I've got a golden ticket

Quite a bit happened this weekend, but I don't feel like typing and/or thinking much right now. But here's a preview of a future post...

-Jazz Fest
-Photo Awards
-State Championship

So just enjoy this video for now until I can get around to typing up everything that happened the past few days.

Strap On Strap Off

I had to say goodbye to an old friend today. I didn't think it was going to be tough, but I actually had to think about it for a while.

I got a new strap for my camera this week. I was pretty excited because my old strap was pretty worn out. The old strap had two sides, one with cotton and the other with a rubber type substance. And I used each side depending on what I was wearing. Just any normal shirt I'd put the cotton side against my shoulder so I could easily move the strap. But if I had a jacket of some sort on, I'd put the rubber side against my shoulder to prevent it from sliding off the jacket.

I went to make the switch today and had to stop and think if I really wanted to get rid of my old strap. I mean, it's just so comfortable... like an old pair of shoes or an old hat that might look like hell, but is just too much a part of you to get rid of. But I finally made the switch, but not without thinking about what me and the old strap have been through.

(Que sappy music)

-Two Major Hurricanes
-Katrina
-Rita

-One Tropical Storm
-Cindy


-Two full seasons of home Saints games, including...
-One NFL divisional playoff game between the Saints and Eagles
-Two Monday night football games (including the first game back at the Dome after Katrina)

-About a 10 LSU regular season games (don't feel like looking up exactly how many)

-6 college bowl games
-Houston Bowl
-Two New Orleans Bowls
-Two Sugar Bowls
-BCS National Championship

-One KSU football victory over Texas where I rushed the field and tore down the goal posts

-One KSU football victory over Colorado (Kelly Glasscock used it for this game)

-A workshop in Portland Ore.

-A trip to New York City

-5 (I think) Trips to Manhattan Kansas

-It's been swimming with me at the water park

-It spent a week with me at girl scout camp in June of 2006

-Its been a part of one state basketball championship
-and three state runner up basketball teams

-Two state soccer championships

-Its kept me company at countless meetings, speeches and award ceremonies

-Its been placed on levees throughout Terrebonne parish

-It's been hung on hooks on the inside of bathroom stall doors

-I've taken it inside houses and buildings that have recently caught fire
-It took a week to get the smoke smell out of the strap after going inside the World of Wings after that fire.

-I've used it to dry my hands

-It's seen...
-Green Day
-Gov. Bobby Jindal
-Jimmy Buffett
-Spike Lee
-Bon Jovi
-Bono and U2
-Stewart Scott
-Jimmy Johnson
-countless NFL stars
-plenty of college football stars
-George Bush the dad
-and I'm sure others I can't think of

-It's seen the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico

-It's been to Jazz Fest in New Orleans

-It's been up and down Bourbon Street

And you know what... those are just the bigger things this strap has been through. I'm not even going to mention how many high school football, volleyball, basketball, baseball or softball games this thing as watched. Don't forget track, cross country, tennis and soccer.

or how many community theater practices it's sat through

or how many kids playing basketball or skate boarding in the streets it's seen

or how many road races its watched the start and finish of

or how many self portraits of me its seen

And I can't even begin to think how many times the strap saved my camera from having to spend weeks in the shop. I know I drop my camera quite a bit, but I always hold the strap in such a way that if I do drop it... no worries.

I think you get the point. And I'm sure there are plenty of other stories out there that this strap could tell.

And I welcome any stories some of you might have about my camera strap.

R.I.P Canon EOS camera strap. And may the new strap, with its little joint things to prevent the strap from getting twisted, experience and help the way the original strap did.

Come on Down!

If anybody not currently living in South Louisiana is thinking about coming down here, but can't think of a reason... Read the rest of this post. And if you do currently live down here and haven't done any of the things i'm going to talk about... Shame on you.

Lets get started with a Sunday afternoon last week.

Taylor called me up just as I was about to start a game of Wii Sports and asked "You wanna go crabbing with us?" That's a no brainer. I grabbed my fishing pole, met Misty and Taylor at wal-mart (for snacks, bait, lures and so misty could get a fishing license so she didn't get another ticket like last year) Then headed down the bayou.

We went to Point-aux-Chenes and parked along the side of Island Road. Misty and Taylor set up 8 crabbing lines. (Strings with chicken necks tied to the end) and I rigged up something on my pole to throw into the water. I cast for about 20 minutes with out a bite, then gave up and decided to crab instead.

Crabbing is a really simple concept. Toss the chicken-neck-on-a-string out into the water, wait a few minutes or until you see the string get tight, then slowly pull the string towards you. And what you're doing is pulling the crab, who's eating the neck, towards the shore. You put a net in the water and pull the crap up over the net, then just pick up the net. And presto! You've caught a crab. Sometimes the hardest part is getting the crab out of the net.

We spent the rest of the afternoon catching crabs. I tried my luck at fishing a couple more times, but really all I did was throw shrimp and lures into the water and reel them back.

Here are some photos...

Misty with the net in the water and pulling the string... at sunset. (Go ahead and say it... Ohhhhh Ahhhhh that's pretty)


Got it! (It actually is kind of exciting because some of the crabs are quick and scurry away when they see the net.)


Another version of the first photo...


When you get two photographers together, you know something like this would happen...


And then you boil them... (We caught about two dozen, and Misty's dad did the cooking)


And then you eat them...



Now see... don't you want to do that? You don't need a fishing license to catch crab, you only need one to catch fish. So come on down and catch you some dinner.

If you need to take a break, now would be a good time. So go grab a snack, visit the restroom, whatever you need and come back for the other reason you need to get down here.

Live Music... you can't go anywhere in New Orleans with out hearing live music. This past weekend was the French Quarter Festival. A three day music fest in the French Quarter with tons of live local music. And the best part... it's all Free. There are multiple stages set up through out the Quarter and lots of tents with food and drinks from local establishments. It's pretty awesome.

I guess you can say that the French Quarter Festival (FQF) is kind of a warm-up to Jazz Fest. It's the same sort of setup where you can just walk from stage to stage hearing a bunch of music. The only differences are Jazz Fest brings in some bigger named bands while the FQF keeps it pretty local. Oh, and of corse, FQF is free.

We spent Saturday and Sunday walking around the quarter listening to music, eating some awesome food and just enjoying the nice weather. (Sunny and about 70-80 degrees... it was a little windy so later in the day having a jacket sure helped)

Here's Jackson Square... one of the locations with a stage. There were tents around the edge of the square with all sorts of food. Misty had a Jambalaya and pizza... and I had a crawfish sausage po-boy and two slices of Crawfish Bread (The greatest food ever made by the way).


We spent a good portion of Saturday at the Brass Band Stage along the river. Misty laid down to soak up some sun while I continued to groove to the Pinstripe Brass Band. You can see our drink of choice there on the left... it's a hand grenade. It tastes like a mountain dew. I also had a Hurricane, just so I could say I had a Hurricane while at the FQF.



And here's what I was grooving too...



We saw quite a bit more than just music this weekend too. It seems there's always something interesting to see in the French Quarter.

Like the Natchez Steam Boat... actually, just wanted to kind of show how high the Mississippi River is right now. I don't know many specifics, but I've heard it's as high as it's been in a while at 17-feet. And they've had to open the spillway outside of town. And you could really tell when we walked along the river this weekend. The water was almost up to the sidewalk. It was crazy. There's a lot of water moving in there.


Or a group of folks on Bourbon Street enjoying their new shirts. (I just thought this was funny)


Or a dude knocked out on the street. I'm not quite sure what happened to him, but from what people were saying, he was punched in the face.


Now then, if you don't want to come down here after all that... I don't really want you to come down here. From standing in shin deep water catching crab to sipping on a Hurricane watching live music along the Mississippi River... And remember, Jazz Fest is just a few weeks away. If you come, your first slice of Crawfish Bread is on me!

And I'll leave you with Misty and I having a little fun on Bourbon Street. I can't count the number of times we've seen people so drunk they can hardly stand up. They usually attract a small crowd of people watching them look like fools. They're pretty funny to watch. So this weekend, I decided to act like one of those drunks. I've seen them enough that it wasn't hard to pretend. And after a few seconds, I had people pointing and watching. My conscious got the best of me when I saw people stop and stare. So I stopped. But not after a few laughs.