E-Update

May 2007

Every Friday night at 6:00 PM we meet for drinks and/or dinner. 

• Friday, May 4 at 6:00 PM. Dinner at Abuelo's Mexican Restaurant, 8274 Highway 64 (Stage Rd.) In front of Lowe's. An M-Friends favorite -- great Mexican food; great atmosphere; great friends. RSVP to Trisha at trisha1832@gmail.com by noon on the 4th if you plan on attending. 

• Sunday, May 6 at 2:00 PM. Picnic & live music at the Old Millington Winery. The music starts at 3:00 PM, we'll be there by 2:00 to hang out and visit. Bring a blanket (or lawn chairs) and a picnic. Chilled wine by the bottle will be available for sale. Look for the M-Friends helium balloon to find us. The winery has a playground so bring the kiddies too! RSVP to trisha1832@gmail.com.
  
  Directions: From Memphis, take U.S. 51 north for approximately 14 miles to the traffic light at Micro Blvd. Turn left on Micro Blvd. Go one long block to the 4-way stop sign. Turn left on Old Millington Road. Go 1.2 miles. The winery will be on your left.
  
  http://www.oldmillingtonwinery.com/

• Friday, May 11 at 6:00 PM. Dinner at P.F. Chang's Chinese Restaurant, 1181 Ridgeway Rd. (in Park Place Centre) Traditional Chinese cuisine in an American Bistro atmosphere. Specialties include Chang's soothing chicken lettuce wraps. They offer more than 50 premium wines by the glass. RSVP by noon on the 11th to Trisha at trisha1832@gmail.com if you plan on attending. 

• Friday, May 18 at 6:00 PM. Dinner at Bombay House. Bombay House offers authentic Indian Cuisine with dishes ranging from mild to extra spicy. 1727 N. Germantown Parkway. RSVP to trisha1832@gmail.com  by noon on the 18th if you plan on attending.

• Friday, May 25 at 6:00 PM. Dinner at Pete & Sam's Italian Restaurant. Pete & Sam's is a Memphis tradition, having been around for over 50 years. They serve great Italian food, as well as steaks and seafood at a very reasonable price. 3886 Park Ave. (between Getwell and Highland). RSVP to trisha1832@gmail.com by noon on the 25th if you plan on attending.

• Monday, May 28 at 3:00 PM.  3rd Annual Margarita Monday Party. 3:00 pm until ??. Margarita's & munchies on the patio. Bring a munchie to share. Margarita's furnished. BYOB if you want something other than tequilas. RSVP to Trisha at 759.1232 or trisha1832@gmail.com if you plan on attending.
  
  1832 Talisker Drive
  Directions: take I-40 towards Nashville. Exit the Bolivar/Summerville exit right (heading east) onto highway 64 (Stage Rd.). Go approximately 2 miles to Canada Rd/Houston Levy Rd. Turn right onto Houston Levy Rd. and go approximately 2 miles to Glen Lakes Subdivision. Turn left into the subdivision onto Glen Lakes Rd. Go to the end of the road and turn right onto Talisker. My house is the third house on the left. There is a parking lot on the right about 3 houses down if there’s no room on the street.

• Sunday, June 3 at 2:00 PM,  Planter Making Class. Come one, come all and play in the dirt! I know your mother told you not to (at least once, right?). Well, this is different! I'm talking CREATIVE dirt...and cement...and water (oh, boy!). So, bring the kid in you (and some real ones, if you have them) and have some fun playing in the mud. Guys, you too! Brute strength will be a welcome assistance with the wheelbarrow.

Examples of the pots we'll be making

At the Hinson Campus, RSVP to Susan Hinson at legaleaglette@bellsouth.net or Laura Vadney at neveragain92@yahoo.com.

DIRECTIONS: get to Sam Cooper, exit Perkins, hang a right. Turn Left at Summer go to 2nd traffic signal and turn R onto Waring. 3rd house on the right past the stop sign at Tutwiler. Blond brick house. If driveway full, park around the corner on Castle.

Because of M-Friends involvement in the food preparation for AG hospitality, the Birmingham AG Committee has asked M-Friends to host the traditional after AG party and we have decided that we will do this as a part of an “UnGathering" (UG). It’s an excellent opportunity for MM members who have never helped out with an RG to gain some experience on what it takes to host an RG should MM decide to have an RG in the future.

Size-wise the UG will be along the same scale as an RG, with the same events offered as an RG and will run from Friday PM through Sunday noon. We haven’t nailed down a firm date yet, but the UG will happen sometime in the fall of this year. 

We would like for all members to be actively involved in the UG and invite everyone to participate. We have invited Dave Shiffman to arrange a proctored test at the UG and have invited Brent to hold a fund- raiser for the local scholarship fund. Both these items are traditional RG functions and are usually very successful. 

We will be having a planning meeting sometime in the near future and will advise the membership of the date/time of the meeting so as many members as possible may attend. 

Memphis UG – the party continues!

Thanks.

THE UN-GATHERING COMMITTEE

Yahooo! all you M-Friends out there! All too often I’ve regretted not being able to send a message to you all, whether it be about a restaurant we’ve been to, a tidbit of computer info (ya know I’m a PC geek,) or the latest muffin count for the Birmingham AG. Problem solved! I’ve started a Yahoo Group for M-Friends and will be inviting you… yes YOU! to join the group. This is a NO Flame zone – meant for friendly conversation and whatever fun or informative stuff you can come up with. I’ve already started a database with restaurant favorites and preferred businesses. I hope to see some new additions soon! I’d like to encourage you to update your Y! profile if you haven’t done that in a while… I know mine had no info in it except my name; not very inviting. This Y! group will tie in with Trisha’s M-Friends Newsletter which will help the next time we have a Poker Nite – I can eMail ya’ll for MORE BEER !

Jami

We've been cooking up a storm for the AG and really appreciate all of you who have helped; with the cooking and/or by opening your freezer to us for storage.

We hit one small snag -- how to transport 1,000+ biscuits and many (many) coffee cakes 250 miles and have them remain frozen for the entire trip. They say that necessity is the mother of invention, but in this case it appears that necessity was the father of invention. Jami built us a huge portable ice box custom built to fit in the back of my SUV. 

This ice box ROCKS! It's made out of cardboard mailing tubes and scrap cardboard with an outer shell of foam insulation board. The tubes were filled with frozen bottles of water and we froze water in several baggies to put on some of the shelves. The freezer is held together with Liquid Nails and -- you guessed it; a LOT of duct tape. It's pretty ingenious. I'll be adding a picture or two of the box to the M-Friends website within a day or two so check it out!

Since we've become so efficient at cooking, making enough food for the UnGathering should be a breeze. This last weekend we helped make 23 gallons of soup and I lost count of the number of pound cakes. Of course the AG committee is making about 200 gallons of soup so we just barely made a dent in their need. I can tell you from sampling all the different soups that they are all delicious and are sure to be a hit.

If you haven't already registered for the AG, be sure and do so soon. And don't forget to make your hotel reservation. The hotel is filling up fast.

-t

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