Being a big fan of Hawaiian shirts, I can’t resist linking to Midtown Ryan’s blog post about the current exhibit at Memphis College of Art.  It’s called “Vintage Hawaiian:  The John McIntire Aloha Shirt Collection” and features 700 shirts McIntire has collected over the last 50 years.  The shirts are not only on display, they’re on sale.

Hmmm… maybe I’ll take the car to Midtown Crawfish Fest tomorrow and stop at MCA on the way there and take a look.  Al Gamble’s band is playing the crawfish fest, and I’ve been meaning to check them out because his wife is VP of Marketing at my company.  On the downside, if I drive my car, that means no beer.  But that’s OK I guess, because there will be beer aplenty to drink once I return Downtown.

Looking forward to hopefully buying a few new Hawaiian shirts to wear to work.  Heh… maybe one day MCA will have an exhibit called “Really Boring Red, Gray, and Black” and people who work at AutoZone will be able to purchase work clothes.

Several people have e-mailed me asking for the new security/public safety patrol’s phone number.  It’s (901)281-9146.

Please keep in mind that for right now, the patrol’s coverage area only extends from Front to Second, from Adams on the north to Linden on the south.  Streets outside that area may be covered later if the 3-month pilot program is extended, but are not included during this initial testing phase.  Patrol runs from 8 AM – 9 PM Sun-Wed and 8 AM – 11 PM Thur-Sat.

Please consider adding this number to your cell phone’s contacts.  I’d especially like to ask for your help reporting panhandlers who run parking scams in the Peabody Place/Beale/Front/Second area.  If you see them standing by an unattended metered spot, you know why they’re there.  Just call the security patrol, give as good a description as possible, and they’ll likely be there in 2 minutes.  We’ve all got to work together to run these hustlers out of that area, so that people who visit Downtown can safely exit and enter their cars without being hit up for money.

It’s Thursday night party season once again. Here’s a list of stuff that’s going on tonight that I’ve heard about:

• Dash Rip Rock at the Peabody rooftop, 6-10 PM, $5 cover.
• Amy LaVere at the Madison rooftop, 5:30-10 PM, $7 cover I believe.
• Garry Goin and G3 at EP Delta Kitchen patio party
• Gabby Johnson at the Flying Saucer, 9:30, $3 cover.
• Mudflap Kings play “Rock Out With Your Cock Out” night at the Red Rooster. Not sure what the cover is, in the $6-7 range I think. $1.50/$2.50 discount prices on draft beer.
• Itta Bena on the 3rd floor of BB King’s will be open for those who want to have a mellow place to hang out, talk, and drink after the rooftop parties.
• Bimbos who want free drinks and horny wannabe pick-up artists at Atlas, the club inside Jillian’s

For those of you who haven’t been to the rooftop parties, the Peabody is younger, wilder and bigger; the Madison is older, smaller, and more relaxed. I’m in my thirties, and most weeks am in the oldest 25% of the Peabody crowd and in the youngest 25% of the Madison crowd, if that gives you an idea. I had a lot of fun at EP’s Thursday parties last year and they attracted a diverse crowd. After the rooftop parties end, highest recommendations for the Rooster if you want to party, Itta Bena if you want to chill, and Hoop’s Bar if you want something in between.

The party season is definitely in high gear… I have 4 private parties to go to in the next 8 days. Just shot out an invite to the first of the 4 to my trivia team’s list and had a “Men are from Mars, women are from Venus” moment. The hostess asked for cocktail attire, and the guys on the list were like, “Cocktail attire? That sucks!” and the girls were like, “Come on, it’ll be something fun and different, we don’t have to put on jeans and go to a bar every night.” Really, I don’t have a problem with it. As long as they don’t ask me to wear a tie. I only wear ties to job interviews and funerals. Wait, scratch that, just job interviews. And I like my current company so hopefully I’m done with job interviews. (Edit: Yikes, I just looked it up. Looks like “cocktail attire” means a suit according to definitions on several sites. Hmmm, this puts my attendance in question.) (Edit 2: Okay, read through the sites some more and most of them say “suit, tie optional.”  That I could probably live with.)

In addition to the private parties, I have two crawfish fests to attend in the next 10 days, as well as the usual brunch (Majestic week 1) and Sunday Fun Day and Tuesday trivia. Full calendar. Reminds me, I got an e-mail from Porter-Leath saying there are still tickets available for The Swamp for the Rajun Cajun Crawfish Fest on Sunday, April 20. The Swamp is a VIP area and your $45 ticket gets you all-you-can-eat crawfish, beer, soft drinks, and water in your own private, shaded area with no lines. Couples tickets are $80. To buy them call Emily at 577-2500 or e-mail eketner@porterleath.org.

Plans for tonight: I had fun at Itta Bena last night, so I’ll probably start there. Then the Saucer to do my plate beers, then probably “Rock Out With Your Cock Out” night at the Red Rooster. Not going to the Peabody party tonight since it looks like rain and they’ll move it indoors. Plans are subject to change though. If my BFF is working at her new bar, she’ll probably text every mutual friend of ours and ask them to mention to me that she’s working. But she’ll ask them to do it in a way that makes it sound like she hates me, e.g., “Are you going to go annoy your BFF tonight?” Geez. Like she can’t just text me “Hey, I’m working, come visit” like a normal person would do. Or even better, “Hey, I’m working, if you come visit I’ll buy your first drink.”

Time to pick up to-go food from somewhere and head back to the office.

(Edit:  My contact at the U of M is now sending me word that this may have been cancelled.  Will post more details as I learn them.)

A reader just sent me this and I wanted to pass it along.  It’s a letter from U of M president Shirley Raines to the University community:

“Dear Students, Faculty and Staff:
 
We are very proud of the Men’s Basketball Team of the University of Memphis for their historic appearance in the final game of the 2008 Final Four.  Thank you for the thrills of the season and for the most wins of any basketball team in the NCAA!  We know your victories renewed the spirit and the enthusiasm for our University and for our city.
 
To the student-athletes, Coach Calipari and the coaching staff, thank you for the “team” you created by playing together, for capturing the hearts of many with your unselfish play, and for the magnificent feat of competing in the final game of the Final Four.  We are very proud of you!
 
To everyone on campus, we appreciate your extra efforts to hold the pep rallies, the watch parties, create the decorations and banners and find numerous ways to show your Tiger pride.  To the UofM Alumni Association, thank you for organizing events in all of the cities along the road to the Final Four, as well as watch parties throughout the United States and several countries.
 
Now that we have the nation’s attention, it is our hope that future students will visit the University of Memphis on our website and in person.  As Coach Cal said in numerous media interviews, he was drawn to the University because of the beauty of our campus, but he has now learned about the greatness of our programs.
 
Come join us to celebrate with the Tigers with the parade in downtown Memphis at 6:00 p.m. on Friday evening, culminating on the steps of the FedEx Forum.  More details on the parade will be placed on our website.
 
Sincerely,
Shirley Raines”

Here’s a poster for the Africa Center Stage performance happening at 11:45 on the Civic Center Plaza (unless it’s still raining):

As I was walking to the Saucer last night, I decided to make a loop around Beale and see if there were any bums running parking scams.  Sure enough, there was one standing by a meter across from the Orpheum.  Metered parking is free after 6, but as a couple pulled in, he told them, “This here lot charges $10 to park (gesturing to the lot on the other side of the sidewalk).  Can I have $10?”

I told the couple not to pay him, then said to him, “You’re about to make some new friends,” then called the Downtown security patrol number.  2 minutes later they arrived on bike and chased him off.  The new security patrol is great.  “Call us a lot,” they told me.  I have a feeling that will happen.

The Rapscallions took second at trivia, bringing our gift certificate total to $375.  While there, Otto told me about a funny website called Garfield Minus Garfield.  It’s the original Garfield comic strips with Garfield removed – really, with everything removed but Jon.  So it’s basically Jon talking to himself, which makes him look like a complete nut case.  Whoever came up with this idea has a twisted sense of humor.  I like it.

Next up was a visit to Calhoun’s, to see Best Pool Partner Ever Lauren.  Max the owner brought me behind the bar to show me the Bad Beer Cabinet:

That’s a keg of PBR, random cans of Old Style, and a case of Busch Light.  Ah, memories of college.

Calhoun’s ended up closing down early so Max could do beer research.  I rode with Lauren and Itta Bena bartender Sam to McGuinness, where Max met up with us and I helped him research Woodchuck Cider.  Then I decided it was time to get some sleep.  So I started the walk up Second toward home, but I encountered EP’s chef Michael Patrick leaving Big Foot with take-out food.  We talked about bums for a few minutes, then he told me, “Your BFF is in there at the bar.”  Oh, REALLY?  I decided I had time for one more beer.

So I went in, and sure enough, she was at the bar drinking with her roommate.  You know, I’ll say this, my BFF may be an industrial-grade pain in the ass, but she does have cute roommates.  We hurled our usual insults at each other, and I decided to give her an opportunity.  I handed her a piece of paper.  “Write whatever you want,” I told her, “and I’ll take a photo of it and blog it.”  So she took out a pen.  This is what she came up with:

I know the pic is a little fuzzy… the camera has trouble with document mode in dim light.  In case you can’t read it, it says, “PAUL = (equals) DOUCHE BAG.”  It’s nice that she put “equals” in parentheses for those of us who never made it past first-grade math and don’t know what “=” means.  And seriously, I gave her open season on me and that’s the best she can do?  What a loser.

Beer report:

Previous total:  $1,123.25

Beers 188, 189, and 190 by my count (181, 182, and 183 by the Saucer’s count):
Carlsberg $4.75
Heineken $4.50
Avery Ellie’s Brown Ale $4.50
Tip:  $13.75 x ~30% = $4.00
Total:  $17.75

Grand total:  $1,141.00

I’m not totally happy with WordPress 2.5.  It lets me do bulk uploading of images, which would’ve been really nice for this post, since there were 3 images… except it sits there and says “crunching” for 10 minutes.  It thinks it’s doing me a favor by compressing the images, I guess.  Really, I have close to unlimited server space and don’t care if the images are compressed or not… on the other hand, I do care about them hitting the server and getting onto my blog in a timely fashion.  Worse, once the images were uploaded to the media gallery, I couldn’t pull them onto my post because I got a Javascript error.  I had to go in and figure out the URLs to the images and manually link to them.  That’s really annoying to have to do that.  Also, I couldn’t center-align two of the images in the editor and had to edit the HTML to get it done.  That’s not a problem for me, but what about the thousands of WordPress users who don’t know HTML?  This thing should’ve stayed in beta testing a while longer.  Perhaps I’ll be able to mess with the settings and improve its performance.  If things don’t get better, though, I may downgrade to 2.3.3 until they test 2.5 a little better.

All right, time to go earn some money.  Plans for this evening:  Downtown Night at Itta Bena around 5:30, followed by a move to the Saucer to do my plate beers 7:30-8ish.

(Edit:  That Africa Center Stage performance is tomorrow, Wed 4/9, not today as I originally posted.) 

What a heartbreaking loss for the Tigers last night.  When Dorsey fouled out and Kansas hit that three to send it to overtime, I knew we were going to lose.

We had a good time watching the game at the Saucer though.  We had seats at the window right by the pool table, as we had for the previous two games.  That way we could yell “TIGERS!” at passersby and call the security patrol when we saw bums.  The patrols are great.  We had a guy aggressively panhandling at the Saucer window, and Mikey called the patrol and they were there in two minutes and shooed him off.  Peabody Place security responded too.

Beer report:  I did three beer mixers last night for Pint Nite while watching the game.  My beer total is still 7 off what it should be, and I want three more beers credited back, but it was way too busy to talk to a manager last night.

Previous total:  $1,112.00

Beers 185, 186, and 187 by my count (178, 179, and 180 according to the Saucer):
Snake Bite – pale lager & hard cider $2.75
Half and Half – Guinness and something else (Bass? Harp?) $2.75
Black Czech – Guinness & Pilsner Urquell $2.75
Tip:  $1 x 3 beers = $3.00
Total:  $11.25

Grand total:  $1,123.25

After the game I stopped by the Rooster for a beer.  The gang who had opted to watch the game there had already gone, but my BFF was there, and once again I couldn’t find a reason to kick her to the curb.  She was actually downright nice.  We seem to get along a lot better now that she’s no longer at the Saucer.  She told me when she’ll be working next.  Awww, she wants me to come see her.  Makes me wonder if she and I will finally stop picking on each other and end up being good friends.

The Center City Commission is launching a new series called Downtown Alive!, bringing arts and culture to public spaces Downtown.  The first installment in the series is (Edit: tomorrow, Wed 4/9, not today), called Africa: Center Stage, a mini-festival featuring African drummer Epe, vocalist Earnestine Bytnum, African musicians Junknu, the U-Dig Jookin’ Dance Academy and poet One Love.  It will be on the Civic Center Plaza from 11:45 to 1:30.

The next in the series will be Friday at Court Square, featuring Alf Leyla We Leyla We Layla Middle Eastern Dance.

Looks like the Midtown crawfish fest will once again have some sucky weather.  The Weather Channel predicts high 57, low 43 for Saturday.  If it really is that cold on Saturday I probably won’t go.  I need to do my taxes anyway.

Back later today with another opinion on the “where did chicken and waffles originate?” argument.

The Tigers may not have brought home the championship trophy, but still, we are all so proud of them.  First team in history to win 38 games in a season, and they have established beyond a doubt that Memphis is a big-time basketball school, which will help Coach Cal recruit in future years.  Congratulations to the team on the best Tiger basketball season ever.

A couple of days ago I posted a story about a bad experience a friend of mine had with a trolley driver.  Yesterday another blog reader e-mailed me these comments:

“Paul,
In response to your post about the trolley drivers, I have had 3 confrontations with 3 different trolley drivers, which doesn’t count the couple that have passed me while standing at a stop.  The first was on a very hot summer day or I wouldn’t have wanted to ride the short (2-3 blocks) distance I was going.  The male driver asked me where I was going before I got on, as if that determined whether he would let me on.  He told me it was only a few blocks away, and when I said “So?”  he proceeded to yell at me.  Ironically, he was huge, and I can’t imagine him walking half a block in that heat.

The second was with another male driver, who is just generally rude and bitter all the time.  I recently saw him at Calhoun’s and asked him why he’s so mean on the trolley.  He told me the women in his life are bringing him down.

The third was with a woman whom I bet is the same one your friend had a run-in with.  She tried to pass me at a stop that I had been waiting at for a while.  I had to yell for her to stop, and I asked her why she tried to pass me when I got on.  She said it was because I had a drink, to which I replied that there was a trash can at the stop.  The next time I got on her trolley within a few days, she shut the doors on me.  I’m not kidding.

The SMA had a meeting a few years ago, at which we addressed some issues, mostly timeliness and the fact that the drivers are ambassadors to the city, with a MATA spokesperson.  She agreed to the need for improvement, while also stating that it’s difficult to fill the positions with the right people.  Since then I have seen some gradual improvement.  More of the drivers now shout out the stops and points of interest, but some of them are very rude.  Personally, I called MATA and reported the behavior on every occasion, and one of those drivers is gone while the woman seems a little more polite.  I recommend that everyone report such incidents, but it is important to note the time, have the trolley # and know if it was Main St., River Loop, etc., and at least a good description of the driver.”

This is an issue I’ve wanted to bring up for a while – I too have witnessed some trolley drivers being VERY rude (although there are plenty of very nice ones too).  My friend is right – the trolleys are a symbol of Downtown and of Memphis as a whole, and the drivers need to realize they are ambassadors for the city.  If they can’t behave in a courteous manner, MATA should reassign them to a bus route.

Back later today with recap of last night, beer report, and whatever else I can find to write about.

Before I get into the list of venues doing something special for the Tigers-Kansas game tonight, let me first warn everyone to please be careful.  Other cities have experienced rioting and unruly crowds in the streets following their sports team winning a national title.  If – no, WHEN the Tigers win tonight, we could see the same thing.  Go out, party and celebrate, but be careful, and always be aware of your surroundings.  If you drive your car down here, I recommend you pay to park it in a garage tonight, rather than at a metered space on a heavily-traveled steet like Second, Peabody Place, or Beale, just to keep it safe.

The Red Rooster is opening its doors at 5:00 tonight for their game watch party.  They’ll have $1.50 drafts and $10 Maxalicious pizzas until the end of the game.  They have 500 square feet of TVs, and it’s hard to find a seat in the house that isn’t good for TV viewing.  They even painted the giant rooster outside the front door blue.  There’s no telling what else Robby Bobby will do to make the evening entertaining.  You can never go wrong with the Rooster.

Calhoun’s will be showing the game on their 5 TVs, of course.  If you plan on watching it there, keep in mind that Calhoun’s is a tiny little bar with seating capacity of 75 (and that’s really standing-room-only capacity, not seating capacity).  The tip-off is at 8:21 PM; my guess is, if you’re not there by 7, you’re probably not getting in and better have a Plan B.

The Majestic Grille will show the championship game on their big screen.  In the future, this screen will be used for movies rather than sports, but how could they not show the Tigers in the title game?  Good place to go if you want to sit down and have a nice meal while watching the tournament final.

The U of M is having a watch party of their own at the Elma Roane field house on campus.  Doors open at 7:21 PM, exactly an hour before tip-off.  The event is open to the general public; you don’t have to be a student to get in.

And, of course, I’m sure you can figure out where I’ll be for the game… the Flying Saucer.  2 projection screens, 3 LCD HDTVs and 2 CRT TVs.  As far as I know they do not plan to cancel Pint Nite, so there will be $2.75 draft beer.  And hot waitresses in extremely short skirts.  The gang will be split tonight as it looks like many people will be watching it at the Red Rooster; that’s fine, the Rooster is a great choice, but I can’t be anywhere but home for this one.  I’ve asked people who are going to the Rooster to take pics, and I’m sure Mikey the Camera Nazi will grab my camera at the Saucer, so we may have a double photo album.  Immediately after the game I’ll tab out and head to the Rooster.

What a shame that we can’t all be at Sleep Out Louie’s to watch the Tigers win the national title.

Just got back from lunch at the new place where my BFF bartends.  Once again, she didn’t do anything that would be the final straw and allow me to kick her to the curb.  I think she’s on her best behavior now.  She changed beer kegs and beer spewed all over her.  It was funny.  I had nachos for lunch and she started eating right off my plate, and she had no problem claiming the best chips, with the most cheese and meat on them, for herself.  I ordered peach cobbler for dessert, and she just grabbed a second spoon and dug right in.  Then she realized how bad it looked to be eating the customers’ food, and scooped out about 60% of the cobbler into a bowl for herself.  Did she discount/comp anything after eating all my food?  Of course not.

Back to discussion of the game…  Oddsmakers have us beating Kansas by 2.  They had us beating UCLA by 2 as well, and we won by 15.  They had us over Texas by 2 and we won by 18.

Know what sucks?  I’m in second place in my office’s bracket pool out of 32 entries, but as far as I know only first place pays, and the guy who’s ahead of me also has Memphis to win it tonight, so I can’t possibly catch up.

Time to get back to work.

GO TIGERS!!!

I started Sunday with brunch at McGuinness, where I had the pleasure of sitting next to Michael Patrick, executive chef at EP Delta Kitchen. He told me about some new things going on at his restaurant. First of all, he told me that crawfish boils on the patio (weather permitting) will return to EP’s this Tuesday, April 8. He also told me about some new menu items:

• Scallops with Chanterelle butter
• Shrimp stuffed with tasso ham, tossed in Louisiana hot sauce with 5 pepper jelly
• Louisiana Sunburst salad, with a cinnamon and tossed vinaigrette, with ingredients including mangoes and cranberries. Mike told me he’s going to put more of a focus on fresh salads, and is now getting fresh vegetables from Tyronza, Arkansas.
• Something called Creole Braciole. Mike described this to me in detail but I couldn’t take good notes on it to save my life. Here’s a link to Wikipedia’s description of Braciole. Mike, if you want to type a sentence or two about this dish and e-mail it to me, I’ll edit this post.

After brunch it was time to head to the Flying Saucer. Sat in the window and played the Window Game for 6 1/2 hours. Here’s a pic of the Window Game scorecard:

The Window Game, for those of you who are new readers, involves keeping count of various categories passing the Saucer window. The nine standard categories are bums, police cars, FUMOT (F’d up modes of transportation), RUP (really ugly people), hooptys, sightings of Downtown homeless person Scratchy, left turns out of the center lane, cars going the wrong way up Second, and buses. As you can see, we add new categories as we go along. The major new category was “security patrol,” the new patrols the CCC hired to clean up the bum situation. And this scorecard proves they are doing a good job. In 6 1/2 hours I only counted 8 bums. Before the patrols, it would’ve been in the 25-30 range for bums.

There was another custom category, tube tops, for which I only counted 3. Come on, Memphis, we need to do better than that!

The faraway winner for the day was the hoopty category – counted 83 of them passing the Saucer window. Here is a fine example of that category:

Also counted two guys with popped collars (shirts with their collars turned up). Bicycle Bobby: “There are only two people who should turn their collar up – Elvis and Dracula. And both of them are dead.”

Beer report:

Previous total: $1,083.00

Beers 182, 183, and 184 by my count (Saucer count still in dispute):
Around the World flight $8.50
British flight $8.50
Spaten Optimator $5.00
Tip: $22.00 x ~30% = $7.00
Total: $29.00

Grand total: $1,112.00

Afterward I went to Calhoun’s to drink PBR and see Best Pool Partner Ever Lauren. Hung out there until about 11, then walked home. Calhoun’s had been doing specials for Cubs games, but Cardinals fans complained (and rightly so), so the bar is now doing $3 24 oz. Busch Light as a special during Cards games.

Tonight: Pint Nite. Also, I heard something about a basketball game on TV.

Restaurants/bars doing something special for tonight’s game, e-mail me and I’ll compile a list and post it at lunchtime or sometime later today.

Woke up this morning, and thought, “Did I drunk-post about Jumper Cable Guy last night?”  Yep, sure did.

Heard a story last night I thought I’d pass on.  A friend of mine was trying to get on the trolley on Main Street.  The trolley was stopped, and he heard someone cussing up a storm inside.  He looked in the windows, and the only person in there was the driver, so it had to be her.  She was talking on her cell phone.  He knocked on the trolley door, but she was yelling and cussing so loud she couldn’t hear him.  She went to the other end of the trolley and started to turn it around, still talking in her phone.  My friend knocked on the door.  This time the driver saw him, and she screamed at him that he had to go to the trolley stop, and then she started cussing him.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of behavior from a trolley driver?  Some of them are very courteous and friendly, but there are some rude ones as well.

The upcoming Midtown crawfish fest this Saturday at Overton Square reminds me of a story from a few years ago… the Madison Avenue trolley line was new at the time, and I figured I’d ride it to the end of the line at Cleveland and then walk the rest of the way.  I didn’t see a trolley at Madison and Main near my apartment, so I figured I’d start walking down Madison and hop on a trolley when I saw one.  However, I walked all the way to Bellevue before one appeared that was going my direction.  Bellevue is only two blocks from the end of the line, so of course I wasn’t going to pay a dollar to ride to Cleveland.  So I walked the entire way to the festival.  An hour and five minutes.  The trolleys are so undependable, although they look a lot better when compared to MATA’s horrible bus system.

I hope my BFF is scheduled to work day shift at her job on Saturday.  I don’t feel like putting up with her stupid ass at the crawfish festival.  I still haven’t officially kicked her to the curb, but I’m close.  I’m waiting for her to give me a reason – the straw that broke the camel’s back, that kind of thing.  Last night I saw her and she actually acted like something resembling a normal human being, so I didn’t get the excuse I was looking for.  I’m sure it’ll happen soon though.

The crawfish fest I’m most looking forward to, though, is two weeks from today – the Rajun Cajun crawfish fest Downtown.  I’m still irritated with myself from last year – a lot of people later told me, “I was at the crawfish fest, but I didn’t see you.”  That was due to a 3-hour side trip to the Saucer and a 1-hour side trip to a nearby rooftop.  I’m cutting all that crap out this year.  No side trips.  I’m staying at the festival the entire time it runs, from 12 to 6.  I love street festivals because I get to see people I only see once or twice a year, at street festivals.

On to last night’s beer report.  When I scanned my UFO card in the Beer-Tron-A-Ton computer, I found that not only had the Saucer had not credited me with the missing beers I asked them to put back on, but they had failed to credit me with any of the beers I drank Friday either.  By the end of the day they had put three back on, which is half of what needed to be put back, and that’s not counting the three I drank yesterday.

Previous total:  $1,060.50

Beers 179, 180, and 181 by my count (and who even knows what the Saucer count is anymore.  It damn well better be 177 as of end of day yesterday by the time I get this straightened out):
Old Rasputin $6.00
La Fin Du Monde $6.50
Raspberries & Cream mixer (raspberry lambic + witbier) $5.00
Tip:  $17.50 x ~30% = $5.00
Total:  $22.50

Grand total:  $1,083.00

Brunch at McGuinness at 11… Saucer at 1… Calhoun’s at some point in the evening.  Yay!  I get to see Amy and Lauren in the same day.  Of all the ex-Saucer girls who now bartend elsewhere Downtown, those two are my favorites.

Still astonished that Jumper Cable Guy came up and introduced himself.  Now that the alcohol has circulated out of my system and I have a chance to think about it clearly, I don’t believe his story for a second.  If he’s telling the truth I wish him well, but he’s told so many lies to so many people that I have every reason to believe he’s lying to me too.

Time to throw on some clothes and head to brunch.