Ever wonder what it's like to build a giant St. Patrick's Day float? Imagine piles of lumber…a garage full of power tools…gallons and gallons of paint…and boys goofing around almost as much as they work.
Here's a look behind the scenes at float prep the other day.
Somehow, in between the horsing around, they still manage to put together a pretty great float.
Our ever-changing rotation of tropical drinks has changed again.
Dave got the new drink machine working again (borrowed from The Wheel- not exactly a tropical drink mecca), and he's been experimenting with some new recipes and moving things around.
Zombie
This cocktail isn't scary at all. It features Malibu and melon flavors, with a mix of sour and seven. We'll have to find some zombie drink toys to hang on your straws.
Wiki Waki Woo
This drink isn't new- it's been around here for awhile. (Read about where this drink came from.) But Dave hasn't been happy with the recipe so he tweaked it just a little. It's a bunch of secret fruit juices and vodka.
Pink Flamingo
Not a new drink, but it's bounced around a few homes behind the bar lately. When the drink machine broke, Dave and Pat hooked up another tap next to the Shark Attacks, and the Pink Flamingo moved in. Now that the machine works again, though, Dave decided the Pink Flamingo looks prettiest in the machine, so it moved back to it's original spot…making way for the…
Hurricane
We love hurricanes! But you knew that already. We've never offered hurricane drinks on a regular basis, but that might change. Hurricanes have now moved into the second tap location, right next to the Shark Attacks. Any bar that gives out beads with drinks needs to have hurricanes on the menu.
And of course, we still have the Bahama Mama and Shark Attack– those aren't going anywhere!
Stop by and try a new tropical drink!
We're very excited to announce that construction of our 2010 St. Patrick's Day Parade float has officially begun! It actually started last weekend, when the longer-than-usual trailer was delivered to our rented garage space, and some of the usual suspects hauled out their power tools and lumber.
This is at least our 14th or 15th year in a row to have a float in the annual parade. Our float, like the parade itself and the crowd that watches it, has grown bigger and better every year. Except maybe for 2008, the year of the Soggy Sandbarn– the torrential downpour that day kept lots of people away from the parade and made our dancers cranky.
Every float is our favorite one at that particular time, but the 2007 Showboat stands out as perhaps our largest undertaking ever (two levels of people!), and the 2003 Love Shack was a crowd favorite that featured a palm tree falling off the float and nearly crashing into the judge's table. Fortunately, no small children or animals were injured.
We're officially behind schedule since Mother Nature has been particularly uncooperative this year. But as long as it's sunny and somewhat warm on the big day, we're not complaining.
The Parade is held on Wednesday, March 17, at 1 p.m. It begins at South Park and travels north on Massachusetts Street and across the bridge, and then from there it's anyone's guess. The Flamingo Club is still the destination, but due to never-ending construction in North Lawrence, we don't know what the actual route will be yet. (We're just hoping that our enormous float will be able to make the trip through North Lawrence, actually.)
Become a fan of the Lawrence St. Patrick's Day Parade on Facebook, and RSVP to the Parade.
Three guys were hanging out in the bar on Saturday night. Dave noticed they had a framed picture with them, so he struck up a conversation and asked where they were from and what brought them to Lawrence. And why they were carting around a picture in a frame. (Apparently one gentleman went to school at Syracuse. We won't talk about that.)
"What's the picture for?" Dave asked.
"Well, my mom's had this picture around for a long time, and she told me that one of these guys is my dad, but she won't tell me which one. And he's from Lawrence, so that's why we're here."
Dave thought that was kind of crazy and grabbed the picture to take a look. He busted out laughing.
"Well, that's Ken (better known as Count, to some of you long term Lawrencians), and that's one of his friends (Lenny maybe?)…so you better hope your dad's the third guy. I don't know him!" Dave told him.
Dave started telling stories about the guys in the pictures. After awhile, the customer said that it wasn't really his unknown father in the picture, but just a picture from his house that he liked. (Still not true.)
The guys stuck around the bar all night and, according to Dave, they took pictures of nearly everyone in the bar- with their framed picture. Turns out, they pilfered it from the wall of another bar in town, but we're not sure which one. Apparently they made a night out of telling tall tales to anyone who would listen.
Here's the picture:
We also found out the next day that one of the guys had so much fun, he left his (nice) jacket here. Fortunately we have a mostly honest crowd and a lost & found box, and Dave will be shipping his jacket home to California.
(Hey guys, if you read this, thanks for coming in! Thoroughly entertained by your shenanigans!)
The end of January brought the first part of the Sunflower Showdown, the multiple-times-per-year sports clash between in-state rivals KU and K-State. KU won that game in Manhattan, but just barely, and in overtime.
The rematch is tomorrow night at 7 p.m. in Allen Fieldhouse. And this time, both teams are ranked in the top 5 in both major polls. Has that ever happened before? Sports trivia buffs?
Even though we're mostly die-hard KU fans at The Sandbar (Dave played for KU, after all!), it's great to see even more basketball attention turned towards our state.
We're not much of a sports bar, but we do have a couple of TV's. And very recently we even got some compliments on those TV's from someone who clearly expected a dive like ours to have a lesser-quality viewing experience.
All TV's will be tuned to the game tomorrow night, and Dave's working on hooking up a radio connection so we can listen to the senior speeches & ceremony afterward. Assuming it's broadcast on the radio, that is.
And, FREE TACOS! That's right. If you were around for our inaugural free taco bar night a week ago, you know how good they are. We'll have the taco bar set up again tomorrow night for the game, along with our usual $2 well drink special. The lovely Hayley will be behind the bar, and she's hoping for a great turnout of spirited fans!
RSVP and see who else is going if you're on Facebook.
(Just in case you missed it before, read about Dave's experience playing basketball at K-State many years ago.)
Good things come in threes? We've had three regular Sandbar friends in the news over the past couple of weeks. Our internet guru/web host/Guinness drinking friend Frank is the latest.
Frank was interviewed by lawrence.com about the hacking techniques that are compromising people's online accounts. Frank provided some tips to help keep yourself safe online, most of which *should* be common sense to most people: pick adequately secure passwords, don't click on suspicious links, and if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Frank has hosted our website for quite some time now. We're in the middle of a massive redesign of the site, and he's using his mad Django skills to build our new design. We're excited about all the new stuff our website will be able to do- like view the webcam on your phone!
So, even though we like to call Frank our "web guy," please don't think that he's responsible in any way for the current site we have! It's a little outdated but that's not his fault.
Check out the article and read Frank's tips. You might learn something you didn't know before.
While I was loading up my popcorn basket the other day, I spied a new addition to the Sandbar shirts Wall of Fame.
This lovely woman is Janie, Sandbar art director Brother Pants' oldest sister. She vacationed in Alaska with her husband for ten days last summer and took one our shirts along! (It must not have been very cold that day.)
I love it when random pictures secretly appear on the wall! But, I hope she didn't notice her picture missing already and think that someone stole it. Speaking of…I noticed a very obvious space on the corkboard where another picture used to be. I haven't figured out which one is missing yet.
Be sure to email us your Sandbar shirt pictures and we'll add them to the wall! Or, you can bring one in and tack it on the corkboard and wait for us to discover it.
Last month we announced plans for a Sandbar-sponsored team in the upcoming Walk MS, a fundraiser for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and MS research. We're hoping to bring together fans & friends from all over the area to not only raise funds, but to walk together on April 10.
Here's an update on our progress:
Remember:
We've added prizes! We awarded our first prizes this week: a couple of iTunes gift cards. Everyone who either signed up to walk, or donated money (or both, if you like to double-dip) was entered into a random drawing. Congratulations to Jenny and Louise, this week's winners!
We'll have some more prizes coming up the week of March 7-14, which is MS Awareness Week. Be sure to sign up to walk, donate, or both before that week! Everyone who's already donated/signed up is still eligible to win.
Be a Virtual Member!
We know many of you don't live in the area, but still want to
participate. Thanks to our friend Gina for this idea: become a virtual
team member! If you don't live here, or can't make it to the Walk on
April 10, you can still sign up to walk.
A long-time friend of ours (and occasional Halloween bartender many years ago) was honored with a prestigious award at the University of Kansas!
Curtis Marsh was presented with the Citation for Leadership and Achievement in Student services, or C.L.A.S.S. Award, during last Saturday's home basketball game. The award is presented by the Board of Class Officers, a student organization, to an unclassified staff member in the Student Success division. This division at the University houses many student services like housing, admissions, and financial aid. Members of the student body submitted nominations, and a BOCO committee selected five finalists and conducted interviews.
Curtis has worked at KU for over 15 years, but since 2005 he's been the director of one of the most popular and well-known programs on campus: KU Info! We've all used that service one time or another, whether for a serious question or something silly.
We're so excited that students at KU recognized Curtis with this award. He's one of the most passionate KU fans we know, and he is the perfect person to represent not only KU Info, but the entire University.
Congratulations Curtis, all of us at The Sandbar are proud of you!
Read the University of Kansas press release for more details about Curtis, KU Info, and some awesome quotes about him.
Did that get your attention?
The Sandbar sponsored a team at the 8th annual St. Patrick's Day Pub Quiz Trivia event last night. This event has traditionally opened the St. Patrick's Day season in Lawrence, although this year some other events have actually taken place already. We've had at least one team in this event every year since it started.
Our buddy/regular/go-to web guy Frank's business also sponsored a team this year. Between us, we originally had about 12 people committed to play, but one by one they started flaking claiming headaches and school work as excuses, so we ended up with eight. Which caused us to pool our brains and collapse our two teams into one. Good thing, too.
Art director Brother Pants named our team Frank's Dirty Banana. (You can take that however you want. We did.) Our category of choice was Train Songs. Our team members skewed heavily to the old-school crying country fan base, so we figured we'd own those questions. And we did, for awhile.
Our first important missed question: some long-winded diatribe about Johnny Cash and prison and we answered too quickly with the seemingly obvious "Folsom." Uh, no. The song title might have Folsom in it, but it was actually written about San Quentin, which practically every other team in the room knew.
Perhaps our more embarrassing miss of the night involved a question about The Sandbar's muse, Jimmy Buffett. Did you know that Bono, lead singer of U2, was on Jimmy's plane with him when they were shot at by Jamaican authorities who thought the plane was smuggling drugs? Yeah, neither did we. We've all heard the story behind the song "Jamaica Mistaica," (from the Banana Wind album), but we don't even have a U2 song on the jukebox and would've never guessed who the passenger on the plane was.
Andy, the announcer, was happy to point out that The Sandbar missed a Jimmy Buffett question. We like to say that we were Scottie-Mack'd. Twice.
We redeemed ourselves somewhat by answering the final question correctly:
(image borrowed from Sandbar friend & fellow trivia player, Chris Pumpelly, who posted this on his Twitter stream.)
It wasn't enough to land us in the top three, but we managed to end up with a respectable score.
Congrats to the team from The World Company, who knocked off the consistent winners from Tabula Rasa to take first place this year!
Do you know the answer to the final question? Leave it in the comments.