gonzai55

Best. Headline. Ever.


( Massachusetts City Plagued By Horrible Saxophonist )

Forgot to write about yesterday - I gave Mom a stuffed Carl Kassel doll and a Car Talk CD, then we visited 3 open houses, and went to dinner. The middle house was the one we were least interested in, but it's now Mom's favorite and I'm not opposed to it. Further west than we'd prefer, and a little smaller than I'd like, but a beautiful little home in the woods. The other two were nice to look at but nothing I'd want permanently. Then we went to Bluestone, where we often go on special occasions. As walk-ins, we wound up eating at the bar, and it was a bit expensive, but tasty.

Mom was very happy.

The rest of the story from last night - one of the guys from Roots Cafe turned 50 this week, and he and his wife decided to have a party. But not just any party - they rented the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. And booked a very loud band. It was a little tricky trying to find the place, I've never been to the Streetcar Museum, or ridden on one for that matter. Bad me, revoking my local cred card. But I did find it and there were about 200 folks there, so it was a serious party. The streetcars were running all night, 4 different cars. I rode Car 1164, which was built in 1902 and was a bit, um, breezy. Open seating. But very nifty and it got some pretty serious speed going at one point. The band was good but crazy loud, especially inside a brick and tile museum, so most of my listening was done out front. Everyone from Roots came, the first time most of us have seen each other in 3 to 5 years, so it was like a reunion. I also met an announcer from a local radio station, and ate a serious variety of olives. 'twas an enjoyable evening.

I couldn't get the photos off my phone, so here's the
( Baltimore Streetcar Museum's web site. )

And I'm only here to talk about the first half. We'll get to the Saturday night part tomorrow because I'm too tired to deal with it right now. Also, I may have pictures, but I haven't tried getting photos from my phone yet.

Anyway, I started at the gym, where I apparently did something wrong. I did a whopping 10 minutes on the elliptical and spent the next half hour gasping for air. WTH? Later, Mom wanted out of the house, so I agreed to take her shopping for groceries and clothes. We spent a ridiculous amount of time at Kmart, in part because she didn't grasp the idea that if one particular size of an item of clothing fits her, so will the same size item in another color. She seemed to think changing the color also changed the size & fit. Then we looked at air conditioners, since mine's cranky, but the one I wanted was tagged with the wrong price so we had to hunt down a clerk. It's still in the car, I wasn't up to hauling it in.

Since Mom paid for the air conditioner, I offered to buy dinner. She wanted Italian. And she ordered veal marsala. When it arrived, she was shocked to find it included mushrooms and wine. (Of course, the menu said that's what it was.) Then later she couldn't believe there was meat in it. And for an encore, it didn't sit well with her so she was darting in and out of the facilities for the next few hours. (I was fine with my gnocchi.) Which made grocery shopping, um, awkward. We didn't get home until almost six. And then there was my evening...

So last night I watched The Last Waltz for the first time. If you're familiar with the Band, you know they spent a lot of time in Woodstock, New York (the town, not the farm) and the late Levon Helm stayed there permanently, eventually starting the 'midnight ramble' concerts on Saturday nights in his barn.

Today a client called, but the boss was on the phone so I started taking a message. I'd always thought he was in Arizona, but it had been mentioned that he was in New York, so I asked. He said he was in Woodstock, NY. For the heck of it, I asked if he'd ever been to a midnight ramble. There was a silence, then 'you know what that is? I've been 3 times.' I explained I'd just seen The Last Waltz and he said the rambles were like that, except smaller in scale. But it's quite a coincidence, I must say.

Watching it right now, for the first time. I had no idea that the Palladia Channel existed, probably because it's HD only and I don't generally search those channels, but go directly to the one I want. (It's the SD stations where I mosey along.) Looks like some cool stuff, although being HD only I'll have to take care not to overload the DVR.

Anyway, they ran The Last Waltz a few times recently in honor of Levon Helm and I was able to record it. Wow, the 70s. But damn they could play. Digging this mightily.

An annual exam. Ahem.
Physical therapy, at the gym instead of the office, where my PT has many more torture devices at hand.
Then a mammogram.

Glad I took the day off.

RIP Maurice Sendak
http://news.yahoo.com/where-wild-things-author-maurice-sendak-dies-124719170.html

Today is, as far as I'm aware, the first time I ever ate rockfish. Kind of a staple around these parts. We eat so much rockfish around the Chesapeake Bay, the fish were endangered for years. And still, I never had it. (Certainly wasn't going to while it was endangered; it was rare, out-of-state and insanely expensive then.) But tonight I had a large rockfish filet, broiled in lemon, butter and wine and a little Old Bay sprinkled on it. Very light fish, tasty but didn't strike me as being as big a deal as folks seem to think around here. But now I know I've had some.

I found out, as I was trying to get out the door to go to gaming today, that I'm babysitting tonight. I was supposed to be at gaming until 10, I left right after the Kentucky Derby and came home just as the boys were dropped off, except they want dinner and I already ate. I had no idea if they were going to want dinner or not so I went ahead and ate at gaming. So the boys are off with Mom for dinner and I am to have the dogs settled and a game set up when they come back. They want to play Endeavor. No way that ends before anyone's bedtime. But all of this might have worked out a little if, I don't know, someone told me I was babysitting more than a couple hours before I was supposed to do it?