happy hump day

Tuesday was pretty laidback. I did laundry, tried to go shopping but didn’t like anything I saw except for the one sweater I bought, got some espresso, forgot to go to the market, and spent the afternoon in the FUA lab since my bar was rewiring and not internet capable. ‘Seppe made salad and pasta for dinner. I took a nap… that turned into going to bed for the rest of the night.

It's Wednesday. Although my classes start at noon, they go until 8:30. So it's my long day and most definitely the "hump" day. I'm at the bar again. The internet works again, which is the main reason I come here besides the friendliness of the staff and their knowledge I usually want a bottle of water instead of a shot of espresso. Henk thinks I'm here so often because I use it for a romantic rendezvous. I wish! I have my morning quickie here with Facebook and my afternoon delight with Blogger. That's about it.

Anyway, since this is such a boring entry and I'll be in class the rest of the day, I'll take this time to plug a video for those of you who haven't seen it yet. It's the ORIGINAL "Apologize" music video for the ORIGINAL OneRepublic song. It was made pro bono by a fan. It's so much better than the Timbaland remix and video, but at least he made it famous.

hilarity, agility, and nudity

If the title hasn't piqued your interest, you might as well stop reading this entry now. I'll warn any prudes this one is PG-13 rated.

So a bunch of us went to YAB for their anniversary dinner party. It's a dance club. Pretty cool looking. Dinner was decent and four course plus antipasti, waters, and wine. After dinner, they started clearing out all the tables and chairs to open up the dance floor. Liane and I meant to take a tough picture but wound up laughing at something instead. Alison skillfully captured the moment. The rest of our friends else had left at this point.

Hilarity

Then the night officially became awesome. Some breakdancers, who apparently are a staple at YAB on Monday nights, started showing off their moves. This went on for at least half an hour, but the crowd never seemed to tire of it. Here's about a minute for you to see. YAB seems all about the hip-hop, but I couldn't help film this one song.

Agility

The first guy was Liane's favorite, and she soon showed off her moves on him. (Dancing, I mean.) When she and Alison went to the bathroom, YAB unveiled its "big surprise" for the night. I thought it was going to be something or someone lame when they carried a huge birthday present to the center of the dance floor. It exploded open and "Crazy in Love" by Beyonce started playing. And the special guests were better than Beyonce and not lame at all.They were two nearly naked women. Platforms rose out of the floor and they started dancing. Awesome. They finished their number before Liane and Alison came back, and I'm not sure they believed me. But then the golden girls came back and proved I didn't make the story up. We stayed for another couple of hours until things got too hot and sweaty. Fantastic night.

Nudity

a Mardi Gras '07 flashback

In my 2/17/07 entry, I wrote:

After the parades, some of us piled into Carter's car and went to Reginelli's for pizza and beer.

The following video is the best part of that car ride.

mission accomplished

PCBaywatch

Click the link if you want to see it on YouTube and full-screen.

Four college students, a Canon PowerShot, spring break antics, a little running, lots of alcohol, masking tape, and some really red swimsuits and visors produced this video.

It was shot entirely on location in Panama City Beach.

my week so far

MONDAY

My parents were still in town, so between classes, Adrian and I went to lunch with them at Hana. I ordered a Hana Special Roll to share and the combo lunch (tempura, katsu, and shumai) for myself. I had my long calc midterm and after that we went (Adrian-less) to The Columns for happy hour again before hitting up Saltwater Grill for the aforementioned (in the Friday part) 25¢ oysters and red beans and rice with grilled andouille. We hung out at the hotel for a while before grabbing a very late dinner at K-Paul's.

Mom and I both started off with a cup of champagne cream of shiitake soup with sundried tomatoes. We all split a plate of fried green tomatoes with shrimp remoulade. My entree was a plate of duck tenders and shrimp in creole pork sauce over basmati rice. So good. K-Paul's makes their creme brulee with buried sugar pecans. Nice crunch and texture.

Then I took my parents to Harrah's since neither of them had been there yet. Mom doubled her money - at Money To Burn, Chad! - and we called it a night.

TUESDAY

No terrorism, no lunch with Tara, no screenwriting, no dinner with ben. (Canceled by Dad, canceled by her, canceled by professor, canceled by him.)

My father asked me to skip class in favor of family lunch at Felix's Uptown. Fried alligator. Sampler of red beans, jambalaya, and crawfish ettouffee.

Ben un-canceled dinner because he stopped caring about his midterm (at least for an hour), so we had dinner and caught up on each other's weekends before saying "have a good break." Just in case we don't meet up again before he leaves for Spain on Thursday.

WEDNESDAY

Adolescent Psych. Debate. No paper due, luckily. I actually took up Dining Services on their "Take-A-Professor-To-Lunch" program. So after lunch Cunningham and I went to Bruff, for free. It was fried chicken day. Awesome.

Calc. Music. Blah. Phone Calls. Fun. Nap. Great.

Lauren, David, and I went to get cannolis at Spumone in Mid-City. It was probably her best idea ever. We got cannolis, half chocolate, dusted with powdered sugar and crushed pistachios. I also sampled two flavors of gelato. (Both were so good, I couldn't pick just one.) "St. Joseph's Chocolate Almond," which was the daily special and tastes exactly like it sounds (minus the holiness), and Baci (which some of you know is Italian for "kiss"), which must be made of pure Nutella. They probably changed the name so they wouldn't get sued.

Lauren and I had dessert and then dinner. Kind of backwards. While on this Italian kick, we asked Whitney to pick us up a foot-long when she went to Subway. She was sooo nice about it, even checking exactly what we wanted. Parmesan-oregano bread, provolone or mozzarella bread. She asked if we wanted vegetables, and I replied "Are you kidding? It's LAUREN. No vegetables."

I've decided my favorite new show is "The Search For The Next Pussycat Doll." It's like America's Next Top Model but with singing, dancing, and non-clothing. I guess they want a seventh girl so that Nicole can stand in the middle.

At least it was what I watched while waiting for LOST with Whitney.

Closer to midnight, Lauren and I decided to go out. We didn't want to have to drive, so we walked to - unbelievable - TJ Quills for swiller night. We were the oldest people there. All freshmen. We saw one junior (Teddy) and one sophomore (Shivani)we knew. We played a great game of "I Never..." which is really hard when you play with someone you know well, and I managed to screw it up.

We decided to go somewhere more appropriate and wound up at Uptown Cajun. We enjoyed the Flogging Molly playlist and pitcher special for Abita. We decided to call Ted (H) since we missed him. Speaking of whom, here's my new favorite music video for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, the "group project" from last Wednesday.

hung up... on Ted

<

How many versions will I post?

I don't know. This song never gets old to me. At least now we know what The Fray does in their spare time.

Is it mean to say "Cartman?"

I missed The Grammys.

in preparation for Wednesday

Two LOST spoofs. Somehow both official???

an inside look at the writing process:


screening of the series finale:

food crawl part deux

After the gym, Mike and I took staggered returns to and showers at his apartment. We went to dinner with Gisela at this Asian place called Ping Pong. It was delicious. They’re BYOB, so we picked up a bottle of wine (no hints of leather or tobacco, Tara) and ate the little trio of Asian snacks they serve while you wait for a table. We shared a tuna sashimi dip, and Mike had the most delicious vegetable soup ever. The three of us ordered their signature “ping pong” chicken with veggies and walnuts, shrimp fried with fresh mangos, and tofu in a spicy hoisin sauce (which was so good it could have been eaten with just plain rice). We actually had dessert before our meal since there was a twenty-minute wait. I don’t remember the name of the place, but it was soft-serve ice cream with toppings mixed in. (McFlurries but better.) That was Gisela’s contribution to the evening. “We should have dessert first, while we wait, because we’ll have wine at dinner and after, and you can’t have ice cream after you’ve been drinking.” Mike’s response: “I like the way you think!” After that we did some more barhopping.

Leaving Chicago (and Mikey and ‘Sela) was really hard especially when both of them individually said some variation of “No, stay. It’s too soon. Don’t leave!”

Chicago was awesome. I really enjoyed myself. The only con is that it was cold. Sorry, New York. I think Chicago’s pizza and hot dogs are better. I miss the lifestyle there already. Lucky for me, Mike and Gisela (together even) and Viralyne are all supposed to come to Mardi Gras, so I won’t have to miss them too much. I guess I just have to miss David since he’s sooo far away, and I rarely see him.

Back here at home, I went to Lacoste in Georgetown with my Dad to buy him Adrian’s and my very-belated Christmas gift. We went to the nearby Benihana right after for their Endless Sushi Lover’s special. (Basically all-you-can-eat made-to-order sushi.)

This morning we went to mass at St. Mary’s, the parish for the school I went to for junior high. Wow, memories. Everything looks exactly the same as I remember. Then after that we went to Murphy’s Irish Pub for lunch. Fish and chips, shepherd’s pie, and of course corned beef and cabbage. They even have Smithwick’s on tap. I thought of Chicago again because when we left all the Bears fans were coming in to watch the game. We hit up Cold Stone right after to get some dessert. (I recommend the after-dinner-mint. It’s dark chocolate peppermint ice cream with chocolate shavings, marshmallows, and Oreos.) And of course, we had to stop by Chipotle because a burrito was on the list Adrian told me of things to bring back for him.

When I got home, Adrian came over and picked up his stuff and then I went to dinner with the girls and my roommates. Reginelli’s was actually not out of any ingredients. Amazing. Even more amazing (I don’t remember how) was Stephanie saying something about how the combination of raw fish and nudity didn’t go well together. (In Chicago, David and I were talking about the eat-of-a-naked-woman, $500-all-you-can-eat-sushi-for-four-people sushi place. We needed two more people who were not Viralyne or Gisela, and I suggested Lauren and Steph.) They were surprisingly uninterested?

We’re about to go out for our requisite Sunday-Before-Classes-Drunkfest, so this update ends abruptly.

Pictures of New Year’s, Chicago, and tonight coming soon. For now, here’s a video of the KA House burning down over break. (Apparently ZBT did also. The fires were unrelated.)

last post of the year

Instead of packing I went to get sushi for lunch at Ninja with Lauren then flew home. (I travel light.) Back here I've gone out to eat a lot, done last-minute gift shopping at malls and been unsuccessful, watched Casino Royale a second time with my mom, saw The X-Men Trilogy again with Adrian but out of order, been searching for that Wii thing, and gone to a few Christmas parties.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

'06 was pretty much The Best Year Ever...
Let's close it with the killers' new single.

Why...

...does everyone else look cute and I look like an idiot???

That was the question Ryanne posed when she walked into Lauren and Stephanie's apartment before 80s Night.

The answer: Because we didn't get the memo "tonight is the night we all dress in eighties garb."

And we might've, had she actually sent one out.

She was rocking the side ponytail though.

We went to One Eyed Jack's to meet up with Bryan&Co.

Easily the best post-Katrina 80s night...

Easily the best Thursday of senior year so far...

The place was packed with dancing people, the mix of music was top notch, Ashley Merhottie was there, Tara made a post-Vaughan's surprise experience, we drank a lot and smoked just a little, and I even got a cigarette burn or two from She of the Spectacular Boobs.

Drunken Debauchery December is on its way, and I can't wait. "Be there or suck at life," says Chad. He informed me yesterday that he'll be back in New Orleans before the semester ends.

That is motivation to study hard and spend easy in preparation.

Chad: andrew you really need to write a book
Me: "how to go to college but not really?"
Chad: no, your book should be like, i do all the shit other people wish they did all the time but only do once in a while

For anyone else who missed the amazing new Spider-Man 3 trailer last night, here's a link to it.

what a glorious day

I registered for my classes for my final (say a prayer) semester at Tulane, Britney Spears has finally sent off a long overdue Fed-Ex shipment, and LOST aired its mini-season finale!

My afternoon was pretty laidback. Shannon and I went to Whole Foods, Café Luna to visit JigglyJuggs and get some cold beverages, and Blue Frog Chocolates. I like Shannon for several reasons among which are the facts that she likes dark chocolate probably as much as I do and that she hates the taste of coffee. (Those who know me well know I don’t like coffee, I just enjoy the tastes that cover it up like caramel and, today, mint chocolate.)

After that I came back here and shaved and got presentable, and Lauren and I went to The Melting Pot and caught up over a bottle of wine and cheese and chocolate fondues. Granted, we got drunk and missed the first quarter of LOST. Of course we'll see it as soon as possible, but the food was worth it.

I feel bad because in our tardy absence we missed Whitney and Wes, but I'll make it up to them... somehow.

Immediately after the episode ended, I received irate phone calls from Whit and my mommy. Whitney had a problem with not enough happening in the episode, and a very medicated (antibiotics!) mommy was upset about the break in the season. I bitched about the break already months ago. As an alumni of the school of I-hate-reruns, I completely prefer six-new-episodes-straight and eighteen-straight even if it means some waiting in between.

So in honor of the good day, I'm posting one of my favorite pictures ever from Esquire magazine. To me it is a symbol - Notice the Mardi Gras beads! - of New Orleans and Britney in 2005 before the catastrophes of Katrina and K-Fed. New Orleans is on its way back, now let us hope Britney is too.

And in honor of the also smoking hot Evangeline Lilly, here is what I think should be Kates next flashback on LOST:

the week's off to a good start.

Okay, so I'm behind again but not as badly as before. Sunday the internet wasn't cooperating, and yesterday I kind of got drunk randomly. Bygones.

David's birthday celebration was on Saturday night at Cooter Brown's. Several of his friends, several beers, several orders of cheese fries, and several shots. Fun David came back for the night, and it was good times. Even though he refused to do a body shot off of Peter, who was even conveniently sitting next to him, Fun David gave us a rendition of the power ballad "The Power of Love" on the car ride which segued into "Get Low" when Lizzie changed the station. And then he kind of got pushed fell into the bushes.

Any night that involves David looking like this halfway through...

...and looking like this by the end...

...is a good night.

Last night was supposed to be serious studying, but leave it to David to give me a present (screening passes) on his birthday, so Guy, Whitney, and I drove out to Elmwood but found out the Babel screening was already full. So we went to Applebee's Neighborhood Bar and Grill – Hello, Jewelyn "Humpy" Wellborn – and got dinner and more importantly drinks. We had the nicest, most patient waitress ever. The major question of the night was which TV show had the theme song "Closer to Free" which was playing at the restaurant.

Everybody wants to live
How they wanna live
And everybody wants to love
Like they wanna love
And everybody wants to be
Closer to Free

All three of us wondered independently before discussing it, and everyone immediately thought of "Friends" and then immediately knew that was wrong. I actually guessed correctly but wasn’t assertive enough, so we kept guessing and eventually called Tully who provided us with the answer.

After that, Whitney and I came back here and put a serious dent into a handle of Bacardi and watched The Rules of Attraction with Carrot Top's commentary. Hilarious even though neither of us is actually a fan of Carrot Top. Nate came home from his latest interview with news of a conquest to that, so we did a shot to it.

Then Whit-Walk and I decided to go to The Palms and drink some more and then The Big Easy.

Yeah, I’m nuts. What else is new?

And this is the TV show for those of you who care:

this cover is for Adrian.

funny tribute to lost

weekend/month over???

I don't know where time goes. Stephanie is finally 21. We all trekked down to Harrah's and then Pat O's for some festive celebrating.

Other notable moments of the weekend were cooking dinner with Adrian and the Tulane return to the Superdome. We students returned too, armed with daiquiris and beer. Close game but we lost.

photo courtesy of Stephanie Choy and her blog

a pic I took: cheerleaders encouragin' the green wave to roll.

Yesterday was Yom Kippur, so all the Gentiles wanted to go to lunch. I got like three phone calls at noon. I'd already made plans with Rachel to go to Nirvana but unfortunately forgot it's closed on Monday, so we went to Theo's. I'd never been. It was pretty good.

Adrian tried to do an international conference call to our parents in Bali the other night, and it didn't work. (I assume they were still sleeping 'cause it was like eight in the morning, and they were on vacation.) But they conference-called us both last night and were back in the continental states. And that's great because now I can more often quote the funny things they say.

And for you fellow youtube and Disney freaks, here's a live performance from a few weeks ago to commemorate the release of a certain double-disc dvd today.

Shakira and Wyclef at the VMAs on Thursday

I didn't watch this live, but I love "Hips Don't Lie."