Gathering?

I didn't end up going to see Book of Mormon, they were sold out and I didn't get there early enough to get in the stand by list. It's probably better anyway because I was really tired and ended up taking a nap before dinner. I ate at a place across the street from the hotel and got some very tasty scallops. It ended up being a pretty laid back night, after dinner I went back to the room and watched Glee and putzed around the hotel for a bit before heading to bed.. I know, very unlike me to not go wander.

Spent Thurs and Friday getting ready for FI because I always tend to wait till the last minute when doing that stuff, I will be making a concerted effort to change that. In that realm I am planning on working on my armor on Monday, I want to fix the straps (they broke during game and had to be quickly patched with thread and duct tape) and add back holsters for shot guns. My new additions to it look really cool, go check flickr for some pics I took while at FI.

Left for DC right after game on Sunday and it took me forever to get here, got stuck in Manhattan due to construction and didn't get to hotel till almost 4am. Monday and Tuesday have been low key, get out of class, nap, eat, sleep.. Monday night I tried to get new shoes at REI but they were out of my size and ended up eating a shrimp and crab dish at a placed called Coastal Flats near REI. The guy at REI called the store in Conshohocken PA and they have one in stock and on hold for me. I am going to go there on the way to Laire on Friday. Last night I had a hankering for some red meat so I called around to find grass fed steaks, I found one place that is mostly grass fed (Capital Grill) and another that has 100% grass fed burgers (Clyde's). I opted for the burger which I think was a good choice, I got a tuna/salmon tartar appetizer and a bacon/pepper jack burger. After dinner I watched the season finale of Glee, it was ok but they spent too much time on the "oh look we're in NYC" and not enough time on the competition.

I am finally not feeling super tired although I can't say I slept well last night, I'm not loving my Sheraton experiment and may be going back to Marriott soon. The beds are not as comfortable and the bath tubs seem to be very small, at first I thought it was just the NYC one that had a small bath tub, but this one does too. Plus it smells like a cheap whore in the hotel lobby, elevator and hallways. At first I thought I must have been walking behind some girl who was over perfumed but I can't imagine every time I walk around I'm following the same person. The hotel must just use it as an air freshener.. I'm certainly wishing I was at the Courtyard or Residence Inn which are both a block away.

Don't know what I'm doing tonight, but there is a place in DC running a double feature of Nausicca and Spirited Away, they serve food and have happy hour prices on drinks. I will see what time I get out of here if it's worth going into the city.

I was trying to decide on my Thurs night / Friday plans. I ended up deciding to check out of hotel tomorrow morning and then drive to Philly after class. This is a benefit in many ways, one - and most importantly - I won't have to deal with DC traffic on Friday morning of Memorial Day Weekend and, two - it will put me closer to REI and eventually Laire, three - there is a Celtic Music Faire in Philly tomorrow and The Gathering is playing a 10pm show at a college, if I can get out of here early enough I can drive up to Philly, hit REI and go to faire/concert.

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In other news - Fuck you Fred Wilpon! As the owner of a team you have the final say on the decisions your team makes, don't act like the Mets are a punishment that has been tossed upon you and don't sit in an interview talking about how one of the best players to ever wear your team's uniform is a bum. Up until yesterday I was on his side in the Madoff scandal, but not anymore. Don't get me wrong, Wilpon cares about baseball, but his alliance is clearly towards the Brooklyn Dodgers. Maybe the new owners will remove all the Dodgers shit from our stadium and replace it with Mets stuff. Earlier in the year Bud Selig had MLB seize control of the Dodgers who were having problems paying their payroll, they are not nearly as in debt as the Mets who have taken out millions of dollars worth of loans from MLB and still can't pay payroll. ESPN had a great article on this today and went on to say how the only reason Wilpon has not been removed by MLB was because he is friends with Bud Selig.. I say they both need to be out of baseball.

PMGA

Did you know there was a Professional Mini Golf Association? I did.. Years ago when I was in Irvine looking for good mini golf I was led to this group, it lists all the professional grade mini golf courses across the US. Anyway, I had some time to kill on Friday before my flight and it was amazingly nice out so I decided on some mini golf, after doing a quick search on the google I found a bunch of local ones. To narrow down the field I checked out the PMGA website, I found one in the Cleveland area which happened to be right near the airport.. Memphis Mini Golf is it's name in case you're every in Cleveland and have a hankering to play some mini golf. I got there and was slightly amazed at the shabby appearance but shouldered on.. It's a Memphis Kiddie Park which has little rides for kids and even a little roller coaster, tucked into the back (have to walk through lots of lame kiddie areas) is the mini golf section. I'm glad I shouldered on because it was a lot of fun! I would say the course was moderate difficulty with a few easy holes and few pretty hard ones. I ended up shooting 2 over par..

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Flight back was pretty quick, I got a call while I was in Cleveland airport telling me my connecting flight (Cin to Hartford) was delayed but when I landed in Cin I found out it was back on schedule.

Got up too early on Saturday and went to the Robin Hood Springtime Festival, the story shows were very good but the overall faire experience was dampened by the cold, damp weather. I was supposed to go back on Sunday but the weather was even worse so I opted to just hang out at home. It's a shame really because I would have loved to spend more time there and see a few of the shows I missed out on but the thought of another day in cold rain was not appealing to me.

Speaking of cold and rain, I went to the Mets game last night. The game was supposed to start at 7:10 but the game had a 90 minute rain delay to start, the annoying thing about that is it was not even really raining. There was a light drizzle and the weather man called for big rain which never came. I'm very happy with my new seats since they are undercover and have a wall behind them which kills most of the wind, I'm not so happy with the guy who sits next to us. He is one of those guys who has no care about others around him, he splayed out with his professional size score book and was constantly tossing his peanut shells on whoever sat next to him. Unfortunately he also has the Sunday plan so I guess we will be dealing with him for the remainder of the season.

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I'm teaching in NYC this week and am debating trying to get tickets to see Book of Mormon tonight, they have a lottery to get cheap seats, you need to get your name in 2 hours before the show so hopefully I can get out of work early enough. If I can't I am not going to pay full price because it's an expensive show to go see alone.

This week I was supposed to be home teaching online but got called last minute to be here in NYC, next week I'm supposed to be off platform but just got a call and am needed in either DC or Dallas next week. I chose DC because I can at least drive there Sunday night as opposed to getting a flight.

All night by the ...

All night by the dead Zev

All night by dead Zev I did lay

If only my tears could be real

I would rust myself away

All night by the Zev Zev

All night by the Zev I lay

I found her tongue along my casing

Licking my dirt away

All night by the Zev Zev

All night by the Zev I did sigh

As she whispered sweet nothing to Stanley

While plunging a fork in his eye

All year by the Zev Zev

All year by the Zev I lay

I found her fist jammed in my neck stalk

And pleaded for it to stay

All year by the Zev Zev

All year by the Zev I lay

I found her smile bathing my being

Oh it should always be this way

That's right, that made no sense and no bearing on anything really.. Just felt like posting it..

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I have not blogged in a while because I really have not had the time to sit down and type stuff up, and when I have I've been dealing with other stuff and junk.. Speaking of which..

I just got my PC fully working again, apparently McAfee had installed an update of Site Advisor and it decided to block most programs that were trying to get out to the web including McAfee updater!? Anyway, after fighting with McAfee Tech Support and then finally fixing it myself (with a co-workers suggestions) I am back up and running, and apparently blogging.. :)

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Now the daunting task of running back through the last two weeks, jeez, it's really been that long.. If you're out there reading I'm sorry for the disappearing act.. Last time I blogged I was teaching in Milford on antibiotics for Lyme's Disease and getting ready for Laire. Stupid antibiotics made me so tired, especially when in the sun.. Laire + Sun Avoiding Antibiotics = Not a good idea.. I played Chatima to boot which means I got to wear a sleeveless shirt and LOTS of sun screen! I actually had a real enjoyable time playing him, got to laze about the camp and just sorta enjoy the weather. I am a bit disappointed I went to bed early on Saturday because I didn't get to see the awesome big battle but, sleep won out in the end so oh well..

.... - Week in DC

Left Laire on Sunday and drove to Mclean, Monday night I went to dinner at Zaytinya with Pam. I got into DC early so I walked over the National Mall and the Washington Monument before circling back to meet at the restaurant. It's a greek mezze restaurant, we got a few dishes and they were all very good but the best one was probably the lamb special dish. After dinner we wandered around the city for a bit and ran into a street corner big band, they were pretty good and surprisingly all dressed in shirts and ties carrying big brass instruments in the heat! Speaking of heat, for dessert we went to Pitango which is a gelato place that uses all grass fed milk.. After dessert we wandered around a bit more before I dropped her at the bus and headed back to Mclean. Tuesday I had dinner at Pam and Christian's house, they made fish tacos and cauliflower which was very good. It was the first time I had met Christian but it felt like I was reconnecting with an old friend instead of meeting someone new. Lots of fun was had just sitting around the kitchen table chatting and telling stories.

Wednesday I went to Gordon Biersch with Josh and Marvin from work.. I got them to use my frequent buyer card for all our bills so I should get some serious points for that.. Thursday I went into the city pretty early and went to the Smithsonian for a bit before heading over to the Folklife Festival, I was a bit disappointed in the festival because they were in "rain mode" which meant everything was either closed or mostly closed. The main concert was supposed to be at 6:30 but they cancelled that because it started thundering. I went to the American Museum which was a thrill a minute, they had such artifacts as Archie Bunker's chair..

Drove home on Friday and once again got stuck in MASSIVE traffic in CT! I'm getting real sick of 95 between Greenwich and New Haven, it used to only be bad around Stamford and New Haven now it seems to be bad the entire way!

.... - Two Weeks Home!?

Saturday I went to Kaitlyn's birthday party, the food was awesome! Her dad made chicken wings which were a-maz-ing... I unfortunately didn't hang out there too long because I was still on the antibiotics and was already getting tired so I didn't want to press the tiredness while attempting to drive home.

Sunday I went to the Mets/Twinkies game with Kevin and Hoyle. It was a good game and the weather was great, the stadium now has Poutine at the fries place.. Oh wait, it's not poutine, it's Disco Fries.. What a stupid name, they would probably do better just calling it Poutine. If you don't know, Poutine is fries with cheese curd, cheese and brown gravy.. I had it for the first (and many) time(s) in Montreal so it was nice to have it again.. But, um.. Should have realized they would American size it! For $10 it was enough food for me and Lynz to be full on.. I ate about half of them and then had a few bites of a pulled pork sammich from Blue Smoke. We sat in our seats till about 3:30 when we moved to section 424 which is where I want my seats to eventually be. They were already in the shade and the view is so much better there. Not that my seats stink but those are better..

Had a nice (but very quick) week at home, Lynz and Anja came over on Monday and we finished up watching Life. Tuesday was dinner. Wednesday I went with Lynz to dinner at Asian Bistro for our do-over anniversary (remember the beginning of this f'n Lyme's Disease started on our actual anniversary).. Thursday.. Thursday.. Something just occurred to me... Feel a tangent, must control it... nooooooo

It's amazing how you communicate with each person in a different way, I would say I talk to Jessie and Lynz at least once every day.. Any re-cap or important conversations however are either done on the phone (Lynz) or in person (Jessie), if I look back in my IM logs for Friday I don't see anything about Thursday.. Then I realized that used to be my fail safe because I would always IM Holly with the re-cap of the day/weekend before.. It's just odd to me that in the entire time I was with Holly I don't think we had one conversation over 10 minutes via the phone but yet we talked almost every day..

Anyway, back to Thursday.. I figured it out (I think).. I remember watching the last episode of Two Pints of Larger and a Packet of Crisps, I think that was Thursday.. Then again that could have been over the weekend. I know we watched some Chopped and ICA as well..

Friday night was the Putnam Fireworks, Hoyle came over for that and before hand we went to Bellas for Big Al's BBQ. We got to the fireworks right before they started and somehow still managed to get the best possible spot! We were literary right in front of the shoot off point.

... I'm going to end this blog now because I want to go home.. Will blog more later.. In the meantime, enjoy..

Mclean VA and Camden Yards

Tuesday night I went to the local sports bar. I stress the word local, to say this was Cheers-like would be very accurate, I walked in and the bartender before taking my order asked me my name and where I was from. She then introduced me to the other people around the bar! Ordered some food and she threw the Mets/Dodgers game on the TV over the bar. Shortly after I got there Mike and John asked me if I wouldn't mind if they put the Basketball game on that TV since it's playoff time. I said sure and they moved the baseball game to a side TV. Got included in a free round by Jim, one of the regulars and my burger was really good. Hung out for a bit after the game ended because I was enjoying hanging out with my new friends.. :)

Wednesday night.. Robyn cancelled because she got called into work so I ended up going alone to Gordon Biersch, got lobster bisque and sea bass. After dinner I went back to Neighbors because it was Donna's 50th Birthday and I wanted to stop in and say happy birthday.. Hung out for a few drinks but left somewhat early because I was starting to feel get a sinus cold.

Thursday night.. I got tickets to see the Yankees and Orioles at Camden Yards. Met Matt, Sile and Daniel at McCormick and Schmick's for dinner, I had a Parmesan crusted flounder cooked with capers. It was so good! After dinner me and Matt walked over to Oriole Park at Camden Yards for the game. We got there early and walked around the stadium, when you first enter the stadium you're in the highlight of the park. There is a road past that runs from the CF corner to the LF corner out past the wall, during game days they close that road off and it's part of the stadium. It was very pretty and was full of historical things to look at like the Oriole Hall of Fame, and a great moments in Baltimore sports history section. We had just eaten so we didn't pay too much attention to the food, but they had a bunch of Baltimore local microbrew stands which were very good. Went up to our seats and found that there was two bars in our way of the field view. The seats were very wide but only the first row had cup holders. Around the 7th inning I got hungry so we went in search of something to eat.. Hot dogs, hot dogs, sausages, hot dogs and hot dogs was about all we found. I was very disappointed in the food selection at the stadium, to be fair they also had hamburgers and one place on the right field corner of the field level which sold expensive wraps. We walked the entire stadium and I ended up with a pretzel which they only sold at one location behind home plate on the field level! Maybe I'm spoiled by the food at CitiField but I have come to expect a mix of high end and low end food. In order to get into my top list of stadiums you need some sort of special food and they just didn't cut it.

Friday was drive home day.. Lynz came over but I was probably at the height of my sinus cold so we just ate some dinner and snuggled on the couch..

Saturday I got my bike back and on the road! I didn't ride much because I was coughing and sneezing while trying to ride and not very good when wearing a face shield and helmet.. But, it was the most comfortable I felt on my bike since I've gotten it! That night we went to Foxwoods to eat dinner and to see Mark Knopfler. Ate at the Grill at Two Trees and had Salmon in capers and kalamata olives which was very good. The concert was great, the sound quality at the MGM might be one of the best I've heard in a long time if not ever. It sounded like you were listening to a live recording, everything was very good and no echo or hard to hear instruments/vocals. The concert itself was also very good, it was very "trance" and you could just close your eyes and let the music flow over and through you.. It was odd seeing how old Mark Knopfler is because he's one of those people you don't see, never see videos and he usually has pictures of instruments on his CDs.

Sunday me and Jessie went to see her mom... It was, umm.. Fun? Sure.. Dinner was great! We ate at a little seafood place on the Hudson and I had a prime rib with crab stuffed shrimp.. Yum!

Quick Recap 4-27

Last Friday was travel day.. I got home right before 6 and spent the night relaxing and catching up on the TV.. South Park has been great the last few episodes, saw the Facebook one and the two part 200th episode and all three were very funny! If you don't normally watch it I recommend grabbing those on Hulu.

We also caught on the Daily Show and his reaction to South Park was perfect, it's a good thing he is a "comedy show" and can get away with what he does under that guise..

Saturday we went to Armsby Abby and then to the Heavy Metal Festival in Worcester to see Eluviette, they only played for about 30 mins but it was worth it. It was amazing to see how many people were actually there just to see them, we arrived while they were setting up the stage and all the people around us had done the same. When we were leaving so were others and they were also only there to see them.. I think it's time for a Folk Metal Festival in Worcester!

The night was far from over, we went over to Lynz and John's house for Cheese Fire and hung out for a while.. It was a very good time, I expected it to be fun but was actually surprised at how much so.. :D

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Sunday, rainy Sunday... Went to the Mets game for a bit on Sunday before driving down to Mclean. It was cold and rainy and I didn't stay very long, the game got suspended shortly after I left and finally cancelled because of the rain. The entire ride to Mclean was massive rain, so much so that I had to use my wipers on full blast..

Got in around 1:30 and stayed up chatting with dad for a bit while he drove home from NY.

Monday night I was in the mood for Buffalo Chicken so I went to local sports bar here called Chicks n' Wings, the service was so slow I almost left before ordering. I'm glad I stayed because the food was actually very good once I got. Found out that the manager only scheduled one girl to work, normally Mondays are slow, but not during the hockey playoffs.. Way to plan...