Friday night was an amazing night of music. It was Paul Sanchez, Sonia Tetlow, Mary Lasange, David Torkanowsky and the drummer from the Iguana's. It was shorter sets as Paul still wasn't feel all that great, but you couldn't tell. The music was ON FIRE. Really, there was no other way to put it. There was a fun group of people there, including Chris Rose. Shelley, Paul's wife said I could come visit her on the set of K-Ville when she starts back up to work in a few weeks. WHOO HOO!! :) After Paul finished it was time to head to the Leaf and hear the rest of Tony Hall's set. Amazing.....then off to home. I didn't move much of Saturday. I tried watching a few movies, only to fall asleep within in 5 mins of each one. I guess my body was just tired.

That evening I went over to some friend's where we ate a lot of food and drank beer. It was nice to get to meet their neighbors and hear some interesting stories about a few people we all know....It was nice.

Yesterday I caught up on some tivo, finished up a book (I kinda gave up keeping track of the 50 book challenge....I have read at least 10-15 that haven't been put up here if not more) ran some errands, cleaned the house and watched a few movies. I caught "The Holiday" which was sweet and Marie Antoinette. I found this movie to be MUCH better than Sophia Coppola's last one. (it was soooo boring, Lost in Translation) it was visually beautiful. A little weird in areas, like the flashing of banners on a painting. It told the story, yet didn't. I felt there was so much more that could have been told, and the ending was way to abrupt for me, yet I still enjoyed the movie.

Last night I headed out to d.b.a again for what has become a Thursday night tradition. For June anyway. Paul Sanchez has been having weekly gigs there. When I got there, I found out that Paul was actually under the weather so the other two people that was going to play with him played. Sonia Tetlow and David Torkanowsky. And it was amazing. Sonia has some amazing songs, I am sitting here listening to her CD and realizing what an incredible musician she is. I knew she was a good bass player, having heard her play with Cowboy Mouth. (She is no longer with the band) but I never really heard her play the guitar or sing. Now I am sad that Paul wasn't feeling well, however it gave me the chance to experience new music. David continues to amaze me because he had never heard any of her songs and you couldn't tell at all. He also did an amazing version of "When My Dreamboat".

Tonight is a bit of a pickle. Paul is scheduled to play at Carrollton Station tonight. Sonia is also playing with him. Also just up the street? At the Maple Leaf? It is Tony Hall. I mean last Friday no one I really cared to see was playing and now 2 in one night? I love these kind of pickles and have a feeling I will be doing a bit of back and forth there. Once again I love this town.

I am also in love with the Voo Doo Fest line up. Both Bonerama and Porter-Batiste-Stoltz will be playing. The whole line up looks stellar.

Last night was the final Wednesday in the Square concert. It was a fun, but insanely busy night. For the first time in 3 weeks it didn't rain. I guess every one decided to come out for the last one or something. They actually had us start pouring early, and we poured late. I killed six kegs on my own. SIX. That is a whole lot of freakin beer. I started really pouring about 5. For about 2-1/2 hours the only time I turned my tap off was when the keg was out. It was so hot out that we were all sweating up a storm. The end of the night I was a beer soaked, sweaty mess. But we had FUN! We kept singing along to the songs (it was a cover band) and danced around in one spot. Now what am I gonna do with my Wednesdays???

You know it is going to be a great evening when you walk into the bar and your friend playing that night introduces you to some "new friends" and then gets really excited when one of his old dear friends comes in.

Last night was a great night. Paul played about an hour solo, then James Andrews joined him. In the audience were Chris Rose, John Boutte and a whole lot of other people. It was a great night. The music was amazing and the people were even better. I did make new friends, some people from Florida that loved Paul at Jazz Fest that they came back to see him this weekend. They also love Bonerama, they will be hitting at least one Florida show!! :) I had a great night....one that makes me proud to live here.

One month after my laptop at home died, it is finally semi-functional. Once again everything was lost, however this time I had saved most everything. With the exception of the photos from French Quarter Fest and all the songs on itunes. At least I hadn't finished putting all my cds on the computer yet.....it is pretty stripped to the basics. Some of the programs I had like word perfect, are not being offered anymore. Apparently there is a google word that is pretty good, I am going to check that out in a bit. I just can't get the computer to connect to my internet. Actually it connects to our wireless router but can't actually connect from there, I will have a strong signal and everything, but it will say "limited to no connectivity" I have reset the router twice, and still can't get it to connect. I thought maybe it was the storm we had last night, so I will give it another go tonight. Otherwise I am at a loss and will have to call in one of my two computer guru friends.....

On a totally other note, I just got back from my eye doctor....the one I see to check on the ole retinas. I saw him last 6 or 7 months ago, this time he wants to see me in a year. Which means all the laser is working and keeping the holes in the retinas closed, there are no new ones and the surgery I had to reattach the retina in my left eye is still doing good!!! WHOO HOO!!

I had a pretty good weekend. Thursday night I caught up with some friends who I hadn't seen in awhile and introduced them to the wonders of Paul Sanchez. Paul even invited one of them to play with him!! I am going to enjoy the Thursday nights in June as he brings in someone new each week. This week James Andrews joins him, the week after is Tork and the final week is none other than Craig Klein. Amazing music all in one space. Friday evening after work I went over to the Big Top and caught the Pfister Sisters, after a quick rest at the house, I headed on over to the Maple Leaf. As I bellied up to the bar Jeff said "It just isn't a Friday night without you here" I don't know if that is a good thing or not. It was a long and wild night. We all had so much fun and I saw a few people that I hadn't expected to see there. Saturday I caught up on some netflix movies and then headed out to the Quarter. It had been extremly warm here all weekend, so I stayed mainly indoors, I caught Freaky T's sets at the 300 Club. The music was just killin. The actual venue? Left a bit to be desired. The staff seemed overwhelmed. Yesterday was cleaning and running errands for the first part of the day, I then had to be out of the house for a few hours, as there was an open house. I didn't feel like going anywhere, so I just went over to Palmer Park and read. I did visit with several neighbors as well, again the hot topic was the house. Our immediate neighbors still want the house.....I hope they get it!

One of the things I love about New Orleans, is the music. There doesn't seem to be a shortage of music at any one time, either coming from the clubs to festivals. This weekend there will be both the Creole Tomato Festival and the Seafood Festival, in the Quarter, with I believe 4 stages. You can see club listings for every night of the week (my favorites to look at are wwoz and offbeat) There is always some good music happening somewhere in town. For example my weekend fun begins tonight. I will catch Paul Sanchez out at d.b.a for an early set. Tomorrow night I will be at the Maple Leaf for Morning 40 Federation. Saturday out at Club 300 for Rick's cd release party (amazing cd). And quite possibly a stop back out at the Maple Leaf.

In today's weekly email from Offbeat, it seems that another place has had to stop with live music. Parkway Bakery and Tavern. It wasn't anywhere I went to hear music, just to have an amazing roast beef po'boy. However, the fact remains that the city is once again cracking down on some venues/resturants/bars that have live music something about having permits. However this was not an issue before Katrina. It seems that one of the main reasons is that the neighbors are complaining. Are they complaining about the noise? The crowds? The fact that people are having fun and they are not? I have no idea. Actually, I do have a theory. I think it may be some of the newer people moving into the area. I really hope that I am wrong on that. Because really if you move into an area, knowing there is a place near by that provides live entertainment, your ass better be able to deal with it. A big part of NOLA is the music. So many of us have worked our butts off to get NOLA music back home, only to have them treated harshly in more ways than one. Other than writing to the city council, I don't know what else can be done. Don't they have better things to do with their time? I think they do.

Please make sure your smoke detectors work!! My friend and old housemate's did not. There was a fire at their house on Tuesday night. They got two of the four cats out. My poor Fritzel Ditzel didn't make it. :( Well he wasn't mine, but he was Liza's boyfriend!! She has missed him since he moved. They don't know if the house is rebuildable or not. They were almost done remodeling it. Have a plan, check your smoke detectors.

So our neighbors put in an offer yesterday. Within an hour our landlord had turned it down. He thinks he can get the asking price. Which maybe he can, however the reason they went low on it was the previous lead issues we had. When they asked him about it, he totally downplayed it, saying something like the kid and dog drug it in. Well, yes that is true, the dog actually died and the State told the people living downstairs that if they stayed at the house one more night, the State would be taking their son from them. It IS/WAS a big deal. Apparently the final reports haven't come back in yet. Makes me wonder if the house should even be on the market at this point, and how some unsuspecting soul will not know about the lead issues. Also makes me wonder if our landlord was even remotely honest about our lease being safe.

On a totally random side note, how is that it has been raining cats and dogs, yet my allergies are flaring up to no end? I am achy, sore throat, head achy, eyes itching, worn out feeling, sneezing. I thought with the rain it would curb some of the pollutants. *sigh*

Why is it that the short weeks tend to go by at a snail's pace, then the weekend just flies by? Friday night I got home to find that the house was actually put on the market. It was suppose to be this week. I was also informed by our neighbors that according to the realtor's website? There is an open house on Wed. We still haven't been told this from the Landlord's office. The house being on the market was the topic of conversation at the gathering all the neighbors had in the park. That was actually really fun, we got to meet a lot of the neighbors. Later we caught a set of Grayson Capps at d.b.a. We of course ended the night at the Maple Leaf. Saturday we spent part of the day out at the Freret Street Festival. Saw a lot of people I knew, some playing in various bands, some not. It was a nice HOT afternoon. Later Melissa and I went out to, yup you guessed it, the Maple Leaf. We rang in Melissa's birthday there. Yesterday was spent cleaning the house top to bottom. There was a showing of the house yesterday evening, luckily it was our next door neighbors and they are seriously considering buying the house. They would want us to stay.

Computer woes are still going on full force. I talked to the 3rd person at Dell a few weeks ago, and they were going to be sending me the operating cds to reinstall on my computer. It was going to take 5-7 business days to get to me. The 7th business day went by and no cds. I get a call from Dell asking if I had received them yet. I said "no" so the person does a tracking on the cds and finds out that they didn't even bother to send the cds out until the 7th business day. I would be getting the cds on Tuesday because of the holiday. Fine. Tuesday comes and goes...no cds. Wednesday I get a call from my old job, the job I had BK (before Katrina) seems they had a package for me. Seems I remember telling the idiot at Dell specifically NOT to send it to that address as I no longer worked there and to send it to my home address. I finally get the cds, and of course everytime Dell calls (a different person each time) I am not at home in front of my computer. Yesterday I arrange for them to call me at 4:30 cst, I would be home in front of my computer. 4:30 comes and goes. I leave a message for the last person I talk with at 5. 45 mins later I called back. I finally talked to a person, who informed me that they SENT ME THE WRONG FRICKIN CDS. I should have the right ones, at my home on Monday. At 7:30 my phone rang. Guess who it was?? Dell....wanting to know if I wanted to install the cds.....it was the idiot who was suppose to call me at 4:30, correction, it was the person who was handed the call from the person who was suppose to call me at 4:30. OH OH and the best part about all of this????? I got the blue screen of death twice yesterday at work. If I can get through today without ripping someone's head off? Life will be good.