Addendum to Summer

1- Saw two genuine musical legends - the incredible Elvis Costello & the enigmatic Bob Dylan

2- Sally finally let loose some steam after all those summer trips. Than goodness it happened near a friends house and Darren & George helped me out in getting her back up and running for $20 bucks! Replacing a busted upper radiator coolant hose is simple work after all. (If you don't know by now - that's Sally pictured below after OBX, dont blame me for the name - My niece Alexia named her)


3- Finally watched my first Football Game of the season. Damm do the Dolphins SUCK!! ok I'm still giving Cam Cameron time to turn the team around - but come on boys - you let thata busted up Daunte Culpepper - whom we let go - score 3 TD's Running the ball in HIMSELF, and another 2 passing TD's??? Talk about embarrassment!

4- RAY knows how to cook !! My GAWD!!

5- Dave C. knows how to brew beer and have FUN!!! cant wait for that batch to be ready!

Yep that covers the last week of summer.....

For the Record :

Vacations suck....

No not the vacations themselves, but more because when you come back, unless you have one of those jobs which is FUN to you and that you look forward to every morning (Of which I dont have) then you realize you were in paraside of one sort or another and you have to come back to real life.

But generally I find myself just finally relaxing and destressing by the time I need to go. (note to self - take 2 weeks Vacay from now on). Then you come back to the daily grind - i.e. the zombie factory. Uplifting isnt it??

Well seriously, I did have a great time while I was at the beach..... just coming back.... sucks....

The Sands of Time...........

It all goes by to fast. I spent a week on Carolla, NC (in the Outer Banks) and enjoyed every single bit of it (almost). Great people - good times - sleeping & waking to the sounds of the ocean. It's really hard to describe the week in the short space here , but I have definite highlights:

• As mentioned - an requires rementioning as #1: going to sleep & waking to the sounds of the ocean
• Poker Night!
• Delicious home made Crab cakes
• HOT TUBS!!
• Being able to see Stars again! - lots of them!
• Tennis! - such fun; first time since I was like 11 or 12 yrs old
• Fishing! I finally caught FISH!! and 2 of them (Bluefins) on my first cast!
• Puzzles - Puzzles - Puzzles - and a Puzzle Off contest!
• Rooftop Sunset watchers
• Water Ballons!! FIRE AWAY!!!
• Pirates! (specifically International talk like a Pirate Day - and the associated Fireworks)
  
• Paella!! My grandma would be proud.

It's The Great Paella Charlie Brown!

Tonight I made my first real Paella. I had just bought my paella pan, had the correct rice (Bomba), good Saffron, and Spanish Paprika - along with all the seafood I wanted. Ahhhh seafood... that is a big one.

Mind you it took me 3 hours to find some fresh squid as the guys from Sharky's Charters, Bait & Tackle sent me & Rob down out to Roanoke island to the town of Wanache. There we made stops at Oneal's which brings in the seafood from the trawlers in the "Industrial Seafood Commercial Zone". Well then, after having driven 25 miles (and stopping a 5 other places before hand), the guy tells us they have don't have them - despite the Sharky's guys promising up & down they would. At least Oneal's sent us to Ellsworth's a few blocks away. They had Squid for sure! Well they did, and we found out from this big guy in his late 50's with a classic NC OBX accent and oozed lifelong fisherman. Well we could buy all the squid we wanted as long as it was in 28 pound frozen blocks!!! Sure enough he sent us to back to a local market obviously called Seamart !!!

Ok I got my squid - and the Paella was a first of many. Although I knew how to make Sofrito (the tomato base sauce for many Cuban foods) - I had never actually made it from scratch being lazy all these years. OH how amazing that smell alone was filling the huge kicthen I had the pleasure to cook it in. Even more so was that since it was such a large group I was working TWO Pealla pans. Overall I was pleased with the outcome except that I used a little too much of the Hot Spanish Paprika... use less next time!
(of note the cook always makes better food when supplied with a glass of wine!)

An editorial on the Editors

If you get a chance - and you arent feeling too down - go see the Editors. My friend Stefanie convinced me to see them - and on her good (hopefull) taste I said yes. I am glad I did - effectively combining The Smiths and Interpol sounds these guys make depression sound uplifting . The lead singer, Tom Smith, sounds a little like Morrisey from the Smiths era, and makes me think of what Cosmo Kramer would look like if he were making music - very herky jerky motions that definately keep you entertained. The guitarist was totally sporting the Han Solo look... quite amusing!

Additionally there were 2 other acts at the good ol' 9:30 Club; one of them was handing out these bumper stickers saying; "Who the F*ck is Biffy Clyro" well I wish I still had no answer to that question. I mean I have nothing against metal, but these guys sound like noise. ok a few songs were better, but still a mismatched pairng. Ra Ra Riot was good from the 2 songs I heard from them. Mental note to make a better effort to see them - I thought they were the second act & thus did miss them.

The tally: Editors 4/5; Biffy Clyro: 2/5; Ra Ra Riot 3/5 (based on 2 songs heard outside the club)

A Day of Laboring

Well summer is unofficially over marked by the weekend where we honor all those (and ourselves if applicable) who do the work. And what do most of us do for this long weekend - we do a LOT of work to enjoy a little time off... is it ironic - not sure... maybe i'll go look up the definition again.

So despite not having to work to make plans to do nothing, I planned on labouring into my new digs. Yes people I now officially *live* in the District after moving about a bunch of the burbs in this city. So I spent a good portion of a whole week packing, moving, unpacking, re-organizing, etc... its more tiring than one would think. Taking a break Friday night I went to my friend Ali's Bday party intent to see what all the hubub about 1223 was.... well we had fun because the people - the club is over-hyped (2 out of 5) - for those that know it its a barely upscale Club Five .

(With Rebecca, Ali (the Bday girl), and Char Ann)
Not to make the weekend a total loss, I did 2 very last minute things. The most important was resuming my sereis of hikes about the area. Not having done any since the Amazing White Oak Canyon/ Cedar Run hike, I found it an easy re-introduction to get acclimated once again. Lots of ups and downs, on this one but with some nice views looking back from the foothills back to the flatter eastern approaches of what I believe is Loudon County. It was actually neat that this hike crosses state boundaries. Of an unusual nature was all the quartz strewn around the trail (I wanted to call it marble). Lots of shade from th trees also.

At the top was an strange feature - it looked like the area had been struck by lightning and part of it had burned. Apparently it is also frequented by rock climbers - I believe some day Jon might actually do this cliff face now that we discovered it, not that I see myself doing it though, that type of rock climbing is tough on my knees.



After the nice drive back, and a short nap - I headed to my friend Diana's little shindig of a BBQ. It was typical Diana BBQ - we go cause we know what to expect - friends - food - catching up - and interesting conversations like Abby's trivia on the ability to nail Jello to a wall (cant bedone under normal circumstances), or her collaboration of Eric's statement a few months ago that Graham Crackers (along with oatmeal and of course Corn Flakes) were all made purposefully bland to limit mens "excitability". Oh yeah - that's my type of conversation - weird and random.

Labor Day itself though meant a bit of labor (organizing/packing/unpacking again) but most importantly - The Return of Croquet ! And this time my first female partner, none other than Diana! Despite a strong start, eventually Jon (partnered with Matt) caught up to us on a good run and demolished our chances at wining. Actually it was quite closely contested, but Darren effectively gave the game away when he left his ball within easy striking distance of Jon's ball on the last wicket. Game set and match.

This informal group that gathered though brought a smorgasboard of amazing food - rather different from Jon & Darrens standard Big BBQ's. Mary brought cayenne pepper bacon encrusted shrimp, bangers (not sausages according to Jeff), Key Lime bars by Alexandra, Ann's amazing black bean dip, etc, etc.... Considering that no one planned anything, it was amazing. I brought some picadillo I had made and was overwhelemed at how everyone raved over the simplest of cuban dishes. I mean I didnt even make black beans to go with it. Anyway here is a decent recipe. A bit of a difference is I used diced tomatoes from a can (i'm a bit lazier) and use white cooking wine also.