Eating out

 The construction has begun and even though the old kitchen has been completely gutted, it still looks better than it did before.  My special job is keeping the dogs away from the contractors so they can get some work done, (the contractors, not the dogs). It's been 2 days of canine bonding while we've been sequestered in our bedroom. Tomorrow I've got school so I'll have to lock them downstairs out of the way.

 

Another added expense to this project is the fact that cooking at home has become a non-issue. We still have the microwave and the coffeemaker (hey, we're not complete barbarians), and the barbecue is still an option but without anyplace to do prep-work, it's futile. Our long range plan is to make up for all the dinning out by re-doubling our home cooking efforts once this project is behind us.  That goes for home brewing as well. Hopefully by the end of March, our kitchen will look like this:

Actually, this is a photo I took at the Building Museum down in D.C. last weekend.  The place is amazing as you can tell.  We also visited the National Aquarium and Chris and I stopped in to the National Portrait Gallery because I had to pee.  I did get to see a couple of original Al Hirshfield drawings there which was very inspiring.

 Kathy and Chris's daughter Kit were with us some of the time in D.C. but they spent some time at the Union Station Mall while Chris and I went out to find something to drink. We hit a very nice Irish pub as well as a place called The Billy Goat and ended up in Chinatown for dinner.  Then we picked up the girls and headed home. It capped off a nice weekend.

Anti-social

This kind of sums up the way I've been feeling lately. It's not that I don't feel like socializing, it just seems like there's never enough time to stay connected with the ones I love.  I'm hoping this will be changing this coming month because we're having a kitchen make-over and I'm taking some time off work to keep the mutts out of the contractors way. Also with luck Nak and I and whoever else would like to come will be going on another Brokeback Brewery tour in Pennsylvania. This will depend on where the kitchen is at but I have a good feeling that the job will be finished on time. The kiss of death.

Beard me

Once again, based on actual events in our lives.  I don't know if this is just a pathetic cry for help or a sample of how lame my life is. I can understand why Kathy is sick of being featured here.  Sometimes I'm not so crazy about it either.

For the record, it doesn't take long for Kathy to determine that something is amiss.  She's a sharp one, that girl is.

Keg stand

week 8

Spring and snow are both in the air around here. Puts me in the mood to brew.

I'm not lovin' it

I try to stay away from eating at McDonald's (Hardees is my guilty pleasure), but I will stop at the golden arches if I have a coupon.  They recently did a coupon mailing to our neighborhood and since I was picking up my neighbors mail while he was away, I scored an extra coupon book. I've been using them sparingly the past few weeks and when I stopped in Monday to get my free 32 oz drink I bought a couple of cherry pies (2 for $1). I was wolfing them down before class and I noticed the packaging which left me confused and a little disturbed.

First off, I miss the old deep fried pies they used to have. Crispy and greasy the way desert should be, but I understand they have to present some semblance of wholesomeness if they want to stay in business.

What really threw me was the graphic on the pie wrapper. It doesn't say anything about what kind of pie it is, and I'm wondering if the "Caution I'm Hot" warning has less to do with the pie and more to do with couple groping each other.  Is it me, or does this strike anyone else as wrong?

I still have some coupons left so I'll probably go back but I think I'll stay away from the pies, at least until those two get a room.

I have a hole in my pants that goes straight to my wallet

Yesterday morning while getting dressed for work I noticed a small hole in the seat of my favorite jeans. Not really caring, I put them on and went to work. We've had a cold snap here the past couple of days and all the blowing wind made it hard to forget the little vent that was becoming progressively bigger.

After work I was meeting Kathy and some friends for dinner. I had some down time between work and hooking up for food so I killed it in our favorite discount book store. Who do you think I'd run into there but Sue and Chris, our dinner companions, who were also killing a little time.  As usual I can't get out of that book store without buying something so I picked up a couple of Jazz CDs that were priced right.

We all had a lovely meal at the Japanese steak house and no one even noticed the gaping hole in my drawers until I showed it off after desert.  It was determined that I shouldn't go on wearing these pants so I told Kathy I was going to visit my favorite thrift store Sunday to find some replacements.  She was fine with that as long as she didn't have to go.  She played right into my hands.

Value Village is the one thrift store where I can almost always find beer or cartoon t-shirts and today kept my streak going.  I found a Guinness hoodie for $4 and a couple Yuengling tees for 2  bucks each. I  also came away with 4 more CDs for $2 each.  It was turning into the perfect visit.  Oh yeah, I also bought 2 pair of jeans.

After the thrift store I talked to Kathy and we decided that I should go to Sears (where America shops) to purchase the microwave and dishwasher we needed for our kitchen overhaul.  They had a special today only that saved us 15% and putting the whole thing on our Sears charge card saved us another 5%.  Not a bad deal since we were trying to keep the remodel under budget.

This evening Kathy made lasagna and we had our bee- keeping, home-brewing, spirit-distilling neighbor Shawn over for dinner.  He's been out of town for about 6 weeks so it was good to catch up.
It turned out to be a really good weekend, considering it started with a little hole.

Dream Job

Weak 7

No, this isn't torn from a page of my recent life, but with a little luck, it could happen in the future.  I'll be waiting by the phone.

Double your pleasure, Double your fines

They caught me red handed.  Well, actually not.  They really didn't put much effort in to the catching part at all.  They just parked a camera in the newly marked work zone on my way to work, took a few pictures, sent a few letters and let the money start pouring in. Since I was just keeping up with traffic on the beltway, I can't be the only one they nabbed.  I can't believe they are using the power of photography against me, the bastards.

By nature I'm not what anyone would consider and aggressive driver. For the most part I tend to be overly cautious.  My car Stubby, a 2008 Toyota Yaris is not a speed freaks wet dream, but it does get me where I want to go, and for a fraction of what it was costing my old PT Cruiser, Elvira.

Imagine my surprise when  I got a photo speeding ticket a couple of days after Christmas.  They had me on film and the the $40 fine wasn't too bad. Plus the photo tickets don't put any points on your license. You can bet that I took note and slowed down to the posted speed limit, not just because I'm a law abiding citizen, but also because I'm cheap.

Then a week later while I was on vacation in Florida, Kathy told me I received a second citation in the mail. This one noted that my indiscretion occurred 5 days before the one I had just paid for. I guess what I learned from this experience, besides Stubby's got balls, is don't screw around when someone has a camera pointed at you. The only other positive thing that's come out of this is I have a nagging suspicion there's a cartoon or two in there somewhere.

More than Just all right

Tonight was another fine evening of entertainment, this time provided by Todd Snider at the Rams Head, not to be confused with Bob Schneider at the Rams Head.  I've been a fan of Todd for years as is my friend MJ but this is the first opportunity we've had to see him live.  This was the second night in a row that he's played the Rams Head and I was pleased to see that the people packing the house were as wildly enthusiastic as I imagine last nights crowd was.

The opening act was a female solo (mostly) act named Rosi Golan who was very good. She provided a nice, somewhat serious counterpart to the very funny and entertaining Todd Snider.  Tonight's show could be purchased via download for $7.77 so you know where I spent my money.  I can't say enough good thing about this performance but I'm guessing that you'll be able to go to the Filesanywhere site soon and find out for yourself.

It's not just another festival, Hon!

Back in June Fred and I worked the tent at Baltimore's 10th annual Hon Fest to promote the business where I work, Techlab Photo.  Now when I say we worked the tent, this was more than just carny barking.
 This is (as far as I can tell because I'm not from around these parts) a celebration of women, high hair and ugly glasses and all these people come out to see and be seen.

Here's a sample of what we saw:

It happens almost every night

Weak 6

Lucky for me I have a loving wife to comfort me.

What are you doing Super Bowl eve?

Clipped from Annapolis Magazine

Despite the somewhat nasty (though seasonable) weather last night, Chris, MJ and I went out to see yet another free Andy Poxon Band show at Bare Bones Pub. Chris and I got there plenty early to get decent seats in the dining section of the bar with a view of the stage(if you can call it that). We killed time with appetizers and playing with his iPhone.  He also tried to help me make sense of math (1 picture of beer divided by 2=?) while we waited for the band.  Andy's folks were sitting in the booth behind us so we had a few chances to see his Fro-ness up close.

MJ got there just as the show began and as always, the boys did not disappoint. We only stayed for the first set but there was a really good crowd of fans and I'm guessing most of them stayed long after we left. What we noticed while we were there was that APB's fan base seems to run on the older end of the spectrum.  Unlike a lot of shows I've attended, I was not the oldest person in the room. Maybe it's because kids Andy's age (now 17) can't get into bars (thought this was a family restaurant as well) or perhaps they just aren't into the blues.  Regardless, there was no shortage of onlookers and Andy seemed flocked to by well wishers between sets.

Here's to hoping that his fanbase will grow (not just older) as he continues practicing his craft.

If at first you don't succeed

Then you've failed.  And me, twice as much.  I took my first proctored quiz in my pre algebra class last night and I fell just short of a passing grade of 80%.  So I did a few more practice problems and I took it again and failed again, with the same grade.  Maybe it will all sink in over time (boy, I hope so) but as it stands now I'm still in the "I don't get it so much" category.