Paul Ryburn's Journal

I went on a supper club outing to Flight with my neighbors last night.  Here are a few pics.

Grouper, scallops, and veal

Creme brulee flight (thanks Brenta for the recommendation)

Food food food!

Definitely an outstanding meal.  I’m gonna have to find an excuse to go back there and find some of the dishes I didn’t try last night.

Off to work… I have several items starred for blogging in Gmail, so there will probably be a lunchtime post.

I know it’s late, but it’s time once again for the “Brick” Quote of the Week.

The Saucer is running a “find the Easter keg” contest.  They posted their 4th clue recently, which references a 20th century “It” Girl.  I summoned Brick and asked, “Who’s the 20th Century ‘It’ Girl?”

Brick thought for a minute, then replied:

“Hooters?”

The sinkhole that is blocking two lanes of I-240 in East Memphis now has its own fan page on Facebook. Search for “The Sinkhole” to become a fan. As of this writing, it has 135 fans already. Not surprised to see it’s so popular! The sinkhole is the most interesting thing to happen ’round these parts since the manatee showed up in the Wolf River Harbor several years ago.

My apartment building Number 10 Main is having a supper club outing for its residents tonight at Flight tonight. I’ve been reading the menu this morning, trying to figure out what to order. Speaking of Flight, they’re having a Ferrari-Carano wine dinner next Monday at 7. Go to their website to view the menu.

Starting tomorrow, March 26, visit CityAuto.com daily for a chance to win a bucket of crawfish at the Porter-Leath Rajun Cajun Crawfish Fest on Sunday, April 18. They’ll be giving away buckets of crawfish through April 17.

Escape Alley Sundry at 651 Marshall (corner of General Washburn’s Escape Alley) has their grand opening tomorrow night, Friday, March 26. Misti Rae Warren and Davy Ray Bennett, 6 to 8 PM tomorrow, $5. Happy hour 4 to 6 Tue-Sat.

Lansky at the Peabody has teamed up with Robert Stock, designer for Robert Graham, to create two new Elvis-themed sportshirts that are licensed by Elvis Presley Enterprises. Only 300 have been made, and they are only available at Lansky’s store or online. Each shirt is hand-numbered. The shirts are hand-numbered and are pictured below.

Also stop by Lansky 126, around the corner from Lansky Bros. in the Peabody lobby. They have a new line of clothing for guys all under $58, including slub jersey tees, polos, short-sleeve and long-sleeve shirts.

Dinner isn’t until 7:30, so I’ll probably pop in the Saucer for a couple of happy hour beers before I head to Flight.  I’ll take the camera and try to get some pics of the food.  Several friends of mine have said it’s become their favorite restaurant, so I’m excited to give the food a try.

I ended up staying home last night.  I walked through the Saucer about 6, but it was packed full of people in suits, so I just came home.  I did a couple of hours of affiliate marketing, then at 9:00 I entered a No-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo freeroll tournament on PokerStars.  8720 entrants, top 72 advance to a prize round at a later date.

The good news?  I made it to the top 72.  I finished 14th actually.

The bad news?  The tournament took longer than expected.  It ended at 2 AM.

I hope I don’t fall asleep at my desk today.

This is just something random that occurred to me on the way home.

When you look at job listings in the paper or on the Internet, they’ll often tell you what a great company it is to work for, and tell you about the “benefits.”  “Blah blah blah 401k match blah blah blah term life blah blah blah health and dental etc.”  Not to say that stuff isn’t important, but I find it odd that most companies don’t post the everyday benefits of working there.

For example, when I first heard about the job I eventually took in 2006 at the City Schools headquarters, what if I’d been told that there’s a cafeteria onsite with really affordable, pretty good food?  And that if I wanted to go out for lunch, Midtown was only blocks away, where there are all kinds of places to eat?  What if I’d been told that I’d be outta there most every day by 4:45, and that I can leave earlier than that if I get there earlier?  What if I’d been told that I’d be able to dress pretty casually, and could even wear T-shirts and jeans on Fridays?  What if I’d been told that I’d earn a vacation day a month to start, and that I’d get slightly more than a week off around Christmas, plus MLK Day, Good Friday, and some random day in March in addition to the usual holidays?  What if I’d been told that I’d be in a cubicle, but it was a big cubicle with plenty of room to move around and plenty of privacy?  I took the job anyway, but I’d have been jumping up and down to get it if I’d known all those things in advance.  To me, day-to-day quality of life is more important than stuff like insurance and retirement plans.

I’m not knocking the city schools or any company in particular here, but I just want to suggest that more quality-of-life benefits ought to be written into job postings.  You rarely hear about these things until late in the interview process, or even the new employee orientation.  But in my opinion, they matter a lot and are big selling points.

So that’s the random rant for the day.  (And in case any of my co-workers read this and wonder, NO I’m not job hunting, just got to thinking about how the new health care reform might change the way workers think of “benefits” and it led me to this rant.)

It’s 5:20 and I’m home from work.  I said I was going to set up an ad campaign for my affiliate sites tonight, but you know what?  It’s too pretty a day not to relax and celebrate it being spring.  I have another week to cash in my Google AdWords coupon.  Time for a beer.

Real quick post today because I want to run to Italian Rebel for lunch…

There’s a Woot-off today on Woot.com.

The Metal Museum is having Forging on the River this Saturday, March 27. Come by at 5 for a blacksmith demo, then at 6:30 there will be a dinner and art auction. Demo is free, dinner available for a small suggested donation. Go to the Metal Museum website for more info.

Spindini is having a wine dinner next week. Here’s what they posted on Facebook: “March Wine Dinner Wednesday, March 31 7:00 p.m. Crab Raviolo Sun Dried Tomato Pasta Macaroni and Cheese Pancetta, Seared Duck Breast w/ Mandarin Glaze, Wilted Arugula, Stuffed Lamb Chop Morel Mushrooms, Dessert Marsala Zabaglione Mission Figs and Chocolate Cups”

Go to http://my.barackobama.com/cosigner if you want to co-sign the health care bill with the President. Best Facebook status update I saw yesterday: “(name) became a fan of the uninsured not paying 1200% more for an xray than the insurance companies. Became a fan of my plumber being able to get his kid an inhaler. Became a fan of not being bankrupted by an uninsured driver. Became a fan of knowing that you are lucky, and not assuming everyone else is a lazy free loader.” Indeed.

I have info on some limited edition shirts at Lansky, but I gotta go eat so I’ll save that for the next post. I just got an e-mail telling me Google is giving me a free $100 AdWords credit, so I guess I’ll take the MacBook or the netbook to the Second Street Branch Office after work and start some campaigns for my Amazon affiliate sites.

This is a pic from last night’s I Love Memphis party at South of Beale, hosted by Kerry who writes the fantastic I Love Memphis Blog.  That’s Kerry with me in the pic.  Fantastic party!  Not only people there who I’d previously met, but there were five or six people who I knew from blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. but had never met face to face.  There were drawings for T-shirts, and a cake shaped like a guitar in a FedEx box.

Being down there made me realize, it’s been a while since I’ve been at South of Beale.  I need to go down there and eat sometime soon.

On my way to the Mpact Spring Happy Hour at Primetime, and trivia at the Saucer after that.  If you’re looking for stuff to do, Stepbrothers (Tyler & Cameron) play the Silly Goose on Tuesdays, and it’s Super Tuesday with $5 34 oz. mixed drinks at Kooky Canuck.

One of the Downtown Download bloggers did a great post on Foursquare, the location-based checkin service with apps available for most smartphones.  On Foursquare, your phone senses your location when you visit a venue, and you check in from there.  You can earn badges for certain types of checkins, such as “crunked” for checking in at four different venues on the same night, and “school night” for a checkin after 3 AM on a weeknight.  If you check in at a location more than anyone else over a two-month period, you become “mayor” of that venue.  You can also post “tips” and “to-dos” for a venue.

In cities like New York and San Francisco, many restaurants and bars offer specials to Foursquare users for certain types of checkins, certain badges, or for being the mayor.  It’s starting to spread to Memphis.  In the post linked above, blogger Brian C discusses Foursquare awards as a way for Memphis restaurants and bars to attract more business.

You can go here to see a complete list of venues across the US offering Foursquare specials. (Click on a venue’s name to see the special.)

For example, there’s a bar in Connecticut called The Pour House that offers $1 drinks to its mayor, and a free drink for the mayor on every third visit.  Now, I don’t know if there’s a bar in Memphis that would be similar to The Pour House, but if there is one, maybe they should think about offering that deal to its mayor.

Business owners:  Surf around the Foursquare business page, see what venues in other cities are doing, and maybe you’ll come up with some ideas on how Foursquare can lead to new repeat customers for you.

If you like ice cream, this is a good week for you.  Ben & Jerry’s will give away free ice cream cones today from 12 to 8 PM.  Also, all week long, the Kemmons Wilson School of Hospitality at the U of M will let you build your own ice cream sundae all week from 2-4 PM.

Join the group “The City Taste” on Facebook to keep up with more great food deals from around the city.  That’s how I learned about these.

Free ice cream?  Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

Oh, speaking of whom… I’ve learned that the Nuh-Uh Girl will be attending Mpact Memphis’ happy hour from 6 to 7 tonight at Primetime Sports Bar.  There’s an open bar and buffet for members ($5 non-members), but if you plan on eating you better make sure you get there before she does.

Let’s see… I’m a member, and there’s an open bar… yep, sounds like I’ll be late for trivia tonight.

Speaking of MPACT, there’s a new Downtown Download blog up about their recent Soul of the City Gala, including very detailed descriptions of what they had to eat and a picture of the buffet.

I saw a good tweet this morning linking to a Beer Flavor Wheel, which seems like it would be very useful to print out and learn about the different styles of beer.

If you like Cuban food, today’s Memphis Groupon is for dining at the Rumba Room on South Main.

All right… I have some stuff on Foursquare, but I want it to stand alone in a post, so I’m going to hit Publish on this Tuesday news post.  Another to come shortly.