Feeling Neglected?

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.

Breakfast in My Pants ... Really

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:

Double the Pleasure, Double the Fun

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.

Friday's disappointment made better

So, I was not able to see the new Bond flick on Friday because one of the applications at work decided to break around 5:15 and I didn't get out of there until around 7 ... I was planning on going to the 6:30 or 7:00 showing downtown (about 30 minutes away) and wasn't going later than that.

Instead, I called a friend I haven't seen in a couple months and we headed to Yuki Sushi in Owings Mills. When I first started my current job a group of 4 of us used to go there at least once a week and I loved it. At lunch they have an awesome deal where you get a couple rolls and soup for $6 or something like that. Unfortunately, that deal does not carry over to the dinner menu. Friday night we started with Edamame (theirs is good because they use the sea salt, but tonight it was a little too salty) and each got a spicy tuna crunch hand roll. Gotta love a seaweed ice cream cone with raw fish replacing the ice cream. Then we got several rolls: a jaguar roll (eel and avocado, fried), a shrimp tempura roll, and some roll with blackened tuna and shitake mushrooms. My favorite is the jaguar roll. She paid for dinner and I left the tip so overall it was a great experience.

Now I am planning on seeing Bond tomorrow (Tuesday) night and will provide my thoughts of it at that point (if I actually form an opinion).

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.

Labor Day Weekend Wrap-up

My friend Vanessa came down to visit me this weekend because apparently the neighborhood she where she lives in Brooklyn is on the edge of the Caribbean section and the was a big parade/festival thing going on that gets pretty out of hand and she didn't want to be there. Saturday she spent all day shopping and lounging around while I was at the Maryland-Delaware football game. On Sunday she and I went out to brunch with my dad and his girlfriend. We went to Eggspectation in Columbia ... one of the best breakfast places there is. I had a waffle with fresh blueberries and she had their strawberry and banana crepes ... the crepes are so good my dad and gf ended up splitting an order as a dessert.

I was tired from the previous day's activities and headed back downtown to take a nap before dinner. Vanessa's bday was earlier this month so I took her to a nice dinner at Flemming's in Harbor East as a belated gift. We had the "Wicked Cajun Barbecue Shrimp" as an appetizer, they were really good but not spicy as the waitress made them out to be. We both ordered the filet mignon (she got the petite) and split a bunch of a la carte sides; a baked potato, chipotle cheddar macaroni and cheese, and grill asparagus. I had a couple glasses of wine (a Cabernet and a Cab-Merlot blend), she left her ID in NYC and isn't a big drinker anyways. She ended it with chocolate lava cake, no desert for me (not a big fan of chocolate or cakes).

Some of each of the sides and my filet

Does it look like I got some sun at the Terps game? (Keep in mind I generally have a traditional Irish (pale) complexion.

After dinner we walked across the street to the Landmark Theater and saw Pineapple Express. Good movie and a lot more violent than I expected. Reminds me of when James Franco and Seth Rogan were on Freaks & Geeks (great show, everyone should see it)

I dropped Vanessa of at the train Monday afternoon and went to my mom's in Columbia for her bday celebration (it was last Thursday). My friend and former roommate Ali came and we had a great time. Basically this was a weekend of great meals .. better than the ones I had in Vegas the previous weekend (except maybe the Wynn's buffet). My mom's bf made steamed mussels from his "secret" recipe (we have these whenever there is a big dinner at my mom's and they are amazing). My dad and his gf (yes, my mom and her bf and my dad and his gf all had dinner for my mom's bday at my mom's house; my dad's sister was there too) brought the drinks, white sangria with lots of fresh fruit in it mixed with a splash of ginger ale. Both my sisters were there and one brought her bf (the other's bf was hosting a dinner of his own so she came for dinner than left to go back to his cookout). We had steaks from the Laurel Meat Market (one of the best butcher's in the area) cooked on the grill by my dad and seasoned to perfection. There were left-over grilled mixed veggies from my tailgating that we re-heated (on the grill) and added to fresh ones that I grilled at the time. Desert was angel food cake with fresh strawberries, raspberries and blueberries topped with whipped cream. I know what I said about deserts and cake, but there is something about angel food cake that I like, maybe how light it is ... i don't know. My mom opened her cards and gifts and then we all went our separate ways. It was a great end to a great weekend.

This weekend

This weekend I learned some things:

• When you leave work early on a Friday to take a nap before happy hour, you won't wake up until hapy hour is over
• After you miss happy hour, there is no desire to go meet up with a bunch of people that are already drunk
• I am not a mason and don't know how to repair a chimney with bricks missing
• I grossly underestimate the amount of mortar needed to replace two bricks
• Going out at 2:00 PM for a 7:30 PM football game = not remembering the football game
• NFL Preseason football = not worth remembering
• Mother's is a good place to go before a worthless football game
• I still love Dog Pub and always will but hate that I can't refuse the free shots of GM they give me
• Nacho cheese washes out of shorts pretty well
• Tropic Thunder is funny but tries too hard to be as un-PC as possible
• The movie theater in Linthicum is a great deal
• Phelps is a great swimmer but I still prefer watching any track event over swimming

At Mother's before the game

Quick shot for J's bday, also before the game

... or are you just happy to see me?

So my sister's boyfriend has a little garden in his back yard (which makes me wish I had a yard instead of a 8' x 12' concrete slab) and grows some random vegetables ... including the zucchini pictured above. He also put me in touch with his friend that has season tickets to the ravens he was trying to sell. The quarter and can are just there to show the size of the zucchini. I'll probably grill it this weekend during my graduation party since there will be enough to go around.

Yeah for my first post about something random that actually happened the same day I posted it! I'll put up those pictures I said I would soon (don't know who I am talking to since I am pretty sure I am the only one that reads this)

Oh, and btw ... The Dark Knight was f'ing amazing.