But I do want a LEGO vampire to sit on my desk!

He told me to just drive the wrong way up to the next light, and if anyone objected, tell them officer Hector told me to do it. "Thank you for visiting our city," he beamed, and he patted the top of my car like it was a long-lost puppy.

Awww! (files the name officer Hector away for when pulled over by the police.)

New York and New Orleans are the two places I most feel like an intruder as a tourist.

I think that locals aren't suspicious of tourists per se, but tourism in general. For example, folks think Bourbon Street is gross and its popularity is baffling and the misconceptions around Mardi Gras are always annoying. Tourists who spend all their time in the FQ getting drunk are usually not the most interesting folks, but encountering a tourist out in one of the actual neighborhoods (Garden District does not count) is usually a very friendly affair.

New Orleans folks, I've found, are super cautious about "outsiders". In many ways, and on many levels. There's currently a post-K repopulation of young white professionals, some of whom who claim to love New Orleans, and then proceed to bitch about everything that makes it special (noise, music, black people, fatty foods, re-routed traffic because of 2nd lines, etc.) See also: the temporary closing of the Bywater institution, Bacchanal, when a recent transplant homeowner complained about the music noise and the parking.

But I do want a LEGO vampire to sit on my desk!

I think I need the swamp creature.

What are people doing this weekend? I need to burn some vacation time, so I am taking a 5 day weekend. Saturday is haircut and errands, Sun-Tuesday is a spa and casino in Reno, and Wednesday is staying home in my inside pants.

DH is away on his motorcycle trip until Sunday night, so I am skating, working, cleaning the house, doing laundry and gardening. Really hard to imagine a more tedious list.

Father's Day (bacon and french toast; going to WF in a couple of minutes to procure bacon), farmer's market, maybe the Natural History museum.

Casper painted a painting for mr. flea for Father's Day, in acrylic on an actual canvas, with a title taken from the last chapter of Trumpet of the Swan. Dillo painted a wooden birdhouse. Yes, we visited Michael's this week.

Errands, maybe Avengers tomorrow, preparing to spend Sunday and Monday nights at the folks', since my mother is traveling for work.

If you visit New Orleans be warned - when one light turns red, the other direction turns green immediately. I mean, IMMEDIATELY. So don't be running those red lights.

Yellow lights in Chicago last three seconds. Until that fully registered, I accidentally ran a fair number of reds.

DC used to have periodic crackdowns on jaywalking; now all traffic is pretty much free-form (I do with they'd get the pedicabs off the sidewalks). Years ago they'd announced an enforcement campaign, with ticketing, and I was walking somewhere with my boss. We got to the corner, the don't walk sign came on and I stopped. He charged across the street and, yes, got a ticket. I waited for the light to change, crossed, then waited for him to get his ticket. Schadenfreude, anyone?

There's a puppy on his back!

This weekend I will be sewing the women's clothes for the show I am working on. I hope. I also have a rash, so if it is too itchy I may not be able to.

Atlanta tickets for jaywalking, mostly downtown. There have been various campaigns to try to make Atlanta a more walkable place. Most point out at some point that Atlanta's most famous author died after being hit in a crosswalk.