New Orleans

Work took me to New Orleans last weekend and when I wasn't busy explaining the ins and out of American literature to all my colleagues I was out and about in town trying to run--not so easy when your hotel is in the French Quarter and it's the French Quarter Festival. I know: boo-effen-hoo; but sometimes you really want a run more than you want jazz and living statues. Eventually I managed to get in a couple of good runs, one around Congo Square and its environs and the other along the river early on a Sunday.

I didn't get to go to my favorite New Orleans restaurant, but I did have a very nice brunch on Sunday including buckwheat pancakes and quite the tasty peanut butter cupcake with butter cream icing from a place called The Decadence Shoppe (mad props for juxtaposing the olde school spelling with the new wave sexual innuendo).

I've now got two races coming up, both 5ks and both pretty local. I'm hoping to get sub 21:00 by the second one, but what with work and cupcakes I'm not really in the shape I wanted to be in by now.