forgot to say earlier

Today I saw my first rat.

Well, my first live New Orleans rat. Of course I've seen many rats before, and some dead ones in streets in Upper Ninth Ward. But this evening, driving back over to the old place in search of shower, there it was scurrying across the street right in front of me, and I thought of this article in today's Times-Picayune about the really bad post-Katrina infestations of rats, snakes, cockroaches, ants, etc. I particularly like the woman calling in about a hundred raccoons stalking the streets together. It's like Westside Story, but with fur. I laugh, but I do know that raccoons are nasty beasts and I don't care how cute they are.

I like the Times-Picayune, and I don't care what anybody else says. I mostly like it for the reason Chris Rose mentions in One Dead in the Attic in a column he wrote about 10 weeks after Katrina. People talking about anything except Katrina was just blah blah blah and his brain tuned it out. That's how I've felt ever since April. If it's not about New Orleans, I don't much care, sorry. Or Africa. I still listen to BBC Africa regularly - but rarely NPR. They just waste so much time talking about places that aren't New Orleans or West Africa. What's with that?

I am liking this place more and more, Jenny and Ahmed were right. And I am just totally in love with my kitchen island. It weighs a ton, but it's so worth it! It's kind of like this - same exact dimensions - but no towel-bar on front (pegs on the side - perfect for my canvas bags), and the second shelf is a strange bottle-rack but I'll just use it as a regular shelf. And it has drawers - which is awesome, because I realized after the seller said something - there are no drawers in my kitchen at all! So, my cutlery now has a home. And I know the basket fits because she demonstrated.

Now I just need to find a way to clean the couch -- these two moves haven't been easy on it. Or my back. Thank god for Ahmed today - he basically carried most of the stuff by himself - it wasn't a strong day for me. And why do I have so many books anyway?