A minor

I'm writing from New Orleans. We're staying at the hotel where my training/meeting is today, which is nice and convenient. The hotel is great - everything I look for, except when it comes to parking. The hotel's only parking is contracted valet (for over $20/day plus tax and tip) and the garage is 6 blocks away. Since all of the $20 overnight parking lots reset at 7am, I decided to risk it last night and park on the street at a meter. They don't check the meters between 6pm and 7am, but the signs are all over the place, and you never really know if you're legally parked or not. Thankfully I emerged unscathed this morning and promptly moved to the lot by the hotel. I don't want to press my luck risking another night on the street. (I got a parking ticket nearby when we were here a couple months ago.)

We need to come up with something to do once I'm out this afternoon; I'm sure the room will be getting smaller and smaller by that time. I reserved a suite - but like the genius I am, I reserved it for next week, so Hollie now gets to spend the day cooped up in a regular room with the boys. Hopefully the aquarium tomorrow will make it all worth it. At least we just had a couple days sans kids; we celebrated our sixth anniversary this weekend, and Hollie's parents kept the boys for us. We went to Bossier City on Saturday, shopped, ate, took it easy, stayed the night, went to the cathedral, shopped some more, came home, saw a movie Sunday night, and hung out with Annie & Jonathan, who incidentally was activated today to help patrol New Orleans following this weekend's killings, rising gang activity (e.g. MS-13), etc.

Update: I talked to Jonathan after he was briefed tonight. He said we shouldn't notice anything different where we're staying on Magazine Street, or anywhere around Magazine, which runs 6 miles/80 blocks from the French Quarter to the zoo with a range of shops (from high-end boutiques, interior design and antiques to vintage clothing and tattoo parlors), restaurants, bars, galleries, studios, etc; see magazinestreet.com. After my meeting, we drove down Magazine and ate at The Original Italian Pie, drove back and walked from the hotel to the Riverwalk, rode the free ferry across the Mississippi to Algiers and back before sunset, walked back to the hotel and took the boys swimming before bed. We did each of these things on a lark - we'd stumbled across the Italian Pie in Metairie last time and just heard about the one on Magazine this weekend, and we likewise stumbled across the free ferry ride today - but we couldn't have had a better afternoon/evening if we'd planned it. I'm sure Hollie will be posting pictures soon on the boys' blog.