Charlie Bit ME!

I found this on YouTube via MySpace. It's been on YouTube for a year, but somehow I've missed it. The mom of these two boys writes (5/22/07):

"Even had I thought of trying to get my boys to do this I probably couldn't have, neither where coerced into any of this and neither were hurt (for very long anyway). This was just one of those moments where I got had the video camera out because the boys were being fun, and they provided something really very funny."




The next video is Harry and Charlie four weeks ago. It reminds me so much of my nephews when they were little...20 years ago! Watch the video to the end.

Crockett Street Rumor

Several of the venues on Crockett Street here in Beaumont are closing for 60 days and will re-open under new management or with a new lease agreement or with a new tenant/tenants or something. Those of us on the outside will never know the real reasons and I don't really care about the real reasons.

(Note to new management: Start booking decent bands at Antone's again, have a jazz happy hour EVERY DAY at the TEN martini/cigar bar and open up an after-hours diner, a brew pub and a karaoke bar and your nightlife people will be happy. If you manage it right, they will come.)

The Smoking Ban

One thing we are certain about is that the closings are not because of the smoking ban which Beaumont enacted last year. Some naysayers from the surrounding towns are enjoying saying "Ah-ha! I told you this would happen." However, according to the Beaumont Enterprise, restaurants and bars in Beaumont have not been hurt by the ban and most continue to prosper and profits have increased since the smoking ban. The bars that did go out of business "because of the smoking ban" probably didn't do enough to accomodate their smokers with lovely outside smoking facilities.

A note to those nasty negative folks from Beaumont's outlying areas who proudly say, "We never go out in Beaumont anymore since the smoking ban. Serves you right that all your bars and restaurants are closing!" Beaumont doesn't miss you and guess what. If I might join you for a moment in your insane generalizations, we folks here in Beaumont don't go to your towns anymore either where we have to sit in stinky smoke filled restaurants and bars.

The Rumor

I'm trying to start the rumor that Landry's has bought the entire Crockett Street complex (ala Kemah), but it's not catching on. Work with me people.

The Barking Dog

There is a new coffee shop in downtown Beaumont right around the corner from Crockett Street. It's called The Barking Dog. I've been there a couple of times for lunch and it's one of those funky little places I'd like to sit in all day reading Augusten Burroughs, drinking coffee and watching people.

I haven't been to any of the evening events, yet, but will remedy that soon. Click here for upcoming events.

Houston Arcade Expo

I love pinball machines. I think I'll need to check this out 11/7/08 and 11/8/08 in Houston. Click here for details.

According to the information on one of the videos on the HAAG (Houston Area Arcade Group) MySpace page, the admission fee lets you play any and all games all day for FREEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Pinball? All day? For free? Carpal tunnel here I come.

Did you Tonette?

My brother, sisters and I grew up in Port Arthur, Texas and attended Travis Elementary. At Travis, when you were in the 4th grade, everyone took band class. In 4th grade, however, we weren't worthy of actual instruments. Everyone played the Tonette. If you played the Tonette good enough, you were allowed to get a real instrument in 5th grade. I played clarinet in 5th and 6th grades and I kicked ass.

As a person who can't sing a melody to save my soul, I was fascinated that I could play a song exactly the way it actually sounded just by reading and following the sheet music. It's not that I'm tone deaf. One test we were given before joining the actual instrument playing band (as opposed to the Tonette playing band) was to determine if we could name a note by hearing it played on the piano. I recall doing very well on that test. So, I hear music, I know when notes are off key, but there's a disconnect between my brain and my mouth.

The reason I never became a famous jazz clarinetist is a pitiful tale indeed. In 7th grade it was required that everyone be in the marching band as well as the concert band. Marching was not my obstacle. Throwing up in the 100 degree summer heat during summer marching practice, however, was a definite deal breaker. Also, in those days the band hall wasn't air conditioned. So, playing an instrument...a WIND instrument...in the stuffy band hall wasn't much better than marching in the heat. I didn't throw up, but I stayed pretty damn dizzy.

I've always thought it was unfortunate that my kick ass clarinet playing was thwarted by Mr. Britain and his everyone must march rule and my own Laurie must throw up rule. Of course, by not being in the band I learned lots of other things: sewing, cooking, speaking French, typing. I hardly ever throw up when I do any of those things. So, I've got that going for me.

In case you were wondering...

Click here for wave height/direction and other oceanic information.

Is that normal?

I think I was dreaming in 3D last night.

Is that normal?

A couple of things from Ava's Great Grandmother (my mom)

Vote for the New Orleans Lakefront Lighthouse

I love lighthouses. Here's an e-mail my mom sent me:

"Our lighthouse on Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans was destroyed by Katrina. Built in the 1890s, the lighthouse has been a lakefront landmark for years, guiding boats in and out of the Orleans Marina and the Municipal Yacht Harbor. Some of the original materials were salvaged and they're trying to rebuild it but of course it takes money the city doesn't have right now. There is a company that restores lighthouses and has a contest going on right now to donate new windows and doors for a lighthouse in need of restoration, and the Canal lighthouse is on the list! Click here to vote: www.jeld-wen.com/lighthouse"

A Joke

An old Tennessee mountain woman went to the doctor and was told to go home and come back in a couple of days with a specimen. When she got home she asked her husband, "What is a specimen?"

He replied. "Darned if I know. Go next door and ask Edith. She's a nurse."

The woman went next door and came back in about twenty minutes with her clothes all torn and with multiple cuts and bruises on her face and body.

"What in the world happened?" asked her husband"

"Darned if I know," she replies. "I asked Edith what a specimen was and she told me to go piss in a bottle. I told her to go fart in a jug and then all hell broke loose."

Grandma Honey...Rock Star

Well, I'm not a rock star, yet. I'm more of a pebble starlet. Guitar Hero on Tour for Nintendo DS went on sale June 22, 2008 and I knew if I was ever in the vicinity of Best Buy I wouldn't be able to resist popping in and buying one. I had to pass Best Buy twice yesterday afternoon, so we all know what happened. I also bought a "leather" case. Rock and roll!!

I'm not quite kicking Guitar Hero ass, though I already can do a pretty mean Spiderwebs. I'm not so great on Twisted Sister though. By the way, my DS is pink...of course.

Regarding "Grandma Honey":

All of my nieces and nephews call me "Aunt Honey" which began when the first nephew came along about 25 years ago. Without realizing it, I would always say, "Hi, Honey!" when I saw him. As soon as he started making identifiable sounds, I just knew he was calling me "Honey." Somehow it caught on...because I'm soooooooooooo sweet. Yeah, you heard me. Sweet. Wanna make something of it?

So, Aunt Honey will also be Grandma Honey when Ava gets around to calling me anything other than "Guh." Unless, she wants to call me something else. Grandma Slash would be cool.

From Saturday Night Live...

My Grand-Fabulous-Daughter's Newest Trick

"Okay, that's just about enough."


"Wait until I show mommy what I found!"


"Oops, dropped it."


"Hey, more of that white fluffy stuff!!"


"Oakley!! Look!!!!! Want some?"


"And a one and a two and a three..."


"Trees! Yes, I shall throw it over the tops of trees!! Nanny Bonnie taught me that."

Supper of champions

You know what tastes good with...

... this...

You know what comes up if you Google "pistachio"...

I suddenly want to mix yummy fluffy things together.

History - It's all about perspective

I was talking to a friend the other day and he was telling me that his daughter was taking a course her freshman year in college called "The History of Rock and Roll." We decided that was a pretty cool course for a university to offer.

Then, I said, "Actually, if you think about it, that's a lot of history. Rock and roll really took off in the early '50s. That's more than fifty years ago."

My friend looked at me with an expression that said, regardless of the truth of my statement, he wasn't totally convinced that 1954 was over fifty years ago.

I went on to say, "Think of it this way. We graduated from high school in 1974 so, assuming our freshman year of college was 1974, your daughter studying the origins of rock and roll is the same as if we had taken a class studying the origins of movies with sound."



"Fuck."

"Yeah," I said, "You know what else? The '80s were twenty years ago."



I sometimes wonder why people talk to me at all.

I would have totally hung out with these people in college

Bill and Hillary Clinton