Making God Laugh

There’s a saying that goes, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” My plans were modest enough, I thought. I wanted to fly to Denver for a friend’s wedding. I knew this friend through an e-mail list for women weight lifters. This particular list is down to five people, two of whom I have met in real life, the bride and another woman who lives in Colorado.

We have been together long enough to have heard all the details of the bride’s courtship, engagement, and wedding worries, and the other four of us all planned to be there. I was looking forward to meeting the two women I had not yet met. 

Whenever my husband and I fly anywhere, we tend to fly from New Orleans, because flights from Baton Rouge can be complicated. To go to Denver on United, we would have to fly Baton Rouge to Charlotte, NC to Chicago to Denver. To fly from New Orleans to Denver on United, we would take one plane, from New Orleans to Denver. It was even cheaper. So I made us reservations on the 8:27 AM flight out of New Orleans on Thursday, August 30th.

On Monday I got an email saying my flight could not be confirmed and to call the travel agency. The flight had been cancelled due to the storm, but we had been booked on a later flight, leaving at 3:07. By then Isaac should have blown out of town, leaving us good to go.

It would have worked, too, if it weren’t for the high pressure system to the north that held Isaac in place so it could drop almost 8 inches of rain on New Orleans on Wednesday alone, flooding out I-10 at LaPlace and causing problems with Louis Armstrong International Airport:

KENNER, La. - New Orleans International Airport and its 250 flights a day remain shut down and without power Thursday, even as the effects of Hurricane Isaac subside.
Airport Director Iftikhar Ahmad said the terminal sustained roof damage, with leaks "all over the place.”
Entergy-Louisiana is working to get power back, said Entergy’s Charles Rice. He said they have to fix downed power poles on Airline Highway, then fix damaged equipment at the airport and then work their way back into the surrounding city of Kenner.
But even if the power is restored quickly, the airport still has problems because the airport approach lights, which rise 7-10 feet in the air along the runways, are under 3 feet of water, Ahmad said. The inundated portion of the approach lights contain key electrical equipment that may be damaged, Ahmad said.

We had to cancel our trip. Even if we could have changed our trip to leave out of Baton Rouge, the earliest we could have left would have been Friday, for the Saturday wedding, and it would have meant all day traveling from city to city to city.

The bride has been very gracious about it.

I don’t know why God needs a good laugh so much that he has to mess with my modest travel plans. Can’t he just watch the Colbert Show or even Everybody Loves Raymond reruns like the rest of us?

A New Wrinkle

Isaac has now strengthened into a hurricane and instead of moving inland, weakening back to a tropical storm, and moving out of my life has decided to linger on the coast.

The problem is a high pressure system running through Oklahoma that has Isaac pinned in place. Thanks, Oklahoma, that sort of behavior is why you have droughts, you know that? Seriously, though, what looked liked a manageable tropical storm is becoming a serious problem for the Louisiana coastal communities, because the longer it hangs around, the more rain it drops. Rain on top of the storm surge means flooding. 

Hurricane Isaac has also finally developed an eye wall, which means that when it finally does pass us to our west, we will be on the dreaded northeast side for hours. I am not looking forward to this.

At least our power is still on, although we’ve been getting some ominous flickers, so that might not last too much longer. The laundry is done, I got a hot shower this morning, and made extra coffee and tea to heat up on our gas stove when the power goes out. I washed the dishes by hand since we might not be able to use the dishwasher for a while. First world problems.

I’d better post this while there is still time. If you read this today, send good wishes, and I’m hoping whatever storms you face in your own life pass quickly.

Hurry Up and Wait

People who live in the-parts-of-Louisiana-that-are-not-New-Orleans are used to being overlooked. I suppose it’s possible that the reality TV show Swamp People has led to the realization that the Cajun population of Louisiana does not live on Bourbon Street, but I would hate to have to swear to it in a court of law. Most of the time I find popular misconceptions about Louisiana amusing (and a reminder that I no doubt have my own misconceptions about other states).

During hurricane season, however, it is frustrating to listen to weather reporting that divides Louisiana-bound storms into two categories: those that will hit New Orleans and those that won’t. Once it has been established that a storm won’t hit New Orleans, it might as well have evaporated into thin air. It would actually be nice if those non-New Orleans bound storms did, in fact, evaporate into thin air, but no, they wreak their damage on those other parts of Louisiana, the ones that are not-New-Orleans.

Hurricane Gustav was one such storm. Gustav was the second worst hurricane of 2008, although much of the damage it caused was out in the Caribbean. It appeared to be heading right to New Orleans, still reeling from Katrina in 2005. The state and city government did a remarkable job of evacuating New Orleans ahead of the storm.

Then Gustav bypassed New Orleans and came through Baton Rouge. Here is how Wikipedia describes the storm:

In Baton Rouge, wind damage from Gustav was the worst of any storm in memory. The damage was severe enough to effectively shut the city down for over a week. While most residents chose not to evacuate further inland due to the miniscule threat of major flooding, large numbers of people fled the city after the storm due to the crippled power system in the city. Because most storms dissipate to below tropical-storm levels by the time they reach Baton Rouge, many trees that survived weaker storms in the past fell onto homes, cars, and power lines. In many of the more heavily wooded sections of Baton Rouge, large trees and fallen power lines blocked streets, causing relief to come slowly to those living in residential areas. Nearly all businesses remained closed through September 5, five days after landfall. Power lines along Baton Rouge's tree-lined streets were easily brought down as thousands of trees were uprooted and snapped in half by Gustav's fierce winds. Entire sections of the city were cut off by the mountains of debris. Few homes escaped roof damage as the storm passed over the capital city. Most schools were closed for at least one week, and many for two or three while power was restored to the area around the school. Many signs were blown down, including a large portion of the Interstate 10 Highland Road/Nicholson Drive exit sign, which blew off of the Bridge and into the Mississippi River. It would be three weeks before power was restored to all residents. Debris cleanup was still ongoing at the end of 2008, four months after the storm had passed. 

After the storm had passed and we had phone usage again, I called my family to assure them I was all right. “Why wouldn’t you be?” my sister asked. 

“Hurricane Gustav, you may have heard of it?”

“But that was in New Orleans. You said you don’t live that close to New Orleans,” my still puzzled sister responded. I had to explain that the center of the hurricane that missed New Orleans had hit us. When the power was finally turned back on and I had access to news again, I realized why my sister had been so clueless. The fact that the worst storm in its memory had hit the capital of the state of Louisiana was not the big news that the same storm sparing New Orleans had been.

I only bring that up because I am trying to figure out, from the maps on The Weather Channel and the National Hurricane Center website how badly we are going to be affected by the storm. The NHC 5 Day Forecast map is too small to give much detail.  TWC is busily promising that Isaac is going to turn into a hurricane any minute now to mention Baton Rouge. Local forecasters are dependent on the same models the big boys are.

As close as Isaac has come to shallow waters without becoming a hurricane, it looks like we won’t get anything worse than a tropical storm here. One map I saw showed Isaac coming up the west side of the Mississippi, putting both NO and Baton Rouge on the east side of the storm. Normally, that is not where you want to be, but Isaac has been funny in that regard, having a hard time forming an eye wall. I have taken to thinking of it as Isaac, the ADHD storm, due to its difficulty concentrating.

Meanwhile, we are taking precautions, watching what news we can get, and waiting.

ETA: As of 11:20 Am, Isaac has been upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane.

Tree next to the neighbor's house, uprooted during Hurricane Gustav

Our fence after Hurricane Gustav

Around the corner from our house, a tree from one yard fell on a neighboring house.

At Target, the day after the storm, there were no fresh or frozen foods.
They all had to be thrown out.

A Storm Is Brewing

I now have something to take my mind off of the weighty issue of whether my cups and glassware are stored correctly. There’s a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico that is heading my way.

You would never know it from the weather outside right now. It is hot and sunny with barely a breeze. By tomorrow we may have squalls and by Wednesday either hurricane or tropical storm force winds, depending on how quickly the storm breaks up over land. Since Isaac isn’t even a hurricane yet, it’s not likely to get as bad as Gustav, but you never know. We’ve had hurricanes strengthen, weaken, or veer off in a completely new direction before. 

If I lived closer to the Gulf, I’d probably be heading to the hills right now, but there are some problems with evacuating. One of them is finding a place to take you in. Motels and hotels fill up quickly, which means staying at an emergency shelter. Another problem is traffic, which in an evacuation typically inches along at a crawl. If you wait until you know the storm is heading your way, you might be on the road stuck in traffic when a tornado formed by outlying storm bands hits.

The biggest problem, to me, is that storms change directions. Many years ago, during Hurricane Andrew, my husband drove to New Orleans to get his mother so she could stay with us during the storm. It then moved to the west, bypassed New Orleans and hit us, as a tropical storm, instead. So she sat in the dark with us when she could have been cozy at home. Years later, in Florida, several counties evacuated before a hurricane, only to have the storm switch course, cross the peninsula, and hit the area to which they had gone to seek shelter.

I’d rather run those risks than shelter in place in the low lying areas along the coast or in New Orleans, but Baton Rouge is higher and less vulnerable. My house is also situated near a hospital and we have almost always had our power back within hours of storms passing. The one time I had to wait 36 hours (after Gustav) I felt aggrieved. Meanwhile my friends in rural areas were waiting weeks. If I lived in a rural area, I would own a generator for sure.

So we are preparing: the cars are filled with gas, phones are charging, yard is being cleared of debris, we have canned goods that we can cook on the burner of the propane grill. 

And while I’m stuck in the house by candlelight waiting for the storm to pass, it might be the perfect time to rearrange all my cups and glassware.

Let Them Eat Cake

It occurs to me that all my blog posts have been even more frivolous than usual this week, despite weighty things happening around us. So I am rounding out the week with the recipe for Grandma L’s Italian Cheese Cake:

Italian Cheese Cake

13 eggs (keep 2 whites for frosting)

1 C sugar

2 tsp vanilla

juice 1 lemon

2 oz anisette

pinch salt

1 large container ricotta

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together first 6 ingredients. Add ricotta and beat well with electric mixer. Pour into greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove when brown. When cake cools, beat remaining egg whites and spread on cake. Sprinkle with colored candy (multi-color nonpareils). Return to oven and bake until egg whites are light brown.

You can use anise extract in place of the anisette, or substitute almond extract or Amoretta if you don’t like the licorice flavor of anise. If you want a big, fluffy meringue, you can use more egg whites.

I was also going to include the recipe for Anett’s Hungarian Yoghurt Cake, but when I looked for the recipe, all I found was a list of ingredients, with no amounts or procedure. If I can get the recipe from her, I’ll edit the post to include it. In the meantime, I’ll link to another favorite cheesecake recipe, John Folse’s Pumpkin and Praline Cheese Cake.

ETA: I have the yoghurt cake recipe from Anett. It uses European measurements:

Start with a cake layer. You can use a basic gateau recipe or yellow cake baked in a spring form pan.

When it cools, top with fruit of your choice, berries work well.

Add topping:

• Ingredients:
• - 1 packet gelatine
• - 2 dl cream (butterfat)
• - 0,5 dl milk
• - 450g natural yoghurt
• - 4 tablespoon sugar
• 
  
• dissolve the gelatin in 0,5 dl milk and heat them together. Whisk the cream and blend the sugar, the gelatine, and the yoghurt  together. Pour over the cake and fruit layers in the spring form pan and chill for 3-4 hours.

You can top the cake with multi-color nonpareils.

• 
  

Bon Appétit!

It's a Plot

I like watching home decorating shows, as I know I have said before, but like other reality shows, they strike me as being heavily scripted.

Let’s take Property Brothers, for instance. The premise of the show is that a young couple wanting to buy a new house will have such an extensive wish list that they cannot buy a move in ready house and will be forced to buy a fixer. 

First our unsuspecting couple (who apparently have never watched an episode of the show) are taken to see a luxury house that has all the items on their wish list, and it turns out that the house is well over their budget. They wanted a large living room? This one is the size of a basketball court with 14 foot ceilings. 14 foot ceilings were not on the wish list, but never mind. They wanted a large eat-in kitchen with all new appliances and granite counters. Did they actually specify it had to have a Viking 6 burner range and Sub-Zero refrigerator? No, but this house has them. They wanted four bedrooms, but never said each one had to be the size of a tennis court. So surprise, surprise, they can’t afford this house, which in Property Brothers land means they can’t afford any house with a largish living room and nice new appliances of a more modest sort.

Next our disappointed couple is told that anything they really want in that house can be put into an older home in need of fixing up. Note that the key word is “anything”, not “everything”. Once the couple selects a house, only two or maybe three rooms are remodeled. They aren’t really getting a house like the bait and switch house for a much lower price; they are getting a house with some but not all of their wish list. 

Then we go on the hunt for a potential fixer upper. In each house, Drew and Scott tell the couple what can be done to make it look like their dream home. Scott confidently assures them that he can tear down or move walls, patch cracks, and refinish flooring, all before doing a thorough home inspection to see if the walls are load bearing, the cracks aren’t due to foundation problems, and the floors haven’t been refinished previously.

Two potential houses are selected and given cute names, like the Bug Infested Bungalow and the Cat Lady Condo. Scott reveals his remodeling plans for each house, again, apparently before a thorough inspection has been done. The remodel covers maybe a third of each house, which means the rest of the worn out carpet, undersized bedrooms, mildewed bathrooms and moribund yard will be left as is. For each house, Drew tells the couple what he thinks he can buy it for, Scott tells them what he can remodel it for, and the couple never think to ask what if the owners won’t come down that much on the price or what if that wall Scott is planning to move has all the duct work in it.

The next segment shows the couple waiting eagerly in a coffee shop or restaurant while Drew negotiates for the house of their choice. Despite the fact that they didn’t like the house to begin with, the couple is invariably on pins and needles. Suspense builds as the owners make counter offers or it turns out that there is another bid. Oddly enough, at this point the couple never says, “Well, if this doesn’t work out, there is always the Polka Dot Palace to fall back on.” No, you would think this was their move-in ready dream home instead of a money pit in the making.

The real tip-off that this show is scripted, however, occurs when Scott begins his renovations and something unforeseen happens. The wall that was supposed to come down holds all the ductwork for the HVAC, or the roof is leaking, or there is a crack in the basement wall. This happens every single week, which is probably a clue as to why Drew and Scott are supporting themselves via a TV show rather than a real job. Couldn’t they get Mike Holmes to do an inspection first before making promises to the unsuspecting home owners? I say “unsuspecting”, but the show has been on for a few seasons. By now you’d think buyers would know to beware, unless, of course, all of these problems are known before the remodeling plans are presented and they are all just pretending it’s a big surprise.

Interestingly enough, Income Property and Love It or List It have the exact same dramatic moment when unforeseen complications are discovered. They all use the same inspector, the one with the guide dog.

To add to the fun, the homeowners pick this point to request extras in the remodeling. I can’t really blame them, though, because they apparently are only given five minutes or so to look over the plans and pick one, instead of being able to discuss them over a period of days like normal people working with a contractor. So, yeah, there are bound to be a few forgotten items.

Finally, there is the big reveal. As on all decorator shows, the home owners use the same words and phrases: “This is not my house” (Well then I guess you are homeless. That’s not good.) “It exceeds my expectations.” (Of course. Anyone who purchases The Bug Infested Bungalow has low expectations.) Something is always said to “pop”, and if we are lucky it’s not something in the electrical system. Something else is said to “flow”. It sounds like the intro to Cell Block Tango.

If I ever have reason to go house hunting with The Property Brothers, this is what I will do. I will point out all the ways the first, move in ready house has expensive features I don’t need, to help them understand my wish list better. I will insist on hiring my own inspector to look at the houses under consideration before we make a bid or draw up remodeling plans. I’ll have Drew ask the home owners if they have a copy of the original plans, especially the as-built plans, although I won’t be surprised if they are not available. I will insist that the remodeling plans not include furnishings, since I have my own furniture and anyway, it will be easier to furnish the house a bit at a time than to replace flooring and redo bathrooms a bit at a time. All the remodeling money will be put toward removing walls, redoing bathrooms and the kitchen, and replacing or refinishing  flooring. Painting I can do on my own time. It’s true that won’t make the big reveal as impressive, but it will save time later on.

Of course, they are in Canada and I’m in Louisiana, so we will never meet. It’s just as well.

Oh, Good, Something New to Worry About

I wandered over to the tigerdroppings.com O-T lounge this morning, and found this thread: Do You Put Your Cups/Glasses Away Facing Up Or Down?

Tiger Droppings is a primarily sports oriented message board for LSU fans and opponents. It has several sports forums but it also has non-sports oriented forums. In addition to the O-T Lounge, there are forums for politics, money, food, entertainment, gaming, a ticket exchange and something called the Fark Board. 

So you might expect that the demographic of the message board is largely young to middle aged males, and not expect a discussion of how you store your glassware to attract many responses, but this is Louisiana, where men can cook, bake, garden, and worry about their stemware and as long as they are toting a Smith and Wesson, it’s all good.

I was surprised that most of the people who responded store their cups down, to keep the dust out. On the other hand, those who do store their cups/glasses up point out that the cabinet doors keep the dust out but the shelves can get dirty and the rims will be germy if you store them down. 

I keep my glasses and cups upright but I never really thought about why. I’m pretty sure it’s because Mom did it that way. Dust would never dare settle in her cabinets. I do have an open Welsh cupboard in the dining room and the crystal there gets dusty, but it would look funny face down and anyway, the outside would get dusty. I wash the crystal before I use it, which is once or twice a year.

Maybe I should store some of my glasses up and some down and see which works better.

On the other hand, maybe I should just go dust.