Hey Accountants, Billy Parker here, live from Day Five of The Calorie Accounting Summer Book Tour. Mandy and I are having a blast on our march west so far. The tour kicked off Friday night in New Orleans with a party that sent us off in style. The book tour launch was also my farewell after two years living in NOLA. Mandy and I were both touched at how much love our friends showed for the book with a great turnout for her reading and signing at The Hi-Ho Lounge. And if there’s one place Mandy shines, it’s on the karaoke stage, making the 24-hour karaoke joint Kajuns a natural fit for the after party. Her rendition of No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak” and unexpected Backstreet Boys duet with a stranger inspired a group of bachelor party singers to pick up a copy of the book. Hope they’ll be accounting their way into those tuxes after raging with us down in NOLA.

 

Then it was a quick turnaround en route to our first Barnes & Noble stop outside Houston Saturday afternoon. Houston often gets a bad rap for being America’s weightiest city, but we were able to find some soon-to-be-accountants ready to slim down to their ideal Naked Cowboy weight. After Houston, we shot right up to Austin for a reading at another B&N Sunday night. This marked the first Q&A of the tour, where Mandy and her readers discussed the possibilities of working FitBit into your Loser Ledger, as well as their favorite season of Burn Notice (gotta love the B&N media section!).

Next up is two stops in Arizona before our big blowout at The Red Lion in Los Angeles Thursday night. Thanks so far to all the family, friends and new friends who came out in New Orleans and Texas—can’t wait to see even more familiar faces on the west coast. And to close, in honor of our current drive through the great state of New Mexico, in the words of Albuquerque’s favorite podcasting and body-conscious son, Marc Maron…Boomer Lives!