oops

I called Keith, my old bandleader, to see if he could provide live music for my wedding reception.

What are you doing August 7th?

Nothing that I know of.

I wanted to know if you could do two hours for my wedding reception

Sure! I can do that.

Oh, and I'm getting married

Does LadyCat know that?

Ha! Cool, well we'll work out the details later.


He calls me back about a minute later.


Hello?

Um, yeah, well August 7th is bad.

How come?

Well, we're kinda going to be in North Carolina celebrating our 5th anniversary.

Oh, really? What day is your anniversary?

.... August 7th


I can only imagine the conversation that went on during the minute between phone calls.

it happened one night (cont'd)

Tuesday April 6th.

New Orleans.

It happened on the patio of Harrah's Casino.

I sat her down on a concrete star and sat beside her.

"I've had such a good time with you tonight," I said, looking into her eyes.

"Me too," she smiled.

"There's only one thing left to do," I said, kneeling in front of her.

I took her hands in mine.

"For the first time in my life I feel like I've been around enough to know that you're the one I want to go through time with." I said, quoting Jim Croce.

I removed the cigar band from my pinky where I was hiding it in ready and presented it to her.

"Will you be my wife?"

I slid the cigar band with the politically correct plantation illustration on her left ring finger.

"Yes." she nodded mistily.

We held each other for a long time. Then, when I calmed down, I asked, "You did say 'yes,' Right?" I wans't sure I'd heard the answer, though I knew what it would be.

"Yes." she nodded mistily again.



The wedding will be August 7th.

it happened one night

Monday April 5th.

New Orleans.

It started on Bourbon Street.

I looked in every trinket shop as we walked down the street for a glass counter. I found one, but there was only "tobacco paraphenalia" under the glass. The idea had hit me earlier in the day, and now I was getting anxious.

When I gawked into this cigar shop, LadyCat told me to go in.

They made the cigars right there in the press. The foil rings on the cigar show faux 19th century pictures of white people picking tobacco.

The aroma of the fresh tobacco relieved us from the stench of beer and vomit and urine on Bourbon Street.


I bought the fattest cigar they had.



That was after we saw the blues singer with the green wig.

So we walked back toward canal street. I held LadyCat's hand with one hand and smoked the cigar with the other.

We went to Wendy's where we met a homeless guy decked out in full 1960's construction gear who believed he was actually on the job.

LadyCat met him first in the ladies restroom.

Then she saw a mouse run into a hole in the wall while we were eating.

Upon our exit we passed the construction guy addressing a fireplug.

We were having quite a nice time alone together in the Big Easy and we looked around for something more to do.

Down Canal street toward the Mississippi River was something that looked like the Parthanon with Christmas lights. We thought it gaudy but we pressed on to see what it was.

It wasn't the courthouse, as I had guessed, but Harrah's Casino.

LadyCat seemed underwhelmed but went in with me to help me find my fortune. I had a different fortune in mind, but I wanted to play a little first.

Upon playing my twelfth quarter in a quarter slot, I won $13.75. I cashed it out and took ten of the profits and drug LadyCat over to the roulette table. I've always wanted to play roulette and I bet the miniumum of $10 in one dollar increments all over the table.

I lost.

For a moment.

I boasted how I'd walked away from Harrah's with seventy-five cents of their money and they hadn't even seen me coming as we stepped out on the patio.

It was about 2:00 a.m. The sky was clear. The patio was beautifully decorated in a moon-and-stars motif.

And I did it.



to be continued...

new orleans I



Bourbon street homeless guy says: "have a nice weekend and Ric will fill you in very soon."


P.S. Best of wishes, Furhouse, on your wedding tomorrow.

bah

I promise to post my secret, but I want to do it right.

I am clammy right now due to pseudo-fever. I went to the Redi-Med on Friday and found out I have walking pneumonia. It's all I can to to get through the day these days.

Sorry.

hallmark (giggle) channel

Okay, when you choose a name like Hallmark Channel don't you automatically lose a large percentage of your American audience? I'm talking about the guys who go "I don't even like Hallmark Cards! I just open them, count to 10 and nod and smile."

So the new movie coming on Saturday is The Long Shot. Here is the blurb:

Deserted and destitute, a young mother reenters the world of dressage competition to support herself and her child. When her beloved horse is blinded, the gifted equestrian must prove that the bond of love is stronger than any adversity.

What is this? Lifetime Lite? Is the is the channel for those to whom Lifetime is too hardcore?

"Don't give me icky stories about abuse and abortion, I want stories about blind horses that win dressage competitions!"

Oy vey.

wow

So much has happened recently. I'd love to blog it all. Maybe I will. Just a taste:

• I bought a 1920's era platen printing press and still haven't printed anything.
  
  
• I stopped tending bar.
  
  
• The Ex still has stuff in my garage which will end up on the street for Trash Amnesty Day on May 1 if she doesn't get it out in the next week or so.
  
  
• I spent spring break (last week) in Lousiana, visiting LadyCat's mom.
  
  
• Three of the days last week we spent in New Orleans (my first time, tons of pics to process)
  

And, (drum roll please)...

• Something very big happened in New Orleans! (But you'll have to come back to find out what!)

More to come...

fool?

Ironically, I clicked on my link to landoverbaptist.org today and it links to the site I was lambasting: jesussave.us. If you dig into the HTML stream, the redirect page reads "Praise God! Landover Baptist has been shut down!"

I'm thinking it's Landover's April Fool's joke on jesussave.us.

We'll see tomorrow.

the states to which i have been


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