Author: Luke

We have been in our new house since the middle of June. It isn’t far from the old house- just 1.5 miles. The kids are in the same schools, not much has changed- except we crossed the 4 lane road that naturally divides where kids hangout between one neighborhood and the next.

All of Rosies friends we know well- they go to the pool with us, they have gone to elementary school with Rosie the whole way through, and they were all girls.

Now that we are a bit settled, Rosie is out on her scooter and bike doing normal things- riding to her friends house, etc. Except last week, she came home with 5 boys.

A big storm was coming in that afternoon, and I do not think it was symbolic by any means- but all these kids on their electric scooters had to duck in out of the weather, and just chilled at our house.

They were perfectly polite, not too loud, did not run in the house, and they all likely have great parents. It was terrible. Something wrong was happening, but I didn’t know what it was.

Taylor and I laughed about it. This was totally normal, we just aren’t ready for this part of parenting yet. Rosie just got the talk. Not a full blown lecture, just a snippet of an ongoing conversation: “dont be alone with a boy. And if something makes you uncomfortable, speak up.” She is a good kid and will make great choices.

The storm.

That same storm was pretty wild, and when a storm gets a bit windy, it means I have to go back to the old house (that we still havent sold yet), and use the leaf blower to clean up, check if the yard needs to be mowed, etc.

In the back of the house, above the garage, this branch fell off a tree, like a spear, and went right through the roof. What was supposed to be 30 minutes of yard maintenance became a thorough documentation of the event, a report to our homeowners insurance, an update to our realtor, an adjustment to that days showings of the house, and just an exhausting day.

I jumped back over to the old house, got the ladder, and removed the branch. Then, seeing how it might rain that afternoon, and the repair guys would not make it in time to do an emergency cover (A tarp), I used my own tarp. Somehow it seemed important not to use nails because of damaging the roof, so I just clamped the tarp to some bricks. Not bad for my first tarping job!

The insurance claim will be pretty straightforward- as the damage included that split unit ac/heater in one of those images above. This is where the water came in, and fried that unit as well 🙁

Indianapolis.

I work for a company called GEOH, and really like it. They do medicaid type billing for home health care, and have a presence in a few states.

It is a fairly small organization, and I work on a team of talented people (software engineers). Our company, as well as most other software companies around the world, have had some big transitions with the implementation of AI, as well as some other internal changes this past year. Leadership in the organization wanted to get us together to address some things as a last-minute trip to nail down some things that just wouldn’t make sense on a zoom call.

So we went to Indianapolis.

The last work trip I went on was to India, so I laugh a little bit about that. Software engineers dont travel much for work it turns out.

The city is known for its sports- the Indy 500, the Colts, the Final Four is hosted there often. There is also the Pacers. But, aside from all of those events on a Tuesday-Thursday, its kinda sleepy.

The owners and the CEO of the company, David and Tom, tried their hardest to show us a good time, but it was pretty quiet no matter which was you looked.

We did a bit of corn hole. Tom, owner of the company in the black shirt, literally won every single game, and he partnered with every single person there. David, CEO, in blue shirt.
This spot was a few blocks from the race track, but on a Tuesday night far removed from any races, our group of 15 was the only activity around.

The offices, and the hotel where we stayed, are not in Indianapolis proper- its a small town called Speedway:

We tackled some technical issues (I love that kind of stuff), and it was a productive time. Our team is really smart together, and everyone brings a different skill to the team, so it was helpful to put our heads together to come up with our own, best solution to move quick as an engineering team.

Above, from the left is employee 2, Dylan; Engineer Seth, Paul, my boss Randy (sitting), Frank the VP of Product, CEO David, and owner Tom on the far right. This was the end of the second day, after which we went and did trivia at a place called Taylors, and I got to hop out to another late-night spot (10:30pm) with Dylan.

It was good and helpful, and I’m optimistic about the future with GEOH.

The new house- we will call it that until there is no more old house and the old house is sold- has come with lots of surprises.

It has marble counters! Thats fancy, maybe a little too fancy- because even though it has marble, it doesnt mean it is new, or even great. It means a lot of TLC, and we inherited the lack of care on many of the surfaces. I tried 9 of the 146 different ways to clean marble that the internet “guaranteed” would work, to no avail. And, surprise! Having a professional do it was a quote for $4000, so this will be tabled.

Beyond the counter tops, there was also a surprise error code on our dishwasher! Who does one call for these things? Max the appliance guy.

After getting it to work (once), the second time, and all my attempts of a fix also failed, so we did a family trip to Lowe’s and decided a kitchenaid would be in our future, and paid Max to install it, because it is better to pay him (a local business guy) than Lowes to do the install, plus I was determined that our time with Max would end on a positive note.

Then we went on the theme and surprised Mercy with a sleepover! Ok, it wasnt really a surprise, but I am trying to build a theme here as we had Mercy’s cousin, Everly, stay the night with us and come to the baseball game. This was the first time we made it to the end of the game, and the real surprise? Overtime! Why pay for 9 innings of baseball when you can have 11?

We really did have fun, and if you know mercy, you know she doesnt smile this big very often- Everly is a great guest and we enjoyed the night; plus, it was fireworks night, and they did a (surprisingly) great display!

The next morning Every joined us for church, and they were surprised to be asked to carry the cross for the Children’s church time; also, Rosie and I both had our separate volunteer duties as well.

Are we done with the surprises? Oh no. This year, for the very first time, I surprised Taylor with an overnight trip to the Fearrington House to celebrate our 16 year anniversary.

It took a bit of work to prepare for:

1. The PGA tournament was in town this weekend, so that boinked any efforts within Greensboro.
2. It was our first night out with a babysitter that wasnt family, so that took preparation.
3. Taylor was supposed to volunteer for church on Sunday, so I had to sneakily get our out of that (Thanks Zach for helping!)
4. Rosies friend was supposed to join us for church while her mom had a shift at work to pick up.
5. Do I pack Taylors bag for her and say “get in the car”, or tell her early and allow her time to pack? I went with the latter, and thankful for it.

But, we havent been on a trip this year as we have been consumed with selling the old house, and it was important to still make time, so I bit the bullet and made it happen. The short answer? It was awesome and we will definitely be back, but we will do it a bit differently next time.

The reason for this place was because I thought it was important for Taylor to have a massage- it is something she wouldnt get for herself, and she has been kicking butt in her job burning the midnight oil, and she deserved it.

The room was great, and way bigger than I expected, but there was a reason. I thought I got the cheapest room (as we always do), but way back in July, I thought it might be a good idea to bump up to a better room, so we did. And, it was worth it for a single night; and I splurged for the $20 strawberries and charcuterie.

We had dinner at the restaurant because I didnt really want to research restaurants in Pittsboro, NC. And, surprise! It may have been the best meal Taylor and I have ever eaten, it was so delicious.

The menu was custom printed to say “Happy Anniversary Mr and Mrs Logan”, ha! What a fancy touch.

The server looked like the actor Sean Penn and did an excellent job. He told me to relax and just be myself; I told him he didnt want me to be myself in that environment, and he said “within reason.”

We sat for 2 hours as small portions came. I had the seafood up and down, and the image above was from the blackened Mahi- somehow a complete black crust, but it did not taste charred whatsoever- it was a complete mystery how something can be cooked like charcoal, but taste absolutely delicious and moist. Im still wondering how they did it, but this was the best piece of fish I have ever had in my life.

After a couple hours rest, surprise! Its time to eat again. Then, stroll around the property, get a couples massage, and head home.

We will definitely go back and do a few things different:

1. Bring a bottle of wine from home. Save some money.
2. Eat in Pittsboro. There are some good restaurants not too far away, as the restaurant on property may have been the most expensive meal in our marriage. Happy anniversary Taylor!
3. Get a smaller room.
4. Skip the massage (it was good, but not for every time).

While preparing for the trip, I rationalized the room upgrade, the dinner, and the massage in isolation. But when putting them all together, the bill was pretty steep. But, we enjoyed it, and learned what to do better for next time.

This title may be a bit misleading, so let me start by clarifying that saying “Shes gone” refers to a work trip, and nothing more.

Now that that is cleared up, Taylor never asked what happens in her absence, so I am going to pre-emptively share a bit of what happened while she was in Montreal for a few days.

The dishwasher broke, so we had to call the repair guy. Those machines are wildly complicated, and I wasnt about to try and fix it myself. His name is Max the appliance guy, he is from Ukraine, and did an ok job- it worked for a few days, then broke again. I think this says more about the washer than the repair guy though.

Mercy and I ate breakfast on the back porch because, why not? She grabbed my camera and reminded me that I needed to get a haircut, a task that always falls to the very bottom of my “to-do” list:

Then we rode bikes to Mercy’s school. Its sad this will only last a few weeks while she is at daycare in this new house before Mercy goes to kindergarten, but it has been really fun to do this several times. This week, we had a special guest (Rosie) join us for the ride. It is much slower on the way there, and she needs a push up a pretty big hill. Whats really great is how when her big-sister is there, Mercy will push herself a little more, determined *not* to be tired in front of her!

When Mercy got home from school, she decided she wanted to be “mommy daddy”. I didnt know what that meant, but she meant that she was going to dress like mommy (the bag) and daddy (the hat and the glasses and the wallet in hand).

All of Rosie’s friends were out of town that week, because thats how summer vacation works as a kid. Rosie was pretty darn bored, and I felt bad about her being alone all week (this was her week without any summer camps), so we did a lunch date to get away from the tv and ipad. She had two options: Panera, or Ichi Sushi (next door to Panera). She chose sushi, and we had some great conversations. Once she got started, she just chit-chatted the whole way through and I loved every minute of it:

Rosie also got creative with some friends that she later found out were still in town. This was a few minutes after she got on her bike to go for a ride, and called me from her friends phone around 12:30 on a Wednesday saying “Daddy, we made a lemonade stand and we need you to bring money and come buy some lemonade.” You bet your butt I walked 3 blocks over there and bought some a cup of low-quality powdered lemonade, and put on a big, big smile about it.

We also stopped by Cici’s house (my mom) and Rosie just sat in front of this gigantic painting for a while. Turns out Rosie was just super tired, and not lost in thought looking at this masterpeice. Yes, this happened before Taylor left when we drove past Cicis house and randomly stopped inside, but I still liked the picture and wanted to share it because its my blog and I am in charge. And it always amazes me how my mom can whip out these paintings in just a day, and has been doing it year-after-year for decades:

Mercy is really digging riding her bike. We rode to the playground, and even though it rained for a few days, we weren’t going to take “no” for an answer.

One rule I have always had is that its ok to get messy if you can change your clothes; meaning, “dont get messy while we are out doing stuff far from home”. So when Mercy asked if she could ride on the dirt trails we found near our new house, my first response was “no”. Then I thought about it, and decided, “why not?”. We can come home and change clothes and get cleaned up after. So, we did. And she always surprises me- she did great, and this was her first pass on them. Mind you, she is in pre-school:

Finally, we went to a church worship night. Our worship leader, Amelia, is so, so talented and she is moving on. We will be sad to see her go, but also appreciated a Wednesday night worship service complete with instruments for kids to play with. Our church always surprises me by their turnout: I only expected a few folks, but there was really a crowd, and of course there was cake afterwards:

beach, swim, and work!

Each year on the 4th, it’s time for the Register Family Vacation. Last year didn’t get a post on the blog, but 2024 did right here.

The kids are older this year- Mercy and Rosie both great swimmers. Mercy needs a bit of attention on the water, but she does pretty great with her cousins.

I had to work the whole week which was a bummer- had to make up for time off in March going to Mexico, and this put more of a burden on Taylor. But, I got to spend a good amount of time in the waves, and Friday was a federal holiday for the 4th.

The Haney’s stayed at the house next door which had a pool; in celestial news there was a strawberry moon. There were some beautiful sunsets, and the peaches we got from a roadside stand were absolutely delicious.

We cooked a meal one night- local North Carolina fish tacos, and they turned out great. They let me heat up the corn tortillas for the meal- 36 tortillas at 2 minutes each.

We have been doing a “Wine club” with some neighbors recently and did something fun: the sommelier we follow on tik tok recommended a super cheap and a decent priced bottle of cab: $5.99 and $20. It was such a fun experience we tried it with the family. All the guys preferred the $20 heavier cab, and ladies preferred the lighter one that was a merlot blend.

Rosie and I watched Jaws for the 2nd year in a row- it was awesome, but the little cousins kept trying to butt in, so we had to duck into a bedroom to watch it. For the fall, Rosie is going to watch her first really scary movie before Halloween- also something I am excited about. Stay tuned.

The parade was great- on a Friday this year instead of the traditional Saturday because so many people end their beach rental weeks on Saturdays.

Above is the big family picture from this year; below is from 10 years ago (2016). A lot of things have changed, but a lot of things are still (thankfully) pretty similar:

Im still as awesome now as I was back then. Maybe even more awesome?

Finally, for the last day, the Core family and the Lynam family came in- the cores stayed the week after, and Lynams joined in for a few days.

We had a fun day on the beach, and celebrated John’s birthday on the 4th of July- also a fun tradition the past several years.

One of the cool moments was getting to see the helicopters do a fly by for the 250th birthday:

Mercy was WIPED OUT on the way home.

One might think, “wow, thats alot”, and you would be right. Except it wasn’t enough, and as soon as we got back, Rosie had AG camp we had to leave the house at 7:45 each day, then dance at night now that she is dancing with the “seniors” until 9:30pm (this was an honor that she got moved up by the way, another story).

And, luckily the city swim meet was also this week for both kids at separate times!

Ok ok, I know- don’t be a jerk. I just realized when one work meeting with the CTO came up and I had to take it at the pool, and I thought, “what are we doing with this craziness of swim? Every day for 6 weeks, this is crazy!”. But, its only 6 weeks, and it helps them do something positive and work hard, right? Ask me again in 10 years and we will see, but I feel pretty good about it.

Rosie is an 11 year old in the 11/12 year old group this year. She doesnt swim year-round like many of them do, but she does do dance- and that must be enough, because she made it to the championship round- the 24th and last seat in the city (that is like 120+ people!). I’m so proud of her! This was her final event:

Finally, to get some time by myself, I finally got to visit the triad meat market across town for an easy Saturday morning. The place was great- they process their own meat (fresher, less preservatives than the big grocery store). Between there, and the farmers market, we really got a bounty. Then, a big old (Boston) butt went on the smoker, and we had a mediocre pork BBQ for dinner. It was a solid 6/10, but I am new to this smoking thing and it will only get better. Next time gotta go slower and lower despite what the recipe says.

This is a question I have heard a bit with friends at the pool, friends at church, and everywhere else.

No. The answer to that question is No.

But we are making great progress! Here are a few things I want to share from the past little bit that are worth mentioning about it:

Taylor left town immediately for a work trip.

This was a view from her morning walk 4 days after we moved in. And if you think I am going to make decisions about which drawer to put our bowls and silverware in, or the types of kitchen chairs or table we will have in our kitchen , you are out of your mind. Clearly that is a Taylor job, and it definitely won’t happen in her absence.

I got a new grill

Who cares about getting settled in, let’s smoke some meat! Obviously this was a higher priority. For the few days Taylor was gone, I tried one of each: wings, ribs, and a boston butt. They were all low-risk, because if they turn our terrible, who cares? And not very expensive at all to get a few pounds of meat.

So, no: my socks weren’t put away in a new closet the way that I would really like to do it, but I assembled the new grill and the ribs were pretty darn good, and that counts for something.

Father’s Day

Somehow it’s father’s day again. I dont know where or how that snuck in on us, but it did. So, instead of deciding where to put my winter gloves and snow pants, we did whatever I wanted to do, and that meant riding bikes to Ben and Jerry’s after eating my waffle-face breakfast. The kids did amazing. It was hot. I told Mercy to just follow her older sister, and she took that as marching orders and rode with reckless abandon, beyond the strength of most any 5 year olds.

Cardboard Boat Regatta

What in the world is a “cardboard Boat Regatta” you might ask? If you guessed “building a boat out of cardboard and racing it in the pool” you would be right. So the day before father’s day, instead of organizing a garage and figuring out how to mow the lawn for this new house, we spent the day building (or, just helping supply stuff) for Rosie and her BFF to build their own cardboard boat.

Their boat is called the “Karen Cruiser” and the theme was “I want to talk to the manager.”

It was really hilarious. Here is a very worthwhile video of it, without any AI at all:

The oven

The oven that came with the house seems great- its an LG, gas range. I think it even has convection cooking.

But it doenst have racks inside.

The old owners took the oven racks with them. And you know what can be cooked in an oven without oven racks?

I’ll keep waiting while you come to the same conclusion we did: nothing. Nothing can be cooked in an oven without oven racks.

So, I ordered new ones. 24.7″ seemed about right- amazon sells tons of them that size. But they are all too big and dont fit. 24.55″ are also sold on Amazon. Those also don’t fit. The model number is very, very hard to find on this sucker, and after finding the model number and searching, the result from the LG website was “0 items match that model number”.

So after 2 weeks and returning 2 sets of the wrong sized oven racks, the correct ones are on order. And no, the TV isnt mounted the way that it should be yet, but we will soon have a usable oven.

The Dog

One of my favorite things, and probably the simplest, is the dog door. I didnt realize how many times the dog is let in and out of the house during a day, until it doesnt need to be done anymore.

And while the dog does let itself in and out, we quickly learned the fence does not contain the dog. So, while Taylor was away on a work trip for several days, I spent many, many hours chasing the dog, who knows she is much, much faster than I am.

It was an opportunity to meet many new neighbors. And after the 7th time, I rage-ordered a special collar from amazon. Two (extremely low setting) shocks later, the dog has not run away in days.

Sorry, the books in my office have not been placed on the shelves yet, but the dog hasn’t run away, so thats something.

Things are going great, and we are getting there! As for “All settled?” That might be a couple years from now.

We thought we wanted to just remodel our kitchen. Then we went to go look at a house “just to see”, and 45 days later, we closed on it.

The past week was just downright wild. Rosie finished 5th grade. Mercy finished Pre-K. 5th grade had a graduation pool party. Taylor started to get all the feels about Rosie getting so big:

Closing, Moving, and the first night.

We had an excellent Realtor (and our neighbor) Chidi- he walked us through the process and joined us for a pic after closing, and then we will be putting him to work selling our old house in just a few weeks:

Since we are moving as quickly as possible, I borrowed my mom’s van for these few days (thanks mom!). Its much better than spending money renting a truck to tackle all the things a moving company can’t get, but driving this van comes with its own vibe. So I rolled up to the closing attorney (who was an old high school friend of my brother Jake) driving this bad boy, complete with the first load ready for the first night at the new (and very empty) house:

Also, I had to pick up Rosie from her last day of school in the van, along with her friend- I’m sure riding in that van created a memory both of them will carry with them for a lifetime.

After a couple hours at the pool, the girls and I came to the new (and very empty) house. It has no TV or internet, so we spent the night like savages: building a swing and kicking a beach ball around. The girls shared Mercy’s bed, and the air mattress I brought deflated before I even got on it.

Taylor went home to sleep in a bed.

Moving Day

The moving estimate/moving process was an interesting one at best, and let me tell you why.

In order to figure out an estimate, I had to do a video call with the company to tally all the items that are going to be moved. So, we did that- because I sure as hell am not going to mess with moving myself, or getting friends to help. That window of opportunity in life has closed.

After the video call several weeks ago, I reached out again saying that we have a ton of boxes that also need to be included; they said ok, no problem, we will add a few hundred dollars to the quote.

Then on moving day, I hear: “each item needs to be in a closed box, otherwise we will have to wrap it (in plastic) for you.” This is a silly rule, we are only going 1.5 miles.

Taylor had a hell of a time helping the mover align his original “quote” with what actually needed to move. And let me tell you, pictures of boxes fall short on how much stuff there actually was. The moving guy had to re-tally about everything upon seeing our packing in person (luckily it was only a few hundred instead of a few thousand dollars difference), and they were off to the races.

These movers were huge. 5 of them. Like oxes, and it was 93% out with 99% humidity. They didnt stop all day. They were polite and worked like mathmeticians figuring out the right geometry to get each piece of furniture out of the old house, and into the new. One guy bear hugged a dresser and walked up the stairs alone. My back hurt just watching that.

They did an amazing job. I can’t believe it all happened in one day, and if you ever need to do a move, check these guys out, they did a great job.

Now, we have to spend the rest of the summer selling the old house (1.5 miles away) and getting settled in the new house: I can’t wait to set up this smoker and dig into my new hobby.

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: