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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Shorties

I know I've must have mentioned this before. But if anybody plans on moving to New Orleans, my best advice would be to sell whatever car you have now and buy a truck, SUV, or something that can wade through water. Being that the majority of the city is below sea level, a quick downpour from a passing storm is all it takes to temporarily flood the streets and leave people stranded. If you can actually get a hold of those Ride the Duck boat/cars, that'll probably be best.



Nothing is more depressing than being trapped at your workplace and unable to get home because the streets are flooded. Had I known this was the norm in this town, I would probably not have bought that sporty little car.

* * *


Speaking of cars, I've been meaning to get over to the junkyard to find a seatbelt buckle to replace the broken one on the rear seat of my car for months. Being that the back seat on my car is too small to really accommodate anybody bigger than a 6-year old, nobody ever rides back there. Consequently, the seatbelt is never used and thus no real urgency in getting this done. Getting it replaced would mainly be for cosmetic reasons.

I had finished my clinic a bit after 4PM one afternoon so I decided to see if the local junk yard might still be open. I walked over to one of the nurses stations to see if they had a phone book.

Nurse: [looking for a phone book] Who are you trying to call?

Me: [eyeing the clock] The junkyard. I want to see what time they close.

Nurse: [looks up, shocked] The junkyard? Really?

Me: Uh... yeah.

I guess most people don't expect doctors to be rummaging around junkyards looking for car parts. Perhaps if I asked what time the golf course closes she wouldn't be so shocked.

Nurse: Well, I'm pretty sure they're open until about 3 AM.

Me: Really? Those are some strange hours.

Nurse: Wait. You're not talking about that bar?

Well, no wonder. There's apparently a sleazy bar commonly referred to as the junkyard where you can pick up drugs and prostitutes. That was definitely not what I was looking for.

And unfortunately, the car parts junkyard was closed.

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While I had initially planned on grilling this weekend, much like the rest of the nation, I instead spent it in the kitchen perfecting a pizza crust recipe given to me by SinnerG.

I had always considered making bread dough something of an advanced art and beyond my capabilities. But the recipe looked easy, and it came with her assurance that it was easy, so I gave it a shot... and the results were insanely awesome.

Needless to say, Nathalie and I are a bit carb'ed out from this weekend. I tried to put a temporary moratorium on bread making, but with absolutely no ability to resist freshly baked bread, that failed miserably.