Shopping up a Storm

Well, we've had a lot of fun in the past couple of weeks spending our wedding money! A lot of our friends and family gave us cash in lieu of difficult-to-transport gifts, so we decided that we would use it to buy many of the things on our Crate and Barrel Registry. So, we've got a pretty decently equipped kitchen now, and we got to replace a lot of our gathered-piecemeal-for-cheap-or-secondhand things.

Actually, I think that this was probably the single biggest shopping trip I have ever participated in. We took a look around the store, decided on the things we were going to get, and then just went up to the counter with our marked-up list and asked for everything. We ended up with five huge stuffed-to-the-brim shopping bags, and one large box of cookware. Needless to say it's been fun unpacking, organizing, and putting away everything. And I've been having a great time using all the supersharp knives, real mixing bowls, copper pots and pans, and nice dishes, flatware serving utensils, and cloth napkins. I'm also glad to have the correct tools to do things that I haven't been able to do in a while, like baking and so forth.

As for how we fared with Hurricane Katrina: we were on the northern edge of the hurricane-force winds and storm. Fortunately, unlike the usual scenario where the wost weather of a hurricane is concentrated in the north, Katrina's main force was on the south side. So while we ended up with lots of downed trees and no power for 55 hours, we had no flooding or structural damage and fared much better than those in Miami and parts south. And of course our experiences here don't begin to match those in Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf. So overall we are feeling pretty lucky right now!