Tuesday drinking holidays

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 a guess that Tuesday is usually the day of the week when the least people go out.  Wonder how wild and crazy it’ll get.

Of course, the major St. Pat’s celebration Downtown is on Beale Street the weekend before, when they have the big parade and Silky hoists that goat up on the platform.  Weather has a lot to do with it.  If it’s unseasonably warm (70s-80s) then there will be a huge crowd.  If it’s colder than normal (50s) the crowd will be thinned out a good deal.  There are advantages to both.  I catch more beads thrown from the parade floats if it’s cold, but on the other hand if it gets warm then we usually get to see the first tube tops of the season.

St. Pat’s day itself falls on a trivia night.  Wonder if the Saucer will even do trivia that night… if they do I will likely skip it.  St. Pat’s tends to be the biggest amateur night of the year after New Year’s Eve, and the Saucer will fill up with frat kids and douchebags.  I probably won’t go there, or if I do I doubt my stay will be more than an hour.

Fortunately, there are three good locals’ bar choices that have sprung up in the past year, Bardog Tavern, Silly Goose, and Voodoo Room, that will probably hold my attention that night.  Silky’s is always an option as well, but it gets super crowded for St. Pat’s.  If the weather is nice and the patio is open, maybe.  If everyone is packed to the gills inside, I’ll look elsewhere.

I’ll miss McGuinness on St. Pat’s.  Well, a little anyway, until I remember how stupid expensive their beers were last year.

For Cinco de Mayo, great weather is pretty much guaranteed, and I’ll tell you why… it’s the Tuesday after Music Fest.  That means it will be rainy and barely into the 60s Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but then by Tuesday it will be sunny and probably around 89 for the high.  My favorite blogger/MILF has always said that Cinco de Mayo is a better holiday than St. Pat’s, and I agree, not only because of the weather but because there are fewer people out, and usually more mature and experienced drinkers.

Still planning to see what Bardog has got going on for Fat Tuesday tonight, then get to the Saucer in time for the drawing for the Fat Tire bike.

Productive morning this morning… I got up at 4 AM and cranked out a 34-page piece of documentation, complete with screen captures, that I’ve been dreading having to do.  That makes up for yesterday, when I got frustrated, gave up early in the afternoon, and downloaded one of those online poker applications from PokerStars.net.  That’s the one that lets you play for free – with the .com version you play with real money.

Wow the players in those free poker rooms are bad – really, really bad.  My competition at Buzztime Poker at Calhoun’s look like finalists at WSOP compared to the clowns I see online.  I’m not sure I can even hone my poker skills at tables full of people making such idiotic moves.  One had 4-2 unsuited, and the flop came down QQJ.  He stayed in through the final card… which would’ve been a smooth move if he’d been betting and raising in order to bluff, but this guy was simply checking and calling ’til the end.  Why?  Maybe he just enjoyed handing other people money.  I’d be running for the hills if I held that hand and saw that flop… if I even stuck around to see the flop at all.

Don’t know… maybe I’ll deposit a little money in a pay-to-play site and try my luck there.  Surely people wouldn’t be doing such dumb things if their real money was at risk.  Any recommendations for poker sites?  I know there are a lot out there.  Guess I’m partial to PokerStars because a former co-worker of mine won a tournament on that site and his prize was a seat at WSOP and an all-expense-paid trip to Vegas.  He made it to the second day, then got wiped out, but still, how many people can say they got to play at the World Series of Poker for free?

Back to the grind… gotta crank out a second 34 pages of documentation before I go out tonight, to get my current project back on track.  By the time I make it to Bardog, I’m going to be ready for that beer.