My Jiro

Yesterday, my Jiro turned SEVEN. How did that happen? Seriously, having a 7 and a 9 year old puts me in a whole new parenting section. I feel like I can no longer coast on what I already know. I must study up again.

On Thursday night when I tucked the boys in, I told Jiro about the day he was born. When I was done, he said, "How did I ever get out of your vagina?"

Thankfully, Jiro's lewdness is offset at least half the time by incredible sweetness. He often spontaneously hugs me, has entered a new phase of wanting to kiss me, and seemed genuinely shocked that J-Lo was named the most beautiful woman in the world instead of me.

For his birthday breakfast, he wanted to go back to Revive Energy Bar for the bottomless bowl of cereal.



Surprisingly he only ate one (giant) bowl of cereal, but we had a fun time and had the place to ourselves. (Warren and I ordered off the regular menu and had giant $2 cups of fresh brewed coffee. I'd say Revive is one of Midtown's best kept secrets.)

Jiro was ambassador at school last week, so after breakfast, we made piggy blankets for him to take to school. Warren had made brownies the night before for him to share too, and I was scheduled to eat lunch with him.



He got his big present on Satchel's birthday, so the only things I had for him to open were a new pair of shoes (exactly like his old ones) and a new hoodie. New hoodies are my traditional gift for them both.

Despite all of this, what Jiro was REALLY excited about was his sleepover with best buddies Enrique, Santiago, and Luke. Much to my horror/amazement, they didn't want to go to the movies or dinner or YoLo or anything like that. They wanted to stay at the house and act like little boys. Satchel smartly went to a friend's house for the night and Warren went to Dallas for a Kendo tournament, so I was on my own with the wild boys.



Within five minutes they were all in their pajamas, then just their pajama bottoms, and had heavily armed themselves. Thankfully, they didn't want much to do with me, so I stayed in my room and watched the Grizzlies game. Every once in awhile I went out to feed them something and maybe suggest that they turn down the TV, unlock the door, or not swing their swords so fiercely. Jiro thoroughly enjoyed having all of his friends together in his house and it was fun to see him "in charge." I actually fell asleep before they did and when I woke up at 6am and could hear them in the living room I panicked. My first thought was that they had stayed up all night. They assured me that they didn't, but at most, they got 5 hours of sleep!

MemFEAST

Last night, Mary, Aimee and I attended the second MemFEAST on the roof of the old Sears tower parking garage.



MemFEAST is a recurring public dinner designed to use community-driven financial support to democratically fund emerging art-makers. At each MemFEAST, anyone from the community can pay an entrance fee for which they receive an amazing, locally sourced dinner, along with drinks and a ballot. During the meal, local artists present proposals for future art projects. At the end of the night, diners vote for their favorite idea and the project with the most votes is awarded funds to produce the work.

It was really freaking cool to dine outside, on the roof. They did an amazing job of making it feel very posh.



I loved the artichoke candles and decorative beans.



There was an open bar, and an awesome bartender.




Another Roadside Attraction catered the dinner, which was delicious.



As the sun set, we settled in for the presentations.



Eight different artists had eight minutes to share their vision to bring awareness to the Crosstown Arts district.



Ideas ranged from found item mobiles to jukin' performances to sound sculptures to wish fulfillment websites to solar operated lights to giant words plastered on the side of the building.

During dessert we voted on our favorite and the winner was announced before we took our last bites. The talented (and sassy!) Robin Salant won and will soon be illuminating the building with solar powered lights. I can hardly wait to see it!

And trust me, you want to go to the next MemFEAST. It'll be the best $25 you ever spent. A few people brought their toddlers, and I think it would be a really great experience for tweens and teens. (I'm going to make the next one a date night for me and Warren.)

The instagram photo at the top was taken by the very artistic AimeeLew

Cirque Alegria

Last night, the boys, Warren, and I went to the DeSoto Civic Center to see Cirque du Soleil's Alegria. We've seen a couple of faux Cirque productions at the Orpheum, so we were all really excited to see the real deal.

At dinner, Warren scrolled through some YouTube videos to get the kids excited about the show. That's when he realized that Alegria is the same Cirque show he saw in California prior to joining the Peace Corps in 1994! That's the year it came out, and from what I gathered from my questioning, despite being jobless at the time he was apparently charming enough to have a woman buy him a ticket and take him to the show on a date!

Here's the official description:

Alegría is a mood, a state of mind. The themes of the show, whose name means "jubilation" in Spanish, are many. Power and the handing down of power over time, the evolution from ancient monarchies to modern democracies, old age, youth—it is against this backdrop that the characters of Alegría play out their lives. Kings' fools, minstrels, beggars, old aristocrats and children make up its universe, along with the clowns, who alone are able to resist the passing of time and the social transformations that accompany it.

We arrived at the arena just as the show was starting and settled into our seats after promising the monkeys that they could have a snack at intermission. The show opens with some pretty fancy costumes and singing.

Jiro's first comment was, "This isn't a circus, this is a play." Satchel commented that it was "freaky." Neither of these comments was necessarily a complaint. The singing continued, but more as background, and the "freaky" characters also soon took the background to the performers. First up was a couple who amazed us with mid-air acrobatics while on swings suspended from the ceiling. I could see their safety harnesses, but it didn't stop me from exclaiming over and over. We were impressed.

To give the audience a chance to recover, a couple of clowns came out and had a hilarious paper airplane war. The self-made sound effects and props were in stark contrast to the highly decorated acrobats. As the night wore on, the clowns provided comic relief between the death defying stunts. They even made fart jokes. We loved them.

By the way, I should mention that there is absolutely no photography during the show. These pictures are courtesy of Sophorn, who was given a special press pass. Thank you, Sophorn for sharing!

After the clowns, there was a young hottie who came out half-dressed and showed off his muscles as he suspended himself on some delicate pegs in the ground. It was like watching the olympics, but in a nightclub setting. Brown chicken, brown cow.

Then it just got better. The next act, I referred to as the Fire Indians in my mind.

They were very exciting, and it was just amazing. Each act just got more and more extreme and awesome. I have a challenge for the Memphis-based Hooper Troopers-contortionist hula hooping! Seriously, there's no way a picture could capture the craziness going on with this woman. At one point she had six hoops all going in different directions.

Sophorn wasn't allowed to take pictures after intermission, and by then my jaw was totally dropped and I lost the ability to take notes. Besides, Jiro was all snuggled up in my lap, which I preferred to my note pad. I will say that the second act included snow, audience participation, giant paper airplanes, awesome bouncy boards, spider women, and skybox bandits!

The tickets are a major splurge, but the show really is spectacular. If you are looking to evade the Memphis in May madness this weekend, this could be just the thing for you and the family. Alegria is playing tonight, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Ticket info here.

See all of Sophorn's pictures here.

Strawberry Pickin'

After Cupcake Camp, we went back to Shelby Farms to ride the paddle boats. Satchel has been asking since last year and I finally obliged. When we went in to pay, the guy looked at us and said, "Y'all can't do it." I really tried talking him into it, but he said on such a windy day the three of us wouldn't stand a chance. We needed another adult. "I like people to have fun, and I think you'll just end up stuck in the bank," he said. We went outside to see for ourselves and agreed that he was probably right.

So, plan B was to drive across Walnut Grove to the Jones Orchard strawberry patch and pick strawberries. It was something else we wanted to do last year, but never managed to find the time. Despite the looks on their faces, the monkeys were actually very excited about it.



We each got a little carton and were told we could pick all we wanted. At the end, they ring you up and it's just $1.99 per pound. The patch didn't look like much and I expected it to be pretty picked over, but it was actually bursting with berries.



It took about two seconds for the monkeys to get totally into picking. I had one rule--pick only the ones you would want to eat yourself. Jiro was attracted to the ones with funny shapes, and Satchel always picked the really big ones. (I like the smaller ones.)





It took us about ten minutes to get a really nice haul. I've never picked strawberries before either, and I found it to be incredibly satisfying. Strawberries are just so red and pretty!



Our haul totaled 5 pounds and cost $10. It's the deal of the century. I'm going to have a hard time not going out there every week. (We can eat a lot of strawberries!) If you haven't been, you should totally go. I think kids of all ages would love it. It's so fun and easy!

We got the picking schedule and agreed we'd drive out to Millington to pick peaches, blueberries, pears, and apples once they're ready. (Jiro was bummed to learn that we would never have a banana, coconut, or pineapple picking season!)

Cupcake Camp

After a visit to the Woodland Discovery Playground this morning, the monkeys and I headed over to Cupcake Camp at the Agricenter. I was asked to judge, and how do you say no to free cupcakes?

The event is simple--enter cupcakes into the various contests, or pay $3 to come in and eat as many cupcakes as you want. All proceeds benefitted the Women of Style, Spirit & Success. These cupcake camps take place all over the country. This was the first year to have one in Memphis, and I can definitely see it becoming a wildly popular event.

The crowd today was pretty good. I'd guess 300-500?



The judging took place in a separate room. There were several categories including Best Memphis Theme:



and Most Unique Ingredient:



The categories I picked were Most Healthy (natch) and Kids (double natch). We had several things to consider while tasting.



Among the healthy contenders was a sad looking, but tasty carrot cake muffin, an inedible carob concoction, a white cupcake with chocolate pudding icing and a petite blueberry muffin/cupcake. The blueberry was my favorite, although I don't know if any of them were technically healthy.



The monkeys were hanging off to the side while I judged, but Jiro could only take watching for so long. He soon came over and appointed himself as my helper, which was just fine with me. He took our judging very seriously and declared the cookie dough cookie monster cupcake the hands down winner in the kids category.



Since our two categories had the least amount of entries, we got to sample some of the other cupcakes that were causing a buzz among the judges.

Behold the BBQ cupcake:



Yep that's pulled pork with a maple icing on top of a corn muffin. Amazingly, it was really, really good.

I had high hopes for the taco cupcake, replete with lettuce, sour cream, salsa, and cheese, but the corn/meat muffin was really dry.



All in all, it was a really fun way to spend a couple of hours. I enjoyed chatting with my fellow judges and I was thrilled to have Jiro by my side.

Nine

Today my baby boy somehow turned NINE. I've kind of been mad at all of those people who said "It goes by so fast" all day just because it turns out that they were right. Dang.

Satchel has the world's best laugh, he's crazy smart, and he's naturally good at just about everything.

We started his big day off with a Paul Bunyun breakfast.



Then I took an ice cream cake to school and had lunch with him. There was no walking around the sun or a timeline or anything like that since Satchel decided he didn't want to do it this year. he did humor me and let his class read "On the Day You Were Born."



After school it was Sekisui with my mom, and niece, and then off to the best store in the whole world for his presents.



He's just so BIG.

Mr. Oster

Yesterday Warren turned in his final paper and presented his findings during a poster presentation. Now he's all done with the learning and ready to start doing the teaching! Congrats, Mr. Oster! I can't wait to see you in action!



p.s. I totally picked out his outfit. The jacket is from our last visit to the City Museum. It was just a coincidence that his outfit totally matched his poster!

Food Truck Fare

Today in Court Square downtown the Mayor's office, in conjunction with the Beyond BBQ group, held our first ever Food Truck Fare to (hopefully) celebrate the passing of the new food ordinance that would actually allow us some mobile eating options.

Judging by the 800+ person turn out, I'd say Memphis is ready to join the ranks of L.A., Austin & Portland. Today's Fare featured about 8 trucks, with the most popular by far being Fuel's. Some say it was because they were the only vegetarian option, but I think it was because of the tacos.



Tacos and food trucks were just born to be together. I stood in line for about twenty minutes before moving on to the Crepe Maker in an attempt to make a healthy choice. The tacos pictured belonged to Chip, who is much more patient than I am.

The line at the Crepe Maker wasn't much better as it was the second most popular and there was one guy making one to two crepes at a time. Thankfully Mary ran over got us some emergency Kona Ice to eat while we waited. (It was so hot, that when I accidentally dropped ice on Mary's exposed toes, she happily let it melt there!)



I don't know why more people weren't at Kona Ice. I think it was mostly the result of people standing in line for actual lunch, first.

My opulence crepe was yummy--especially the grilled mushrooms--and was worth the wait, I suppose.



And since I ran and rode my bike to work today, I went ahead and had some YoLo too. (The #3 most popular truck.)



I think the best part of the Fare was seeing pretty much every serious foodie in Memphis all in one place. I actually had a woman half my age come over with a camera and ask if she could ask me some questions for her local food blog! It was surreal. I demured and pointed her towards Josh & Rob, who it turns out know how to rock a Food Truck Fare. They marched right over to the least crowded truck and ordered pork sandwiches and sausage links with a grape soda.




My buddy, Brandon, was also smart and got himself a hot link sandwich in under 5 minutes. Here he demonstrates the proper technique for eating with a monkey in tow.



Lest you think he made that adorable baby all by himself, I present to you the entire family.



I'd say despite the heat and the sometimes long waits, the Fare was a smashing success. I hope all of the foodies out today are home busy plotting awesome food truck start ups.

Southern Hot Wing Festival

Today I was a judge at the Southern Hot Wing Festival, along with my friend, Mary. Neither of us had ever been to the festival, and judging was the perfect introduction since it allowed us to mingle with the teams, sample lots of wings, and drink free beer.

Before judging, we checked out the new MCA gift shop and gallery downtown, and then stopped for hot coffee at Bluff City and completely burned the insides of our mouths, which was super smart. We also found a hidden jungle downtown.




Had we known we were actually late for the judging check in, we probably wouldn't have dallied so much. In my mind, we were two of four judges who would sit at the bar at Ernestine & Hazel's and have a steady stream of wings brought to us. Nope. We were two of fifty? A hundred? judges. Even though we were technically 45 minutes late, we arrived just as they were telling everyone what to do.



There were a lot of rules, and we considered bolting, but fellow judge, Ben Smith, assured us we were in for some fun. He also informed us that being a roving judge was the way to go. Turns out we each had three different tents to visit and we were told to spend 10 minutes at each one. (But no more than 15!) We got our assignments and off we went.





My first visit with the Cargill team was a nice warm up. Their wings were sriracha and lime juice marinated, which was right up my alley. And they hooked me up with a nice big beer.



Once I was done, I went to watch Mary in action. As she sampled the wings, I chatted with the team she was judging and told them that she was actually a vegetarian.

My second team, the Hot Wing Harem, was by far the most fun. You can see why:



An all female team with Indian spiced wings? Heck yeah! When it was my turn to sample, the head chef told me all about how she makes wings for parties and people love them so much, she decided to form a team.



Her husband is Indian, so that's why she stared incorporating Indian spices. The wings were really, really good.



The hardest part of judging was by far having to eat chicken wings while chatting. And for me, the second hardest part was getting all of the chickeny bits out of my teeth so I didn't look like an a-hole.

By the time we got to Mary's second team, Warren and Satchel had arrived. I went to meet them at the gate and we soon ran into Jiro and his buddies, who had clearly been in contact with a face painter and shwag giver outer.



Now that I had the entire Team Oster crew and 3/4 of Team Provencio, judging became even more difficult. Luckily, I only had one tent to go. The Red Wings were a BBQ team turned wing team that modeled their free range birds after Central BBQ. I soon learned that the guys were also affiliated with the Burn My Mouth blog, and we had chatted by email in the past. They claimed to be huge Dining with Monkeys fans, so we had a nice little visit.



The wings were yum, and I wanted to pocket some of their secret rub.



Once I was officially done judging, we started circling around to taste for fun. Unlike BBQ fest, you don't actually have to know anyone on the teams to get a sample. The most happening tent was the Wing Tang Clan, so we went to see what the fuss was about. Satchel loved their super hot wings, even though he needed an entire bottle of water per wing.



Sadly due to the cold, the crowds, and the children begging to go to the Peanut Shoppe, we just couldn't sample all of the wings that we wanted to. There were tons of fun looking tents and all varieties of wings. I really wanted a bite of the Angry Birds.



I'm already hoping they ask me back to judge next year. I'll better prep the monkeys on how everything is going to go down, and probably skip the pre-wing coffee.