Watch HGTV tonight at 9:30

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.

Charm City Roller Girls

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.

Thanksgiving Eve Festivities

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

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.

Breaking and Entering

I just went outside to get my mail and literally had to block a stray cat (more like a kitten) from running into my house. It didn't stop at one attempt either and it wasn't being suave about trying to get around me ... it ran right into my leg and bounced back off my stoop then looked at me and trotted away.

Of course, if the cat did get in my house it would realize that I haven't turned on my heat yet and have zero insulation so my house is sitting right around the 58 - 62 degree range depending on the day (got as low as 54 a week or so ago) and would immediately try and escape.

The ground can really hurt

I have a lot to catch up on here but work has been bust this week ... well, except for yesterday afternoon but I decided it was a better idea to leave early since I worked late on Monday and Tuesday. Today I should be able to catch up on some things since I am working from home with a f'ed up back and neck. Last night I was playing beach volleyball over in Fed Hill and jumped to hit a ball while running backwards on sand ... oh how I love how stable sand is ... especially when your feet are numb because you don't have any shoes on and it's 50 degrees out. Anyway I landed on my back and my head snapped back into the ground. I think I have whiplash or something because the top of my neck realy hurts. Oh well, maybe I'll get some good updates done from this past weekend.

Underestimated

This weekend showed me that I underestimated the number of nerds in Baltimore and also overestimated my own nerdom. Dave and I ventured out into the rain (torrential downpour) over to the Baltimore convention center Saturday to go to Comic-con. I thought it would be fun to get some free stuff, see all the people dressed up and maybe get some info on new/upcoming movies. When we got there to buy tickets, we realized that whenever there is an opportunity to buy tickets online, we should do so. There were several hundred people in line just to buy admission tickets. The line went all over the lobby and outside into the rain and still wrapped around the building ... it easily would have been over an hour to just get into the event. We were not about to wait that long so we did the next best thing, went drinking and watched the Maryland Terps silence 82,000 people in orange.

My Inner Nerd Emerges

So I recently found out that Baltimore has a Comic-con convention and it's this weekend. This is the ninth annual one and this is the first I have heard of it? I knew about the Anime convention they had here, (it was hard to miss all the people dressed as cartoon characters when I was driving through the inner harbor). I think I am going to go. I don't really read comics, and was never really into anything but X-Men (and Wolverine) but I like the idea of them. I also recently read Watchmen after seeing the preview for the movie coming out next March and thought it (the "graphic novel") was awesome. I could also probably watch that movie trailer on repeat for about an hour before I got tired of it.

Football Funday

Yesterday was the first Ravens game of the regular season I went to this year. If you recall, I went to the Ravens - Vikings preseason game (for about 15 minutes) but ended up getting rid of my tickets to the Cincinnati game. Rob and I started out at Mother's in Fed Hill around 11:30 for brunch, Brian got there shortly after to meet up with us. Mother's was good and bad ... the good was the Maple leaf 'dilla I had for breakfast and all the TVs showing the 1:00 PM games while we waited for our 4:15 start ... the bad was the complete lack of drink specials. We had our 'dillas (and a couple beers) and headed over to Cross Street Market and got the more valuable $5 32 oz drafts. A couple of those and we headed back to Mother's to watch the games for a little while. Rob and I left Brian to his Eagles and made our way to lot H for some tailgating with my sister's bf and his crew. I also met up with an ex I hadn't seen in several months that was tailgating (I think that was awkward but was drunk and am not sure). Several Natty Boh's and a couple of Jager bombs later we made our way into the stadium. A bag of pistachios, half an order of nachos and another couple beers later the Ravens won and my voice was shot. Rob and I headed back to Cross Street to get picked up by his awesome fiancee. I had her drop me off at Tiburzi's so I could see some of the Dallas - Packers game but fell victim to the long day of being in the sun (nothing to do with drinking) and went home to pass out around 10:30 PM. My fantasy team is down 30 but I have two WRs going tonight, I hope Favre and Rivers have a shoot-out and Cotchery and Chambers come out the best.

Osborne Cox?

After my football game (BSSC, we lost) on Saturday I went out to Mustang Alley's bowling bar thing near Little Italy with a friend from college. This was the first time I had been there and I was impressed. The music was great (a good mix of contemporary and classic rock and hip-hop/r&b and everything else but country), the atmosphere was relaxing and the bar seemed to be full service with every alcohol and real food (not the normal pizza/hot dogs and bud products you find at most bowling alleys). They charge by the hour per lane, $35 (during the time we were there, it's more expensive later at night) which wouldn't be too bad if it wasn't just me and my friend. The benefit though is that we got 4 games in. I won the first two pretty easily, i think it was something like 155-80 and 140-70something. I wouldn't say I felt bad for her but the scores of the last two games were significantly closer and I lost both times. We left there and headed over to Landmark Theaters to see Burn After Reading.

This movie marks the first time I got theater popcorn in over 2 years. I usually pass on it since I can have popcorn at home (homestyle is the best) but since my f'ing microwave decides to burn every bag I have attempted to pop ... I haven't had any in a long time and was going through withdrawal. The movie was great, everyone in it was great, the crowd in the theater was great. Just a really good theater experience. One of the great quotes, "Chad Feldheimer: [on the phone] Osbourne Cox? I thought you might be worried...about the security...of your shit." I love the Coen brothers when they do dark comedy.

After the movie we went back to Canton to get some food at Tiburzi's. They got a new pool table upstairs and we played a few games. I am terrible at pool, absolutely terrible. I won once ... by default ... because she hit the 8-ball in on her third shot. I am really starting to feel at home at Tiburzi's, I know everyone's name, I don't need to worry about wanting to punch someone in the face as I usually feel every time I go out in the square, the beer's cheap, the crowd is relaxed. After Tiburzi's we went and played some darts at my house (I won) then played a couple songs on Rock Band. The whole day was fun and made up for the completely shitty workweek.

Dragonboat Races (Long Post)

So this will be a long post and may go off in different directions at times but it will have everything I want to say in it along with a lot of good pictures (some from my camera, some from teammates, and some from a co-worker that is a photographer on the side [I bet you will be able to tell those]).

My morning started at 4:30 AM, waking up to get my two teammates that crashed in my living room up and make sure we were ready for a third teammate to pick us up at 5 and drive us over to fed hill. We got to the captain's house in fed hill around 5:30 and started packing up the cars with stuff to decorate our tent. Once everyone got there (around 6) we all drove over to Rash Field and started unloading all our stuff. Let the set-up begin:

Once everyone got there and we checked in, we sat around, ate breakfast and waited until 8:15ish for our seeding race. This was against Baltimore City Police and two other organizations. We were in the first lane that went along the end of all the boat slips on our right. We were winning the whole race until the end when we started veering to the right and headed toward the last slip and right for the corner of a large yacht (the one with Route 66 on it ... the owner moved it forward about 10 feet after our close encounter). After coming within about a foot of the boat and our right side paddlers stopping till we passed it, we crossed the finish line (white buoy) a little under 2 second behind the cops. We were seeded 8th out of 21 teams.

I don't really remember how long until our next race, but we went up against Verizon (seeded 8th) and the Mayors office (seeded 17th) in our first "real" race. This one went much better for us ... although we still lost, we posted the 3rd best time during that round. The mayor's office lost control and started going out into the harbor (hence the 3+ minute time). Since time didn't matter anymore, we moved over into the losers bracket.

Our next race was against a couple schools and we won easily. The next team was over 10 seconds behind us. Our time slipped a little to 1:50.6 but we were still happy with our performance.

We had a long break before our next race and relaxed for a while and did our chant to the Gilligan's island theme (every team had to do a chant and most were a couple minutes long, I think ours lasted about 40 seconds). Our team name/mascot was the falcons so don't ask for an explanation regarding the beaks.

Our next race was the most controversial of the day. We got our rematch against the BCPD and also had Suntrust Bank and another organization in the race. We were pretty pumped and knew we could win. The race starts and we are winning be maybe a third to a quarter boat length to Suntrust with BCPD in third. What we didn't know is a water taxi crossed through the lanes after we had already start and since we were in front we got completely turned by the taxi's wake. We start heading in the direction of the Suntrust (on our left, my side) boat and collide we are rubbing against the boat and I am yelling, "keep paddling!" while i wedge my ore between the boats to push off. Once there is room, both teams start paddling and it sounds live an ancient war with swords clashing. We end up getting back into our lane and now the BCPD team was heading toward us (we later found out they were avoiding the boat in the first lane that was also affected by the water taxi's wake). We come to a dead stop and let them pass then start right back up not letting this deter out desire to win. We catch up to them and start gaining but only manage to get to their halfway point. Suntrust ended up winning the race but the organizers reviewed it and (after 20 minutes of waiting and wanting to hunt down the water taxi) determined that the water taxi essentially ruined the race. They allowed us all to advance (BCPD declined though) as if we had won. I wish I had more pictures of this race, but I was in the boat and my picture taker had left. Notice the angle of the boat on the far left in the picture.

While loading into the boats for the next race we got some dirty looks from Suntrust because they felt we didn't deserve to advance even though (with the exception of the water taxi race) we had consistently better times than them. This was the semi-finals and the winner would move on to the finals. So we went out and did our best ... leading for most of the race (with Suntrust right with us) then we started to the left a little bit than back to the right to compensate ... at the end of the race we came in at a slight angle and had no idea if we won. They announced that they needed to review the video because it was too close to even make an unofficial call. We were still happy about how we did regardless of the outcome.

We all got off the boat and asking everyone in the crowd and anyone volunteering for the event who they thought won and no one could tell us. When they announced it, we were winners by 0.4 seconds. We made the finals ... we celebrated:

While we were getting ready for the finals, we got some of the dirtiest looks from people on the Suntrust team, except one guy who came over and congratulated us and shook our hands and all the stuff that this day was about. The race came and went and we got 4th place running our worst time of the day (with the exception of the taxi race). Maybe fatigue had finally set in after being in the 90+ degree heat for 10 hours and not having a break between our semi-final and the final race. It doesn't matter, we were happy we could help a charity and have a day of fun at the same time. Some more pictures of the day: