Month: May 2026

After years and years of talking about renovating, the smarter solution isnt to renovate.

We “looked” at a few houses. In fact, only two houses- and Taylor really liked the second- it had what she had been describing a renovation to be- an open kitchen, extra bedroom, and more. It came upon us quickly- we were mostly looking to get ideas for what to do with our renovation, but the spreadsheets of numbers comparing the financial impacts of staying versus the numbers of going came out awash.

Buckle up, this is going to be crazy. First, we have to do a ton of work. Then, we have to do our normal stuff, and then we have to do a TON more work.

In the mean time, we need boxes. Places like UHaul sell boxes, for around $3 each. The moving company sells boxes for $7 each. No thanks.

Instead, I got to know the manager at my local grocery store, assured them I wasn’t homeless, and they set aside hundreds of dollars worth of boxes to use- a true godsend.

After getting the boxes, we have to get them home, re-build them with a tape gun, find the right size for the items we are packing, pack it with the newspaper grade paper we got from Amazon, take it back outside and seal it, and label it with the room and contents in each box.

In addition to all the packing and sourcing of free boxes, normal life things have to continue; Mercy’s soccer team, seeing my cousin in New Orleans a few weeks ago, Amelia’s graduation, and going to the beach for memorial day.

Recently I have been using ChatGPT to turn pictures of people into a specific theme, and it has been fun. But after all of these events, more boxes need to be sourced:

There are 15 days lefts until we own the new house. Moving day is one day after that, then we move aggressively to sell our current house. At this point, there is no time to think- I am just running off of adrenaline at all the things that need to be done before we meet with the closing attorney’s- and all of the work is based off of things I am not too good at: being very quick and detail oriented with emails for all the paperwork the banks require of me, as well as the realtor, movers, new homeowners insurance, closing attorneys, etc. In the meantime, we try and pack 5 boxes a day if we can help it.

It is exciting, yes. It will be the last time we ever move. And im excited- the new kitchen has a gas range I look forward to using, and a ton of other parts I am excited about- we can’t wait to have you over. In the mean time, wish us luck these next several days.

Taylor travels for work several times a year, and since we didn’t have a “Luke and Taylor” type of trip planned for the year, adding a few days to her work trip and using the time to see Jazzfest seemed like the best move.

Getting there wasnt great. After departing Charlotte, a storm was approaching the New Orleans airport, and seemed to just stall. It wasnt going anywhere.

The pilot came on and said “New Orleans has issued a groundstop.” What does that mean exactly? My phone had GPS, so I tracked it- we flew past the airport, south over the gulf. We were flying low, and the swamp was beneath us, and the storm was in front of us.

It was the first time I wasn’t 100% confident I was going to walk away.

The Food

This is the reason to come to New Orleans, and in order to do it right, reservations have to be made well in advance. So, we did. Most places worked great, one place was just decent at best.

For dinners:

Started the time by visiting Katies. This Was on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives season 11 (I think), and I couldnt say enough good things about it. My cousin Mary recommended it, and everyone else visiting for Jazzfest had the same idea.

The DDD featured item, the Crawfish Beignet, was just insane. Flavortown for sure.

After Jazzfest, we found a place for sandwiches that was still open around 9:30; An amazing sandwich, and about 1 mile walk from our hotel. The place was packed to the gills.

Brennan’s was the focal point though, hands down. Its an institution in New Orleans, and the creator of the dessert “Bananas Foster.” My cousin’s husband, Steve, works there, and he must have called in or something. When the front waiter (not the back waiter; this place has a “front waiter” and a “back waiter” for each table), said “Mr. Logan? We are pleased to have you, and our chef has a few special items we would like to offer family this evening.” Damn.

Let’s get weird: ordering the most unusual thing on the menu is what I love to do; so this time, I started off with Turtle Soup.

We got a steak tar-tar appetizer thing; I ordered the crawfish something. And of course, the bananas foster. I’m not joking when I say it was one of the top dessert’s Ive ever had.

The last dinner was Mr. B’s bistro. We don’t talk about Mr. B’s Bistro.

Lunches

We did what we could, starting with “The Turkey and the Wolf”. Taylor suggested this originally, and I thought to myself, “I don’t like turkey sandwiches. No”.

Boy was I wrong.

Our schedule was a bit screwy that morning, so we wandered around and got there way early. 10 minutes after opening, the line was 50 deep. Also a DDD featured restaurant. And if you look them up on youtube, they are on “Sandwiches that made history.”

What is so famous?

Bologna. And a Collard Green sandwich. Calling it a “sandwich” just seems a bit disrespectful.

It messed me up the rest of the day- the sandwich was 6″ thick, and I just didn’t have space for anything else. 100% chance I would do it again.

Festival food was tricky; a New Orleans food blogger made some reccomendations, and those ones had some pretty crazy lines. This was the only giant music festival where fresh seafood was an option, so of course I did: hit up Lil Dizzys. All the food vendors had some awesome signage:

Po Boys were also on the list; after our architecture tour, we made our way over to Mahoney’s; Was it simple? Yes. Amazing? Also yes. Just what we needed.

Drinks?

Yes, this city is known for em. The are known for too many of em. But, we strolled, and a few places were worth checking out:

• Napolean House; a light Pimm’s Cup. This was where the first Mayor of New Orleans lived.
• The carousel bar. We didnt get a drink. Just a pic.
• Sazarac Bar. Fancy fancy fancy. They invented the drink for goodness sake. It was the first one I had, and it was solid.
• Courtyard Brewery. Have you ever seen a handwritten beer list?

Honorable mention?

The hotel pool. Packed solid with people. Also having a crawfish boil that day, and time with my cousin and her husband:

The 9th ward, with Bourbon Street and all the tourist spots- I would venture to say its best to have an early evening in that area.

Jazzfest

They expected over 500,000 people for this two-weekend event. The day we went, there were 5 semi-trucks of Coors parked by the gate- and I have never seen such a gigantic crowd in my whole life. The scale was just bonkers.

During the single day we were able to attend, the Eagles, T-Pain, Little Feat, and several others were scheduled- AT THE SAME TIME.

We posted up a few hours early to see T-Pain and it was so, so fun. Jazzfest ends exactly at 7pm, and he played the last hour of the day- just jamming in so many bangers into that set, it was hard to believe:

• Low (Apple Bottom Jeans)
• Good Life (With Kanye West)
• All I do is Win
• Kiss Kiss (With Chris Brown)
• Im in luv (with a stripper)

While waiting, we put our chairs down to save our spots and made it to the small side tent (The biggest tent I have seen in my life) and saw Eric Lidell in the Blues Tent; packed crowd with hundreds outside the tent trying to hear. If you haven’t heard of him, give it a try. Its like a jazzy, blues version of Zac Bryan.

But, clearly T-Pain was the highlight.

T-Pain,

My name is Luke, and I wanted to tell a story about “Low”. It came out in 2007 when you and I were 22 years old. That year, I was in college, and “Low” came in hot. When we went out as college kids, that song was played all the time. Here is a picture of me in college, as well as the woman that became my wife:

“Low” was a good time. It got people moving- I am not the center of the party, but when that song hits, people like me got out of our chairs, and we danced.

Fast forward to 2010. “Low” is 3 years old at that point. You and I are both 25 years old. That woman from the pictures above- her and I got married. The wedding was huge, and the reception was at the Country Club . We were young and had tons of energy, and so did our guests. You know what we did during the reception? We got low. All of us. Just like three years before when the song first hit in the clubs while we were in college, it was like muscle memory kicked in. All of us- just a gigantic party- and we all got LOW!

The party last hours and hours, and it was just a big time.

Fast forward to March of 2026. “Low” is 19 years old. We have a daughter, and she is 11 years old. T-Pain, you and I are 41 years old now. And my daughter wants to do a dance in her 5th grade talent show at a local, suburban school. You know what she did? She got low. I kid you not, I thought she was going to get thrown out of that public school- and it was one of my most proud moments being a dad.

Three months later, my wife and I were able to make it to Jazzfest in New Orleans. Yes, there was an overwhelming amount of people there- the largest event I have ever been to. A few months before when I heard that T-Pain would be in the lineup, I started digging in. It wasn’t just “Low” that was played all of those years. It was:

• Good Life, with Kanye
• I’m in Luv with a Stripper,
• Kiss Kiss, with Chris Brown
• All I do is Win, with a ton of awesome artists.
• Cyclone
• Got Money, with Lil Wayne

Recently the album “On Top of the Covers” was released, and the story changed.

Not only does the T-Pain/”Low” story mean a good time at a party, but now that I am old, the story got even better: it now has a jazzy little sister that covers all the bangers I love, and it is so, so smooth and good. There is no auto-tune, but it hits all the notes covering all of our favorites:

• Thats Life, by Frank Sinatra.
• Summertime; this is traditional, but I like the Sublime version
• Don’t Stop Believing, by Journey.
• American Woman, by Lenny Kravitz.
• Tennesee Whiskey, by Chris Stapleton (I saw him live last year for the first time, amazing).

Just yesterday morning, while getting ready to go to Jazzfest, I played this album in our Hotel Room. The vocals have emotion, the rhythm is slower, and adds some special flavor to the songs we know, and when my wife heard those tracks, she said “This is T Pain? It is so, so good. Ok, we don’t have to see the Eagles (Who were performing at the exact same time), we really have to see T-Pain.”

I thought to myself, “I know baby. I know”.

We posted up in our spot 3 hours early. I didn’t know it, but T-Pain, I have been waiting 19 years to get Low.

Look at that crowd- it is the biggest crowd I have ever seen in my life; and T-Pain, we were all waiting to get Low, because that song is a good time. It is American Culture and heritage at this point. Right now, “Low” has overtaken “California Luv” as the anthem for a party. Spotify says it has been streamed 1.5 BILLION times; Tupac’s California Luv: 1.1 BILLION by comparison.

This crowd with me yesterday would say the same thing. You see, this is my story of “Low”. But the people watching the show were my age too- and “Low” is their story too. It is all of our story- T-Pain, you have been with all of us for years celebrating good times as we got “Low”.

Thanks for the good times T-Pain. I hope there are many, many more.

Sincerely,

Luke .

P.S. I may regret this, but here I am; all 41 years of me, still goofy as hell getting low: