Falling Behind Again...
I say it all the time, but I swore up and down when I started this blog that I'd make it a point to update it frequently. But between the move, work, and a little travel, I never ever get the opportunity. Grrrrr.
Anywhoo...Went out east last Saturday to Tuesday with 2 purposes...to visit my HS buddy Rob as well as to catch the Sox at Camden Yards. Flew into BWI early Saturday morning, and Rob was right there to fetch us at the airport. Much like me circa 1995-2000, he's turned into a class A Saab Snob. We rode in his fresh new 9-5 Aero back up to Gaithersburg and made a much-needed Starbucks pit stop. Let me tell you--Starbucks in the tony DC suburbs is a whole different ballgame from Starbucks in downtown Chicago. The one we went to Saturday was staffed by bratty high school kids who don't know a mocha from a Boca Burger. Give me the tattooed, pierced (and that's just the women) baristas in the lobby of my building any day. The little snotnosed punks didn't understand the concept of "room for cream."
Got back to Rob's house and debated what to do that day. Our original plan was to head out to the new wing of the Air and Space Museum, but then it dawned on us that on a sunny Saturday, the place would probably be a madhouse. So instead, we went to Wegmans, which just opened a superstore near Dulles airport.
Many people, my girlfriend included, have no idea why people from upstate New York rant and rave about Wegmans. They can't understand how we can get so worked up over a grocery store...surely it can't be that different from Whole Foods or Jewel, right? Wrong. Wegmans sells the quality of foods that you'd find at a Fox and Obel at normal grocery store prices....and it's 100,000 square feet instead of 2,000. The best part though? They sell all the delicacies that I grew up with that are impossible to find anywhere in the Midwest: Zweigle's hot dogs (I always have a hell of a time explaining to people what exactly a white hot dog is...there's one person I know who gets it about white hots and just about everything else in life, but that's another story for another time), Bully Hill wine, Country Sweet Wing Sauce, which, please note, is NOT Buffalo style wing sauce, Spiedie's marinades ...all of which bring back such memories of my youth. In fact, my first job was at Wegmans, and they even gave me a scholarship!
After dropping $150 on regional delicacies, we headed back up to Rob and Renee's for a cookout. Threw some nice juicy Wegmans-bought steaks and chicken on the grill and proceeded to get all kinds of sauced on some great microbrew. Rob and renee's neighbors to the rear had left their 20 year old kid home alone for the weekend, so he threw quite the beer bust, which I was awful tempted to crash. High point of that had to be the 2 kids rounding 3rd base and heading for home on top of the air conditioner in the backyard.
Sunday we rode up to Harper's Ferry, WV (I can now cross West Virginia off my list of states I still need to visit). It's a national historic siteand a damned near picturesque one at that. Oddly enough, the thing that I found most fascinating was the railroad tunnel, which you can see in the top photo on this train geek page. I probably took 10 pictures of it, and sooner or later I will figure out how to link to images from here without having to sign into Ofoto first. One interesting thing about taking a ride with Rob is that he has one of these stupid little doohickeysthat seems to be wrong more than it's right, but he insists on relying on it even if he's just going to the post office.
Monday we headed up to Baltimore to catch the first game of the Sox-Orioles series. Took the tour of Camden Yards in the afternoon...fascinating stuff. I didn't know that when the city of Baltimore gave the O's permission to build a new park, that they were only given about 5 acres to do it in and were told that they couldn't tear anything down. That's how they ended up with the warehouse in right field, as well as very little nearby parking. Got to check out the broadcast booths and the press box, too bad Jay Mariotti wasn't there. Got our drink on at the Wharf Rat before the game, and walked away happy in the pouring rain as the Sox held on for yet another one-run win.
Came back Tuesday to yet another maelstrom at work. One of these days, it'll calm down...really, it will. Went and saw the lifeless Chubs get singlehandledly beat by Steve Finley.
That's all for now. I'll have some thoughts on the Sox and on turning 29 tomorrow.
I say it all the time, but I swore up and down when I started this blog that I'd make it a point to update it frequently. But between the move, work, and a little travel, I never ever get the opportunity. Grrrrr.
Anywhoo...Went out east last Saturday to Tuesday with 2 purposes...to visit my HS buddy Rob as well as to catch the Sox at Camden Yards. Flew into BWI early Saturday morning, and Rob was right there to fetch us at the airport. Much like me circa 1995-2000, he's turned into a class A Saab Snob. We rode in his fresh new 9-5 Aero back up to Gaithersburg and made a much-needed Starbucks pit stop. Let me tell you--Starbucks in the tony DC suburbs is a whole different ballgame from Starbucks in downtown Chicago. The one we went to Saturday was staffed by bratty high school kids who don't know a mocha from a Boca Burger. Give me the tattooed, pierced (and that's just the women) baristas in the lobby of my building any day. The little snotnosed punks didn't understand the concept of "room for cream."
Got back to Rob's house and debated what to do that day. Our original plan was to head out to the new wing of the Air and Space Museum, but then it dawned on us that on a sunny Saturday, the place would probably be a madhouse. So instead, we went to Wegmans, which just opened a superstore near Dulles airport.
Many people, my girlfriend included, have no idea why people from upstate New York rant and rave about Wegmans. They can't understand how we can get so worked up over a grocery store...surely it can't be that different from Whole Foods or Jewel, right? Wrong. Wegmans sells the quality of foods that you'd find at a Fox and Obel at normal grocery store prices....and it's 100,000 square feet instead of 2,000. The best part though? They sell all the delicacies that I grew up with that are impossible to find anywhere in the Midwest: Zweigle's hot dogs (I always have a hell of a time explaining to people what exactly a white hot dog is...there's one person I know who gets it about white hots and just about everything else in life, but that's another story for another time), Bully Hill wine, Country Sweet Wing Sauce, which, please note, is NOT Buffalo style wing sauce, Spiedie's marinades ...all of which bring back such memories of my youth. In fact, my first job was at Wegmans, and they even gave me a scholarship!
After dropping $150 on regional delicacies, we headed back up to Rob and Renee's for a cookout. Threw some nice juicy Wegmans-bought steaks and chicken on the grill and proceeded to get all kinds of sauced on some great microbrew. Rob and renee's neighbors to the rear had left their 20 year old kid home alone for the weekend, so he threw quite the beer bust, which I was awful tempted to crash. High point of that had to be the 2 kids rounding 3rd base and heading for home on top of the air conditioner in the backyard.
Sunday we rode up to Harper's Ferry, WV (I can now cross West Virginia off my list of states I still need to visit). It's a national historic siteand a damned near picturesque one at that. Oddly enough, the thing that I found most fascinating was the railroad tunnel, which you can see in the top photo on this train geek page. I probably took 10 pictures of it, and sooner or later I will figure out how to link to images from here without having to sign into Ofoto first. One interesting thing about taking a ride with Rob is that he has one of these stupid little doohickeysthat seems to be wrong more than it's right, but he insists on relying on it even if he's just going to the post office.
Monday we headed up to Baltimore to catch the first game of the Sox-Orioles series. Took the tour of Camden Yards in the afternoon...fascinating stuff. I didn't know that when the city of Baltimore gave the O's permission to build a new park, that they were only given about 5 acres to do it in and were told that they couldn't tear anything down. That's how they ended up with the warehouse in right field, as well as very little nearby parking. Got to check out the broadcast booths and the press box, too bad Jay Mariotti wasn't there. Got our drink on at the Wharf Rat before the game, and walked away happy in the pouring rain as the Sox held on for yet another one-run win.
Came back Tuesday to yet another maelstrom at work. One of these days, it'll calm down...really, it will. Went and saw the lifeless Chubs get singlehandledly beat by Steve Finley.
That's all for now. I'll have some thoughts on the Sox and on turning 29 tomorrow.
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