What I Did On My Summer Vacation

You all know how I feel about Orlando by now, so no need to get into that again.

Let's move on to Chapel Hill, where I spent a relaxing long weekend visiting my sweet friend Kate and her family, including Lila the Wonder Baby.


There's more where that came from. No, really, I took a ridiculous number of pictures. Can you blame me? If you're as big a fan of the short set as I am, feel free to skip all the bothersome words in this post and just scroll on down for more adorableness.

In addition to being beautiful and brilliant and the future leader of the free world, Lila is a champion napper. Every couple of hours, she rubs her eyes and scowls and lets her folks know she's ready for a snack and a little rest. That seemed like a wise plan to the rest of us as well.

Rediscovery: Naps are the best. Give me more, please.

Between siestas and meals, we went for a stroll through the botanical gardens, where they breed giant chess pieces:


The designs on those particular pieces happen to have been etched by Kate's husband's ex-wife. How about that?

Across the way from the chessboard, we saw some pretty water lilies:


And a huge tree with enormous flowers, like so:


But enough with all the crap about foliage. Isn't she the cutest?


I love how she's already mastered the classic liberal look of deep, deep concern at the state of the world around her. Just wait until the next election, kiddo.

Another great college friend, Erica, drove down from Asheville to meet up with us on Sunday—giving Lila a double dose of auntie devotion:



But nothing can top the squeezes she gets from her momma:


And remember, it's never too early to train the youngsters to represent:


Oaktown in the crib, yo. Mad love to the NC.

Now where's that patch of sunshine for my next nap?

Return to the seventh circle

I'm in Florida. Again. There's really nothing more to say.

Except the shuttle ride from the airport to the hotel took an hour and a half for some reason, and the only reasons I didn't go insane were 1) deliriously tired; 2) sharing my seat with a pint-sized elderly woman who was beside herself with excitement about the enormous, glorified strip mall that passes for Orlando's downtown.

She kept pinching her even elderlier husband on the arm and saying things like, "Look, Jim, they have a waffle house! Look, a Black Angus Steak House! Only $9.99 for steak and seafood? That's so cheap!" Then she turned to me and said, "Isn't this exciting? There's so much to see!"

She totally wasn't kidding.

The thing is . . . what do old people do at Disney World? I'm genuinely wondering.

Stepping toward justice

My big bro (aka The Good Lawyer) has spent the last few months working with the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL) to author and publish a report about the treatment of juvenile detainees during and after Hurricane Katrina. I recently had a chance to read the report, and the experiences described by these kids are truly horrifying.

Many of these teenagers, including two pregnant girls, went for days without food, water, and medical attention. They suffered tremendous physical pain and psychological trauma. The report, mostly in their own words, is a disturbing and powerful call to action. It leaves no doubt that Louisiana's juvenile justice system was in dire straits before this natural disaster, and the state's incompetence during the hurricane exponentially worsened Katrina's impact on these already underserved youth.

The one upside is that the report was released to the public yesterday and has begun to garner national attention for the deep-rooted and pervasive problems with the state's justice system. If any good comes from the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, it will lie in the public spotlight and resulting outrage that will—if there is any justice—force city and state officials to take action.

Thanks and kudos to my brother and his colleagues at JJPL for their efforts on behalf on the children and young adults of Louisiana.

Read more about the report, “Treated Like Trash: Juvenile Detention in New Orleans Before, During and After Hurricane Katrina,” in The New York Times and New Orleans CityBusiness. The story has also been picked up by the wire and is appearing in other newspapers across the country.

Scenes from an edible garden

Ladies and gentleman, I'm very happy to report the Semiotician has returned safely from her international adventure and is paying all her California fans a visit.

But since she's grown accustomed to the Euro lifestyle, we took a trip to Napa so she could pretend she was still over there. (I also had some tickets to Copia that were about to expire. Free stuff is a powerful motivator.)

Despite its potential for total cheesiness, it turns out Copia is a great place to spend the afternoon. They have some modest but interesting exhibits about wine history, a display of groovy eco-friendly art, and a creative restaurant. But my favorite part was exploring the pretty and tasty Edible Gardens next to the main building.

I had color film in my camera for once, so here's a little tour:

garden sculpture

self-portrait with chard

wild cherries

a pomelo in hand . . .

garden sculpture encore

the ultimate almond

still life with pomelo, text, leafy green

canopy joints

the other kind of flower

chard parade

which country are we in again?

Then we wandered to the next town over for our promised "decadent but unstuffy" dinner. Props to Martini House for the private deck seating and the wild mushroom tasting menu—but that's not their logo above. I was trying to take a picture of the cool silver wheelie thing in the shop window, but there was just so much sunshine, it didn't work out.

Here's to unintentional portraits of ladies on the move—