We tried something new today.  We took the trolley downtown for dinner.  It’s kind of surprising, but we’d never done that before (we’ve been on the trolley once).  It was really convenient to walk to the closest stop and just take that down.  We tried a place I’ve been thinking of going — Wang’s Chinese Bistro.  Good food.  It was a little pricey, but we’ll probably be going back.  Turns out there’s a Quiznos that way too, so I see myself going that way quite a few times before we move.

We went to the Memphis In May BBQ Festival/Competition on Saturday. It was neat to walk around and see what’s up. After seeing the special on Food Network last year I just had to go. We walked down to the trolley and took the trolley down to Beale Street. It’s kinda cool to be able to do that. It’s also kinda sad that we haven’t done it before considering how long we’ve been here. The down side is that there was a lot more “college party” atmosphere than I expected. A bit more wild than I like. We’ll see if we ever attend another one.

We went to Ronnie Grisanti And Sons last week.  Wow was that good Italian food.  It was also pretty expensive, but I’d say it was the best Italian food I’ve ever had.  I had their version of a Shrimp Alfredo and Shinta had their Swordfish special.  Awesome stuff!

I haven’t posted in quite a while and a lot has happened. I don’t know where to start and I’m sure I’ll forget something, so here goes:

We’ve continued our restaurant tasting. Since the last update we’ve been to Erling Jensen’s, Ruby Tuesday’s, Lulu Grille, and Bhan Thai (twice). We went to Eriling Jensen’s in celebration of my birthday and getting a job. The full-fledged review is where to find the detail (not written yet), but it’s quite probably one of the best restaurants in Memphis. Bhan Thai has the best Thai food we’ve had in Memphis (Chao Praya being a close second). Ruby Tuesday’s has buffalo burgers. I’ve been missing my buffalo fix and I’m finally finding some here. Incidentally, I found out about Erling Jensen’s while looking for buffalo meat here. We went to Lulu Grille today for lunch (more buffalo burgers). And since we’re on the topic of food, I should mention that the little cafeteria at work has an excellent tasting Italian sub sandwich for CHEAP.

Speaking of work, I’ve completed my first three weeks. My luck seems to be holding up not only in finding a job so quickly, but also finding a good one. I really enjoy it there. The people are friendly, and there doesn’t seem to be the pervasive flow of people jumping ship you find in some companies. To me, that’s a good sign, and I’m excited to see how this goes. That reminds me to complain about taxes. My god I hate taxes. I was looking at my paystub and realizing that I’ve now paid more in taxes from this new job than I use to even get paid over the same period of time. And we don’t have state income taxes, that’s all federal.
Also, I don’t think this has happened since my last post, but I seem to have neglected it. I finally got to go shooting again. We went to RangeUSA for their Carbine night with the Krinkov. Those frangible rounds they require weren’t 100% in feeding, but they were also so light that accuracy is probably pretty bad out my 1/7″ barrel. At the cost ($0.35/rd) I’m sure I’ll probably go again out of necessity, but it won’t be too often. I’ve got some more Makarov ammo coming in, though. The drought on 9x18mm seems to have been helped a bit. I’m gonna need it for the HCP (aka CCW in most places) class coming up.

No new movies yet. Kind of surprising, considering how many I usually see. I rented Clerks and Pirates of the Carribean so that we’ll see them before their sequels. Miami Vice is out this weekend, so maybe that one. Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis have started up again (and I completely forgot). We spent last night catching up. Gonna be good new seasons.

Memphis has had it’s 100th murder of the year. Actually, by now it’s probably beyond that, but last week I saw it on the news. Washington DC is complaining about their 18 or so murders, but they don’t have a clue. Did I mention the HCP class? Also, pretty freaky, some dude went on a stabbing spree at a grocery store. He was stopped by a dude with a pistol (not a shot fired). The news mostly skipped that little fact. That HCP is sounding even better. Also, in unrelated news, Todd Bailey (Special Weapons) posted pics of his upcoming MWS that he’s been working on for a couple years. I like it. I want it. We’ll see how long it takes for it to really be available. The SP-10 .40 caliber he said would be ready “in two weeks” (4 months ago) aren’t ready yet. Maybe I’ll be able to afford them when they come around, I just need to find an FFL I like.

I’ve created my restaurant critique section. At this time I don’t have any reviews completed, but I have listed some restaurant names that I will complete my reviews for in the near future. I just need to sit down, type everything up and organize pictures that I have in along with them. Stay tuned.