Weekend Wrap Up: Off Site Meeting, Blown Tires, Tax-Free Shopping and Golf

The weekend started early on Friday with an “off site” meeting at Cordova Lanes. After a few games of bowling and a few pitchers of Coors Light, we made our way to the Flying Saucer on Germantown Road.

For those who haven’t made their way to the new Saucer location, you can rest assured that the same quality beverages and staffing are available for your drinking and viewing enjoyment. I continued to observe my “fire sale only “rule and sipped on Shiner Bock for the duration of our visit. Lucky for me, Shiner is one of my favorite beers.

After several rounds of assorted beers, several members of the group started to wear down. At this point we decided to head back to home-base in Midtown. On the way, our goal was to stop at an East Memphis watering hole. While en route to Dan McGuiness, NL had a tire blowout, so I assumed the good boyfriend role and helped her change the tire. The blowout changed our super-party attitude to something a little more somber, so we skipped the East Memphis stop and headed to Bari.

Bari was a good way to end the evening. I’ve always found that the bartender makes great drinks and Friday was another fine example. The Ketel and tonics were going down way too easy and I was getting tired, so we called it quits for the night.

Saturday was spent at Oak Court Mall taking advantage of Tennessee’s Tax Free shopping weekend. Of course I spent too much money on new clothes, but they were much needed. Shopping is not my thing, as I can only endure an hour or so. I think we were at the mall for 3 hours. I was very happy to leave before I could do anymore damage. Surprisingly, NL didn’t buy anything. How about that?

I cooked dinner for NL and myself after our shopping spree. The menu included stuffed pork chops and blue cheese mashed potatoes. The chops were stuffed with a sautéed blend of leeks, prosciutto and sage, grilled and then topped with a Dijon cream sauce. This was my first attempt at this recipe and I was quite pleased. The chops were very tasty.

We also drank a bottle of 2000 Yalumba Barrossa. This blend was 90% shiraz and 10% viognier. This wine was rich with berry and plum flavor. If you can still find this wine, I highly recommend it.

Sunday was spent on the golf course at Big Creek in Millington. As previously mentioned, I’m a horrible golfer. For some reason, I never seem to improve my game. Maybe the 100 degree temperatures had something to do with it.

We headed Downtown after golf to grab a beverage, but found all of the bars to be dead. The Saucer only had a handful of people and the other bars near Peabody Place looked equally “ghost town-ish.” We settled on Sleep Out Louie’s. We had heard that Sunday’s and S.O.L.’s can be quite festive. Apparently this Sunday was not scheduled to be festive. There were 10 or so people at the bar and they were all focused on NTN style trivia. Not a bad thing, but this wasn’t the fun we were looking for. One cool thing was the $1 PBR draft.

Sunday evening was spent at Los Comprades. After a day in the sun, I couldn’t handle any more alcohol, so I stuck with old reliable Coca-Cola with my enchilada dinner. After dinner I went back home and fell as sleep watching the Hall of Fame football game. I'm so happy the football season is upon us.

Looking forward to a great week. More later….