William and I are officially home owners! The closing went very smooth. My bank account is crying, but I am thrilled to have a beautiful new home. It’s the best money I have ever spent. I have posted new pictures on my flickr page. So now the long weekend of moving begins. I am moving tomorrow, mainly b/c my lease expires and I don’t want to pay for an additional month, but since the house is ready I may as well move now. It gives me the long weekend to unpack. My internet service here is suppose to turn off tomorrow, so I will be MIA for a while. I may not have internet service until sometime next week, but I will still have access to my e-mail via my phone. I will try to get an e-mail out as soon as possible with my new address. Thanks for everyone’s support during this process. It has been very exciting, but I am glad is is finally over!

Kyllan has posted some more pictures of the house to her flickr account. It seems like just yesterday she was complaining about rain delaying the pooring of the foundation. It’s amazing to see how far things have come.

After much “discussion” my good friend Neil has decided to start a blog. If you check out the url you will notice that he wasn’t very creative. He and his wife Tammy are expecting the birth of thier first child sometime this week. I know a few friends from Xavier have been reading my blog. You guys should visit Neil’s and say hello. There is now link to his blog in the right sidebar under the “Friends and Family” section. We will see if he actually updates it.
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Just in time for the anniversary of hurricane Katrina this news story popped up. A man took a boat and saved over 200 poeple during the flooding is being sued by the boat’s owner. “Embarrasment” and “mental anguish” are cited sited as some of the reasons. I will not be making a Katrina anniversary post. I wouldn’t know where to even begin. I tried watching Spike Lee’s “When the levees broke,” (the first Lee film credited “A Spike Lee Film,” and not “A Spike Lee Joint”) but it was too much and I turned it off. Here are a few news articles if you to see what other people are saying about the upcoming anniversary. I’m sure plenty more will pop up on the 29th.
Here, here and here

Better yet, if you want to get a sense of what life is like here in New Orleans one year after Katrina, check out “B’s” flickr page and blog. He is a faculty member at Xavier, my alma mater, and lives in an area of mid city that was flooded. His blog, “Life in the flood zone,” really provides a peek into how the aftermath of Katrina has effected our daily lives. Even if you don’t read a single post you should scroll through a few pages just to get a sense of what life is now like in their neighborhood post-K. His flickr page is filled all to familiar images of the damage that still remains. If you go back far enough, he has pictures of Xavier’s campus about a month after the hurricane. I am adding links to his blog and flickr page to the “favorite blogs” section of the sidebar.

My closing got pushed back one day, but no big deal.  I can hold off an additional 24hrs.  As long as I can still move in next weekend…. I am good.

It is official…. I am set to close on the house next Wednesday, August 30th!  I am very excited.  I am already making plans to move next Friday so I can take advantage of the long Labor Day weekend to unpack.  I am also excited b/c it worked out perfectly with my lease that ends Sept. 2nd.  I was hoping I would not have to pay September rent, so that worked out great!  The only thing that has not worked out so well is that DirecTV can’t come install my new dish until September 11th!  But, there is nothing really on TV during this time of year anyway.  I tried to take pictures yesterday, but my camera was out of batteries!  I will try to take pictures at the walkthrough on Saturday.  So… the next few weekends will be packing and unpacking for me and trying to remember to make all the proper contacts to change my address.  More pictures and updates to come! Stay tuned….