vernacular_life | busy busy busy!

Whew! I've barely had time to catch my breath since Friday, but here's a quick wrapup

Friday - porterhouses, priests and penises
Friday had a lovely dinner with co-worker Sean and his wife & their friend who was visiting from NYC....Wife and friend are both Epicipalian priests, and, naturally, that brought out the raunchiest jokes and discussions one could imagine.  Good times. Had HUGE steaks, yummy homemade hummus, and I brought a berry trifle that turned out fab (never made it before) (I substituted Angel Food cake for pound cake)

Saturday - gypsy punk, celtic punk, and sweaty punk
Saturday we went to see Gogol Bordello, (some bad band called Throw Rag), and Flogging Molly at the new warehouse club in town.   The crowd was bizzare - it was SLAMMED, at least 90 degrees with 90* humidity, and an interesting mix of straight=edge kids, 80's punk kids (seriously - I saw a full on green mohawk that was about 8" high. VERY impressive), indie kids, and quite a few parents.

We got there around 9 (early), only to learn that Gogol were coming on in just a minute. They were great, but only played for 30 minutes. There were a few times we were pushed aside for stage rushers, so we decided that we'd abandon our spot for something a bit more out of the madness, as we aren't quite 19 anymore....

The 2nd band came on, and we left our spot for the lounge room where it was easily 30 degrees cooler and there were seats....

Flogging Molly was pure madness....when we went back in the big room, it seemed as the only place where we could stand was either behind Hugely Tall People, Hugely Large People, or Dads Smoking Cigars.  I've never seen so many big & tall people in b'more before! We ended up moving about 10 minutes into their set, and right into the area where all of the Super Sweaty guys were leaving the front of the stage---I must have gotten slimed by about a dozen SOAKING wet people...all of whom were giving each other big hugs! GROSS! I felt like Ben Stiller in that movie where he got slimed by a basketball player (?Along came Polly??)

By about midnight, FM had been on for about an hour and we were beat - my knees were killing me and I felt utterly gross.  A shower before bed was definately in order.

Overall, the show was fun, but HATE the venue. I've been spoiled by the 930 club and Funk Box...

Sunday - breakfast with the arts, jumping with dogs, chasing spiders

Sunday we went to the Baltimore Museum of Art for brunch, which we haven't done for ages.  The weather was perfect for eating outside, food was to die for, and it proved to be the perfect 'morning after' from the madness of the night before.

Afterwards, headed to the big mall near us to hit the Banana Republic outlet for Judd & pick up some Origins things for SIL's birthday. As we're parking, we see the setup for the big Dock Dog competition and end up standing there for over an hour watching the dogs leap around. I think I took about 120 photos (used burst mode), and whittled the best down here.

Sunday ended with a Massive Cleanout of the porch....we've neglected the porch for the past month or so and every spider in the neighborhood took refuge there. Blech!   The shop-vac def. got a workout then.

Monday - shopping, shakes, and wedding cakes

Had a meeting in DC on Monday AM, and en-route back home stopped at the mall at Pentagon City (huge!) to hit Crate & Barrel & WS for a few things I've been looking for.   Only after parking & walking in did I learn that C&B moved. Boo! The pan that I wanted from WS was out of stock, so I left in a v grumpy mood.

Made up for grumpy mood with impromptu dinner/movie outing with Judd - Johnny Rockets (Big Apple Shake = Pure Yum) and Wedding Crashers. WC was funny, but not as much as a howler as I was hoping it would have been. It took me about an hour to figure out that one of the lead actresses was the girl from The Notebook. I'm SO bad about that....

This week will be the mad dash of wrapping work stuff up and preparing for vacation in Nags Head next week. I've got a ton of stuff to pull together (mainly food!) for the condo - I HATE grocery shopping down there...
We're going solo this year (well, except for Sammy) - no friends coming with us. It should be a nice long week of relaxation, fresh seafood, playing in the waves, and catching up on some reading.