Rantin' from Canton

Some recent housework

2011-05-04T17:00:00.010-04:00

I've been sporadically working on my house, but obviously haven't been posting anything up here about it. Lately, I've decided I want to have my kitchen ready for use by the end of the summer. This means having the walls framed out, new electric run, new gas lines, new water lines, new drainage, new ceiling and lighting, a window replaced, a new back door, new sub floor, the random brick chimney vent in the roof removed and the roof fixed. That's a lot to do and considering I really only work on it one day a week, I don't know if I'll get all that done, but I will have most of it ready.

I started by cutting off the water to the kitchen and removing the old iron piping that ran from the water heater to the back of the house (the 2nd floor bathroom is run with PVC). In the process of getting rid of that pipe, I learned that I didn't have to cut it, it could easily be removed at any joint by simply pulling on it. I don't know how clear the picture below is, but I removed both of the connecting pipes without any tools; it's almost completely rusted inside. Makes me happy I rarely used the kitchen sink and even gave Chloe water from a Brita. I also removed all the gas lines going to the back of the basement (Stove/Dryer) and the one that was going to my non-existent furnace.

I took out the ceiling in the kitchen (no pictures of that though) except for the light. The next step was to remove the floor. I made a decision that I was going to lay an entirely new subfloor because I wasn't sure what type of flooring I wanted and this would be the easiest way to be ready for what ever is decided. This is the back wall of the kitchen before I started doing anything.

The first section I removed was a huge pain in the ass because I didn't really know the best method of cutting everything up. The floor consisted of the original 3/4" hardwoods from who knows how long ago, a linoleum type floor directly on that, another thin subfloor with another layer of linoleum and finally a third subfloor with more linoleum. If you remember back to the beginning, there was also a layer of laminate wood floors on top of this. I ended up cutting the floor into square-ish pieces and pulling them up with a wrecking bar (my new favorite tool). I was able to get a decent amount done in a short time and was happy that I could easily see the results.

The joists seem to be in good enough shape to re-use, which is good because I had no intention of replacing them. I'm going to lay a temporary floor so I don't fall through, and hopefully be ready to lay the permanent floor in a couple weeks.

My bi-annual attempt at cooking

2011-05-04T16:27:00.006-04:00

I don't cook very often ... primarily because I don't have a kitchen at the moment, but also because it takes time to prepare everything and I just don't feel like doing that too often. I do enjoy cooking, and hopefully when I do have a kitchen again, I will do so frequently.

I had to throw together a simple meal for two and asked what I should make. "Chicken and vegetables" was the response I got so I decided to go with it and try to make something flavorful out of a bland base.

I wanted to marinate the chicken, but didn't have time to put everything together and decided to go with a rub (not sure if that's what its called but I'm OK with it) and just season the outside. Basically I made a mixture of balsamic and apple cider vinegar, olive oil, a healthy dose of rosemary, basil, finely chopped (minced?) onion and a spice mixture a family friend makes called The Heat (need to find his website, this stuff is great). I coated one side of the chicken and refrigerated it overnight, then flipped the pieces and coated the other side to sit while I was at work.

The mixture of vegetables I decided to go with was from a recipe on the Epicurious app I have on my iPad and I decided to add a couple things too. It consists of yellow squash, zucchini squash, eggplant, red peppers, portabella mushrooms and vidalia onions. The squash, eggplant and mushrooms were all cut lengthwise to make it easier to grill and I tried to cut the peppers in as large and flat pieces as I could. I only used the outer portion of the onions so they would be big enough for grilling. I coated each piece with some olive oil and basil since I didn't have the other ingredients the recipe called for (mint and sun dried tomatoes) and like basil a lot.

I grilled everything on relatively low heat except for when I initially put the chicken on so the spices would sear in a little bit. It took a while but I think it turned out well and kept the chicken juicy and didn't overly crisp the vegetables. I sliced up some fresh mozzarella over the vegetables and then drizzled some balsamic dressing over it.

All things considered, I really liked this and it didn't take very long to put together. The chicken definitely had some kick to it thanks to The Heat.

Chloe, the Bee Killer

2011-05-04T16:19:00.002-04:00

Look closely at the below picture.

She was going crazy trying to catch the bee and I wanted to take a video, but didn't change my phone and ended up getting this picture instead. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Picture Catch-up Part 3, Chloe

2010-12-14T19:48:00.004-05:00

Who doesn't love pictures of the best dog in the world; Chloe.

The red, white and black huskies

Joey, Chloe and Luke

This is why a white dog at the park is a bad idea

After getting cleaned up at Hair of the Dog grooming in Canton

She likes the firetruck and the snow (at a stoplight)

Chloe talks in her sleep ...

and can keep herself busy pretty easily

Don't know why the video quality is so bad, I guess they got compressed when I e-mailed them.

Picture Catch-up Part 2, Football Games

2010-12-13T17:51:00.005-05:00

Other than the several Ravens games I go to each year, I thought I'd like to see another stadium this year and how the crowds treat me. A bunch of friends are Steelers fans so I figured I'd head there.

Justin, Marko and I tailgating

This was a pretty awesome stadium and I can't wait to go back next year

I was really impressed how few Ravens fans were there. The Steelers fans apparently don't sell up their seats for big games like a lot of fans do here in B'more.

Overall, I was treated pretty well, even after we won. It may have had to do with being surrounded by friends that were Steelers fans, or that I didn't really try to start anything, or that I'm 6-4, 260; regardless, it was a pleasant experience.

I've wanted to see Mike Vick play live because it's hard to see the whole field on TV and what affect he actually has on defensive backs. I chose the perfect game to; the 59 - 28 pummelling of the Redskins on a cold and rainy Monday night.

Let's just say that after the TD pass to Desean Jackson on the 1st play of the game, it was easy to see how scared the DBs were that he could pass like that and it allowed him to run all over the field. I was happy with the decision to go to that game, but I wish it was somewhere else; I can't stand FedEx Field and it's a nightmare to get to/leave from.

This is from the Ravens - Steelers game in baltimore last weekend. I went to both games this year and amazingly, both stadiums were pretty silent while I left. BTW, this picture is from an iPhone app called 360 Panorama, it works pretty well during the day, but figured I'd try it at the stadium and like the results (will get one at the Ravens - Saints game next week during the day to see how much better it comes out).

Picture Catch-up Part 1, Culebra Puerto Rico

2010-12-13T17:13:00.012-05:00

First, Happy Birthday Aunt Karen.

OK, these picture catch-up posts are going to be incredibly out of order but that's the nice thing about having a blog ... you can do whatever you want.

These are from the second weekend in November in Culebra, Puerto Rico. I went with a great group of people and it was the perfect escape from work and the increasingly colder weather.

The ferry ride from the mainland to Culebra take about 75 minutes and you get to see a bunch of the other islands off the coast of PR

These 2 pictures combine to be the view from our condo's balcony; too bad my phone couldn't capture how truly awesome it was

The ladies of the trip with our bus driver Willy; we had a party bus both nights and he came in with us everywhere we went

Some of the group chilling on our balcony

When there's drinking and available coconuts, the only logical conclusion is a coco-lantern

Our only meal out, at Eden, was excellent (had lobster that was great)

Kirby, Jackson and I after the meal. There's a reason for my face, but I'm not telling here

The group with Willy (my phone's lens had a smudge)

The ferry leaving Culebra

One of the streets in old San Juan; we had time before our flight and decided to take a stroll through

So yeah, still not doing much here

2010-10-05T09:11:00.003-04:00

Wow, 55 posts last year and I'm only at 7 (including this non-post) this year.

I guess this just hasn't been something I think about very much anymore or maybe I haven't really felt the urge to share any of the boring things that I've been up to lately.

It could also be because I haven't done a damn thing to my house and that was one of the main reasons I wanted to start this.

Oh well, I guess I'll think about writing something substantial here this week. Maybe talk about the awesome trip to Pittsburgh this weekend to watch the Ravens beat the Steelers or the second job I'm starting this week at a wine bar or the weddings I have this month and next or the upcoming trip to Puerto Rico or maybe ... just maybe, I'll write about how awesome my dog Chloe is. She's pretty f'ing awesome.

Blogging Fail!

2010-07-19T16:27:00.003-04:00

So that whole thing about me blogging more often is probably starting to get a little tiresome by now. My last post was in May and a lot of fun stuff has happened since then.

Unfortunately, my knee has been bothersome since May so the whole working out thing has been more of a crawl than a sprint. I am hovering around 253 so I guess 20 lbs. in 2 months without a lot of effort is decent progress. I have over 3 months to go and since I'm no longer playing volleyball 5 nights a week, my knee has been feeling a lot better.

As for what's been keeping me busy, I've been having cookouts or going to cookouts a lot more often this summer than in the past. I really enjoy having an impromptu get together and picking up some kind of meat and just grilling it with a small group of people. Without as much volleyball, my evenings have been free, but somehow I still haven't been able to do much work on the house. I think the 90-100 degree heat might be contributing, or maybe I'm just too content right now, but I'd really like to progress a little faster on that front.

I have a bunch of fun stuff coming up in the next few weeks that I'm excited about. I'm picking up my Ravens season tickets today which makes me happiest of all. I'm going to the Shinedown concert next week that I've been looking forward to for a couple months. 98 Rock is doing the bacon and beer for Ravens training camp next Friday and I'm pretty sure I'm going to that with a bunch of guys from my old job. The Man City - Inter Milan soccer friendly at Ravens stadium is the next day and there will be 12 of us at that. Can't wait to tailgate.

That's all for now, let's see when I post next.

Monday Update - Week 1

2010-05-24T16:43:00.002-04:00

Every Monday (or in the case of a holiday, Tuesday) I am going to try and post about my progress toward my goal of 220 by November and how what I am doing it working out.

I succeeded in going to the gym every [week]day last week and also met my goal of not drinking at all throughout the week. I even held out when my beach volleyball team went out after our match on Tuesday and I got the burger and beer special (Turkey burger, no cheese, only some of the roll) when I gave my beer away. Went to a party Saturday night with my bottle of water and still had fun, although I really wanted to get a late night pretzel from the square. I went shopping and bought a bunch of baby spinach and several chicken breasts for meals this week and am looking forward to cooking more.

I also been weighing myself everyday when I go to the gym. I figure doing it on the same scale at right around the same time everyday should provide a decent tracking metric for how I am doing on that front. When I started last Monday, I was 273; today I weighed in at 262. At the end of each of these Monday posts I'll put a tracker with the starting week (May 17th), the last week, and the current week.

That's really all I got, I'm going to track my lifting too, but I need to get used to that first since I have never really lifted on a regular basis and probably never correctly.

May 17th - 273
Last Week - 273
This Week - 262

Just Booked - Culebra Trip

2010-05-24T13:09:00.007-04:00

I just booked my flights for a trip to Culebra, Puerto Rico and am already excited. The trip isn't until November, but everyone wanted to get everything planned as early as possible. I'm going for a long weekend with a bunch of friends from work, including some that have been there many times before.

Culebra is a small island off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico and doesn't have very much development to take away from the natural beauty of the location. The two pictures below show the islands location relative to Puerto Rico and the lack of development via satellite view.

We are staying in a couple villas by one of the numerous beaches. There is very limited access to these beaches so for the only people around are those staying at the same "resort" as you. Below you can see how the place is surrounded by trees and water with just a small access road leading to it. I really can't wait to get there and have that kind of privacy.

Oh, and the best part? This is the view when you walk out of the villas:

I'll probably post about this periodically as I research stuff to do and buy things I'm going to take.

The Walking Dead

2010-05-20T12:01:00.007-04:00

As an IT professional that doesn't really do much IT other than work on a computer, I read a lot of blogs throughout the day. One of those being a science fiction/science current event/anything sciencey or nerd related blog called io9. It was here that I was first introduced to The Walking Dead.

AMC, creator of Mad Men and Breaking Bad, was rumored to be considering TWD as a new television series. Normally this information would just be something I would digest and move on, but the thought of a ongoing series about zombies peaked my interest. After some google-based research, I found that it was definitely happening and was based of the graphic novel series from creator and author Robert Kirkman. A little synopsis from the AMC website about the show:

"AMC has greenlit The Walking Dead as a six-episode series based on the comic book written by Robert Kirkman and published by Image Comics. The Walking Dead tells the story of life following a zombie apocalypse. It follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, traveling in search of a safe and secure home. Andrew Lincoln (Love Actually, Teachers, Strike Back) will portray the lead role of Rick Grimes while actor Jon Bernthal (The Pacific, The Ghost Writer) will portray the character Shane, who worked with Rick in the police department before the zombie disaster. Other cast includes Laurie Holden (The Shield), who plays Andrea, one of two sisters who join the survivors of the zombie plague, Steven Yeun as Glenn, an expert scavenger and Sarah Wayne Callies (Prison Break), who plays Rick's wife Lori."

Really, until I started writing this post I had no idea how soon the show would be out because once I got a hold of that first volume, I was hooked and stopped caring about the TV version.

I've always been interested in reading the source material of TV shows and movies adapted from comics and graphic novels, but never really got around to actually going to the comic book store and picking them up. When I finally did, I picked up several I had been interested in, including the first Walking Dead volume (the others were Batman: Year One and the first volume of Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-men).

When I first opened the book, I was disappointed to find it was in black and white. I guess I'm glad I didn't figure that out at the store, because I probably would have passed on it. After getting 5 or 10 pages in, I couldn't stop reading. The opening reminded me of the beginning of 28 Days Later and kind of continued along the same route of trying to piece together what happened and finding a safe place (along with your loved ones). I'm not going to go into the story now, I'll save that for when I've read more of the series (currently on Volume 7) and have gone back to re-read the beginning. I will say that I completely forgot about the black and white aspect until I picked up another one of Kirkman's books (Invincible, more on that in a later post) and the colors kinda punched me in the face.

This is a great story so far with a lot of ups and downs that keep you interested in the characters and what happens to them. Each volume takes somewhere between 45 minutes to an hour and a half depending on how much you analyze the panels so two were perfect for my trip up NYC on the Megabus. I've also be giving the to my not quite 60 year old mom after I'm done and even she loves them. Of course, it should be noted that my mom is more awesome than yours and her love of zombie apocalypse graphic novels only proves that.

That's all for now, I have volumes 8-11 sitting at home and need to read them ASAP.

Trying this again and my plan

2010-05-19T16:59:00.006-04:00

So it's been a long, long time since I've been on here, but I figured while I have it as an outlet, I may as well use it. I just checked and I haven't posted anything since the Snowpocalypse way back in January, wow.

I guess I should provide a little update:
I still have a job (which I like but need to work harder at)
I still have a dog (she's still awesome, but has been shedding her winter coat lately)
I still have a house (that needs a lot of work)

I think that about catches anyone that's interested up.

Now for where I am right now. I've started trying to work on myself since I realized I want to start looking for a serious commitment (not like right now though) and I'm not happy with myself so I don't see how I would be able to make someone else happy.

The first thing that I'm working on is my health. This is going to be super difficult since I have always been a failure at committing to things. I've never been unhealthy as far as any of the medical tests go other than my weight, but I've also haven't been able to run a mile continuously since grade school and have had so many of my joints injured from football, basketball and volleyball that I'm in some form of pain just about every day. I play volleyball 3 or 4 times a week now, football 2 times depending on the season and just signed up for softball this week. None of these activities seem to help me get in better physical shape so I've also started going to the gym (today was day 3 in a row so I haven't gotten over that hump yet).

As for eating, my plan is to diet for 8 weeks and transition into a sustainable lifestyle change (don't look for the wing night every night and cook more of my own food). I also started this 3 days ago and so far other than being a little tired (probably more to do with lack of sleep), I feel fine. I've been having 2 slimfast type shakes, a cliff bar after I work out and a reasonable dinner each day and haven't found myself feeling hungry yet. That may also have something to do with the gallon or more of water I've been consuming each day.

I'm using FitDay and iFitness (on my iPhone) to track everything. FitDay is great cause it makes pretty graphs and helps me count calories (goal is to stay under 1500 a day for those first 8 weeks than move up to 2000ish). iFitness is great cause it shows me (literally, it has videos of proper form) all the different exercises I can do and helps me plan out each day. I'm mostly doing cardio and various ab workouts, but also throwing some high rep weights in there too.

My weight on Monday, May 17 was 273; my goal is to be 220ish around November 6th since that's my sister's wedding and I'm going to Puerto Rico the week after with a bunch of friends from work.

Since I'm updating so many other things daily, I don't see why I can't fit this in too. I want to have at least 10 posts a month. Sorry, but there will be a bunch of Chloe related posts since she's an awesome dog and I'll try and write about my new time/money waster; graphic novels.

Until next time.

Chloe in the Snow

2010-01-18T20:34:00.006-05:00

Adventures of the white husky Chloe when it snows. I know it was a few weeks ago when it snowed down here, but the pictures weren't on my camera and were a pain to get.

Fun with Layouts - Kitchen

2009-12-31T10:19:00.002-05:00

Three cheers for progress ... at least of the planning variety

The cabinets I've been looking at are from Ikea and I like the Adel Medium Brown so far, but that could change. I would like to get a tall cabinet in the space between the fridge and sink cabinet but don't know if there will be doom yet until I demo and prep the kitchen and take better measurements. I already have my stove and matching overhead microwave.

Heading out from work early today to meet with a duct work guy.

Fun with Layouts - Living Room

2009-12-30T09:12:00.003-05:00

I did this in MS Word because I am limited in the programs I have available to me (it is to scale +/- an inch or two in a couple places):

I got a great deal on a front loading washer and dryer set a few weeks ago so I have those sitting in my kitchen right now and that got me thinking that it makes more sense to have them accessible on the main floor than having to hunch over in the basement every time. Also, getting them down there would most likely damage them in some way since there aren't really any openings wide enough. I thought about putting them in the kitchen, but since I already need to have that part of the room sectioned off for plumbing and possibly HVAC ducts, it wouldn't be too hard to frame out an enclosure there.

I contacted someone to come out and give me an idea of how the duct work will need to be run and what I'll need to work into my layout; I'll post an update once I get that info.

I'm working on the other rooms now and will try to put my ideas out there so I can have a record somewhere to compare against when it ends up being completely different.

This 1 post a month thing has got to stop

2009-12-29T14:20:00.005-05:00

I've been terrible with posting over the past few months but hopefully that will change. I've been doing a lot of planning for my house and been working extra hours so I can take off an extended amount of time and get a lot done in one shot. Some random stuff from the last month.

The holidays were a lot of fun and it was nice to spend time with the whole family.

We had our first big snowfall of the year; getting about 20ish inches. Chloe had a lot of fun but decided to run away when she got wind of a deer. Of course since she couldn't catch the deer, she decided the next best thing would be to find a group of dogs playing while their owners were shoveling. While posting my "lost dog" craigslist ad after searching for about an hour, I got a call from one of the people who's dog she was playing with. Only about 5 minutes away from where I turned back during my search, I was thankful she was found and went back out to get her.

The house directly behind me is being gutted and a sign on the front indicates they'll be building up, adding a third level and a rooftop deck. While cleaning their back yard, they tore down the cement wall between our property. I'm pretty sure this was mostly on my property and now there is nothing preventing people from breaking into the back of my house. I think I am going to research if I can take them to small claims for the cost of the wall, and they also broke some of my concrete yard. I'll post pictures when I take them tonight.

Lastly, I'm having trouble finding a vendor for metal stringers. Right now the company I'm planning on going with is in Canada and freight would be several hundred dollars. I may contact a contractor, but I'm planning on installing them myself and don't know how that would go over just to get the info from them.

Progress, but not on MY house

2009-12-02T15:59:00.007-05:00

I haven't really had much of a chance to work on my house because I have been installing flooring at my friend's house. She bought engineered hardwoods from Lumber Liquidators and decided on Brazilian Walnut because she liked the level of variation among the boards. The floor is around 650 square feet and the layout has some fun challenges.

When she ordered the wood I took a couple days to prep everything while waiting for it to come in. There were three types of flooring that needed to be pulled up; pergo-type, carpet, and linoleum with a thin subfloor underneath. I moved all the furniture around and with the exception of the craptastic subfloor that was stapled down every 2 inches in the kitchen, it was all pretty easy. I started rolling out the underlayment and decided to start the wood along the front of the house, since it was the longest continuous wall.

It took a lot longer than I anticipated because of a lot of unusual angles and obstructions in the floor I had to cut around (such as floor outlets and central air registers). I finished the floor and am pretty happy how it turned out and I think my friend is too. I do like the color variation a lot, but don't know how well it would go with the brick in my house.

I still have the molding left to do, but am only going to cut it and she and her dad are going to hammer it in. I enjoyed this project and hopefully it will get me back on track to work on my place (probably not), plus, I got some saws out of the deal and now have just about everything I should need for my place.

Meet my new roommate, Chloe

2009-10-14T10:06:00.007-04:00

Meet Chloe.

Chloe was lost and followed my friend's wife and their dog, Sneaker home one day. After trying to find an owner and not having any luck, I decided to take her in. Her first visit to the vet determined that she was somewhere around 6 - 9 months old and most likely a Pure White Husky (even though her eyes look blue-ish, they are really a milky white). She is right around her full size and will probably just add some weight to her frame (ending around 45-50 lbs). She's a fairly independent breed and very intelligent. Another thing I found out, she doesn't do floating stairs (the kind without risers) and had to take the elevator up to the check-out room.

She got the full work-up of shots and tests and needed to be spayed so she stayed there overnight. When I went to pick her up the doctor said she did great and was a really well behaved dog. I took her home, gave her the pain meds and let her sleep (she wanted nothing to do with her food that night).

I guess my next move is going to be getting a hamster and black tuxedo cat to round out the pack.

She loves sticking her head out the window, but isn't so much a fan of car rides in general.

I've taken her around Patterson Park once so far and we saw 4 other huskies on our walk but they all had normal coloring and were a lot fluffier than Chloe. We've also gone to the dog park in Canton a couple times and she's very reserved with the other dogs and just seems to go with the flow. Her favorite walks seem to be down along the water between the 1st Mariner Bank building and Fells Point.

I know I haven't been posting much lately, but hopefully I'll get back into a more regular schedule. My internet has been out at home for a while and I'm really not in any rush to fix it.

U2 360 Tour - Washington DC - FedEx Field - 09-29-2009

2009-10-02T14:17:00.007-04:00

I went to the U2 360 Tour concert on Tuesday night with Muse as the opening act. I'm not much of a U2 fan and was more looking forward to seeing Muse, but I've heard that the U2 concerts are an "experience" and if you get a chance to go, you should go.

I was amazed how easy it was to park and get into the stadium; even traffic on the DC beltway wasn't all that bad and we got there with plenty of time to spare. I figured that 5:30 on a Tuesday evening would be congested without the 80,000+ people trying to get to the concert. We parked and went to our seats and then others in my group took a lap around the club level (where our seats were) before Muse went on.

The place was relatively empty when the stadium lights cut out and Muse came on stage around 7:30 PM. They opened with Knights of Cydonia and tore through their set list without much of a break between songs. They brought a lot of energy but it didn't seem like a lot of people knew them and were just waiting for U2. I thought they were great and was glad I was there early enough to see the whole set. They played for about 45ish minutes.

The following picture is from a little before U2 went on after the place filled up for the most part (more people showed up and most of the seats except the top few rows of the stadium were filled):

U2 started their performance in much the same way Muse did, shutting off the light in FedEx Field, but they came on stage in a more theatric way introducing each member individually and (from our distance) just appearing on stage. The "360" aspect of the concert was pretty amazing. The video screen wrapped all the way around the stage and would transition from showing the same video to each of the 4 sides to becoming a single video that wrapped all the way around. The screen was also able to expand and take up the entire space from the top of the open area to just over U2's heads or be lowered completely in its more compressed size. It was pretty awesome just to see that, regardless of what music was being played.

Throughout the 2+ hour set (including encores), Bono made sure to bring up his political beliefs whenever there was a break. He did it in more of a "this is what's happening" way than a overly preachy delivery; which was appreciated. It actually flowed pretty well with their songs and the overall atmosphere of the event.

U2 is a pretty remarkable band. After attending this show, I'm still not going to go out and buy any of their music, and I'm still going to change the radio station whenever one of their songs comes on, but I am going to remember this as one of the best concert experiences I've had and also realize that this band is so ingrained in our culture (not what I want to use, but it kinda fits) that I was able to sing (or at least pretend to) the words to about 80% of the songs even though I have never actively played a U2 song in my life.

Oh, and don't get me started on the 150 foot tall space ship they use as their stage. It was something I would expect to see at Universal Studios in Orlando as a ride or attraction of some sort. The light show and the way the band interacted with the field crowd on the outer rings made me wish I was passionate about U2 and willing to stand down there for 4 hours so I could be right up front.

On a side note: as we were leaving the parking lot, we saw a girl get hit by a car. I drove after the guy trying to get his tag and I was stopped by one of the cops directing traffic. I told him what happened and another officer got in his car and went after. The girl was OK (at least to our knowledge) and I gave them my info in case they needed someone to testify or something. About a 1/4 mile down the road (once we got back on our way), the guy was pulled over and out of his car with a bunch of cops around him. Maybe this is the Karma I have and why I haven't had to do jury duty when all of my friends that are younger than me have; score one for civic duty.

I got nominated for something

2009-10-02T13:27:00.005-04:00

This blog and it's current pace of 2-3 posts a month were nominated for a Mobbie (Maryland's Outstanding Blogs). The Baltimore Sun sponsors them and the winners are determined by reader votes. I am currently 15th in the 'Personal' category ... out of 15. But right now there is a little arrow pointing up, which I can only assume means I am getting more votes than I was. At the same time, I also assume that 1 is more than 0 :-)

I found out about my nomination from my friend Corey's blog (well, it's Corey and Leigh's blog now) Baltimore Rowhouse; which is also nominated in the 'Neighborhood' category. You should vote for them.

Lastly, this is my 150th post. My 151st post will be about the U2 concert from Tuesday night.

And yes UL, I know I still need to e-mail you about my new job.

Watch HGTV tonight at 9:30

2009-09-11T13:02:00.002-04:00

Tonight is the night that two Baltimore house bloggers will be shown on the HGTV show, Bang for your Buck.

Corey and Leigh (congrats, btw) over at Baltimore Rowhouse

Jon and Craig over at Project Rowhouse

I've been to both of these houses (and am jealous of both) and followed their work through their blogs and can tell you this will be an interesting show to watch.

Bang for Your Buck is on HGTV at 9:30 EST.

The things under the stairs

2009-09-02T13:02:00.008-04:00

I haven't posted anything about my house in a long, long time. Well, I guess I should throw something up here about that. The below picture will show you that I have cleared out the area below my stairs and now have an open view to my basement. My eventual goal here is to have access to the basement through a hatch type thing once I change to a floating staircase and lay hardwoods (or some form of fake hardwood). I think I may have found the stairs I want, and they really aren't that expensive ... but I want to finish some of the other work before I decide to tear out my current stairs.

While clearing out the wall under the stairs, I found a treasure trove and random crap from half a century ago. Everything was just scattered around (with a lot of nasty dirt and dust) in the area under the first couple steps. Well, not everything ... some of it was actually IN the walls.

Here are some of the highlight of what I found:

There were a few more of those playing cards, I think maybe 5 in total. There were a ton of prayer cards from different funerals, but I thought the most interesting one was for a priest that spent a large portion of his time in Japan. The prayer cards were mostly in very good shape. The card with planes on them are part of a set of 144 or something, but they are pretty beat up. The metal thing in the middle is a dog license from the 1950's and will go great with the other stuff I've found in walls from the 50's when I frame them in a shadow box. Probably the most interesting thing though is a Buck Rodgers card from 1936. Like the plane cards, it's in pretty bad shape ... but it's from 1936! Who cares what kind of shape it's in, it's older than my parents.

I guess I'll leave you with a picture of my living room with most of the sub floor put down (ignore all the crap, I took the picture on a whim and didn't feel like cleaning up).

Virgin Mobile Free Fest

2009-08-31T13:45:00.009-04:00

I went to the Virgin Mobile Free Fest yesterday and had a great time. I ended up getting to Merriweather around 12 so that I could be there when other people I had tickets for showed up. As I wandered around the grounds I was impressed with the number of booths there were and the variety of sponsors that had promotional tents set up. I went to the Charm City Roller Girls booth and found out my friend was there skating around (she tried to do the half-pipe on roller skates and that ended in a predictable outcome; her pulling wood out of her fishnets).

There were also a lot of performance artists there. I ran into the below group several times so I figured after our tenth encounter I should get a picture. There was a woman on stilts towering over everyone and my favorite was a group of people dressed as garden gnomes and two people that looked like moving bushes and they would set up different scenes all over the place.

I ran into several people I knew while I was walking around, which was amazing since there were 35,000+ people there. The pitcher Magda is holding below was the best deal in the festival ... with the exception of the free tickets, of course. These pitchers were only $16 and were around 64 ounces, a pretty good deal for this kind of event.

Even though I spent a lot of time walking around and going between the different stages and different events, I still did spend a lot of time watching the bands. The first act I was was The Birthday Massacre; damn could that girl sing, and scream. It was heavier than a lot of what I listen to, but I will definitely check them out more because her voice was awesome. I went back to the side stage and caught a little of St. Vincent's act, but couldn't really get into it so I wandered around more. After a while, I went over to see Taking Back Sunday on the Main Stage. I've always liked TBS and they put on a pretty good show. My favorite line was, "There's really no pressure if we mess up because it's not like you paid anything," or something along those lines. I didn't really see anyone else until Weezer came on and their line-up was great. After their set, we made our way to the front of the lawn area before Blink came on, some people were not happy to have a 6'4" guy blocking their view of Travis' ridiculous drum skills. There were rumors going around that they may not play because of DJ AM's death, but they come on on-time and played a full set. They were awesome and they played everything I wanted to hear. Throughout the set I found myself realizing that I knew the words to almost all the songs they played. I didn't know the were so many Blink songs I knew.

All in all, it was a great time and I am glad I ended up going. The event was very well organized, there were plenty of vendors so lines weren't too long, ditto for the bathrooms. The staff all seemed happy to be there and again, there were plenty of them. The fans seemed to not get out of control like I have seen at many other festivals of this sort and with the exception of some overly drunk people, I didn't see anything that required someones intervention (cops, EMT's, staff, etc.). I hope they have this, or more fests like this, at Merriweather again next year ... I would even pay ... but not too much.

Fantasy Football

2009-08-28T08:52:00.003-04:00

My league had our draft Wednesday night and I had the 2nd overall pick. I love theses drafts because the entire time we are making fun of each other's picks or giving someone shit for taking too long. We hold our draft at a sports bar/restaurant and sometimes it gets out of hand toward the end when everyone's had several beers and we're cursing at someone at the other end of the 12-15 person table about taking our handcuff too early while the geriatric couple sitting near us looks on in horror. This year they gave us our own room and it was a good thing, as I think we were louder than usual. I especially enjoyed this year's draft because most of the people in the league are from the company I left only a month ago and it was good to see them again.

Here's my team:
1. Maurice Jones-Drew
2. Roddy White
3. Drew Brees
4. Reggie Bush
5. TJ Houshmanzadah
6. Jericho Cotchery
7. Donald Brown
8. LeSean McCoy
9. Visanthe Shiancoe
10. Donnie Avery
11. San Diego
12. Earl Bennett
13. James Davis
14. Brian Robiskie
15. Kenny Britt

I went down the high risk, high reward path from the seventh round on picking mostly rookies and pissing off the guys that picked Westbrook and Addia. Overall, I'm pretty happy with my team but will need to drop someone and get a kicker before week 1.

Charm City Roller Girls

2009-08-22T22:17:00.003-04:00

I went to my first Charm City Roller Girls event tonight at DuBurns arena and it was great. I recently found out someone I went to college with is one of the girls on the Charm City squad and made it a point to check it out. I've wanted to see what it was all about for a while but never got around to actually going to one of the events.

I was honestly surprised when I got there and the place was packed, I had no idea how popular this was and how much of a following there was. Almost every seat was taken and there were a lot of people just standing to watch. I had a friend get there before me so I kind of had a seat saved for me and made it up to the first row.

The girls I knew was awesome ... even though she kinda reminded me of Happy Gilmore at times; she kept getting sent to the penalty box. When she was the Jammer, (I had to read the rules in the program about 4 times before I had a decent understanding of what was going on) she was great and got the crowd into it when she got points. Hell, even when she fouled someone she raised her arms and got cheers like she didn't why they sent her to the bench.

My pictures aren't great, but all I had was my iPhone. The Charm City squad lost, but it was fun to watch and I am definitely going again.

Wow, two months

2009-08-18T15:26:00.003-04:00

It's been a little over two months since my last post and I am completely OK with that. Work on my house has stalled (for the most part) over the summer and I have been busy with other things. I changed jobs and am now in a comfortable position that I can see myself in for the majority of my career. I went to the beach for the first time in several years for a relaxing week of reading and finally got to play some tennis. I also got this, which I am excited to use for drilling into brick and the 100 year old wood that is as hard as brick:

That's all for now, more to come.

Lots of wood to keep me busy

2009-06-11T18:16:00.003-04:00

This will keep me busy for a while. Over 300 square feet for a new sub-floor.

More to come ...

I'm Back ... Kinda

2009-05-23T09:20:00.006-04:00

It's been a long time since my last post but don't worry, you haven't missed much. I haven't really done any work to my house and other than a few fun nights out I've been pretty boring.

I have a pretty busy Memorial Day weekend as long as I can survive past the sunburn I got from golfing yesterday ... or at least attempting to golf.

This morning I am waiting for Comcast to show up so I can get faster internet (currently have slow Verizon DSL). I'll be saving around $15 a month and get about 3x - 4x the speed ... as long as my cable internet is as fast a my neighbors. While waiting in my 4-hour window, I decided to fix something that's been bothering me and really needs to be fixed for a multitude of reasons.

When I exposed the brick in the living room, I noticed that light was coming through from my alley. Today, I decided to scrape out the remaining mortar and clean the area so I could fill it back in. Since it's a relatively small area, i just used regular mortar for the outside layer and will fill the rest in from the inside with something different.

As always, instead of writing, I'll opt for pictures:

From the outside looking in

Living room to the alley

Outside layer of mortar

Once I get the rest of the supplies and finish the inside, I'll take more pictures.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Chimney TV Walls

2009-05-06T13:43:00.006-04:00

I haven't posted anything in a while because I've been busy with friends visiting and doing other fun and exciting things that I could write about, but don't want to get back to this being just a bunch of pictures of me hanging out with friends.

The only work I've done on my house involves cleaning ... and it is definitely cleaner than it has been in a long, long time. I even had some of the aforementioned friends sleeping on the first floor. Anyways, the next thing I want to do is frame out around the chimney. This is basically what I want to do:

I used IKEA's room design freeware which limited me from showing what I actually think it will look like, but you can get the idea. The shelving will be built into the wall on both side and there will be a HVAC duct on the left side of the image closing in that section of shelves. The chimney will have a mantle on it with the flat screen hanging above. I am going to use an in-wall mounting bracket so I can wire electric to it and easily hide all the wires. I am looking at the Sanus LR1A system (below). It will bring the TV flush against the wall and also allow me to extend it out and rotate toward the "dining" area in case I am working over there and want to watch something.

If I find better freeware to use, I'll make a better mock-up of this and other areas I need to work on.

I've been interviewed

2009-04-22T13:01:00.003-04:00

After commenting on Baltimore Rowhouse's interview a while back, Danny from Urban Discoveries Living Blog asked if I would be interested in being interviewed. I jumped at the chance and even though it took me several weeks to get my answers to him, I am really happy with the results.

Head on over there and check it out. They also have lots of useful information and constant updates on what's going on in Baltimore.

Truffle Shuffle - League Champions!

2009-04-20T15:20:00.007-04:00

This isn't a catch-up post since it happened last night. My volleyball team won the championships for our division last night at the Volleyball House. Everyone played great and at one point when we lost the lead late in a match, we didn't fold and came back to win by 3 points.

We are moving up to a new division for the next session (starting next week), and I am looking forward to getting better. I feel like I've come a long way, but I still wouldn't consider myself to be good compared to the other players on my team, let alone some of the other people I see playing at VBall house.

On another note, I sprained my ankle playing basketball over Easter weekend up in CT and it still hasn't healed (to be expected). I sat out vball on Wednesday and football yesterday morning so I wouldn't aggravate it. I thought playing last night wouldn't be too bad as long as I wrapped it up right, but after playing 5 tough games, it feels worse than it did originally. Now, our BSSC team has playoffs this Wednesday and Thursday and I know it won't be feeling much better by then, but I want to play. I guess this will be a never-ending cycle since the other league starts next Sunday and Beach vball starts next Wednesday. We'll see how this plays out.

Charity Happy Hour Re-cap (Catch-Up pt.3)

2009-04-20T14:54:00.006-04:00

Last Thursday was the happy hour at Mad River to raise some money for Anna's House, my Dragonboat team's charity organization. The turn-out was pretty good and I think we raised a decent amount for them.

Lee, learning how to make a margarita:

My pops and Linda showed up (after the HH ended though):

From long range (Nick and I ran the table till everyone left for Mother's):

Everyone stayed at Mad River for a while after the happy hour ended and then headed over to Mother's until ... well ... I guess a while (the last picture in my camera from the night was taken at 11:55 PM and showed no signs of us stopping).

Sushi 101: Roll Your Own (Catch-Up pt. 2)

2009-04-20T13:54:00.011-04:00

Wednesday night after Habitat, I went to Whole Foods in Mount Washington to take a FREE class in Sushi. The class was put on by Genji's community group. We got a Sushi 101 book that has step-by-step instructions for making your own rolls, but also has sections about terminology, recipes and other how-to sections (use chopsticks). There were about a dozen people there and the guys running the class seemed to think several didn't come because of the bad weather (a girl in our group didn't make it because the weather caused too much traffic).

The class started with a simple avocado roll. We were instructed to take a piece of nori (toasted seaweed) and place it on the mat with the shiny side down. Then we took an egg-sized ball of rice and spread it over the nori, leaving about a finger width at the top:

The chef told us to take 4 of the slivers of avocado and place it length-wise on the rice, closer to the fully-covered end (I only used 2 pieces to make it easier to roll, since it was my first time):

From here, we'll have to go with text only until the finished product (this is from my head because I don't have the book they gave us handy):

Slide the nori to the end of the mat closest to you
Grab under the mat with your thumbs and just past the avocado with your fingers
Roll the mat (and nori) over the avocado, using your fingers to keep it from being pushed
Once you have it rolled, squeeze the mat lightly
Unrolled the mat and reposition the roll so the uncovered (by rice) nori is on the bottom
Wrap the mat around the roll again and use your hands to form it into a square shape
Unwrap and cut

I found some pretty good step-by-step pictures on flickr if you go through the photostream.

The class was great and would have been worth paying for. At the end, we got the free Sushi 101 book, a free mat and 4 free rolls (the we made ourselves). The 4 rolls included an avocado roll, cucumber roll, avocado and cucumber inside-out roll and a California inside-out roll. I definitely recommend this class for anyone that likes sushi.

An inside-out California Roll

Habitat for Humanity (Catch-Up pt. 1)

2009-04-20T13:35:00.007-04:00

On Wednesday last week, I got to take the day off from work and volunteer with Arundel Habitat for Humanity as part of a Earth Day corporate citizenship effort (other workers could volunteer at the Baltimore Zoo or an Environmental Festival). The weather was crappy and it rained all day, but luckily we were working inside a house that had a completed roof. We worked on a house in Brooklyn that had been completely gutted and had new joists and floors. Our job was to frame out the rooms.

Even though the day was crappy, I had a lot of fun and our group was able to accomplish a lot. By the end of the day we ran out of screws, and had to pack up a little early, but we were able to visit some of the other houses that were at different stages and see the transformation these groups are able to make.

I took a couple pictures with my phone:

Today is Catch-up Day

2009-04-20T13:34:00.002-04:00

Expect several posts from the past week over the next several hours.

Happy Hour for Charity - Mad River, Thursday, 4/16, 6-9

2009-04-14T09:16:00.004-04:00

Hey Everybody. We are hosting another happy hour to support Anna's House. Please come out and have a great time and support a great cause.

Where: Mad River - Federal Hill, Baltimore
When: Thursday, April 16th, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Why: I am on the Dragonboat team for my work and we are raising money for our charity organization, Anna's House
What: $10 cover (goes to Anna's House), $1 off specials for domestic beer, house wines and liquor (not top shelf though) and 1 free drink ticket with each paid cover, all tips also go to Anna's House and I will be "guest bartending" from 8:30 - 9:00 PM (these are what the specials were last time, they might be different)

I appreciate anyone coming out to support Anna's House.

I have light!

2009-04-06T14:29:00.002-04:00

I have more pictures from other work I did this weekend, but they are on my camera at home; this is from my phone. I am pretty happy to have this wired up the way I want it now. It will also make working on the rest of the first floor a lot easier.

Baby Steps ... What about Bob!

2009-04-01T11:15:00.006-04:00

I haven't really dedicated too much time working on the house this week, but I have been doing small one-off things that I can finish quickly and feel like I made some progress. I decided to clean the basement area at the front of the house since there were large piles consisting of plaster, mortar and other random debris from working on the front wall on the first floor (a lot of the debris feel through the holes left from the radiator piping). I don't have a picture, but the front area in the basement is now clean and I will start moving some of my stuff in storage to that area. I also covered the radiator holes so more debris doesn't fall through (see duct tape on floor).

I installed the first outlet in the living room and had to place it a little lower than planned (was going to do 14" to the bottom of the receptacle but it would fit under the window so I did 12"). I am glad I did this one first because now I will install the rest on the first floor at the same height.

I also got a chance to clean up my kitchen and have that room in a state it will remain in until after my friend's visit at the end of April. I'll probably hang some drop cloth in the doorway between the living/dining room and kitchen so the dust from any other work I do is minimal.

Not sure what I am going to do when I get home tonight (after volleyball, of course), maybe start moving all the stuff in the basement to the front so I can cut down the remaining radiator piping this weekend, or maybe just partition off the kitchen.

Also, I should be able to procure a hammer drill pretty soon and once I do that I can finish wiring the rest of the outlets in the living room and turn that breaker on.

When I named this post "Baby Steps," I didn't really think about it ... but when I went to publish it, I thought about the movie What About Bob? and had to post a picture.

A little building, a lot of destruction

2009-03-30T12:50:00.008-04:00

Look at that wonderful installation. I re-ran some of the wiring between the recessed lighting and cleaned-up the connections. I also sketched up the electrical layout for the living room and dining room and the stairwell light switch ... I would show it here but don't have a scanner and don't feel like drawing it in excel or paint or visio. The second switch in this box is going to go to the stairwell light but I need to get a 4-way switch to put at the bottom of the stairs and run the wiring to this 3-way switch. I also found out that the basement walls do not extend as far out as the living room walls and I'll need to cut into some brick in order to run the wiring for the outlet that is going to be next to the chimney; should be a great time ... anyone have a hammer drill?

After constantly tripping on the uneven flooring when coming in the front door for the past 2 weeks I decided it was necessary to pull up the rest of the floor in the living room. A short time later I am left with this hideous green laminate that has stains all over it. I thought the point of laminate was that it is stain resistant. Oh well, I'll be leaving several pairs of sandals around to ensure I never step on it barefoot.

Where to put all that flooring you ask? In a pile behind the door making it harder to take out when I eventually dispose of it, of course. I blame my friend Brian for not pointing this fact out when we were stacking it.

So, right now I have my utensils in a box, a box that is balancing on a pot, a pot that is in a pan, a pan that is on a stack of cutting boards, a stack of cutting boards that are on my microwave ... why? Cause I am a great friend that donated my main kitchen cabinet to my friend so he can make a liquor cabinet out of it.

Oh, oh, look ... more laminate ... it's so pretty, I can't contain myself.

Once I clean up the now vacated area, I am going to put my mobile island there and use that as my primary cabinetry until I determine how I want to design the kitchen.

The List that isn't finished

2009-03-24T16:17:00.001-04:00

Let's see … what order am I going to do the rest of the work on my house?

Here is my master list (in progress) … some of the stuff may seem out of order and may get re-arranged down the road, but this is how I envision it going right now:

1. Run electric to living room of house (4 outlets and 1 light switch)
2. Seal/fill the gaps and cracks in the chimney
3. Frame out the area around the chimney
4. Finish all the demolition in the open areas (not kitchen)
- a. Expose the remaining brick in the stairwell
- b. Expose the brick on the wall joining the kitchen and living room
- c. Expose the brick under the stairwell
- d. Remove the wall under the stairwell to the basement stairwell
- e. Tear up flooring
5. Have HVAC duct work installed
6. Frame out remainder of the alley wall
7. Level the ceiling in between the living room and dining room
8. Hang the living room ceiling
9. Drywall the living room around the chimney
10. Run electric to the dining room (# outlets TBD, 1 ceiling fan/light)

That’s really all I have right now. I guess I can't really call it a master list since I don't have everything planned and I am pretty much doing what I can until more money starts growing on the trees I planted out back.

My big thing is that I want to have all the demolition listed above finished by mid April so I can have it cleaned up and removed before Vanessa comes to visit at the end of the month. I also want to have the living room in a relatively finished state even if it's not being done in the typical order so I have something to look at and motivate me to do the rest.

This whole experience is a, learn as you go, do what you can, when you can type thing and I really wouldn't have it any other way … it just wouldn't be my style. Of course, if someone wanted to buy me a complete house, I wouldn't turn it down.

This Wasn't Planned

2009-03-24T09:28:00.004-04:00

Since I'm a very impulsive person and I got an e-mail this morning regarding a pre-sale for tickets to a soccer (football) game being held at Ravens Stadium in July, I bought tickets.

Chelsea vs. AC Milan - Definitely a couple of great teams to watch.

I've never been to a professional soccer match and am definitely looking forward to this.

As Promised, Step One of What Do I Do Now

2009-03-23T17:26:00.005-04:00

The first thing I am going to do now that I have the front walls framed out is run the wiring to two outlets and the lights for the living room. This will provide me with a better environment when I begin to frame out the rest of the alley wall. I already have the boxes for the outlets and light switches (I am going to make the stairwell a 4-way switch and add one next to the front door). I should be able to have this done by tomorrow night (Tuesday) and will post some pictures.

I guess I need to make a list of all the steps because posting them one at a time really doesn't seem like it will be too effective. Next step - create master list; look for that next time.

I have a Wall ... or at least the framing of one

2009-03-23T13:33:00.010-04:00

This weekend was very productive as far as moving forward with my house goes. In between endless amounts of college basketball and the BSG finale and football and volleyball, I (meaning mostly my dad with me doing whatever I could) were able to frame out the front wall and the section between the front and the chimney.

We built the small section between the front of the house and the chimney first because we didn't need to account for any windows or doorways and the floor and ceiling were pretty level. It was straightforward and didn't take very long to complete.

To make sure everything was flush against the floor, I pulled up the fake wood floors and got as much of the linoleum up as I could and scraped off the remaining residue. The original floor must have been pretty sweet, I am anxious to see what it looks like when I tear up the entire floor and get rid of all the linoleum. I am a sucker for hardwood with reddish coloring, my mom has Brazilian cherry hardwoods and they look great. For some reason I can't get this picture below to be in landscape so just turn your head sideways.

After measuring (and remeasuring) all the spacing between the walls and window and doorway, we (my dad) decided to make a Home Depot run and get two 10' studs for the top and bottom plates so we didn't need to connect shorter lengths. We also got some metal plates to attach the top plate to the joists. During our measuring, we found that the joist doesn't run parallel with the front brick and the floor is not completely level. We made sure when installing the frame that it would be plumb. This will allow me to use it as a point of reference when determining the final placement of the recessed lights. Now, for your viewing pleasure:

Oh, I forgot to mention that I had someone haul all the crap I had for $20. I replied to an ad off craigslist because they said the would take metal for free and I didn't really want to deal with transporting the 3 heavy radiators and iron piping to sell them for $50ish and then take the several bags of plaster (also heavy, and dirty) and the fake wood flooring and all that to a dump. I'll probably have them come back once I have finish doing all of the demo I plan on doing.

Now, I am going to document my next steps and hopefully set up some sort of timeline that I most definitely won't hold myself accountable to. I have to keep in mind that I am having a friend come visit for almost a week at the end of March and want my house clean for that portion of time. Tune in tomorrow (or quite possibly the next day) for the first of several installments of, "Where do we go from here?"

I also have to thank my dad for his help and his previous carpentry background. If it wasn't for him, I would not have paid as much attention to detail when ensuring the frame was plumb and level and probably would have built something unusable.

I'll be back more often, I promise

2009-03-18T14:39:00.003-04:00

Yeah, so I haven't been posting much again, I think it's cause I have been busy at work and don't have my laptop set-up at home anymore. Random fun facts, in bullet form below:

Got a lot of work done on the house in preparation for framing out the first wall this coming weekend (pictures will be provided)
Went to a wedding Saturday, had a lot of fun and danced with an 83 year-old grandma that was probably around 4'10"
Lost football again Sunday and realized no one believes I can throw the ball as far as I can cause they slow down and I overthrow them ... keep running
Reached 100 at Mahaffey's and am now a part of the ultra-exclusive hundred beer club
Only had 1 beer on St. Patrick's day (to reach 100) ... but that's 1 beer more than I had last year when I was in CT working overnight supporting an implementation in Singapore
Playing indoor soccer tonight and volleyball tomorrow
Working on my house Friday night through Saturday night ... as long as I can
Considering going out and practicing with a Rugby team ... need to see if I can get an after-work job first though

That's all I got for now.

More house work (but not much)

2009-03-06T15:51:00.006-05:00

Wednesday's volleyball match went well and we defeated the other team fairly easily. Unfortunately, the game was early and I didn't have any time to work on the house because the team goes out after for some food and drinks. Last night I made plans to go to Pho Dat Thahn in Columbia and have my first pho experience; it was really good and I am looking forward to trying different places now. The plans weren't until 8 so I decided to get some simple work done.

I figured it would be easy to cut the iron pipes in the living room that were running to the radiator in the bedroom. Well, I guess I am just a dumb ass because it took about 30 minutes to get through one pipe (I was using a hacksaw because I didn't feel like spending money on something better). Halfway through the second pipe I gave up and decided to do something else until I got a better saw. The failed pipe cutting results:

I grabbed the crowbar and decided to see how well the plaster was adhered to the front wall. To my surprise, most of the upper portion came off very easily. I didn't want to get too dirty since I was going out to dinner, so I just pulled off the pieces that were loose and decided to move to the kitchen. Front wall:

I only had about 20 minutes before I had to leave to get to Pho Dat and decided to detach the radiator in my kitchen. That was easy, but moving it proved to be a lot more difficult for just me. The feet of the radiator were set into holes in the floor, which made me have to lift it out so that I could slide it over. It got done, and I amazingly didn't get dirty in the process. Now I am looking forward to the time when I have to clean that wall (as you can see below).

I picked up a reciprocating saw and a metal blade so I hope to accomplish a lot this weekend.

Radiator #2 ain't got nothing

2009-03-03T09:31:00.006-05:00

Day two of the radiator removal project happened to take a lot less time than I planned but involved a lot of effort. The radiator in my room is shorter than the one in the living room, but it is a little longer and felt about twice as heavy, probably because I had to get it down a flight of stairs. Other than the few dents in my stairs, it wasn't really that bad ... Newman and I just tipped it down and rocked it back and forth until we reached the bottom. I am not sure what I am going to do with the extra space in my room, but now my bed frame will fit without having to worry about it getting scratched by the radiator.

Pre-removal

Post-removal

That's a lot of iron

My next step is to remove the radiator from the kitchen and then start cutting the pipes and taking those out. I'm not going to be able to do that tonight since I am going to the Terps - Wake Forest game. The next chance I'll get to work on it is Thursday because of volleyball tomorrow, but maybe if I don't go out after the match (or don't go out for too long), I'll be able to do part of it.

I am going to leave the radiator in the basement for a while because there is no way I am carrying that up the stairs. I'll take it out the back and bring it through the alley whenever I decide to take the radiators to the scrap yard.

Weekend House Progress

2009-03-01T18:06:00.012-05:00

I got a lot of work (for me) done on my house Sunday. I have all 4 recessed lighting housings up in my living room and just need to wire them; which I am planning on doing tonight. I am not going to completely hook them up yet until I frame out the front wall and I am not going to be able to do that until I expose the brick and remove the radiator piping to the second floor.

Now all I need is power going to these

As far as removing the radiators, I was able to drain them fairly easily. The water that came out was pretty nasty and had an awful odor. It took about an hour to drain all 4 and I was able to make use of the tub in the basement as a drain. After draining them I disconnected the one in the living room (since it wouldn't matter if a bunch of nasty water leaked there) as a test to see if they were actually empty. There was a little water left inside but I was able to drain that by tipping the radiater into a bucket. Not sure how heavy the radiators are, but I am going to go with 300+ pounds. I'm pretty sure the one in the basement is going to need to be taken out back and through the alley.

The faucet connection was not that great

Anyone thirsty?

There used to be a 300 pound hunk of iron here

Now I can start exposing that wall so I can frame it out

Also, I found something I can do when I am bored or only have a few minutes to work on something. I grabbed my golf club cleaning brush to clear off a chunk of plaster on the brick and decided it would be a good way to prep the brick on the wall I am going to leave exposed. It's not fast, but I can be more detailed and take extra care on the spots that have loose mortar. I bought a couple brass wire brushes so they wouldn't be too abrasive and the results turned out great.

Brick with the left-over plaster on it

More brick & plaster

Brick after cleaning it up

Scheyer Face

2009-02-27T11:19:00.004-05:00

Even though the Terps lost to Duke on Wednesday, they played well and the game was great to watch. I missed going to the game because I was busy will volleyball, but still got to watch it at JD's. I kinda wish I was there to witness the students holding up signs of Duke's guard, Jon Scheyer.

That's all, have a great Friday.

It's a Pirate's life for me

2009-02-26T12:39:00.002-05:00

Saw this on the way home from work yesterday:

Make sure you look close at the model of the car.

Getting while the getting's good?

2009-02-25T10:40:00.009-05:00

So ... by "getting back to work," I definately meant drinking and playing poker then passing out after doing nothing more than pull the light housings out of their box.

On the bright side, I have some extra money to buy the wiring.

Tonight is the first game for my "social" volleyball league. What is the definition of a social league you ask. Well, I am leaving work early today (got in early) so that I can go to Mahaffey's and enjoy wings and several rounds of beer before going to said volleyball match then going to a sponsor bar with all of the other players and teams to drink more and watch the Maryland - Duke game (that I had tickets to but am not going). This would not fly in the Sunday league I play in, but these games are for fun and the competition isn't really on the same level as the Sunday league.

Speaking of the Maryland - Duke game ... go Terps! I went to the UMD - UNC game on Saturday and it was probably one of the top 5 games I've been to (I have been to a lot of amazing Terps games ... and a lot of really bad ones). I love the hustle and I love the gold/yellow uniforms, I think they are undefeated wearing them. Since I can't post without a picture, here you go:

Getting back to Work

2009-02-24T15:30:00.008-05:00

So I got back to work on my house a little bit and now I feel like I'm motivated to work at it on a consistent basis.

I bought six of these and an going to put four of them up tonight in the front part of the living room and two of them in the back narrow half (where the stairs take up some of the room width). I need to determine how I want them to be controlled so I can run the electric and buy switches and boxes. I think I am going to put the front four on a dimmer and the back two separate since the front is going to be the TV room and I'll have my desk or small dining table in the back. I spent about two hours in bed reading up on wiring standards and I am going to draw out a plan before I do anything since I also need to incorporate the stairwell light.

I also got bored and decided to take down one of the kitchen cabinets (just for fun) since I am going to replace the entire kitchen after doing the living room. This is what I found:

I just downloaded Google's Sketch program and am trying to draw floor plans and will give you an idea of my end goal once I have it out of my head.

Biggest Loser update thing maybe

2009-02-19T11:43:00.004-05:00

So, remember when I said I was doing that biggest loser competition at my gym ... well, there are less than 2 weeks left and I haven't seen the inside of a gym since the day before I went to New York (coming up on a month ago now). I have been maintaining the weight I lost in over the last four weeks, but I don't know how since I have been doing everything people that are not in a weight loss competition do. This includes fun stuff like going to Wednesday wing night at Mahaffey's for the past 4 weeks, going out most nights of the week (gotta celebrate my friend buying a house in Canton ... right?), satisfying my chinese, chipotle, pizza, beer, nacho ... well, let's just say whatever craving I'm having gets satisfied.

The real question is ... do I even still have a chance at winning, or at least coming in the top three to get a prize? I figure I need to get to at least 10% weight lost to be in the running. After weighing in at 278, that means I would need to get to 250 pounds by next Sunday. I'm around 264 right now, so it's possible, but unlikely ... I also have to consider the fact that I don't really deserve to win, everyone else in the competition has been working out and doing all the right things and I have just been sitting around doing what I want.

We'll see how this turns out ... but I think I am going to try and at least do something healthy over the next week ... maybe.

Adventures in Carpooling

2009-02-18T08:57:00.004-05:00

Since I have been really busy doing nothing super important or nothing I really want to write about in here ... I figured I would mention that I started my second attempt at carpooling today.

One of my friends/co-workers just bought (settled on) a house a week or so ago three short blocks from me. I figured he and I could carpool to work to save some money. The last time I tried carpooling was with a co-worker that puts in lots of extra time and it just didn't work out ... especially on the days I wanted to leave early (or on-time). This time should work better though; my friend and I have fairly similar schedules and if he does end up staying late to work, I can just go to the gym (something I didn't consider during the first carpooling attempts).

The only problem is he listens to Howard Stern on Sirius Radio and it sucks ... I mean is really terrible and annoying ... that and he smells ... really bad, like pasta. Oh, and his driving is horrible and his car is ugly. Or maybe I just know he'll read this.

On another note, while helping him move in it was determined his box spring couldn't go up the stairs (he has a crappy wrap-around spiral type staircase) so we decided to put it through the second story window. Since I can't post more than a couple times without a picture ... I'll throw one up here.

From my iPhone

2009-02-13T16:18:00.002-05:00

I'm posting this from my brand new iPhone. Give me a month and maybe I'll be able to use it correctly.

Workday??

2009-02-04T14:58:00.002-05:00

Feeling Neglected?

2009-02-02T18:06:00.003-05:00

I find myself starting another post saying that it has been a while since my last post even though it hasn't really been that long. I don't really have much to say here right now except that id you haven't seen Gran Torino ... you really should go see it. It was really great and I look forward to seeing it again.

Oh, and I have to say I love Dorito's marketing firm ... last year's mouse trap commercial was great and this year they had the crystal ball that was pretty good.

Anyone watching Chuck in 3-D tonight? I don't know how I feel about it because wearing those glasses makes watching something in HD look pretty bad.

Once it warms up a bit I will get back to work on the house ... anyone know where I can sell all the metal from my radiators? Tearing that system out will be one of the first things I do so I can frame out the walls on the first floor.

Icy Roads = me not driving

2009-01-28T09:15:00.005-05:00

I usually like driving in snowy and icy conditions because it can be fun when you know what you are doing. I don't like driving in these conditions when they happen to take place during rush hour or the street you are staying on hasn't been plowed yet and is basically an uphill sheet of ice. Add in the fact that my car has a turbo that produces a lot of low-end torque that causes it to spin out a lot. I am completely content working from home and having Lost on in the background. This is 9:00 AM today:

Thank god I work for a company that allows me to work from home.

Pictures from New York

2009-01-26T10:26:00.009-05:00

In chronological order:

Dessert (S'mores) at Max Brenner in Union Square Thursday night

Friday afternoon walking along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade

Somewhere after the Promenade on the way to the Brooklyn Bridge

Starting across the Brooklyn Bridge

The East River down toward the Statue of Liberty

I kinda wish I had a nicer camera or an SLR for this one

In NYC

2009-01-24T17:22:00.002-05:00

I have been neglecting the hell out of this blog and probably will be posting sparingly over the next few weeks until I actually accomplish something noteworthy to write about.

I figured being in New York was worth writing about ... especially since I have been having a lot of fun and relaxing. I walked over the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday and would love to do that on a regular basis if I lived up here. It was right around sunset when we (my friend Vanessa from college and I) were crossing and the skyline behind the Statue of Liberty was gorgeous. I'll post some pictures tomorrow or Monday when I have the ability to upload them.

Tonight I am going to a vegan restaurant to celebrate the birthday of one of Vanessa's friends. Should be an interesting time trying to figure out what I am eating since I don't know what half the stuff on the menu is other than that it doesn't include anything from an animal. There is ice cream on the desert menu and I am kinda curious to try it since it doesn't include any milk. We'll see how this goes.

Watchmen Widget

2009-01-21T11:23:00.001-05:00

Friday Update

2009-01-16T11:39:00.004-05:00

I had my first indoor soccer game Wednesday night and realized that I have absolutely 0 ability to recover after sprinting. After the game I felt like I was going to die ... that was either from the game or from still being somewhat sick. We won the game after several controversial calls and I am looking forward to getting to a point I can play for longer periods of time because I don't think I am that bad.

Yesterday was a fun day because I felt like the bronchitis was coming back when I woke up and ended up not going to work. Throughout the day I started to feel better and figured it must have been from the cold or some kind of bronchitis after-shock ... like an earthquake. I went to the gym early to do some cardio before my personal training session. The session started with me weighing in ... 268.6 lbs. I think something must be wrong with the scale cause that would mean just about 10 pounds and I feel like I haven't been doing much. My "diet" has gone to shit and I am eating things I said I wouldn't, I am not going to the gym when I have planned because I am too tired and I still haven't gone to one of the spinning classes I really want to do. We'll see how this all turns out in the end.

After the gym I signed my team up for BSSC Volleyball. That should be fun and a lot more relaxing than our VBall House leagues.

This weekend is going to be rough. Tonight it Jenny's birthday party ... with a keg (hopefully its calorie-free beer). Tomorrow morning/afternoon is a group workout then the Aquarium and I'm sure lunch out. Tomorrow night is a party of some sort that I can't really define until after tomorrow night, but there will be lots of food and drinks and I am obligated to have a good time. Then comes the football games on Sunday ... I don't know how those will turn out. On the plus side, expect lots of pictures from this weekend.

Something tells me the first two digits of my next weigh-in will be a 2 and a 7.

Finally, Something in My House is Different

2009-01-13T15:54:00.003-05:00

I was in a weird mood yesterday and decided that I wanted to accomplish something. I didn't take a before picture so here is a description of my stairs. Originally they were covered in nasty burnt looking carpet (which there are old pictures of) ... when I tore up the carpet a while back the stairs were covered with linoleum and had metal pieces on the edge of each step. There were also a ton of tacks and staples in the stairs from the carpet.

I figured it wouldn't take long to tear up the linoleum and pull out all the staples/tacks and it would look a lot better and give me that sense of accomplishment I was looking for. This worked and now I am re-motivated to work on stuff. The next steps are to pick up my dad's belt sander Wednesday and sand off all the adhesive. I think I may sand the risers too and take off the white paint, but haven't decided on that yet.

WTF BGE

2009-01-13T14:53:00.003-05:00

I got my BGE bill yesterday and it's $216. My average bill over the summer was around $65 and my bill last month was $144. My highest bill before December was around $90 (since last March when I bought the place). How the F did my bill get that high. I keep my house below 55 degrees and have the supposedly more efficient radiator heat. The electric portion of my bill actually went down from last month ... the gas usage per day went up 50%. How is this possible, the average daily temp only went down 5 degrees. My house is less than 850 square feet. I turned my heat and my hot water heater down from last month. I rarely even hear the boiler running. Really ... What-The-Fuck!!!

So, I am thinking I am just going to shut the boiler down and hope none of my pipes freeze. I don't mind the cold and have nice blanket to wrap up in.

Phelps in Fells

2009-01-12T08:50:00.003-05:00

I went to Max's in Fells Point this weekend to watch the Ravens - Titans game and just wanted to show everyone this picture.

Apparently Phelps went to Max's a while back and didn't bring his ID. The bouncers wouldn't let him in because he didn't have it (pesky laws) and he was insistent on getting in because he is Michael Phelps (and was of legal drinking age at the time). Being that Phelps is considered (by many) a Maryland/Baltimore icon, he gets talked about a lot around here. I don't know him as a person and don't really have an opinion of him either way, but have heard from many that went to school with him (or have met him) that he is pretty full of himself. Honestly ... can you blame him? I know if I was the best swimmer in the world and hold as many records as he does ... I would probably be pretty hard to deal with. I already seem overly confident about everything I do and pretty much screw up as much as I succeed. Think how I would be if I acheived the level of international success he has. I am not defending him (maybe I am a little) and if I met him and he was an ass to me, I would be just as much of an ass right back. I am just saying that I can understand how he may be full of himself. Not every celebrity can be grounded. That's really all I got on this subject.

Progress, maybe?

2009-01-10T13:24:00.007-05:00

I went to the doctor yesterday (which I hate doing and avoid at all costs) and was told I have bronchitis and that is why I am sick and have been coughing like my lungs are trying to get out through my throat. It's really a fun time, especially when I have been working out. This is a reason for the lack of posts.

Last night I went to the Capitals game with Jenny, K and M. This was the first game I have been to since I was a kid and it was a great time. The Caps lost and there was definitely a goal they scored that wasn't called. There was also a fight where Brashear on the Caps dropped a guy from the other team in one hit. The best part of the game though was the first intermission, they brought two groups of youth hockey players out (had to be 8 -10 years old or something) and they scrimmaged for about 3 minutes and it was hilarious. The only bad part of the game was that I had a couple beers and some food I probably should have passed on.

Today the Ravens play the Titans and I will be over in Fells Point to watch it. Luckily, I worked out this morning and can't move my arms so I won't be able to drink more than a beer or two. Go Ravens!!

Oh and Uncle Lance, I am not holding out ... just waiting till the appropriate time.

Beginning of a Long Journey

2009-01-07T10:39:00.002-05:00

Monday was the start of my weight loss competition and I weighed in at a hearty 278.2 pounds. Unfortunately, I was still feeling sick (but with a different illness than last week) and couldn’t work out after. Instead, I planned on getting up super-early yesterday and going to the gym at work with one of my co-workers. 5:30 AM came and I felt terrible, I texted her that I wouldn’t be there and ended up staying in bed until 9:30ish. Got into work late and was in a haze all day.

On the plus side, even though I haven’t been able to work out yet, I started my healthy eating habits. I didn’t have any soda or beer yesterday (but I did have 2 glasses of wine with dinner) and drank (or is it drunk?) over a gallon of water throughout the day. Dinner was by far the best meal of the day and was graciously prepared for me by Jenny. We had a spinach salad with hard-boiled egg and turkey bacon mixed in, season asparagus, brown rice and a nice piece of salmon (which is lunch today). This was paired with a Riesling from Boordy Vineyards of Maryland.

Tonight I won’t be able to have a nice prepared meal because I am playing in my indoor soccer league. My only hope for the game tonight is to come out of it being able to walk since my ankle still isn’t 100%.

Also, anyone reading this should expect a lot of posts like this over the next several weeks, but don’t worry … I’ll still be doing a lot of fun things and will (hopefully) get back to working on my house so I can provide updates on that.

2009 - The Year of Firsts?

2009-01-06T14:51:00.006-05:00

Well, to be fair I can't designate the entire year already because it has only been a week and thinking about it, 2008 had a lot of firsts in it too (buying a house, starting a blog). I guess I will consider this a year for expanding my horizons and experiencing firsts on a smaller scale.

With the exception of being sick, the year so far has been great from the first minutes after midnight up to the minute I started writing this post (even during when I got a nice phone call).

I got my first taste of Baltimore's Sip & Bite 24 hour diner on Boston Street New Year's Day. I have driven by there many times and always wanted to try it. I was surprised how small it was, but loved the atmosphere and the food was pretty good to. Jenny mentioned how it reminded her of a diner from where we went to college and I definitely had to agree. The service, the open kitchen, the atmosphere and even the food was just like the Colonial (where I spent many weekend mornings trying to get over the night before).

My other first came in the form of something I have done before; ice skating. I am still considering it a first because of the venue, Patterson Park ... did you know that big white bubble complex is a skating rink?? I didn't, I thought it was indoor tennis courts. I think it has been somewhere between 8 and 10 years since I went ice skating. My group of friends used to roller blade in high school and we'd ice skate in the winter. I recall being pretty decent but all those memories were shattered when I got on the ice Saturday. The rental skates weren't sharp, the ice had bigger groves in it than the ice luge at my last party and my ankle was still trying to get over a moderate sprain from two weeks earlier. Don't get me wrong, it was fun ... and definitely a great value ($6 for entry and rental), but I think I would be better off with my own (sharpened) skates and a smoother surface. If the company remains the same, I'll definitely be back on the ice sometime in the near future.

Happy New Years and Birthday

2009-01-02T16:57:00.003-05:00

Sorry I have been MIA lately but I was sick for a few days and didn't feel like moving from the cocoon I created in my bed.

Luckily though, I was able to make it out for NYE celebrations and so far have had a great 2009. I also want to say Happy 30th Birthday to my sister.

That's really all I got for right now since I am running on fumes today because of a fun movie night. Maybe I'll put together some kind of list of resolutions or goals or something like that. I really want to find some kind of continuity with this blog since I have strayed from my original intention of focusing on my house ... but the description does say anything is fair game.

In Love ...

2008-12-28T11:33:00.003-05:00

Well ... almost.

I don't really subscribe to the doctrine of love at first sight, but the opening scene of the first episode of Californication almost took the cake. I got the 1st disc in the mail yesterday and watched the whole thing while attempting to clean my house. Very funny ... between this Weeds and Dexter, Showtime really has a pretty awesome line-up. I can't get into the Tudors and haven't seen the L Word, Brotherhood or the new show, Crash, so don't have an opinion on those. Can't wait for Blockbuster to put the next disc in the mail.

On a different note ... going to the Ravens game in a few minutes and all I hear out my window is the wind so I am sure this is going to be a fun one.

My Christmas

2008-12-26T15:23:00.004-05:00

Is it considered a tangent when you start with it?? Anyways ... here is a package I received in the mail from Hawaii (Click to make it bigger and read the bottom). Thanks Uncle Lance & Aunt Karen, it's hanging on my chimney until I have a complete house:

After the adventures of searching for lunch ... this is how the rest of my day went:

Watched program on how beer is losing market share in the alcoholic beverage industry and what brewers are doing to combat this with my Mom and sister
Watched "Prince Caspian (2nd chapter of the Narnia stories), again with Mom and sis
Aunt and Dad got home; Aunt went to nap, Dad left to let a dog out somewhere
Started cooking roast (not me), finished Caspian movie
Dad got back, started "Nightmare Before Christmas" after unsuccessfully finding something interesting to watch on TV
Opened gifts (we only do stockings and got/gave mostly giftcards so it didn't take long)
Ate dinner
Sis' BF showed up
Started playing Loaded Questions (more below)
Finished playing Loaded Questions (Dad won)
Went home (with a stop at Blockbuster)
Watched Mummy movie (third one, with Jet Li) while hanging laundry and cleaning up
Passed out

Loaded Questions is an awesome game but I have to warn against playing it with family. The basic idea of the game is that everyone writes down their answer to a question and the person whose turn it is has to attribute each answer to one of the players. There are also reversals where everyone has to write down what they think the person whose turn it is will answer. The game is great when you have a lot of creative people or are aided in creativity through some fluid means (not that I know what that means). "Why the warning," you ask? One of the questions was, "What is the most expensive item you have stolen?" ... my dad was guessing among answers like, "an office stapler" and "a binder." Shit, I am not going to answer that question honestly ... I was in college ... and a teenager growing up in boring ass Columbia ... now, I'm not saying I am (or was) a kleptomaniac at any point, but I won't deny acquiring a keg or 2 through unscrupulous means over the years or maybe some other random things like 5 gallon tubs of ice cream from the school cafeteria or one of those newspaper things on the street corner (OK, that wasn't me ... but when I showed up at DT and Snuggles' apartment ON CAMPUS and was able to get the Sunday paper in their living room ... it was pretty funny) or just something more significant than office supplies. [See, I can go on a tangent at the beginning and end of a post] Just remember, you've been warned about playing with family ... otherwise, it's an awesome game.

I'm Going to Miss You in the New Year

2008-12-26T09:49:00.006-05:00

I woke up determined yesterday morning. "Determined to do what?" you ask ... to get some form of burrito-type food for lunch. Thankfully, Columbia provides with me every possibility to get this food and my Mom happens to live in Columbia.

On my way home I headed to my favorite of the main four (Chipotle) and they had some clever sign on the door indicating how the Silent Night is overlapping into a silent day and they will be closed (Chipotle definitely has the best marketing team of the four). Next stop ... well kinda, I didn't pull into the shopping center but looked from the main road to see that Q'doba was also closed. Across the street from that shopping center housed a Baja Fresh, but I couldn't see it from the street and had to pull in. I drove by another empty building and continued on my quest. On the way to the next stop I had to drive by the Dog Pub and noticed 4 or 5 cars outside and made a note in case I was unsuccessful in my mission. The final stop was California Tortilla ... again I was faced with an empty store. Instead of heading back to Dog Pub, I parked and decided to get sushi at the place next door to Cal Tort.

After a call home to see what they wanted, I placed an order for some edamame, an eel & avocado roll, a shrimp tempura roll and a California roll. While waiting for the meal, I thought about this competition coming up and starting making a (mental) list of all the things I am going to miss when I start and about how (if I am successful) I won't be able to go back to the way it used to be. So basically ... I wrote all this just to say:

"Chipotle ... you'll be missed!"

Oh, and I got a Chipotle giftcard yesterday and am making it a goal to use it before the 5th.

On a different (and sad) note

2008-12-24T13:18:00.003-05:00

Does anyone know anything about this? I think some people from the area read this and I was shocked when I saw this headline. The woman was only 22.

Happy Holidays

2008-12-24T13:10:00.002-05:00

Since I doubt I will write anything tomorrow, I figure I should say Happy Holidays to everyone out there.

Since it is a half day at work I will be heading to Mahaffey's for 30-cent wings and a couple beers before finishing up my shopping and heading to my Mom's for dinner tonight. I think I want to bring my PS3 and the Dark Knight to her house so I can watch it in all it's high-def (and IMAX) glory on my 57 inch TV with surround sound, both of wich are too big for my house and have essentially been donated to my Mom.

Breakfast in My Pants ... Really

2008-12-23T10:25:00.010-05:00

Saturday night I went to a friend's house out in the 'burbs for a small holiday get together. Being that NFL Network sucks and made the Ravens game on Saturday night, I decided to ignore everyone until the end of the game ... or at least until Le'Ron McClain reached his 82nd yard on that last play after introducing the Cowboys' safety to the turf, face first.

After the game was over, I had some fun playing Scene It on the host's Xbox and realized that it was much better than any board game or other DVD game because it came with buzzers and everyone answered with those, instead of yelling out the answer. It was kind of like playing trivia at a bar/restaurant with those keypads. After a little Rockband we decided to do our white elephant gift exchange.

This is where the title comes into play. One girl brought a gift in the most awesome bag ever and I had to have it; no matter what was inside. I didn't care if there was a brick in it (like the gifts I prepared for other exchanges), I was going to have it. Since there were not a lot of people and most didn't seem used to this type of exchange, there was not a lot stealing going on and I ended up with it pretty easily. The contents of the "Santa Pants" included a very awesome smelling bag of coffee, some strawberry pancake mix and some strawberry syrup. I don't remember the brands, but it all seems like high quality stuff.

Everyone else got stuff too ... I am sure they were good gifts, but I was too fixated on my breakfast pants to notice. Someone did get a couple DVDs that sparked a long conversation about movies and ultimately ended with someone putting on Love Actually. I'm not exactly sure how we got to Love Actually, but there were points in the conversation that talked about the multiple interconnected storylines of Crash (with Thandie Newton and Don Cheadle not the creepy movie about people turned on by car crashes) and something about Keira Knightley. Anyways, this movie contains one of my favorite sappy scenes in movies I wouldn't admit to watching ... and yes, I watched the scene multiple times to find a decent version on youtube:

"Bad Idea" Personified

2008-12-22T15:14:00.007-05:00

Friday night I met up with my friend Shelley for some drinks at the local watering hole. We hung out for about an hour before I had to head to my friend Amy's (and her roommates') "40 Ounces of Holiday Cheer" (or something like that) party. This turned out to be the worst idea I have had in the last 6 years (in terms of drinking decisions). For those of you unfamiliar with the process ... too bad, I'm not explaining ... the pictures will give you an idea. I now have to agree with my buddy Newman's philosophy, "people should not drink malt liquor." I also will add that if one decides to ignore Newman's words of wisdom, one should not forget to eat dinner (thankfully I did have a couple pieces of Shelley's 'dilla from the bar) and have half a dozen beers at the bar before doing so.

Yes this is blurry, but so was I at that point ... it's an artistic shot conveying the perception of the subject.

The Present Unwrapped

2008-12-19T14:55:00.008-05:00

Since I am working from home, I can take pictures of the brick work and immediately post them. A little before and after:

My First Present of the Season

2008-12-18T17:21:00.002-05:00

Actually, it's not so much of a present since I will be paying for it ... but I am happy none the less. My contractor is coming by tomorrow with his brick guy to repair many of the holes in my house. I'll be sure to post pictures once it's done.

Now, off to the bar for dinner and drinks ... Yellow Dog in Canton, I wonder how it will be.

When more turns into less

2008-12-18T11:07:00.005-05:00

Is it bad that I am trying to gain or at least maintain my weight before the weight-loss competition starts on January 5th?

I have been eating what I want (getting Chipotle whenever I can since that will be missed the most), drinking soda, and having regular beer (lagers, stouts) instead of the usual light beers. I am not trying hard to gain weight, but not watching what I eat as I normally would. The problem is, I have lost weight (not much) since last week and am kinda confused. I hope this means I should be able to lose weight easily when I commit to it in a couple weeks, but I don't want to go in having already lost some. Remember ... I am competitive and want to win, even if my goals are to be healthy and get in the routine of working out.

That's all I got for right now ... I'll try and be more interesting soon, working on some house posts and thinking a lot about career options.

Weekend Review

2008-12-15T16:38:00.007-05:00

I don't have any pictures from Friday night, nor do I have the writing ability to accurately describe the events that transpired. I will say this though, the night involved all of the following for some or all of the people in my group:

Bartender's
Trivia Pursuit cards
Teachers
A vice-principal ralphing outside the bar's window
Some game involving charades
Getting carded for ordering water
Someone giving someone else's number to the bartender
Defining the term "Cranking a Squeege"

Saturday I went out with Newman looking at houses. He is in the market to buy and I wanted to see a bunch of houses in Canton that weren't mine and I couldn't afford. We looked at a total of 10 houses and he found 2 he really likes, and 1 that would be an awesome investment (short sale) but was too big for what he wanted. After looking at the houses, we grabbed some food at Nacho Mama's (love this place) then parted ways before the holiday party that night.

I got to the party a little early so I could set-up Rockband and help out if necessary. I think this year was more fun for me than last year because more people from work showed up and several from my group of friends. We played some Rockband (I sang and everyone kinda stopped talking for a minute and looked over to see if they needed to call for an ambulance) had some good food and counted the minutes till the gift exchange. I am not going to explain the format, but let's just say there was lots of stealing and plenty of strategery going on. I think I ended up with one of the best gifts because of it. I do, however, feel a little bad for whoever got my gift. I used a gift bag and wrapped a brick (since I have plenty of them lying around) in tissue, then placed two of those mini-cereal boxes on top with more tissue paper. Actually, I loaded it with tissue paper so no one would be able to see the brick. People were stealing it since it was heavy and they thought there was something good in there. There was a Starbucks giftcard, but it was under the cardboard under the brick ... thankfully the person found it before throwing the bag out. For your viewing pleasure:

Sunday was fun (other than the Ravens losing). This was the first game I went to with my dad, and his second game ever. He didn't come to the tailgate, but seemed to have a good time during the game (until the end when he had to break-up a fight while leaving). Not really much to say about the game, I can't be too upset because the Ravens had 3 chances to score a TD and couldn't ... plus, I am pretty confident in the ability of the Steelers to get 6 inches if that touchdown wasn't overturned (if you didn't see (or hear about) the game, none of that will make sense). I didn't drink much throughout the day because I had to bolt right at the end so I could make our volleyball game. We went 1 - 2 and after the game I was pretty pissed ... I hate losing.

Accountability Doesn't Mean You're Good at Math

2008-12-15T13:18:00.002-05:00

I've been told that telling others something makes you more likely to follow through with it since it creates a sense of accountability. I hope this happens to be the case for this. Even though it isn't starting till January, I joined the other day and paid my money now ... so it's fresh on my mind. I am doing a biggest loser type competition at my gym. It consists of 3 teams of 4-6 people and lasts 8 weeks. Each week you have one personal training session and one group training session, plus whatever you do on your own. It cost a lot of money, but I feel like the value to me is going to come from getting in the routine of going to the gym ... also, 16 training sessions is a lot and should prove to be very helpful. I'm usually not motivated to do something unless there is some form of competition involved, so that is also a reason I feel this will be helpful. Here are some random thoughts as to why I am doing this ... and also a wonderful photo timeline of my fabulous physique.

I am a large man. Not large like I need to buy 2 seats on an airplane, but large enough that I can still shop at J. Crew (since I am the epitome of preppy? Let's go with Old Navy), but could also find some clothes at the Big & Tall store on the corner. I'm over 6'3'' and tip the scale at a scant 275 lbs ... and I've never really lifted weights (consistently) in my life, so its not like I have any kind of athletic build. When I was in Chile this past January and my friend ordered me a drink, he directed the waiter to me and the waiter's response was, "Ah, grande hombre, si?" Classic.

While my weight is not something I am overly concerned about (who wouldn't like to lose some weight), my health is. I used to play basketball 3 to 4 nights a week (even skipping night classes if necessary) and pick-up football games on the weekend in college. I also played in every intramural sports there was (until I was suspended from intramurals my last semester). I was a smoker then (19 months since my last one) and drank almost every night, but I never felt as tired as I do now. I don't really have the ability to play that often and it isn't as convenient as it was in college, now I have to find a way to go to the gym (I do try an play everything I can, and right now that consists of volleyball and I just signed up for an indoor soccer league starting in January).

Here's that photo timeline I know you all have been waiting for ... with captions that would probably be funnier if I was writing them on a Friday or Saturday night.

Senior Prom - Spring 2001, this was the heaviest I have ever been, right around 285 and at this point in my life I had about zero strength so it was all padding.

Ireland - August 2004, this is probably the best shape I was ever in, around 215. I think this is from Kilkenny and the wall is part of some castle ruins that were on the property of the B&B we were staying at.

Florence, Italy - March 2005, My sister and I in Italy, back up to about 225 (probably more than that when I got home, but I did walk around the city for several hours each day, so maybe not).

Chile - January 2008, I don't think this picture is an accurate representation, I think the suit was sitting weird ... but I look at this whenever I need motivation to work out ... also of note is that this is the same suit I wore in the first picture because my suits from college aren't really the right size anymore. Around 275.

This is another one from Chile that I like, so I figured I'd post it.

Expect funny stories of my working out failures (but hopefully successes) and maybe I'll be able to run in the St. Paddy's Day 5K which is my goal for the end of this competition.

Happy Birthday Aunt Karen, when can I visit?

2008-12-13T08:00:00.004-05:00

Today is my godmother's birthday and since they read this from Hawaii, I figured I would send out a Happy Birthday. I hate giving cards and don't need to receive one to know someone cares, plus my memory is shit so saying I hate them gets me off the hook a little when I don't send one to someone I should (which is everyone). Also, I am trying to score some points so I can go visit someday when I get some money and someone (of the female variety) that wants to go to Hawaii and passes my godfather's strict physique requirements. Seriously, he needs to be sent a picture before I can bring a guest. Just kidding ... maybe.

A Blast from the Past

2008-12-11T22:28:00.005-05:00

I have been writing a post and going through old pictures and came across a fun one ... well, it is fun for me and I thought I'd share it.

Yup, that's me ... and this is my family

Battle of the Beltways with a side order of frigid

2008-12-10T13:17:00.005-05:00

Sunday was a fun day ... haha ... get it ... it rhymes. This should be the last of my barrage of posts for the day.

The Ravens - Redskins game was moved to 8:15 which proved to be good for hot chocolate sales but that's about it. It was cold during the tailgate and even colder during the game. I got to the lot around 4:30 and realized that I wanted to go home to my 58 degree house cause I cold walk around in shorts and still be comfortable. Here, I was wearing UA (Under Armour) pants with jeans over them, long warm socks with a second pair on top, a UA cold gear long sleeved mock turtleneck thing with a long sleeve shirt over it with a jersey over it with a hoodie of it with a ski jacket over it, and a cheap pair of gloves they sold me in the parking lot with a nice pair of gloves over them ... and a knit beanie ... with my hood up. It was cold ... and especially cold for me since my life goal is to move to Arizona and never see snow again.

The game was great (defensively). I'm very glad the Ravens got out to an early lead and were winning comfortably toward the end of the 3rd quarter so I could leave and start to feel my extremities again. I don't know how the people at the Pittsburgh game handled the 7 degree weather, but I guess they are more used to it. Ed Reed was a beast all game and in the next play from the picture below he decided to run backwards into the end zone after picking up the Portis fumble that he caused.

I like the Redskins, but I live in Baltimore and like the Ravens more. Since they are in different conferences and only play each other once every 4 years, I am OK with cheering for both. I would probably be more of a Skins fan if I grew up watching a lot of football but my grandpa was more of a Orioles fan and I went to a ton of those games (including Cal's 2131) instead. Of course I find baseball to be one of the most boring sports there is, so figure that one out.

Santa's Coming to Town

2008-12-10T13:07:00.003-05:00

Saturday began very painfully. I needed lots of water before I could head to my mom's house. From there I curled up in the passenger seat and let her drive to the hostess' house. Everything got better once we got there and we waited as all the families started showing up.

Once everyone was there I went upstairs and changed into the suit, rang some bells and waited till I heard all the parents saying, "what's that, Santa's here." I had no idea what I was doing, but luckily 90% of the kids were 2 or under and didn't know what was happening either. My favorite moments were with Sienna (11 months old), Olivia (17 months old) and my Godson (27 months old). Sienna was great because she just seemed like the happiest kid in the world at the time. She was swinging her arms and smiling and looking around; she really appearred to love being the center of attention (but who doesn't when they are a kid). Olivia on the other hand ... she wanted nothing to do with me. The moment I said I had a gift for her and her mommy started picking her up she began screaming. She was waving her arms around too, but trying to break free from her mom carrying her over to see me. Her mommy sat on my lap holding her for thier pictures, but the whole time Olivia was leaning out trying to be as far away from me as possible. My Godson was funny because he had his blanket and was clutching it for dear life the entire time. He posed for his pictures (below) holding it, held it when he gave me a high five, and held it when he got off my lap and started to walk away. As he was going I said, "Do you want your present?" Before I even finished that question the blanket was on the floor and the gift was in his hands.

Overall it was a good experience. I was happy to make the kids and their parents smile. Wearing the suit though is a different story, it was not comfortable and the beard and wig made me feel like I was in the desert. I must have smelled pretty bad after because the suit was definately not made of light fabric. Also, this is the same suit that was worn by the Santa when I was a kid ... so it is well over 20 years old. Plus, I think the tallest person wearing it was maybe 6' tall and I am over 6'3'' ... I also probably have about 70 lbs. on any of them. Oh well, got to start working on a better act for next year.

Friday Night Shenanigans

2008-12-09T09:24:00.014-05:00

Of course it takes me until Wednesday to get around to posting about Friday. I guess this can be considered a good thing since I have been busy with my job and am happy to have a job (but who wouldn't want to employ me?). A really good friend got laid off Friday and that sucks a lot, as did some people I liked but wouldn't really consider a friend.

Friday night's small holiday party was great ... well, at least the parts I remember were. It was at Boozer's house and it has been determined that she can make party food like no one else. She should have a show on the food network. I have a picture of some of it, but let's just say it was great and I won't miss one of her parties ever again.

The night involved lots of beer pong (indoors to prevent hypothermia), WoW comments toward Ish, and me finishing a whole bottle of Captain's Private Stock. The night came to a conclusion shortly after I was discovered passed out on the floor in one of the room's in the basement and everyone decided they wanted to write on me but couldn't since I was being Santa the next day. After I woke up, the volleyball people that were still there posed for a team shot with the hoodies we won from the Baltimore Beach fall league (Do I look as though I consumed an entire bottle of rum? I think so). I was told we went to the bar shortly after this picture and I ordered water (no ice) had some then told them I needed to go. When I woke up Saturday, all my clothes were nicely folded and my keys and money was organized, why can't I do that every night when I go home sober?

Holiday Parties this Weekend

2008-12-05T16:26:00.003-05:00

My friend Boozer from my volleyball team is having a holiday party tonight for the team and a bunch of friends. Several of my friends from work are coming with me and this should provide a perfect distraction from the earlier events of the day. I don't know if we are staying at her house the entire time or if we are going to venture out later on, either way it should be a great time.

As I said earlier, tomorrow is my first performance as Santa. I really don't know what to expect and don't know if I will be into it, but it will be nice to see all the excited kids. I also don't know a lot of the kids' names so I feel like I need to put together an index card and tape it to my sleeve like a quarterback does with their plays. I just hope there are some good pictures. Think it's acceptable if I drink before, it will definitely increase my commitment to acting like Santa?

Not necessarily holiday themed, but Sunday will definitely be a party. The Ravens - Redskins game is at 8:15 and I will be tailgating from 3:30ish on. I'll probably get to Fed Hill before that and watch some of the 1 o'clock games at Cross Street Market. Don't expect any posts until Monday at the earliest, but if there are any they will probably be lies and written after quite a bit of drinking.

Friday Layoffs

2008-12-05T13:09:00.003-05:00

So the cuts came today and all I can say right now is that this sucks. The atmosphere here blows and I am going to miss a bunch of people that are gone. I can't really say anything else right now but am glad I have a holiday party tonight to consume my attention

Fail is the Theme for this Half of the Week

2008-12-04T16:01:00.003-05:00

So I completely failed at getting into the office at 4 AM yesterday morning and I blame it on this Internet thing these kids today are using to send messages instantly to one another until 1 AM. I did get in sometime during the 7 AM hour though. Got a lot of what I needed to done but still have some to finish up today and tomorrow before starting on the project I was up all Sunday night working on. Today is a different story all together, I didn't get in until after 10. The only upsetting part about that was our cafeteria closes for breakfast at 9:30 and I love their breakfast foods. Oh, that and the fact my company announced layoffs ... which is awesome and really motivates me to complete all this stuff. Those affected will be told tomorrow (I think).

I also feel obliged to mention the Terps victory over Michigan last night and another year of the ACC winning the ACC - Big Ten challenge. Sorry Corey (btw, do you know a contractor for minor brick work, I haven't been able to get in touch with the guy I used for other stuff). The game wasn't pretty (at least the first half), but the Terps won and I like how aggressively they are going after the ball; the rebound differential was huge. It was also pretty cool because Shawne Merriman was there for a coat drive he sponsors annually (I guess that is a plus side of being out for the season since he would be suiting up for a game against the Raiders tonight otherwise) and Clinton Portis was sitting court side for most of the game. He probably didn't appreciate the mix of cheers and boos from the obviously mixed crowd of Ravens and Redskins fans. I also wonder if there would have been more cheers if the Skins weren't playing the Ravens this weekend, or if he didn't play for the U.

On a completely separate topic, this weekend should be fun ... I'm going to be Santa at a party for the kids in my family's huge group of friends. My godson is part of the group and really the only reason I am doing this ... that and I am the closest to Santa's physique out of the group (even though I don't think the Santa of legend was 6'4''). I'll be sure to get pictures and post them. I am doing a bunch of other fun stuff this weekend and will probably mention that stuff later tonight or sometime tomorrow.

Busy, busy work week

2008-12-02T21:08:00.004-05:00

This week has been ridiculously crazy at work and it all has to do with the fact I am the quintessential procrastinator. I have a shit-ton of work due this week and had over a week to do it but decided to wait until Sunday night to start (I started previously but didn't make much headway cause I tend to get easily distracted). I'll admit that this stuff would have taken the entire week if I worked on it during regular hours regardless of my procrastination so it is pretty impressive that I'll be able to get it done, and it will be great work ... cause that's how I roll.

I went into work on Sunday night at around 10 PM and didn't leave till 2:30 the next afternoon. This was a long time to be at work and I started to get into a zombie state of mind toward the end. I did end up writing at least 20 pages worth of workflows and procedures and other analyst crap while still having to support everything that was breaking with the applications my team supports. I proceeded to go home and pass the F out until having to go back into work at 7:30 AM today. I got a significant amount done but still have more and will be heading into the office around 4 AM tomorrow (Wednesday) ... I'll end up putting in well over 40 hours for the week by EOD (end of day) tomorrow. Luckily, everything is due tomorrow afternoon so Thursday and Friday will be normal days, even though I have to work late Friday.

Tomorrow, I won't be able to go home and sleep right after work because instead I am going to the Terps basketball game for the ACC/Big Ten challenge against Michigan. My friend from work (haven't given him a nickname yet), my dad and Betty are going. I don't have high expectations for the Terps this season but really want to get a look at freshmen Sean Mosley and Jin So Kim. Its going to be a long day ... and week. Bed time!

Loving me some Louisiana Crabs

2008-12-02T19:44:00.006-05:00

Saturday I went to my dad's girlfriend's (remember, Betty?) house for dinner (and watch the Terps fall apart). I met her brother, his partner (both from San Diego), and her mom. I liked them all and her brother was pretty funny and very outspoken. Her son Bamm was there too. While waiting for dinner and trying not to cry from the disaster that is the Terps, we (Me, Bamm, Betty's brother and his partner) played several games of Wii bowling. I have a Wii and haven't played it since my graduation party in the beginning of the summer so this was a good time and makes me think I want to start having people over to play again. After playing Wii, Bamm wanted to play Warhawk (a PS3 war game) online with me. I own this game too, but have only played it twice in my life so it was a fairly new undertaking. We play for about an hour until Betty left to go pick up dinner.

Betty got back with the crabs, but I can't remember where she got them; she lives out in the country so I wouldn't know anything around there anyway. Everyone sat down to eat while my dad and I watched the final pick-6 thrown by Turner this regular season. I haven't had crabs in a while (mainly due to lack of funding) and was pretty happy to get some this late in the year and good ones at that. Since I live very close to the water in Baltimore, I was getting crabs a lot over the summer, there are a lot of good places nearby. I assumed they were Maryland crabs but never knew for sure. These were obviously from Louisiana, they other primary source of this kind of crab. These were very good and had the right amount seasoning on them, nice and spicy. The only problem now is I want to get them again but don't want to spend the money. I know what the title says but I definitely love me some Maryland crabs more.

Thanksgiving Eve Festivities

2008-11-28T11:33:00.005-05:00

Since I did not have a Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving, I am glad I got to enjoy a great night on Thanksgiving eve. Actually, my only meal I had on actual Thanksgiving consisted of left over Chinese food from the previous Friday, at least it wasn't the Ramen I had planned on eating.

The night began with a lasagna dinner that was brought by several people and was very scrumptious. I brought Jager and Red Bull for desert. After everyone was done eating we played the easiest drinking game ever. You assign everyone a number and roll dice, when your number comes up, you drink. If there aren't enough people then all the unused numbers are social (usually the highest and lowest numbers). After a while we moved to an easier version, odd numbers are for the girls and even numbers are the guys. We had our desert (Jager, Sambuca, or Grape Vodka) and headed to the Pickled Parrot.

I don't have any exciting stories from the bar, but can say that it was a great time.

Finally getting to the Weekend

2008-11-26T15:06:00.010-05:00

This was supposed to be 50 hours of straight drunkenness that turned out to by one night of crazy drinking, a day of recovery and nerdom, followed by a day of partial drunkenness and an early night to bed.

Friday night started on track when I left work and was able to get to Slainte in Fells Point by 5. This was my first time there and I definately liked it. I always like going to an Irish Pub, but unfortunately none of the girls had an accent (but some of the guys did). Some good conversations and a few half & half's later my friends called me and I had to head home so they could pick me up with all my Rock Band and weekend stuff. We headed over to Newman and Paris' place in Fed Hill and continued drinking while playing our world tour:

After a couple hours we head to Dog Pub on Cross St. for some more drinks and to meet up with some friends. On the way there I ran into an ex that was pretty drunk heading to some other bar in Fed Hill, it's always nice to know how small the world is. Several "pairs" and some shuffleboard games later we decided to head to Ropewalk down the street. This is where things started to get interesting. There were a bunch of people dancing (they dance at Ropewalk) in the back room and certain members of our group were destined to join in. Of course we had to get the obligatory drunk picture at the bar with some drunk ass-hole giving the shocker, a guy appearing to be sleeping standing up, the contemplative drunk and the laid back guy with the mohawk beanie (and of course the hot girl in the background):

So the random group of people dancing slowly started to include people from our group. Coincidently, this happened shortly after a group of us had some Jager bombs. The following is an accurate representation of why I do not dance at bars, this could happen to you:

The usual reaction WoW gets when he tries talking to girls ... even one's he knows (OK, maybe this isn't true, but it fits the picture)

We left Ropewalk at last call and then split ways. The majority of people went home and three of us decided it was a good idea to go to the Hookah lounge on Light Street that was open till 5. They don't serve alcohol (hence being open till 5 in B'more) so we ordered some Red Bulls. I was drunk and hungry and ordered some kind awesome shrimp. I also proceeded to force both York and Paris to eat some of them because I was drunk. We got some kind of Hookah and for about 10 minutes I participated. Shorlty thereafter all I remember is being constantly told to wake up. An hour and a half later (after about an hour of solid sleep) the three of us left and headed back to Paris' place. Getting there around 4:30 was great because the walk home in the freezing cold and not drinking for a couple hours woke us up and we felt the need to do the same to everyone else crashing there that had to be up at 5:30 (which was everyone but me and Newman).

The next day I woke up to the jackhammer in my head trying to get out. I thought it was early but it happened to be around 11:30. Everyone else was gone and apparently made it into work on time, even if they weren't coherent and probably unable to pass a sobriety test (they walked to work btw). Newman and I got up and played some Resistance 2 for about an hour until the uncontrolable urge to swear off drinking came over us and figured passing back out would be the best idea. Most of the guys that had to work got home around 5 and a few of us went out to eat. When we got back everyone was pretty much a zombie and we just spent time waiting (and playing video games) for the other 2 to get home so we could go out again. Eventually, we just gave up on going out since we couldn't get in touch with them and they didn't have a key. We decided to be super-nerd and play some future version of Risk. I have never played this and didn't know the rules, but learned them during the first couple of rounds. The other 2 got home real late after working for about 17 hours (one was York who slept 0 hours after getting home from the Hookah lounge) because IBM sucks at life, and proceeded to pass out. Once 2 AM came around and we weren't done playing yet we just quit and all went to sleep.

Woke up the next day and some people went to work again and Newman and I went to the Ravens - Eagles game with several hours of drinking/tailgating before. I am done writing and now need to go out for Thanksgiving Eve festivities.

My Thanksgiving (gotta love family)

2008-11-26T11:35:00.011-05:00

OK ... so here is a quick warning ... if you are a member of my family, stop reading now (or don't hold anything I write against me). Everyone else, since I can't express myself very well in my writing ... good luck following along and prepare for a bazillion tangents.

My family had our Thanksgiving 2 Sundays ago since schedules are pretty out of the ordinary and it's difficult to get everyone together. I guess I need to provide an overview of my family structure to be able to explain everything. Let's make use of a bulleted list.

Mom and Dad split amicably 3 years ago
2 older sisters (+2 and +4 years, let's call them Lisa(+2) and Maggie(+4))
Aunt on Dad's side with 2 dogs lives nearby (Selma)
Mom's siblings (Bro w/ family, Sis w/ family) live up north (Red Sox nation)
Grandparents on Dad's side no longer with us
Grandparents on Mom's side unable to travel (I need to visit them; far north)
Dad's been dating Betty for over a year
Mom's been dating Fred for under a year
Lisa has been dating Milhouse for over a year
Maggie has been dating Nelson for over a year
Betty has 3 children, one that is still in school (we'll go with Bamm)
I don't (or at least apparently shouldn't) date [more on this in a later post]

With that background information you should now have the key to unlocking the following puzzle. That puzzle being my Thanksgiving dinner.

Family gatherings are really a bittersweet experience for me and have been since college. It's rare that everyone gets together and I really love my family so it is always something I look forward to, but at the same time we all have conflicting personalities that seem to get stronger every year. When I say our personalities conflict I don't mean on an individual level, it's just something about all of us together that brings forth the aspects of those personalities that don't blend well. I get along great with all of them when it is just a couple of us (i.e. me, Lisa and Milhouse or me, dad and Betty) but I just can't take all of them together at the same time for very long.

For example, whenever I am getting together with Maggie, I know to tell her about 30 minutes before when I actually expect to see her. She is notoriously late to everything (except work, like ever). This is fine when it's just us or a small group, but when the whole family is waiting to eat and she was supposed to be there over an hour prior, it can get a little aggravating. I can't really think of anything Lisa does that gets on my nerves except that she is really nice and tries too hard to keep everything civil ... if I want to be mad at Maggie, damn it let me express that. As for Selma, I have never really gotten along with her (except when I was really young and we went to lots of hockey games, she was the "cool Aunt") and I don't know why. She just frustrates me beyond belief, and I won't even go into the grudge I hold against her (and my dad to a certain extent) over my dog from college (maybe I will, just not today). My parents are great, they have little quirks that tend to bother me (and I let them know about these), but for the most part we have never really fought about anything significant. Everyone's significant others are also high up on my list, with one slight exception that doesn't really fit in.

Finally, onto the actual day. I love my Thanksgiving because it shows how awesome my family is. We have the dinner at my mom's house and the table is filled with 11 people (10 and the 11th came mid-way through), none of which are married. There are a total 6 different last names among us. The main thing to consider here is that only 5 of these people are my immediate family, everyone else sports a different last name. Everyone contributes some dish (Lisa's green-bean casserole is the best; I brought beer since my stove/oven was still dirty from house work) and we all have a good time. I think this was the first time most of the family met Betty's son Bamm (I met him last year on a trip to Hershey Park with Dad, Betty, Bamm, his friend, and one of my Ex's) and I felt bad since I was supposed to bring Rock Band but completely forgot. I was only there for about 4 hours (had to leave for a volleyball match) but had a great time and am already looking forward to Christmas. Now what to do tomorrow since everyone else has their own Thanksgiving plans (I was invited to be the third wheel at no less than 3 Thanksgivings but figure I can use the day to work on my house and write some of these reports for work)?

I've been busy

2008-11-26T11:26:00.002-05:00

I realize I haven't posted anything in a while and a lot of that has to do with how busy things have been both in and out of work. I meant to write about my Thanksgiving (that happened 10 days ago now), volleyball, work, this past weekend, and just all the randomness in my life.

I guess I just needed to take a break from work and this is the best way to do that right now. I don't feel bad either since I'll be working tonight, tomorrow, all day friday, and part of this weekend. Expect several new posts in the next few hours about the last few weeks. Of course, since this blog is listed reverse chronologically you are probably reading this after reading those other posts and can just stop now.

I have heat!

2008-11-20T13:36:00.006-05:00

I worked from home this morning so that I could fire up my boiler and make sure the heat started warming up the house without blowing up. I had to install the new thermostat first which was fun because my hands were cold. The temperature on the thermostat went as low as 50 but the meter was below that, so my house was somewhere in the 40's. By the time I left for work it was up a little over 50 ... hopefully when I get home tonight I will have a low 60's house.

I probably would have worked from home all day but I am going out for Sushi near work with a friend from grad school that works for one of those secret government agencies. She just got the job there a little over a month ago and I want to hear about how it's going. Then I will inevitably be playing rockband later because it is becoming an addiction. We played again yesterday after Mahaffey's wing night and realized that the drums are much easier when drunk cause of the stupid foot pedal.

Double the Pleasure, Double the Fun

2008-11-19T14:07:00.003-05:00

OK, so a couple reviews today, first the new Bond movie (no spoilers), Quantum of Solace and then onto sangria night at Gecko's, with a little Rock Band thrown in for good measure.

Newman and I went to the theater in Harbor East to see Bond and naturally when there is beer available, I got some. I like that theater because the seat are more comfortable than any other theater I have been in and there usually aren't a lot of people there. I really only have a general review as I don't want to write about the story or anything specific for people that haven't seen it. Several of my friends have said they don't like the lack of gadgets in the new movies (this and Casino Royale); I actually like that better. I like that it is a little more grounded and could potentially happen, unlike the invisible car from the one with Halle Berry. The opening was great and I really like the song, "Another Way to Die" by Jack White and Alicia Keys. [Side Note: I really liked her first CD, "Songs in A Minor" because nothing sounds sexier than a soulful woman singing over a piano] Their voices sound really good together and the visuals of the opening were pretty sweet. I thought the movie was very bi-polar. There were several scenes of intense action followed be long, slow, dramatic build-ups. While I liked the action, I thought the scenes were too jumpy ... couldn't really focus and who was doing what, just that there was action. I liked the ending too, I feel like it opens it up to a lot of options for the future. That's really all I got. Oh, and as we were leaving the halls were filled with girls and women of all ages ... apparently there was a Twilight pre-screening. They seemed pretty excited.

On my way home from dropping Newman off I got a text from Boozer and Strike Out (names given from my volleyball team, not me) about going out for drinks. Boozer had a bad day at work and she wanted to get out. I met up with them at Looney's and we decided to go to Gecko's on Fleet Street for sangria night. I had never been there before but heard about it and was looking forward to going. The sangria was really good and the price was low for how much you got. $10 a pitcher and you could get 4.5 or 5 glasses out of each. We started playing pool and ordered some guacamole. The guac wasn't anything special, but it was fresh and tasted good. After several hours, lots of pool, and maybe 5 pitchers of sangria, we headed back to my place to play some (semi) drunk Rock Band. An hour of that (our band is up to 90,000 fans) and we called it a night ... at around 12:30 I think.

Overall it was a good night but I still haven't installed my thermostat and will try not to get too distracted with Mahaffey's wing night and 3 for $4 happy hour tonight. It's really starting to get cold out and I need to get some heat in my house so the pipes don't freeze.

Oh, and if this post seems like I ran out of ADD meds and someone was waving shiny things in front of me while I was typing may be because I wrote it 5 words at a time over the course of 6 hours.

It's snowing, must not drive at reasonable speed

2008-11-18T14:21:00.005-05:00

Why is it snowing today? I still don't have the heat on in my non-insulated house and I didn't bring a coat or hoodie to work today. Good thing I am going to the early showing of Bond tonight so maybe I will have enough time when I get home to install my new thermostat since the ceiling took out the old one.

By snowing, I mean there is a slight mist of frozen white things in the air not actually falling, but more moving around like the bag that creepy kid filmed in American Beauty (you'll understand if you've seen it ... and if you haven't, you should). Even if there isn't enough snow in there air to make it to the ground, Baltimore drivers (myself not included) will decide the road isn't safe and move at the pace of the economic rebound (yeah, I couldn't think of anything).

My encounter with George Lucas (kinda)

2008-11-18T09:58:00.009-05:00

After the Terps game on Saturday night I met up with my friend Amy and headed over to Mahaffey's for a couple beers. She had her Praxis II earlier and wanted to hang out and relax and Mahaffey's is really one of the best places around me to go out on a Saturday night and not have to fight through a crowd (even more so now that it appears Tiburzi's has closed down again).

When we got there we immediately went upstairs, it's smaller but has a more relaxed atmosphere and I like the bartender up there. There was a small group, maybe a dozen people including Amy and I and many of them were bowling on the bartender's Wii. Amy and I were content sitting at the bar catching up (I haven't seen her in over a month) when this guy I have to assume was George Lucas' clone started whistling ... and not the normal whistle, he was doing the two fingers in the sides of your mouth, ear piercing, siren whistle. Now GL was literally sitting less than a yard from Amy and every time he whistled she would do a flinching cringe that made it apparent the whistles were not pleasant. Just to note, he was whistling at his wife/gf when it was her turn to bowl on the Wii. Here is the following exchange:

Me - "Excuse me, would you mind not whistling as loud, thanks?"

GL - "Sure, no problem" (GL turns away and pauses for a second and turns back)

GL (perplexed) - "Wait, you're serious, aren't you?"

Me - "Yes, I would appreciate it ... thanks"

(GL turns back, a few minutes go by without a whistle, GL turns to me and puts out his hand)

GL - (shaking hands) "Hi, I'm Jim, I come here a lot"

Me - "Good to meet you Jim. I come here often too, I've seen you around"

Jim (formally GL) - "Yeah, I was the first person to get in the 100 beer club here"

Me - "Congratulations"

(Jim turns back away, several minutes later Amy and I hear him telling his wife/gf about our exchange and how he wasn't allowed [yes, allowed] to whistle anymore)

(more time passes, Jim is packing up to go home and pays tab ... bartender comes over and tells me Jim picked up my tab)

Me - "Thanks Jim, that wasn't necessary ... you really didn't need to do that"

Jim - "It was nothing ... and next time you don't want someone whistling, go to a different bar"

Me - "I'll make a note of that, thanks again for the drinks"

(Jim leaves)

Now, I was pretty impressed with myself throughout this entire time ... first, if anyone knows me and I have a problem with someone, I am typically not the most polite person. Since I had seen Jim around Mahaffey's a lot, I thought it would be appropriate to be nice, plus I didn't think my request was unreasonable. The area upstairs was something like 15' x 30' with the bar and sofas and tables taking up a lot of it. His whistles were pretty damn loud and while I didn't care, Amy did and she wouldn't have said anything. I also didn't ask him to stop, just to lower the volume a little. For someone obviously at least in their 50's and seemingly well into their 60's, I think this guy acted like a child. I just wish I had more than 3 drinks on my tab at the time. Anyways, I like Mahaffey's and there aren't many places with the beer selection they have so I will continue to go there and maybe I'll find a reason to whistle.

Yes, I am posting a lot today and still have two more after this (but may not get to them)

2008-11-17T16:18:00.007-05:00

I am pretty sure I have lost it ... and by it I don't mean that loving feeling ... that is still fully intact. I didn't know what I was thinking today and may have just been acting under impulse, but I registered for two classes to start working on my second masters degree in January. I actually think there is a strong possibility that I blacked out and woke up to the confirmation screen and was just too lazy to go back and un-register.

Anyways, I already have my MBA ... which, in a sense was a waste of my time. I like having the credentials, but the program was fairly easy for me (studying & going to class optional) and it hasn't really benefited me at work yet (stupid crappy market and working in the financial industry). Of course, immediately after giving the financial industry shit I will tell you that my next program is for my MSF (Finance). I feel like this is a good time to get a better understanding of the financial marketplace so I will be in a prime position when the market levels off and we go through another cycle of financial prosperity (in 3-5 years maybe?). Even if that doesn't happen, at least I will be in a position to control my own finances (better than I currently am) and not worry about being lost or getting taken advantage of.

Plus, my company will reimburse me and I will have my student loan payments deferred again.

Saturday's Terps Game

2008-11-17T12:40:00.003-05:00

The Terps are 5-0 at home this year and 5-0 (going back to last year) against ranked teams yet they can still suck beyond comprehension at times. I understand why everyone rags on the ACC because somehow the Terps are in 1st (again) in the Atlantic division and have a loss to Middle Tennessee State on their record. On to the game ...

This weekend's game was another wet one with the rain starting an hour or so before game time. Other than the fact I was in shorts and a jersey and freezing cold, this made it a lot more fun. For some reason I enjoy the messy games a lot more and don't mind hanging out in the rain. I didn't go with my usual crew and this resulted in us getting there later than normal and not tailgating for as long. On the plus side, I remember a lot more of the game but I also felt the cold a lot more. As sloppy as the game was, it came down to a pretty exciting end with the Terps getting a field goal with under 3 minutes (I think) to play to put them up by 2 and then UNC throwing an interception with just over a minute (I think).