If you happen to wonder how my life in Lafayette is different from my life in New Orleans... yesterday may give you a clue. A typical day off from work in New Orleans consisted of sleeping late because I was hungover, walking to Juan's Flying Burrito for lunch and taking the streetcar to the Quarter to have coffee with a friend. Whereas, here's what I did with my day off yesterday...

I mowed and edged the yard. I put fire ant poison on three ant mounds. I spent two hours cleaning out and organizing our outside storage areas... wiping, scrubbing, mopping, moving out huge amounts of scrap lumber and old Mardi Gras beads and lots of reorganizing. I brushed paint stripper on the bench in our yard and then scraped the cutesy painted flowers that the previous owner's kid had painted onto the tile surface with a putty knife and then followed that up with scrubbing with a soft scrub and then a good hosing until the bench looked all shiny and nearly new again. I mulched the camelia in the front yard that I've nursed back from oblivion and then worried about another camelia that seems to be fading. I spent at least an hour pulling Virginia creeper up by it's roots from the side fence. I LOATHE Virginia Creeper. I cut down a climbing rose and a random crepe myrtle that were growing in our front beds. I took the top out of a redbud tree in our front yard which was evidently damaged by the drought that we had been undergoing for most of the summer. I cut down 2 magnolia trees that were growing too high right at the base of our magnificinently giant oak tree in our back yard. Oh, and in the midst of that, I somehow found time to watch two episodes of Footballers Wives (I'm midway through the third season).

I'm off today too... I may actually rest a little today.