Bashing the Tool Box and Cleaning Up the Aftermath

A few weekends ago (as usual, I'm really late posting), I helped Crystel host her yearly fundraising event. This post describes our weekend.


I spent Saturday helping Crystel with the Tool Box Bash, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Memphis' largest fund raising event of the year. It's a huge production that essentially begins as soon as the previous year's event ends. Much of the responsibility for the event falls on Crystel, so our household becomes a bit chaotic this time each year. 

I stopped by Bridges (the site of the event) Saturday morning to help out with a few things before sneaking away for lunch around 11:30. Since I was downtown, I decided to head over to Bardog Tavern for sliders so I could watch a little football. Bardog is probably my favorite downtown bar, mostly because it has such a local flavor just a few blocks away from a tourist mecca. 

I headed back to Bridges to help Crystel with a few more things and to drag her out of there so she could get home and get herself ready for the event. When we arrived back at Bridges that evening, I ran around helping out with a few last minute things before the event started. Mostly, I worked to get electricity to the stage via a large generator parked outside, and yards and yards of heavy gage power cable. I enjoyed pretending I was a roadie for the band for a while.

Later, with the event underway, I wandered around and bid on several silent auction items winning a subscription to the Playhouse on the Square, passes to Graceland (I've been promising to take my grandparents there since last Christmas) and gift certificates to Neely's BBQ and Cafe Society. I also won two tickets to the Nutcracker at the Orpheum, a night at the Peabody and dinner for two at the Capriccio Grill in the live auction. That's another great thing about the Tool Box Bash, I always buy several cool things to do in Memphis, so our December is usually filled with fun activities. 

Here are the few pictures I managed to get.

See Crystel, hard at work...

Memphis' best party band, The Soul Shockers!

We didn't leave Bridges until roughly 2:00 A.M. so Sunday got off to kind of a slow start. We did manage to stop by the Playhouse on the Square to activate our subscriptions and reserve seats for the two Christmas plays. Afterwards, we had a late lunch at Imagine Vegan Cafe in Cooper Young. Imagine is a great place to get "Vegan Junk Food," and I'd highly recommend it. I spoke with the owner on Sunday, and he's a really nice guy too.  

We spent the rest of the day straightening up the house and I had to pack for a work trip to Dallas on Monday morning. Since my company's office in Dallas is attached to the Galleria mall, I got to see this Christmas tree develop over the course of 3 days. 

The following Monday morning I was greeted with news that both Houston Nutt sand Pete Boone would be gone soon. I'm kind of bittersweet about Nutt, but pretty happy about Boone if most of what I've heard can be believed. I don't feel as strongly as most Ole Miss fans about Boone, but I do think it was time for a change. He accomplished some great things in his tenure, but had exceeded his shelf-life. I just hope the University leaders make smart decisions going forward so we come out the other end of this stronger.