I just love used book sales!  Wonderful way to “recycle” your books and pick up a few for you and the family for very cheap…all the while supporting your local libary.  This one is at the Cyr Gates Community Center, 300 Parkview Drive, New Iberia on November 6th.  Check it out!

Here is one in McLean, VA, a little earlier in September.  We’ve found some good ones here!

Better yet, check out this Book Sale Finder website to find one near you!

I am hungry just thinking of writing this post.  We recently partook of the newest restaurant to grace downtown Leesburg:  The Cajun Experience.  It definitely was an Experience!  If you don’t look out of the window to check your bearings, your fast-pasted DC metro life becomes irrelevant and slowly melts away.  Don’t look now; you are in slower pace Louisiana now and the only things that matter are your family, the food in front of you and the company at your table (and possibly surrounding tables).  Owned and operated by native Louisianans, the Experience offers traditional Cajun (not to be confused with creole) dishes: etouffee (pronounced A-Too-Fay), gumbo, po-boys, etc.  Being from Louisiana, Lafayette to be exact (and about as Cajun as you can get!), I really, REALLY like my husband’s etouffee.  The Experience’s etouffee makes my husband’s etouffee taste like a Chef Boyardee right-out-of-the-box knock off (I hope he is not reading this!).  The etouffee is rich, flavorful and served with a side of potato salad.  As it is seasonal, order the etouffee as long as you can!  First-timers, don’t be shy with the potato salad.  Go ahead and mix it with the etouffee; your taste buds will thank you!  I also recommend the beignets and coffee, both of which are reminiscent of a certain New Orleans cafe.  Needless to say, I cannot wait to try more dishes (red beans and rice, chef’s special and pecan pie?) during the Leesburg Flower and Garden Festival this weekend.  By the way, last chef’s special was blackened Talapia on a bed of etouffee.  C’est tres bon!

The Cajun Experience is located at 14 Loudoun Street SE, Leesburg, VA 20175 (and they are hiring!)

The Advertiser just ran a story of a local store in Louisiana that, despite being near a church, was able to obtain a liquor permit.

It reminded me of a recent post on Brain Terminal about controversy in Knoxville, TX:

“On one side of the disagreement is a Muslim mosque, and some of its worshippers are unhappy about plans for a new restaurant that will serve alcohol.

On the opposing end of the clash is a business owner who says he’s invested $1 million to upgrade a blighted building and has tried to accommodate Muslim worshippers during spiritual holidays.

The two entities - The Hill restaurant and the Anoor mosque - are a mere 191 feet apart.”

Knoxville ordinance establishes a 300 ft buffer from church premises to an establishment that serves alcohol.  The ordinance is waived if the establishment is granted liquor license at the state level.

While each state/city has similar buffer laws, I wonder if the buffer goes both ways.  For example, can a church locate within 300 ft of an establishment with a liquor permit?  Or will the establishment have to move if the church impedes on the buffer?  Who has liability?

The AP reports that Louisiana Representative Gisclair is introducing legislation to allow for cosmetology businesses to obtain a liquor license to distribute alcohol at no cost.  Talk about meaningful legislation!

Hold on to your rosaries, this bill will have strict limits only “allowing one 12-ounce beer per customer, or two five-ounce glasses of wine or one drink with no more than two ounces of hard liquor.”  Who wants to be the officer enforcing this law?  Oh..Me, me, me, pick me!!!

The Daily Advertiser reports that Obama plans to raise excise taxes on oil and gas producers especially in the Gulf of Mexico.  At least we know that Obama won’t kick us when we’re down; he’ll just wait until “after the economy has had time to recover, White House officials said.” That makes me feel so much better!

Will these new taxes discourage exploration, production and/or threaten current and future jobs.  Time will tell, but Louisiana and Texas will feel the pain first.  Don’t blame the oil and gas companies who may decide invest in overseas efforts that may have better ROI (see US Taxpayers make $1B investment in Brazil).

A 39,000 square foot hunting camp for sale in Pecan Island, Louisiana.  Complete with cafeteria, olympic sized swimming pool, and basketball court.

From Rep. Boustany’s website:

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Charles W. Boustany, Jr., (R-Southwest Louisiana), today voted against a $700 billion bailout for overextended financial institutions both in America and abroad.

“My first responsibility as a member of Congress is to the American taxpayer, and today, I am proud to defend the hard-earned dollars they send to Washington,” Boustany said. “Our financial markets are critical to economic growth. This bill is not the prudent way to protect responsible mortgages and pension plans. Congress can still act in a smart way to allow the market to correct itself, but taxpayers will not be put on the hook, if I have a say about it.”

Boustany voted against the Financial Markets Stabilization Bill, a Wall Street bailout including $700 billion for the Treasury Department without significant direction by Congress.

A bi-partisan group blocked the bill, which was defeated 205-228.

This is from an email I got from my brother.  It’s an interesting perspective on the whole shelter/entitlement mentality of at least a percentage of those forced to be evacuated for Hurricane Gustave.  I assume it’s a letter to Bill O’Reilly, but am not 100% sure:

Hello Mr. O’Reilly

I am a nurse who has just completed working approximately 120 hours as the clinic director in a Hurricane Gustav evacuation shelter in Shreveport, Louisiana over the last 7 days.  I would love to see someone look at the evacuee situation from a new perspective.  Local and national news channels have covered the evacuation and ‘horrible’ conditions the evacuees had to endure during Hurricane Gustav.

True - some things were not optimal for the evacuation and the shelters need some modification. At any point, does anyone address the responsibility (or irresponsibility) of the evacuees? Does it seem wrong that one would remember their cell phone, charger,cigarettes and lighter but forget their child’s insulin?

Is something amiss when an evacuee gets off the bus, walks immediately to the medical area, and requests immediate free refills on all medicines for which they cannot provide a prescription or current bottle (most of which are narcotics)?

Isn’t the system flawed when an evacuee says they cannot afford a $3 copay for a refill that will be delivered to them in the shelter yet they can take a city-provided bus to Wal-mart, buy 5 bottles of Vodka, and return to consume them secretly in the shelter?

Is it fair to stop performing luggage checks on incoming evacuees so as not to delay the registration process but endanger the volunteer staff and other persons with the very realistic truth of drugs, alcohol and weapons being brought into the shelter?

Am I less than compassionate when it frustrates me to scrub emesis from the floor near a nauseated child while his mother lies nearby, watching me work 26 hours straight, not even raising her head from the pillow to comfort her own son?

Why does it insense me to hear a man say ‘I ain’t goin’ home ’til I get my FEMA check’  when I would love to just go home and see my daughters who I have only seen 3 times this week?

Is the system flawed when the privately insured patient must find a way to get to the pharmacy, fill his prescription and pay his copay while the FEMA declaration allows the uninsured person to acquire free medications under the disaster rules?

Does it seem odd that the nurse volunteering at the shelter is paying for childcare while the evacuee sits on a cot during the day as the shelter provides a ‘day care’?

Have government entitlements created this mentality and am I facilitating it with my work? Will I be a bad person, merciless nurse or poor Christian if I hesitate to work at the next shelter because I have worked for 7 days being called every curse word imaginable, felt threatened and feared for my personal safety in the shelter?

Exhausted and battered but hopefully pithy, Sherri Hagerhjelm, RN

As some of you may know I was in Shreveport, LA, for the hurricane, however I wasn’t witness to any of this. Unfortunately, though, I do not find this sort of report in the least bit surprising.

The Advertiser reports: now that Jindal has vetoed the proposed legislative pay-raises, the recall petition has been rescinded. Is this in response to bloggers’ hammering of Jindal with regard to his initial reluctance to wield the veto? Is the blog a new way to listen to constituents? If so, where does this leave those who are computer illiterate?

The Supreme Court recently struck down Louisiana law that allowed the death penalty for convicted rapist. A collective sigh of relief for convicted rapists? Not so fast! The Advocate reports that on the same day that the Supreme Court rendered their decision, Governor Jindal signed a bill into law that would force convicted rapists to be chemically castrated.