Author: paulryburn

Team accountant Frank buying ice. Of course “Mr. Load-in” was right there with the assist.

Food

More food. Can you tell I’m exhausted and have given up even trying to be witty with these photo captions?

Misty, Buddha, and Uncle Ray

Nikki and Andre

Lauren

My neighbor Peter discussing the booth design with lead artist Sarah

Jeannie, me, Panda

Somewhere between the 23rd and 24th Fireball shot I stopped to take this pic.

Full photo album (about 110 pics I think) here. These BBQ Fest photo albums just aren’t the same without pics of the Nuh-Uh Girl eating.

Today is judging day. My teammates will be in the park at 10 AM getting the place spotless for the judges. We’ve re-worked our presentation this year and we better bring home a trophy. Otherwise I will have to listen to our inspirational leader/father figure go “BULL….. SHIT” for four hours and I just can’t take another year of that.

I don’t make a positive impression on judges so I’m staying out of the tent while that is happening. Going to hit Panda’s bar at Bardog for an abbreviated Saturday session then will be in the park about 1.

 

 

The Moody Ques have repeated as Best Booth winners. With our “red devil” bus design, we impressed the judges enough to score the win. Huge thanks to Clay (pictured above) who came up with the idea, Travis and Brent and the gang from Holliday Flowers, and Sarah and her team of artists who painted the bus. Awesome job guys! Now it’s time for the cook team to step up. This better not be the only trophy in our booth by Saturday night!

The creative team, minus Brent

And now for the rest of the Thursday photos:

Team treasurer Frank (right) with our Yankees. The Northern members of our team are awesome.

If anything happened last night that I need to apologize for (and I think it did) this is the reason why. Alcoholic gummy bears. Eating six of these at one time? Maybe not such a good idea.

Also, right after eating six alcoholic gummy bears is probably not the best time to do a Jello shot.

I just discovered that I threw up on my living room carpet last night. Hey, I made it to Thursday before that happened! That’s a four day improvement over BBQ Fest week last year.

I hope you’re enjoying this encore presentation of “How to Destroy Your Personal Brand in a Week.” If you missed the beginning, no worries, just check back in May 2015.

And now, back to the photos…

The “Red Devils” in Panama City have the owners’ favorite sports figures painted on the back. This was one of the judges’ favorite boxers and it really impressed him.

Lauren

Ana won Best Dressed in our booth last night.

These beef tips were amazing.

Dinner. Since the Nuh-Uh Girl is not here I carried on her tradition of going back for two more servings of food.

(People are reading this and thinking, “Two? More like eight.”) Sorry, I can’t eat that much.

Rainbow after a storm moved through. If you  look closely you’ll see a second rainbow.

Our team co-founders

It was cold last night and there weren’t many tube tops to photograph. So you get this instead.

The Saucer girls heard about the awesome job I did during BBQ Fest load-in and came down to check it out.

Kao and Bloom. Yesterday Bloom got me started with a Bloody Mary at her bar at Bardog at 8:30. By 9:55 I’d had a PBR and a Fireball too. Yes that’s AM. Not PM. Or p.m. if you follow the AP Stylebook. BBQ Fest: The spring break for adults.

From the “nice photo but it would be even better if they had tube tops on” file…

Full photo album (about 180 photos minus a few bad ones of me that I deleted) are here on the Moody Ques site. Nice to see that WordPress can handle large photo galleries.

So, let me tell you about my morning. I woke up about 8:15 today and looked around and couldn’t find the pants I had on last night. That was kind of a problem because my wallet, iPhone, and keys were in them. After about 12 minutes I finally located them. They were one step inside the entrance hallway to my apartment. Once again, let me stress that six alcoholic gummy bears at one time really isn’t a good idea.

Sunny and 73 is the forecast. There is NO EXCUSE for not having a tube top on today. Championship meat goes on the smoker tonight. Let’s do this. It’s 10:07 now and I guess it’s time to take a shower. I will pre-game at the Flying Saucer at 11 and will be in the booth by 12:30.

I’m going to dispense with any kind of clever introduction and show you our 2014 team booth!

 

In Panama City, Panama, mass transportation is handled by private bus companies. The buses are known as red devils and there is no published route or schedule for them. They are elaborately decorated and you know where they are going by looking at the decorations. Sadly the devils are being phased out, but we decided to bring them back for a weekend for our BBQ booth facade.

I have to give credit where credit is due here. I may be “Mr. Load-in” but the facade was other people’s  brainchild. It started with our team vice-president, Clay, who communicated the idea to our booth sponsor Holliday Flowers. “The reason it works so well is, Travis (from Holliday) knows what’s up here (pointing at his head) when I can’t even put it in words,” Clay said. If you need an event planned or decorated, Holliday is the place to call. They will blow your mind and exceed all your expectations.

Once the facade was erected, a team of artists led by BBQ teammate Sarah, newly returned to Memphis after four years in Chicago, got to work painting our red devil. They incorporated elements of Memphis, our sponsor Start Co., our logo, and of the Memphis in May host country Panama.

And now let’s get to the rest of the pics. I didn’t take as many as usual because it was so blasted cold. It was 52 degrees outside, windy, and misting for a while.

BBQ Fest toenail polish

Koozie for Schweinehaus, the new restaurant being opened by our head pitmaster David Scott Walker

We incorporated the motto of our sponsor Start Co. into the booth design.

Team president Moody commented that in all the years we have been BBQ teammates, there has never been a photo taken of her, the team president, and me, “Mr. Load-in.” Last night we took one.

The zip tie which caused me to injure my back during load-in Tuesday. The back is feeling much better thanks to peach moonshine shots last night and the Bloody Mary I am drinking at Bardog right now as I type this post.

Our pitmaster Chef DSW is a pretty easy-going guy but he did have one demand for the team: Cheese balls in the booth at all times.

Speaking of DSW, here he is. I had someone read my blog and ask, “Wait, Designer Shoe Warehouse is your sponsor?” No, I’m just too lazy to type our chef’s full name over and over.

Otto’s mom with her boyfriend Buddha. Expect many drunk inappropriate comments from this man over the next few days. Buddha is the one who invited people to our booth and said, “We’ll get you so drunk you’ll have a seizure and die.” (Moody will kill me if I don’t add this: This man does not speak for the Moody Ques and your experience may be different than what Buddha advertised.)

I guess John D couldn’t be bothered to smile for this photo. At least his rain coat matches the colors of our sponsor Start Co.

BBQ!

Otto’s mom getting down. There is a video of me dancing with her to “Back in Black” that will probably hit Facebook sometime today if it hasn’t already.

Complete photo album here on the Moody Ques website. Again, the photo album is smaller than usual because it was so damn cold. There will be a ton more photos today. Since we’re using a WordPress gallery this year, I need to ask Otto how to stop the photos from displaying in reverse chronological order.

With the photos out of the way, let me recap the rest of the day and add some comments. My road to BBQ Fest started about 2 yesterday when I stopped by Bardog. I was just going to have a couple of PBRs and move on, but team president Moody showed up to give “Mr. Load-in” a report on the food delivery situation. We were running behind schedule and I needed a Fireball shot to deal with the news.

Moody left to go get blankets to keep the cooks warm. Teammate Kao joined me and we moved to the Silly Goose for an abbreviated session of our usual Wednesday Jessica visit. After a couple of PBRs I went to the restroom and came out to find “The BBQ Fest Bum” talking to Kao. He has a habit of begging every BBQ team member on every team he knows for a guest wristband until someone feels sorry for him and gives him one. I need to give a couple of teammates who don’t live Downtown a briefing of his behavior over the past year, so they understand why this person is persona non grata in the Moody Ques and Squeal Street booths and possibly others too.

On Friends & Family Night the cooks keep the menu simple, with burgers and hot dogs. I wasn’t expecting much but Matt, one of the assistant cooks, came over and told me, “Paul. Get in line at the food table. We have burgers coming out. You want to try this.” So I grabbed a bun and slapped on mustard, some kind of gourmet white cheese that had been put out, and salsa. Ten minutes later the burger patties came out and I grabbed one. OH MY GOD. That burger was moist and flavorful and artfully seasoned and was one of the top five burgers I have ever had in my life. Seth from Best Memphis Burger – I will let you know if those burgers are on the menu again this week. You have got to come try one.

Even though the weather was horrible, this was the best Friends & Family Night in the 8 years I have been on BBQ teams. Everyone was in high spirits and we fired up the music and danced and did moonshine shots. It’s so cool to watch new team members assimilate themselves into the team.

After the park closed, I caught a ride to the Blind Bear. Trivia was going on and about 10 of our members and sponsors and friends were playing at one of the tables. They gave me a round of applause as I came in. They had heard that I was pretty much the Clydesdale of the load-in effort at our booth this year. It’s nice to be appreciated.

Looking forward to a big day today. Cody Rogers who is one of our team members will be picking out the tunes tonight, so the music should be top-notch. The food should be top-notch too. I still haven’t seen the menu, but if I do I will try to get it posted to the team website.

After last night’s weather, I can announce that we are seeking a few new members for 2015. Desired qualities in new members:

1) Female
2) Wears tube tops when it is 52 degrees outside
3) Becomes extremely affectionate after a couple of stiff drinks made with less-than-premium quality vodka

All right. Still at Bardog and Bloom just talked me into a Fireball shot. It’s not even 10:00 yet. I hope I don’t drop the MacBook on the walk home. As always I will have a pre-game beer at the Saucer at 11 then hit the park for Day 1 of BBQ Fest that is open to the public.

Yesterday I was up and at ’em early. My plan was to get to Tom Lee Park not long after noon to assist the team with remaining booth construction tasks. I don’t mean to brag, but I lead the Moody Ques in assists. I’m kind of like the Mike Conley of BBQ Fest.

I texted the team and let them know I was on the way. “Hold on,” they replied. “Have you made it past the Saucer yet? Can you go by and see what the Fire Sale is?” I was already at Riverside and Beale by that point, but I backtracked and went to the Flying Saucer, to discover that they had Goose Island IPA as their discounted “Fire Sale” of the day for $3.50 a pint. Normally it sells for around $5. As long as I was there, I decided to have a refreshing Dos Equis Lager before continuing on to the park for a day of hard labor.

Thirty minutes later I was back on my way. Again I made it to the north entrance of the park when the team sent another text. “Can you go by and see what the Daily Dog is at Bardog?” Every day Bardog Tavern features a differently-topped hot dog as one of its specials. Once again I turned around and made the walk up to Monroe. Yesterday’s dog had marinara, parmesan, and black olives. I had to admit it sounded really good. I didn’t order the hot dog because I felt I didn’t have time to eat. However, I did order three PBRs.

Once again I started to walk to the park. This time I didn’t text anyone to tell them I was coming. “If the team keeps sending me on wild goose chases, I will NEVER get to the park and be able to get some work done,” I thought. This time I made it. Good thing I did too. The team was starting to get burned out and tired. An inspirational visit from “Mr. Load-in” was exactly what the team needed to pick up their spirits.

While in the booth I chatted with one of the assistant chefs who will be working with our pitmaster, Chef David Scott Walker. “I know we won Best Booth last year, but I’m embarrassed that we didn’t bring back any trophies for food. This year we are going to change that,” he told me. We’re entering all the ancillary competitions – things like beef, Anything But (pork), sauces – and of course, we’re prepping for the main event in our category, pork shoulder. We lost points on the presentation to the judges last year and the cooks have a plan to turn that around. Also, I learned that we will be fed even better than we were last year, with a special entree for each meal plus plenty of ribs and shoulder throughout the festival.

The final decorative touches were being put on the booth, and the team put me to work. I handed our team vice-president a crate. Then about 20 minutes later, I handed one of the guys from Holliday Flowers a crate. I was a crate-handing machine down there, let me tell you.

However, my tendency to overdo things caught up with me. “Hey Paul, can you hand me a zip tie?” my teammate Jason asked, sitting atop the scaffolding, hanging a curtain. There was a zip tie sitting on the bar and I grabbed it and took it over. As I reached up to hand it to him, – OW!!!! – I felt something pop in my back. I had gone too far and injured my back at BBQ Fest load-in.

I didn’t tell anyone. So many people on the team look up to me that I felt that I couldn’t let them down by telling them about my injured back. For the next hour I stood around and tried to do as little as possible, which was hard because that’s completely out of character for me. My teammates helped team captain Moody unload bottled water from her car, and I felt terrible standing there watching while everyone else did the work.

I didn’t tell Moody about the back injury but she must have figured it out, because she insisted on giving me a ride back to the Downtown core. She dropped me off at the Blind Bear, where I supported our team sponsor by ordering crawfish mac & cheese and eight PBRs. Then I went over to the Flying Saucer and stayed there until last call. The lime juice I squeezed into my Dos Equis Lager helped my back feel a bit better. Then I went back to the Blind Bear to support our sponsor some more.

There’s last-minute load-in stuff to do today, but due to my back I am not even going to attempt it. The others will have to soldier on without me. I plan on stopping by Bardog around 2 to report the Daily Dog to the team, then Flying Saucer at 3 to report the Fire Sale. At 4 I will relocate to the Silly Goose which I will use as a last-minute staging area. The park opens for Friends & Family Night at 5:30. This is a special night that is not open to the public, and you have to have a ticket purchased by the team to get in. It’s a chance for the BBQ teams to do test runs of food and walk around see each other’s booths before the public comes in on Thursday.

Our booth is three from the very south, on the bluff side (as opposed to the river side). Sarah and her team of artists did an incredible job incorporating elements of the host country, of Memphis, of our team logo, and of our sponsor logo into the facade. I’ll keep it a secret for one more day but it is something that is iconic in the host country’s capital, Panama City.

Back tomorrow with plenty of pictures. It’s time to eat!

Believe it or not, there was a BBQ team assignment today that “Mr. Load-in” turned down. I know that will surprise many of you, who think of me as someone who’s always ready to jump in and get his hands dirty doing work for the team. This morning’s assignment, however, did not appeal to me in the least. They needed people to go pick up food at the nearest Piggly Wiggly, which a location search revealed to be in Olive Branch. Nope. Absolutely no interest in spending even one minute of my vacation in suburbia. I will continue to be available for team assignments at the Flying Saucer or wherever else I am needed.

Let’s get on to today’s news and then maybe we’ll come back and talk BBQ some more. The Flyer has a good article about The Wine Cellar, the downstairs room of Flight that has been renovated into banquet space. The space can fit a small party of 15 to 20 or a large party of 100, and can handle wedding ceremonies or other types of celebration. They have a large wine menu, hors d’oeuvres, and a $59 per person menu from which guests can select from one of three entrees.

norococo has an excellent post about Cafe Keough, with beautiful photos of the food, the drinks, and the space. Check it out here.

If you like to eat at Spaghetti Warehouse, check out this Groupon which will get you $20 worth of food for $12.

Jeff Johnson, owner of Local Gastropub, has teamed up with a designer and a branding expert to start a new restaurant consulting firm.

In the news: The remains of the Santa Maria may have been found. The ship sank in 1492.

The forecast for tomorrow absolutely sucks. After a week in the upper 80s, tomorrow the high will be only 67 according to the MemphisWeather.net forecast. The winds will shift to the northwest and the low will be 50. Ouch. The PBR hoodie may have to come with me to Friends & Family Night tomorrow. The weather this week does not bode well for tube top watching, which is a shame because Tube Top Month starts in 10 days and I have almost no pictures as of yet.

Yesterday I spent most of the day holding down the fort for the BBQ team at the Flying Saucer. My teammate Kao from Monclova, Mexico joined me. Between the two of us we took care of things at the Saucer. What we do for the team is so important that even the team vice-president stopped by briefly to check on us. We determined that we have more plates on the wall than any other BBQ team, a total of 37 combined. Do we get a trophy for that?

Our work wasn’t done when we left the Saucer, though. Every Monday some of the team leaders of Squeal Street BBQ go visit Melissa at Bardog for her happy hour shift. How bad would it look if the Moody Ques did not also send representation? So Kao and I headed that way. I ate a slider on behalf of the BBQ team.

We went back to the Saucer about 6, concerned that something might have come up that we needed to handle while we were away. However, things were in perfect running order, so we walked over to the Silly Goose, where our team vice-president had been hanging out all afternoon. We gave him a full report of our day’s activities.

I did have to handle one thing at the end of the day, though. I walked over to our team sponsor the Blind Bear to see if everything was in order, and discovered that there was way too much PBR in the refrigerator. “Daniel, let me help you get this under control,” I told the bartender. Thanks to my hard work I soon had the number of PBR cans down to an acceptable level. I will keep an eye on things this week and will jump in to help more if needed.

My friends at Squeal Street BBQ posted a photo of many, many cases of beer on the back of a trailer this morning, commenting that it is the most important part of load-in. Nice to see that “well, you know…” will have plenty of beer to drink as he stands at Squeal Street’s bar all day, in everyone’s way, like he did last year. The last thing you need in a 10 x 10 booth is someone who takes up a lot of space and who lacks the self-awareness to get out of the damn way. Come to think of it, that’s also the last thing you need in a 25 x 40 booth.

Right now I’m watching an isolated storm cell on the radar that just crossed into Shelby County. I am using Facebook to inform my teammates at the park of its location. Just another valuable service “Mr. Load-in” provides to the team.

I’m also watching the WWE Network some more to support the BBQ team. My teammate Nick is also on the Network and I want to be able to provide suggestions for shows for him to watch.

All right. Time to go check what the Fire Sale is so I can give the BBQ team a report. Happy Load-in Tuesday everyone!

When we last checked in with the Nuh-Uh Girl, she had moved to California to go to school to become a sommelier. Two months later, as a wine student she has started her own blog: Eat Drink and Whine. You can keep up with all her wine adventures there. Not surprisingly, the very first post I read talked about her mooching some sweetbreads from another student. Some people never change.

At the behest of Otto I finally got this blog upgraded to WordPress 3.9. We will be using WordPress’s enhanced photo gallery capabilities for this year’ BBQ Fest photo albums, rather than using Facebook as in years past which presented problems for people not on Facebook. The official team website is also using 3.9 so I will probably do the gallery there except for any NSFW photos which I will save for my own blog.

Productive day yesterday. After writing the BBQ Fest load-in theme song, I had a key meeting with team president Moody at Bardog at 11. Moody lives in my building and we discussed how we both have clothes dryers that squeak. After that I held down the fort at the Saucer for a while, ate some Aldo’s Pizza, took a nap, more holding down the fort at the Saucer, and then our sponsor Blind Bear where I did some more product sampling of this “Fireball” thing which is going to be in our booth.

I did come up with one idea: I think Saturday through Tuesday preceding BBQ Fest should be named “Load-in Fest” and given equal status to that of Music Fest, BBQ Fest and Sunset Symphony. The way I see it, load-in for BBQ Fest is as much fun as BBQ Fest itself. I will propose the idea to one of our sponsors who sits on the Memphis in May board this week.

Big day today. I’m going to represent the Moody Ques at Pint Nite at the Flying Saucer, which kicks off at 11 AM today. Mid-afternoon I plan on giving a live performance of the load-in theme song at the team booth. I’ve been given permission to leave my command center for a few minutes to come to Tom Lee Park. Very excited about that. There may be a nap on this afternoon’s agenda as well.

Time to hit Publish and get going. They don’t call me “Mr. Load-in” for nothing. Much to do.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year
With cookers unloading
And the scaffolding
And Natty Light beer…
It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

The carpet we’re laying
For ice we are paying
For warm kegs we fear
It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

There’s forklifts and trucks
It may rain, and that sucks
But we have to be here…
It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

Porta-potties are green
Staple guns and Visqueen
Put the fridge in the rear…
It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

Yesterday was the first day of load-in for BBQ Fest, when teams erect their tents and scaffolding, move cooking equipment in, and lay down carpet. It is a day I eagerly anticipate, for it is a day when I get much done for the BBQ team. Here is a recap of my activities yesterday. I hope this will be an insightful look at what being a BBQ team member is all about.

I started the morning by watching the WWE Network to conduct some research for the BBQ team. There’s a new character named Adam Rose who debuted on WWE Monday Night Raw on Cinco de Mayo. “Simply put, where Adam Rose goes, the party follows,” reads Rose’s bio on the WWE website. His outlook on life is that it’s a party 24/7 and he advises his entourage “don’t be a lemon, be a rosebud.” I wanted to watch some of his matches, and particularly his ring entrances and interviews, to get ideas on how to bring a similar party atmosphere to the team booth. One of Rose’s followers is a man in a full bunny suit. We need a bunny.

(Fast-forward to about 1:51 to see the bunny)

Meanwhile, our team vice-president Clay was picking up a U-Haul van to go get our new commercial refrigerator. He posted a photo of the van’s interior to Facebook, and in a show of team unity, I “Liked” the photo. Even if I can’t be physically present, I can still be a part of things, thanks to social media. How did we ever even have a BBQ team before Facebook?

While on Facebook, I invited the pig from the GEICO commercials to be our guest at BBQ Fest this year. “We have a special VIP area waiting just for you,” I told him. “And if the lows dip into the 50s on Thursday and Friday, you have nothing to worry about. Where you’ll be, you will be nice and warm. Very very warm.” See, this is one of the contributions I make to the team, getting celebrities to come to our booth.

At 11 I had a very important meeting with BBQ teammate John D. I hate it that I couldn’t reschedule the meeting and join Clay on the U-Haul, but this is crunch time and you have to work things out the best you can, and accept the fact that it’s not always the ideal situation. In any event, John D’s input as to the direction of the team is most valuable and I could not pass up an opportunity to hear any pearls of wisdom he had to share. We selected the bar at Bardog as our meeting room and spent an hour and a half discussing the team. Of course, since the meeting happened to take place at a bar, I had a couple of PBRs.

The John D meeting wrapped up around 12:30. “Okay, now I can head down to the park and roll up my sleeves and get to work,” I thought. Not so fast. I got on Facebook and saw that another BBQ teammate, AnnMarie, had requested a meeting at the Blind Bear. Now, the thing is, AnnMarie is a relatively new team member, this being only her second year. Not being a grizzled veteran of BBQ Fest like many of us on the team, I was very interested to hear her perspective on how things were going. Also, I’m all about supporting the Blind Bear, which of course is our team sponsor. So I just accepted the fact that I wouldn’t get down to Tom Lee Park for a couple more hours, at least.

When I got to the Bear, my teammates Clay and Jamie were there, having delivered the commercial refrigerator to our team’s spot in the park. “That’s awesome, guys,” I said, giving my teammates a pep talk. “With our core values of HARD WORK and TEAMWORK, there is truly nothing we can’t accomplish.” So much positive energy on this team. It’s wonderful.

While I was waiting on AnnMarie to arrive I did a little product research. We have arranged for a rep for a liquor called “Fireball” to be in our booth. I figured I needed to know what this product was, so that I can give a full report to the team. Fortunately, the Blind Bear carried it.

As a kid, I remember buying boxes of Atomic Fire Ball candy, which was cinnamon-flavored candy balls that were so hot I could barely keep them in my mouth. Fireball the liquor is a cinnamon whiskey with a taste reminiscent of the candy. It is served chilled, in a shot glass. It is 66 proof, lower in alcohol than most whiskeys. Fireball originated in Canada and I am told it has become wildly popular in the United States in the past two years. Taste was delicious. I would definitely order this product in the future and I think the team has made a good move by inviting the Fireball rep to our booth.

AnnMarie arrived and asked if I had heard of Seco Herrerano, the national alcoholic beverage of Panama, the honored country of Memphis in May in 2014. Indeed I had not. It is a clear, 70-proof liquor that is distilled from sugarcane. It can be consumed straight, or mixed. Many Panamanians mix it with milk or coconut milk. I realized that I should have brought my iPad to the Bear so I could take notes, but I didn’t so AnnMarie wrote it on a napkin. Maybe we can find some and serve it to the judges along with our championship shoulder. Now, see this illustrates that you have to go with the flow during BBQ Fest. If I had stuck to my plan of going straight to the park and working on building the booth, I would not have learned about Seco Herrerano. Flexibility is a necessary trait if you’re going to be on a BBQ team.

Two of AnnMarie’s friends arrived, and they invited me to come to Brewery Untapped with them. This sounded like a fantastic idea for two reasons. For one, the brewery is only about a block away from the team booth in Tom Lee Park. If I can’t be physically in the booth, I reasoned, I can feel a sense of team unity by being near the booth. The only real difference would be that I would be holding a delicious craft beer in my hand instead of a hammer. Secondly, I thought it was important that the Moody Ques have a representative at this awesome community event. With my team T-shirt on, I could serve as team ambassador to Untapped. I’ve always thought I’d make an awesome ambassador. Perhaps I will be appointed U.S. ambassador to Romania someday.

We stayed at Untapped until about sunset, and I enjoyed several Abita Strawberry beers. On the wall there was a board where you could write what you liked best about Untapped.

 

I left a response:

 

As the sun set I told AnnMarie and her friends, “I’ve really enjoyed it, but I need to get over to the park and do some work.”

“Wait,” they replied, “aren’t you supposed to be holding down the fort at the Flying Saucer?”

I was stunned. I had completely forgotten my core team responsibility. As I have explained before, it is paramount that during load-in, one member of the team stays behind at the Flying Saucer to handle anything that comes up there. Here it was after 8 PM and I hadn’t made it to the Saucer yet. I rushed up there. Good luck smiled upon me and nothing had come up there that required my presence. Still, I felt like I had let the team down. I will try to do better today.

Plans for today: I woke up raring to go at 5 in the morning, unable to sleep because I was so excited about getting down to the park and helping. But my dreams were shattered: The team won’t be ready to do load-in until early afternoon. Since I have several hours of free time, I’m going to work on a project that I’ve been bouncing around in the back of my head for a while: I’m going to write a Moody Ques load-in theme song. If I can just get the lyrics on paper, perhaps I can get a well-known singer to record it. I’m thinking maybe Kermit the Frog.

That’ll wrap it up for this post. As Tony Allen would say, time to grind.

Today was supposed to be my favorite day of the year, BBQ team load-in day at Tom Lee Park. However, plans have changed. The scaffolding company erecting our booth needs today to put the floor in. So, tomorrow we will lay the carpet and pick up supplies from the team’s storage locker. Monday we will do the main load-in.

The only real work today is that the team needed a few people to ride out to Dexter Road and pick up our new commercial refrigerator. Of course, as soon as I found out about that opportunity, I raised my hand, only to have my request denied.

“Oh, come on,” I protested. “I never get to have any fun. Lifting a heavy refrigerator into the bed of a pickup truck sounds like an ideal way to spend my Saturday. And you know how much I love Cordova!”

“Absolutely not,” replied the team leaders. “Your contributions to the team are way too valuable for us to let you leave Downtown on Saturday. What if some urgent team business comes up Downtown, and you’re not at the Flying Saucer holding down the fort, where you can deal with it immediately?”

I see their point, I guess. But I really would have liked to get my hands on that refrigerator. And I have to admit I had a hidden agenda: Since we would be in Cordova, I was hoping we could stop by Applebee’s before or after the pickup. Their new Taste of Summer menu sounds absolutely divine!

Seriously, though, I have done valuable work for the team already. Yesterday an email went out about the revised load-in schedule. Curious if anyone new had joined at the last minute, I expanded the To: field in Gmail to see who the recipients were. I discovered that they had used an old list, and that about 10 people who I knew were on the team had not received the email. I texted those whose phone numbers I had, and notified the team leaders, who corrected the problem. At least one person told me she would have been pissed if she’d gone to the park at 7:30 this morning and there was nothing to do. This kind of valuable attention to detail that I provide is part of the reason the team can’t risk me leaving Downtown this morning.

My BBQ Fest vacation has begun, and I will not be back at work until a week from Monday. There will still be plenty of blog posts but they will be on a “here and there when I get to it” basis than a schedule. Thursday through Sunday there will be BBQ Fest recaps.

In the news, the Redbirds are back in town with a 6:05 game tonight followed by fireworks. Former Cardinal Tommy Herr will be on hand to sign autographs. I remember seeing him play with the AA Arkansas Travelers when I was a little kid. Tomorrow there will be a Mother’s Day brunch at the ballpark where you can get brunch and a club-level ticket for $42. Visit the team website for more information. This week’s homestand is absolutely loaded with giveaways and promotions.

The Daily News reports that work has begun on the Blues Hall of Fame at 421 South Main.

More South Main news from the Flyer: Marisol tributes appear on South Main

Don’t forget about the Tunes for Tupelo Relief concert tonight at the Green Beetle. 6:30 start time.

Tube top mama nearly six feet tall, she is the fox of the shopping mall.

All right, time to publish this and let my day of HARD WORK for the BBQ team begin. The phone is already ringing off the hook with team members needing me to take care of stuff Downtown, people asking for guest wristbands, people on other teams asking for advice. I have got to get out of this apartment by 11 though because I have to do some research on a product that will be handed out in our booth. The team can expect a full report tomorrow.

Check the team website for details. We need fewer people Saturday and more Sunday and Monday.