Louisiana -- Rennies in the bayou
First the third year in a row I got to perform at the Louisiana Renaissance Festival. Jef’s decorating elves gig keeps him very busy in December, so it seems that lately I’ve gotten a couple weeks of this smaller, but loaded-with-fun festival.
This year was no different, staying at the Haeusers, you read about the Thanksgiving dinner there in my last journal. This year, I actually extended my final weekend by a couple days to go play in the French Quarter. And hit a few local CrossFit gyms. I ended up getting workouts in at both CrossFit NOLA and CrossFit Hammond. Both great gyms, filled with lots of wonderful athletes.
Monday night a group of us was invited to dine at August, a five-star restaurant in New Orleans. We’re kinda lucky in that one of our fans is the manager of the restaurant, and invited us to swing by. Oh.. dear.. god... I have never had such rich food in my life. Every mouthful was so bursting with different flavors.... so many different courses..... I don’t think I could eat like that often. Hell, one a month might even be too much, it was simply beyond words. Tuesday we went onsite, one of the other performers was filming a short piece they had written. I don’t know if it’s been “officially” announced to their fans yet, so I’m not gonna go into details of what it all is. But they had short parts written for several of the other acts at the festival, including the Tortugas. So although it was a cold, and eventually drizzling day, we went on and still had a blast.
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Back Home
Ah, December. The start of my winter “down time.” Which is just another way of saying trying to get caught up with everything else that I put on the back burner during festival seasons.
I finally saw a live production of the Nutcracker this year. The Greensboro Ballet Company was putting it on just up the road and we had a chance to go. Gotta say it was quite adorable. I don’t think I could sit through ballets very often, but every now and then I think they’d be a special treat.
Did a little more work on my jeep. Turns out I found out why I couldn’t get the transmission back in all the way. The parts store sold me the wrong pilot bushing. Take a look at the pics and you’ll see the inner-diameter difference between the two. Lovely. I’ve replaced the bushing but I need to find a tranny jack before I can get the transmission back in.
My gym was having a fun little competition this month. At the start of the month put $5 in the pot. Whoever does the most workouts in December wins the pot. Hero workouts count double. I think I had 50 workouts when all was said and done. The last week it was down to between me and Dale. Three days before I was six ahead of him, but then I had guests from out of town show up. When I went in on New Years Eve he was 2 ahead of me and he was there. I think Shanna and Megan would have killed me if I spent all day at the gym doing workout after workout to see which of us cried “uncle” first, so I told him to take it. The guy was in the gym every single day in December. So gotta give cred where it’s due.
And of course, we had our annual BB&B New Years Bash at my house. Lots of friends came over, lots of drink was drunk. And good times were had by all. I made a relatively early night of it and was in bed by 2am, but I know I heard people up until at least four.
2012 -- Blue Team takes off, or end of the world?
And so I look forward to 2012. Let’s just say things look very good for the Blue Team. I believe we have already signed 3 festivals, and have offers or are negotiating with at least another 3. And a good number of those will be “repeat” festivals. I tell ya, it’s difficult being a “first year” act. So keep an eye on us... this is the start of something beautiful 😀
