Picture Catch-up Part 1, Culebra Puerto Rico

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

Virgin Mobile Free Fest

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.

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

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).

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

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.

Getting while the getting's good?

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:

"Bad Idea" Personified

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.

Battle of the Beltways with a side order of frigid

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.

Friday Night Shenanigans

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

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.

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.

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.

My encounter with George Lucas (kinda)

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.

Is Red House Tavern in Canton Any Good?

Going there tonight for some trivia ... will try some food and see how everything is. I went the once before, but was not in the capacity to remember much about the experience. It was the night of the Irish festival and the night before my dragonboat race, there was a band playing and it seemed nice, but I couldn't stay long and didn't form much of an opinion.

Maryland Homecoming Football Game

I went to the Maryland vs. NC State football game this past Saturday as part of my fabulous birthday weekend. We got there several hours early and set up shop for tailgating. At first we thought the weather reports about heavy rain all afternoon were BS because it was really nice out and warmer than originally expected. That sure didn't last. We start hearing people yelling and looked over and could see the edge of the rain making its way toward us (it reminded me a lot about when I was in Ireland and everyday you could see the edge of a storm somewhere off in the distance). After a few minutes of the rain we decided that it wouldn't matter because it was just going to continue all day. We continued our drinking, grilling, and baggo (cornhole) playing. We also made it a point to stop by some tailgaters that had an awesome ice luge last year to see what they brought this time around.

Needless to say, this is a bad ass ice luge. If you look at the shoulders there are small funnels that pour out into the opposite hands of the Terp.

When we got to the game it seemed like everyone but us were wearing ponchos. The stadium had a good amount of people considering the weather and that NC State was perceived to be a weak opponent. The game was really sloppy but Maryland was able to win 27 - 24 in the last few seconds with a field goal (after already having won with a TD pass to Darrius Heyward-Bey that was ruled incomplete but definitely was a catch).

This photo shows how much it was raining during the game. I got it from umterps.com and hope it is OK to publish it on here.

We went back and tailgated some more as we waited for the parking lots to clear out then headed home (with a short detour towards DC ... oops). Our plan was to go to the Green Turtle in Columbia to watch the UFC fight but within a few minutes of getting home there were 4 guys passed out on a couch.

Cause I'm Drunk

It's my birthday and I have been drinking all weekend so I am going to have another guest post and you all (3 of you) can just deal with it.

Weekend Review

I accomplished my goal this weekend and did not spend any money and still had a great time.

After working on my house Saturday and watching a movie in the morning I went for a walk around Canton. Stopped by Blockbuster to return the movie and pick up some new movies (I subscribe to the BB Total Access and believe it is better than Netflix since I can walk to the store and get a new movie immediately for free and still have the next one in my queue arrive in a couple days) then continued down toward the 1st Mariner building and looped around till I got back home. Cooked some lunch and wasted an hour and a half of my life on the worst (maybe not the worst but definately up there) movie ever; The Happening. Walked up to Patterson Park and watched my sister's BSSC football team shutout some horrible team 50-something to 0.

After the game, we (me, my sis and her bf) headed to Dockside and had dinner (they paid, thanks!) before heading out to Mahaffey's to meet up with some people from their football team. I stopped by my neighbors' for a minute and a couple beers before going to Mahaffey's since a couple of them ran in the B'more marathon and were having a party later. Back out at Mahafee's I had a couple beers that I think people only bought to increase their level in the 100 Beer Club but didn't want to drink. Gotta love the 9% beers. I stayed there for a while until my sister's choice of music on the jukebox started getting to me and I had to leave.

I went back to my neighbors' house and by this time the party had started and there were a bunch of people there. I started playing the drinking game "baseball" (which I had never played before) and ended up drinking more than I had planned. After a while everyone wanted to head out so about 10 of us made a quick pit stop at my house and finished off one of the bottles (yes I keep multiple on hand) of Jager before heading to Looney's. Thinking back on it I find it funny that there were that many people crowding around my kitchen with a drop cloth hanging between the living room and the kitchen and my couch and bike also in the kitchen with my ceiling half missing (run-on sentence?). We got to Looney's and went upstairs to go dancing (I haven't danced since college but since my friend couldn't find her husband she used me instead). A couple of the people that had the Jager shots with me bought me shots at the bar so it all worked out in terms of not needing to buy anything. We closed out the bar (I think) and I went home and passed out.

I woke up feeling great at 12:45 Sunday and immediately updated my fantasy football team (good thing too cause I didn't have a full line-up ~ ended up winning). I packed some beers and rode my bike over to my sister's bf's house to watch the Ravens game. After getting there I think the realization that I had entirely too much to drink the night before hit me like a ton of bricks. I went to the basement and passed out until the 3rd quarter. When I came back upstairs and saw the score I really felt like going back down to pass out again. Instead we waited until the end of the game (and the Redskins final and the Dallas ending) then went outside to play football in the street. A couple collisions with cars and some scraped knees later, my team won. I got a ride home since it was dark and I didn't feeling like getting hit by a car on my way home. That pretty much ended my weekend since I wasn't able to get to my volleyball game after getting home (stupid car).

My Goal

My goal is to not spend any money of food or drinking until my birthday weekend (the 26th) with the exception of this Sunday night (already have an outing with my volleyball team planned to go to the comedy club). I feel like I have everything I need and just need to keep myself from going on my random, nightly trips to the bar. I only have two discs left till I am done the entire Six Feet Under series so hopefully I will be able to get some more work done on my house instead of getting distracted by DVDs.



The beer is left over from the Ravens game this past weekend and I will be drinking mainly out of the Brita, unless I am working on my house ... then the beer will be a requirement since drinking and demolition go together perfectly.

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.

Irish Festival, Friday Night

I went to the Irish festival in Canton on Friday around 6:00 PM, just after it opened. There was constant but light rain when I got there and I didn't mind so much. The music was really good, a band called Donegal Xpress was playing and had a violinist the looked pretty hot (who was definitely hotter because she was playing the violin). Tir Na Nog was one of the vendors there offering Shepard's Pie and Irish Stew ... aside from the ridiculously small portion for the price, the Irish Stew was amazing. Unfortunately, the festival didn't have any good drink specials ... I thought the point of these were to get a mass of people to come there instead of go to the bars, the Guinness was $6 for a pint ... I can get it equal or cheaper at most of the bars on the square without having to deal with the rain. One of the stands (it was more of a table off to the side) was Baltimore GAA, the Gaelic Athletic Association. I talked to the girl there for a while and think I would like to try out some of their stuff, except practice/try-outs are Sunday when I will be getting ready (drinking) for the Ravens-Browns game. Maybe I can drop-in later in the season?

Anyways, the light rain turned into a heavy downpour and after the band played a cover of Dropkick Murphys "Shipping up to Boston" I was happy enough to leave and head to Looney's for some shelter and less expensive beer (now I need to go home and watch the Departed). Ran into some friends and went to another place where some band was playing then went home to crash for my 4:30 AM wake-up call for the Dragonboat Races (more on that later).