Thursday started out promising and we were sauntering off to the Royal Sonesta for breakfast with Camper English of Alcademics(who was nominated for best cocktail writer, but unfortunately didn’t win)when we heard some honking and looked up to see a “honey wagon” spewing a fire-hydrant-at-full-blast volume of raw sewage onto the street and sidewalk. Luckily we didn’t get hit, but when the stench hit us, Sam almost gagged, and we had serious doubts about being able to make it through the miasma to the hotel. We did persevere and so now “eau de New Orleans” is forever etched in our brainstems, right next to the smell of the first overdose of Tequila…blaawwwwwghhhhh!

We had some really good idea sharing with Camper on how we can help bloggers and particularly find ways to monetize their sites.

Lunch at Herbsaint on St. Charles was with Gabriel “Cocktail Nerd” and Joanna Szazko and Rick Stutz of Kaiser Penguin, board members of the OCSWG –they’ve GOT to come up with a better name–continuing the convo on how marketers and bloggers can work together for mutual benefit. (We’ve got lots of good ideas, but you’ll have to hire us if you want me to share them.) The food was spectacular and we went on a streetcar ride
through the garden district for a real sense of the best New Orleans has to offer in terms of ambience and architecture. We were hot and sweaty, but according to the locals, only about 95, “but you should have been here last week…over 100…now THAT’s hot!”)

We got back too late to make the Leblon event, but I did sign the Declaration of Independence that Steve Luttman was carrying around to get the law changed to make Cachaca a legal category in the U.S.

We had dinner at Arnaud’s, a sentimental site for me in N’awlins because it was my Dad’s favorite and I had always hoped I’d be able to share dinner with him there, but it was not to be. Anyway, we had a fabulous time with Cheri Loughlin of Intoxicologist and her significant other Tory over crawfish and Cordon Rouge. We gave Cheri some ideas on site metrics and learned a lot about her blog.

Then it was back to the Monteleone for cocktails with Bob DeKuyper (yes, THAT DeKuyper…something like 8th generation and this pick was taken Tues of that week at PDT which went on to win the Best Cocktail Bar in America)Ivan Menting and Albert deHeer. Darcy O’Neil of Art of Drink joined us for a drink and he and I wandered back to the other theme subject of the event…is fructose (as in HFCS) pronounced “Fruck” or “Frook”. The conversation was so boring that even our blogger friends turned their backs on us. Yikes, I just realized I’m a geek!

And so to bed. (and for those of you who get the reference to Samuel Pepys, you’d enjoy the comment that one of the seminar speakers was talking about “Peepies” diary. My mom kept one of those but now I’m potty trained.)

G’night y’all!