Paul Ryburn’s Journal

It may be snowing outside here in Memphis, but tomorrow is the first day of meterological spring, and warm weather is right around the corner.  So, while it’s been snowing, I’ve been working, re-loading my web store the Tube Top Boutique with 2009 inventory.

Some of the highlights of the new inventory:

Increased number of solid color tube [...]

A few snow pics I just took from my bedroom window:

On that last image, you should be able to see the Mississippi River in the background, to the right above the buildings.  The snow is so thick that a sheet of white has made the river disappear.  I [...]

I ordered a clear license plate cover yesterday. If you park in a garage Downtown, it might be a good idea to get one of these.  The bums have been going into the garages late at night and scraping the “09″ and “10″ stickers off license plates.  If you have your plate covered, then it’s [...]

I had a bad beat at the poker tournament at Calhoun’s last night.  I never went above my initial 10,000 chip allotment, and it quickly got whittled down to half.  Not sorry about the hand that took me out though.  I had AJ suited and the flop came down AJ3.  I went all-in.  Little did I [...]

Calhoun’s, the friendly sports bar on G.E. Patterson next to Cheesecake Corner, has its weekly Buzztime Trivia Texas Hold’em tournament tonight at 7 PM.

The tournament is played not on a table, but on the Buzztime trivia system, where you use blue hand-held boxes (called “crack boxes” by the regulars) to register your bets and raises.  You [...]

There’s now a sign in the window of 14 S. Second, next door to Elliott’s Burgers, that says, “Coming soon!  Paula Raiford’s Disco.”

Paula is Robert Raiford’s daughter, who served quarts of beer at the old location.  She was known for having a very “hands-on” style there.  Great to see her getting her [...]

It’s been a good Wednesday.  Earlier I posted that a man who once ran a very successful business in Downtown Memphis is getting ready to open a new place in the Downtown core.  I hadn’t verified this for myself, so I held back details and took a walk up Second Street, where I was told it [...]

It’s Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.  Of course, during Lent we are supposed to sacrifice, to give up something we enjoy.  I’ve thought about this long and hard and have come to a decision:  For Lent I will give up Abita Turbo Dog. Everyone knows how much I love Turbo Dog, and I’m going to [...]

Thanks to the Nuh-Uh Girl for sending me this link about the planned festivities for Beale Street tonight.  Somehow this flew under my radar until the last minute.

This may change my plans, although I still want to hit [...]

I just looked at the calendar and noticed that the three big party holidays this time of year – Fat Tuesday, St. Patrick’s Day, and Cinco de Mayo – all fall on Tuesday in 2009.  Of course, Fat Tuesday is always on a Tuesday, but this year the other days are as well.  Hmmm… I’d venture [...]