Amid the preparations for the celebration of my husband's 39th birthday this coming Sunday (and next Saturday - couldn't do dinner for two reservations 'til then), the near-constant ferreting out of the things that elicit Dan's queries of "What's that smell?" and "What's this spot on the floor?"over the past couple of days, and the handling of the spraying for termites in our rafters that our tree man pal Justin did (he fired up the sprayer last night and it sounded for all the world like he was about to cut the bugs out with a chainsaw, much to the consternation of the tenants living below our place and my son in his room, who was trying to get to sleep), I've finally gotten 'round to getting over my fear of Blogger's new-ish design and template settings and, after some considerable tweaking of the background color to the greater liking of some folks I consulted through Twitter (and to the continued health of everybody's retinas - yes, the blue that was here before was a screaming bright color), I give you my re-vamped Lament.

I'm still adding to the New Orleans-centric blogroll as I go back through the tried and true blogrolls of the blogs I frequent, as well as the sites of folks I follow on Twitter and people's sites that pop into my head when I'm, say, driving down the street and am physically nowhere near a computer of any sort.  If my brain has not been sufficiently jogged to add your site, however, please shout at me in the comments, but not too loudly or too rudely, please.

Still trying to get over the fact that the latest bit of Saints merchandise I got - a nifty new leash for my dog - is something I could've made by getting hold of some Saints ribbon and sewing it onto a plain black leash my own self.  I'd say that I'll never get another piece of NFL-licensed merchandise again, but I still don't see a Saints toaster 'round my house.  Maybe for my birthday next month...

Some Dan funnies: He took one look at the picture on the back of the little guy's latest issue of Ranger Rick:

Its caption? PITCHERFUL OF FROG - Peek-a-boo,/ And how do you do?/ That's the message/ From me to you

 Dan took one look at that and said in mock horror. "Peek-a-boo?  That's a pitcher plant!  That frog's gonna die!"

And then, after a lunch at one of our favorite John Besh establishments, I took a look at an ad for a Besh show on TLC that was hanging on the wall and commented that it made Besh look like Sean Payton.

Dan added his own twist: "You know, it makes him look like a cross between Sean Payton and Bobby Jindal."

Now I need to have my brain thoroughly scrubbed of that image.  I'll never think of the chef in the same way ever, ever again.

So yes, we've been married to each other for nearly ten years.  I'm glad I've been able to celebrate this man's arrival on earth for a few years longer than that, and I look forward to doing it many, many more times.  There's only so many people in this world you can allow into your life and your psyche like that - and though I tend to bring a lot of smells and spills into his life that he could probably do without, I'm happy he feels the same about crazy ol' me.