched, unfruitfully, for another one.
when it got dark, we gave up our search and headed for Jeff's trailer, where we were gonna stuff it with crab and eat it (i think also the vodka talking) when we got to Jeff's house there was no crab or anyway to cook it, but the thing needed to be cleaned. So, Jeff got out his manly reciprocating fish cutter, and began to try to clean it. I became super excited because back in august, a friend of mine taught me how to clean a flounder. I was trying to instruct Jeff (in the controlly way i can get some times) on how to do it, but i don't think he believed that i knew what i was talking about. eventually though, jeff lost interest (probably the vodka) and i got to test my skills. I filleted the Flounder! and played with its head and threw body parts at Baby nick. Oh, it was glorious (the beer probably helped) and so fun!
Alright, i have to go to work now, but i should have pictures to post from the filleting adventure and i promise to be more up to date with this thing!
The event that brought me back to blogging happened last night. I met my friends at the beach to have a beer and watch them skim board, and when i got there, they were running around in the little puddles hootin and hollerin. I found them chasing crabs in the water, and minnows... just enjoying the water. It was a bit refreshing. I haven't had that kind of a jovial time at the beach in a long time.
So i joined in the search for life in the sand, although really not being very attentive to it, more just enjoying having my feet in the water, and the nice breeze, and my friends. All of the sudden, Sharise yells that she sees eyes in the sand. Oh, she was so good at spotting things in the water. We all ran over to look at it and sure enough, there were eyes in the sand. It was a flounder! I am still not sure how she spotted it. Everyone's spirits elevated from the relaxing wading and searching to the hunt. Armed with a skim board a bottle of vodka and a can of beer, we all discussed the best way to catch our prey. For some reason (probably the vodka) it was decided that flicking it with the skim board would be the best idea. Jeff or Baby Nick did the honors and the thing took off in the puddle. But, all hope was not lost. Where ever it went in the puddle, a ridge of water marked its path. We chased it for a few seconds until it found a stopping place. All huddling around it, we had to come up with another plan, because flicking it with the skim board was obviously not really the answer. I suggested that we gigged the thing.... but we really had no gigging tool, but it was primally fun to yell out orders to gig something. eventually(in about 5 seconds), we found this long flat piece of metal in the shallow water(surely left there by hurricane katrina). This, we decided was a good addition to our collection of useful tools. Baby Nick pinned the flounder in the sand with the skim board and Jeff [gigged?!?!] it with the blunt piece of metal. I was sure he would have gashed it but i think it just hurt it kind of bad.
The flounder took off again, but it had been weakened by our mighty tools. They were finally able to flick it onto the sand where it spent its last few minutes alone as we searched, unfruitfully, for another one.
when it got dark, we gave up our search and headed for Jeff's trailer, where we were gonna stuff it with crab and eat it (i think also the vodka talking) when we got to Jeff's house there was no crab or anyway to cook it, but the thing needed to be cleaned. So, Jeff got out his manly reciprocating fish cutter, and began to try to clean it. I became super excited because back in august, a friend of mine taught me how to clean a flounder. I was trying to instruct Jeff (in the controlly way i can get some times) on how to do it, but i don't think he believed that i knew what i was talking about. eventually though, jeff lost interest (probably the vodka) and i got to test my skills. I filleted the Flounder! and played with its head and threw body parts at Baby nick. Oh, it was glorious (the beer probably helped) and so fun!
Alright, i have to go to work now, but i should have pictures to post from the filleting adventure and i promise to be more up to date with this thing!
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