Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

I posted this picture of the Central BBQ Shop sign in Flickr. I don’t eat here, but please read the comments below the picture. As you see, I was invited to the Happy Ham group, which is described here:

Everybody has seen them: Those oddly disturbing signs on restaurants or butcher shops or elsewhere, showing whistling octopi or dancing pigs or other animals who are just so thrilled that they are about to get eaten. This is the place to collect them.

So of course, I had to post this picture, which reminded me of another picture I had, a BEAUTIFUL picture of my takeout barbecue spaghetti! And did you catch that the entire recipe is posted there?! Yes, I was once an orderer of the pulled pork barbecue sandwich, but since I tried the barbecue spaghetti, it’s been really hard for me NOT to order the thing! YUM! Did you catch that the recipe is right there in the comments?! If you missed it, here it is again (taken from the Bar-B-Q Shop’s Dancing Pigs sauce’s web site:

Bar-B-Q Spaghetti

This recipe was featured on www.foodnetwork.com for the Bobby Flay Show on Bar-B-Q Specialties, which aired Summer 2004.

Cook Pasta for 15 minutes & drain. Rinse in cold water & drain.
Meanwhile in a Large Skillet, add:

1 cup of chopped onions
¾ cup of chopped green peppers
1 pint of Dancing Pigs Original Bar-B-Q Sauce
1 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of Liquid Smoke
½ cup of cooking oil
A dash of salt

Stir Occasionally. Cook for 30 minutes slowly. Pour Bar-B-Q Base Sauce over Pasta & stir.
Dice up Pork Shoulder with each serving to put on top.
Serve Hot.

Serves 6 to 8.

Hey, if you’re some random person who comes across this recipe online, I really recommend you actually purchase their sauce. It’s to die for! And yes, the best barbecue really does come from Memphis, so you should listen to what I’m saying!

Oh, and did I mention that the next Blogger Bash is at the end of this month, and it’s going to be at the Bar-B-Q Shop? I’m so there. As you know, I’m a bit of a fan of the place! 

Yesterday, just before noon, one of my best friends had her second baby, a boy named Joseph. I know Helen will be a great big sister and that Steve and Kathleen will continue to be the coolest parents on the block (and that’s saying a lot… there are some REALLY cool parents on their block!).

A Boing Boing link brought me to this panorama of the Star Wars fans at the wrong theatre, and I’m guessing the telephone in the picture is the one I called. There are so many other fascinating panoramas that mean something to me.

• The 37th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assasination at the National Civil Rights Museum here in Memphis
• The Eyes Wide Open Memorial, commemorating those soldiers killed in Iraq
• This is the huge anti-war protest in London that happened last year. The war began when I was in London in 2003, and I went to the first march. It was huge and looked a lot like this one a year later.
• The Tribute in light to honor the victims of the 9/11 attacks. I saw this quite by accident. I was in NYC in April of 2002. Things in my marriage has just turned suddenly wrong, and I took off to see some close friends. I had been out and about by myself for the day, it was now night, and I was planning to meet some friends for drinks. I got off the subway, walked up to street level, and called my parents because I hadn’t spoken to them in a while. I noticed several people crowded around several pictures on a fence. Talking to my parents, I suddently realized that I was at the church next to ground zero. I looked up, and the tribute was still there. It was a cloudy night, but I could make out the lights. I found out later that it was one of the last nights the tribute was in place.

You’d never know it from my time in Memphis, but I grew up at gigs. I’ve been holding on to my ticket stubs since the beginning. When my parents sold the house they’d been in for 25 years last summer, I had the task of going through everything of mine that was there. In the process, another slew of ticket stubs emerged, ones I’d forgotten about. I added those to the ones I already had gathered together, and I decided I was going to do something meaningful with them.

When I first moved to Memphis, I went to Michael’s craft store and about had a meltdown trying to find a "normal" scrap book. Seems scrapbooking has now become a verb, which I find most unfortunate. It was nearly impossible to find a plain book with black pages amidst all the themed stickers and glitter glue, but I did it. I got about 10 pages filled, and then internship really began, and the project was suspended.

Today, I was reading some of the new questions on Ask Metafilter, and this one popped up, which got me thinking again about my ticket stub project. That link lead to this one, and before I knew it, I was in the kitchen, moving around the directional lamp trying to get lighting right to begin photographing my collection. I didn’t get far, but it’s a start.

Here are a few of my favorite ticket stubs from way, WAY back when. (For a little context, know that I was 13 for most of 1983.):

I camped out overnight at the Fox Theatre Box Office for this ticket. At the concert, I swooned! I really think I passed out from sheer excitement! As a result, I went home right afterwards, while my friends actually met him!

There is another post that will occur in which I will explain how the song "Wolves, Lower" changed my life. This was the beginning of a love affair I had with this band. All ages at the Agora. My dreams had been answered!

Got a change to talk to Fred for a long while at the backstage door afterwards. He was very sweet to my friend Heather and I.

I got to meet all of the B-52s in person, and I got everyone’s autographs on the back of my ticket stub… even Ricky’s.

Will the ticket stug project ever come to fruition? Will it ever be complete? I think it will be, but it won’t be any time soon. In the meantime, at least I can share a little of it with you. It’s silly, but the collection brings me immense joy. So many memories crammed into such a small space.

Well, not really famous, but famous in my own little mind! I posted a few really good pictures of my girls on Flickr, and then I got REALLY inspired and started a Flickr group called Tortie Kitties. Of course, I’ve made a little star of my beautiful Maggie. How could I not?! Check out the Jeep and Maggie set. Now I feel like I have to add more pictures of Jeep because I’ve been going crazy with the Maggie pictures. It’s harder to get the right lighting for Jeep though.
 

I’m not feeling well today, and I’ve been working so hard lately. Means I’m better with pictures than with words. I hope you understand.