Weekend Review

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.

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.

Today and some weekend pictures

So today was a productive day, I joined the dragonboat team at work and had my first practice and joined the gym in Canton and am planning on going tomorrow. I hope some of the pictures someone took from dragonboat practice get sent to me so I can post them.

Speaking of pictures, here are a couple fro this past weekend semi-camping at my friend Lucas' parents farm.

The tents set up in the yard The rough camping set-up

Yes, that is us playing rockband on a sheet with a projector in the middle of no where, Westminster