Reviews of the weekend
 

J and I had the sort of active weekend that precludes IotD posting.

"The Devil Wears Prada": thumbs-up in general to this one, another really fine Meryl Streep performance. To me, she didn't come off in this one as "Meryl Streep acting".

The Baltimore Aquarium: I had been through it before but was happy to go again. For 2.5 hours, the price of admission (just over $20) is really worth it. It enriches your life, I think, to see these kinds of things. The weird square mouth of a manta ray, the horrible teeth of the shark, the weird wild colors of tropical fish. Beautiful tiny little frogs that, if you touched them, would kill you. Big silver dollar fish, so silvery and flat. The dolphin show... as seen from below the surface, from the perspective of the dolphins. All very awesome, even if you haven't slept much.

It is not recommended to go to the B.A. on a Sunday in July-August, and certainly not on a holiday weekend. To make up for this, we went at 9am. This was totally out-of-character for me and required a small amount of sacrifice, to wake up at 6 on a Sunday morning and attempt to haul ass down 95 while watching the staties pull over every other vehicle.

While at the Inner Harbor (motto: "It's a shame about the rest of the city"), we took in the "ESPN Zone", the 2nd most absurd way to repurpose the ESPN brand. This is a Chili's style restaurant which assumes that if you enjoy eating the soup of the day and a burger, and you enjoy SportsCenter, perhaps you will enjoy combining the two for an additional dollar per entree.

We were seated in an area which resembled the sports book section of a casino, which I might enjoy if there was a game I would like to see on one of the 14 different feeds or the massive low-def projection screen. Food for such places is designed by the same outfit that gives you Chili's and Applebee's and Tuesday's and Friday's and pretty much every other goddamn restaurant in the country now, which generally means: same shit, different shingle. Which was why I was surprised to find the food at this one to be really bad. Then our waiter forgot to put our order in, lied about it, and kept us waiting for about 20 minutes longer than normal. Nice goin' ESPN -- I'm wondering whether Applebee's can deliver sports clips with humorous writing.

Baltimore rocks.

ESPN doesnt.

Just about sums that one up, huh?

But you two guy were TOGATHER , enduring and laughing ( or Bitching ) about the lousey service , Crappy food and Totaly FAKE abnisphere , but you were TOGATHER and THAT is what MATTERS !!!

here! here! ....are you drunk zyppit?


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well UT seems you had a sucky weekend? You tried. You get an A for effort.

My weekend sucked too. Mostly.

Very hot, rented Underworld which sucked so bad. There wasn't anything worth going to see. I Made natural spider insecticide. I live in a wooded community and the spiders seem to be so much in love this summer...breeding LOTS! I regret not getting into the pool today.

I got a 40 dollar refund check in the mail from the tow company. I spent it waiting for a RX at the pharmacy. I bought soil thinking it's not too late for some kinds of poppys. I never go very far away.
More hot weather...a yappy dog I've been teaching to heel and to jump a hoop. I have a kid with a disability growing into a young man who wants to go to college someday. He is the greatest kid. I just try to be creative with the time.

I don't know why I said that...I guess. I am just getting really bored. I feel like I am going to die before I can really ever live. I feel guilty for even feeling anything close to self serving.

I decided I am looking for a state job so I can at least have money whilst being bored.

are you drunk zyppit?

Well DUHHHHH !!!! ;)

Whoa, Underworld may have been a shitty movie, but... Kate Beckinsale is... is... *drools*

Next time you do Baltimore ...

DaMimmo's in Little Italy (expensive as hell, worth every penny)
The New Orleans type restaurant/bar in the Power Plant Live that I can't recall the name of because I was too drunk
Capitol City Brewing Company (get the trough of Onion Rings)
Phillips Harborplace (the sitdown, not the lunch counter)

And about a dozen other places that I'm having trouble coming up with the names of right now.

Of course, there's always Hooters.

That is a great aquarium.

We watched The White Diamond last night. This guy builds a small helium airship and works out the kinks filming rainforest in Guyana. Except it isn't about that, it is about him coming to grips with getting his friend the filmaker Steiner killed in an earlier project. Werner Herzog directed it, really good stuff.

9:30 Sunday morning I crashed my road bike and broke my wrist (arm bones at the wrist) non-displaced so I won't need screws and stuff. I go in to get it set today. No me gusta

Ouch, dude. Ask for the good drugs when they're done, okay?

Ouchie, Griff. Cast in the Summer?:(
You're lucky you've got all those lovely ladies to wait on you.

ouchie...you win the shitty weekend award! :eek:

heal quickly!

Zyppit's spelling errors are certainly worth the cost of admission here. There are all sorts of things that are interesting and funny here at the cellar. These hieroZYPhics are consistently funny.

Now now, it is a holiday weekend you still have time to take the prize. Besides my ER time was not even close to Wolfs.

EL-I did get the "good" stuff but I'm actually kinda scared of dope that gives your mind an itch so I think I'll stick with the Advil at least until bedtime..

XO- Just sent the ladies out of town...

I spent the weekend driving from Indianapolis to Chester (again!), almost in one shot. I got the pleasure of sleeping in a Turnpike service plaza (NOT recommended), eating a Cinnabon for breakfast (not too bad considering) and finishing the drive, then going home to find my basement flooded again (BIG surprise, NOT!) and not much other damage despite the heavy rains and such.

Junior is thrilled to be out of the truck and able to stretch his legs again.

No sign of squirrel invasion whilst I was away, yet.

The boiler is heating up some water so I can shower tonight.

I'm gonna go get some stuff from the store and crash.

L8r

Brian

cliche alert.....

Keep the shiny side up and the shitty side down, BrianR

[Mr]That should be greasey side down, shitty side would be for a farmer.[/Helpful]

Unless he's been driving through Amish country. ;)

Actually, had I followed my company-decided route from there to here, I would indeed have been on US30 from Bedford to Exton, where I would have taken PA100 north to the Turnpike. Bah. I did it MY way, to paraphrase Old Blue Eyes. I took the tollways the whole way! Expensive yes, but I made better time that way.

And given the state of my truck's cleanliness, it's dirty on either side. Old Paint, as I affectionately call my truck, needs a bath!

Exton, from all the way out in Bedford, on 30? :thepain2: That's nuts!
What then, 100 - turnpike - Blueroute ?

Yup

I did NOT take that route...too steep and too many tight turns. There are even signs in Breezewood warning trucks to stay off that road. Stupid Map2It software...

I might be dumb enough to bend a railroad but NOT dumb enough to go down THAT way.

BRian

Pretty much wasted 4 solid days of opportunity to be productive or recreate. Blew up some cheap fireworks on Tuesday night, and spent most of yesterday watching the Monk marathon on the USA Network. Had a lonely solo Bar-B-Q on Saturday night. Made it into town (Decatur, GA) for the 4th-of-July fireworks display, but a humongous T-storm forced its cancellation. Generally depressed and not liking my country of late.

We stayed inside all day on the 4th (in our defense, it was raining here... but we probably would have done it anyway), and then went to Quizno's for dinner before coming back home and watching recorded episodes of "House" for the rest of the evening.

I had to work Monday. It was supposed to be a half-day, but ended up being 7 out of 8 hours with no lunch for me. Sigh.

Went home, spent the next 3 hours texturing the walls. Spent most of the next day doing the same thing. Saw some fireworks from a distance while picking up youngest child (whom they called to come in early due to no-shows yesterday, worked him late for the same reason, then fired him for apparently being not "spirited" enough to work at Coldstone Creamery).

I've had better 4ths. This should all be worth it when the house sells and we are moved.