It's festival season. Campers, remember to write!

I’ve been remiss at regularly posting so a lengthy update is in order. To prevent this from becoming a diary entry I’ll just stick to a few key highlights.

• The Julias parents came to Lafayette for a week and Shane enjoyed some time off and showing them around Cajun country. The highlight of this trip for the boys was a fishing expedition in the Gulf of Mexico where they caught red fish and something else I’m told is tasty. You can view pictures of the entire trip.


• The last weekend in April was the annual Festival International de Louisiane and Shane’s parents were very accommodating and joined us for our second-favorite music festival in Lafayette, our first favorite is the Zydeco music festival in the fall. (In case you’re wondering, Zydeco (French: "les haricots" or "le zaricot", English: "green beans") is a form of American roots or folk music. It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 20th century from forms of Louisiana Creole music. The rural black Creoles of southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas still sing in Creole French.


• The first weekend in May was spent at Jazz Fest in New Orleans with our friends the Kirkman’s and some boy their daughter brought to visit from England. I still can’t figure out if his name is Steve or Ste. Must be an English thing that this American just doesn’t get. Anyhoo, the best part of Jazz Fest was Bon Jovi and Neil Young. As you can imagine, we slept through the late-nite shows.


• Sometime during the Julias parents visit I got really sick. So sick, we wondered it was swine flu. After a week of fever, chills, aches, pains, sore throat, stuffy nose and a headache, I took my little self to the dr. where he not only didn’t swab my throat (in all reality Shane thought I had strep) but offered me a cortisone shot to feel better immediately and tried to give me crappy antibiotics. I insisted on a z-pac. No worries though, I have my Mexican friend picking up all the antibiotics I could ever want so we have a store of them and don’t have to visit Louisiana doctors. The whole experience was a little disappointing since Lafayette is a regional medical center and somewhat known for the quality of their doctors. As I so often have to conclude, they just do it differently down here.


• The kitties are doing well but for some reason Apollo keeps trying hump Maia. He must have finally reached sexual maturity. It’s kind of sick to watch and I don’t know if I’m supposed to keep him off her or let him “play.” She doesn’t seem that bothered by it so for the most part I just try to pretend like I don’t see anything.


• Work is going well for both of us. I’ve been asked to take on a highly visible multi-year project (job security!) and Shane had two job offers this week. Our plans to move to Boulder could be changing so stay tuned for more updates.
  

I’ve gone on long enough. I’ll try to post more regularly. We seem to keep ourselves busy enough these days that I should have plenty of fodder for the blog.

Seven Weekends in Lafayette

I just finished a long run of seven weekends in Lafayette. This weekend the weather was fabulous and for once we made plans to get out and enjoy it. On Saturday we went to Eggstravaganza at the Acadiana Zoo with our friend Matt and his 3 year old son Ethan. Shane and I were surprised at how nice the zoo was and how active the animals were. I even had an opportunity to feed the lamas! A good time was had by all and we will definitely go back sometime.

On Sunday we had 6 guests over for dinner and Shane stayed up way past his 9 p.m. bedtime. I won at nickels (as always) and we dined on grilled chicken, grits, salad, and a very tasty marinated tri tip. Yummy! My friend Elizabeth's mom shared her grits recipe with me a couple of weeks ago and this was my second attempt. The first time they were not spicy enough, this time they were too spicy. Hopefully I'll get them right next time but for now I'm just happy to have a good southern grits recipe to bring north with me. Come see!

It’s springtime in the south and we’re enjoying it! Thursday I head back to VA for about 10 days. I suspect the weather will be much colder there.

Facebook users show two faces to the world

I like the way this author thinks! Don't be surprised if you see me disappear from your Facebook friends list ... I'm seriously thinking of creating two Facebook pages. One for my personal life, the other for my professional life.

Boulder Quick Facts

Boulder is nestled in the foothills, where the rolling plains meet the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Centrally located near Denver, Denver International Airport, Eldora Ski Resort and Rocky Mountain National Park. Downtown Denver is just 35 minutes away. A few hours from many of Colorado’s world-famous ski resorts, making Boulder the ideal Colorado destination.

Age Demographics:
18-24 years …………………………. 31 %
25-44 ………………………………… 36 %
45-64 ………………………………… 25 %
65+ …………………………………… 8 %
Median ………………………………. 29

Elevation & Size: 5,430 feet (Denver is 5,280 feet); City of Boulder is 27.8 square miles.

Population: 102,500 residents, including 25,000 students at the University of Colorado.

Weather: Four distinct seasons and over 300 sunny days a year.
Average temperature highs/lows:
Spring (March-May) …… 63/35˚ F Summer (June-August)…… 83/55˚ F Fall (Sept.-Oct.) …….…... 72/45˚ F Winter (Nov.-February)…… 45/23˚ F
Average 83.3 inches of snowfall a year.

Recreation: Rated the “#1 Sports Town in America” by Outside Magazine, Boulder offers countless year-round recreational activities. Take advantage of the 200 miles of public hiking and biking trails, approximately 43,000 acres of open space or the Boulder Creek Path, which runs through the middle of town.

Arts & Culture: More than 30 art galleries, 4 local museums, 32 movie & stage theaters and many festivals, including the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Colorado Music Festival and Chautauqua Summer Festival.

Dining: More than 400 restaurants featuring local, regional and international foods.

Accommodations: Approximately 2,000 guestrooms, ranging from full service city hotels to rustic cabins to historic Victorian suites. Whether you are staying at a cozy Bed & Breakfast or our largest conference hotel, mountain views and proximity to activities will ensure an unparalleled experience.

Sister Cities: Dushanbe, Tajikistan; Jalapa, Nicaragua; Lhasa, Tibet; Mante, Mexico; Yamagata, Japan

Founded: City of Boulder founded in 1859.

Why Jam Band Fans Are Better Than Indie Rock Fans

Reprinted from Idolator.com, by Christopher Weingarten (an Indie Rock Fan).

I was skimming through this year's Bonnaroo lineup as part of my usual round of cyber-stalking Neko Case, and I came upon an interesting discovery—this festival kicks ass! Although one of my friends described the layout as a desert of dust and piss, and the jam-centric lineup means stupid Phish is going to play for approximately 76 hours straight, I can pretty much get behind anything that brings together High On Fire and Janelle Monae (that isn't made by the Hood Internet). Something this good could never happen on indie rock's watch! Here are five reasons why the mud-caked hippies who will attend Bonnaroo are better than your sweater-clad ass!

1. Jam band fans don't care about pesky shit like aesthetics.Why does Bonnaroo get to have awesome, underrated thrash metal band Shadows Fall, but the Scion Rock Festival doesn't? Because indie rock kids only care about fringe genres when they are fashionable. Shadows Fall, being a real metal band, bring a lot of zitty teenagers and honest-to-god longhairs to their shows, so indie blogs and mags don't touch them. God forbid someone break up the steady stream of warmed-over stoner rock and black metal bands (only the ones Hydra Head endorses!) in your RSS, guys.

2. Jam band fans are loyal.A jam band fan would sooner eat his hacky sack than give up on a band he loves. Who do you think kept the Grateful Dead alive until "Touch Of Grey"? Or between then and Devendra-fueled revisionist hipster appreciation? Ben Harper and Galactic and Moe are all playing this year, and who knows if I've heard a single note of any of them in a decade. Ben Harper could have been cryogenically frozen next to Walt Disney for all I know. In indie rock circles, bands are played out once their blog cycle ends. How did the Rapture lose all its fans before they even put out a follow-up to Echoes? Why does it seem like an eon since I've heard someone in a sweater vest tell me they're "really feeling Dipset"? Who was in Goblin Cock again?

3. Jam band fans have better drugs.OK, drugs are silly if you're over, like, 19 years old. But I'm guessing the dude on psylocibin mushrooms who's talking to a giant purple hot dog in the sky is probably going to have a more fulfilling night that the coked-out sweatball at the Late Of The Pier show telling me he knows Steve Aoki. Plus, who are you gonna trust to find you good weed? An Octopus Project fan?

4. Jam band fans support music from other countries.I only hear indie-rockers tell me about African music if the hivemind is whispering that it's OK to like Konono No. 1 this week, or Etran Finatawa the next. Meanwhile, when I go to the free African music fest in Prospect Park every summer, it's overrun by hippies! They know the score. At this year's Bonnaroo: Toumani Diabate, Amadou & Mariam, Femi Kuti and the Positive Force, Vieux Farka Touré, and the unstoppable King Sunny Adé & the African Beats.

5. Jam band fans waste their days away following bands and doing drugs and making arepas on the engine blocks of old VW vans instead of writing snarky blog posts all day.Shit.

As Cuts Loom, Will Working From Home Lead to a Layoff?

This Washington Post article seems to indicate WFH puts employees at higher risk of layoff.

Summer Tour

We've started joking that if you want to know where we are, just take a look at the Disco Biscuits tour schedule. Okay, so their tour is a little more aggressive than our pocketbooks or our schedules allow, but we are planning to spend some time with them this summer. Here are our travel (and moving) plans.

The DISCO BISCUITS:
April 17 & 18: Electric Factory, Philadelphia, PA
April 20: 9:30 Club, Washington, DC

FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL, Lafayette, LA:
April 22-26: Lineup TBA
Note: Shane's parents will be visiting, yay!

JAZZ FEST, New Orleans , LA:
May 2: Bon Jovi
May 2 (late nite): Blue Nile, Orchard Lounge
May 3: Neil Young

The DISCO BISCUITS:
May 29: Fox Theatre, Boulder, CO
May 30: Red Rocks Amphitheater, CO

MOVING TO BOULDER, COLORADO!!!! The rest is ...

Mardi Gras Lafayette Style

Beads, boudain, and booze, oh my! That was Mardi Gras "season" and Fat Tuesday in Lafayette. I couldn’t find a local to tell me why beads are thrown so I looked it up online.

The tradition of throws (the beads) dates back to the 1920s. Each parade is put on by a krewe, and according to Hardy (quoted in the article), the Rex krewe began thetradition of throws by tossing out inexpensive necklaces of glass beads. The beads were an instant hit and were soon adopted by all the parading krewes, of which there are about 60 (in New Orleans) today.

The glass beads of the early throws were imported from Czechoslovakia and Japan. Today the plastic throws are manufactured mostly in China.

And for those of you who want to know what boudain is, it’s a tasty “sausage” made of a pork rice dressing and stuffed into pork casings. It’s a traditional Cajun cuisine and quite tasty.

Depression sets in

I no longer know what (or where?) to call home. We’ve sold our house in VA and live in a corporate apartment in LFT. I can be happy anywhere, but I’m happier in some places than in others. Shane is miserable and our trip to Boulder gave us hope we could find a place to live where like-minded people congregate.

This time in our lives will be marked as a period of reflection; a time when we figure out what we want out of life. Depression sets in because I see how unhappy Shane is. It doesn’t help that I do not know when our next bisco gathering will be. It hard to admit because it sounds so crazy, but the people we’ve met at Biscuits shows make me feel loved and I'm happy to call some of them our family. On the same accord, just listening to tDB makes me feel happy! Call me a groupie, call me whatever you want, but I can tell you that when I'm listening to their music I feel contented and full of love.

Red Rocks or Bust!

Out West

Just returned from an invigorating trip to Colorado where Shane and I had a wonderful time with friends, family and of course our favorite band. Part of the reason for making the hasty trip was to give ourselves the opportunity to check out Boulder. We loved it! In fact, we fell in love and can’t wait to make our way back there. Stay tuned for more details.