Paul Ryburn's Journal

This morning I wrote about protester Jackie Smith’s performance at last night’s concert at the National Civil Rights Museum, noting that I wouldn’t go so far as to call her a “racist poser” as another Downtown blogger has in the past, but her actions were clearly unproductive, and even counterproductive, to recruiting people to support her cause.

Well, the blogger that called her a “racist poser” in the past responded – and had no problem calling her a racist poser again, backed it up with facts, and also offered speculation where her funding comes from. Check out the response on Memphis Limelight.

After the concert, I ended up at Bardog Tavern last night. They had planned to start opening for lunch this week, but due to an illness, they have postponed doing lunch until next Monday, October 6. That’s fine, I’d rather they take their time and do it right. Attn co-workers who read this blog: GO THERE for lunch when the place opens! You’ll love it… get those sirloin sliders!!!!

I haven’t heard officially, but I seriously doubt the Saturday brunch at Calhoun’s, which has been such a success the past two weeks, will happen this week. Its organizers are busy working on another event which will take place this Saturday. The brunch will likely be back the week after.

Author Natalie McLean sent my fellow blogger Dr. Booze a link to her online food and wine matching tool… you choose the type of food you have, or the type of wine you have, and it returns wine suggestions for food, or food suggestions for wine.  Check out Dr. Booze’s post about it.

I don’t know of any places publicly showing the vice-presidential debate tonight, so I’ll probably stay home this evening, work on my new website, and watch the debate on my own TV. Afterward I’ll go out for a little while. Deep Shag is playing the Saucer, and Bardog is another possible stop.

Heading back to work for a 1:30 meeting…

Last night was the Downtown Alive!/Folk Alliance Mini-Folk Festival on the National Civil Rights Museum plaza.  I expected protester Jackie Smith to show up, and she did.

Jackie has had a booth across the street from the Civil Rights Museum for over 15 years, protesting its existence.  She believes that the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. King lost his life, is sacred ground, and the Civil Rights Museum is wrong to use the building for commercial purposes.  She also opposes the “gentrification” of the surrounding South Main neighborhood, with recent development of condos, art galleries, and boutique businesses, feeling that would not have been part of Dr. King’s vision for the area.

For a long time I thought it was a good thing she was there.  I didn’t agree with her, but I didn’t totally disagree either.  She had some points worth at least hearing.  “It’s good to have alternative voices down here,” I thought.

However, my opinion of Jackie changed last October, at the RiverArtsFest, as FreeWorld played onstage at the NCRM plaza.  Jackie was there, booing FreeWorld, and using a very loud, annoying feedback device to disturb other concertgoers’ enjoyment of the music.  Booing FreeWorld.  For those of you not familiar with the band, let me point out that one of the members is 78-year-old Dr. Herman Green, an African-American musician who was playing Beale Street before Jackie was even born.  I can’t speak for FreeWorld, but I feel reasonably sure that if they had thought they were doing anything other than honoring Dr. King by playing the NCRM stage, they would’ve turned down the date.  It’s one thing to disagree with the festival’s existence, but booing the performers themselves was simply out of line.

Last night Jackie was back, as I expected she would be.  She had a sign protesting the concert, and a microphone rigged up to a boom box to act as a feedback device generating a high-pitched squeal.  She wandered through the crowd, screaming at people.  “Go away!” she said.  “This is sacred ground!  You’re all drunk!  You only come down here when you want to eat and drink!  Go to Beale Street!”  She even tried to get onstage a couple of times.  The musicians were amazingly tolerant of her, considering what a nuisance she was.

A couple of the CCC people, who don’t get down to South Main as much as I do and therefore weren’t familiar with Jackie, asked me, “Does she think she’s doing any good down here?”  Of course she’s not doing any good.  That’s the thing.  Festivals like the one last night could be tremendous opportunities for her.  If she’d lose the feedback device and the sign, and just walk around and talk to people, she could probably win quite a few of them over to her cause.  If she’d just go up to people and say, “I see you’re having a good time here, but would you mind if I take a few minutes to explain why this is sacred ground and events like this shouldn’t be held here…”, I bet quite a few people would be willing to give her a listen.  Over time she could build up a base of support, and be seen as a notable voice of dissent in the area.

But Jackie doesn’t do that.  She’s more interested in making a spectacle of herself, drawing attention to herself.  I won’t go so far as to call her a “racist poser” as another Downtown blogger has, but her actions last night do suggest that it’s all about Jackie, rather than all about the cause she claims to stand for.

Eventually things started to turn hostile.  As Jackie stood on the sidewalk and ranted and yelled, she held the feedback device uncomfortably close to the ear of a woman sitting nearby… at some point that thing stops being free speech and starts being assault.  The woman, out of frustration, grabbed Jackie’s sign, crumpled it, and threw it into the open field as the crowd applauded.  Realizing things could get ugly, the police were called, and Jackie was escorted out of the festival area.

It’s too bad she chose such an ineffective way to express herself, and it’s too bad she sees everyone who attends NCRM events as the enemy rather than people to sit down and exchange ideas with.  She could’ve been an important community voice, but the loony, offensive, insulting way in which she chooses to express herself makes it hard for anyone to take her seriously.

Tonight I went to the Downtown Alive!/Memphis Folk Alliance concert on the National Civil Rights Museum plaza (more to come on that).  After that I went to the Saucer, then Bardog Tavern.  Hung out with Glo and Flo and also talked to former BFF Suzy while drinking a few PBRs.  Then I decided it was time to go, and so I asked waitress Jean for a menu so I could order Paul’s Drunkass Food.  After some examinaton, I settled on the Sirloin Sliders, 3 mini-cheeseburgers with fries.

Now at home eating them.  This is probably the best drunkass food ever.  And the fries come with this tangy mayonnaise dipping sauce that is fantastic (they come with ketchup too, for people like the Nuh-Uh Girl who put ketchup on everything).  I think I’ve found a new drunk to-go food spot in Bardog.

Here’s this week’s review of stuff in the Memphis Flyer of interest to Downtowners:

p.6:  Orleans on Front, formerly Cayenne Moon, by chef/owner Clint Boutwell, has an ad this week with details of their new operation.  They serve lunch Tue-Fri and dinner Tue-Sat.  Specials include 2 for 1 shrimp & grits Tuesday nights (bet that’ll make Ken skip trivia one of these weeks) and $2 cup o’ gumbo Wednesdays.  Happy hour starting at 4 PM (I wish they had stated what specials are on happy hour so I could add them to the search engine though).  They have a website, although it looks like a web designer from 1997 looked into a crystal ball, saw Orleans on Front 11 years in the future, and created them a site with 1997-era tools.  If I were teaching a class on web design and a student turned that in as their final project, I’d give them a D minus.  I’m sure the food’s good, though, and will give it a try soon.

p.8:  The Trans-Siberian Orchestra is back in Memphis December 23 at the FedExForum.  Tickets go on sale this Saturday.

p.9:  Info on the rebuilding of the First United Methodist Church, and the new CA2 building which will replace the old Court Annex Building that burned down.  Wow… the CA2 building looks awfully modern compared to the buildings that will surround it.  I hope it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb.

Also on p.9:  The MSPJC is starting a letter-writing campaign to ask Downtown businesses not to fund the Downtown Safety Patrol that protects those businesses’ customers from aggressive panhandling.  (Dammit, I can’t get the “rolleyes” smiley icon to work in WordPress)  The MSPJC agrees that action should be taken against aggressive panhandlers who threaten people or otherwise break the law, but thinks it should not take the form of jail time, but rather getting them needed mental help and addiction treatment.  What they don’t offer is specifics.  If they’d put together a plan on how this could be accomplished, that would be guaranteed to be as effective or more effective removing aggressive panhandlers from the streets as the current safety patrol is (and I mean removing them NOW, as the violations occur, not years from now after we’ve “studied the root causes of panhandling and poverty”), I’d be open to supporting it.  Let’s see some output from them other than complaining.

p.26:  Oh, cool, the Broad Avenue Art Walk is Friday night!  This is similar to the South Main Trolley Art Tour, but for the hip, new neighborhood-in-revival along Broad Avenue, a thoroughfare rarely used anymore now that traffic has been re-routed to Sam Cooper.  There are all kinds of neat art galleries and living spaces throughout the area.  There’s also an excellent pizza joint (Broadway) and one of the coolest bars in the city (The Cove).  Hmmm… if I could find people to hang with, I’d cab it out there, do the art walk, and then hang out at The Cove after it’s over.  Trouble is, this is a bad weekend to round up people… half my group is out of town for a bachelor party, and most of the other half is planning an event for Saturday that I’m not involved in.  We’ll see… still got two days to figure it out.

p.27:  This isn’t a Downtown event, but I’ll mention it anyway… the Pink Palace Crafts Fair is this weekend, Thursday-Sunday.  Good place to pick up cool stuff for your Downtown loft, condo, apartment or home.  Note for those who’ve never been before:  Despite the name, the crafts fair is at Audubon Park, not the Pink Palace.

p.30:  It’s that time of year again… the annual John Lennon Pint Glass night at the Flying Saucer, next Wednesday, October 8, at 7 PM.  Blast!  That’s right in the middle of the Downtown Alive! concert.  I’ll have a decision to make next Wednesday.

By the way, you can still buy Presidential glasses for $5 too.  Last I checked, Obama was leading the glass tally, 498 to 474.  Not a good sign for John McCain at all.  I can’t ever remember a Democrat holding a substantial lead in any glass count from any prior year.  The Saucer, full of suits from Morgan Keegan on weeknights and conservative frat-boy types on weekends, tends to skew Republican.  Geez, it almost makes me wonder why I bother with the place… oh yeah, the girls in the skirts.  And the beer.

p.42:  Saba Fest, celebrating the life of Bill Saba, will be Friday, October 17 at the Cadre Building at Second and Monroe.  Music by Walrus and Punching Nicholas, food by Notorious PIG, silent auction, full bar.  $15 cover at the door with proceeds benefitting St. Jude, which by the way is where my new BFFs work.  This is a good event for a good cause, and not a far commute for me (I can see the entrance to the Cadre from my living room window).  I’ll likely be there.

Also p.42:  Bardog’s ad mentions that it is “home of the slider.”  Those sliders are really good, by the way.  I tried one of their regular hamburger sliders when they were handing out free food during opening weekend, and it was fantastic.  I hear there’s a shrimp slider that’s pretty amazing too.

p.43:  There’s an article on Safari, the new tapas restaurant on Main near the Huling Street trolley stop.  It talks about the different types of cuisine they serve, and interviews the owner and a regular named “Carlos” who is a big fan of the place.  The article points out that a portion of Safari’s profits go to Urban Family Ministries.

p.46:  There’s a photo of the S’Mores you cook at your table at Big Foot Lodge.  They’re made with Hershey’s chocolate bars, double-wide graham crackers, and marshmallows.

… and that’ll wrap up this week’s Flyer review.  Headed to South Main for the Downtown Alive!/mini-Folk Alliance concert.  After that I may hit Bardog Tavern to see what an 8:30ish mid-week crowd looks like.

RealClearPolitics’ “no toss up states” electoral map

In the past week, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, and Florida have turned blue!  Ain’t all that blue purty?

Wonder how many more states will turn blue after Sarah Palin debates Joe Biden tomorrow night?  Nevada?  Indiana?  Missouri?

Well, the BFF of the Month selection process turned out to be about as confusing as the 2000 elections in Florida.

Pete the Trivia Guy was absent, so he left questions for Mikey, who stood in for him as trivia master.  After two rounds it was close – the Rapscallions were in second place, St. Jude team in third.  If the St. Jude team did not beat us, their team members Jenny and Michelle would lose the chance to be my BFFs of the Month for October, and it would instead go to Lauren, Best Pool Partner Ever and Calhoun’s bartender.

Round three was extremely close.  We got most of them, and I kept an eye on the St. Jude team and it looked like they did too.  The final 30-point bonus question actually had 5 answers worth 6 points each.  “That’s going to be a mess to score,” I thought.  “Pete shouldn’t have left that for someone else.”  It was a TV question, so I backed off and let the Nuh-Uh Girl and the other TV experts work it out.  They got 3 of the 5 correct answers.  I breathed a sigh of relief, figuring it was enough.

When Mikey announced the St. Jude team in third place, I was pretty sure Lauren was the new October BFF.  Our score, 144 out of 186 by my math, was surely good enough for a prize.  “Second place, the Weiss Asses,” Mikey said.  “And in first place, the Rapscallions.”  We had won.  And so had Lauren.

Jenny and Michelle came over to congratulate us.  They know how to be gracious losers because they’ve had a lot of practice over the past month.  “We did well though,” said Jenny.  “We finally won a prize.  And we didn’t score badly, we got 146 this week.”

“What?” I said.  “Let me see your scorecard.  I had our team at 144.”

I added their scores up.  Sure enough, it was 146.  A few of their team members who were good at math, and verified us at 144.

At that point, we went and got Mikey, who was at the bar drinking a beer, trying to recover from adding up all those partial scores from the final question.  He went into the back room and pulled his tally sheet out of the trash.  Jenny, her British voice rising to octaves never before heard at the Saucer, explained her score to Mikey.  “I had you at 134,” he told them.  But inspection of the tally sheet revealed that sure enough, that 5-answer, 30 point disaster bonus question Pete had left had caused the problem.  They didn’t get credit for 12 points.  So their total was a legit 146.

“I should’ve thrown that question out and replaced it with one of my own,” Mikey told me later.  “I knew it was going to cause trouble.”  He had thrown out the question before and replaced it with, “What car was described as a ‘one-car accident’ in Unsafe at Any Speed,” and I was amazed that most teams didn’t know it was the Chevrolet Corvair.  Mikey’s good about going through and removing Pete questions that cause confusion, but this time the bonus slipped by.

So the St. Jude team FINALLY beat us, 146-144.  That means that it’s time to announce my October BFFs of the Month…

Michelle and Jenny.

Here’s info on tomorrow’s Downtown Alive! concert series.  It’ll be a Folk Alliance Mini Festival – the Folk Alliance has an office around the corner on South Main.

Food and booze will be available.  Unlike the previous two Downtown Alive! concerts, I plan on being there for a good portion of the evening.  If it’s like the past couple of concerts that have been held on the Civil Rights Museum plaza, we can expect a certain “protester” to show up with megaphones, feedback-generators, and other means to make a nuisance of herself.  Ignore her and have a good time.

5:42 PM as I type this… a little over three hours from now, I’ll know who the October BFF(s?) will be.  I’m secretly kinda rooting for Jenny and Michelle to beat us at trivia because I know how bad they want to be BFFs… however, I’m not rooting for them hard enough to deny my own team an extra $50 in beer winnings.  They’ll have to do it fair and square.

I need to find a good sports betting site.  I realized this Sunday at Calhoun’s, when there were 5 NFL games on 5 TVs and I just couldn’t get into any of them.  I don’t have “my teams” in the NFL like I do for college football.  Even the Titans – the fact that they represent Tennessee isn’t enough.  So I need to find a way to have a personal stake in the games.

People have suggested I look into fantasy football, but, no.  Fantasy football is statistics-based rather than team-based, and the most important element of football is teamwork.  Besides, my idea of a good fantasy involves waitresses in miniskirts carrying trays of beer, not sweaty men running up and down a field.

So if anyone knows of a good sports betting site, where I can place relatively small bets on games (I’m thinking $25 range, just enough to keep me interested) let me know.

Speaking of Calhoun’s and their 5 TVs…. you remember those novelty rear-view mirror sunglasses that joke shops used to sell?  Those’d come in handy at Calhoun’s.  No matter where you sit, one of the TVs is bound to be out of view.  Come to think of it, those glasses would come in handy at the Saucer, too, although for different reasons.

For those of you who know who Sharp Dressed Bum is, keep an eye out for him… he has an outstanding warrant.  The Handling-Panhandling group has been keeping close tabs on which long-time panhandlers have warrants, so we can help provide them with transportation to jail to get those matters cleared up.  SDB has been down here at least 6 years.  He usually dresses nicely, will walk up to tourists, ask “where you from?” and do the tour guide act, but when they turn down his request for money, he’ll follow them down the street cussing them and threatening them.  He’s probably in a two-way tie with St. Jude Bum for the title of most hated panhandler in Downtown Memphis.  We have his full name and mug shots of him on the Handling-Panhandling forum.

Sunday I had an idea for a new form of bum deterrent… those metal lampposts on the sidewalks.  What if the city embedded voice recordings in the posts.  “Welcome to Downtown Memphis… (maybe 30 seconds of info for tourists)… please do not give money to panhandlers.  Thank you.”  Inside metal lampposts, the bums wouldn’t be able to get to the equipment playing the recordings, and if they tried, they could go to jail for vandalizing government property.

Looks like Second Street Shoppers, the convenience store/deli on Second between Big Foot and the Flying Fish, is serving pizza now, for $1 a slice.  Not sure if they’ll have it every day, but it was on the sign board last night.

It appears that none of my BFF candidates are happy with my decision, whereby Jenny and Michelle will become BFFs for October if they beat us at trivia tonight, and otherwise Lauren will win.  Jenny’s response was the “I give up” type, something like, “(sigh) So I guess we’ll never be BFFs.  We’ll try tomorrow at trivia, but you know we won’t win.”

Michelle was angry, with a response like, “How dare you!  You know we can’t beat you at trivia!  We’ve worked all month to prove we deserve to be your BFFs, and this is the thanks we get!”  Um, can someone say, “loser mentality” here?  Both Jenny and Michelle have already accepted failure as the outcome here, although they’ve expressed it in different ways.  I hope they don’t approach their research jobs the same way.

And yet, I feel a little sad that I made the trivia challenge, which realistically, Michelle and Jenny probably will fail.  They really, really wanted to be BFFs.  And they did deserve it.

It’s just that they had equal competition.  Lauren isn’t totally happy with the trivia thing either.  I ran into her last night at Bardog Tavern, and she said, “I wanted to win on my own, not because someone else lost.”  Sigh.  It looks like I haven’t made anyone happy.  The best I can do is say that whoever does not get named October BFF is far and away in the lead for November.

So anyway, a little over 12 hours and we’ll find out whether the October BFF will be a double, as I had with Darbi and Kristin in August, if Jenny and Michelle win; or if it will be the more traditional single BFF, with Lauren winning.  Or, we could get an inch or more of snow and Meghan would win (would that be considered a single or double?)

I don’t think I’m totally over being sick yet, but I was well enough last night to get back into my usual routine of sitting at the window of the Saucer and drinking Pint Nite beers for a good part of the evening.  Then I stopped in Bardog on the way home and had a few PBRs.  By the way, I got there at 10:00 and the place was pretty busy… when I left at 11:30 Bardog was full.  On a Monday night.  That place is going to make it.

Oh!  I came up with an interesting idea for a fundraiser last night.  Details to come.

Off to work.  Glad I have an interesting project to work on, because there’s nothing worse than sick + bored + cubicle.  Hopefully the day will fly by, and then it will be trivia time.

It’s two days until the beginning of October, but I’m going to go ahead and announce my BFF of the Month decision.  This is the most even contest in the history of BFF of the Month – we have the St. Jude scientists, Jenny and Michelle (wanting to do a double BFF), versus Calhoun’s bartender and Best Pool Partner Ever Lauren.  Both are highly qualified.  So, after a lot of thought on the matter, I’m going to give one of the candidates the opportunity to decide their own fate.

Jenny and Michelle (pictured at left, and note that Jenny has a tube top on) will be the October BFFs… IF they can do one thing.

Their trivia team must beat my team, the legendary Rapscallions, Tuesday night, September 30, at trivia at the Flying Saucer.

Keep in mind that Jenny and Michelle and the other St. Jude scientists have played trivia against us many times before, and have NEVER beaten us.

I have no doubt that they accomplish brilliant things in their research, but it’s time for them to prove that they still have some smarts once they step out of that lab.

If Jenny and Michelle’s St. Jude team beats the Rapscallions fair and square tomorrow night at trivia, they will be the new BFFs.

If they lose to the Rapscallions, Lauren (pictured at left) will be the new BFF.

In case of a tie, and both teams finish out of the prize money (so there is no tiebreaker question), Lauren is the new BFF.

If the St. Jude team no-shows trivia tomorrow, Lauren is the new BFF.

If I have even the slightest suspicion that Jenny and Michelle’s team is cheating at trivia, Lauren is the new BFF (note: I’ve never suspected them of cheating in the past, but desperate times call for desperate measures).

All things considered, it would appear that Lauren has an advantage here.  I’m giving her a big advantage because of the out-of-line “barmaid” comment her competition made.  However, her competition has the advantage of being able to determine their own fate.  So all in all, I think it’s fair.

I’ll post the results Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.

(Edit:  One more thing.  If Memphis receives more than 1 inch of snow tomorrow, September 30, former BFF Meghan from Big Foot will regain her status as BFF for the month of October.)

About a week ago, I had a guy approach me at a bar and ask for some job-hunting advice.  He told me he reads my blog, and he’s noticed I always manage to find much-better-than-average jobs in IT.  He is just breaking into the field, having graduated from college recently, and he wanted some tips.  I asked if I could think about it for a little while and get back to him.  I realized later that other people in IT might want to hear this too, so I’m using a blog post to respond.

1) Put a copy of your resume online. I don’t mean on Monster or CareerBuilder or any of those. I mean, create an HTML version of your resume, find a place to put it online (search for “free web hosting” if you don’t know where to go), upload it, and request that Google “spider” (index) it. This seems like really basic advice, but I’d bet 90% of your competition hasn’t done it. I get e-mails almost weekly from managers or recruiters that have seen my resume on the web. I used to program for the City Schools, and this is how that job found me.

A few notes on your online resume: Remove all your contact info except your e-mail address. You don’t want stalkers finding out your address or phone number. If a company wants to talk to you, they’ll e-mail. Also, don’t use your current work e-mail address as your contact address on your resume – this is a good way to get fired. If you don’t already have a personal e-mail address, go sign up for Gmail. Pick an account name that sounds professional (e.g. not something like skat3rd00d69).

2) Network. IT people tend to spend too much time studying for certifications, and not enough time out meeting people. I’d estimate that one hour connecting with people is worth 25 studying for certs, as far as long-term effect on how much money you’ll eventually make.

2a) Network within your field. If your field is IT, search for IT-related events around town. Go to them, mingle, and meet your peers. Be genuinely interested in other people and the projects they are working on, but don’t be shy about telling people who you are and what you’re looking for. You never know when you may be talking to someone who knows someone who can help you.

2b) Network within activities you enjoy. If you enjoy running, join a runners’ club and mingle with the other members; a certain percentage of them will be in IT, and even those that are not may have friends or relatives who are. If you enjoy reading, join a book club and a certain percentage of the people you meet will be in IT. Me personally, my hobby is going to bars and drinking. A certain percentage of people I meet in bars are in IT. Hanging out in bars has never led me directly to a job, but I’ve been able to hook up some of my drinking buddies with interviews for positions I knew about. (Note: If your hobby is the same as mine, be prepared to come up with a creative answer to “how did you learn about this position?”)

3) Get LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the professional version of MySpace or Facebook. You still sign up and fill out a profile, but the profile is more about past work and education, and the people you befriend tend to be professional contacts. Managers and recruiters browse their contacts’ contacts when looking to hire. This is how I found my current position.

For that matter, don’t totally dismiss MySpace and Facebook as job-hunting tools either. One of my best recruiter contacts found me on MySpace.

4) Make contacts with recruiters on your own. Even if you’re not actively looking, it’s good to have established relationships with them – maybe you can send someone their way and get a referral fee. Don’t be afraid to contact more than one recruiter – nothing wrong with that, although if one recruiter presents you for a particular position, you should not let other recruiters present you again for that same position. Locally, I like JD Resources (who found me my current job), Vaco Technologies, and TEKsystems.

5) Offer to do small consulting projects at bargain-basement prices to gain experience. Want to program in PHP but have never done it? Put the word out that you’ll do it for a ridiculously low rate (say, 10 bucks an hour) just to get experience and get your name out there. Don’t offer to do it for free, because you want to be able to claim it as professional experience – therefore, you need to get paid. You could also search for contract work on sites like eLance.com to get experience.

6) Identify companies in the area for which you seem like a good fit, and start making contacts with people within those companies. Doesn’t even matter if they’re in IT.  They are people who can help you get your foot in the door, and they can also provide you with more information about the internal culture of the company.

7) Be picky. Part of finding a good job is recognizing that there are a lot of jobs out there that suck. I have no problem saying “thanks, but I don’t think this is going to work out” if I interview for a position, and come to find out that some of its requirements are utterly ridiculous. You have to come up with a definition of “utterly ridiculous” that works for you, but for me, “wearing a tie every day” would be right up there at the top of the list.

… And there you have it.  I hope this helps.

Finally feeling better after being sick all weekend.  And now it’s Monday.  Yay.

Coming soon (probably the lunchtime post):  My BFF of the Month decision.

Tonight: Pint Nite, of course.