Paul Ryburn's Journal

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This is the first of several quick lunchtime posts… eating a Mac Snack Wrap as I type this… it’s like a Big Mac, but as a wrap rather than with a bun.  Not too bad.

Kooky Canuck will celebrate Christmas two days early by offering $2 34 oz. super cold Bud Light from open to close tomorrow, Wednesday, December 23.  If I weren’t heading out of town tomorrow after work, that’s where I’d be!

Also, if you haven’t joined their fan page on Facebook, be sure to do so, to keep track of their upcoming parties and events.

Thanks to Joan, the concierge at the Westin Hotel, for providing me with this list.  She spent hours calling around gathering this info, to ensure that the Westin’s guests would have the best possibly stay in Memphis over the holidays, and she was kind enough to share it with me.

Restaurants

Automatic Slim’s– Closed Christmas Eve, Open 5:00 Christmas, Open New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Bangkok Alley – Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Open New Year’s and deciding about New Year’s Day
Blue Fin – Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve, closed New Year’s Day
Circa – Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Currents – Open Christmas Eve, Lunch Christmas Day, Open NYE and New Year’s Day
Felicia Suzanne’s – Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Flight – Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Grill 83– Open Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Ground Zero – Closed Christmas Eve, Open 6pm Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Gus’ Fried Chicken – Open to 4 Christmas Eve, Closed Christmas Day, Closes 5pm New Year’s Eve, Closed New Year’s Day
Huey’s –Open Christmas Eve, Closed on Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Inn at Hunt Phelan – Open Christmas Eve 11-3, Closed Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Itta Bena – Closed Christmas Eve, Open 5pm Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Kooky Canuck –Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Majestic Grille – Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve, Closed New Year’s Day
McEwen’s –Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Open New Years Eve and New Year’s Day
Mesquite Chop House – Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Open 5pm New Year’s Day, Open New Year’s Eve, Open 5pm New Year’s Day
Pearl’s – Open Christmas Eve, Closed Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Rendezvous – Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Closed 12/27 & 28, Open 12/29-30, Closed New Year’s Eve and Open New Year’s Day, Closed January 3-13
Sauces –Open 4pm Christmas Eve (entertainment), Christmas Day 7pm (entertainment), 12/26 maybe, New Year’s Even open noon to 3am, (entertainment & DJs), Open noon New Year’s Day
Sole Restaurant and Oyster Bar – Close 8pm Christmas Eve, Close 4pm Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day,
South of Beale – Open Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Spindini – Open Christmas Eve, Closed Christmas, Open New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Texas de Brazil – Open Christmas Eve, Closed Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Even and New Year’s Day
The Peabody – Open Christmas Eve Dinner and Christmas Brunch at Chez Philippe, Christmas Day Dinner at Capriccio, New Year’s Eve dinner at both, Closed New Year’s Day Chez Philippe, Open New Year’s Day Capriccio
Wang’s – Open Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day

Bars

Bardog Tavern – Open Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Calhoun’s – Open 5pm Christmas Eve, Closed Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve 6pm and earlier hours on New Year’s Eve
Flying Saucer – Close 5pm on Christmas Eve, Open 5pm Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
Silly Goose – Open Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day

Beale Street

Alfred’s On Beale – 197 Beale – Closed Christmas Eve, Open 5pm Christmas Day
BB King’s Blues Club – 143 Beale – Closed Christmas Eve, Open Christmas Day night
Blues City Café – 138 Beale – Closed at 5pm Christmas Eve, TBA Christmas Day
Blues Hall – 182 Beale – Closed 5pm Christmas Eve, Open Christmas Day night
Kings Palace Café – 162 Beale – Closed Christmas Eve, Closed Christmas Day
Rum Boogie – 182 Beale – Open Christmas Eve, Open Christmas Day night
Silky O’Sullivan’s –183 Beale – Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Museums

Center for Southern Folklore – Open Christmas Eve to 5pm, Closed Christmas
Cotton Museum – Open Christmas Eve Day and Closed Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve Day and New Year’s Day
Gibson Guitar Factory – Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve Day, Closed New Year’s Day
Graceland – Open Christmas Eve Day, 10-2pm, Closed Christmas Day, 12/26, 9-5pm, New Year’s Day 9-4pm, 1/1-1/2, 9-5pm, 1/3, 9-4pm
National Civil Rights Museum – Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
Rock and Soul Museum – Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve Day and New Year’s Day
Sun Studios – Open Christmas Eve Day, Closed Christmas Day, Open New Year’s Eve Day and New Year’s Day

4 posts this morning… hopefully this will start to make up for my lousy post production of the last week.

My netbook is on sale on Woot.com again this morning, and this time it’s ALMOST exactly the way I bought it – without an accessory pack for $229.  10.1″ screen, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB HD.  The difference is, this one comes with a 6 cell battery, whereas mine only came with a 3-cell so I had to upgrade.  A 6 cell battery should give you between 4 and 5 hours of battery life, once you’ve charged it and drained it a few times to “condition” the battery.

I’ve had it for almost 2 months now and am very happy.  This is a great deal on a netbook and I’d recommend it.

If you’re a member of the DNA or SMA, don’t forget that you’re invited to their holiday party tonight at Metro 67 apartments at Madison and Front, from 6 to 9 PM.  There will be a cash bar, fun door prizes given away throughout the evening, and delicious food provided by Downtown restaurants.  Free food?  Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

But before the DNA/SMA party, it’s time to whoop dat ass.  Pete’s back in town and I have a feeling he’ll show up for Sunday Fun Day and lay quarters down on the pool table.  Which means he’ll be saying,

GREAT NEWS for my fellow Flying Saucer regulars:  Brittney will be off work for a week starting tomorrow.  Some of the girls were complaining that she was given a week off around Christmas.  Listen, they could give Britt a YEAR off and it wouldn’t be long enough for me.

All right, disregard what I said in the previous post about snow on Christmas Eve.  I just checked WMC-TV’s 7 day forecast and it looks like it will be way too warm for snow… they’re even calling for a high of 59 on the 23rd, which will most likely be the day I leave town.

I hated to see the Tigers fall to UMass yesterday, but on the bright side, Tennessee lost too.

Great time at the group’s Christmas party/my plate party last night.  I’ll get some pics of the new plate and post them.  Apologies if I seemed a little out of it last night – it’s hard to be merry when you’re fighting a cold.

All right, time for me to gulp down my morning Mountain Dew, so I’m full of energy and ready to beat Pete at pool.

You’ve seen me post about Brick.
This week I’m posting a pic.
Giving a cupcake a lick.
Think what she’d do to a d…
whoa! TV just said it may snow Christmas eve!

John D, pictured below, is hiding because he hopes everyone forgets that today is his birthday.  Not gonna happen.

If you see John today, be sure to wish him a happy birthday.  His favorite beer is Bud Light bottles if you feel like sharing some birthday cheer with him.

Just upgraded to WordPress 2.9.  It has a built-in image editor.  Cool!  I need to go take some pics of the Nuh-Uh Girl eating so I can practice cropping, resizing, and retouching them in WordPress.

On Facebook this morning:  I became a fan of “Texting the person next to you things you can’t say out loud.”  Haha… that has come into play a lot at the Saucer and Calhoun’s recently.

Congrats to Maple who had 11 puppies this morning at 5:30.  Mother and babies have all been pronounced in good health.  I have a feeling I’ll be running a “dogs need loving home” announcement on my blog sometime around March 1.

Wow not a whole lot going on tonight… it’s the Winter Party at Republic where you get in free before midnight if you wear white… FreeWorld at the Saucer, 9:30… Hope Clayburn and Soul Scrimmage at Center for Souther Folklore, 9:00.

I still have a cold.  And that’s not good, because my plate party is tonight.  And I can’t cancel it.  Well, I could probably postpone it if I really had to, but I don’t want to.  They even put Dos Equis Lager on Fire Sale for me.  If I were H1N1 and 105 fever I’d postpone it… but a cold and 100 fever, I’m going through with it.

One last look at my yellow plate… it’ll turn green tonight signifying trip #3 through the UFO beers.  It’s located directly above the stage, top row center.

There will be a different slogan on the third plate, by the way.  There haven’t been any Romanians in several years so the slogan on plate #2 is a little outdated.

Note to my friends who have been invited to my plate party:  I know there’s a lot going on tonight.  If you need/want to be somewhere other than my plate party, I completely understand…  I want everyone to do what makes them happiest tonight.

Grumble… absolutely no food in the house… just walked to Blue Plate to find they were closing an hour early.  So I went to Walgreens and stocked up on frozen foods… Marie Callender’s chicken pot pie for lunch… I could do worse I suppose.

Okay, that’s all for now… time to get on PokerStars and play some Razz and earn some frequent player points.

Just got home from Walgreens with cold medicine… what a terrible day to wake up with a cold, on Friday!  I had a fever so I called in, just in case it turned out to be H1N1 (which I’m not almost positive it’s not).  They don’t make Dimetapp anymore… that was what always worked best for me.  I got what seemed to be the closest Walgreens brand approximation.

Tomorrow (Saturday) is Brunch with Santa at the Majestic Grille.  Yep, you can eat the Majestic’s delicious brunch, and the kids can tell Santa what they want for Christmas.

I think reservations for Brunch with Santa may be full, but there’s still an event Sunday you can get in on – Brunch with a Bunch of Local Drunks at the bar at the Majestic at 11 AM.  That should be a good one too.  Here’s a preview:  Otto will flip through the Best Buy ads; John D will flip through RSVP Magazine and say, “there’s my boss;” Mikey will run down the details of what happened at Calhoun’s Saturday night; Pete, who is back in town for Christmas break, will comment, “well I guess after this we’ll hit the Saucer, where Pauly will probably whoop my ass at pool again.”

You’ve probably read by now that Bob Knight can’t understand why John Calipari still has a job, after two schools ended up on probation under his watch.  He says integrity is missing from college basketball.  Wow I agree with Bob Knight about something, never thought that would happen.

ESPN updated their Bracketology this week for the first time since the pre-season.  The Tigers had previously been listed under “first four out,” but in this week’s update their projection improved to a 9 seed.  Two other C-USA teams were projected in – Tulsa as a 7, and Southern Miss as a 12 via winning the C-USA tournament.  Of course, it’s still early in the season, but it’s nice to see the Tigers and the conference getting a little more respect.

The Peabody Place post office has been spared from being closed down.

Congrats to Carlos, Thang, and JJ on a fine article on Rehab Disco in the Memphis Business Journal today.  Can’t wait to see the place.  Well, I actually have seen it, but 4 PM on a Sunday afternoon is not the time to accurately judge how a nightclub is going to be.

Come on cold medicine work… if it does its job I need to step out tonight and see some friends for about an hour.  If it doesn’t work, it’ll be an early bedtime.  “Warning: Consult a doctor before taking this medication if you consume more than 3 alcoholic drinks a day.”  Uh oh.

I spent most of today in a NyQuil daze.  Late in the afternoon I felt well enough to play a little poker… I love people who lose big hands and then go on tilt and cuss everybody out in the chat box.  “F—ing moron,” said one player as he berated his opponent to whom he lost the hand.  “Only on JokerStars do f—ing idiots suck out on hands they never should have been in.  F— you.  Idiot.”

Normally I don’t get involved in poker room chat, but when the same guy lost another hand, I typed “hee haw” in the chat box, implying that he was a donkey, which is poker slang for a bad player.  That really set him off.  He started cussing me out, which was exactly what I wanted.  I figured if I could put him even more on tilt, he’d try to get me involved in a hand and then play it out even if he didn’t have good cards.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get good cards for a while after that, and another player relieved him of his chips before I could.  If you have anger management issues, poker is probably not the game for you.

That’s all for now… back tomorrow with more, probably.

Story here.