Month: August 2006

In the 2004 Presidential election, I really loved websites that had maps showing whether each state was Democrat, leaning Democrat, toss-up, leaning Republican, or Republican. Well, this week I found a site that is doing the same thing for the 2006 Senate races. Here’s a link. You can click on a state for individual analysis of each race.

As of today, according to the map, the Democrats have 46 strong or leaning seats (including uncontested seats this year), the Republicans have 51 strong or leaning, and there are three toss-ups. Tennessee is considered to be leaning Republican, so Harold Ford Jr. has his work cut out for him. Even if Democrats win the three toss-ups, they’ll need Jr. just to get to 50-50. And even that isn’t enough, because in case of a tie, Dick Cheney votes.

I’m sitting here typing this from the Second Street branch office. Looks like the pool table will remain assembled tonight, although I’m sitting on the inside on one of the rails so I don’t really have a good view of it. They have two trainees working tonight, and even though neither of them are from Romania, I still have to say, management did a VERY good job with their most recent hiring decisions.

Time to shut down the laptop and get a little beer drinking done. See you tomorrow!

Tomorrow night I’ll be attending the Peabody rooftop party, where Dr. Zarr’s Amazing Funk Monster will be playing. Can’t wait. The past couple of weeks have kind of sucked a little bit and I am more than ready to boogie down to a little disco. I haven’t busted out my full set of dance moves in quite a while. Some friends and I are getting a group together to go to the rooftop party. Although I sometimes say I’m going and then back out, I can promise you this is one where I will absolutely positively be there – even if the worst happens and it rains and the party is moved indoors. Forecast only shows a 20% chance though, so should be OK.

I believe that ladies get in free until 8, if you’re thinking about going. Not that it does me a bit of good. Wonder if they’d let me in for free if I wore my Beer Goddess costume from last Halloween.

Other things going on:

The Dempseys at Blues City Cafe tonight.

South Main Trolley Art Tour Friday night.

And that’s it for now, the quickest lunchtime post I’ve ever typed. I’m at the Union Avenue branch office. The special today is chicken alfredo pasta and it’s time to eat.

Last night I went to Pint Nite at the Saucer. I grabbed a seat at the Second Street window, where I had a good view. (A good view of the waitresses, that is; I could not have cared less about the bum-and-pigeon show going on outside.) About an hour after I got there, two guys came in and took the pool table apart and put new felt on. I had never seen a pool table taken apart before, so I took some pics.

They’ve taken the top off and are looking around to see what has fallen inside.

An up-close look at a pool table’s innards.

The slate surface underneath the felt.

… and now the new felt is on. They took a razor and shredded the felt around the pockets.

You would not believe how much chalk had fallen down into the table. They must have found 50 pieces, at least.

Putting it back together. They put new rails on the pool table too. If you look closely you’ll see a cute Romanian waitress in the background.

In other news: I learned that Raiford’s was not closed because of the movie being shot in the area, as had been reported, but was closed for renovations. A friend of mine went last Saturday, and he reports that they’ve made some changes to the bar area and enclosed the section where Raiford stands when he DJs. Sounds cool… I’ll try to get by to take a look this weekend. Always up for dancing and a 40. I probably won’t be able to get any pics of the renovations, because my digital camera doesn’t deal well with that stupid fog machine.

All right. Time to hit Publish and head back to work. I’ll be at the Saucer tonight, as my trivia team begins the process of rebuilding our stash of gift certificates.

Here’s a pic of the Chicago style hot dog I got at Dawgie Style yesterday:

It comes with tomatoes, pickle spear, sport peppers, mustard, onions, and relish. You can get it as a combo with chips and drink for $4.95. However many napkins you think you need, get twice as many – this dog is messy to eat.

They also occasionally have off-menu items on the weekends. Last Saturday I went in and they made me this ENORMOUS burrito full of Italian roast beef, peppers, tomatoes, onions, olives and other good stuff, and they topped it with chili. They told me that later in the day, they were going to make quesadillas. So if you go in, it’s definitely worth it to ask if they have any specials.

Once again, Dawgie Style is on Madison between Second and Third and is open seven days a week. I know I sound like an advertisement for this place but I really like these people, and I really like their food.

I’m sitting here at the Union Avenue branch office typing this post. Glad I came in early today, because there were Romanians here eating lunch – the fluffy haired one and the blonde who I hardly ever see. Romania has got to be the most wonderful country on earth. I can’t wait for Emma to come on at 4 so she and I can resume our argument as to which of the four Romanian girls is the hottest.

Around 2ish I’ll make a run to the Second Street branch office to see my waitresses, then I’ll run by the Majestic branch office where I hear my friend Kenneth is bartending. I’m in the mood for one of their flatbread pizzas after they were featured in the Memphis Flyer this week. Then at 4 I’ll return to the Union branch office for Emma’s Sunday extravganza. If I haven’t passed out drunk by 10:30 I’ll go by Blues City and catch FreeWorld.

Sad news… I just hit the Memphis Flyer’s site to see if I could find a link to the Majestic article, and I read that Bonnie Mack, the chef at Blues City, died last Sunday. We’ll miss you, Bonnie. Thanks for the great ribs.

Oh, now this is cool. I just discovered that you can now download the current issue of the Flyer, ads and everything, in PDF format. The Flyer is one of those papers you can’t read online through hyperlinks – it’s just not the same without the ads and everything. But in PDF format, the authentic Flyer experience is re-created. If you’re from out of town and want to know what’s going on in Memphis, the weekly PDF is a must.

Pics from Chad’s plate party last night coming soon. This is a case where everyone else took the pics and they have to e-mail them to me before I can put them up. Time to shut down the laptop and start drinking. Check out Deal of the Week if you just can’t get enough of my writing and want more.

In previous posts I had noted that Raiford’s was closed last weekend, and wondered why. From regular blog reader Chuck D:

Raiford’s, along with E & H’s, is closed as part of the production for
“Under the Blueberry Sky”, a full-length feature film starring Norah
Jones, and including scenes filmed at these, and other Memphis
locations. There is a 2 week shooting schedule in downtown, much of
which has already been completed. However, I’m not sure of Raiford’s
status for this weekend. However, I can tell you for certain that
Platinum Plus will be open this weekend.

Anyone know if Raiford’s will be open this weekend? Did anyone go down there last night?

And Chuck D – you seen Master Polo around lately? I know you and he are good friends. He just kind of disappeared a couple of months ago. I’ve been wondering what happened to him.

Let’s start off with what I did yesterday. I decided to eat lunch at the Flying Saucer and get a little side work done on my laptop. While there I grabbed a copy of this week’s Memphis Flyer and flipped through it. On the back page there’s an ad for the American Apparel store at South Main and GE Patterson… you know, I gotta say, there may not be much at American Apparel that I would look good in, but they certainly have a lot of clothes I would like to see my female friends buy and wear. That Double U Dress they have pictured in the Flyer ad… wow. They have a tube top dress that ain’t bad either.

So I sat there at the Saucer, surfing the women’s clothing section of their website, and watching one of the waitresses walk around. I thought to myself, it may be called American Apparel but I’d sure like to see some of their clothes become Romanian apparel.

So I tabbed out, went back to work, and enjoyed an excruciating afternoon of trying to remember how to use T-SQL to join tables in two different databases. Finally, 4:45 came, and I drove home. I put my stuff in my apartment, then walked to the Flying Saucer for a beer.

At 6:00 I walked down to Zanzibar, where an arts group I’ve been a member of for 5 years was having their season opener/kickoff. Their calendar of events for 2006-07 looked like the best I’ve seen since I first got involved with the group, and I discovered that one of my good friends is on the board. But you know what? I didn’t re-join for year 6.

I don’t know… it’s nothing against the group, nothing at all. But I just stood there among all the “young professionals, 21-40” in their plaid button-down shirts and their neatly-pressed khakis and their nice shoes doing their “networking,” and quite honestly, I was bored. “Young professionals” can be so stuffy when they get together in a group. They usually wear “business casual” attire to events like these. Some wear suits. Because I have the personality to pull it off, I can get away with jeans. But it bothered me that I put on long pants of any fashion on when it was 100 outside, in an attempt to fit in and impress people that I really didn’t care about impressing.

Again, it’s a really good group and I’m not knocking them. And I’ve done the “young professionals” thing for a while and fit in just fine and even got on the board of one organization for a couple of years. I’m glad I had that experience. But I just don’t feel the need to do it anymore.

I’ll miss out on “networking opportunities” by not re-joining, but you know what? I’ve done almost no “young professionals, 21-40” events this year and yet have done PLENTY of networking. Heck, I’ve probably turned down five grand in consulting work this summer, simply because I don’t have time to do it. I referred potential clients to a couple of friends who are entrepreneurs, and helped a few people find jobs. But this year I’ve done my networking while drinking duck farts at Sleep Out’s, or while drinking wine at South Main Trolley Tour, or while drinking beer at the Saucer. I’m still networking with other young professionals but it’s a lot more relaxed. People tend to be themselves more in those environments. And I can wear shorts without feeling out of place.

So anyway, I slipped out of the event earlier than expected, about 7:00, and stopped by the Flying Saucer for a beer. Afterward I went to the Peabody rooftop for their weekly party. While up there, I noticed a building on fire about a half-mile to the southeast – there was a lot of smoke and I could even see flames. I checked the Commercial Appeal and all the TV stations’ websites this morning but couldn’t find any info on it – does anyone know what was on fire?

Otherwise, not much interesting to report from the rooftop – saw a girl I danced with at Six-1-Six nine years ago and talked to her for a few minutes. After I left the rooftop, I went to the Flying Saucer for a beer, then went home.

I think that’s a new record. 4 trips to the Saucer in one day. And yet in those 4 trips, I only drank 3 beers (I had a coke with lunch).

So that brings us up to today… currently I’m sitting at the Flying Saucer, eating lunch and typing this. Not sure what I’ll be doing tonight… some of my friends who live in my building are having “game night”… trying to decide if I want to do that or go out.

Tomorrow I’ll be attending a friend’s plate party at the Flying Saucer in the afternoon, then later on I’ll be at a friend’s graduation party in the South Main district. Hmmm… that means I’ll be walking back up Main to my part of town at some point, and I just might have to make a detour into Raiford’s, assuming it’s open. Still don’t know why it was closed last week.

Sunday will be another Emma extravaganza at Sleep Out Louie’s, starting a little later this week, at 4 PM and continuing on until close. Semi-Charmed Kat has said she’ll probably return this week, although I’m not allowed to take any more pictures, because we certainly wouldn’t want any “young professionals, 21-40” who Kat “networks” with to think badly of her. More and more I’m beginning to understand why Kat’s Cordova neighborhood is such a good fit for her.

There’s a Database Analyst position open at the City Schools where I work. Unlike my contract position, this is permanent, full-time. The position is at the school board office at Hollywood and Avery, and it’s not a bad place to work – more relaxed than corporate America, and lots of good places to eat lunch in Midtown.

That’s it for now – hope everyone has a good weekend.

(Edited 10:00 pm August 17: Kat has requested that her pics be taken down after realizing what a large audience I have and who might see the incriminating evidence. I am honoring her requests. I don’t allow comments on my blog but ATTN PHILIP: If you have anything to say, e-mail me and it will be printed in full.)

This is one of the rare times on this blog when you’ll ever see me do this:

VULGARITY WARNING: There were a lot of juicy quotes from the Sunday brunch crowd, and some of them are not exactly rated G. Some would probably be rated X, or at least NC-17. If you prefer to read family-friendly posts, you should probably skip this one.

Fellow blogger Semi-Charmed Kat and her 38DD breasts joined me for brunch at Sleep Out Louie’s this past Sunday. As I mentioned earlier, Sunday promised to be a brunch extravaganza because bartender extraordinaire Emma was back on the morning shift for one week only. Not only did Kat feel right at home, but she provided much of the entertainment and blog-worthy quotes. Let’s start with some pictures:

(Edited: All pics of Kat have been removed.)

One of the regulars brought in a cute baby. Here’s Emma, one of the most awesome people to ever set foot behind a bar, with the baby.

(Edited: Kat didn’t tell me to take the quotes down.)

All right, that’s it for pics. Let’s move on to some classic Kat quotes. Once again: IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH VULGAR LANGUAGE OR TOPICS, STOP READING NOW. I have a feeling that my mother won’t be saying “Paul, I would love to have Kat as a daughter-in-law” anymore after reading these.

As we ate and drank, the NASCAR race was on TV and someone mentioned that Rusty Wallace’s slogan, in conjunction with Miller Lite, is “We race for beer.” Kat: “The only thing better would be, ‘we race for dick.'”

Then we brought out the video crack boxes and started playing NTN Trivia. Kat tried to log in and it wouldn’t accept DDKAT (in honor of her breasts) as her player name. “Name unacceptable,” it told her. She had to settle for the much more tame KATDD.

In this quote Kat gives away the fact that she lives in East Bumblefuck and is therefore, by definition, boring. I told her that she’d have to see the dance I do when I win at NTN Trivia, and Kat responded, “You’ll have to do the Microsoft Excel dance I do at work.”

Then we started doing duck farts, the potent concoction of Bailey’s, coffee liqueur, and whiskey that has become a Sleep Out’s tradition.
Me: “Duck fart?”
Kat: “No! Those taste like asshole. And I should know.”

Kat: “I’m not a sex bomb, I’m more like a sex bottle rocket.”
Otto: “Quick and fast, with a bang at the end.”

Otto commented that he doesn’t like Jello shots. “I just don’t like big, thick liquid.”
Kat: “That’s my job.”

And those were the best of the quotable quotes. In other news: Downtown is Number One! Eyewitness News 24 reports that Downtown is the top spot for flashers. Along with Brooks Road, more people expose themselves Downtown than in any other part of Memphis. What an honor to be mentioned in the same breath as Brooks Road. I have seen Woman Without Pants, mentioned in Channel 24’s story, several times downtown, including one day when the circus was going on and there were a lot of children out on the streets.

That’ll do it for now. I’ve been at the Second Street branch office for three hours now, and it’s Elvis glass night (I actually participated in “buy the beer, waste money on the glass” for once) and it’s getting crowded. Time to pack up the laptop and sit back and enjoy the scenery.

The Rapscallions lost at trivia tonight at the Saucer. According to this week’s Trivia Guy we finished in the middle of the pack.

Here’s a pic of me pouring the Duvel I ordered into a Saint Brendan’s Irish Cream coffee glass. It’s the closest they could find to a Duvel glass. By the way, the waitress, Kristie, is awesome. She has had to deal with some large and unruly groups on our team and has taken care of us like a pro. If you hit the downtown Saucer and she’s working, definitely look for a table in her section.

Here’s a closeup of the Duvel in the glass:

Still working on the Semi-Charmed Kat pics. I need to come home sober one of these days and get them done.

Well, I woke up late this morning, and don’t have time to type up the Semi-Charmed Kat/whipped cream post before I go to work. I guess it will have to wait until tonight or tomorrow.

However, I do have one pic for you… last night I went to Pint Nite at the Saucer (I’m sure that surprises no one) and ran into these two:

As you can see, Meredith (on the left) has a great sense of fashion. Mendi, where’s your tube top?

Today’s lunchtime post is being brought to you by the free wi-fi at the Flying Saucer. Man… you should see this place. It’s like the AutoZone corporate headquarters, Second Street annex. Nearly everyone in here has a boring gray shirt and boring black pants and a boring black belt and boring black shoes – black POLISHABLE shoes, mind you. Oh, a few have on a boring red shirt rather than the boring gray shirt. Most of them have their corporate ID badge clipped to their shirt collar, in an attempt to make an already stupid uniform look even more ridiculous. I’m not happy about having to share my Second Street branch office with these people.

Semi-Charmed Kat joined us for brunch at Sleep Out’s yesterday, and she loved it. “Why haven’t I been doing this before?” she asked. She has already written a blog entry about brunch. Later in the day when I have access to my digital camera, I plan on doing an entire post about Kat’s day yesterday. There are pictures, and let’s just say that whipped cream and Kat’s 38DD boobs are involved. Kat also provided several good quotes yesterday which were blog-worthy – however, I may have to take the extreme step of putting a vulgarity warning at the top of the post. Let’s just say that some of the quotes make Emma’s Vagisil comment look tame by comparison. Hopefully it will be up later today, tomorrow at the latest.

Ummm… that’s about it for now. I’ll be at the Saucer tonight for Pint Nite. I’ll be at the Saucer tomorrow for trivia. I’ll probably be at the Saucer all the rest of the days this week too. Bravo Memphis is having their season kickoff at Zanzibar Thursday night from 6 to 9, and I’m trying to decide whether I want to go, and whether I actually want to re-join for a sixth season. I’m kinda down on “young professionals” events lately – I have more fun hanging out in bars, people are more real there. We’ll see. I have a good friend on the board this year, and that may tip the scales toward joining.

Monday sucks. If I can’t stay here and drink all afternoon, can I at least take the waitresses back to work with me?