Lettuce Ketchup

Nine days with no post? That's so not like me. I guess I've been busy...

Last Saturday the monkeys and I spent the day with my good friend, Blair, and her family who were in town visiting from Portland, OR while Warren worked on the roof. We hit all the hot spots--Peabody Park, the Zoo, etc. Apparently Portland, which has everything a young, hip mama could want, also has polar bears. But according to Blair they are old and fat and not nearly as fun as ours. Later that night, my mom came to watch the boys so Warren and I could go eat sushi at Pacific Rim and see Fast Food Nation. (Boy were we glad we didn't eat a hamburger before seeing that.) We topped off the evening at Bosco's where we met up with Blair and Noel again. Did I mention they are beer snobs? Beer snobs who say Bosco's is better than any brewery in Portland. Between their comments and an upcoming feature in my zine, my Portland envy is waning.

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What do you call a brunch that never ends? Last Sunday, the monkeys and I went to Andria's at 10:30am (along with Team Alley) and stayed basically until it got dark. (If I didn't have roller derby practice at 7pm, we surely would have spent the night.) We had the fluffiest pancakes ever and everyone's favorite pork product, bacon. The kids ran wild indoors and out while the adults sipped tea on the porch and later played almost an entire game of trivial pursuit. Jiro even took a nap there. (Poor Warren helped a friend move and then continued working on the roof.)

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Monday Warren set off to work in the tick-infested forests of Missouri and the monkeys and I went to our respective holding bins. I could have blogged after my evening presentation, but I opted to lie on the sofa and watch American Dreamz.

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Tuesday was roller derby practice. I was definitely too tired to blog after two hours of pushing grown women around. (As of this writing there are only 6 days left until our big bout! Go buy some tickets!

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Wednesday the monkeys clamored for a restaurant visit, and I couldn't deny them. We went to the Cupboard, and I did actually write about that here.

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Thursday we went out to dinner again, this time to Soul Fish. We were joined by Mary Helen Tibbs, who interviewed us for the January issue of Memphis Magazine. The monkeys did not disappoint. Jiro insisted on only eating crackers, puncturing holes in his styrofoam cup, and scaling the booth whenever possible. Satchel sat quietly, well semi-quietly, next to MH and, uh, politely, answered her questions.

MH: "Satchel, what's your favorite thing to eat?"

Satchel (opening his broccoli filled mouth as wide as possible): "Broccoli!"

I didn't pick the restaurant for nothing!

After that we met up with Warren (who thankfully got a snow day) and went for ice cream. Instead of going home to blog, I dropped the boys off and went to Moxie's house to see her AMAZING Memphis in May 2007 paintings-that-are-soon-to-be-a-poster with my own eyes.

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Friday we took the monkeys to the new EP's Delta Kitchen & Bar downtown before going to see The Little Donkey at the Orpheum (and after explicitly telling Mary Helen the night before that I would never take the monkeys to a really fancy restaurant). I didn't quite grasp the fanciness level until we walked in the door, but luckily we were there at 5:30pm and had the place practically to ourselves. (More on this over at DWM...) The Little Donkey was surprisingly amazing. The Terra Theater company rules. I had never seen a puppet show like this. All of the characters are created using Bunraku-style puppets, which tend to be large and operated by one to three people. The operators wear black and (the ones I saw) resemble sprockets. The monkeys were totally captivated. I will definitely keep this troupe on my radar. (We lucked into free tickets after Satchel won the costume contest at the Wizard of Oz.) It certainly warranted an immediate post, but our decision to go on a post puppet show trolley ride wiped us all out.

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Saturday Warren was back on the roof and the boys and I ran errands. Our first stop was Peabody Park where the monkeys spent a good thirty minutes burying themselves in a big pile of leaves. Next we went to Perry-Nicole to pick up my Pocky painting. Then we couldn't resist going next door to La Baguette for treats. Our next stop was Cheap Skates where I purchased new wrist guards for me and new sweatbands for Satchel. Jiro fell asleep on the way back to Midtown so I carried him to bed before Satchel and I went to the Hi-Tone to help set-up for the Roller Derby Burlesque show. (I'll admit that I felt like I was running the coolest errands ever.) When Jiro woke up and Warren finished on the roof, we went to The Alleys' to dine with every other blogger in Midtown. Again if it weren't for the roller derby, I'm sure this event would have easily turned into a slumber party. But I wasn't going to miss my chance to sit two feet away from Harlan T. Bobo (and get to see half the league half-naked) at the (super fun) Burlesque show. Who knows what I might have said had I logged on before falling into bed at 1:30am.

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Today was the first day in a long long time that we basically did nothing. (Satchel complained throughout the day, "We didn't do anything today!") However, it was much needed as we are all either desperately trying to recover from or avoid getting sick. (Did I mention that there are only six days until my roller derby debut!?) So even though I did my best to do nothing, I couldn't go a minute longer without blogging.