New Year, New Blog software and The Peabody New Year's Eve contest

We've moved to a new blogging site, so I decided to play around with how images are put into the site vs how I used to do it on the old site with basic HTML and an easy mass upload of whatever images I wanted in the blog.

The following were some of my entries into The Peabody's New Year's Eve Party contest where you submitted on The Peabody's fan page on facebook a picture along with the text "New Year, New Memory".

Apologies for the barrage of photos of me, but that was the rule of the contest that you had to be in the photo (and they're the only photos I have access to at the moment). :-)

Various Peabody related photos (click to zoom):

Tis the Season - Part 1

The holidays may be over, but the time for sharing stories and pictures is still going strong. There was so much going on downtown in December, that I don’t think I stayed at home more than a few nights the whole month.

The MPACT party was one of the first holiday celebrations I went to. Comprised of young professionals from all across Memphis, it is always a fun group to hang out with. Plus, it provides lots of good city-wide information and volunteer opportunities. Lots of friends showed up with potluck dishes in hand, ready to have fun. And fun we did have, as evidenced from the many bottles of wine, beer and champagne consumed. Don’t worry… not ALL MPACT events are like this, it WAS a party after all :-)

Next up was the annual Kooky Canuck holiday celebration. I threw on my santa hat and a fun party dress to meet up with all my friends. The KC always knows how to throw a great party with $2 BIG beers, a food buffet, and a rockin DJ. After mingling for a bit, the sister, other friends, and I hit the dance floor to break out our best moves!

I previously blogged about seeing the Wizard of Oz. I was also fortunate enough to attend the cast party. What a fun and nice group of people! They were so excited and interested about Memphis. The local kids from the show were also there, dancing the night away to the beats of the dj.

Later that night, I did have a random stop at Shadows for some more dancing!

Next post: More holiday celebrations – Trivia team gathering, Dirty Santa party, and SMA party.

The Dirty Downtown Santa

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!!!! The Saturday night before Christmas, a bunch of friends and I gathered at our friend Esther's place for a "Naughty or Nice" Potluck Christmas party where I made my infamous "Prosciutto wrapped asparagus" and added that to the many, many other tasty dishes everyone brought to the party. After hanging out and catching up with everyone, the Dirty Santa Gift Exchange began and that's when the real fun began! There were so many crazy gifts that I couldn't put them all (and probably shouldn't put them all) in this blog, but here are a few pics from the night as well as some of the more tame gifts being passed around, stolen and re-gifted. NOTE: Pics were on old site, may add them to this one soon.

The 5th Annual Kooky Canuck Red Carpet Christmas Party

It's that time of year again and Kooky Canuck was the place to be as always! The 5th Annual Kooky Canuck Red Carpet Christmas Party (invitation only) was great! Along with free appetizers in the back, there were $2 drink specials and of course 34 oz. beers throughout the night. There was also a special Jager Bomb table set up near the front and not one, but two Santa Clauses (is that the correct plural of Santa Claus???) showed up and there was a DJ and dance floor at the very front. We all had a great time and can't wait for next year's celebration! Thanks Shawn, Lana and everyone at Kooky Canuck for a wonderful time!

The Blind Side

While passing around amongst my wife and baby an illness that I like to call "daycare-itis", I was granted extra time to read as I was no where near feeling up to going out all that much. I chose "The Blind Side" as my reading material as I wanted to read it before seeing the movie.

I must say, "The Blind Side" was a great book and now is a great film... period. It stands by itself in this year's round of movies as one that has the potential to be a modern day "Rudy" or "Hoosiers", but goes beyond just another sports film by bringing to light the true lives of the impoverished youths in America just wanting to be loved and hoping, striving for a better life any way they can get it. Many get that life the only way they know how - through violence and theft.. the fast track, while some luck up, work hard and find the true path to greatness through the generous love of strangers.

The movie is based on the true life story of Memphian Michael Oher and represents the darker side of life near downtown. Hurt Village, where Michael spent his first 15 years of life, is just a few blocks outside of Downtown Memphis and while this blog is mostly about Downtown living, partying, food and fun, I felt compelled to write this as it was truly a moving piece of film work and I think we could all use a sense of perspective as we go about our everyday lives.

I urge you to go see this movie with your family and friends and be prepared to be moved by it.