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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:

Costco sells vacations too- so we got one for Spring Break this year. Taylor has co workers that have travelled a bit to Mexico and even though I am a bit of a wuss, Taylor convinced me it is worth it (it does have the best deals on all-inclusive types of resorts).

We did all the normal things, packed the car, dropped the doggy off, and set out- to CHARLOTTE. Why Charlotte? Well, costco sells cheaper trips if you are willing to fly at crazy hours like we are. So for the 7:30am departure, we went to Charlotte the night before and started our vacation right. Also Mercy had phone using the hotel phone to call Zippy. Sometimes I forget that she was born in a time when landlines didnt exist.

TSA was not being paid, and the national headlines said that lines were hours and hours long. Per usual, I was overthinking this- and wondering what time we should arrive for our 7:40 flight. We decided to catch the 5:00am shuttle from the airport hotel to be prepared for the worst.

At that hour, on a Sunday morning in Charlotte, it was the shortest and easiest TSA experience I ever had. Those people didn’t give a DAMN. Anyways, with my trusty fanny- ahem- MANNY pack ready to go, our $50 burger king breakfast hit the spot. Actually it made me feel terrible, but Rosie was excited about it because she had never had Burger King in her life.

The flight was great- Mercy kicked the seats in front of her and that stressed me out as the lady in front turned around. Taylor and I switched seats- she is better at dealing with that than I am.

Dreams Playa Mujeres

Early flights are cheaper- and give us almost a full day at the resort, so we explored for hours.

After a day of travel, I was thirsty and took a pina colada as we explored- but the tricky part was, there were no pool chairs available. The sun was hot, our room wasnt ready- and I was ready to rest. The front desk had to call their manager around 3pm, and we were ready to get to our room.

Resort Pools

The pools were great- there was a lot going on, they had some pretty huge water slides and hot tubs. Almost all pools were about 4 feet deep, some more shallow. Mercy was pretty good at swimming, so we felt fine. The hardest part was getting a chair- if you didn’t get out and reserve a seat by 7:30, you were out of luck. So, whoever woke up first in our room get that chore. Then, the hotel sent out an alert to all guests: “If you are not at your chair for 40 minutes, your stuff will be moved”. I’m not sure how that would play out exactly, but the last 2 days got much better.

Also the beach was covered with seaweed and smelled bad- the sand was beautiful though.

Resort Food

Is resort food ever amazing? I don’t know, but this place was for families- and the food was a solid 7/10.

There were a few options: Asian Fusion, Seafood, Mexican, Hibachi, French (no kids allowed there), and a Brazilian Steakhouse. We really liked the Brazilian Steakhouse, especially since my birthday dinner at a Brazilian Steakhouse was snowed out this year.

Besides the pools and the food, the landscaping was beautiful.

And, Taylor and I got to do some time in the spa and get a massage- the kids hung out in the “kids club”, and I felt ok about that- there is a ton of security and cameras around there. The steam room, sauna, and massage were a great escape.

The Best Part

Was the day excursion. Looking online from Greensboro, it was hard to tell- it is an overwhelming amount of choices, and I wasnt sure what was safe. After getting there, Taylor asked the front desk and got a solid recommendation for a day trip to the island we could see across the water. Since the beach at our hotel was so sucky, I was glad we got a chance to do this and see a beautiful stretch of sand in Mexico.

The water was an unreal color of blues- almost neon it was so radiant from the sunlight. The crew was amazing- they let us board first and get the VIP seats on top of the catamaran. It may have been an hour to cross the water- about 5 miles – from the port in Cancun to Isla Mujeres, The island of Women.

Rosie and I snorkeled- Mercy was too young so Taylor stayed with her- and I kid you not, it was the most fish I have ever seen. We could almost touch them- yellow and black and white zebra fish- just hundreds of them. The waves were a bit rough, but Rosie was a good swimmer so I wasnt scared. The water was a bit chaotic with several boats in the same place, but I kept an eye out for where we were supposed to go, and Rosie and I held hands through it all- it was so special, Im glad we got to do that.

Some people at the resort were telling us about their trip to Isla Mujeres the day before, and said it was worth it to get a golf cart and explore the island- so we did.

Im glad for this- it was just the right amount of exploring and adventure for me without being too unsafe. And, Rosie got a chance to see some of the smaller, run-down houses on the island. I was glad for this teachable moment so she could see how a lot of the world lives much differently than we do.

Did the kids get along?

Yes. There were a few arguments, but they got along great, and I think it is a combination of two things:

1. I had a good, brief conversation with Rosie about Mercy’s personality based on a book I am reading about the Enneagram. In just a few minutes, I shared how it is super easy for Rosie to make friends, but Mercy is a little more introverted, and looks to Rosie in a big way- so when Rosie toys around with her younger sister, it isn’t that Rosie is doing something bad per se, it just feels worse because of Mercy’s personality type.
   Rosie’s response to this? “What you just said sounded really wise”. That convo was on the first day of our trip, and may have had an imapct?
2. Rosie didnt have any friends there. Duh. But, this often leads to arguments at home- Rosie wants to run off with her friends in a normal way, and Mercy wants to be included, so Mercy feels sad, and Taylor and I have to intervene. This week, they just played together awesome, and I was thankful.

Ok, I am getting tired of writing this post now. Here are a few more pics:

Taylor and I got to talking last night about our family trips and how they have changed over the years, and we tried to remember where we went each year and how lucky we are- so here is a list of our trips as a family of 4.

May, 2021: Charlotte White Water Center

This was our very first trip as a family of 4; we were just coming out of the throes of Covid, didnt have much money, but wanted to get out of the house. We did a day a the Whitewater Center, and a day in downtown Charlotte. Mercy was pretty small, and Rosie wanted to try a ton of things- and we found a great balance. Blog post here.

December 2021: Washington D.C.

Sorry, we dont have a ton of family pics from that trip, so here is a picture of us with a dinosaur. But, still coming out of Covid that year, D.C. was fun, and cold. Pushing the stroller in the subways for Mercy was a challenge- but we were seeing as a family we really valued these times together. The rooms seemed very expensive for us at the time, but they were a great location and made the visit special. The blog post for this trip is here.

February 2022: Colorado

Im reluctant to include this one because Mercy didnt come- she was a bit too young for skiing- but I still valued this trip. Jake turned 40, so we dug deep in our pockets and went to go see him for his birthday. Skiing out west was so fun. Im hoping we can have another fun trip with this crowd one day. Blog post

June 2022: Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Going to the beach with Taylor’s family is a blast, and we were seeing that we (our family of 4) enjoyed our trips, and wanted to do some family time at the beach on our own- so we got a condo in North Myrtle for a few days. Again, no good family pics of the 4 of us, but Myrtle Beach is a special place for kids this age. Post here.

July, 2023: Asheville NC.

On a map, there are lots of great places within a few hour drives of our place in North Carolina. Having seen the beach the previous summer, we wanted to show the kids the mountains and made a fun time of it. Tay was awesome at planning almost all of our family trips so far, and family trips were becoming the highlight of my year each year. Blog post here.

August 2024: Disney World.

Tay had been dreaming of Disney for years- literally- for reasons I won’t get into here, but after thinking of it for so long, and trying hard to convince me, we finally made the trip. I admit I dragged my feet a lot looking at the price tag, but I am so thankful we did it. This was a long trip, but Im glad we did it that way- we didnt miss a single ride, took our time and had a blast, and now I have no desire to return (again, just because we got to stay and do everything!). So, so fun.Blog Post here.

July, 2025: Merriewold

Again, not a ton of pics of the 4 of us, but here is a shot of the girls and I on the steps of the gate house at the entrance of the park. If Taylor had to spend time convincing me to go to Disney, I had to do the same to get her to drive 10 hours to a small town in upstate New York to spend a week at a lake. Mercy was old enough to swim, and Rosie was young enough to not be a teenager with an attitude, and I admit: this was my favorite family vacation of them all. When I asked Rosie what her favorite family trip was, she said Merriewold- but I think that is just because it was the most recent. Blog post here

Ok, so what?

I’m just grateful that we have gotten to share all of these experiences together. Who knew that when we spent what seemed like a ton of money in 2021 to go to Washington D.C, we would get a chance to travel to all of these great place in the next 5 years? It’s not cheap, and I am not 100% confident that we are being very wise when spending money this way instead of investing it for retirement, but each of these memories has been special.

It takes work to make these things happen- there were a few disagreements between Taylor and I as we planned many of these trips- and I was in the wrong about most of those disagreements and I am glad Taylor learned to value family trips as a child, and fought to make them a value in our house as well.

Taylor taught me that it is good for your mental health to have something to look forward to, so we like to have something on the calendar. And, I think these things give our kids a since of identity: these trips with our family show our value of just being together and trying new things, getting out of our routine and comfort zones, having patience with each other (I have the most room to grow in this area), and laughing.

Next time, I’ll share about our 2025 family trip to Cancun: one more for the books!

This weekend the original plan was for Taylor to host a murder-mystery party, something she has been hoping for for years. However, she was asked to be a mentor to someone going through confirmation, and had to go on a weekend beach retreat.

What would you do all by yourself?

Well that’s an easy question. Ever since last year when the girls watched Jaws, they have been itching to watch another scary movie.

So we went to the elementary school’s ice cream social, then grabbed Whataburger from the newest location here in town, and set up camp for a movie night. It was great, but I forgot how scary the movie was since seeing it in theaters. The crew of skeletons was too scary for Mercy, but Rosie and I had a good time- in the room with the loud subwoofer to really experience the whole thing.

Volunteer, obviously

Above is a picture of Rosie at a volunteer day in 2016- she has been doing them almost her whole life. Today was no exception- Rosie volunteered to help paint the building for kids, and I was asked to help lead a team in restoring the bee hives we will be using for bees over the coming weeks. Mice had taken up residence, so we had to scrape all the old stuff out, burn it with a torch to sterilize it, reassemble them, cut bottoms and tops for them, and this team of teens did an excellent job. And rosie eded up being quite the mess after painting- something I didnt think through before immediately dropping her off at Zippy’s house afterwards.

Obviously there was more to do. The girls spent the night at Grandmas house, and with the day alone, there were a million different options. If you had to take a guess about what came next, and you guessed “cleaning out the garage”, then you are exactly right!

In a perfect world, this would happen twice a year: moving summer stuff to the front, and winter stuff to the back and vice-versa, in spring and fall. That doesnt always happen, and Taylor, who appreciates order, is about to jump out of her skin because of the chaos. Anyways, here is a before and after:

In the midst of it, I put hands on the charcoal grill that has been sitting idle for a while, and got the itch to put it to work again- and since this weekend I answer to no one, this was the weekend to use it again.

The motion-activated flood light that went bust last year also needed some fixing, so that was replaced too. Climbing on a ladder to fix some electrical items when no one is home isnt THAT dumb of an idea, is it? Anyways, fixed it.

The cast iron skillets, some of which we got as wedding gifts, and others we acquired over the years also needed some seasoning, so took care of that too. In our 15 years of marriage, I must have used one of these pans each day we have been in town- but they say not to use it with tomato sauce. I do anyways, and this rust is the result.

Later buddy Leo came over with his kid, and we grilled some steaks, watched some games, and had a grand old time eating like kings: twice baked potatoes, ribeyes, and some grilled peppers.

Stephen and I went to Beekeeper Bootcamp this past weekend, and it was a good time. Allow me to explain.

What is beekeeper bootcamp?

It’s pretty much like what you expect- take a bunch of people, and teach them the basics in a crash course over a weekend at his home in middle Tennessee.

What we learned is that there are two ways to keep bees. The traditional method involves putting bee hive boxes one on top of the other, ordering some bees, keeping them in your hive and feeding them sugar water throughout the year to give them the energy they need. This can also mean inspecting the hives many, many times a year for the parasitic bugs called Varroa mites. Plastic honey comb, spraying to kill varroa mites, and generally pissing the bees off so they try and “swarm” (which means “run away”). The success rate of this approach by lasting through the winter is about 50%.

This bootcamp teaches another approach: beekeeping the natural way. This means catching a bee swarm locally instead of buying them online, not feeding them sugar water, not treating for verroa mites, and generally not messing with them nearly as much in horizontal beehive boxes instead of vertical boxes. There are no plastic honey combs for the bees to use. By using local bees, they are more evolved to survive the winter, already immune to verroa mites, and strong enough to not rely on being fed sugar water. In short, the goal is to reproduce the way bees live in the wild: they have good instincts that can be built upon. The success rate of this approach is 85%.

This natural approach has come with some serious drama in the beekeeping world that I won’t get into here, but the class is taught by Adam Martin, and he has written books on the topic.

This course taught us how to go through a bee hive and inspect it for a few things: if they are growing properly, if they have food, a queen, and it taught us about the different types of beehives.

The picture above is Adam, without the bee suit. You might think he has balls of steel for doing this, and maybe he does. But if the bees are treated kindly and you dont move fast, dont wear red, and dont kill any bees, they are generally pretty happy, and wont try and sting you. I picked up a bee frame with bare hands and didnt get stung.

We each got a chance to be hands-on. Adam was an awesome teacher on this- it is something he really cares about.

I don’t really know how to preface these pictures, but here are a few more of us in the class doing the hands-on part:

Adam built this niche world in apiary and sells beehives and focuses on the education aspect. He sells his honey for $40/quart, and champions the healthy aspects of local honey: he hasnt had a cold in 5 years.

His wife, Leslie, went to elementary school with my friend Steven back in California before they began their homesteading/beekeeping operation- which was a beautiful site to be see. I was intrigued and wanted to learn more, but time was short.

Besides Adam, there is another person in Missouri that also champions the natural approach to bees: Dr. Leo Sharashkin, a true Russian, who has been successful in his own rite. His focus was on horizontal hives (as opposed to vertical) because they are easier to handle than vertical hives, which can weight 85 pounds, and each need to be moved and rearranged several times a year. Bees are often killed in this process, which pisses them off, and they swarm and sting whenever this work is performed. The natural way (as seen in the pictures), means there is a good chance the bees wont get bothered at all.

But why did you do bee camp?

This, too, is a very good question to ask. Our church, an Anglican Church here in town, has a farm and several other ministries on site. The farm had bees a few years ago, but I hadn’t seen them in a while so I asked Steven, the farm director about them.

If you know Steven, you know he has a great deal of joy- so when asked about the bees, he responded with an immediate invitation to beekeeping bootcamp- and who says no to that? So, we registered, got a small airBnB, and went.

Where did you stay, and now what?

No, it didn’t make sense to do a drive like this- it was madness, but I really enjoyed spending time with Steven. We talked about every topic under the sun and are kindred spirits when talking politics, theology, parenting, and a whole lot of other stuff I wont get into here.

We stayed in a place a few minutes away- and I kid you not, out of all the places I have been in Costa Rica, upstate New York and Italy, no area had worse cell phone service for our Verizon phones than this area of Tennessee.

The little town just north, Columbia, was awesome- seems like it is the new town growing on the heels of Nashville’s success.

We made it home safe and sound after a unique weekend.

Now that Steven and I have done the course, the next goal is to catch a swarm over the next 10 days or so- which means putting a “trap” in a tree about 15-20 feet off the ground- which is great for a person who is still mildly afraid of bees and heights. Stay tuned!

The past several years Rosie’s school has done its regular talent show around this time. The night was always HOT- in a crowded cafeteria (her school didnt have an auditorium) with poor audio and about 20% longer than what we thought it should have been.

This year, they have an auditorium, and good sound system, but it was still about 20% longer than it should have been. Some of the acts included a pogo stick, a recorder, an electric guitar, several kids singing “Ophelia” by Taylor Swift, and more.

In years past, Rosie went as a good friend to support others- but this year, Rosie’s 5th grade year- she decided to do something. And you guessed it: a dance!

She took it pretty serious: had her friends over a few times to practice, her friend made a music mix, and they made some outfits that worked. So right after a nice little boy played “The Hokey Pokey”, Rosie shot back with this:

I don’t know whether to be proud or embarrassed of her song choice, but if the school allowed it, then I am ok with it.

Ice Skating for Gold

Rosie is in the midst of dance season- which means LONG days at dance competitions. Though we want to support her as a fam, it ain’t really fair to Mercy to spend so many Saturdays just waiting around watching her sister.

So we went ice skating. Also, we were very inspired Alysa Liu’s gold medal skating performance at the Olympics. She is a little punk rock, cussed a bit after she won, and smiled a lot. She kinda marches to the beat of her own drum, and it reminded me of Mercy.

We met up with one of Mercy’s BFFs, and after a few minutes, mercy was doing great. She went down pretty good a few times, but I am very proud of how quickly she jumps up and wants to keep going.

It was a blast, and I am curious if she should try Ice Skating as her thing next year instead of dance? She might be pretty good at it.

The Dog House

No, Im not in trouble with Tay. I just gave up my usual 4 or 5 drinks a week for Lent this year, and filled the time in a creative and practical way by building a dog house.

Rosie, Mercy and I scoured Pinterest for about 6 minutes before they lost attention, and I tried to find the best option that would be fairly simple for a newbie to build. I found this link on Pinterest- this link will take a minute to load because the site is from the internet archive, and doesnt exist anymore

This house, complete with a little bit of styrofoam insulation, is our way to fix the problem of those summertime thunderstorms when we leave the dog out, and realize there is no overhang in our yard for the dog to go to get out of the elements.

UNC had one of its top-10 buzzer beating games in a victory over Duke this past week, and I was so, so lucky to attend for my first UNC vs Duke game, and check off one of my life goals.

The game was thrilling. Duke lead the entire way with their top NBA draft pic, Cameron Boozer, up front. UNC had both Caleb Wilson and their tall man Henri Veesar beneath the rim. This was the 88th matchup where both teams were ranked. If you arent from the area, its just an incredible rivalry steeped in tradition here in North Carolina. They play twice a year, meaning I have watched around 50+ games between these two.

The day was spent listening to podcasts to help get HYPED for the game. Jay Bilas said in one pod, each team brings the best version of themselves to this game, and neither team would be as good as they are without the other team making them better. This year, for this matchup, Duke is looking like a top 4 team, and UNC is looking like a top 10 team, so the favor is slightly in Duke’s corner, but anything can happen.

I was invited to go with my lifelong friend, Charlie Hiser, and his parents, who are longtime UNC Ram’s club donors. You may be thinking, “But Luke, you just went a few weeks ago”, and you are right. But this was different- going as a Ram’s Club member is a different experience than going as a normal plebian. Here is one big difference: The parking.

Going as a normal fan meant using the general parking deck, a 0.8 mile walk, and 150 foot elevation difference. At this point in life, that walk is largely with a child on your shoulders, indicated by the line in red above.

As a guest of the Ram’s club, the parking was right next to the stadium, a largely flat walk, and complementary golf cart shuttles to get you inside quickly.

There was a quick burger and a beer, and as a very fortunate guest, we got to enter the stadium through the tunnel that the Duke team uses, passing by their locker room, and enter the stadium via the floor of the Roy Williams Court.

Regina showed me around the floor for a minute before getting to our seats. We almost wondered onto the set of College Gameday, but a kind but forceful lady named “Janice” yelled at us for our folly. We got to see Jay Bilas and some warmups up close before the game, which was really cool:

At halftime, there was a big moment to highlight how special “TV Magic” is when watching from home. On ESPN, the halftime show is great. In Real Life, this is what the announcers are up against:

UNC lost by a large margin the first half of the game. After halftime, UNC bigman Henri Veesar got some of his momentum back with a few rebounds, and UNC was off to the races. They chipped away at the lead. At 8 minutes left in the game, they were behind 8 minutes. “I Have seen bigger comebacks, but this might not go our way” I was bracing myself.

At 4 minutes left, they were around 4 points behind. And if you have seen the final minutes, the game was tied, Duke went in the paint for a shot, missed, and UNC got the ball with 11 seconds left and called timeout. They ran the ball to the corner, and Seth Trimble nailed a 3 with 0.4 seconds left to join a very small club of buzzer-beating ‘Heels over the Duke Blue Devils:

Remember how there were 0.4 seconds left? The refs did too- the clock stops when the ball passes the bottom of the net after a shot. Neither the players, coaches, and especially the student section understood there was time left on the clock, and chaos ensued:

If the court is not cleared and the players allowed to finish the game, the victory could be vacated. What you didn’t see on TV was this:

Against all odds, the court was cleared, and the final play by Duke was a long pass that wasn’t caught, passing the last 0.4 seconds, and opening the floodgates for a second rushing of the court

Of all the chances to see a DUKE vs UNC game, this was a pretty good one. Thanks SO MUCH Regina and Charlie for thinking of me.

The Daddy Daughter Dance

ALSO this weekend, and not to be forgotten, was the Daddy Daughter dance at Westover Church (not our home church, but an awesome church in the area). This is our 3rd year going, Mercy’s first year, and a tradition I really enjoy. Here is a shot of us 3 years ago, and again this year. Bear in mind in 2023 there was not ice on the ground, so the pictures were outside.

The dance was EPIC as always. The event capped at 800 invitations, and sold out again this year. Our pre-dance dinner at the restaurant our dates got to choose was Moe’s, and the chips with queso really prepped us for a night of dancing.

There are lots of ways to do this kind of event wrong, but Westover Church does an awesome job. It is a hit with the dads from around the neighborhood I see throughout the year and for good reason. The songs are great, the food makes the kids feel special, and Rosie loves seeing all of her friends there.

We danced HARD- for 2+ hours, and I don’t regret it. Mercy had a blast, and we made it pretty late, but not til closing time on the very-packed dance floor.

Loved it.

We last left off evacuating town due to the threat of bad weather. There was a bit of guilt on this decision- Rosie really wanted to go sledding with her friends. I get it, this is important. Luckily, the layer of ice that fell was so intense, it didnt melt: and we made it home in time to go sledding with friends before all the fun melted away.

Luckily our driveway faces north, doesnt melt easily, and since we were out of town and didnt get a chance to shovel, this was the state of our driveway 4 days after the storm.

Rosie and her friends had a blast, they stayed for dinner and a movie, mercy’s friend had a wipeout but she was tough and stuck through it. It was great!

We got home on wednesday, but there was no school on Thursday or Friday- a whole week!

Date night was a great relief. As a sidenote, Taylor and I have season tickets to the Tanger Center- which gives us tickets to 6 shows a year (or so?). We usually sell 1 or 2, and it ends up being a pretty good deal. But, we got a chance to have a date night at a local restaurant, Pangea:

Dinner was great, so was the show:

You might be wondering, so what? That sounds great- and it was. However, right on the heels of this fun date night was another 11″ of snow- and a little more madness.

We didnt leave the house on Saturday. It was cold as crap- 20-30mph winds, and 25 degrees. We dont love that here in NC, so I figured to try something for the second time and grill some babyback ribs. This was my second attempt, and I learned a lot from the first time. With a grill that ties into the natural gas line (so the tank will never go empty, ever!) I could grill on low all day. This was a great idea- nothing could go wrong. The thermometer was set- all I had to do was take it off when it reached the magic temperature of 203 degrees, while it was 18 degrees outside. All the recipes said 5-6 hours.

In the meantime, a neighbor invited us to have a special bottle of wine, so of course we took them up on it. What could go wrong, that sounds nice? I know, I thought that too.

Sometimes the pipes that supply water from the city freeze. This was our front yard. We were excited to be out of the house during the bulk of that time, and it was nice- the threat of living 24 hours without water went away while we were at our neighbors house enjoying a fancy bottle of Chardonnay. We made it home from our neighbors, the water was fixed, and I know what your thinking: “that sounds nice, what could go wrong?”

Remember how there was two inches of ice on the ground? Then 11″ of snow on top? That is hard to walk up, and even though the ring camera couldnt catch it because of that light, you can hear when I wipe out and fall on my back. volume on for this video above. “Ahhh geez- that really hurt!” I groan. Mercy walks past and says, “What is happening?”. The city trucks are still in the road fixing the water.

We made it home- safe and sound. What. Could. Go. Wrong.

The ribs were still short of the ideal temp. Taylor went to bed, but I was determined to see this $14 purchase of meat cooked to perfection. All the recipes said 5-6 hours (if you dont wrap in foil). After about 10 hours, still short of 203 degrees, I pulled em off: they were WAY over cooked. Edible, a solid 5 out of 10.

The car couldnt make it up the driveway. And we couldnt safely walk down. It was slick as crap. We couldnt drive up. And taylor was set to leave on a work trip at 11 am on Sunday. There was no way to carry luggage down the driveway to the car- the car had to get up the driveway. With a fire in my heart, I got a spade and just hacked “X” marks into the ice, and got pretty aggressive hitting the gas to try and make it up the drive:

This was more of a proud moment than what the video indicates. Anyways, Taylor made her flight to New Orleans after rescheduling a few things. Some great friends were out sledding and we met with them for a pretty great run on the sleds; Mercy and Rosie are tough, and I am proud of how well they played together.

I was talking with my friends for a few minutes, and realized Mercy and her friend disappeared near the teenagers, who were busy making a ramp. Since dad wasnt there to say no, I guess the answer was “Yes, you can go over that ramp!”. So, before I could even get there, off she went:

Sledding was a blast. Mom came over for dinner. Taylor is gone for 3 or 4 days- I dont even know what day it is any more. There is a crazy amount of snow outside. The temps wont be above freezing for days. The car might not make it up the driveway next time. Kids wont go back to school until who knows when. What. Could. Go. Wrong.