Today the Memphis Tigers travel to Hofheinz Pavilion in Houston to take on the Houston Cougars. The game is at 3 PM and it will be carried on the CBS Sports Network. Memphis has a chance to beat the Cougars twice in a dozen days, after a 73-54 victory over the Cougars on New Year’s Eve that didn’t really even feel that close.
Meanwhile, the Memphis Grizzlies are back at home today, where they host the Phoenix Suns at 5. The Grizzlies are in the middle of trade speculation that would bring Boston Celtics swingman Jeff Green here. It would be a three-team trade in which Tayshaun Prince and a Grizzlies first-round pick would go to the Celtics, and Quincy Pondexter and a Grizzlies second-round pick would go to the New Orleans Pelicans. The deal likely won’t be done today so the Grizz won’t have Green available for tonight’s game.
Usually I start off my Saturdays at Panda’s bar at Bardog at 11, then wander over to the Blind Bear for D-RANKS with B-RAD around 1. However, when I got to the Bear yesterday, Brad wasn’t there, but I did get a welcome surprise. They finally filled the bartender/server position that had been open for a couple of weeks.
And they filled it with MY FAVORITE PAIR OF LIBRARIAN GLASSES!!!!!!!!!!
Having not worked Downtown since she parted ways with the Saucer a few months back, my favorite pair of librarian glasses was behind the bar training. I helped her out by ordering mixed drinks instead of PBR so she could learn to mix and muddle the Bear’s giggle water. She was having a blast, dancing behind the bar as she worked (as a customer she had been known to dance ON the bar). She will be in training for the next couple of weeks and finishing up shifts at her other job, then the plan is for her to take over the Saturday day bar shift and Brad will keep Sundays.
Good news for the Blind Bear poker players: My favorite pair of librarian glasses will be the Tuesday night server. Not sure if she will start this week, but definitely by the week after that. It will be nice for the poker players to have young, fun librarian glasses with a great personality. Needless to say I will not be taking any Tuesday nights off from poker anymore.
When she worked at the Flying Saucer, my favorite pair of librarian glasses was the day bartender on Fridays, and she built up a regular crowd who came in to see her for lunch. Recognizing that she has a following, the Blind Bear scheduled her to work day bar on Fridays.
She also has Thursday and Saturday evening server shifts. That means she will get to see her former co-workers since many of the Saucer girls go to the Bear for after-work drinks.
Icy weather is moving through western Arkansas as I type this on Sunday morning. The precip will soon get here, but as of 6:40 this morning the MemphisWeather.net folks were 90% confident that we stay all rain, although a little sleet is possible. Follow @MemphisWeather1 on Twitter for the best and most accurate local weather information, and check the “Winterize” checkbox at the top of StormView Radar to see where ice and snow are falling.
Having grown up with 1980s video games, this is really cool: Budweiser is building a life-size Pac-Man arena for the Super Bowl.
The PBR tap at Bardog has been fixed. It was broken much of the day yesterday.
Plan for today: D-ranks with B-rad may not have happened yesterday, but will today as he has the day bar shift at the Bear. I plan on getting there 12:30ish. Brad has some really cool regulars and I hope to see some of them today. Due to my status as “Mr. Load-in” I may have to step into the back for a few minutes to help with a planning session, but most of the afternoon I will be at the bar. I feel the need to verify that the Bardog PBR tap is indeed working (this kind of verification is one of the many services “Mr. Load-in” provides for the BBQ team) so I will stop by there at 11 for a couple of pulls from the tap. Stay safe if you’re traveling to Arkansas today, where the weather is going to get much icier than we will see here in Memphis.