Month: December 2009

All right, so this has been a really horrible week for posting, probably my worst week in three years.  There just isn’t a whole lot going on.  I guess everyone has private Christmas parties to attend this week.  I’m taking the night off from going out, sitting here typing on the laptop while playing Razz on the netbook.  Let’s see what I can find to talk about…

First of all, South of Beale has announced that they will be open Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  They don’t open until 4 PM though (that’s their regular schedule).

If you want a hot dog from Main Street Hound Dogs, the vendor with the cart at Main and Union at lunchtime, you better get by and see him soon.  He’s tweeting that he may soon pack it up for the winter due to cold weather.  You can keep up with him at @mainsthounddogs to see if he’s out.

I’m getting e-mails from people asking me what to do Downtown for New Year’s Eve.  My best recommendation is to get on DowntownMemphis.com and do a search for the 31st.  NYE has been such a crapshoot/amateur night in recent years that I hesitate to recommend much of anything.  The Tigers vs. Tennessee game at the FedExForum is going to throw an interesting kink into a lot of people’s NYE plans that night.

Abita Turbo Dog is no longer the foulest beer on draft at the Flying Saucer.  They brought back Dogfish Head Chicory Stout, which is a chicory-flavored beer.  I had it when I was working on my first plate, and it was so disgusting that I gave up on it after about 3 sips.  Think of it as a dark beer with a strong coffee flavor.

They have a banana nut bread flavored beer that’s new as well, and it sure sounds better than Chicory Stout.  It’s $11 a bottle though.  Maybe I’ll have one Saturday on my plate party tab.

Just discovered something cool:  The Current Events portal in Wikipedia.  Links to articles related to events in the news.  I spent some time reading about a volcano about to erupt in the Phillippines.

All right, that’s enough for now… got a private party to attend at a popular local restaurant tomorrow night.  There will be free food and I have a feeling the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up, so expect pics.

Here’s a name Sleep Out Louie’s alumni will recognize… Brooke Tweddell will have a jewelry trunk show entitled “cable + pearl” at Lansky’s Lucky Duck in the Peabody from December 18 through 20.  On the 18th from 4:30 to 8 PM there will be a holiday wine and cheese reception at the Lucky Duck featuring Brooke’s jewelry.  Free food?  Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

Yeah, I know my post output has been pretty horrible the past couple of days.  Been busy.

The Rapscallions fended off a visiting team to take first place in trivia tonight.

Home from work.  A few quick notes:

If you park at the Parking Can Be Fun garage on Union when you come Downtown, be aware of changes if you’re a night owl.  Starting on January 10, the garage will close at 11 PM (Edit: PM, not AM, thanks ATM for the catch) Sunday through Wednesday nights, and will re-open at 7 AM the next day.  It will still run 24 hours Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.  Monthly parkers will be able to scan their card to get in and out after hours.

Feeling generous this holiday season?  Check out the 2009 Memphis Charitable Gift Guide on the I Love Memphis blog.

Also check out this NY Times article about Josh Pastner.

And finally, I had someone e-mail and ask me a few questions today, and he finished the e-mail with:

It’s Monday, so you’ll probably be at Pint Nite. If you go I hope you’ll give Brittney the tip she deserves.

It’s not possible for me to give Brittney the tip she deserves.  The US government stopped minting the half-cent coin in 1857.

I’m feeling the need for a night off from poker, so I think I’ll skip the Silly Goose tournament tonight.  That’ll make for an extra-long beer drinking session at Pint Nite.  Will be there in a few minutes.

Sitting here drinking Mountain Dew and eating Shelton’s Sultry Salsa, which I got from Shelton Clothiers.  Did you know that the premium men’s clothing store had salsa?  It’s kind of like those hot wing places that also sell cell phones.  Except, classier.  Recommendation:  Shelton’s Sultry Salsa and Sweet Spicy Chili Doritos pair up well together.

Yesterday was Saturday, the last calendar day of last week.  Today is Sunday, the first calendar day of this week.  Know what that means?  Even though I posted a “Brick” quote of the week yesterday, it’s already time for another one.

So, Thursday night I was hanging out with friends at the bar, and Brick came up to me and shared her latest news:

“I’m getting my IQ re-done so that it’s almost a 4.0.”

She wondered why we were all laughing, and I felt bad and hugged her and said, “Brick, I’m sorry.  You’re right.  I have no doubt that your IQ is close to a 4.0.”  And all was well after that.

I think she works today, so hopefully she’ll provide a quote for next week.

Wow there was a whole lotta douche Downtown last night.  Affliction logos everywhere.  Graphic tees worn two sizes too small to show off that the owner works out and roids up every day.  Spiky gelled hair.  Faux hawks.  Chin-strap beards.  Bramble tatts.  It was gross.  I went home early… definitely did not want to be out after the fight was over.

I’ve been asked to provide feedback on a topic of interest today at 1… thank goodness I can do it while drinking beer.  May play in a live Texas hold’em game at 3… will see how I feel about it when time rolls around.  Tonight I’ll be back up at the Saucer for another lazy Sunday night with Brittney.

The Acer Aspire 10.1″ 1 GB RAM/160 GB HD netbook that I bought about a month ago is on sale on Woot.com today.  They’re throwing in a USB DVD R/W and a wireless mouse with this one for $269, not a bad deal.  The 3-cell battery sucks, giving you only about 2 hours of battery life, but you can order a replacement 9-cell battery on Amazon for about $50.  The 9-cell will give you about 7 1/2 of use, and you’ll have a very nice little netbook with accessories for barely more than $300.

Go to Woot.com to purchase.

So I rode the bike down to Memphis Cash & Carry this morning.  It’s a grocery on Carolina right where Second Street ends.  They have a lot of good deals there.  Usually you have to buy by the case, but if you need a lot of something, you’ll save money there.  They had just about everything you’d find in a regular grocery, including name brands, beer, and a large cigarette/tobacco selection.

Huge selection of cans and bottles of beer.  They had a 12-pack of PBR 24-ounce cans for $12.90.  They also had a lot of bands you don’t see in tallboys every day… for example, they had a 12-pack of Modelo Especial tallboys.  Didn’t see the price, but that’s a good beer – I like it as much as I like Dos Equis Lager.  Gotta have a lime with it, though, since it’s a Mexi-beer.

People who should definitely check out the cash & carry:

• College students, or those who are fresh out of college and on a tight budget.  I saw cases of Ramen, as well as cases of Beefaroni, chili, beef stew, and other inexpensive dishes that can be heated up in a microwave.
• People planning a party.  If you need to buy stuff in bulk, this is a good place to get stuff cheap.  They have a big meat selection, and I already mentioned the beer.  Didn’t see produce.  Of course, they’ve got chips, cookies, soft drinks, and all that stuff in bulk.
• People who use a lot of one particular item.  For example, if you’re addicted to Altoids and suck on them all day, every day at work, you can get cases of them at the cash & carry.
• Smokers.  If you smoke, chew or dip, you’ll definitely save money at the cash & carry.  Of course, you’ll save even more money if you quit your filthy, nasty, disgusting, cancer-causing habit altogether.

And don’t ride a bike down there like I did.  You’ll want a car with plenty of trunk space.  It’s open until 3:45 PM weekdays and 2:45 Saturday.

I didn’t make it to the Creole restaurant on Florida.  I decided it was just too cold to ride all the way down there.  When we get a Saturday in the 50s I’ll give it a try.  However, on the ride home I rode down GE Patterson, and there was Beignet Cafe, which I had not yet tried.  So I got Creole food after all… red beans & rice, to be specific.  Very good, neat little place, and they’re staying open until 10 Mon-Sat now.  Will definitely go back.  Full bar, and I think they have Wi-Fi there, so maybe I’ll bring the netbook.

I was going to stop in for a beer at Calhoun’s, but it was starting to spit rain, so I just hopped on the bike and rode home.  Rain + bike is not a good combination, especially when it’s 40 outside.  Now I’m home… going to mess around with Jolicloud OS on the netbook and play Razz on PokerStars for a few hours.  At 5 I’ll head to the Saucer for the Beerknurd party.

Oh… good news.  If you’re going to the Beerknurd party, you won’t have to deal with this.

The Nuh-Uh Girl won’t be there.  She’s in Nashville this weekend.  So the rest of us actually might get something to eat.

Jolicloud OS update:  I got PokerStars installed to run under Wine, the Windows emulator for Linux, on which Jolicloud is based.  It worked well for over an hour, but finally, as I switched back and forth between a table, the PokerStars lobby, and Firefox, PokerStars crashed and I had to reboot.  Oh well.  It is a pre-beta of Jolicloud that I’m using.  Can’t expect perfection.  About to log back on and try again.

I’ve had a request to start including quotes from “Brick” on a regular basis.  Brick is a brunette who is a waitress at the Saucer.  Her real name’s Katie.  She’s been asking me to mention her on the blog for a while, so now she’s going to get her wish.  Not sure how she acquired her nickname – my friends just started calling her “Brick” for some reason and I went along with it.  Maybe it’s because she’s built like a brick house, I don’t know.  She needs to stop wearing tights under her skirt so we have a better view.

So anyway, here’s the first Brick quote of the week.  It’s from Tuesday at the Saucer, when we were there for trivia night.  Pete the Trivia Guy kicked off Round 1 with this question:  “What element makes up 89% of the weight of water?”

At trivia night, you can’t phone a friend or use a smartphone as a lifeline, but there’s no reason why you can’t ask a waitress.  So I called Brick over and asked her what the answer was.

She replied, “I don’t know… steam?”

Of course.  Steam!  What’s its symbol on the chart of elements – is it St or Sm?  Never can remember.  Only thing is, I’m a really bad speller, so when I wrote down “steam” as the answer, I misspelled it o-x-y-g-e-n.  Pete thought that was close enough to the correct spelling and gave us credit.  Thanks, Brick!

Back next week with another quote.

I love Saturdays when I hop out of bed early in the morning because there’s a lot I want to get done – emphasis on things I want to do, not crap I have to do.  Yesterday I read on LifeHacker about Jolicloud, an operating system specifically designed for netbooks.  So I downloaded it and installed it last night and am going to play around with it today.  It can be installed without uninstalling Windows – it creates its own partition.  I already have Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter apps installed, similar to the apps on my iPhone.  You can also friend other Jolicloud users through the OS and find out what apps they like.  Jolicloud is based on Linux, and therefore can run Wine, a Windows emulator, so you can still get to your Windows programs.  I’ll report more on Jolicloud after I use it for a couple of weeks.

Thinking about inflating the tires on the bike and taking a ride south, because there are a couple of places I want to investigate.  A couple of friends have told me about a wholesale cash & carry grocery on Carolina, across from the candy factory, that usually sells to businesses but will sell to the public too.  They sell in bulk, from what I’m told, but the prices are supposed to be very good if you need a lot of something.  I heard something about a good price on large packs of PBR tallboys.  Mmmm PBR.

I’ve also been saying for a long time that I want to try Deja Vu, the Creole restaurant on Florida Street about 4 blocks south of Crump.  Every review I’ve read has said both the food and service are marvelous.  So that may be my plan for lunch.

I don’t usually get to watch TNA Wrestling on Thursday nights, but when I hear there’s a good match I’ll look for it on YouTube.  Here’s one for ya:  Lacey Von Erich vs. Velvet Sky in a mud wrestling match. Lacey is a third-generation wrestler, the daughter of the late Kerry Von Erich, and the granddaughter of the late Fritz Von Erich.  You can clearly see she’s inherited the family talent as you watch her roll around in the mud.  I don’t have any family background details on Velvet Sky, but damn, she’s hot.  Don’t forget that the Buy-Paul-a-Beer.net tip jar is there if you want to thank me for posting stuff like this.

John Bragg of Circa was profiled in the Commercial Appeal this week in the Meet the Chef interview.

The Peabody is hiring for several positions: Director of banquets, banquet bartenders and servers, lobby bar server, Capriccio server and server assistant, general maintenance and HVAC.  Details here.

The big deal Downtown tonight is UFC 107… there have been celebrity sightings downtown already this weekend.  It’s been reported on Twitter that Frank Mir had dinner at Kooky Canuck last night.  Gonna see lots of Affliction graphic tees this weekend… speaking of people who wear Affliction shirts, don’t forget that the Douchie of the Year awards are still going on at Hot Chicks with Douchebags.

Just went on my morning Mountain Dew run… a bum tried to do the “tour guide” gimmick on me.  HE SAW ME WALK OUT OF MY APARTMENT BUILDING.  And yet he wanted to tell me where the Peabody was, where Beale Street was.  Hey thanks for telling me about Beale, after 8 years living Downtown I guess it’s time someone let me in on the fact that it’s there.  Bums are stupid.

All right… that’s all I’ve got for now.  I’ll be at the Beerknurd party at the Saucer at 5.  Other than that, no definite plans for today.

Barboro Flats, the new apartment building under construction at Main and Gayoso (for years the site of “the big hole in the ground”), finally has its frame up.  To celebrate, they’re having a topping-off party at noon on Wednesday, December 16.  “No speeches,” they promise, and there will be BBQ and refreshments.

Free food?  Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will ask her manager if she can work from home that day, so she can be Downtown.

There was some confusion about this event because it was mis-listed on Facebook as today, so I wanted to clarify.

If you’re a member of the Flying Saucer’s UFO Club, you should come by Saturday between 5 and 7 PM.  There will be a free buffet for UFO members, you’ll get a free Stone pint, and you’ll be entered into a raffle for prizes.  It will also be the release of randle-poured beer, whatever that means.

Speaking of the Saucer, headed there now with the netbook… gonna drink some beers, hang out with friends, play some Razz poker on PokerStars.