Free Pancakes, Vito's, Music Fest

It's not too late to get free pancakes today at IHOP. The restaurant chain is giving away free pancakes today until 10pm to help support Children's Miracle Network which is a partner with Le Bonheur. Free pancakes will be giving in exchange for donations.

Vito's is participating in today's Groupon offer for the Memphis area. If you haven't had a chance, check out Vito's - good Italian food with convenient delivery to parts of East Memphis and Midtown.

The 2012 Beale Street Music Festival line up was announced today. This year's group of artists is strong as always. Here's who we are looking forward to seeing May 4-6 at Tom Lee Park: My Morning Jacket, Primus, Jane's Addiction, Al Green, The Cult, Cold War Kids, Robert Randolph and the Family Band and The Old 97's. Tickets are available now.

Margarita Day, Lent

The 2012 holiday calendar may not be the best for those who are cutting out alcohol. Yesterday many people celebrated Mardi Gras with an adult beverage. Lent begins today with Christians giving up favorites such as sweets, social media and drinking. Those who gave up drinking will have their first test when they find out today is National Margarita Day. Good luck to the newly non-drinking guys and gals. In honor of the holiday, here are our Top 5 Places To Grab A Margarita In Memphis.

1. El Mezcal
2. Los Compadres
3. Salsa
4. El Porton
5. Happy Mexican

Speaking of Lent, what is everyone giving up this year?

Winter Weather, Anti-Valentine's Day, Roburt Sallie

Just a note to take caution when driving home this evening. Roads may be icy with the combination of rain, sleet, snow, etc we have had today.

People were talking this weekend about the more bars having Anti-Valentine's Day-themed events for single people. The most chatter was about people going to Alchemy. What are some good spots for couples and singles for Valentine's Day in Memphis?

On a completely random note, former Memphis Tiger basketball player Roburt Sallie was kicked off of his professional team in Spain for failing a drug test. The drug in question was a penis enlarging supplement. The jokes are running wild on Twitter about this. There's no doubt that he will never be able to avoid this topic in the future.

Grizzlies Win, Dirty Dova Fun, It's Cold Outside

Nice win by the Memphis Grizzlies over the Indiana Pacers last night. It was my first opportunity this season to see the Grizzlies in person. They looked ok, but it is obvious that Zach Randolph is dearly missed.

After the game, we made one of our few excursions to Cordova to check out Stella Marris. The Italian restaurant (Ronnie Grisanti is the Chef) and "lounge" is quite an eye catcher and the crowd wasn't too bad for a Friday night. Apparently Saturday nights are the time to go. Staffers claimed there were almost 750 people at the club last Saturday night. The only sketchy part of the club the requirement to have two forms of identification to get in. The practice has been implemented to prevent underage patrons from entering, but I had less requirements when visiting the DMV. Check out more info and pics on the Stella Marris Facebook Page.

Finally, winter weather has arrived in the Mid-South. There is a slight chance of snow on Monday morning, but Memphis usually avoids the snow quantities needed for a fun Snow Day. Ways to avoid the cold? Stay inside and cuddle up with your special someone on the pre-Valentine's Day weekend. Or you can go to FedEx Forum to watch the Tigers play UAB. Stay warm!

Tigers to Big East, Daniel Tosh, Aldo's Pizza Pies

Hi everyone! Yes, it's been a while since our last post. Holidays and just being busy have put blogging to the back burner, but more posts are in the works.

The Memphis Tigers will officially be in the Big East starting with the 2013-14 academic year. This is a huge move for the Tigers, especially on the financial side. The TV contracts and other payouts should be much higher than the amount the Tigers were receiving from Conference USA. Football should improve (can it get any worse?), but don't expect the level of competition to change that much. Most of the football playing schools are former C-USA members, so you will still see home games against Houston, SMU, UCF, USF as well as Louisville and Cincinnati. Having Boise State on the schedule will a challenge and a definite ticket seller. Memphis basketball fans may see a championship team fall to the middle of the pack with level of competition that will be flowing through FedEx Forum.

If there is one more thing that R.C. Johnson can do before he steps down in June, it would be to secure long standing rivalries with UAB and Southern Miss. Like the Memphis-Louisville series ending after the first Big East raid of Conference USA, it would be sad to see these rivalries end.

Daniel Tosh is coming to Memphis on Sunday, April 8 at the Orpheum. This show should be awesome. The show is on Easter Sunday, so everyone should be jacked up on Peeps and other sources of sugar. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (February 10) at 10am.

It looks like Aldo's Pizza Pies is still planning on opening on Main Street. It was originally supposed to open a couple of years back, but the opening has been delayed several times. Aldo Dean has focused his energy on Bardog and The Slider Inn. A solid downtown pizza spot can't open soon enough.

Visit The Slider Inn when you have a chance. The food is fantastic and they need support outside of patio season.