cooper young night out
Posted by Peter Owen | Filed under family, friends, Memphis, Personal, photo, Picture
Cooper Young Night Out was last Tuesday night despite all the rain. Brett and Sharon Ammons were hosting again this year for our block. Again the Cooper Young Night Out was sponsored by Target. The reason it was so late this year is because last year the weather was so hot that they decided to move it to a cooler date. It was much cooler this year and rainy and wet, but that didn’t stop us from having fun! Diana, Elek, and I showed up a little early to help with the preparations. The picture above is of the Huseriks’ arrival.
Brett fired up the grill and grilled hamburgers and hotdogs while we talked about the neighborhood and last year’s party. Everyone entered for a chance to win a new bicycle from Target. I think our odds were better this year than last since not as many people came probably due to the gloomy weather. Target also left us with some early Halloween candy, beach balls, and reusable Target shopping bags. As usual the boys played together in the ball pit, tent, and with all the other toys with minimal involvement from the adults.
I am hoping that next year the weather will be a bit more cooperative. This year everyone is really sick of the month long monsoon. Our family is also trying to become more involved so we can participate in more family oriented and neighborhood oriented events. Ever since Elek was born (3 years ago!), it has been one continuous metamorphosis from one lifestyle to another. Because of get togethers like these, Cooper Young is a wonderful neighborhood to live in especially if you have children.
Tags: cooper young, neighborhood, neighbors, night out, target
elek’s 3rd birthday party
Posted by Peter Owen | Filed under family, food, Personal, photo, Picture, video
This past week we had a few celebrations for our son Elek who just turned three years old. We sent miniature cupcakes to his class on the day of his birthday and made Mexican layer dish for dinner since he loves chips so much. That night he got to open a couple of presents including a soccer ball and a couple of books from Mama and Daddy as well as several puzzles from Diana’s sister Kristen. The next day, Elek got a bright red retro Radio Flyer tricycle from Gran. Grandaddy also made a visit from Beaufort, SC. He brought Elek a small fishing rod.
Thursday began his party preparations for Saturday. Nana gave Elek a ball pit (pictured to the above) that was a hit at the party. We bought ingredients to make our own pizzas. It was a great success. We used premade crusts, mozzarella, peperoni, sausage, and pasta sauce. They were quite tasty and there are enough leftovers to feed an army. There were cupcakes and single serving ice cream that the kids just loved. Annabeth was nice enough to come over and play a few songs for the children. There are some videos of that on the previous post. Elek also received a brown horse stick toy that he can ride around from Gran. Elek loves galloping sideways. Mama and Daddy gave him a small piano like in Peanuts and a whiffle bat and ball.
The next night we went over to Nana’s house to celebrate with their family. I think at this point Elek was sort of worn out, which is a good sign that he had a great birthday. Dave gave him a soft rocket launcher that shoots the rocket when you jump on an air pouch. Elek quite enjoyed this toy, though at the party he seemed a bit overwhelmed by how many people were there. He was also a little sick or maybe it was due to allergies just like his Daddy. It seemed like Elek really had a great time for his birthday this year. We hope in the future we can think of constructive things for his birthday that he will enjoy.
Tags: birthday, Elek, home made pizza, party
elek’s 3rd birthday party videos
Posted by Peter Owen | Filed under family, Personal, video
Tags: birthday, Elek, party, video
snow patrol concert in nashville, tn
Posted by Peter Owen | Filed under family, friends, music, Personal, photo, Picture, travel
This past weekend, Oct. 2-4, Diana and I went to Nashville to see Snow Patrol. We left about 3:30 PM Friday and made it with time to spare to their 8PM show. Elek stayed with my mom (Gran) over the weekend and we prepared him for it by telling him a day or two in advance. To the left is a picture of the Tennessee River which is where traffic slowed down to almost a halt. We could not have picked a more scenic place for the traffic slowdown. It was beautiful!
We arrived in Nashville at 6:30 PM. We went directly to Jimmy John’s across from Vanderbilt to pick up our dinner. Our next stop was the infamous Frugal MacDoogal where they had Sailor Jerry (the best rum ever) on sale for $19.99 a handle. We obviously got two. At this point both of us are ravenous! We finally get checked into the hotel around 7:20 PM and made drinks/ ate our Jimmy John’s sandwiches. The Italian sandwich that I got reminded me of college.
We were ready to go to the concert at 9:45 PM. We stayed at the Millennium Maxwell House that we booked through Hotwire for about $59/night. I found this article on Lifehacker that shows you how to pretty accurately guess which hotel you will get on Hotwire using Trip Advisor, which was really helpful. That night we took the free shuttle down to 5th and Broadway where the Ryan Auditorium is. The Ryman is an intimate venue that is about 1/3rd or 1/4th the size of the Orpheum in Memphis.
We arrived at the Ryman right after the Plain White T’s finished, which was perfect. We were seated at the front right of the stage with a great view as you can see from the pictures. Snow Patrol was amazing. It was the best concert I’ve ever been to. The lead singer, Gary Lightbody, was more enthusiastic, humble, and funny than any other musician I’ve ever seen. He’s the type of person you would want to hang out with because you know you would have a good time.
Snow Patrol played from 9:25 to 10:50 PM, which was the perfect length. They came out for one encore where they played some stuff off of their new album. It sounded pretty good and I need to obtain their new album. Their use of piano and large four mallets was wonderful! They were equipped with two drummers, a pianist, the lead singer, lead guitarist, bassist, and an acoustic guitarist. During the show, the guy next to me who was very friendly (and intoxicated) gave me a hard time about not singing loud enough. 
He then befriended me and bought me a beer that I didn’t necessarily want (fat tire). I drank it anyway and it was great. He also returned my jacket that I tried to leave behind.
After the concert was over, we walked out onto Broadway and toward Decades where we met Dave and Ashley. Ashley has since moved in to Buckwild, which we did not make it to this trip. We went into the first floor of Decades with a $5 cover. I suppose this floor opens a little later than the upper floor. 
Last time we went to Nashville we were the FIRST people in the second floor of Decades and we were the ONLY ones there for quite a while. We played quarters for about 2 hours with Dave and Ashley. Good times. We had a good time at Decades and left a couple hours later to go home. We passed the trailer park bar, but decided against it and headed back to the hotel. The picture on the left is what the view looked like the next morning. B-E-A-UTIFUL! 
So beautiful in fact that we decided to eat breakfast/lunch at Noshville’s and head to Percy Warner Park. We were able to finagle some fries out of the cooks at Noshville’s with the help of our awesome 43 year old waitress Alisha. She is from Memphis and related to the Grisanti’s.
We drove through Belle Meade to get to Percy Warner Park. That street has the largest and nicest houses I’ve seen in Tennessee! 
Once we got there, we climbed the large staircase to the top where a wooded trail began. We started walking along it and came to a point where we asked a fellow hiker where it went. He said it was your standard 2.5 mile trail so we turned around and went the other direction toward the top of the hill/mountain. Once we were satisfied with walking along the trail, we decided to drive on the road that went around the mountain. It took us 30 minutes to get all the way around the trail, but it was so pretty! 
After we were done with the park, Chris came over around 5 PM to have a drink with us in our hotel. Somehow the topic of save a horse, ride a cowboy came up and I randomly blurted out “save a whale, ride a cheerleader”. Beats me. Afterward, we talked about where to eat and decided on the Rosepepper Mexican restaurant in East Nashville. Diana called her friend Cortney who met us there after we ordered. The food was great and you could tell it was at least somewhat authentic because there were a couple of Mexican guys knocking back some tequila at the table next to us. The portions were ample and the food was quite good. 
They brought out three different types of dip with our chips, regular, hot, and salsa verde. The dips were all very tasty though my favorite was the spicy.
After the Mexican food, we rode to Five Points in East Nashville and had a drink at one of their bars. Chris bought Diana and me a Bushwaker that was way too filling after Mexican. At that point, unfortunately, Diana and I had to call it a night. We went back to the hotel in utter pain and went to bed. The next morning ended our stay in Nashville. We headed back to Memphis at about 9 AM. Talk about a great birthday weekend! And remember, “Save a whale, ride a cheerleader.”
Also, below are two short clips that give you a feel of the Snow Patrol show. Enjoy.
Tags: birthday, concert, nashville, ryamn auditorium, snow patrol
videos of our gulf shores, al beach trip
Posted by Peter Owen | Filed under family, Personal, travel, video
Enjoy these videos from our Gulf Shores vacation.
Tags: AL, beach, family, gulf shores, Personal, travel, trip, vacation, videos
week long family vacation to gulf shores, alabama
Posted by Peter Owen | Filed under family, friends, Personal, photo, Picture, travel
Last week (9/12/09-9/19/09) Annabeth, my family, and I all went on vacation to Gulf Shores, AL. We rented a beach house that I used to stay in with my family as a child that was fabulous. The house is owned by Bob Wheat and there are pictures on his website. We stayed in the 4 bedroom Gulf Beach house. The week long forecast was saying that there was a large chance it would rain the entire time we were there (like it did in Memphis), but we really lucked out. The rain came and went maybe 2 days and for only a brief amount of time.
We made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the road and left Memphis Friday after work at about 6PM. We cruised into Jackson, MS after about three hours on the road. My mom’s sister Nancy was nice enough to put us up for the night. It was great to see her and her wonderful new treasures she found at an estate sale. There were two copper giraffes about three feet tall painted in intricate designs that she got for $20! The copper alone is worth much more than that.
The next morning we were on our way again at about 9AM or so. We managed to make it to the beach around 4PM. While Diana and Elek got to play on the beach in the (what we thought was going to be rare) sun, my mom and I went to the grocery store to buy food for the week. Keep in mind it is MUCH cheaper to buy food and cook most of the time when you go to the beach. To give you a little shock comparison, a handle of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum in Memphis is around $22, but on the beach it’s about $56. Yeah, expensive. I also noticed that happy hour was earlier on average. The one sign I saw for happy hour said from 2 to 5PM.
Saturday night we made hamburgers and baked beans. I brought a small Webber grill that was surprisingly efficient, though we forgot the charcoal chimney, which is the best grilling invention ever. I used Kingston Matchlight and it worked like a champ. The grilling surface on this grill was pretty large and the coals were so close, it took less coals to cook than a larger grill. This was good considering to add more coals would have been a total pain. This is the point the relaxing officially began.
Elek was allowed to stay up much later than usual of course, though this didn’t affect his uncanny ability to wake up at 6AM on the dot. Usually we would put on a show for him and go back to bed for about 45 minutes. Sunday it was overcast for about half the day and sunny for the other part. It shifted back and forth so that the weather determined our beach visits. The best thing about this house and the beach in front of it was that it wasn’t crowded at all and we had the nicest and what appeared to be the largest amount of beach in front of our house.
Over the next several days we went for walks on the beach finding interesting things like abandoned houses with no stairs leading up to them and a rather large boat that appeared to have been burned. The sunsets were beautiful and the night beach walks were a lot of fun as well.
We spent a lot of time playing RummyKub, which was a lot of fun. It turns out Annabeth is a master at this game so if you ever want a swift whooping, ask her to play. Another game we all got into we learned from my mother. I’m not sure what the specific game is called, but it’s solitaire with two decks of cards. You line the 4 kings from each deck vertically, then you deal out 12 stacks of cards between them. It took a little while for it to catch on, but once it did we couldn’t stop playing it.
My cousin Mary came to visit us for a day with her son Jackson. My mom, Mary, Jackson, and I went crabbing with no success. It happened to be during the hottest part of the day. Needless to say, that’s not a great idea. We all also sang and the two boys danced while Annabeth played her guitar. I’m glad she brought it. Elek absolutely loved it and was fascinated with the guitar. I’m pretty sure his favorite song was “Pop Goes the Weasel”. Luckily I got some video of him singing and dancing to it.
Tuesday was my birthday (Sept. 15). What better way to spend your birthday than on the beach!? I hadn’t really thought about it before, but it was great! Diana baked me a cake (pictured) and Annabeth helped her do the icing. My mom also made a baked oyster dish that was the best I’ve ever had. Speaking of, I need to get that recipe! Elek was very excited about the cake and ice cream. We deemed him a cakehead since he acts like a fiend whenever there is some around. I got some really cool thin ties and button up shirts from my mom and the cards I received were hilarious! Diana is taking me to Nashville Oct 2-4 to see Snow Patrol for my birthday present. I can’t wait!
Wednesday night the girls (Annabeth and Diana) went out to Karaoke at the Pink Pony Pub. They had a really good time. I stayed in, relaxed and watched a few minutes of TV. The next night we went out to eat at a local place that was pretty good and not too expensive. My mom and her friend Linda that came down to visit for a couple of nights took Elek back to the beach house and Diana, Annabeth, and I went out. We first drove to the infamous bar Flora-Bama, but since they were charging $5 a person on an off season Thursday night we headed to the Pink Pony Pub. We sat on the beach a while and then the girls got up to do a couple songs. We danced a bit before heading back to the beach house.
Annabeth, Elek, and my mom all fed the seagulls chips and bread. It was a very weird site. I took several pictures and a video of it. There were tons of birds flocked together in a small area. I think Elek’s favorite part was scaring them off by running at them. Elek also managed to catch a sand crab one evening. He held it in his hands while I got a picture. I believe it was feigning death while in his hands. Jackson had caught one days before and Elek must have thought that was great.
The trip was a massive success and I would love do it again. This year it was very fortunate that we got to do it in the off season since it wasn’t crowded. I’m really glad that we came back on a Saturday so that we had time to get back on schedule.
If you’d like to see more pictures, you can see them on my facebook page.
Tags: beach, family, gulf shores, pictures, travel, trip, vacation
