First night home

I spent my first night in the house last night (Thursday). I can't describe how fantastic it was to sit on the couch, eat cookies and watch the History International channel, then crawl into my own bed.

I'm hoping since the cable is on that means I also have high-speed Internet service, but I won't know until I hook up the cable modem.

I returned to Baton Rouge this morning to work a few hours out of our temporary newsroom here and pack up all of my stuff at my sisters house. I'll be moving everything back to my house later today.

Looks like I'll be able to continue working out of our New Orleans "bureau" in the top of the Sheraton Hotel on Canal Street until we're allowed back into our main office downtown.

Constantine is planning on returning home today. Though we're facing a long and busy weekend cleaning up around the house, I'm really looking forward to he and I and Nero being back in the house.

Life is still a bit of a challenge in the city. Only a couple of gas stations are open, so I have to keep a very close eye on my gas gauge. I almost ran out of gas yesterday and had to travel halfway across the city to get to the nearest station. Luckily, I made it without stalling.

Food is another problem. No grocery stores are open in the city, so we have to drive to the suburbs to shop. But once there, we face huge crowds and long checkout lines. We might not need much for a while since our refrigerator is still a hazardous waste site. Nothing is simple these days.

More restaurants open every day downtown, especially in the French Quarter, but most still are serving the same basic menu - cheese burgers, soft drinks, bottled water and potato chips.

Last night, I had french fries and lettuce on my cheese burger for the first time at Clover Grill on Bourbon Street. It was such a treat!

Surreal moment of the day:
"Can you tell me what to do about the dead deer hanging from my neighbor's balcony?" - Overheard phone conversation from a Times-Picayune reporter who lives in St. Bernard Parish. She actually produced a snapshot of the scene.