the screaming pages

Memphis has always been one of my favourite US cities to spend time in.  It has history and character.  Poverty.  Joy.  Life.  Laughter.  It was stinkin’ hot in summer (it’s the humidity that kills you) and (by Canadian standards) warm in winter.  A trip to Memphis always put a smile on my face.

Back in the day (1998-2001), I used to travel to Collierville to work out of the FedEx Tech Centre a few times a year. I always stayed in Memphis.  It was a short drive to get to work and a few times I brought Drew down to vacation while I worked.  We’d wander Beale Street, visit the Belle, view amazing Russian and Asian art exhibits, wander the Pink Palace, and always stop in to see the Peabody ducks.  We’d feed the beer drinking goats and I’d collect more beers at the Flying Saucer.  Nights would be spent visiting BB King’s and listening to Ruby.  When we were lucky, BB King himself would be seated on a stool at the door welcoming everyone to his bar.  On occassion, we’d stop in at Isaac Hayes restaurant for a meal.

On one of the trips Drew went to Isaac Hayes’ restaurant for lunch.  The restaurant was nearly empty and part way through the meal Mr. Hayes himself came out to talk to all of the guests.  He traveled from table to table, sitting down and spending a few minutes talking to everyone.  Then, he wandered on stage and performed for a few minutes before heading back (to the kitchen?).  He was the epitome of a gentleman and made the time spent in his restaurant special in a number of ways.

With Isaac Hayes passing the city shall seem a little darker on our next visit.  I am thrilled we’ll always have the memories.  He will be sorely missed.

I do my best to keep a good collection of Joss/Serenifly/Felicia Day type links on my blog.  Just doing my share to advance the world domination of excellent writing. Besides, if Browncoats can contribute (mightily) to charities and someday (we hope) manage to change the world for the better, imagine what we could do to promote new and exciting Web delivered TV.

I’ve been raving about The Guild for months and happily introduced others to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog (flan site link). Ok. So I nagged them until they gave in and watched the episodes online.  We can be gracious and forgive their previous ignorance for they have found the holy grail of Web TV and have hopped on board the flan-dom with a vengeance.

Today’s my chance to rave about The Legend of Neil.  According to the blurb on the site:

The Legend of Neil is a webseries produced by Effinfunny.com, Atom.com, and Comedy Central. Written by Sandeep Parikh & Tony Janning, this series follows the reluctant adventures of Neil- a gas station attendant from Jersey who gets sucked into ‘The Legend of Zelda’ and has to fight his way out.

It’s a hoot. Don’t take my word for it though. Hop on over and check it out for yourselves. Savvy Guild watchers will notice a few familiar faces in the episodes. The Guild‘s Zaboo (Sandeep Parikh) is one of the sets of brains behind the Legend of Neil and Felicia Day makes an appearance as a fairy in episode 3. Suffer through the commercials at the beginning of each episode – it’s worth it!  Childhood memories take on an adult feel in this spoof of the Legend of Zelda.  The old man is a hoot and the series is well worth following.

One caveat: Legend of Neil is NOT safe for work…

I’m once again locked in the basement writing a paper for my Enviro Chem class.  Since I’m such a glutton for punishment I can look forward to more weekends spent in this manner next semester.  Yes, it’s true.  I’ve signed back up for another Enviro Chem class for next semester.  I have a feeling as soon as that course is complete my brain will completely flush everything I’ve learned about EAs out of my ears.

Oh well.  The things we do to earn a degree.

While I’m stuck inside out of the rain, the boys are busy building our garage.  It’s pretty handy having a set of neighbours with over 100+ years experience in different trades.  It’s even better having neighbours who understand the importance of papers and attempting to graduate from university.  As I’m furiously reading, interpreting and typing, J is preparing the vegetables for dinner.

I’ll post pictures of the construction on Monday.  For now I need to stop procrastinating and get back to work my paper.

We had a fabulous time at dinner last night.  Despite being nervous about meeting new people, once we’d sat down at the table it was like gathering together a bunch of old friends.  It was very comfortable talking to everyone and the night was filled with laughs.  Four hours passed way too quickly and I can’t wait until we can all get together again.

I don’t know when summer ended but it certainly feels like we’re back at the beginning of spring with all this rain.  When the days were nice we couldn’t find anyone to come pour our concrete pad for the garage.  Last night we were all aglow at the pending pour today.  This morning we woke up to drizzle which continued throughout the afternoon.  This didn’t deter my handy neighbours though.  They put up a frame and a tarp and when I arrived home from work today I found our finisher working the concrete.   According to the finisher and contractor, we’ll be able to start framing out the garage on Saturday.

Here’s hoping for better weather on the weekend!

In a few minutes I’m heading off to the west end of the city to have dinner with the Breakfast Bloggers.  I’m really looking forward to meeting all these fascinating women I’ve been reading (about) for months.  To add to the anticipatory mood, we’ve confirmed our concrete will be poured tomorrow.  It’s hard getting a new garage built in Edmonton at the moment.  So far we’ve been delayed waiting for a refuse bin (gave up, rented a flat bed trailer and trucked the old garage to the dump ourselves), sand, and concrete.  If the promised concrete arrives on time tomorrow the guys will be out framing up the garage over the weekend.  I could be learning to park under a roof in no time!