Adventures in the Big Easy

Our new blog

2007-01-11T23:21:00.000-08:00

Here's our new blog. We'll start adding stuff this weekend.

http://kirkandkristy.blogspot.com

Postscript

2007-01-11T20:41:00.000-08:00

When we tell people here in DC that we just came from New Orleans their reactions would be the same if we told them we came from downtown Baghdad. Also, two people that Aubie works with in other offices called her today worried about our safety! They didn't know that we moved and were very relieved to hear that we did. It's very odd.

I'm watching a special on CNN about New Orleans. That's not the New Orleans I know. Our area in the Warehouse district was quite safe and any damage we saw was minimal. We saw quiet streets, jacked up Entergy bills and businesses that closed down early. That's about it.

We left before the new year so we haven't been around during the recent crime wave. I don't have a clue what's going on down there on the ground now. We wish everyone there the best.

We intend to start blogging about DC in the near future. I'll put up the link when we start it.

BUST

2006-12-20T13:37:00.000-08:00

Things didn't work out here in NOLA on the job front so we're moving on. The moving van is ordered and we're off to our next big adventure this Friday.

The new destination? Washington, DC. Actually it's in the suburbs in Virginia. NOVA or bust, I guess.

Big thanks to all the NOLA bloggers who were kind enough to link to us.

The Saints are Coming

2006-10-29T05:47:00.000-08:00

This is the most popular video on You Tube right now.

My Birthday at NOLA

2006-10-13T21:56:00.000-07:00

Bama and I went to Emeril's NOLA restaurant tonight to celebrate my birthday. It was an adventure getting there since we don't normally drive when we go to the FQ. We decided to drive since NOLA's validates your parking at the OMNI and I did not want to do the 30-minute walk in the dark.

Dinner was great! The service was fantastic. I started off with the bisque, while Bama had the arugula salad. We were twinkies on the entree and both ordered the filet with garlic mashed potatoes, & a blue cheese stuffed mushroom. For dessert, I had the NOLA Buzz Bomb and Bama had the peanut butter pie. He said it was the best dessert EVER.

It was pricey but it was my birthday & I felt like I deserved it. We really loved it but Bama say's we can't go back unless we win the lottery. I've always told him that I have expensive taste.

Elmwood Fitness Center - 3 months in

2006-10-06T14:21:00.000-07:00

We recently got a huge spike in hits and I found that we were linked on the new orleans live journal page. People have questions about joining gyms and our post with our gym review drew them here.

The gym review post has also driven a lot of traffic to this blog in the past so I figured I'd post an update.

First things first. In my original post I said it was located in One Shell. It's located in the concourse which is the smaller building beside One Shell.

Now some updates. The staff is awesome. In my first post I thought they seemed a little standoffish (is that a word?) but they aren't. Everyone is super nice. We feel really comfortable around them.

As far as the cardio room - we still love it. There are tons of machines and I've never been there at a time when there wasn't a machine available. There are some times when the ellipticals are all taken - but that is really rare. In fact, every time we wanted to use the elliptical there have always been two to spare. Treadmills are never taken. Not once have I seen them all in use. The same goes for the bikes and stair steppers. I don't think those are that popular at all. I've been at all times of the day and never seen more than two people on those things.

The weight room is more popular.

My only complaint is that there is only one squat rack. There is a smith machine beside it but now that I've been lifting for 3 months I'm officially a gym snob. I look at it in disgust. There aren't a lot of guys doing squats in the squat rack. They like to do shrugs and other stuff on it. I think I've seen about 5 guys doing actual squats in my entire time there. I really don't think they can justify adding another rack but it is the only piece of equipment that I have to wait to use sometimes.

The rest is usually open. There are always plenty of benches and dumbbells. There are two lat pull down machines so there's usually one open. The rest is pretty sparsely used. There are only a couple of Swiss balls but I've never had a problem getting one.

The music is really hit or miss. Sometimes they have some good motivational stuff. Most times-not so much though. I heard "hanging tough" by the new kids on the block one time so you can judge what kind of place it is by that alone I guess. My advice -bring an Ipod

The crowd is definitely not intimidating. There aren't that many stereotypical bodybuilders. There's always going be a couple of really strong guys but not that many. The ones I ran into are always really cool. There's a good mix of women, older people, thin people and fat people. We both feel really comfortable working out there.

So, to make a short story long, that's the update. If you have any questions about the place feel free to email me.

Monday Night Football

2006-09-25T20:36:00.000-07:00

Aubie's uncle and aunt were in town tonight. We all went to Tuckers to watch the game. It was pretty fun. The place was packed and they had about 6 screens along with audio everywhere you could go.

They even had a party bus sitting outside. It had a TV on the outside and a couple inside. You couldn't do too much inside because people staked out the seats pretty early.

You might be interested to know that everyone there booed Spike Lee when they interviewed him. I thought that was hilarious.

A good time topped off with a Saints win!

All I got to say is.....WHO DAT?

Be a Saint

2006-09-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

The Saints are kind of a big deal

2006-09-24T17:49:00.000-07:00

We were walking to the gym after that Meet the Saints deal the other day and let's just say people got excited. People leaned out of their cars and yelled "UNDEFEATED" at us. It was hilarious.

It seems like the city will be shutting down tomorrow for the big game. A lot of businesses will be closing early (at the request of the mayor) in order to accommodate the traffic problems. My office is one of those closing down early.

I love the Saints.

Meet the Saints

2006-09-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

There was some thing going on at Lafayette Square today called "Meet the Saints." I didn't bring my camera because I suck. They had some band on a stage talking about how you have to cheer for the Saints on Monday. Lots of "12th man" kind of stuff.

The only Saint I saw was the Beerman. I think they started at 5 so I'm sure I missed a few.

I hate gameplan

2006-09-16T09:17:00.000-07:00

Alabama plays Louisiana-Monroe today. Since we live in Louisiana and since the fighting Warhawks have such a HUGE following down here the game is blacked out on gameplan. I am very ANGRY!!!!

Oh well, the Alabama PPV games look like they're put on by some high school AV club. I guess I'm not missing that much. Still, very sad day.

Everybody at work asked me who I liked in the AU-LSU game today. I'm honestly not sure. I would approve if they both lost.

Roll Tide!

Football is good

2006-09-09T12:20:00.000-07:00

No posts because we don't do much these days. We go to the gym every weeknight and we watch football every weekend.

We bought ESPN gameplan to get all the college football games. Last week we got to see Alabama play Hawaii. Another benefit of living in Louisiana. We don't have to do the PPV thing to see our teams!

The Anniversary

2006-08-29T19:52:00.000-07:00

Today was a somber day.

A day to remember those who were lost and those who suffered. It's also a day to think about those who are still suffering.

Click on the NOLA blog links to the right to see what those who were there have to say about this day.

All we can say is that we love living here and wouldn't want to be in any other place in the world.

God Bless New Orleans.

Juan's Flying Burrito

2006-08-20T21:36:00.000-07:00

We managed to actually go Uptown this weekend. It's like a whole other city!

We stopped at Juan's Flying Burrito.

The atmosphere of the place was unique - for us anyway. They play really loud music and seem to cater to "alternative" types of people. I felt out of place since I don't have wild hair, tatoos and/or body piercings. I never thought of us as "conservative" types but when you get down to it I guess we really are. Nevertheless, we always seem to wander into the "hip" joints.

We are getting too old.

Mexican food is yet another of the many types of food that Aubie loves and I fear and try to avoid. Remember the sushi joint Rock-n-sake that I talked about earlier? (BTW - You wouldn't believe how many hits we get from google searches for that place).

I'm broadening my culinary horizons here in NOLA though so we went.

We had some chips for an entree. The dip was some sort of salsa/bean/sour cream/jalapeno/rice/cheese combo. It was really good.

I then had the "famous" flying burrito. It was pretty good as far as burritos go. The thing was HUGE. I saw people pick theirs up and eat it with their hands but I am apparently too uncoordinated for that. It comes in a little french fry basket covered with a little wax paper. I managed to destroy the paper with my fork and spent a lot of time trying not to leave my food on the table.

Aubie made me present her gripes so she won't have to bother to post. They are as follows.

1) You have to pay for chips and salsa.

Every other Mexican restaurant we've ever been to has offered them for free.

2) The salsa was chunky

Aubie is a fan of watered down salsa. Chunky salsa makes Aubie angry!

Alas, I have no picture of the Miller Lite I drank. You'll have to trust me when I tell you it was ice cold and delicious.

Katrina films

2006-08-20T21:11:00.000-07:00

The anniversary of Katrina is next Tuesday so there are a lot of retrospectives coming our way. Two movies we intend to see are When The Levees Broke and Hurricane on the Bayou.

We're probably going to watch the Spike Lee movie just to say we saw it. It airs in two parts on HBO tomorrow and Tuesday.

Hurricane on the Bayou premiers at the IMAX theatre on August 29. It seems really interesting. Read more here. The last showing is 6pm so we'll have to miss it. We're going to check it out over the weekend.

New Orleans sunset

2006-08-14T21:50:00.000-07:00

Aubie was out of town this weekend so I decided to take a walk on Saturday. This is a shot of the sky at sunset as I looked over the Mississippi. I was right in front of the IMAX theatre.

The New Orleans Lover

2006-08-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

This billboard is/was on the corner of St. Charles and MLK. Read the story here.

This guy's friend Ian put it up in retaliation for printing shirts that declare "Ian: What a fag." I have to go see if it's still up. Hilarious.

Check out his official website.

Hash House Harriers and the Red Dress Run

2006-08-12T18:51:00.000-07:00

I'm not in the loop around here. I always find out about happenings in the warehouse district when I see them. Last Saturday was white linen night. Basically, everyone walks around wearing white linen, sipping martinis and visiting art galleries. It happens on the first Saturday of every August.

Today's event, which comes on the second Saturday of August, was the Red Dress Run. Again, it's just like it sounds. Everybody, men and women, go on a run while wearing red dresses. Afterwards, they all go out on a pub crawl.

When I got home I looked it up and discovered that this is an annual thing sponsored by the New Orleans Hash House Harriers. These are also the guys, I just discovered, who are behind the "biker night" that I talked about in the last post.

The run started at Tuckers. That's where I saw everybody. There were about 50 people standing outside of Tuckers and more slowly streaming out. It was later in the day so I must have seen everyone post run. All were dressed up in their little red dresses. As I'm walking along I realize that I'm the only person around not wearing a red dress. It's a very odd feeling to say the least! They need to prepare a guy for this. Anyway, everyone looked to be having the time of their life so I say good for them.

The Hash House Harriers are an international running club with chapters in every major city. You can learn more about them here

Needless to say, August is an interesting month around here. Can't wait to see what happens next week.

Tucker's update

2006-08-09T20:35:00.000-07:00

A few posts down you'll notice our review of Tuckers. Last Friday night the place turned into a biker bar. There must have been at least 30 motorcycles parked in front of the place! I don't know how they fit them all in on the sidewalk.

No, we didn't go in. I am working on convincing Aubie that I need to get a chopper for myself though.

Mid life crisis - HERE I COME!

No TV + no internet = no fun

2006-08-09T20:09:00.000-07:00

Cox cable sucks. I need my TV and internet. There were a lot of people out of both for a couple of days in our area. They say it had something to do with "improvements."

Life without TV and internet is sad and meaningless. Aubie and I were forced to talk to each other or even worse - read.

The saddest thing is that Aubie went to the gym yesterday ONLY to watch Big Brother on the treadmill. I missed it because I was too busy concentrating on breathing and not having a heart attack.

Luckily we are back on the grid today.

Quick note about the gym. We've gone every weekday since the 1st. At the time we go it's virtually empty. It is unbelievably awesome. That day we went at a different time for television purposes the place was packed! Maybe their cable was out too.

Gym life

2006-08-02T21:38:00.000-07:00

For better or worse we're gym people now. We joined Elmwood yesterday and now are card carrying members.

Aubie is better at the elliptical and I am very jealous. It's gonna be strictly treadmill action for poor, pitiful, uncoordinated me.

Today was the first day that I went to the cardio room at Elmwood. It's pretty cool. I think I mentioned that they have flat screen TV's on all the equipment. That's a good thing. I lost track of time flipping through the channels.

We quickly regained that track when we walked home. Our 20 minute walk probably stretched out to 40.

We are tired, sore and ornery.

One Canal Place

2006-08-02T21:21:00.000-07:00

We went to One Canal Place over the weekend.

It's another mall with stuff that I don't really want. They basically have furniture and high end clothing stores. That's pretty much it. Nothing fun like a book store or a video game store. There's a movie theatre but the showings are horrible. There's also an actual theatre as well. It might be cool to check out a show sometime.

The cool thing is that on the third floor they have a barber and a salon right next to each other! We might walk over there the next time we need a hair cut. It only took us 5 months to find it.

Tuckers

2006-07-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

Tuckers is a new restaurant that moved into the warehouse district this week. It's not really new to the city but it's new to the location (on the corner of St. Joseph and Magazine). It's in the building that used to be Polynesian Joes. I guess Poly Joe's is gone for good now. We had always talked about going there. I guess we finally did.

There's not much to say about the food at Tuckers. You go there to get a beer and burger or sandwich. The bar is cool though. It's set up with 6 cubby holes that hold all the liquor. None of the bartenders will ever have to cross in front of each other to do their thing. All of the spots are lit up and look really cool.

A funny thing about the place is that it still has the volleyball court that poly joe's had. There used to be a league that patrons would play in during the summer. The funny part is that they still do. We watched a bunch of guys walk through the place right to the court. They bring their beer in bags! Our waitress said that they haven't tried to stop them.

Another interesting thing is that there are two women's restrooms and only one men's. Can "ladies night" be far away?

I have no doubt that Tuckers will be a hit. It's a hip little place with a lot of attractive people. I don't care. I'm just happy that there is a burger/sandwich joint so close to us now.

NOLA gym review

2006-07-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

We finally went gym hunting today. We probably had the best workout of our lives just going to see these places. It took us two hours of walking but we did it. We saw the St. Charles Athletic club and Elmwood. Here is the review.

First up was St. Charles Athletic Club.

The walk there was just the nightmare we imagined. We ran into a crazy man under the Business 90 overpass. He was shouting obscenities at people and flexing his biceps. If you want to see crazy flex man walk under 90 off of Magazine Street. We walked back under 90 down Saint Charles street around 4 so we missed the crazy person rush hour there.

That has nothing to do with the gym. To tell you the truth - I like it - a lot. First of all the staff were super nice to us as soon as we walked in the door. There was a guy who walked us around and showed us the sights. They have a big area filled with both free weights and dumbbells. The cardio area wasn't as impressive. There were about 15 machines - maybe 5 treadmills total. They were pushed together in a corner really close together.
The guy who took us on the tour then took us downstairs and showed us the spin area and the area where they are putting up another free weight area identical to the main one. Apparently they want men to go downstairs so women can feel more comfortable in the main one.

We ran into a professional bodybuilder while we were there. She was HUGE. The guy told us that they have a couple that workout there.

The price is nice and it's month to month membership. Parking was a concern. They told us that you get a tag that let's you park around back. They are trying to buy another parking lot nearby.

The best part was the hours. I'm confident that they can't be beat in the city. They are open from 5 am until midnight on weekdays! Saturday is 6am to 10pm and Sunday is 10 am to 6pm. That is phenomenal!

The next stop was Elmwood. It's on the 13th floor of One Shell Square.

The weight room is on the first floor right when you open up the door. The cardio area is elevated on a second floor which overlooks the free weights. They had probably 30 cardio machines. Somewhere between 10-15 treadmills. Every machine had a flat screen tv attached which is SWEET! You just plug in your headphones on the little remote on the front.

Instead of mirrors on the wall they have windows overlooking the city. It's pretty nice. They also have a spin area as well as raquetball and basketball courts.

The staff up front wasn't as nice as the St. Charles guys. We asked to look around and were told to just go look. It's not very "Cheers" like. I hope we didn't bother them! We did run into one of the personal trainers on our walk and he was awesome. He introduced himself to us and asked if he could help. He gave us a quick tour and answered all of our questions.

The hours aren't as nice. It's 6 to 9pm on weekdays. The downtown location is closed on the weekend but you can go to Harahan then. The trainer told us that it's about a 20 minute drive. We asked if hours are going to change anytime soon and they said no. Apparently the place was closed on Sundays before the storm. There is a big staffing shortage so Saturdays aren't happening.

As for parking - you can park in the deck. They validate in the morning and again after 4:30pm.

While there we learned that there is no cancellation fee if you join after August 1.

Aubie thinks that Elmwood is more woman friendly. That plus the walk and the TV screens make it the winner. Our first day is August 1.

To tell you the truth I have a much better opinion of St. Charles then I thought I would. I'd heard it was smaller but I don't think it's that noticeable. If anyone ever asks me what I think about it I'll tell them that it's awesome. If we get tired of the Elmwood staff I won't think twice about switching to St. Charles.

EDIT: (10-6-06)
Welcome live journal users! Check out the update.

Rising Tide Conference

2006-07-25T21:18:00.000-07:00

People are doing a lot of work on the upcoming conference. I just learned that there are over 100 blogs focusing on NOLA. This could be a big deal.

A wiki has been started to provide updates

The NOLAblogger community

2006-07-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

A lot of NOLA bloggers had a big party recently. It looks like they plan on making it a regular thing.

The next big event is in August.

Linkage

2006-07-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

I just noticed that we got linked by Ashley Morris. I like his blog because he has strong opinions.

Thanks Ashley. Welcome to all the new visitors.

This blog will be useful someday

2006-07-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

I love statcounter. I check it everytime I'm online. For anyone who doesn't know it basically does what it's name says. It keeps stats. Stats like what website linked a visitor to us.

So I'm rooting around today and I look through "keyword analysis". The deal here is if you search google and found our site statcounter tells me what keywords you used. Most of the hits are people looking for reviews of stuff in NOLA. I think that might be our little niche here.

I actually use a lot of the same keywords and look for the same kinds of stuff that I see in the counter so it's funny when this blog shows up sometimes.

Right now the popular keywords are the two gyms I mentioned earlier. Therefore, I promise to give a thorough review of Elmwood when we start going.

One final note. You wouldn't know it but there are a LOT of people who google for streetcar videos. I had no idea they were so popular. I'll have to take some more video next time we're out.

Gordon Biersch

2006-07-12T16:45:00.000-07:00

We went to Gordon Biersch this weekend. It was actually my second trip. I love this place!

Basically it's a restaurant with a brewery. They make their own stuff and I'm in love with "Marzen." It tastes good and has twice the alcohol content of regular beers.

First things first. Everytime you walk in they offer you samples of the home brew. FREE BEER!

They line them up next to a menu that describes what they are. It's very cool.

Other then that the place is just like a lot of restaurants. I ordered the meatloaf which was awesome. I love meatloaf though so I don't think you can screw that up. I had a hamburger the first time and it was good too.

I love that this place is so close to us. It's right across the street from Harrahs. Obviously it's very touristy but I'm OK with that these days.

Stay classy Zinedine

2006-07-09T14:24:00.000-07:00

Italy won the World Cup but we will remember France's Zinedine Zidane FOREVER.

WOW!

Blogging is hard

2006-07-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

It's tough to keep this thing going sometimes.

We don't go out as much because I'm obsessed with my new video game, FIFA World Cup. So there's that and the real games of course.

Also, we discovered a little British show called Coupling which is hilarious. We are getting the DVD's soon from Blockbuster Online so that's gonna take up even more time. Can't wait!

Of course, I've already confessed to our bad Big Brother habit.

The biggest challenge comes in September when football starts. Games almost every day of the week. THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!

So basically we are slaves to our TV. That's not really a good thing but that's how it is.

I think we're gonna start the gym thing sometime around the first of August. We will both be leaving town for various reasons until then. I wish there was a blog to tell us what it's like there. I guess that's what we'll do for some future web surfer. That is if they can dig deep enough to find this thing.

Palace & Bon Ton Cafes

2006-07-04T20:18:00.000-07:00

Last week, I had dinner at the Palace Cafe on Canal Street. It is one of the many restaurants managed by Dickie Brennan’s family. Even though the Palace was pretty busy for a Wednesday night, the service was great. They brought out a free shrimp cooked deep fried in wontons for each of us to try. I ordered the Palace Potato Pie (Pork layered with spinach, mashed potatoes and cheddar cheese). It was recommended to me by one of my co-workers. It was good. The Palace also had a lot of seafood items on the menu. Our table shared two orders of Crème Brulee for dessert. They also had white chocolate bread pudding on the menu. I was eyeing it but went with the majority. I’ll definitely have to take Bama there, so we can try it.

On Thursday of last week, I had lunch at the Bon Ton Cafe on Magazine Street. It is expensive ($18+ for entrees) for lunch but definitely worth the extra cost. It was probably the best meal that I have had in New Orleans. I had crawfish etouffee. I also tried a bite of the crabmeat au gratin. Both were phenomenal. I thought about ordering the au gratin, but since I wasn’t paying & I had to order first, I did not want to order one of the more expensive items on the menu. It worked out since someone else at my table ordered it & let me try it. It was a very busy place for lunch. At one point, there were 15+ people waiting in the bar area. (Who has time to wait to be seated at lunch? Can I have their job?) Anyway, I looked over there about 10 minutes later & they were all seated.

Overall, I would recommend both places. Good food but for a price.

Fireworks

2006-07-04T20:03:00.000-07:00

Here's a video of the 4th of July fireworks display on the Riverfront. We thought we had an original idea by going to our rooftop to check it out. We were wrong. Half of the people in our building were up there!

Learning a foreign language

2006-07-04T19:44:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to announce that the internet can stop now. I've found the greatest website ever.

The BBC has set up a site to help people learn foreign languages. Why can't American news websites be this helpful? I've spent most of this holiday learning Spanish.

I really hope there is somewhere in the city where Aubie and I can go take foreign language lessons. Surely there is a college somewhere in this town that will help us learn our espanol.

If we ever do get good we are committed to traveling to Spain for our next vacation. That would be awesome. I know that you don't really need to know the native language because most everyone knows English - especially in the touristy places. Still, it's a cool idea to learn something new.

Stand up NOLA

2006-07-04T10:49:00.000-07:00

While we were out last night we noticed that Harrah's has a comedy club. We decided that we have to check it out. They advertise "nationally known" comics. You tell me - have you ever heard of any of those guys?

We're going to check it out anyway.

Happy July 4th

2006-07-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

I think there are fireworks on the river tonight. We might go up on the roof to check them out. My past experience tells me that pictures we take up there at night are generally horrible. We'll see.

Harrah's buffet

2006-07-03T17:52:00.000-07:00

Today we got the chance to check out the buffet at Harrah's. Everyone I know raves about the lunch buffet so we figured we'd give the dinner one a try.

Have to say - it's overrated. Especially for the price. $20 bucks a person. Wow.

It's just like any other buffet I guess. To tell you the truth we prefer Ryans or Piccadilly or just about any other buffet we ever had. Not that we hated it. Just wasn't anything special. I liked the boneless ribs and the Texas chili. I hated the mashed potatoes and the ice cream.

It had the one quality I hate most about some restaurants. You can only have Pepsi products. I'd rather drink water. Horrible. I HATE YOU PEPSI.

Another thing is that they sit you right next to other people. It's really uncomfortable to be so close to people you don't know.

Afterwards we had to stop and gamble some. I'm really good. We played 5 dollars on some poker machine. I kept winning! Granted I was winning a quarter here or a dollar there. We must have spent a half hour to 40 minutes at that thing. It was pretty fun. Hate to say it but eventually it all came crashing down. Once I got back down to $5 we cashed out and left.

We stopped at the Cajun Market to get some mustard on the way home. TAKE THAT WALMART! We contribute to our community.

Gym hunting update

2006-06-27T17:23:00.000-07:00

So we've spent the last 24 hours thinking about what gym we like. After a lot of thought I've come to the conclusion that the deciding factor will have to be location. We need somewhere that's close so we can walk. We don't have much time in the afternoon to be wasting fighting traffic. The only time I'm ever in a car is on the weekends when we go grocery shopping or something like that. I'd like to keep it that way. Weekday driving is for the birds.

I talked to some folks at work and we all agree that there are really only two choices within reasonable walking distance - Elmwood and St. Charles Athletic Club. Elmwood is far and away the most convenient for me since I can get to the downtown location in about 2 minutes. To go to St. Charles we'd either have to drive (which I've already said - sucks) or walk under the Business 90 overpass. This second option sucks even more because we'd rather not be hanging around under the overpass - especially at night.

After location, the next consideration is price. Here is the price rundown on the two contenders.

St. Charles Athletic Club
$49 a month for one person- $79 a month for two people.
$150 application fee - waived until the end of the summer.

Grand total of $79 a month

Elmwood
$55 a month for one - $95 for two people.
$35 application fee for one - $60 for two.
$150 cancellation fee if cancelled before 6 months.

Grand total of $95 a month plus the $60 application fee.

So we have to decide if Elmwood's location is worth more than the initial 60 dollars plus the extra 16 dollars a month.

Not to ruin the suspense or anything but I'm thinking it is.

I talked to a guy who said he's going to switch to Elmwood and there are a couple people at work who already go. The bad thing about it is that it's closed on the weekends. There's a plus there, though. You can go to the Harahan location for free from Friday afternoon until Sunday night. People talk about that one like it's the Taj Mahal. It's got basketball courts, swimming pools, rock climbing - you name it. I've got to check it out. It will also give me a chance to see the infamous Huey Long bridge that I hear so much about - bonus.

Aubie has to go travel the freaking world for the next two weeks. We're gonna go check out Elmwood when she gets back. I'm already sold. She wants to see it first before she decides. Hopefully we can get started sometime in the next few weeks.

Looking to join a gym

2006-06-26T19:43:00.000-07:00

Well it's about that time again. Every three of four years we decide to join a gym. Here we go again. Last time we were really good about going. It was a ritual to get there about 5:30pm every day. The only thing that stopped us was that we had to move.

Once you go for a while it's not a big deal. It's the first few days that are hard. Starting over in a new place really sucks. Hopefully we can get back into a good routine here in NOLA.

We don't have a clue which one we'll like. Right now I know about Elmwood Fitness Center and the Downtown Fitness Center. Both have locations pretty close to us.

I guess we'll have to ask around and see what people like.

The Melting Pot

2006-06-23T20:16:00.000-07:00

It's time for another installment of our ever popular weekly restaurant review. This week's edition comes yet another day early. Aubie got to pick and she just had to have fondue. Tonight we went to The Melting Pot.

A couple of things to consider if you want to go to this place. It takes a LONG time and it's pretty expensive. Our meal took a grand total of 2 hours.

First things first. We had to make a reservation. The best we could do was 8pm. I thought it was going to be a small little place. It turns out that it's pretty big. There were a lot of people there but it's not really packed. They just don't have enough servers.

We didn't think this was a t-shirt and jeans type of place so we had to dress up. I had to put my work clothes back on and that sucked. Oh the things I do for Aubie.

So we get there right on time and notice people waiting around for a seat. We go up to the desk and tell them our name and they whisk us off to our table immediately. HA! It's pretty cool to feel like a VIP.

We go to our table and it's tiny. The one we sat in was like a quarter of a booth. You probably know how the deal works. They have a stove on the table and everything is brought in raw and you cook it in front of you. It was yet another first for me.

We ordered something called the big night out. It's basically a deal where we just share everything from a single platter. The meal had four courses. First came some cheese dip sort of thing.

They gave us chips, bread, vegetables and even apples to dip in the cheese. It seemed weird but the cheese dipped apples were pretty good. As for the vegetables - we wouldn't know.

Afterwards we each had salad and then shared an assortment of meats cut up into bite sized pieces. Our platter had lobster, shrimp, chicken, and steak. There were also some potatoes, broccoli, mushrooms and squash that we threw in the pot and grabbed whenever we wanted. The lobster was really good. As for the chicken - not so much. It's really odd to cook your food one bite at a time. Every piece of meat took two minutes to cook so that explains the huge amount of time we spent there.

We finished up with a chocolate desert called the flaming turtle. There were a bunch of fruits and a piece of cheesecake that we dipped in a pot filled with milk chocolate, pecans and caramel. Our server threw in some Bacardi 451 and put a lighter to it to set it all on fire. That blue flame was pretty cool. It was really good.

Now, on to the drinks! The apple martini Aubie got was really good. I got a Mojito. It was alright. The funny thing is that the guy who was mixing up our cheese was telling me that Mojito's suck there. THANKS DUDE! He was wrong. It wasn't that bad at all.

We also shared a raspberry martini toward the end. It took a really long time to get to us though so one of the managers gave it to us for free.

A note about the servers. They are all really friendly and confident. I bet it's because of the kind of tips they must be pulling down. One guy said he had four tables and we were sitting down doing the math. Must be something along the lines of 40+ dollars an hour on the weekends. I imagine they have to share it though. I don't know.

Overall we like The Melting Pot. I HATE the time it takes to finish the meal though. TWO SOLID HOURS! It's not going to be on my itinerary any time soon but not because it's a bad place. It's obviously top notch. I just can't justify spending so much time in that little booth.

Political quick hits

2006-06-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

"Democratic" governor Kathleen Blanco signed a bill banning abortion this week. It's meaningless unless the Supreme Court overrules Roe v. Wade but it's still news. Way to play to your base governor.

She also signed a bill making it a crime to sell violent video games to minors. A Baton Rouge judge quickly issued an order blocking the bill. Looks like parents in Louisiana will have to actually pay attention to what their kids are doing - at least for a little while longer.

We really need to go register to vote soon.

Speaking of people I'm never going to vote for - I just learned that William Jefferson is our congressman.

Big Brother All Stars

2006-06-21T17:43:00.000-07:00

Big Brother is back on today. It will take over our lives just like it has every other summer. I'm not ashamed --- anymore.

Tuesday nights are booked.

2006-06-21T17:39:00.000-07:00

Friday Night Lights is a new show on NBC this fall. It's on Tuesdays at 7pm. Don't bother to call at that time. I won't answer.

Random sports stuff

2006-06-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

Little bro reminded me about a couple of things.

Of course I watched the finals of the NBA and Stanley Cup. Heat and Hurricanes won. Good series on both counts. They are overshadowed here by soccer - sucks for them.

Speaking of the World Cup - USA can win if Czech Republic wins. There just has to be a huge goal differential with Czechs and US combining to win by more than 4 or 5 goals. I can't remember and I can't look it up because I haven't seen the games for today yet - they're still waiting on TIVO.

USA-Ghana and Czech-Italy are both on at the same time tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to rule.

Also, the NFL is 77 days away. I plan on giving much love to the Saints. I've got to learn to stop hating Reggie Bush.

Most importantly - there will be much talk of the MIGHTY CRIMSON TIDE here. 72 DAYS AWAY! Bama plays LSU in Baton Rouge this year so I MUST GET TICKETS.

Here we go Shell Shockers here we go

2006-06-17T20:58:00.000-07:00

You can learn a lot of stuff when you watch the news. New Orleans has a soccer team. They are the Shell Shockers. They play in the USL Premier Development League. This is the equivalent of single-A baseball as best I can tell. I had no idea Major League Soccer had a farm system but it looks like they do. The Shockers play in Kenner so the chances of me seeing them play are slim and none. I think slim just left the building.

All the same - Go Shockers Go!

Smoking bans rule

2006-06-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

So we're watching the news right now. (ABC 26 - can't watch any more Norman Robinson)

Anyway we just learned that Louisiana is going to have a smoking ban in restaurants starting January 1.

BRAVO!!!!!!

You degenerate smokers will now have to go to a bar to do your dirty deed.

They're talking about it at Metblogging

USA wins 1-1

2006-06-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

Just saw the USA-Italy game. I thought I was going to die. Come on boys!!!!

We went nuts when it looked like the US scored a second goal. It was called back though so the game ended in a tie.

It's funny because when we first started watching the games last week one of our big questions was about the offsides rule. It seemed so confusing. Today we saw the replay and my first thought was "McBride was clearly offsides." Soccer nerd in training here.

One more game left in the group stage. USA needs to beat Ghana and have Italy beat the Czech Republic. If this happens then they get to play Brazil in the knockout stage.

WOOHOO....wait....WHAT???

Rock-n-sake

2006-06-17T18:50:00.000-07:00

Aubie's got a plane to catch tomorrow morning so your Sunday restaurant review comes in one day early. Today's choice was Rock-n-sake.

I talked to a guy at work yesterday and he suggested this place since it was so close to our apartment. He said it was great and it isn't like any other sushi place. I'm glad he told me about it because I've never been down Fulton street. There are a couple of other places on that street that I think we might check out. It's really convenient - only a 5 minute walk.

We went for that reason and because Aubie's been nagging me to go to a Japanese restaurant for, oh, I don't know, 8 years now. I've only eaten it one time and that was in the student dining hall in college. It was horrible. Definitely nothing to write home about (well I guess it was now - HI MOM). I imagine that wasn't top shelf sushi so I guess it was time to try again.

So anyway, on to rock-n-sake. It was OK. I was really ready to title my post "rock-n-sucky" but I can't and that's a shame. It looks like a popular spot for dates. It's definitely a "hip" place for young folks. There were a lot of good looking people dressed to the nines. Luckily there were a few like us who walked in off the street wearing shorts and T-shirts.

It's really dark and they have popular music playing in the background. Plus they have drawings of naked ladies on the wall. Overall it seemed like a "classy" type of joint. The waitress was awesome. She gave me coke refills and didn't charge me!

As for the sushi, I'm still not a fan. Twenty one year old Bama wouldn't be caught dead in the place but now I've grown up. I tried one of everything and didn't make faces or anything. If you don't know what raw fish tastes like let me tell you. Nothing. It didn't really have a taste at all. The only flavor I got was from the wasabi I dipped it in. That's not really a bad thing. Let's just say I don't hate it and I don't love it. I think people who like sushi would love the place. Haters would probably continue hating since you have to eat raw fish and all.

They actually had some cooked stuff. Aubie got some of that and it was pretty good. Quick tip for you guys. If you get stuck at a sushi bar, order the teriyaki.

The fun part was, of course, the chopsticks. I took to them like a duck to water, or something like that. I spent most of the time picking up stuff and moving it around. I was even picking up pieces of rice like a good young grasshopper.

I don't know sushi from a hole in the ground so I got what amounts to a combo platter. I have no idea what it's called. It was California roll, sashimi and something that starts with an n but I can't remember.

Here's some video of me showing off my chopstick SKILLZ.

Yeah, I know it's hard to see. I went through the trouble of uploading it though so I'm keeping it.

Oh, I almost forgot! It wouldn't be a restaurant review without....

Try the Sake Cider. Good stuff.

Amazing Race or NOT!

2006-06-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

Today, I decided to take a short cut to the West Bank. I was in Harahan picking up a package at the Federal Express Distribution Center & noticed that there was another way to the West Bank. At first, I was a little excited because I like finding new routes. Big Mistake! I made the turn & then I saw the Huey P. Long Bridge ahead. As I started up the incline, I immediately felt that feeling that I get when I enter a hospital. You know that clammy, butterflies in your stomach, nauseous feeling. Unfortunately, there was no turning back. I tried to think of it as practice for my Amazing Race dream, but it was hard to pretend with multiple cars passing me.

I was happy to read that there are plans to expand the bridge later this year. I guess I'm not the only one that does not enjoy the experience.

John "Major" Wisdom

2006-06-14T19:07:00.000-07:00

Earlier I made a horrible pun about the judge they named the Court of Appeals building after. I walk through the courtyard every day and I started wondering about the man. I did a little research and learned that I'm an idiot.

Judge John Minor Wisdom is known as the father of landmark civil rights decisions. He was part of the "Fifth Circuit Four". They were a group of deep south judges in the fifties and sixties who enforced civil rights laws including desegregation and voting rights. It was Judge Wisdom who had a critical role in implementing the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. The "Four" were certainly some of the bravest to ever sit on any bench.

President Clinton awarded Judge Wisdom the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993 and signed the bill naming the building after him in 1994.

Phenomenal choice for a namesake.

There's a book about Wisdom and the rest of the "Four" called Unlikely Heroes. I need to check that out.

Couple of interesting tidbits I've learned about the building. They used the hall inside to film parts of Kingfish, the Huey Long biography. It's one of my favorite movies ever. Don't listen to any haters, it rules. Judge Wisdom wasn't a Long fan by any stretch. He switched to the Republican party in response to the Kingfish.

The outside of the building was also used in JFK.

On that note, the front steps of the building are just a few feet away from 544 Camp Street. That's the address Lee Harvey Oswald used for all his political literature.

So, in conclusion, cool building - phenomenal man. RIP Judge Wisdom.

Sammy's Steak and Lobster

2006-06-11T16:15:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday again so that means it's time for another installment of our NOLA restaurant guide. This week it was Sammy's Steak and Lobster. Our review of this establishment can be summed up in one word:

HORRIBLE

I should start out by saying that the original plan was to go to the Steak Pit. It's located on Bourbon street. We just figured we check out a Steak House in the FQ and that's the first place I ran across when searching on the internet.

So we turn onto Bourbon off of Canal and the fun began. First off it was insanely hot - yet again. So we're walking down the street and the most foul stench we've come across in a long time hits us. We should have turned around then but we're dumb and we kept on walking. The smell died off after about 6 blocks and we finally get to the Steak Pit. I don't even know if it's open now. All I know is that it had a tiny little storefront with bars on the door. We have a pretty firm policy of not visiting restaurants that look like crack houses so we passed by and stopped at Sammy's less than a block away.

Sammy's has a nice open outdoor seating area so we checked it out.

The food was average at best. After looking at the menu I just decided to have a burger and Aubie got some chicken dish. The burger was basically a warmed over frozen patty. Eh, it was alright.

Two complaints really. First we tried the "world famous" hurricane.

WORST DRINK EVAR!!!

Disgusting. I can hear you now. "But Bama I love hurricanes." That may be true but you don't love this garbage. It's really watered down. They just pour it out of a container. What's the point of having the bar there?

Second complaint. The bill. It was really hot so I asked for a couple of refills on my coke. That's not a problem in any other restaurant in America but in this one I wasn't ordering a refill but instead a brand new $3.00 coke. When we got the bill I told the guy at the bar that there must be some mistake because we got charged for like 5 cokes. He just looked at me nonchalantly and said "we don't give free refills." It would have been nice to have been told this when we asked for them!!!

Not only do they charge for the drinks but they also include the tip as well. At least I think it's the tip. It said "server charge." We did the math and figured out that we probably would have tipped more but that's not the point. I don't care what dump we eat in we make a firm policy of not taking it out on the waitress. I guess I can see the reasoning for including it in the bill. There must be people in that area who would stiff them all the time. Still this is really annoying.

So we got a large bill for average food surrounded by a disgusting smell. As an added plus I started feeling sick almost as soon as I walked out the door.

I caught myself humming "Bad Day" all the way home.

Tropical Storm Alberto

2006-06-11T11:03:00.000-07:00

Hurricane season is here and Tropical Storm Alberto is first up to bat. I know this because the ABC station here has a huge box covering the lower left half of the screen. I hate broadcast television.

The complete content of the box is as follows.

TS Alberto
23.9N 88.1W
Moving NW 9mph
Winds 45 mph
385 miles SE of N.O

I have no idea what the purpose of that is. I'd like to meet the person who thinks it has any value whatsoever. The thing is forecasted to hit Florida.

This is gonna be a long summer.

Trinidad wins 0-0

2006-06-10T18:13:00.000-07:00

Wow, the Trinidad-Sweeden game was awesome! Not a single goal was scored but who cares? I enjoyed it. (Did I really just say that?)

I don't know anything about soccer or either of the two teams but I understand that Trinidad was a huge underdog. It's pretty dumb to be sitting around rooting for a scoreless tie at the end but that's pretty much what I was doing. I bet a lot of people were doing the same thing.

Underdogs rule.

Bird watching

2006-06-10T17:41:00.000-07:00

I get a lot of grief for this but one of the toughest classes I had in college was bird watching. There must be a million different birds and they have these small little differences. Basically you have to pay close attention and that's not really my strong suit. I complained the whole time, in private, how dumb and useless the whole thing was.

Even so, whenever I see birds now I always stop and look for a while to check them out. If I've got my camera with me I take an embarrassing amount of pictures. Every time Aubie convinces me not to post about it. I always agree. Not this time!

Here in the city I don't see a lot of robins or cardinals or anything like that. What I see, constantly, is pigeons. At least I think that's what they are. I really should have paid more attention in class.

So, today I'm walking along, oblivious to everything, listening to my XM radio, when I notice that I'm surrounded by a group of these little guys. Did I escape? Don't be silly, of course I did.

Once I saw them I had to take some pictures. Here are the two types of little guys I saw.

I'll spare you, but here's one last video of a pigeon doing his thing.

Thanks Dr. Blewitt, wherever you are.

World Cup Fever

2006-06-10T16:50:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I got it. Deal with it.

I have decided to make a commitment to watch all 64 games. So far I've seen 3. Right now I'm in the middle of game 4, Sweeden v. Trinidad. It's tied 0-0 at the half but still really exciting. Lots of blocked shots and near misses. This team calling this game should do every single one of them. The color commentator for the England game - SUCKS! Make him stop talking.

I liked the Germany game (lots of scoring - nice). The Ecuador game - eh, not so much. As for England-Paraguay, well, if you missed the last 85 minutes you didn't miss much. Some poor guy scored an own goal off a Beckham shot really early on. That was all of the scoring. I hope the Paraguay guy doesn't get shot or anything.

There are only 3 games a day and these things are really amazing on time. I TIVO them and they go 2 hours almost constantly. I'm definitely not missing the commercials.

Apparently Star Wars Rules

2006-06-10T16:43:00.000-07:00

I was out and about today and I noticed this little piece of concrete that I walk over all the time. It reminded me that I have Episode 3 on TIVO and I really need to watch it. I've seen the other 5 so I better get that done.

I'm really liking this Anakin kid. Don't tell me how it ends!

I also wonder if Jeff and Angela are still together. I hope so. It would suck to see that all the time if they broke up soon after.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Company

2006-06-04T19:02:00.000-07:00

Today we had dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.

It was OK. Not really a New Orleans original. There are franchises all over the country. This one was on Decatur Street in the French Quarter.

The gag, obviously, is that everything in the place is Forrest Gump related. You basically have a choice between burgers and shrimp. I had a burger and Aubie had the shrimp.

The menu and the drink menu attached to a ping pong paddle.

We sat at a two person table and right above it was a little case with young Forrest's "magic legs".

On the wall was a mural of Forrest playing for the mighty Crimson Tide.

One of the nice things about the place is two little license plates that tell the waiters when you need them. As soon as we turned them somebody was there on the double.

As for drinks, we would definitely recommend the Lava Flow. It's basically a pina colada with strawberries mixed in. I don't usually go for the mixed drinks but this one was really good.

It starts today

2006-06-01T17:53:00.000-07:00

Any respectable NOLAblog has to point out that today is the start of hurricane season.

It shouldn't surpise anybody that this little story is all the news stations wanted to talk about today. They had weather people stand in front of maps and talk about past storm tracks and projections for storms this year. They also had interviews with local leaders about our preparedness this go round. It was actually really interesting.

Ray Nagin's inauguration

2006-06-01T17:26:00.000-07:00

One of the nice things about New Orleans is that no matter where you are there's a chance that out of nowhere you'll hear music. That happens every Wednesday at my office around 5pm. It happened around 11am today. I had no idea what in the world was going on but I looked down on Poydras street and saw a parade going on.

It turns out today was Mayor Nagin's inauguration day.

The mayor was riding along in a horse drawn carriage. There were actually two carriages in the parade but the one carrying the mayor was obvious. First of all there were about 6 of NOLA's finest on motorcycles surrounding him. Second there was the glow of his bald head. Finally there was the sight of his wife's ridiculously awesome hat. I don't know if it can be seen from outer space but I promise you that it can be seen from around 30 stories up.

To be honest the whole thing looked kind of ridiculous because there wasn't exactly a crowd outside cheering. All it accomplished was creating a massive traffic jam. For some reason he decided to stop in front of my building and talk to some guy for a long time. I felt bad for the poor people behind him waiting for this thing to pass by.

The music was good though. And the guys in the band had some really colorful costumes. That was good for us because everyone looks like ants from way up high.

Nola.com has more pictures. They've got all the video of the ceremonies as well.

Cowboy Mouth loves New Orleans

2006-05-31T19:26:00.000-07:00

I finally got to see Cowboy Mouth. I only stayed for a little while. The temperature in NOLA right now is about 200 degrees. It didn't affect the crowd though. The place was packed yet again.

I've never been to any CM live shows so I was kind of surprised to hear one song and then 5 minutes of talking, one song, 10 minutes of talking, etc. I guess that's their thing. The theme of the monologues was basically that NOLA is the greatest place in the world. Obviously everyone was really receptive to that message. They even talked about what high schools they went to and everyone would cheer. They feel about NOLA the same way you might feel about America - fiercely patriotic.

That brings me to a thing I've noticed about New Orleaneans in general. People here seem intent on letting you know that they grew up here. If you do anything that indicates that you might be from out of town they will point it out. I really don't think it's a disrespect thing. All the same, it's still odd. We lived in Atlanta for a few years and no one ever did that. I guess that's because nobody that lives in Atlanta was born there.

You don't have to be here long to understand that NOLA is a one of kind city. The people here really love it and are proud to call it home.

Free wireless internet

2006-05-29T16:14:00.000-07:00

I had to set up my new laptop this week and one of the first things I did was to configure it to the wireless network we already have set up. It was there that I noticed our system, about three from our neighbors, and one marked "City of New Orleans."

Apparently they made WIFI free after Katrina.

They're talking about a new plan for city wide wireless over on Library Chronicles and Metblogs

This is surely a good thing. As always, though, I'm sure you get what you pay for.

Streetcar videos

2006-05-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

Here are a few videos I took of the streetcar rides.

Here's the streetcar pulling into the French Market stop.

Both of these next two are from inside the car sitting on the Mississippi side.

Here's a video going from the Riverwalk to the French Market.

Here's a video of going from the French Market to the Riverwalk. Apparently the guy had a hard time connecting the rods above the car to the cable. It was pretty slow.

A NOLA public transit story

2006-05-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

I broke my sunglasses this week so we had to go to the Riverwalk to get a new pair. The trip gave us a chance to check out NOLA streetcars when we decided to get lunch in the FQ. The plan was to go to the Riverwalk, catch the streetcar, eat lunch at the Louisiana Pizza Kitchen, ride back and get my glasses.

When we got to the Riverwalk we saw a streetcar passing by but we didn't have any one dollar bills and as we learned last time - you have to have exact change.

So we walked up the Riverwalk escalator - it is still broken - and got change. We went back down to the Julia Street stop and waited.

We sat and waited, and waited, and waited. It turns out we had to wait 40 MINUTES. For some reason there was only one car on the line at the time.
The only reason we were taking the streetcar was to ride the streetcar. Any sane people would have walked for any other reason. In fact we met two guys at the stop who decided they didn't want to wait anymore and did just that. They too were going to the Louisiana Pizza Kitchen. We saw them having lunch when we showed up!

While we waited we talked to an older couple from Maryland who were there to play volleyball. Apparently the national championship for club volleyball is being held in NOLA this week. (It's all free if you want to go check it out.) That would explain the remarkable increase in foot traffic we noticed along the way. Anyway, the folks we talked to were really cool and talking to them really helped to pass the time.

There was a big cheer when the streetcar finally showed up. The horrible ironic thing about it was that all public transit in NOLA is free until July. We basically waited for nothing but what are you going to do.

The line runs all the way to the French Market, the location of the pizza kitchen, so we rode it all the way. It took about 5 minutes.

The ride back was a lot easier. We waited at the French Market stop for 2 or 3 minutes tops. We also noticed a lot more cars along the way.

Uninteresting side note: everyone we talked to referred to the streetcars as trolleys! Tourists! What are you going to do?

Along the way we noticed that the Audubon Aquarium is next door to the Riverwalk and it has just reopened. We also watched the riverboats in that area. We should check out both of those soon.

P.S. I made a couple of videos of our streetcar ride. I'll have to put them up in the next post.

Video at the Square

2006-05-24T19:10:00.000-07:00

It's Wednesday again so that means there are bands playing in Lafayette Square. I spent a grand total of 5 minutes there on my walk home but I thought it would be a great opportunity to try out putting up my own videos. I hosted them on You Tube. Trust me it takes forever.

It took me a long time to put these up because I had to edit them. Aubie said she got sea sick from watching me move the camera so much. Both of these are really short. More videos to come!

Link #2

2006-05-21T15:02:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Library Chronicles for the link. Unlike this website you can go there and actually learn something about NOLA politics.

Ray Nagin wins

2006-05-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

It's all over but the crying. All the networks are calling the election for Nagin. Landrieu is conceding as I type.

I guess this proves that all the money in the world won't make you mayor of NOLA.

Election day redux

2006-05-20T16:45:00.000-07:00

Today is the biggest day in the history of the world. At least that's what they say on the NOLA news. The mayoral campaign will finally come to a close tonight and some unlucky guy will be put in charge of one of the toughest jobs in America. I for one will miss the campaign. Oh well, the congressional races will be here soon enough. The Times-Picayune is having one last laugh.

Huge fire Uptown

2006-05-20T16:15:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning was pretty interesting around here because there was a Five-Alarm fire near the river. I had a good view because I work on one of the higher floors of one of the big buildings in the CBD. The window in my office faces directly toward the fire. You could see people in every office on my side of the building staring out the window. I gotta tell you it was really impressive. Flames and smoke shot up to a phenomenal height. You could see it from all around the city.

I know I think about this blog too much because I watched it with a mix of awe and disgust. I DIDN'T HAVE MY CAMERA!

There were so many awesome shots I could have taken. I especially liked watching the helicopters with big buckets pick up water from the Mississippi and then dump it on the fire. We thought it was going to go all day but it was basically done by the time I got back from lunch.

UPDATE

Aubie got this shot.

It's good to be home

2006-05-20T15:44:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a trip out of town. Along the way we managed to pick up our mail that hasn't reached us for some reason. There were literally close to 50 magazines. We had two bags full. That's gonna be a lot of stuff to catch on. I'm happy to note that we found the newest issue of Time magazine in our very own mailbox so things are looking up.

Also my sweet new laptop got delivered while we were gone. It's sitting in the office here at the apartment so I'm gonna have to suffer thinking about it until Monday afternoon. They did leave a big box full of software in front of our door though. It must have been sitting there for a few days. That says a lot about our neighbors. Everybody missed out on a free PC Relocator.

NOLA mayor humor

2006-05-14T21:19:00.000-07:00

I love YouTube.

Landrieu

Nagin

Braves win!!!!!

2006-05-13T19:35:00.000-07:00

This really has nothing to do with NOLA but ...

The Braves were down by one against the Nationals in the bottom of the ninth when Jeffrey Braden Francoeur launches a shot to deep left for a WALK OFF GRAND SLAM! You really have to take your bright spots when you can get them this season. Oh well, it's a win and that is awesome.

I guess we are supposed to root for the home town triple-A Zephyrs. That will never happen, though, since they are the farm team for the Nationals. This makes them evil.

Dinner on the Riverwalk

2006-05-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

Cross another thing off of our to-do list. Today we had dinner at the Riverwalk.

The Riverwalk is basically a huge mall sitting on the banks of the Mississippi River. There's a food court on the side that's near us so we went in and had a bite to eat. I got some pizza and Aubie got some Mexican. We ate on tables that overlook the river and the CCC.

A lot of the shops have reopened but the food court area is really hit or miss. Most of the places haven't opened yet so your options are really limited.

We noticed that there is a ~~trolley~~ street car line in front of the place that will take you to the F.Q. We would have taken one but you need $1.25 in exact change and we don't carry quarters. It's still awesome though because now we realize that we have a quick way to get to the F.Q. The Riverwalk is only about 4 blocks from our apartment so we could walk that, get on the trolly and ride it to wherever we need to go. It goes all the way to Esplanade, which is the edge of the Quarter on the opposite side from us.

This sure beats a 30 minute walk. Especially when it rains.

D-day museum trip

2006-05-13T16:40:00.000-07:00

Today we actually went to the D-Day museum like we've been planning to forever. It was worth the wait. Very interesting stuff.

When you first walk in the door there is a big area with all the cool stuff that I've heard about. You haven't even paid at this point. You just walk around and check stuff out.

Airplanes are hanging from the roof.
Here's the inside of a Higgins boat. These are the ones that troops rode onto the beaches of Normandy.

The side view of a second one.

After you pay for your ticket (which is $14 dollars- btw) you go upstairs to the second floor. Everything is designed in a line so everyone walks the same way the entire way through. As you walk the events of WW2 unfold in chronological order.

The walls tell you a story.

There are also posters from the era hanging up everywhere.

Along the way there are guns and uniforms.

Every so often there is a little theatre which has 6 minute movies about the time period you are at. Right past that there are little booths with audio of people who were there.

The third floor details the Pacific theatre. Up there is an electronic map of the Pacific ocean area. Points light up as a narrator describes battles leading up to the Japanese surrender. This picture is horrible but trust me it is awesome. It lasts about 6 minutes and everybody we saw stayed for the entire length of it. Definitely one of the highlights of the museum.

At the very end there is an area that details the plans for a Japanese invasion if the atom bombs weren't dropped.

The museum web site has a slide show with pictures of a lot of these things as well as tons of the stuff that I didn't include.

All in all, I think the movies and the electronic board were the best part of the museum. There are two longer movies that play on the bottom floor but we missed the last showing of them. We might have to go back just to see those. That will be my excuse, at least. The sights and sounds are fascinating and the atmosphere is great. You get the feeling that you are in a church. I could see the respect and awe on the face of everybody in the building. It's a wonderful place and will be one of the first spots I want to take anyone who visits us here in New Orleans.

Warehouse District bar hopping - or what passes for it

2006-05-12T22:02:00.000-07:00

An observation on the Warehouse district in New Orleans at 10pm on a Friday night. If you are not on Tchoupitoulous Street the place is a freaking ghost town. We literally saw no one on Magazine, Julia or any other street until we crossed the Tchoup. The recap goes as follows.

Around 9:30 tonight we decided that we should go to the bar. The original plan was to go to Polynesian Joe's because it was ridiculously close, has a sand volleyball court and I walk past that court every day. It turns out that polyjoes doesn't re-open for 3 more days. I guess we have to make plans to check that out another day.

The next plan was to go to Lucy's but that didn't work out either because frankly the place was packed out. It kind of had that "meat market" kind of vibe.

Next option was Vic's. It is an Australian themed bar. We like it and there were a moderate amount of people there. It had the most important thing any bar can ask for - a crazy drunk guy at the bar who was in a heated discussion with some dude he just met. That other guy's girlfriend was, of course, desperate to leave.

We went upstairs to play a game of pool. Guess who won? :)

Before we left I had no choice but to put my money in the jukebox and play "Sweet Home Alabama." Then we went about drunk dialing a certain blog spammer who shall remain nameless.

We left and walked past Emerils. It was filled with people, in their Sunday best, sipping wine. Of course we couldn't stop there. I guess we really need to check it out someday though.

The next and final stop was Tchoup-N-Joes. (I don't think they even have a webpage). I did my research before and found that some people don't care for the place.

I don't know what they were talking about. We got some chicken tenders and fries and they were PHENOMENAL. As we expected there were a grand total of about 3 people there. They had two big flat screen TV's though so we watched the Suns-Clippers game (Clips lost - boo) and had a ball.

The whole experience convinced me that

1) We are capable of having fun without other people

and

2) We really need to make the effort to walk to the French Quarter (the F.Q. as I have decided to start calling it).

Don't look at the time stamp under this post. If anybody asks we are still out partying with the kids.

NOLA mayor update 5/11

2006-05-11T20:21:00.000-07:00

Earlier I predicted that Ray Nagin would close the huge fundraising gap now that it's just him and Landrieu in the runoff.

Apparently, I don't know what I'm talking about.

That last link might require registration so here's the skinny. Nagin has 200K and Landrieu has 1.5 million. I was right about one thing though. I see Landrieu's mug constantly.

Random litter

2006-05-11T19:20:00.000-07:00

One thing that amuses me is the things I see laying on the ground as I'm walking to work.

Today, I saw the newest Trace Adkins CD. Not the case, just the CD. Apparently someone thought it sucked so much that they threw it out of their window. I really can't say that I blame them. It will be really funny if it's still there tomorrow.

Plans for Saturday

2006-05-11T17:34:00.000-07:00

Aubie has a big test coming up next week so there's not much going on these days. I forgot that when I told her that this Saturday would be a great day to FINALLY go to the D-Day museum. She informed me that she was not leaving but I could go by myself if I wanted to. Or as she put it - and I quote - "If you need to leave, that would be great."

Apparently, I distract her from studying. Also, apparently, she isn't as excited about this little field trip as I originally thought. Oh well, her loss.

So the plan for me this weekend is to check out some boats and guns and stuff. It looks like "flash" photography is not allowed in the "main" galleries. I don't know what I can take pictures of but I guess we'll find out soon.

Myspace can be cool

2006-05-06T16:32:00.000-07:00

I mentioned earlier that Cowboy Mouth will be playing at the square this month. I just found out that tonight they are playing at a bar a few blocks away called the Howlin Wolf. It costs about 50 bucks as compared to zero a few weeks from now.

Anyway, I'm checking out the Cowboy Mouth site and found out that you can hear some of their new songs over on Myspace. Here it is.

I imagine that I'm the last person in the world to find this out but here are some links to hear your favorite band's music and even see their videos.

Search for songs
Popular songs

Search for videos
Popular videos

Missing my magazines no more!

2006-05-05T13:59:00.000-07:00

New Orleans has lifted the magazine ban! Bama and I were wondering why our mags weren't being forwarded, now we know. I think most people would agree that it adds a little skip to their step at the end of a long work day to open the mailbox and have a magazine laying there waiting on you.

TGIW

2006-05-03T21:32:00.000-07:00

It's Wednesday again so this time I took a couple of shots of Wednesday at the Square on my walk home.

Before (around lunch time)

After

New Hurricane Plan - Get out of Dodge

2006-05-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

I was watching the news today during lunch and saw that the mayor released his new evacuation plan.

He will call for an evacuation for any hurricane that is category 2 or higher. Katrina was a category 3 so that makes sense. Still, it's easy to say that people should just evacuate when the storm comes. What people don't talk about is that evacuating really sucks. You just get used to living in your house, sleeping in your own bed, etc. That is not a minor thing. Leaving your home rearranges your whole life.

Our area didn't flood last time so I'm not worried about anything like that. If another bad hurricane comes though, we might lose power and maybe water. Then again, we live near the CBD so I imagine we'd be the first place to get all of that back.

Just thinking about this sucks. I really hope there isn't a category 2 to test us. I really, really, really don't want to evacuate.

Permanent tourist

2006-04-30T18:07:00.000-07:00

We went back to the French Quarter again today to get dinner at the Louisiana Pizza Kitchen. It was good stuff and we'd both definitely recommend it.

Got a chance to check out Jackson Square along the way. They close the gate around 6pm but we got in just in time.

Jazz fest is still in full swing so most people walking the street are tourists. We try to blend in with the natives but me constantly snapping photos doesn't really help. Some horse drawn carriage guy asked us if we wanted to take a tour and we just walked by. We're not tourists!

The Quarter is definitely the place to go to eat now. There's just nowhere we like in the Warehouse district. This is gonna mean a lot more walking but it's worth it.

On the way home I found some more funny t-shirts.

Saturday statue tour - part two

2006-04-29T18:22:00.000-07:00

We had to get in line to take this picture. Statue guy drew a big crowd down on Bourbon Street. He stood perfectly still for what seemed like forever. People took turns mugging for pictures beside him. Definitely the best statute of the day. He made a pretty good profit. People were constantly dropping dollar bills in his bucket.

Another excuse to post pictures

2006-04-29T15:14:00.000-07:00

Here's the view of the CBD from the Warehouse district.

Here's the Warehouse from the CBD.

Huh huh, "minor" wisdom. What? Not funny? Says you.

A lighthouse in the middle of the city.

Saturday statue tour

2006-04-29T15:02:00.000-07:00

I walked around the Central Business District (the CBD) today and took a few shots.

Jazz fest is very big here

2006-04-28T16:56:00.000-07:00

I'm not very cool because I'm not at Jazz Fest right now. It started around noon and some people in my office took half days off. I knew it was popular but I was shocked when I stepped out of my office at 6pm only to find that the place was a ghost town. That has never happened! People here take this thing very seriously.

I guess I really need to check it out next weekend.

The New Orleans diet

2006-04-28T16:35:00.000-07:00

I found a scale in the office and stepped on it today. It turns out I have lost a little over 10 pounds in the three weeks I've lived here!

I've had two big changes in my routine. First of all I walk at least 2 miles every day. That is a big jump from zero previously. I walk to work everyday plus I walk home for lunch. That's probably an hour and a half of walking. My feet always hurt when I get home but I make up for it when I think about my belt being too big for me. I don't have any more notches to go up and it's still too loose!

Also, I eat a lot less fast food. I know I've celebrated the fact that we found chain restaurants here in the city but the fact is that we rarely eat there. I used to eat fast food every day at lunch. I've never done that here. The only chain I know of that is reasonably near my office is Subway.

Living in the city rules. I don't want to ever move out to the suburbs.

Wednesday at the Square.

2006-04-26T17:40:00.000-07:00

My XM radio died today as I was walking home. I was really bummed until I turned toward sleepy little Lafayette Square and saw what looked like about a million people packing the place out and dancing to some loud music. It's Wednesday at the Square! There were people up front doing what looked like some sort of square dancing. Then further back people were kind of hanging out like they were picnicing at the park. Everybody looked like they were having a ball. I was really impressed with the turnout. WATS is no joke.

I wish I had brought the camera. I guess there's always next Wednesday.

Cowboy Mouth will be there on May 31. I will definitely be leaving work early on that day!

Comment away

2006-04-26T17:34:00.000-07:00

Apparently I had comment moderation turned on for some reason. I didn't notice it until I got an email about it. After I approved all the comments I turned it off.

Post away.

This link pops.

2006-04-25T17:57:00.000-07:00

It took me a long time to figure out how to do this so I figured I'd post it for any new bloggers who don't wanna waste all that time.

If you want to make your links open up in a new window add "target=(whatever)

Ex. < a href="http://www.nolaorbust.blogspot.com/" target=1 >Adventures in the Big Easy < /a>

becomes

Adventures in the Big Easy (pop!)

I did that for all my links in the sidebar. The next link is "target=2" and so on. There is a code to make every link pop but they'll just open in one window. This way each link gets it's own page.

Some people don't like this practice. Apparently they like to use their back button for some reasons. I personally like to click a link, check it out, maybe explore links on that page, follow those links etcetera and then go back to the original. New windows make that a lot easier.

The opposition:

THIS LINK POPS

THIS LINK POPS

THIS LINK POPS

I may get rid of all those pops sometime. For now, since this is my first webpage, I like to play around with html. Feel free to post your opinion in the comments.

We've been linked!

2006-04-25T17:39:00.000-07:00

Wow. It only took a couple of weeks to get that traffic up. Thanks to Adrastos for linking to us! You gotta check it out. It's definitely the place to go to for NOLA election news coverage. I never get tired of reading about "gorilla Ron."

Welcome to all of our new readers. Hope you will stick around!

NOLA mayor update

2006-04-22T21:12:00.000-07:00

There will be a run-off in the mayor's race between Nagin and Landrieu.

Nagin "won" but he didn't get the 50% he needed to win outright. That's kind of hard to do when you're facing 22 other candidates.

Lots of talk today about Nagin's inability to raise funds post Katrina. He raised something between 100 to 200K this year. Landrieu's numbers were in the millions. That's gonna change real quick. I bet people are shocked that Nagin did so well.

I still say the race is going to be tight. I know one thing - I'm gonna see these two guy's mugs on my TV constantly over the next month.

As far as who wins. Who knows? More voting will probably mean more votes for Nagin. People on TV act like race doesn't matter but it obviously does. Nagin crushed Landrieu in the black vote but the networks are saying the two "shared" 90% of the votes. That's true but Nagin got a MUCH bigger part of that share.

It's all gonna depend on how many people will come back out and vote in the runoff. More votes = move black votes = more Nagin votes. Landrieu supporters better hope for rain.

Une promenade par le Vieux Carre

2006-04-22T12:48:00.000-07:00

Today we took a walk around the French Quarter (the Vieux Carre - en francais, or simply the Quarter as the locals call it) . There were a lot of people because there is a French Quarter festival going on. Lots of loud music and lots of tourists.

We checked out the Cafe du Monde first. It was packed! We found a seat and ordered beignets. They were OK. Nothing really to write home about. I'll tell you this, it's a sugar buster nightmare. They are basically pastries caked in sugar. It's really a touristy kind of place. I'm glad we went just to say we were there but I don't know that it's worth a 15 block walk. Also, it's another place that only takes cash. What is up with that around here?

After that we just walked around and checked out the sights. There were a lot of shops and people selling stuff on the street. Bands were everywhere so you could just stop and listen if you wanted. Election day is today so we saw a million campaign signs ruining the view. We saw Arnie Fielkow riding down the street in a bus with his supporters on megaphones telling everyone to vote for him. Arnie is a former Saints executive who's running for Councilman at large. This is one of the two councilman whose district includes the whole city. I don't know how many people there are eligible to vote for the guy but at least he's trying. I'll be glad when this thing is over.

We also got a chance to check out the Mississippi river. It was only about a block from the main street we were on. We sat down and watched a few steamboats go by.

Along the way I noticed that every street has three names. There is the Anglicized name, the French name and a Spanish name. For about a 40 year stretch early in New Orleans' history it was controlled by the Spanish. The French got it back during the Napolean times right before he sold it to America with the Louisiana purchase. The French version of the street is basically "Rue _____".
The Spanish version was "Calle d _____" You saw the Spanish name written in markers placed on buildings. They basically said "This road used to be Calle d ____". Also the spanish used "san" instead of "saint" (i.e. san pedro and saint peter). The street signs have the English name in big letters and the French name in smaller letters above it.

We walked down Bourbon street on the way back. It was interesting to say the least. We walked past about a million strip clubs. Hustler has three on one 6 block stretch. I never knew there were specialty strip clubs but apparently there are. We also walked past a million bars including a few gay bars. I patted myself on the back for recognizing them due to their huge rainbow flags hanging near the front door. Along the way we checked out the novelty shirts on the store fronts. They were pretty crude and therefore very funny. Most referenced either Nagin's chocolate city speech or made derogatory remarks about Hurricane Katrina. We laughed all along the way.

Unfortuantely we didn't walk though Jackson Square. We'll have to go look around when there aren't so many people.

Overall the Quarter is very cool. We'll definately be back.

BTW - I hope that title says "A walk through the French Quarter." If not blame http://babelfish.altavista.com. I changed the translation a little because that's how I roll.

I got Old Hickory's back

2006-04-21T20:08:00.000-07:00

On my way to and from work I always walk through Lafayette Square. I don't know why but I really like it. It's surrounded by trees and has a few statues and plaques. One of the more interesting plaques is in French.

One of the statues is of Henry Clay. I don't understand why. It's seems really odd to have that here in a city that celebrates Andrew Jackson so much. Wasn't Clay the guy that cost the hero of the battle of New Orleans the presidency in 1824? The corrupt bargain? I'm no historian but I'm pretty sure Andrew Jackson hated his guts. They say the city put it up to honor Clay for the compromise of 1850, keeping the country out of civil war for another decade. There had to be other reasons. I think his brother lived here in the "Clay House" which is somewhere in the French Quarter. Maybe he had something to do with it. Who knows, maybe I'm the only history nerd who wonders about this.

Also in the square are statues of Benjamin Franklin and some local philanthropist but oddly enough, no statute of the Marquis de Lafayette. All they have is a plaque in front of a tree that says the tree was planted in his honor.

It's a quiet little place whenever I walk by but I learned today that they have music festivals there every Wednesday during this time of year. I haven't seen anything. Maybe I'm walking by at the wrong times.

Surrendering to French culture

2006-04-21T19:23:00.000-07:00

You don't have to go far in New Orleans to see a French flag. It's really odd to see them with politics the way they are today. Insulting France today is almost as American as apple pie. They really celebrate French culture here though, for obvious reasons I guess (being founded by the French and all). I think it's great and makes the city really unique. It's just odd to adjust to.

Of course one of the most famous places in New Orleans is the French Quarter.

We ended up driving around the French Quarter today at lunch. BIG difference from the Warehouse district. Lots' of foot traffic. Mostly because there was some kind of festival and a lot of loud music. The buildings are a lot different as well. As soon as you cross Canal Street it's like you are in a different city. We went the wrong way on some small one way while down there so that was fun! Luckily there wasn't any traffic on it. Some festival security guy stopped us to let us know. I guess that's a good thing.

We plan to go to the Cafe du Monde tomorrow. I've got to work for a little while tomorrow though. Hopefully we can fit the cafe and the D-Day trip in during the daylight hours.

NOLA mayor's race

2006-04-19T17:34:00.000-07:00

Lots of talk about the Mayoral election this Saturday. Everyone thinks it's cool that that debate was nationally televised. I don't know how many people watched it though. It was MSNBC after all. I doubt 24 had much to worry about in the ratings.

Here's the cliff notes version of the race that I've learned from talking to folks around town.

There are really only four major players. Nagin, Landrieu, Forman and Couhig. Couhig is a Republican though and NOLA is solidly Democratic.

Nagin, the incumbent, basically had everyone's vote last time. He was a businessman who appealed to both white and black. The city has about something around a 70/30 - black/white ratio. Nagin managed to offend almost all of the white people with his "chocolate city" speech. Basically he told a majority black group that he intended to keep NOLA a "chocolate city" and that he didn't care what the white people Uptown thought about it. Most of the people in my office are white people who live Uptown and they're really upset. The funny thing is that most of them voted for Nagin last time.

Landrieu, the current Lt. Governor is a career politician from a political family. His dad was mayor of NOLA and his sister is a Senator for Louisiana. He seems to appeal to both white and black people which is critical. His dad ended segregation in NOLA so his family has a lot of support in the black community. Most people I talk to will vote for him and think he'll win.

I know one thing, he has a lot of money. His commercials are on 24/7.

Forman is a businessman responsible for the Audobon Zoo and a bunch of other big projects. He used to be a Republican but changed to be a Democrat when he started working with Nagin's administration. He's been friends with Landrieu for a long time. Forman encouraged him to run for mayor instead of governor. When Landrieu did decide to run for mayor Forman stayed in the race anyway and now he's running attack ads against his buddy. I don't know who's voting for Forman. Maybe conservative Democrats who refuse to vote for Nagin. He's kind of like this election's Ralph Nader. He's ruining it for Landrieu.

As far as Couhig he's the Republican's choice. That means he'll lose.

It think it comes down to Nagin and Landrieu. Probably depends on how many displaced voters send in votes. Should be a tight race. I say Landrieu by a hair.

Authentic New Orleans cuisine

2006-04-18T17:46:00.000-07:00

Aubie is the best person in the world.

Today she discovered that McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy's are all just a few blocks from our place on St. Charles Avenue. We never go that way because frankly the traffic is a nightmare. I don't think we'll be going there all the time but it's good to know that if we just want to walk somewhere to get a burger we don't have to stop at a bar.

Something to fall back on

2006-04-16T19:28:00.000-07:00

The job market down here is awesome for service sector jobs. Everywhere you look there are signs offering at least $10 an hour for restaurants and stores. I saw a Starbucks that was offering full benefits for working 20 hours a week. I just wish there were enough people to take advantage of it.

Lots of places close around 7pm here. This is very difficult to adjust to. Some stores haven't even reopened yet because they don't have enough workers to justify opening the doors. Some big chain stores are open but only a portion of the building is available. The news coverage of Katrina has died down nationally but rest assured that the people here are still living with the consequences of it. I know it's inconsequential in comparison to the tragedy that took place immediately afterwards but it's just really odd to have places you expect to be open 24/7 close down.

I don't think I've gone a day without someone mentioning the storm to me. It's the number one topic of conversation for obvious reasons. I feel really awkward since I wasn't here before then. They always try to compare it to Ivan but you really can't. The main problem here was water not wind. Everyone talks about how devestating the flooding was. It's not surprising then that local news is wall to wall Katrina aftermath coverage even seven months later.

I don't know if things will ever be back to normal here but I hope for an uneventful hurricane season this year so things will get as close to that as possible.

Anyway, the original point of this post is that I have a new appreciation for the folks who work at the restaurants and shops. If my boss decides I'm not needed anymore I may try my hand at making frappuccino's.

One week down

2006-04-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

One worry that we had about living in the city was safety at night. There's been a lot of talk in the news about rising crime. One week in and I feel like we are OK. I've seen a couple of homeless guys but only during the day. We walked home tonight and it was really cool. There are lights everywhere and a bar at almost every corner. From Poydas to the river is a good spot.

One thing I've notice is that there aren't a lot of people walking around. Maybe everyone is moving back into other parts of the city first. I know that housing prices in this area are inflated. Another thing is that we live near most of the hotels and I imagine there's not a lot of tourism these days. Jazz fest is coming up at the end of the month and that's supposed to be a big deal here. Maybe that will change things a little.

It's only been a little while but the warehouse district seems like a great spot. It's exciting to be a part of the new New Orleans.

Kenny Rogers is alright with me

2006-04-15T20:04:00.000-07:00

Finally we left the house!

We left with the intentions of taking pictures of the city but it got dark fast and our pictures look like garbage. As we walked we ran into Harrah's casino. We decided to check it out.

It was my first time in a casino. The place was huge and it had wall to wall video poker machines. We walked around and looked at them and watched people play. Finally we decided to throw down $2o and test our luck.

I looked longingly at the blackjack tables but couldn't justify throwing down the minimum 15 dollars it took to sit down. It was on to the slots.

First thing. No matter what type of slot you play you have to throw down $5. It doesn't matter if you are playing penny slots, you just get a bunch of turns. I watched Aubie play unsuccessfully for a while before I tried it myself. I played some game which I probably will never understand. Anyway it was a nickel slot and somehow I ended up winning $14 on my first try! I played a few more times and didn't win $14 again so I cashed out and moved on.

Eventually I moved on to a penny slot with Kenny Rogers on the front. I put my $5 in and COULD NOT give it to the casino. I kept winning. I never made more than $6 but I never had fewer than $4. You can spend the entire night at that thing. It was pretty fun. I cashed out with $5.02. Take that Harrahs!

Aubie lent me 10 dollars when I walked into the place and somehow I walked away with around 20. I don't think I lost more than 1 dollar total the whole night. I had an old professor who insisted that the house always wins. I guess he never met me! OK, he did but he was wrong.

The bartender got a some of my winnings though. Plus I tipped a lot because that's how I roll.

When you talk to people they tell you that you get free drinks. What they might not tell you is that those drinks are horrible. I decided to go and get a real drink from the bar. The guy up there is quite a story.

He seemed to think he was Tom Cruise in Cocktail. He flipped vodka bottles and popped beer tops so that they would fly into the air. I wasn't that impressed but felt like I had to act like I was because the poor guy was trying so hard. Plus he was really confident. I guess that's how you pull it off. He also had dumb jokes like asking me if I had another credit card. I said no and he said good, I wouldn't need one. The guys at the bar yukked it up. We all had a good forced laugh. Good times.

All in all it was a fun experience but I don't think I have to worry about any gambler's anonymous meeting anytime soon.