WHO'S IN TOWN?: KY State Rabbit Breeders Association Kentucky Cup

MINI-BUNNY (click photo for source)

For the second installment of Loueyville's new series WHO'S IN TOWN? the more important answer to the question is this:


BUNNIES!! Lots and lots of sweet, little, cute, cuddly, soft, fuzzy bunny rabbits. These aren't even your run-of-the-mill cutie-patootie bunnies-- these are champion bunnies. These are gold-medal-worthy bunnies.

What a soothing, delightful alternative to the sometimes nerve-jangling Thunder over Louisville airshow, huh? Go out to the fair grounds and see some bunnies? Sounds like a good plan to me.

The Kentucky Cup is from 8am-4pm and is open to the public at the West Pavilion of the Expo Center.

I had some questions about the Kentucky Cup, and Christy Frey-- vice-president of the Kentucky State Rabbit Breeders Association was nice enough to answer them.

LOU: The Expo Center's calendar lists the event as the "Kentucky State Mini Rabbit Breeders Convention." And that confused me. I assumed it was a convention of "mini-rabbit" breeders. But from your website I take it to mean it's a "mini-convention." Can you clear this up for me? Also, there is such things as mini-rabbits, right?

CHRISTY FREY: You are correct about the name. It is the KSRBA Mini Convention. We are also calling it the Kentucky Cup. The smallest breed of rabbit is the Netherland Dwarf and Brititannia Petite. Their maximum weight is 2 1/2 lbs. The largest rabbits are the Flemish Giants, Giant Angoras, French Lops and Checkered Giants. Their maximum weight can be over 20 lbs.


What goes on during the Convention? Can you give us a brief overview of the event?

During the show, American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA) sanctioned judges will be judging one breed at a time to see which rabbit is the closest to that breeds standard. There is 47 unique breeds recognized by the ARBA. Hopefully we will have many of these breeds at the show. These 47 breeds are distinguished by color, size, and many other characteristics.


How many breeders do you expect? How many rabbits? 

We do not have an exact number, but we are expecting many rabbits and exhibitors from many different states.


Why did you choose Louisville for this event?

We chose Louisville for the location. It is centrally located in KY and has I-64 & I-65. Also the fairgrounds has an excellent facility. We have been advertising the Thunder over Louisville and other tours of famous places around Louisville for the exhibitors to look into doing. The show will be starting at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. It should run late into the afternoon.


Welcome to town Rabbit breeders (and more importantly, your RABBITS!!)! Enjoy Louisville. The KSRBA website is here: http://www.ksrba.webs.com/


Want to know more about the WHO'S IN TOWN? series on Loueyville? Click here. Our last installment was about Handbell Ringers. Read that here.

An Open Letter to Groupon from an Addict

Dear Groupon Louisville,

Sweet Mother of Christmas, I can't seem to quit you!  Just when I've told myself "Lou, no more Groupons until you use the ones you've got," you throw LIBA week our way where you feature nothing but independent Louisville businesses.  How could I pass up yesterday's Why Louisville? Groupon?

I know you're newish to the Louisville scene and have existed in other cities for a while, but ever since you came to our fair city, I've been an addict.  I'm not above finding myself awake in the middle of the night and checking my iTouch to see what discounted goodness you've sent to my mailbox in the wee hours.  I've signed up for New Orleans and Cincy, too, because I travel to both places often enough.  Roommate subscribes to Nashville for the same reason.

I currently have more than $300 in Groupon gift certificates waiting to be used.  Of course, I paid less than half that for all those Groupons.  I keep thinking that I should have a Groupon week and do nothing that doesn't use my Groupons.  I could buy books at the Book and Music Exchange and enjoy a good read while at Coco's Chocolate Cafe.  Then I could work off those extra pounds at a Jazzercise class or by buying some hiking gear at the Trail Store.  If I went hiking, I could pack a lunch from Heitzman's deli or Bodega, and celebrate my success at White Oak... you get the picture.

Since you've arrived on the scene, Groupon, we've seen at least two other sites try to replicate your success:  Living Social and Try it Local.  And of course there's the older, sometimes sketchy, Restaurants.com.  So far none of those sites has inspired addiction quite like you have.

As long as I'm going to remain a Groupon addict-- because I can't seem to quit you-- I might as well give you my wish list:

1) More sushi-- I'd love to see Oiishi or Wasabiya on your site.
2) Fewer hair salons-- Just how many heads of hair do you think we have?
3) A week of local gift-y boutiques right before the holidays-- most of my boutique-y Groupons will expire well in advance of gift-giving season.
4) More coffee shops-- Maybe for whole bean coffee?  Don't make us get pastries.
5) Nice seats at Churchill-- could be the only way I ever get to the track for more than General Admission.
6) Baxter Ave Theater-- Maybe a two-for-one deal?
7) Grocery stores-- fun AND practical.
8) Downtown Hotels-- be a tourist in your own city, as long as the Groupon rate is lower than you can normally get on Hotwire or Priceline.
9) More brand new businesses-- what a great way for a new local business to get people in the door!
10) 7 Days a week-- other Groupon cities offer a new Groupon every day!

Thanks for hearing me out Groupon.  A belated welcome to Louisville.  Keep the deals coming!

Best,
Lou

PS: Readers, if you haven't tried Groupon yet, if you click my link, I get some sort of bonus Groupon points.  Just sayin... :)

Mike Linning's Cocktail Sauce: Another local product I can't live without

Not too long ago, I blogged about Bluegrass Soy Sauce. Since then I've bought at least two more bottles. Love that stuff. But there's another local condiment I just can't live without.

Roommate and I try to always keep shrimp in the freezer. It's just such a lovely, and relatively healthy, treat to defrost a couple handfuls of shrimp and scarf down an ad hoc (and cheap!) shrimp cocktail. A couple years ago, we were buying cocktail sauce at ValuMart and decided to check out the local stuff. Mike Linning's Cocktail Sauce is far and beyond the best cocktail sauce I've ever had. I don't know what makes it so good-- but it's thick and spicy and somehow kind of "meaty."

Never been to the restaurant, but their cocktail sauce has put it on the "must visit" list for next summer.

You can buy the cocktail sauce in most local groceries or online, here.

An Open Letter to Local Business Owners

My dear purveyors of good stuff,

Right now, I live in a hotel. And before you ask, the answer is: No, there's nothing glamorous about living in a hotel. I used to think living in a hotel would be sexy. Manny Ramirez lived in a hotel the whole time he played for the Sox. Kelsey Grammar's character in the tragically short-lived sitcom "Back to You" lived and loved in a hotel room. Heck, it worked for Zack & Cody for three seasons until they took their game onto a cruise ship. (Please don't ask how I know this. Let's just say that convalescing makes strange TV bedfellows. FYI: Dan Savage brilliantly eviscerated said show on This American Life last year, claiming Zach and Cody were turning his son into the worst kind of heterosexual.)

Alas, the Residence Inn is not the St. Gregory from that mid-80's Aaron Spelling show starring Brand Walsh's dad/Babs's husband (are they still married? is anyone still married?).

Last Friday, I came home from work to find that the housekeeper (and yes, having a housekeeper IS sexy-- that's the best thing about hotel life) had left a flyer for 32nd Annual Old Louisville Holiday Home Tour on my coffee table. And when I went downstairs to check about my mail, there was another full-color flyer for the Home Tour displayed on an acrylic stand. And I thought, "Oh how nice. I'm a little broke right now, but I can always hit it next year."

A few hours later, it dawned on me that I've been living in this *&^%^&* hotel for almost three months now-- Ooohh! No, today is my three month anniversary! I've now lived in a hotel for 1/4 of a year. Sigh.-- and that was the very first piece of local advertising I've seen pass through the doors of the joint. Sure, there's the obligatory "brochure shelf" tucked out of sight down an unused corridor, but the Home Tour folks put that full-color photocopied, attractive, festive ad in my face-- both in my room and right on the front desk-- all weekend long. And if I hadn't been a Villager, hadn't known that I'd have another chance to go at the 33rd Annual Home Tour, I would have jumped at it.

At least a couple times a week, I'll be hanging in the lobby or waiting in line at the front desk, and I'll hear some tourist or business person ask for dinner recommendations. If they're looking high end, the answer from the front desker is always the same: Jeff Ruby's. If they're just looking for something to fill their bellies, the front desker always directs them to... you guessed it: 4th Street Live.

Sometimes I stick my nose in. Sometimes I don't. I almost always stick my nose in when I hear folks mulling over dinner options in the elevator or in the hallways. (This takes a lot of effort as Mama is painfully shy around strangers.)

There are lessons to be learned here, Owner friends. First of all, there are 140 guest rooms in the Res-Inn. If the Home Tour people paid 15-cents per color copy, that meant that they spent in the neighborhood of $21 to blanket my hotel and get a brochure into the hot little hands of every single person staying at the hotel that weekend. A single, day-of-purchase ticket for the Home Tour was $30. If one Res-Inn resident hit the Tour, the Tour still made $9.

There are approximately 17,000 hotel rooms in the Louisville Metro area. That's a lot of color copies, sure. But if you're having a special event and you can share the cost with other businesses (Trolley Hops and Bardstown Aglow and Buy Local First and Louisville Originals folks, I'm looking at YOU), you've got quite the captive audience in hotel dwellers, whether they be tourists, businessfolks, or townies like me.

Secondly, if you're a local business within comfortable walking distance of a hotel, why don't you drop off some discount coupons for the front deskers to give out to arriving guests? It's only because I'm such a 'net nerd that I discovered the ill-fated Park Place's awesome Happy Hour deal. Heck, if Park Place had put a little ad in every Res-Inn welcome packet saying: "Hey, we're a high end eating establishment, but you can enjoy fine cocktails and appetizers at half price EVERY DAY and eat and drink like a classy person for the same price you'd pay at TGIFridays" they might have lasted a bit longer. Likewise, it's only through active interweb hunting that I've found out about the daily deals at the BBC Taproom and Artemesia. You don't even need to make it a discount coupon. Why is there no 1/4 page b&w photocopied flier on our brochure rack advertising BBC's daily specials? That's nutso!

And finally, I love me my front desk friends. They're a super sweet group of folks. I have no doubt whatsoever if you, Local Owners, scratch the front desk folks' backs a little, they'll scratch your backs A LOT. Just after Hurricane Ike, I was in a Highland coffee shop (Highland Coffee, to be exact) and a woman from one of the neighborhood Irish pubs came in and handed the baristas coupons for free beers on a particular night. I was behind her in line, so I didn't hear everything she said, but it was something along the lines of: we're thanking our neighbor businesses because we had power and were able to serve food during the dark days and our neighbors sent a lot of business our way. Aw. That's classy, folks.

There are approximately seven or eight people who work the front desk at the Res-Inn. Give them each a gift certificate for $25 at your eating establishment (you know they'll spend more than that). Give them a 25% off coupon for your store. If you're a tourist attraction, let them in free. And don't just do this once-- do it aggressively-- there's all kinds of turn over in the service industry, and you want to keep YOUR business at the front of their minds.

I'm still sick about the fact that I've seen six restaurants within walking distance of the Res-Inn go belly-up in the past three months: Primo, Market on Market, Melillo's, Jenicca's, Park Place, and Browning’s (she intones the litany of the dead). I’m trying to do my own broke-girl part by signing (and abiding by) the LEO’s Shop Local pledge. As soon as I’m finished with my work (if you can call this “work”), I’m heading over to Wild and Wooly to submit my 10 Buy Local receipts to enter their Holiday Passport contest.

But Local Owners, you gotta put yourselves out there a little more. Us Loueyvillagers don’t want to see you croak. We don’t like driving by the Spaghetti Warehouse (or whatever it’s called) and seeing it full to bursting, while 301 Bistro across the street has empty tables. It’s not that we don’t like the Warehouse—it’s yummy and cheap. We’re not unhappy that 4th Street now has a Panera Bread, as long as Panera doesn’t put Toast in jeopardy. Lou will probably end up spending her New Year’s Eve at one of 4th Street Live fine establishments. So, I’m not anti-chain. I’m just pro Local, for all the reasons one should be.

Rant over.

Lots of love,
Lou

$20 Art Show @ Mellwood Center Tonight

I remember the good ol' days when I used to buy my "art" at mall kiosks and from sidewalk vendors, when my "fancy" art was the poster that was--gasp-- nicely framed. Simpler times, my friends, simpler times.

While my taste has improved, my income... well, not appreciably. And that's why I love me some $20 Art Show goodness.

Last Downtown Trolley Hop, U of L hosted one such show in the Noir et Rouge Gallery at 333 E Market. I scored a gorgeous, framed oil painting by one Matthew Wallace, and I can't wait til I'm back in my house to put it on my wall. (And Matthew, honey, you hurry up and become a big and important star in the art world so I can hock that puppy on Ebay and retire early, ok?)

Tonight there's another such show at the Mellwood Art Center from 6p-9p. I learned my lesson at the U of L show; I went around an hour into the show and 75% of the stuff was sold. (Matthew, honey, I'm not saying that yours wouldn't have been my first choice anyway. It probably would have.)

Go early. Buy art. Feel festive.

BTW, as Michelle noted earlier on Consuming Louisville, there's a new-ish letter press in town, housed at the Mellwood. They were out at BBC during the Trolley Hop, giving away free coasters with Hunter S. quotes on them. Hound Dog Press will also be at the $20 art fair. All Mama wants for Christmas is funky letterpress Loueyville.com business cards from Hound Dog Press. It's only $95 for 100 cards. Sniff. I've been a good girl all year long. Please.

Maybe if she bats her long lashes at the very cute boys who own the joint, she'll get a discount. Or one of the cute boys! Either one would do!

Getting Drunky in Kentucky ... Safely

Pardon me from just patently stealing more Ville Voice headlines, but right now Lou is still dealing with treatment for breast cancer (ONE MORE CHEMO AFTER TODAY) and now the Hurricane in Kentucky that took out her kitchen and sole bathroom. It's a bit too much, you know?

Especially right now as I sit at Norton Suburban getting poison pumped into my body when I would much rather be at IF08. Very sad.


But remember when we won that sister city contest from Bushmill's Irish Whiskey? Some of that dough was meant to support safe drinking programs. Here's the latest from Rick at the Ville Voice:

If you’re having a big meal at Artemisia, and hang on for a drink, or two, or three, a city-backed program is interested in getting you home safely without risking a DUI.

Metro Government is teaming up with the Louisville Originals and CityScoot to provide a discount and encourage tipsy customers to call CityScoot. The company’s driver shows up in a collapsible two-wheeler, puts it in your trunk, and drives you home in your car.

The published rates for the service on the CityScoot website is $10 for the pick-up, then $2 per mile. The press release on the service says you can save 47 percent if you call from an Originals restaurant.

The city is pitching in $6,000, and the Originals $5,000, for the three-month trial. Only restaurants inside or near the Watterson Expressway are participating.

Expo: Memorial Day Flea Market-- Crap You Can Use

Again, it's hard to believe that I have lived here for two years and have not availed myself of the monthly flea market at the Expo Center. Usually the last weekend of the month, the Kentucky Flea Market has several big, blowout weekends: Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day.

I dragged poor Mama to a Flea Market when we were vacationing in Florida this spring, and it was a massive disaster. Stall upon stall of Crap Nobody Uses, lots of socks, Avon stalls, and used books at new book prices.

The Kentucky Flea Market, on the other hand, is wall-to-wall Crap You Can Use. Mostly. At least every fifth stall was something worth looking at, mostly because of the cheap prices and "exotic" goods. (And that's a pretty good average-- 20% good stuff to 80% poo.)

The whole first two rows were bargain groceries, the kind you find at places like Big Lots. Overstocks, discontinued stuff. I'm not above buying discount groceries and toiletries from time to time, but I question the sanity of anyone who purchases discount condoms at a flea market (above). Methinks said purchasers are not all that committed to planned parenting.

I enjoyed taste-testing salsas and instant coffees. For some reason, I'm always sucked in by those booths featuring the little bags of dip mix that you add to sour cream. Why do they always taste so good? Artichoke and parmagan? Bacon and cheddar? Spinach herb? So good. What do they put in there? I only managed to keep myself from purchasing them (3 for $10) because of my upcoming need to pay better attention to what I eat. (Whatever they put in there to make them taste so good, can't possibly be good for you.)

What did suck me in, however, were the two stalls featuring vintage tv shows on DVD. Specifically, a bootlegged copy of Tales of the Gold Monkey, a favorite tv show of mine when I was a wee wee lass (it aired from 1982-1983), starring Stephen Collins as an Indiana Jones-ish pilot of a seaplane named the Goose in the 1930's South Pacific. I was more than happy to shell out $20 for the entire 22 episode run.

That show (along with Bring 'em Back Alive, which ran duing the same general time period and starred Bruce Boxleitner as Frank Buck, and was also offered at another stall) is somehow a hallmark of my childhood. So much so that when I went to the Museum of Television and Radio in NYC and was allowed to watch a tv show of my choice in their library, I opted for the pilot of Tales out of all of the shows ever featured on TV.

It's taken a lot of self-control to not skip out on this lovely, lovely day (it's 83 and sunny-- and don't worry, Lou is on her computer outside) and camp out on the couch and go all Veronica Mars on my new purchase (ie. consume it like it's a bottle of Jack Daniels and I'm... me. Kidding. Mostly.).

Other things I could have bought but restrained myself: Season One of MacGuyver for $16; Bath & Body Works products for half the retail price; a solid wood curio cabinet for $159... Other things I could have bought but was kind of grossed out by: aforementioned condoms; sugar gliders (poor things); knives up the Wazoo.

But I dropped $20 on something I couldn't get elsewhere and will get 20+ hours of solid entertainment from (and $5 on parking), and enjoyed the truly diverse crowd (more Big Hair there than I've seen in a while, though). Overall a good day.

Once you go Woolly, you never go back...

An unscrupulous co-worker recently introduced me to the ludicrously addictive canceled television series Veronica Mars.

Oh my gosh, she's so cute! She's so Nancy Drew! She's so hardcore! Kristen Bell can fake cry like nobody's business! That Logan... so dastardly, so kind of homely, but so oddly hubba hubba. Who killed Lilly? OMG, HE killed Lilly! That's good. I hated him! Keith Mars is, like, the best dad in the world. Back Up makes me want to buy a pit bull. My high school experience was just like Veronica's, but without the PI stuff, the high drama, the rich friends, the hot boyfriends, the great wardrobe, the perfect hair, the proximity to tropical beaches, and the convertible. Basically I was a misunderstood, outsider smart chick. I was blonde. My Wallace was an Italian boy who was also good at basketball. And my principal hated me. Ummm... yeah, that kind of wraps up the similarities. But still...

So, I mainlined Season One in a matter of days, but my co-worker/dealer connection ended there. Season One ends with VM opening the door to her apartment after the worst night of her life, busting a huge smile, and saying, "I was hoping it was you...." Who? Logan? Wallace? Eli? Please not icky Duncan!! Obviously, to quell my VM DTs, I had to get me a Season Two fix ASAP.

I'm a big fan of buying local, but I have to admit that even though just about everything points to me renting local when it comes to DVDs, I've always been sucked into the convenience of Ye Olde Blockbuster. And today was no different. It was pouring rain, and I knew that Blockbuster was a good zip-in/zip-out option. And so I hit the Big Blue Box renter after work to pick up my drug of choice.

But no dice! While Blockbuster had a whole wall full of Losts and Sopranos, there was not a VM to be had. So I bit the bullet and hopped in the ol' jalopy and drove over to the store that I should have gone to in the first place: Wild and Woolly Video on Bardstown Road.

This experience at W&W has clinched the deal. Inconvenience aside, everything else about W&W is so far superior to Blockbuster that I can't believe it took me this long to convert. The bitch is the lack of parking, and on a day like today it was a rather miserable walk in the rain to get there.

First of all, the collection at W&W has to rival the collections at some of the best DVD stores in the country. It's massive, expertly catalogued, and wildly diverse. It never crossed my mind that they wouldn't have my VM; I was only worried that it might be checked out.

Recently, I've once again become a big fan of TV. And watching TV on DVD is the way to go. The second, and probably biggest, selling point for W&W is that, unlike Blockbuster who rents TV DVDs by the individual DVD, at W&W when you rent a TV DVD, you get the whole season for one price. At Blockbuster, it would have cost me around $24 to rent the 6 DVDs for Veronica Mars' Season Two. At Wild and Woolly, I got the whole shebang for a mere $4.65!

But wait! That's not all...

Wednesday night is "Ladies' Night" and all ladies get their DVDs rent one, get one free. So I got a whopping SEVEN DVDs (and the promise of a week that's going to turn my eyeballs square) for just under $5. You can't beat that with a stick, my friends.

So, open the door, Veronica. I'm just warning you, if it's Duncan you've been hoping for, I may just skip it. After all, I only spent $5.

Reliable & Cheap: I sing the house electric!

Anytime I come across a great deal, I'll be sure to tell you about it, faithful readers!

Lou just had a ton of work done on her house, the most impressive of which was work done by an electrician. Said electrician is retired from LG&E, but not someone whose name you'd get from the phone book. And because I haven't asked him for permission, I won't publish his details here, but please email me if you need some electric work done and I will send you his phone number.

Electrician wired the livingroom for a ceiling fan and installed it, moved a light fixture in the bathroom, moved a plug in the bathroom, wired the kitchen for a dishwasher, and-- most impressively-- wired my garage for full electricity. This involved tapping into my house box, digging a 50 foot trench from my house to the garage (and installing plugs both at the back of the house and in my yard), and installing plugs and ceiling lights in the actual garage. The job took him more than 10 hours, and on the day that he did the garage, he brought a helper, and the entire job cost me less than $800.

I love this man.