A Week of Almosts

Entertaining Pic of the Week:

Well, my few and faithful readers, I do apologize in the delinquency of my posts this week. I have two excuses: 1) work has been a bit stressful, and 2) it has been, what I like to call, a week of almosts and, therefore not many adventures to report. Instead, my list of almost adventures:

1) As previously mentioned, I almost got to make out with Ben Affleck and Russell Crowe :-/ oh well. Better stalking next time!!

2) I ALMOST got to go see one of the most historic Supreme Court decisions ever- a direct attack on the Second Amendment in the form of the DC Gun Ban. But unfortunately work got in the way.

3) I ALMOST got to go participate in the protests Wednesday that were taking place on the street outside of my office. Always an amusing experience.

My weekend consisted of an all day Ravens' drumline rehearsal on Saturday (ouch!). Then Sunday, my friend gave me an introduction to the world of independent wrestling promotions (Ring of Honor and CZW). Surpringly, quite authentic and I am now intrigued.

All in all, a week of ALMOST good stories. On a more promising note, it is 3:30 AM and I'm waiting for a mare to go into labor. The foal is sired by the horse I currently have the honor of competing, Maxamillion (http://www.goldenventurefarm.com/). So I'm looking forward to my first foaling experience. Admittedly, work is going to suck as I will probably not sleep before.

PHOTO: Me and my boy, Max :-)

Also the Cherry Blossoms are supposed to bloom around the Tidal Basin this week and my favorite thing to do is to go down there at 5AM and catch them at sunrise before the place is overrun with tourists, so stay tuned, I will definitely be posting those pics. PHOTO: My Cherry Blossom pics last year :-)

Here's to a more adventure-filled subsequent week!!!

I'm [Frikkin'] Ben Affleck!!

Well. Not really. But I'm still holding out hope for this evening!! This morning as I was coming off 395 I noticed that the road I usually park on (across from my office) was closed. This is not TERRIBLY unusual in downtown DC, so I parked a little farther out and walked in. As I came upon the road to my building, I noticed a number of large mac trucks, catering vehicles, and lighting cranes. I figured there was going to be some sort of cruel St. Patty's Day celebration outside of my office window, so I asked a bored-looking security-type guy what was going on and he babbled something about "State of Play". No clue, but did the honest young working professional thing and googled it as soon as I got to my office. "State of Play" is a movie produced by Ben Affleck starring himself, Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams, and Helen Mirren. Let Operation Stalker commence!!!!

Lexi and I :-)

Anyways, my weekend was fairly decent. Drove to VA Beach to run in the Shamrock 8K, which my sister helped to organize. Really wanted to do the Half Marathon, but had other (to be described) obligations. I ended up rockin' out 37 minutes for the 8K, 7.5 minute mile. 333/6000. Not too bad for not training!! Oh. Also. Yuengling sponsored the race and there was a plethera of free beer after the race.

PHOTO: L: the great Beeramid; R: Sam, Steph, Meghan, and I

Later Saturday night I drove back to DC, amused by drunken phone calls from my friends who were out partying. Sunday I marched in the Baltimore St. Patrick's Day Parade with the Ravens' Band- my first tenor performance :-) Awesome time, albeit slightly physically challenging to march downhill for a couple of miles while carrying a set of drums that you only outweigh by 40-50 pounds. My St. Patrick's Day celebrations pretty much consisted of drinking a homemade Snakebite (1/2 Blackthorn cider, 1/2 Guinness), wearing my "Show me your Shamrocks" shirt and green rubber ducky beads, listening to Flogging Molly, and trying to do work. Sigh. Nostalgic for Savannah :-/

PHOTO: L: Dying the Savannah River green

R: My Irish firefighter friends from County Cork

Prfct10 vs. DC Blue Laws

For those of you who don't know, I recently (well, Dec. 1) moved physically into Washington D.C., as opposed to the more innocent, less complicated locale of the Gambrills farmyard. Well apparently, if you aren't a DC Resident and you park on the same street three times in three months they can ACTUALLY give you a ticket for that. I am not kidding. That's what my THREE tickets say. Finally, I was able to take off enough time off work on Friday to take care of that BS. FYI, for those of you that MAY in the future have to alter state residency, specifically to the WONDERFUL faux wannabe state of Washington D.C.: they charge a 7 PERCENT Excise tax on the blue book value of your vehicle. So the grand total of my donations to the DC Government on Friday: $1,000. Pretty much, I funded D.C. CSI's yearly salaray. Why the hell would you even need representation when you can tax the bejeezus out of your citizens? Representation would only get in the way of fleecing your residents. Autocracy is better.

My total DC infractions in 4 months:

Photo speeding tickets (YES those exist): 4 (one exonerated)

Parking tickets relating to non-DC plates: 3 (mofos!)

Parking tickets relating to personal fault: 1

Noise warnings: 1 (stupid stripper neighbor doesn't like it when I drum at 8PM)

NOT a fan.

On a lighter note, my forced day off Friday to amend my DC infractions allowed me to rally for Jimmy Buffett tickets! Apparently the key to doing this is physically going to a Ticketmaster office and getting in line. Surprisingly, the closesy one to my house (Howard University) did NOT have a high demand for Buffett tickets, so I got four for Saturday night. Quiero Jaime Buffett!!! Howard has an unexpectedly beautiful campus- good to know for running purposes :-)

Wilkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome!

Well, this is my first journey into the sinisterly addictive world of blogdom. Is that even a word? Maybe just in the sense that 'nukular' is a word. Anywho. I'm not sure EXACTLY what I'm going to use this for, but my dear friend Shawana is encouraging this new addiction so that she can better keep track of my rather insane activities and "field trips". So. Yeah.

Dear Diary,

Just kidding. Nothing terribly exciting this week, except I saw protesters on the street in Georgetown. One was wearing a full Darth Vader costume, one was wearing a jailbird costume with a Dick Cheney headpiece on (I didn't even know those existed?!?!) Both carrying signs reading "Impeach Darth Cheney". Too bad it was rush hour and I couldn't pull over to take a pic. Oh yeah, I also enjoy photography and have several nice cameras to photo-document my travels, trials, and tribulations.

Last weekend it rained so I couldn't go fox hunting. Instead I went on a random roadtrip from DC to Mt. Airy to visit the Linganore Winery, which I've always wanted to go to. Tasted all of the wines and even made my own little evaluation sheet. Then I drove to Mechanicsburg, PA to watch my first indoor percussion competition- my friend's group was competing. AWESOME. Totally hitting up another of those before the season ends. Attached a few pics of that adventure.

This weekend, instead of my normal St. Patty's Day debauchery (I HEART SAVANNAH!!!), I'm running in the Shamrock Marathon/Half in VA Beach on Saturday. My sister is helping market it for her grad school final project. Then driving back to DC late Saturday so I can march in the Baltimore St. Patty's Day parade with the Baltimore Ravens Marching Band. Hopefully will have enough energy after carrying a 65-pound set of tenors to commence with the debauchery :-)