Cajun, Crawfish, and Catfish, oh my!

Hey Arbors River Oaks! You know that when it comes to the best food in the nation, Memphis never fails to deliver. However, this festival isn’t all BBQ centered. It’s the Cajun Catfish and Crawfish Festival!

It all goes down TODAY from 5 pm to 8 pm at the Cajun Catfish Company in East Memphis, 1616 Sycamore View to be exact. Luckily for you Arbors River Oaks residents, the Cajun Catfish Company is right up the road; it’s only about 9 minutes from here!

What are you getting at the Cajun Crawfish Festival? Live New Orleans music on the patio (where most of the activities will take place), mounds and mounds of crawfish, free giveaways, and refreshing beer specials! Not to mention some of the best catfish on the east side of Memphis!

So come hungry, bring friends, and you surely won’t be dissapointed!

Are you a fan of the Cajun Catfish Company?

Directions From Arbor Rivers Oaks

Head north on Arbor Commons Circle toward River Common Circle N. Turn right at River Commons Cir N. Turn left at Humphreys Blvd.  Turn left at Walnut Grove Rd. Merge onto I-240 E via the ramp to Nashville.  Take exit 12 C to merge onto I-40 E toward Nashville. Take exit 12 for Sycamore View Rd toward Bartlett. Turn left at Sycamore View Rd.

A Little Taste of Italy in Memphis

You know what I love about Memphis? I love the fact that we branch out to so many different cultures, and try to include everyone in the celebrations. There’s always so much going on, that you can hardly be bored in Memphis? What’s going on this week to keep you culturally inclined? Why, the Memphis Italian Festival of course.

For those that don’t know, the Memphis Italian Festival, held at beautiful and convenient Marquette Park in East Memphis, is a community celebration, demonstrating the values of family, faith and fellowship in the Italian-American tradition, for the benefit of the children of Holy Rosary Parish School.

There’s so much going on at this festival: arts and crafts, a cafe and wine garden, bocce tournaments, pizza tossing, and plenty of food concessions and music. I love food, especially Italian, so I’m pretty sure would be my  favorite part of the festival. The pizza tossing sounds interesting, and I’m a big fan of little crafts and knickknacks from around the world.

The festival starts this Thursday, June 3 at 5 pm, and continues through Sat. and Sun. at 11 am. Be sure to come out and experience the Italian-American culture for yourself!

In Theaters Today!!

Of course you know, Sex and the City 2  had to be different. Instead of opening on Friday like most movies, producers chose to launch it on Thursday. That’s today! I don’t know  if you’re dragging someone to see it, or if you’re being dragged yourself, either way it goes, you’re going to see it one way or another. I know I’m going to see it! And I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.

Are you going to see it?

Romancing the Cone

Summer is so close I can taste it! And what does summer taste like? Ice cream of course! More specifically, if you’re at Barkley’s Stem Shop in Midtown, it tastes like $1 ice cream. What could be sweeter?

Barkley’s has been serving soft serve ice cream cones for $1 for a few months now. They recently added hand-dipped options in vanilla, chocolate, black walnut, and strawberry which are also $1. It’s all an incentive to get more bodies in the doors of the flower shop. And with ice cream at such great prices, can you really ask for a better incentive?

Barkley’s is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon.

So this summer, when you’re romancing your honey (or for whatever other reason you may buy flowers) be sure to get a cool treat to beat the summer heat.

Resident Poll: Which is better, a physical QWERTY keyboard or a virtual one?

What can I say? Touch screens are cool. Are they practical? For some people. Are they practical for me? Not at all; I’m a huge klutz. I have a very bad track record when it comes to phones.

When I got my latest phone, the Motorola Cliq, I made sure to get insurance because of my track record with phones. On top of that, when I began the hunt for a new phone, I knew that I’d always wanted a touch screen phone, but I needed a keyboard as well. That way, I’d have back up for if something happens to the screen. I personally favor physical keyboards over virtual. They’re a lot quicker too.

It turns out that a lot people feel the way I do.  Mashable hosted a poll to see which style readers prefer between the two, and the physical keyboard won at 50.3%.

Which do you prefer?

3 Foods You Shouldn’t Buy From a Store

Need to save some extra cash? Well stop wasting it on buying pricey items at the store when you can get the same things at home. Check out the list and see if you agree with them:

1. Bottled Water: why spend $4 on a pack of bottled water? Sure it’s convenient; you can just grab it and go, but you can do the same with a $1 gallon of water and a reusable water bottle. You’ll be doing your wallet (and the environment) a favor.
2. Frozen Fruit Bars: You know those delectable little items in your grocers freezer that tempt you with words like “all fruit” or “100 % fruit and juice”? You can get that same quality at home. Just buy whatever fruit you want, get a blender, some ice,  plastic ice molds, and some toothpicks or something to hold it up, and you’re all set. You can pay $1.50 for a pound of strawberries rather than $3 for those frozen fruit bars
3. Microwave Sandwiches: For the same price as that microwave sandwich that you just bought, you could buy all of the ingredients that you’d want in a great sandwich, and make it yourself at home. It’ll taste better too; all of the ingredients will be fresh.

Do you have any more foods to avoid buying from  a store?

You think you know BBQ? You have no idea…

If anyone knows Memphis BBQ, it’s these guys. 7 friends took on the ultimate BBQ challenge, and ate at 34 BBQ joints in 3 days. If someone asks you if you’d partake in this little adventure and you answer yes, the next question would be…why?!

When asked why the guys replied that it was “just for the absurdity of it”. Well, that’s one reason.

The group of seven spent a weekend in April eating and rating ribs, sandwiches, beans, slaw and sauce. And, yes, they truly did go to 34 places. With six Sonic stops in between. (Gotta love their happy hour )

I don’t think that I could take on this endeavor, even though I absolutely LOVE BBQ. Could you?

Here’s the list of restaurants that the guys ventured to, as well as the full story.

Are you breaking up with Facebook?

I don’t think that Facebook is ready to take the plunge to the wayside like MySpace did, but some fans are leaning in that direction. With all of the phishing scams and concerns with user privacy, and the extreme dissapproval of certain changes that the popular social media site has been making, members have become disgruntled.

Following with this growing trend, Matthew Milan and Joseph Dee are attempting to mobilize a formal Facebook revolt with Quit Facebook Day, aimed at May 31st. They have yet to commit that many to revolting, but with the recent discrepancies, the numbers may grow. Shoot, one of the number one searches in the Google search bar is ‘how do I delete my facebook account’, so the idea isn’t unwarranted.

I doubt that I’d join this crusade. Facebook still keeps me connected to people that I haven’t seen in a while, and I love looking at other people’s pictures. Until something comes out to surpass Facebook, I think i’ll be a user for a while.

What about you? Are you thinking of deleting your Facebook account?

Want to save some cash??

I am always looking for great ways to save money any way that I can. I recently found this article on Yahoo! about saving on electricity. It had a few very helpful tips that I have no implemented in my home. Below are some of my favorite tips:

• Wash only full loads in your dishwasher and let your dishes air dry. I usually only use my dishwasher as a place to dry my dishes that I wash myself.
• Clean your filters regularly. If you have dirty filters, the system has to work double to get air out.
• Use cold to warm water when doing laundry.
• If you’re not using your computer, put it on sleep mode.

I have not received my latest electricity bill, but I am sure it has gone down a good bit. I was pretty much doing all of the things the list advises us not to do. I also feel better about using this energy saving tactics because I am helping the environment.

Do you have any other tips that you like to use?

A Weekend of BBQ? I’m In!

Memphis in May continues! What does the third weekend in May represent? It’s the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest! Starting Thursday, May 13th, downtown Memphis will smell like nothing but barbecue. I can’t wait; I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!

Normally, Thursday is just one big party! It’s like Mardi Gras Memphis style. Strolling down the row of ‘beginner’ BBQ-ers gives you the feel of one huge block party! There’s dancing, music, and most importantly, the food! On Friday you’ll find lesser parties, and on Saturday, all is quiet as people anxiously await the results of who won the contest.

Luckily for us all, the forecast is looking pretty good the weekend. Let’s just hope it doesn’t rain! If I were you, I’d bring your ponchos just in case.

Do you attend the BBQ contest often?

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