Captain Jacqui  

This 14 inch trout JUMPED out of the water to bite my top water lure. HA! bayou stephan  

These photos are for all of you who do not think that New Orleans is beautifull. 

New Screens are awesome! They are just about as foxy as screens can get AND.... no more mosquitos. 

This is the bike with a refrerence point to help you understand scale......tiny bikes are funny. 

FANCY! 

This is the label on my new bike. 

Minerva says hi. 

Today was a very cool day. Sean and I got to go to the farmers market after breakfast, to get our weekly fix for Creole cream cheese, heirloom tomatoes and ricotta salata. I made a lovely wheat berry and citrus salad with fresh basil from the garden...it was pretty killin. Some of our neighbors came by to get fish from Sean. Sean put new shutter screens on the house (only a year in the making, but boy are they fine).

AND THEN DO YOU KNOW WHAT WE DID?

WE TOTALLY GOT MY BIKE!! Last week Sean got me a bike from a neighborhood guy. It is a very cool Old Italian collapsible number that I can get through the alley very easily. He bought a fancy new seat for it and some cool grips. Check it out.

Holy cow! Specs, Reds AND Flounder! That dude can fish. 

smoooooth. 

Sean's project 

This is no joke. This is a Mardi Gras Sparkle Beetle with a Gold dot. Allure. 

Allure

This is a purple, night out, salt-water assassin with a paddle tail, attached to a spoon. I have this by my desk just waiting to catch a redfish.

O.k. I feel compelled to edit my comments concerning the lures on this sight. As much as I love to catch fish, I realize that a lure is kind of boring.

The thing is I was trying to take some photos specifically descriptive of color, the lures were handy and so I just used them. Before I knew it I was totally lost, staring at all of the colors, and the light dancing inside of them. I almost swallowed a hook. I just think they are really pretty. That is why I put them up, not just to exercise my lure knowledge.

This is what a fish sees. Shiny!  

In it.

Sean and I have been working our little fingers to the bone, almost literally. We just realized that it has been about 3 weeks since Sean has been fishing. Seriously, three weeks. We are talking about the very same Sean Clark that averaged 5 fishing trips a week. Now, I have to beg him to fishing. Look out, that dude is on the move.

Thankfully I got sick on Sunday, which gave me permission to lay in bed for two days, and Sean finally got to go out to the marsh. Being sick has inspired me to quit smoking.... again. I mean it this time though, and I would appreciate your good thoughts from far away.

Sean is almost done working on Scotty's house, and will continue developing his carpentry career. I am enjoying my work at the CAC. This Friday, we are hosting a big socialite event. I will post some fancy shmancy Pictures.

We both are missing our families very much. Clearly a trip to Florida is imminent, but we have not decided when. We would like to come at the end of August, but we may post-pone until the holiday season. I am trying to get to Wisconsin in August, and I have not ruled out San Francisco in October.

Sooner or later. There will be some visiting hapening. For the record, we now have a place for company to sleep, should we ever have any guests.

hugs and kisses from Jacqui, Sean, Julia, Dotty, Minerva, and Smiley. 

To all of our favorite Dad's, Happy fathers day. Know that you are loved 

Sean wood like you to see our staircase. This staircase has become a tremendous source of pride in our lives. Sean has been devoting every moment of his spare time to the beautification of our prized stairwell to make his girlfriend's life better.

Almost done. Sean says "gotta luv a heat gun" 

It is so absolutely wonderful to have Paul, Anto and William here in New Orleans. It had been such a long time since I sat at Paul's big wonderful round table surrounded by my favorite faces chatting about food, jazz and art. I have been so buried in books, that I didn't realize how important evenings like this are, and how much I missed them. 

Paul and Antoinette hosted an amazing dinner for us last night. They made a beautifully seasoned chicken on the grill served with blue cheese mashed potatoes and broccolini. Afterwards we had Angelo Brocotto's lemmon flavored italian ice. 

Yuck. stairs dust 

look at him go. 

Sean and I are both very much in love with this house, but living in a construction sight can be taxing at times. I have noticed that we go through phases of powerful drive and inspiration followed by long periods where nothing spectacular happens to the let love rule house. Renovation doldrums.

I am nearly without words in my effort to explain the excitement surrounding the staircase project. It is so rare that we get to focus our efforts on the interior of our space in this house. We plan on having the outside of the house completely painted by the end of the summer. Anyone taking bets? Of course, we will need to replace the let love rule sign on the back. I'd like to come up with a better design. We are open to suggestions.

stairs 

While we were working on the stairs, the dust was insufferable, hence the protective gear.