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Hola Keano

2009-02-02T12:43:00.002-05:00

Greetings, friend

I've been absent from this space for quite some time, but today's news seems to be an appropriate occasion to post. When we last looked, Robbie Keane was on his way to the scouse and leaving Spurs in an unexpected pickle. Everyone knew Berbatov was gone, but Robbie's departure was something of a shock.

Robbie Keane's £5 million, 6-month loan to Liverpool is over

Well, Rafa Benitez couldn't or wouldn't use Keane in his schemes (there are rumors of this being a power play with Liverpool's Yank owners), and now Robbie is making his way down Tottenham High Road once more.

I have mixed feelings about this. Robbie is a quality player, and Spurs need quality right now. They are locked in a relegation dogfight and can use his goals, but he has some work to do to get back in the good graces of the Spurs faithful. I hope it works out well - if he helps Spurs avoid the drop and take out United at Wembley in the Carling Cup final, much will be forgiven.

Sayonara Keano

2008-07-28T15:05:00.003-04:00

Greetings, friend

Today the nasty rumors have come to pass. Robbie Keane, one of Tottenham's finest, has been grudgingly sold to the wankers of Merseyside for £19m (possibly £20.3m with incentives). The K-Man has posted some thoughts on the deal, and I have to concur with his sentiments. However, in my opinion, there are two things separating Robbie from Sol:

Robbie didn't go to Arsenal (though this moves Liverpool up the chain of hated clubs. Without much thought, this list now looks something like 1-Arsenal, 2-Draw[Chelsea & Liverpool], 3-ManUre)
Robbie didn't go for free - Bringing in up to £20.3m six years after paying something like £7m represents a tidy profit.

Regarding the sale proceeds, it is interesting to speculate on who Juande plans to bring on board. The most enticing, yet far-fetched, rumor is David Villa from Valencia. I can't see this happening and suppose that his agent's recent comments were really directed at Real Madrid using Spurs as pawns. More likely is the prospect of bringing in another Euro 2008 starlet, Andrei Arshavin, possibly his Russian comrade Roman Pavlyuchenko, and/or Blackburn's David Bentley.

Still, quite a lot depends on the Berbatov situation. The notion of a Berba-Villa front line is mouthwatering, but nothing more than a fantasy. In any event, I trust Juande to sort out the striker situation. The midfield is really shaping up nicely and it would be a shame if Spurs can't take advantage of that service.

As the English would say, I'm absolutely gutted about Keano. He was easily my favorite Spur and I thought he was a lifer. I couldn't claim Berba as an absolute favorite as I've always expected him to be a short-timer. It is for this reason I never sprung for a #9 kit. And to think I nearly bought a # 10 kit instead...

I'll miss you Robbie, but I hope Liverpool end up with an early exit from the Champion's League and an empty silverware cabinet this year.

flitch updates

2008-07-14T04:00:00.001-04:00

Greetings, friend

We have returned from a successful journey to Great Dunmow. Proper post to follow...

Bring on the Flitch! (Updated 7/8/2008)

2008-07-07T09:42:00.006-04:00

Greetings, friend

As Robert Goodner has astutely pointed out on my Facebook wall, I have been neglecting this blog for quite a while now. It is true that twitter and facebook have dominated the part of my life allocated to wasting time on the internet. I am sure this space will continue to suffer neglect, but I have a bit of time this morning and it's time for a flitch update.

Court is in Session

This coming Thursday, the Charlottesville and Nashville delegations of the Albemarle County Light Ale Research Collective will board an aeroplane bound for the human zoo, London, Heathrow. Upon arrival on Friday we will take the tube to MB's stop (Blackhorse Road) and will then pick up our minivan in Tottenham, mere block from White Hart Lane. After I convince Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov to snub Liverpool and Manchester United, respectively, we will hit the road to Great Dunmow. We will be staying in Dunmow for 3 nights at the hilariously named B&B, the Puttocks Farm.

hehe, Puttocks.

Saturday morning will be the main event... The 2008 Flitch Trials

The Basics
The Flitch Trials occur every 4 years. The tradition dates back to at least the 1400's and there is a reference to the flitch in the prologue to the Wife of Bath's tale in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Married couples are "tried" before a jury of bachelors and spinsters with the goal of proving their love for one another as set out in the Flitch Oath.

The Flitch Oath
YOU DO SWEAR BY CUSTOM OF CONFESSION

THAT YOU NE'ER MADE NUPTUAL TRANSGRESSION

NOR SINCE YOU WERE MARRIED MAN AND WIFE

BY HOUSEHOLD BRAWLS OR CONTENTIOUS STRIFE

OR OTHERWISE IN BED OR AT BOARD

OFFENDED EACH OTHER IN DEED OR IN WORD

OR IN A TWELVE MONTHS TIME AND A DAY

REPENTED NOT IN THOUGHT IN ANY WAY

OR SINCE THE CHURCH CLERK SAID AMEN

WISH'T YOURSELVES UNMARRIED AGAIN

BUT CONTINUE TRUE AND DESIRE

AS WHEN YOU JOINED HANDS IN HOLY QUIRE.

Should a couple be judged worthy, they are presented with a flitch of bacon and paraded around town on a chair hoisted by eight men. A flitch of bacon, incidentally, is a side of salt-cured pork. mmm.... Should a couple be unsuccessful, they are awarded a small gammon and must parade behind the empty chair in a sort-of "walk of shame".

A total of 5 couples are tried, and their are 5 flitches to be won. Thus, couples are not competing against one another, but rather directly for a flitch. Couples to be tried are appointed counsel and the flitch has a barrister as well.

The Flitch Makes its way to Court

The Update
The applications have been submitted, the interviews with the flitch committee have been conducted, and choices have been made...

N and I are the official "reserve" couple meaning that if any of the 5 official couples are not present, or are otherwise unfit to be tried, we will be on the hot seat driving for the bacon.

The better news is that our great friends Erin and Jeff have been selected as one of the 5 couples. The bacon is near, and the banter is virtually guaranteed.

Stay tuned for updates, and check out Mark's preview...

Preview Post #1: The Quest for the Flitch
Preview Post #2: Flitch Update

And of course, stay tuned on MB's main blog:
http://mburtonphoto.com/photography-blog

Press Releases
Dunmow Gears Up for the Flitch
Dummow Broadcast & Reporter - Flitch Coverage

That is all

Flitch Update

2008-05-05T12:07:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend

While we still await word from the Flitch selection committee, we do have the official Flitch Blog published courtesy of MB.

Stop by and follow the action as it happens, or more likely, after a significant delay.

At present, you can see read a synopsis of the event, a complete (read: incomplete) history, and some information on the USA's only Flitch hopefuls for 2008...

http://www.mburtonphoto.com/photography-blog

Bonn-anza

2008-04-11T14:10:00.000-04:00

Bonn-Bonn, coming soon...

Forgot to mention in my other quick updates...

GO CAPS!

Woot!

Woot!

Zack Attack!

The French Laundry

2008-04-11T14:00:00.002-04:00

Greetings, friend

I'll write up a quick ditty on our experience in wine country sometime in the nearish future. For now though, I'll just post in this scan of our menu from The French Laundry - a fantastic dining experience that put the cherry on top of our vacation ice cream.

A few quick notes

2008-04-09T13:30:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend

A few random things on my mind...

Congrats to the Kansas Jayhawks for winning the NCAA basketball championship this year. It was the best final game I can recall in recent memory (save for 2002 for obvious reasons). The frantic, nervy finish to the second half was exhilarating, especially the 3 that Mario "Superintendent" Chalmers hit to send the game to OT.
Thanks to the Colonel for informing me just now that our kickball team name has been changed to the "Zack Attack". My favorite band.
Our flitch application was received by the Flitch Trials committee and we now await word on whether or not we've made the short list of couples to be "tried". Can you smell the bacon?
I am full of Mexican food right now.
The Orioles are 6-1. LOL! ROTFL! TTC! Now that I've posted this, you can expect 25 straight losses. Hopefully not. This has been the most pleasant surprise of April.
I almost think I dislike Chelsea more than I dislike Arsenal. Jury is still out on that one.
Cristiano Ronaldo is absolutely ridiculous. Simply amazing to watch, even for a Spurs supporter.
I should have eaten fewer chips at lunch.

See you!

Vacation Part II: San Fran and Sactown

2008-04-03T23:04:00.000-04:00

Monday (continued)
With Vegas memories behind us, we made our way through McCarran Airport where they have an impressive operation corralling people through security checkpoints. Very impressive. We had a little over an hour to kill before our uneventful flight into San Francisco's SFO airport. Arriving in San Francisco, we caught the BART to a station in the financial district from which we walked about eight or nine blocks to our hotel. We stayed in a Pricelined Hilton which basically sat on the border between the aforementioned financial district and San Fran's famous Chinatown.

Oddly, during our walk to the hotel, I realized that at some point I had tweaked a tendon or a gizzard in my foot and was having some trouble walking. Intense low-ankle/bottom of foot pain. Undaunted, I downed a few ibuprofen and we struck out on the town. It was lunch time, so thanks to some articles forwarded from Kristin, we chose a nearby dim sum house called the Hang Ah Tea Room. The food was great, and super cheap. We had some pot-sticker dumplings, barbecue pork buns, a plate of bok choi that was bigger than my head (which is big), some shrimp dumplings, and curried beef rolls. Awesome tasty cheap fun house for you!

The 'Traz

From there, we took a self-guided walking tour suggested by our trusty Lonely Planet and were not disappointed. The tour took us through Chinatown, into the North Beach neighborhood, and up Russian Hill for some fantastic views of the bay, Alcatraz, and the city. A few highlights from the walking tour included a stop in the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie factory, and a pint of Anchor Steam (decidedly NOT my favorite beer) at a charismatic bar/cafe frequented by Jack Kerouac called Vesuvio.

We continued ambling around and made it to the waterfront in the highly touristy Fisherman's Wharf area. We made the obligatory stop at Ghiradelli square, where we happened to stop into a wine shop and struck up a conversation with a nice guy named Tom who ended up hooking us up with some free tasting coupons at a few Sonoma wineries. We had the "world famous" Irish Coffees at the Buena Vista and then met up with our good friend Willie C who currently spends his Mondays in Berkley just across the bridge.

Absolutely Nothing to do with Our Vacation

We made our way over to the Fort Mason area for a great dinner at a vegetarian place called Green's. I ordinarily wouldn't be thrilled with such a blatant dearth of protein, but the company, the gorgeous sunset, the wine, and frankly the excellent, creative cooking made it a very worthwhile stop. We lingered for a long while just chatting and catching up. After dinner, Will dropped us off at the hotel where I learned of Eliot Spitzer's transgressions before nodding off to sleep.

Tuesday
We awoke Tuesday with plans to explore more of San Francisco before hitting the ricky road to Sacramento to spend a few days on Willy's turf. We spent our morning ambling towards the Ferry Building where there is a Tuesday farmer's market, and an array of fantastic food shoppes, butchery, fish mongering, and the like. I was left pining for access to a fully stocked kitchen. After getting our fill at the Ferry Building, we took the BART to Union Square and continued ambling and people-watching.

Eventually, we made our way to the Avis where we picked up shiny Ford Fusion and hit the road...to the mission district where we sated ourselves on some of the finest tasty tacos from a mostly nondescript taqueria mentioned in the literature from Kristin. From there, it was across the Golden Gate to a brief respite at Muir Woods National Monument. The Woods was a nice change of pace from our recent city tramping - it was quiet, beautiful, and the trees are spectacular. Unlike any east coast trees I've seen.

From the Redwood Forest...

From there, we hopped in our Fusion buggy and set a Northbound course on I80 for Sacramento. We arrived at Will's place shortly before he arrived home from work. It was just great and dandy catching up, and we were excited about our good fortune to have a few days in each others company. We went to the Bonn Lair straight away for some catching up and a pint before hitting the Safeway to buy the raw materials for fish tacos (for old time's sake). It was just a great night spent talking, cooking, laughing, and Will examining my feet, knees, and gait (in light of my earlier mentioned foot problem). We finished the night by watching the first two-thirds of the awesomely atrociously awful Live Free or Die Hard.

...to foot exams

Wednesday
We woke up early on Wednesday as Will had to get to work. After finishing the cinematic abomination of the previous evening, we hopped on some bikes and toured Sacramento. We followed a winding path tracking along the American river and terminating in Old Town Sacramento. Old Town was a nice touristy area with a railroad museum, restaurants, and shoppes, but was utterly dead mid-morning on a Wednesday. So I bought some candy and we continued on our merry way annoying the business lunch crowd by riding bikes straight through downtown.

Approaching Sacramento

For the middle part of our day, we drove back down I-80 towards Fairfield and the Jelly Belly factory tour! But first, there was something on my agenda - yes friends, I am referring to In-N-Out Burger. We stopped in Davis where I had a sweet cheeseburger (animal style) with fries and a root beer. The pump was primed to sample some fine jelly bean delicacies.

Burger

The Jelly Belly tour was fun and/or exciting. Sharing the highway exit with Jelly Belly was a large Budweiser brewery. We had no choice but to stop in for a tour to learn how watery crappy corporate beer is made. Given the timing of our arrival, we were urged to join an in-progress tasting before the tour. There was definitely something...ironic...about a fancy glass tasting flight of Bud, Bud Light, and Bud Select. After our generous tasting, we considered the time and punted on the actual tour. After all, having visited Miller in Milwaukee (both of us), and Coors in Colorado (N), we already knew how watery crappy corporate beer is made. We nonetheless enjoyed our time at Budweiser... We also sampled a heinous new product that they are test marketing called something like "Chelada" which was Bud (or Bud Light) mixed with Clamato juice. Can you say "barf"? I can!

Beans

To cap off our journey, I navigated our Ford Fusion into a piece of blown-out tire shrapnel and ended up with our own flat tire. I jacked up the car, put on the donut tire, and set a course for the Avis in Davis to exchange our shiny Fusion for an inferior Malibu.

I-80 Mishap

By the time we made it back to Sacramento, Willy was home from work and ready to hit the road to Loomis. We drove out to Will's friend's restaurant (Cafe Zorro), had a nice dinner, met Will's lovely lady friend, and generally enjoyed hanging out. Returning to town, we returned to the Bonn Lair for late night pints, darts, and more banter. Returning to the house brought to a close our very satisfying visit with Will.

Darts at the Bonn Lair

In the morning - wine country!

To be continued...

I love the muppets

2008-04-03T11:42:00.001-04:00

Greetings, friend

Thanks to Denny and Twitter, my day was made a bit brighter by Beaker and Rick Astley.

Vacation Part I: Fabulous Las Vegas

2008-03-17T20:43:00.001-04:00

Greetings, friend

We have sadly returned from a decadent week in the West. I thought I'd indulge a little and sort through the memories by way of reminiscing about the experience. Thanks to all who passed on their tips, tricks, and favorite places in that part of our beautiful country. And now, the rundown.

Saturday
The alarm went off at 4:30am, and we sprung out of bed giddy with the promise of 8 days of recreation, fantastic food, and rendezvouses (how does one make 'rendezvous' plural?) with friends both old and new. An empty-road drive to IAD, an hour kicking around the airport, and we were on our way to Vegas.

We checked in to our suite/room at the Venetian around noon and promptly began exploring the grounds. It is certainly an impressive resort portraying a sanitized, Disneyfied version of Italy's Venice. The real Venice is a breathtaking, singular place to find oneself and while no contrived themed resort could truly capture its magic, the Venetian is still a very nice place to be. And most importantly, great Italian food can be had...for a price (but in US Dollars and not Euro!) Our first stop was at the fake Piazza San Marco for some tasty wine, cheese, pasta, and salad at Mr. Batali's casual Enoteca San Marco.

After lunch we explored the Venetian's brand spanking new adjacent sister resort, The Palazzo for a while before cruising the strip. We popped into a dive casino where I managed to lose a few bucks over the course 30 minutes or so on a cheap roulette wheel. After some more walking about we made our way back to the hotel and hit the gym for an hour or so before cleaning up for dinner.

Saturday night's dinner was a special affair. We paid a visit to the brand spanking new Dos Caminos in the heart of the brand spanking new Palazzo. Having an "in" with the chef, we were treated (literally) to an extensive and exquisite tasting menu of fabulous, fresh, modern mexican grub. Outstanding guacamole, fresh salsas, perfect cocktails, ceviches, empanadas, fish, giant shrimp, chorizo, ribs, and a dessert plate that went on for miles. We were sent on our way extremely fat and extremely happy. Intending to have a big night out on the town, we promptly fell asleep due to copious food ingestion and bodies on Eastern Time clocks.

Sunday
We woke up reasonably early given our early bed time and dragged our overfed faces to the gym. After getting cleaned up we picked up discount tickets to Cirque du Soleil - Mystère, for later that evening, and then made our way down to Caesar's for a light brunch at Mesa Grill where we split a tasty spicy chicken and sweet potato hash with poached eggs. Mmm... Ambling around the strip, we fell into a reasonably nice, cheap casino across from Caesar's where we had our most successful blackjack stint and learned the basics of craps. After that it was off to a silly pass through Madame Tussaud's wax museum for which we had tickets as part of a "resort pack" promotional thing. Another session of blackjack (less successful than earlier) and we headed back to the Venetian for some further exploration, shopping, and an almost-trip to the pool.

For the evening, we attended the Cirque du Soleil show which Wacky Neighbor summed up beautifully. I'm having recurring dreams where I am somehow able to effortlessly climb poles upside down using only my hands. This show was well worth it for the amazing feats of acrobatic hullabaloo. After the show it was a late dinner at B&B Ristorante (Babbo of the West, complete with beef cheek ravioli and grappa di moscato. yum.), followed by some quality chill time at Blush in the Wynn. (Notable event - leaving the Wynn, I turned $1 into $23.75 on a single slot machine play. I subsequently lost $20 of the winnings on red. Stupid.) And with that, our time in Vegas was quickly coming to an end. (Another notable event at the Wynn was watching this dude play $1000 minimum blackjack.)

I find Vegas somewhat...odd. It's undoubtedly very fake. And it's a money pit. And it has to be one of the most unsustainable cities of modern times given its location and resource needs. While I don't think I would plan a trip specifically to Vegas, I would stop by en route to other places on that end of the country. We had a good time, we ate well, and we saw a great show.

Monday
The other notable thing about the Venetian is the presence of a Bouchon Bakery. The Vegas version was unsurprisingly overpriced, but the coffee was second to none. Coffee on Monday was on the go. A cab to the airport and we were off to San Francisco.

To be continued...

Gateway to amazing food

2008-03-15T23:00:00.002-04:00

Your 2008 Carling Cup Champions: Tottenham Hotspur

2008-02-25T13:07:00.001-05:00

Greetings, friend.

A glorious day of football was had at London's new Wembley stadium on Sunday. Spurs earned their ticket to the grand stage by way of a 5-1 drubbing of the Arse in a League Cup (Carling Cup) semi-final last month, and coming in were underdogs to the tedious and obscenely rich holders, Chelsea. Chelsea had defeated WackyNeighbor's Everton in a semi-final which sadly prevented us from arranging an epic viewing party.

From the start, Spurs looked bright and had Chelski on their heels. The first half saw the blues go up 1-0 on a free kick just outside the box - a lead which this Chelsea side rarely fail to hold. However, Spurs looked solid at the back, and continued fighting up front and in the 70th minute were awarded a penalty thanks to some handball action by Wayne Bridge. Berbatov doesn't miss penalties.

Berbatov gets the equalizer on a cooly-taken penalty

Didier Zokora should have put it away in regulation for Tottenham being sent clear through by the Irish wonderboy, Robbie Keane, but his first shot was blocked, and his attempt on the rebound sailed wide. Extra time was needed, and just minutes from the restart, Spurs notched a somewhat goofy looking goal that saw Chelsea keeper, Petr Cech, punch the ball onto Jonathan Woodgate's face and into the net. 2-1 Spurs!

Robbie Keane leads the celebration after a well-earned victory

From there, Chelsea looked desperate and resorted to whining and referee skullduggery. The 2-1 lead held, and the world rejoiced that a club outside of the usual suspects (Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, or Chelsea) won a major trophy.

Further, Spurs have punched their ticket to the UEFA Cup competition next year. Things are on the up and up under Juande Ramos. Hopefully Spurs can hold on to to Berba in the offseason and win bigger and better silverware! (I'm sad to say that's probably a lot more likely than the Orioles doing anything positive over the same time frame)

Images from the Daily Mail

Also, check out the K-Man's homage to the win.

Planning a holiday

2008-02-17T15:33:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend

N and I are planning an early March getaway. Now that N is back in the clinics, her vacation schedule is dictated well in advance and the 2008-vacation roulette wheel's first stop was the second week of March.

What's shaping up is a haute cuisine tour de force of the West. Some plans are set, but many are yet to be made. I would be grateful for any insight, advice, suggestions, and the like that many of you may have.

Logistically, this is what has taken shape...

First, we fly to Las Vegas where we'll spend two nights at The Venetian mostly courtesy of credit card points that have been accruing since the Taft Administration.
Next, we'll fly from Vegas to San Francisco where we anticipate spending two nights, though this is still flexible.
After some bantering about town, we'll drive up to the Napa and/or Sonoma valleys for a few days of biking, hiking, wine snobbery, and fine food.
The trip will culminate on our final full day where we'll be treating ourselves to a 4+ hour lunch at Thomas Keller's flagship restaurant in Yountville, The French Laundry.*

Given the above plans, I am open to advice and suggestions on all fronts. I've only ever been to Vegas once (not counting a drive-by when I was 10), and was out and about for all of an aggregate 5 hours. I've never played any casino games, and am woefully unaware of the etiquette. I intend to play a bit of blackjack, but primarily Vegas is tacked on as a food destination.

I haven't been to San Francisco since a college pep-band trip for the NCAA tournament. I have no idea what to do there besides see the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, and Alcatraz. I expect to go eat well.

Neither of us have been to California's wine country, so we're open to all manner of suggestions here. We've had experiences in other parts of the world exploring wine regions by bike and hope to do more of the same here. There are numerous towns in these valleys, so we're trying to settle on a "home base" town. Ideally, we would stay in an inn or B&B. As for other activities in the area, we could possibly mix in a ski day in Tahoe? Possibly track down Willy C for some banter? Hard to say, but we're definitely excited for whatever may transpire. A nice mix of physical activity, relaxation, and wine quaffing should make for a fine holiday.

* Those of you who enjoy the Twitter may remember my ill-fated attempts to secure a reservation (or for that matter, even get through on the phone) at the French Laundry. Well a friend who we first met in Fiji at the peerless Octopus Resort and have since kept in touch with saw my plight on the Twitter feed. He and his wife are in the process of moving out to the bay area and have likewise wanted to experience the restaurant. As it turns out, he has a connection with a guy who now has some form of business relationship with Keller and was able to score us a 4-top during our visit. Hooray for Twitter and hooray for meeting cool people in the Pacific! Should be a killer double date.

A nice few days

2008-01-22T17:17:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend

It's been a nice few days for some of my favorite teams. I hope it continues Sunday night at 6:30pm

Spurs 5 - Arsenal 1

UPDATE: Just found out that my winter hat which I left behind back in December was in MB's pocket at White Hart Lane for the drubbing last night. Go hat!

Terps 82 - Tar Heels 80

My Year in Cities 2007

2008-01-22T10:48:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend

Blatantly stealing this from Paul P. Asterisks denote multiple visits.

Charlottesville, VA *
Washington, DC *
Baltimore, MD *
New York, NY
Pittsburgh, PA
Orlando, FL
Los Angeles, CA
Dallas, TX
Shreveport, LA
New Orleans, LA
Bonn, Germany *
Munich, Germany
London, UK
Paris, France
Wellington, NZ
Auckland, NZ
Nadi, Waya, and Nanuya Lailai, Fiji
Mouth of Wilson, VA

UPDATE: Below are some places I accidentally left off, and/or don't really count as "cities" per se, but were visited by me nonetheless.

Ocean City, MD *
Rehoboth Beach, DE (Dogfish!)
Bethany Beach, DE *
Woodbine, MD *
Sykesville, MD *
Napier, NZ
Williamsburg, VA
Walkersville, MD *
Timonimum, MD
Frederick, MD *
College Park, MD *
Hot Springs, VA
Dulles, VA *
This could get out of hand so I'm stopping now...

I Love The Economist

2008-01-22T08:35:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend

The Economist is easily my favorite newsweekly. The writing is smart, the picture captions are clever, and the perspective is global. The articles are generally of a serious nature, but there are frequently nuggets of wit and humor embedded in an otherwise serious piece of news, opinion, or analysis. These nuggets are not uproariously funny in and of themselves, but their humor is amplified by their stuffy context. They tend to catch me off guard when I'm not expecting them, which makes me laugh even more.

An example from the current issue, in a brief piece titled Vote early at your peril. In reference to the Democratic National Committee stripping Michigan and Florida of their delegates to the party's convention in August:

The result of all this, complained a writer for the Detroit Free Press, was a primary comparable to "NASCAR on bicycles, Halloween with no costumes and Miss America without swimsuits" (the last event might not be as dull as he meant)

Click here for the original article.

Hooray for monopolies!

2008-01-17T15:22:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend

Did you purchase a diamond between January 1, 1994 and March 31, 2006? I did. And now it's time for the man to pay me back. The money looks to be significant. Apparently De Beers has settled a class action lawsuit by agreeing to pay $295 million.

Thanks to Paul P for bringing this to my attention.

Here's the lowdown.
Here's the official bit with filing information.

Now go get paid.

An assortment of goals for 2008 (as seen on my stupid myspace)

2008-01-03T16:31:00.001-05:00

Greetings, friend

Here are a few of my silly goals, some more likely to be achieved than others, in no particular order...

- commence the beer brewing operation
- read at least 5 full articles from every issue of The Economist published in '08
- spend some time in the southern hemisphere
- run a marathon in under 4 hours
- win the Great Dunmow Flitch Trials
- make some TBD home improvements
- improve the consistency of my pasta-making
- see Tottenham play at White Hart Lane
- replace the ipod I left on a return flight from dallas

Memories of New Orleans Banter

2007-12-06T13:03:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend

You may recall posts from earlier this year in which I described a ridiculous weekend spent in New Orleans (Banter in the Big Easy, and Banter Due). Well, at long last, Suave Suave has posted the evidence.

That house we rented on Bourbon Street (Rue Bourbon) was too fantastic for words.

A few selections from the gallery...

The House

Guitar and Bike

Very Fond Memories of Arriving to this Scene

Walking to Dinner

Evening on Bourbon Street

The Crew on Night 2

Rue Bourbon

Enjoying a Final Sit on the Stoop

This picture makes me very happy

2007-12-04T12:56:00.000-05:00

New Orleans, March 2007

Paris - Partie Un

2007-10-19T11:44:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend

I'm well overdue on a Paris post. Unfortunately the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of the City of Lights are no longer as fresh in my mind as they were in September, but I'll try to conjure them up.

For starters, MB has posted a slideshow of Paris photos. We overlapped for two great days, and I think he really captured the city's magic. A few notes on the slideshow...
1. The first time I viewed it, it took a little while to load. Be warned.
2. I first appear in photo #33.
3. The dude in the Gap ads is Alasdhair Willis, MB's old Art School roomate and current husband of Stella McCartney.

And now, enjoy the definitive Parisian slideshow!

For my own, far less inspiring photos, check out my Flickr Set.

So, the Paris story... I was required to work in Germany for nearly two full weeks towards the end of August. This happened to be a time when N was between wrapping up grad school and starting back in the hospital, and thus had a few weeks off to enjoy life. So, N flew to meet me in Germany on a Thursday. After a brief visit in die Vaterland, we hopped a Germanwings flight to Charles DeGaulle airport before dawn on Saturday morning. After an exceedingly frustrating baggage reclaim, we boarded the Roissy Bus to Paris proper.

We stayed in a small, clean, and quaint hotel near the Opera in the 9th arr. called the Hotel Peletier Haussmann at the intersection of... wait for it... Peletier and Haussmann. This hotel is home of the smallest elevator known to mankind (unconfirmed). Almost immediately upon arrival, MB and his ladyfriend Bronwyn met us and it was off to a cafe for breakfast. We stopped in the first non-pretentious looking cafe we found and were rewarded with inexpensive hot, buttery croissants straight out of the croissantenator machine and tasty cafe (that's coffee for those of you that don't Habla Francais). Things were looking up significantly after the frustrating arrival to CDG.

Enjoying our first Parisian breakfast at a non-descript cafe

After the quick nibble, we hopped on the Metro and made our way to the Île de la Cité, home of the famous college football team, the Fightin' Irish of Notre Dame. I was keen to see this, as the last time I was in Paris in the Summer of '99, Notre Dame was covered in scaffolding. As with most cathedrals in Europe, the structure is just visually astounding. Notre Dame, with its gothic legends, gargoyles, and location in the middle of the Seine, is particularly an interesting place to visit. From Notre Dame, we left the Ile, and ambled our way down the Rue di Rivoli to the courtyards of the Louvre. From there we lunched, and enjoyed a bottle of Sancerre in a touristy cafe in the Jardin des Tuileries and simply absorbed the beauty of our surroundings, and watched as Asian tourists photographed each other in front of every landmark imaginable. After sating ourselves, we continued on to the Place de la Concorde and up the Champs Elysées to the Arc de Triomphe.

After napping and freshening up, it was time to seek out a proper dinner. We walked about the Latin Quarter, past the jardin de Luxembourg, and eventually ended up at a fantastic place called La Rotonde in Montparnasse. The seabass with lemon sauce I had was quite good, but the star of the show was easily the escargots. I've only eaten these things a few times, a few times in the states, once in Brussels, and now Paris. These were easily the best - presented beautifully and piping hot, balanced garlic and herb, and perfectly sized and textured. Fantastic. The photo below is a self-portrait in La Rotonde.

La Rotonde - What is that woman doing?

The next day was Sunday, and the first Sunday of September as it were. As such, National Museums were free to all comers, so we spent our morning at the Louvre enjoying crowds and art. Post-Louvre, we picked up a bottle of cheap Bordeaux, some cheese and a baguette or two and enjoyed our Parisian lunch in the Rodin museum's sculpture garden (also free!). After lunch, we made our way across town to tour the catacombs, which is almost assuredly one of the creepiest places I've ever been. After that, the group was interested in experiencing Rodin's "Man Heads Into a Bar for a Beer", so we did.

Rodin's "The Thinker"

Later in the afternoon, we took a cruise down the Seine, contemplated climbing the Eiffel Tower, watched the sun set and the tower light up, and made our way back to the 9th arrondisement in the chilly night air. A perfect bowl of onion soup at a bistro on Lafayette warmed us up, and capped our two days in Paris with MB and Bronwyn. A fantastic time.

Stay tuned for the next installment, which will include our visit to Montmartre and Sacré-Coeur, a climb up la Tour Eiffel, and the most extravagant foray into the world of haute cuisine that I've ever had the pleasure to experience.

See you!

Twitter

2007-10-12T13:50:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend

Twitter is a pretty cool idea. It's like having a low-involvement blog. Post brevity is enforced, and there are cool features.

View my Twittering here: www.twitter.com/cpcollin

Sign up and follow me and I'll follow you.

That is all.

What's in a name?

2007-10-08T17:19:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend

I didn't follow the Women's World Cup very closely, but I did hear about the goal keeping controversy in which the starting keeper was benched in favor of the gritty veteran for the semi-final against Brazil (which the US lost 4 - nil), and the benched young gun proceeded to bust her teammate's and coach's chops in the media. I didn't learn the name of this young keeper until I read the post over at Quotidian CVille.

Her name is Hope Solo.

Is there a better possible name for a female goal keeper? I don't think it's possible. She must have changed her name to suit her career. Either that or she had a name like Hope Gronkowski before she married Han.

5 points to whoever finds the best (actual) name for a male goal keeper.

Web Two-dot-Oh!

2007-10-08T16:38:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend

I've recently been catching myself up on the latest and greatest in Web 2.0 virtual social network technologies. Some of these services are useful and very well done (Flickr, Facebook, LinkedIn) while others are hideous, revolting beasts smelling of the "unfiltered urine of satan after a healthy portion of asparagus"1 (MySpace). The one thing all of these services share is that they provide the user with a means with which to waste inordinate amounts of time.

Two of the more recent Web 2.0 services that I've been playing with are Twitter and Dopplr. These are some lightweight applications that serve specific purposes. Twitter lets you say what you are doing, and Dopplr asks where you are going. (Some would argue that Dopplr could be a feature of Twitter and I tend to agree).

In both cases, this information is shared with whichever friends you chose. In Dopplr's case, you can see if you'll be traveling anywhere near where your friends are traveling at the same time. Better yet, these are Web 2.0 apps where you really don't end up wasting time finding a crappy song to annoy everyone who visits your page with.

Sign up and add me.

1. Jack Donagy, 30 Rock

Weekend Sports Roundup

2007-10-08T09:29:00.001-04:00

Greetings, friend

It's Columbus Day and I technically have off. I may find myself in the office at some point today, but I intend to have a leisurely morning. An active weekend in the world of sport that is of interest to me. A few of the notable goings on include:

Terps
We made it up to College Park for the Georgia Tech game. After a strong start, the Terps let the Yellow Jackets back in the game. It came down to a barely wide long field goal attempt (thankfully made longer by the preceding holding penalty) which gave the Terps a 28-26 victory. The bye-week comes at a good time as the Terps lost some key players including Senior Guard Andrew Crummey and Rick Costa, the backup to the invaluable Erin Henderson at linebacker.

Still, despite the mounting injuries, there is reason for hope. Mostly because in the absence of shaky starting QB Jordan Steffy, Sophomore Chris Turner has stepped into the spotlight and has played with noticeable poise and confidence. He made his debut a week ago leading the team to a comeback for the upset of then #10 Rutgers.

As an added bonus, he is the son of the original drummer from Ratt and is a spitting image of Napoleon Dynamite. Let's hope this guy keeps doing well. It will be a fun 3 years. He's pretty much my favorite quarterback.

Your Mom Goes to College

Spurs
Spurs have struggled mightily to find their form in the Premiership this season. In the bottom 3 with their manager under fire. However, Sunday at Anfield they had a brilliant chance to knock off Liverpool behind two opportunistic goals from Robbie Keane, both assisted by Dimitar Berbatov. Unfortunately, a late stoppage time header from El Niño, Fernando Torres, gave Liverpool the draw at 2-2. Utterly deflating.

Thanks to FSC, I was able to watch the entire game. I enjoy watching Spurs so much I am contemplating getting DirecTV for the sole purpose of the Setanta Sports channel.

Ravens
The Ravens are my favorite NFL team, I'm glad they won, but they are completely unwatchable. Ugh.

Rugby
The biggest sports upset of the weekend was not Stanford over USC, but rather France over New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup. The heavily favored All Blacks lost 20-18 in Cardiff in the quarterfinals. Now France goes on to face England, victors over Australia in the semis. In the other semi, Argentina takes on the team that figures to be the remaining favorite, South Africa who beat Fiji in the Quarters.

How can we dance when our earth is turning?

2007-10-04T16:49:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend

Interesting article this week indicating that the Australian political situation may lead to the country's ratification of Kyoto just before the annual COP/MOP meetings to be held in Bali during the first two weeks of December.

Still more interesting is the fact that the Australian Labor Party environment spokesman is Peter Garrett, lead singer of Midnight Oil. Rad!

Fest!

2007-09-22T07:27:00.001-04:00

Parade!

2007-09-22T05:16:00.000-04:00

Wiesn!

2007-09-21T10:41:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend

Many apologies for the delay in the Paris post. It will come along soon. I look forward to writing about the incredible food and fun of the City of Lights.

I've been delayed partly because I'm back in the Rheinland region of Germany. Arrived this past Monday and have been a working fool for the past week and will be again next week. I return home on Friday.

Luckily I'm here with some fun colleagues and yesterday we made the impulse decision to rent a car, priceline some hotel rooms, and drive to München for the weekend. As it turns out, tomorrow (Saturday) is the first day of Oktoberfest. Huzzah! Sadly I didn't bring the camera with me, but I have my phone, and my colleagues have photography machines.

Additionally, I arranged the rental car online securing a Ford Focus hatchback. Picking it up before work this morning, we were upgraded to a sweet B-class Mercedes Benz. Similar model shown below.

Prost!

Paris

2007-09-05T16:42:00.000-04:00

Bonjour friend,

Paris - c'est magnifique!
It tastes good.

News soon!

N is here!

2007-08-31T02:00:00.000-04:00

Greetings friend,

Hooray!

More music

2007-08-25T05:47:00.001-04:00

Greetings friend,

There is an orchestra outside of my window playing Dvorak 9. I love Germany.

Beethoven.jpg

2007-08-25T03:18:00.000-04:00

Greetings friend,

It's the weekend now, and the weather looks to be cooperating. My room opens out onto the main market square and I awoke to the sounds of a large stage being setup, and the market's hustle and bustle.

Last night, we attended the opening night concert for Bonn Beethoven fest 2007. After 3 inordinately long speeches in German given by various bigwigs, the music began and it was wonderful. The Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by one Sir Andrew Davis and violin soloist Leonidas Kavakos performed Beethoven's violin concerto (op 61) as well as a spotless performance of Elgar's Enigma Variations. A great night out here in the old bundeshauptstadt.

See you!

more German banter

2007-08-23T17:25:00.000-04:00

So, there seems to always be some festival on when I'm in bonn. This time, it was a wine (wein) fest. Pretty cool.

As always, there's beer here too. I had a fantastic Paulaner hefeweizen (shown here) the other night at I watched the England vs Deutschland friendly at the bier haus.

Off to bed. See you!

Bonn cathedral at dusk

2007-08-23T16:10:00.000-04:00

So, we're actually leaving the office at a decent hour this time. Here's the bonn cathedral this evening. There was an organ concert this night, but we missed the start and the doors were locked.

Oh well.

Jetlagged on a train

2007-08-22T03:31:00.001-04:00

image/jpeg

Sweet! Looks like I can take crappy phone pics and post them straight to blogger. Expect a deluge of worthless posts.

Mobilepost Haus

2007-08-22T02:03:00.000-04:00

Greetings friend,

This here is my first post made via blackberry. We'll see if it works.

I'm coming to you live from smoky Frankfurt flughafen and bahnhof, where I am awaiting my 8:32 train to Bonn. I'll be here for about ten days before embarking on a romantic, gastronomic and sometimes banterrific 4-day tour of Paris. N will be joining me for this fun leg, and we both look forward to some Parisian banter with photo-genius, Suave Suave.

I'll try to post any updates, including the inevitable Phil Collins jokes that I will receive from numerous locals.

And finally, if anyone is interested in tickets to the first Maryland home game, get in touch. We won't be back in time. Ppoo.

Typing "ppoo" with auto-complete text is no simple task.

Ok, gotta catch a train.

Auf wiedersehen! Or however you spell that. What I'm trying to say is "see you!"

Vick

2007-08-15T16:54:00.001-04:00

Greetings, friend

The plot thickens...

EDIT - 08/16/2007
The best part of the above story is the handwritten lawsuit filing.

The Hottest New Video Game

2007-08-02T11:03:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend

The Onion's still got it. As a Guitar Hero appreciator and band geek, this feature article had me rolling.

Armchair

2007-07-27T16:29:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend

I'm listening to Andrew Bird's Armchair Apocrypha on my new work-day balm, Soundpedia. He's putting forth some interesting sounds on this album, and the songs are pretty well conceived. Perhaps a bit more restrained and subtle than his brilliant Mysterious Production of Eggs (sadly unavailable on Soundpedia), it sounds old and new at the same time. I dig it.

Bula and Vinaka - Fiji!

2007-07-21T09:22:00.000-04:00

Bula, friend

It's been a while since the NZ and Fiji trip and the Fijian post is long overdue. The specific details of our days in the islands are slowly fading into an amalgamation of very fond memories. The images in my mind of the small, special moments sadly aren't as sharp as they once were. The writing delay is in part due to busy schedules and such, but I really think I've been subconsciously avoiding it because I will never be able to adequately capture in writing what we felt, saw, smelled, tasted, loved, and experienced on that small dot on the map in the South Pacific. I'll give it a try anyway.

Leaving NZ

The story begins late Friday afternoon with N and I reclining in the Koru Club in Auckland awaiting our flight. We had experienced a few very nice days in New Zealand and were both giddy with excitement about landing in Fiji in a matter of hours. I spent some time working with attendants from Air NZ in a vain attempt at getting a free upgrade for N's ticket. I was in business class, but she was not. The friendly person I worked with was willing, but unfortunately the flight was booked solid. It was the Queen's Birthday weekend and lots of the Kiwi jet-setters were heading to Fiji for the long weekend. As it turns out, N and I switched seats and she got to experience some of the perks of Air NZ's business class, albeit on a short 3 hour flight. The flight left at 6pm and we arrived in Nadi on schedule right around 9pm. I spent the flight reading and re-reading Lonely Planet Fiji for probably the hundredth time.

Nadi

Immediately upon deplaning in Nadi (pronounced Nandi), we were met with a very warm, musical greeting from a quartet of Fijian males singing in beautiful, bright, major key harmonies and strumming guitars and ukuleles. It made everything feel just right - we were in the islands, it was warm, and the welcoming sounds of these singers put our excitement levels over the top. From there, our opinion of Nadi plunged off a precipice. We were not without warning, but Nadi's charms left much to be desired. The area in the vicinity of the airport was decidedly not scenic, and I certainly wouldn't have walked around anywhere. We were aware of the concept of "Fiji Time", which basically meant that everything happens when it happens, and you don't have too much say over when things happen. This means schedules and times are ... loose. While we came to love Fiji time, our first foray into it was frustrating. We had reserved an extremely cheap room at the dive/motel West Motor Inn near the airport. N called them (later discovered to be at a cost of $3/minute) and received assurance that the van was on its way to the airport. After about 15 minutes of waiting, just about everyone due for other hotels had been picked up. 30 minutes later - no van. 40 minutes, no van. 50 minutes, same story. All of the travelers bound for West's were calling this place and getting mixed messages. Someone learned "he had already been there and no one was there", while others heard "he stopped off at Rosie's" (whatever that means), and who knows what else. I think the driver stopped off at the pub. Anyway, airport workers put us in cabs and assured us that the Motor Inn would cover the cost (and that turned out to be true).

Port Denarau

We checked in, verified the time that the bus for the Yasawa Flyer (boat) would pick us up (7:30am), bought bottles of water and retired. Our room was no frills and non-descript. It was mostly clean, but not well kept. We were awakened promptly at 5am by the sound of pressurized steam being released from a stack somewhere on the lot of land adjacent to the hotel. Glad we had to be up early anyway! The best part of our stay was the humorous hot water knob in the shower which liked to pop off and hit you. We went to check out and were told to hurry because the Yasawa Flyer bus picks us up at 7:15am. ???. Fiji time. We rushed, ran out to the bus stop in front of the hotel and waited. after about 15 minutes, a Yasawa Flyer bus looking quite full passes us by. The driver sticks his hand out the window and motions with his thumb indicating that another bus would be along. In our short time in Fiji we had learned to double-check such things. N got on her $3/minute communication device and called the company and received redundant, yet not reassuring news that the boat would leave the port at 8:30am. By now it was 7:45 and we were getting a bit worried. The bus eventually showed up, was air-conditioned which could not be said for many of the other passing buses that we saw, and whisked us off to Port Denarau.

The Yasawa Flyer

The Yasawa Flyer is a "big yellow boat" operated by an outfit called Awesome Adventures Fiji and it is the primary mode of transportation from Nadi out through the offshore Fijian islands. It visits a few islands in the Mamanuca group and then proceeds on to the Yasawa archipelago off the west coast of Viti Levu, Fiji's main island. It leaves from Port Denarau on Denarau island (a man-made resort island accessible via road) near Nadi. Departing at 8:30am the Yasawa Flyer catamaran heads north to the tip of the Yasawas taking about 4.5 hours, and then heads back down. One boat per day - hence our fear of missing the bus. Our destination on this first day, Saturday, was Octopus Resort on Waya island.

The Yasawa Flyer

Despite the rocky start to our time in Fiji, any trace of anxiety rapidly melted away as we claimed seats on the deck of the Flyer. The sun was shining, the water calm, and the image of islands off in the distance was beckoning us. Island rhythms flowed from the speakers, and we were on our way! Waya was about 3 hours from Denarau, so we had plenty of time to settle in, have a coffee, read more Lonely Planet, and meet fellow travelers. The Flyer doesn't actually dock at any of the islands, it simply stops and the resorts escort departing guests to the Flyer via dinghy, and claim the arriving guests from the Flyer. Given the fact that bags were also exchanged here, the system worked surprisingly well. The first few stops are in the Mamanucas which seem to have a bit of college/springbreak/party atmosphere. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a backpacker in the Mamanucas (or Yasawas for that matter), and I found myself looking back fondly on the days of backpacking around on a shoestring. This part of Fiji really caters very well to this market.

An Island in the Mamanucas

After taking way too many photographs as each subsequent island was more exciting and new than the last, we approached Waya island. On the south side of Waya we saw the sandbar that connects Waya to Wayasewa (or Waya LaiLai as many locals called it) and were enchanted. About 10 minutes or so later, the north side of the island and Octopus were in sight!

Octopus

We grabbed our bags, made the dinghy exchange, and motored our way ashore where we were greeted with jubilant song and sweet pineapple juice. After introductions and a brief orientation, we were escorted to our bure. A "bure" is basically a traditional Fijian thatched hut and that's pretty much exactly what we had. The resort bures were certainly different from the true bures that we saw in our numerous village visits, but the bures at Octopus were a pretty good approximation of the real thing (of course with some creature comforts expected by Western vacationers). The highlight of our bure was undoubtedly the shower with the open roof. There's nothing quite like a shower under the stars in the Pacific sky.

Welcome to Octopus!

Taking a quick step back, I have to just say that I absolutely love Octopus - the whole package, the whole concept of it. The bulk of the land in the Fijian islands is owned by the villages that occupy the islands. Tourism is a large part of Fiji’s economy, and thus the relationship between resort and village is of great importance to both parties. From all observable signs, it appears that the relationship between Octopus and neighboring Nalauwaki village is healthy and respectful. The resort takes care to educate and expose its guests to village culture, and provide employment for many village residents. I really believe that getting this part right fundamental to making a resort a place people want to experience.

Extreme Relaxation

Octopus is by no means billed as a luxury resort. Its roots are firmly in the backpacker space. There is still a dorm, and the clientele is mostly youthful, but there is definitely crossover. The atmosphere is festive and social, and after spending a day there, I began to recognize most everyone’s face. The soft white sand floor of the dining room hosted maybe 8 or 10 large tables and you shared your meals with other guests. This worked out beautifully and we met quite a few nice, interesting people this way. It fostered a very warm, collegial atmosphere that I was glad to be a part of. Did I mention that you really had no other choice but to eat there? Fiji is not Hawaii – you can’t simply decide that you want to drive to Lahaina for dinner. Your resort is surrounded by mountains, foot trails, the Pacific Ocean, a beautiful and brilliant sky, and that is it. The message there is to pick a resort with good food, and on that front, Octopus scores an A. Food was fresh, tasty, plentiful (and all included!) Breakfast was an array of fresh fruit, cereal, and a few choice hot options. Lunch was your choice from a chalkboard of a dozen or more options, and dinner was generally a feast with loads of options and varied each day. Between the fresh fish, fruit, barbecue, etc, I didn’t have a single disappointing meal. And the Fiji bitter at the bar was always a perfect complement.

Sunset at Octopus

We spent an inordinate amount of time lying on super comfortable lounge chairs on the beach just soaking up the sun and reading. I spent a minimum of 2 hours each day snorkeling and exploring the seemingly endless reef just off shore. It was absolutely incredible, and at high tide you could go anywhere and just lose yourself in paradise. As the website advertises, chill tunes are always on queue at the bar, and the pool/pool deck provided a nice shady area if you wanted to escape the heat and didn't feel like being in the ocean. I typically felt like being in the ocean. At dusk, we would go clean up and head to restaurant/bar area for happy hour and dinner.

Fijian Children Heading to School

Once the sun went completely down, there there was typically some sort of evening entertainment - an outdoor movie, game night, night snorkeling, trivia, hermit crab racing. Or you could go disappear and admire the clearest night sky imaginable. No light pollution meant you could see an incredible number of stars in the southern sky. It was truly phenomenal.

Nanuya Island Resort

After four incredibly satisfying days on Waya at Octopus, we boarded the Flyer and headed north to the Nanuya Island Resort. This place was considerably smaller, but was similarly beautiful. It was geared more towards couples and honeymooners than was Octopus and it was definitely quieter. Going in to this trip, I would have thought that I would have preferred this, but we had such an incredible time at Octopus that I found that I preferred the social atmosphere with the option to get away. Still, we found ourselves kayaking, lounging, and eating like royalty. The food here was exquisite and a notch better than Octopus. It wasn't included with our stay as it was at Octopus, but the quality was astounding. The freshest possible fish (we saw the catch come in from the local fishermen), and creative, colorful presentations. We really liked Remi, one of the workers at the resort who was very friendly and always had a smile on his face.

The Blue Lagoon

The water here was fantastic. It was in fact the blue lagoon made famous by the Brooke Shields movie of the same name. Crystal blue, calm, and relaxing. The island of Nanuya LaiLai is quite small and we were able to sea kayak around the entire island at high tide. At low tide there's a channel between Nauya LaiLai and Nanuya Levu, home of the chic Turtle Island resort frequented by the rich and famous. There's an unfriendly sign warning you not to trespass.

Heading Home

If there was a downside to this trip, it was the trip home. If you include the boat ride back to Denarau from Nanuya, we were traveling home for a grand total of 36 consecutive hours. That included two overnight flights (both overnight on Friday - stupid date line) and a 9 hour layover in LAX. It was such a painful experience that it almost nullified the relaxation that we had achieved over the previous two weeks. We broke up the LAX layover by catching a cab to have dinner at Pizzeria Mozza, a Batali and Bastianich venture (cue Kristin singing the Molto Mario theme). The meal was perfect and it broke up our ridiculous layover nicely.

Photos and Narrative

I've posted most of our pictures and written a short narrative on my Fiji Flickr Photostream. Feel free to take a look around!

It's Amphibious!

2007-07-17T17:04:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend

If everything goes as planned, this will be my next new car! So long bridges, smell ya later.

Purloined in Petrograd

2007-07-15T12:10:00.001-04:00

Greetings, friend

I'm back in CVille after a quick trip up to Columbia, MD for an evening with The Decemberists and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Merriweather Post Pavillion. The Wacky Neighbor organized this some months ago, and last night we reaped the fruits of his (and WoWN's) labor.

The Decemberists with the BSO

It was a warm, beautiful night - perfect for an outdoor concert. With my belly full of a carnitas Chipotle burrito, the crew and I staked out primo lawn seats, rolled out the blanket, bought some $9 Stellas (ugh) and waited for the show to begin. There was no opening act - the orchestra wandered onstage, warmed up, and Colin Meloy and co. entered and strummed the first few notes of The Crane Wife Part 1 promptly at 8:00.

The orchestral arrangements were fantastic, adding layers of texture and richness to the hyper-literate prog rock put forth by the band. The orchestral arranger served as the conductor and did a fine job. The strings, brass and winds added quite a bit - particularly on The Crane Wife, The Infanta, and The Tain. Unintentional comedy was provided by the various orchestra members' facial expressions and responses to the rock show antics. Some remained stoic, others allowed themselves to get into the spirit of banter and frivolity, while others raised eyebrows at some of Mr. Meloy's lyrical musings. The highlight non-orchestral number was the encore presentation of The Mariner's Revenge Song, a rollicking, klezmer style sea shanty tall tale. There was dancing and frollicking amongst the festive audience.

All in all, it was fantastic evening. My drive home was wretched thanks to a full hour of sitting completely still on the beltway about a mile before the crossing from Maryland into Virginia waiting for some unknown "incident" to clear. I saw no evidence of an accident, but I did see a cop walking a handcuffed woman down the side of the road. Odd.

FCO VIII - The Verdict

2007-07-03T13:07:00.001-04:00

Greetings friend,

The 8th Fort Chode Open is now in the books. Before I reveal the results, please allow me to unveil the brand new brown Fort Chode Dot Com website! Thanks to Dru for his efforts in this department.

The Field

The day started off fairly cool for a late June Saturday in Maryland. There was some residual moisture and the greens were a bit slow, but in general the conditions were favorable for an Open. The Teutonic Titwillow filled in the one truly open slot to give us a complete foursome. The first hole was a par 4 and all of us got off to a rough start. The three chodes posted 7's with The Teut ignominiously posting a laconic 10. From there yours truly began to pull away. After the front nine, I held an insurmountable lead (45) of 8 strokes over both James (53) and Dru (53) with Josh another stroke behind (54).

Dru found his stroke on the back nine and mine began to slip through my fingers. Dru made up 2 strokes on the tenth, and an abominable 4 strokes on the par 3 eleventh by posting a birdy on my double-par. My lead was trimmed to a scant 1 stroke after the twelfth. The slender lead didn't last long - Dru pulled even and on the sixteenth, pulled ahead by one stroke. The pressure was affecting me at this point, evident in this video of my tee shot on seventeen (with sound). I was still down 1 stroke heading into the 18th hole where we both hit strong shots off the tee, but were both significantly left of the fairway behind some hills. My second shot 5-iron put the ball two yards short of the green while Dru duffed his - I was alive again! Sadly, a weak chip left me far short of the hole and Dru made up his ground and we both posted sixes, leaving me a stroke short of brown jacket glory.

We followed up the round with copious amounts of pork from Red Hot & Blue. A good time was had by all.

Complimentary

2007-06-29T09:27:00.000-04:00

Greetings friend,

From the random things that amuse me department - I'm always amused when people write 'compliment' when they mean to write 'complement'. I always imagine it happening as it is literally written and laugh.

This is a frequent occurrence on chat boards and the like. I most frequently encounter it in respective worlds of sports and food.

For instance, imagine that Spurs sign Darren Bent because he will compliment Dimitar Berbatov nicely...

Darren: That's really a nice shirt, Dimitar!
Dimitar: Thanks Darren!

...or, perhaps saying that a dry Riesling will compliment your spicy curry dish...

Dry Riesling: Hey curry, you're looking radiant today!
Spicy Curry: Thanks riesling!

FCO VIII - Training Report

2007-06-29T09:02:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend

I made it out for a drizzly twilight 9 at Meadow Creek (site of FCO III) and swung the sticks for the first time in 18 months. After losing 2 balls off the first tee, things were looking bleak. Many a divot was created by my prowess and frustration levels were high.

Later in the round, however, I made it on the green in 2 on back to back par 4 holes, so that brought me back. I probably ended up averaging a bit worse than a double bogey per hole, but what are you going to do?

It made me miss the days when JD and I would hack up Birdwood for cheap twilight student rates.

Fort Chode Open VIII - The Training

2007-06-28T08:09:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend.

This Saturday will mark the 8th (is that right?) Fort Chode Open (FCO). Hosting the single-round tournament and media blitz will be Willow Springs Golf Course in Howard County, Maryland. This short, par 62 course will see myself, Dru, and James battling it out for the coveted Brown Jacket.

FCO III - Meadowcreek Golf Course, May 1 2004

James mugs, Chris swings

The most recent FCO was in January of 2006 on the day of James' wedding. It is also known as the last time I swung a golf club. In light of this, and in honor of the uncalled for Spice Girls reunion, I hope to play a few holes at twilight tonight at Meadow Creek. The weather may have other ideas...

Look for a report on the training round, as well as the official FCO results soon!

FCO II-winner, James, presents FCO III-winner, Dru,
with the Brown Jacket

Facelift

2007-06-27T10:53:00.000-04:00

Greetings friend,

A wise man once said, "The nature of exponentials is that if you extrapolate them far enough you always get a disaster."

I don't know what that means, but after two and a half years, Ad Homonym has decided to heed this sage advice and go under the knife. Hopefully you'll find the changes to your liking. If not, well my friend, you can just go read about the Care Bears.

See you!

Kongratulations, K-20

2007-06-27T08:22:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend

A warm round of applause for our very own eponymous who was recently selected as one of CVille's Top 20 citizens for 2007. I couldn't agree more.

Friday night, a gaggle of the K-Man's friends came out to celebrate, honor, and harangue him before he kicked off his worldwide media tour which includes stops in Jamestown, London, and India. Evidence from the evening comes straight off N's phone...

Hehe, snicker, hehe

2007-06-24T20:42:00.000-04:00

Greetings friend,

I am downright giddy over Henry leaving the Gunners for Barcelona and the offseason chaos at Emirates.

Kia Ora!

2007-06-24T17:45:00.000-04:00

Kia Ora Friend,

For those of you that don't habla Maori, that's Maori for "Greetings friend".

I've been back for a full two weeks and change now and I haven't posted a word about the experience. Sorry. Let's get started, shall we?

I'm starting to feel like a Wellington resident. I don't really have much to add beyond what I've written in previous posts. Wellington is a city in which I could see myself living. Lots to do, great places to hang out, a harbor, sharp-dressed friendly people, and on and on... As always, our clients took great care of us while we were in town. We visited some old favorite haunts and were introduced to some new places that I'm sure we'll return to.

The Work Trip

Work-wise, the trip was a case of mission accomplished. Play-wise, we mixed in a half-day Lord of the Rings Tour and an afternoon of sailing on the harbor courtesy of one of guys we work with.

The LOTR tour was interesting, but I didn't get any particularly interesting photos. Without getting into excruciating detail here, the best bit was the road where the hobbits first encounter the black riders, where Frodo gets all weird and tells everyone to get off the road. Other places we saw were the spot on the river Anduin (where Liv Tyler tells the nazgul "If you want him, come and claim him!"), Rivendell proper, and the place in Lothlorien where the the fellowship put their boats on the river and keep on keepin' on. It was a nice tour put on by the folks at Flat Earth tours. Our tour guide was an extra in Return of the King. He played a bad guy riding one of those elephant creatures - Legolas gets on top of his ride and disconnects his mounting contraption and hilarity ensues. If you find yourself in Wellington with time to kill, and you're a big geek, I highly recommend this.

The tour was on Saturday, but the main event was on Sunday - sailing on the harbor. We met at the inlet around 11am and boarded the Airship. The captain, D, is an experienced sailor, but not a soul on his crew of 5 that day had any prior relevant sailing experience. D was a great host, a great pedagogue, and was very generous to take us all out. It happened that Sunday had perfect weather. 19 degrees C and mostly sunny (or as the Kiwi papers say, "mainly fine"). We sailed into the center of the harbor for some tremendous views, and yachtsman's thrills. The highlight was the penguin sighting! [It's too damn hot for a penguin to just be walkin' around!]. Small and blue, these amazingly cute creatures swam right on by our boat. I don't think I had ever seen a penguin in the wild before. Awesome.

Somewhere around the center of the harbor, we ran out wind. We motored into a small protected bay and tied up on a buoy. D broke out the caprese salad, fired up the grill and served us gourmet grilled sausages from a local butcher. It was first class through and through. While we were lunching, a southerly made its presence known and some fast moving clouds (some might say they moved with alacrity) came over the mountain (pictured below). We were facing some strong, unpredictable winds for our return trip which made this novice sailor more than a little nervous. Tacking and jibing, I seriously was afraid the boat was going to tip. The calm look on D's experienced face kept my imagination in check and we made it back to port with no trouble and with a healthy appreciation for the America's Cup. Incidentally, the America's Cup qualifying series, the Louis Vuitton Cup in which the winner gets free handbags for life (that was a lie), was going on in Valencia at the time. Team New Zealand won (and is now tied with Swiss team, Alinghi, in the America's Cup) and it was the biggest sporting news this side of the All Blacks.

The Play Trip

N arrived on Tuesday morning which was my last day of work. I was incredibly glad to see her after an almost 2-week absence. We had a big, celebratory dinner at Shed 5 with my bosses who had flown in, my colleague, N, and all the nice people we had been working with. The food was good and the company was even better.

Wednesday morning, N and I picked up our rental car and had a few laugh readjusting to the left-side driving. No major incidents per se, but the obligatory engaging of the windshield wipers when a turn signal was mandated is always a crowd pleaser. We leisurely checked out of my home for the past two weeks, the James Cook Hotel and had some breakfast. Last March, N and I drove what felt like the entirety of the South Island. This time, we were out to conquer the North Island. We hadn't much time though, our flight to Fiji departed from Auckland on Friday around 6pm.

We hit the ricky road out of Wellington around noon. A quick lunch stop in the quaint Greytown and we were headed to the town of Napier on the east coast. The region known as Hawke's Bay is known for its wine and is idylically situated right on the Pacific. Back in 1931, Napier was leveled in a major earthquake. It was rebuilt completely in the art deco style. Napier, along with Miami, FL, is considered one of the best existing examples of art deco. Righteous!

Thursday morning, N and I rented bikes weighing approximately 12 metric tonnes each. We took a long bike ride to Hastings and the nearby Gimblett Gravels wine growing region. The ride was probably about 70k roundtrip and boy were my legs unhappy with me after that! Anyway, we visited the Te Awa winery and restaurant and had a great meal and some tasty vino. I slept well that night at our quaint seaside B&B.

The next morning it was off to Auckland via the towns of Taupo, Cambridge, and Hamilton. Plenty of beautiful scenery along the way. We made it to the Auckland airport, and the amazingly hospitable Koru Club therein, and sipped cocktails and awaited our flight to Fiji!!!

Sigh, Fiji...

Bula!

2007-06-18T13:03:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend.

I have returned from the southern hemisphere and have already spent a hectic week back in real life. Paradise sadly seems like a distant memory now. I have yet to sit down and write up a suitable blog post, but rest assured it is coming.

In the meantime, I think the picture below does a fantastic job of visually summarizing my experience:

Terrific Pacific

2007-05-11T12:51:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend.

My upfront disclaimer on this post is that I have not lost sight of my Italian villa dreams, especially when Jed Dobbs is putting bargains like this under my nose. Timing remains difficult, but there are glimmers of hope, especially if United offers good flights on miles... On with the show.

How Could One Drive From Wellington to Auckland?

I've been working like mad recently towards the goal of a trip down under. The date has been a moving target for the past 6 months but it has now become a reality. In a week, I'm off to Old Wellers for some business and a few dinners at my beloved Matterhorn. N will be joining me a bit later, and we'll be taking a few days' drive through Mordor and Hobbiton (the North Island), eventually arriving in Auckland.

Air New Zealand has come up with the brilliant idea of offering free stopovers in Fiji on certain flights from Auckland to Los Angeles. We strategerized to get ourselves on one of these flights and will have a 7 day layover. Hopefully they'll let us out of the airport.

Where Are These Places?

So as you can see, Fiji is not too far north of New Zealand, and it is on the same side of the international date line. I knew practically nothing about Fiji a few short weeks ago, but now I have some idea of what it's about. There was a coup d'état back in December 2006 (!!!) but subsequent research has shown that Fiji likes to coup, and it's not a big deal unless you're in the capital, Suva, and joining in on demonstrations, etc. Well, we won't be anywhere near the capital and will only see the main island briefly. We fly in and out of Nadi.

What Does Fiji Look Like?

Fiji is comprised of over 300 islands. The group of islands we'll be visiting is called the Yasawa Group, the archipelago off the west coast of Viti Levu, the main island. We'll be splitting our time between a place called Octopus on the island of Waya, and another place on the island of Nanuya Lai Lai. I look forward to sipping cocktails, snorkeling, lounging around, hiking about, visiting villages, and whatever else you do in the islands. I hope to be completely disconnected from technology in all forms for this week including internets, cell phone, and electric can openers. I will make an exception for the camera and will hopefully have some fun pics to post upon return. See you!

How Awesome Is Dimitar Berbatov?

Extremely awesome.

Two Notes from This Morning

2007-05-04T11:23:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend.

Two thoughts from this morning.

NPR tells me a few things about the Hindenburg. Today is the 70th anniversary of the Hindenburg disaster. They played the news report of the moments leading up to the disaster, and the disaster itself. A very sad event to be sure. However, a curious note from NPR was that apparently everyone who remained aboard the fiery blimp actually survived.

Next, N left early this morning leaving me feeling too lazy to make coffee for one at home. Thus, I stopped at the Starbucks on the way to the office. As I pulled into the parking lot, R.E.M.'s "Man on the Moon" was playing on my iPod's full-disk shuffle. As I entered the caffeinated haven, the very same song was playing on Starbucks soundtrack... Weird!

My Favorite Bulgarian

2007-05-02T09:31:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend.

I sadly don't get to see too many Spurs games live on television, but when I do, it's usually memorable for one reason or another. There was the thrilling 2-1 victory over Chelsea at White Hart Lane back in November, and the more recent 4-3 triumph over the Hammers in March. This past weekend, I was able to watch the second half of the away match at Boro and was treated to this amazing feat...

My first season as an active and avid supporter has been satisfying - a decent showing in Europe and in the FA Cup, with real promise for next year. There are nasty rumors swirling that the big clubs are going to come calling for the Bulgarian wunderkind, Dimitar Berbatov, author of the beautiful strike seen above, this summer. Spurs paid about a £10 million transfer fee for him last summer, and rumor has it that he'll command £20 million+ this summer. (That's $40 million! Dang!). Hopefully he'll want to stay at the Lane and build something special while wearing lilywhite - especially with the fallout on the bad side of the North London fence after vice-chairman David Dein's departure.

Fill in the blank: Arsene Wenger is a _________ .

With the O's tanking after some early excitement I'm thankful to have one team to follow that's in good form. It'll be an interesting race for UEFA bids between Wacky Neighbor's Everton, Pompey, Reading, Bolton, and Spurs.

Glory, Glory!

Almost Caught Up

2007-04-27T10:11:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend.

As I mentioned in the New Orleans posts, I traveled to Germany almost immediately upon my return. From a travel and tourism perspective, this trip was almost entirely uninteresting save for the copious amounts of schnitzel, sauerbraten, bier, and bread that I consumed. Nothing out of the ordinary. I'll share two quick notes about this trip.

Note 1
For once, I was not alone in my travels. Another colleague came with me, and I was certainly grateful for this as I tend to get a bit lonely on these trips. Not too lonely as we tend to work 14+ hour days so there's not much down time, but still, it's nice to have someone to chat with at those 11pm dinners. Anyway, we decided to rent bikes for the second half of the trip which was a great decision.

The office is about 5 miles south of the center of town which is where I tend to stay as it's a far more interesting and lively area. Each morning we would purchase some freshly baked loaves of bread from local bäckereien, load them up on our crappy, old, brilliant, and beautiful commuter bikes, and pedal down a path that tracks the Rhein. It was the perfect way to start each day. Future trips will almost certainly involve bike rentals.

Note 2
This is a phenomenon that is not unique to this trip. It is a common thread amongst all of my trips to Germany which at this point are numerous. There are many variations on a theme, but the following story illustrates the gist of what tends to happen. Without further adieu...

Ad Homonym: Hi, I'd like to purchase these items.

Proprietor: That will be 5 Euro, please.

AH: Ok, here is my credit card.

P : Hmm... Mr. Collins... not Phil Collins? ha ha ha!

AH: [confused] ???

Note that unfailingly, a similar encounter takes place at least once per trip. This time it happened at least three times. It can happen in stores, checking into or out of hotels, checking in at the airport, getting past security at the airport, or past the security at the office. It's nuts! What is the deal with Phil Collins jokes?

The world may never know.

Drunk Man Parks Horse in German Bank

2007-04-25T12:43:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend.

Nope, it's not a joke.

Banter Due

2007-04-25T08:21:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend.

Picking up where I left off on the New Orleans fun time...

Saturday
If Friday was an explosion of energy, Saturday was the opposite of that. Perhaps we can say it was an implosion of lethargy? I'll leave that up to you. Anyway, much of Saturday was spent lounging around the house, or the small pool in the backyard/courtyard area. It was another hot and beautiful day, so this was enjoyable. It was at the pool where we first met the cougars next door. Our neighbors had been up late intentionally, and then up later unintentionally. At the pool, one of the ladies was asking if we heard all that noise last night. She couldn't believe how loud these people were - shouting, carrying on, saying absurd things, etc... We expressed doubt that it was us, but couldn't be sure. That is until we asked if there was a gong involved...

By about 1:30pm or so, we pulled it together enough to walk down to the river. Again, the day was absolutely perfect weather, so walking around the French Quarter was magnificent. Some chicory coffee and beignets from Cafe Du Monde hit the spot, followed by tasty, oliveoily muffelettas from the Central Grocery on Decatur. We planted ourselves down on the grass at Jackson Square, ate the sandwiches and watched as some movie was being filmed on location. After a fruitless search for a fishmonger, we slowly ambled back to our abode.

We spent the late afternoon lollygagging around the house, eventually whipping up a large pot of gumbo for dinner. Around 8:30 or 9:00, we felt it our duty to go out on the town though none of us really felt up to it. Wille kept the fire burning, and after a quick hurricane pitstop at Patty O's, we were back in the game. We returned to the house at a far more reasonable hour this night where we re-fired up the gumbo, fried some eggs, toasted some bread, put them all together and gave the dish an inappropriate name. This was followed by gonging passersby we deemed to be walking too loudly. I think the night ended with Wille nearly riding down the front steps on the bike in his boxers, but one can't be too sure.

Sunday
The sadness of departure day. We left ourselves approximately 10 minutes to get from the French Quarter to the bus station. Thwarted by film crews, redirected traffic, and horsedrawn carriages, we were barely able to get Wille to the bus on time. After that, Jed backed the LAV into a post and dropped Steve, Mickey, and Chas off at MSY airport for an ignominious end to another great trip.

Monday
Monday morning it was back again to the airport in CVille to depart for 2 weeks in Germany.

Banter in the Big Easy

2007-04-19T17:16:00.000-04:00

Greetings friend,

Please accept my apology for neglecting my duties in this space. I won't make excuses, but allow me to share what I've been up to.

On March 23, with much verve and enthusiasm, I boarded a plane bound for New Orleans to engage in a full weekend of elaborate buffoonery with four of my best chums. As the title of this post indicates, this event will be henceforth known as Banter in the Big Easy. At present I do not have access to the visual media documenting this occasion, but rest assured that it will appear in this space when available. Instead of using the actual names of the attendees in this post, I will use the names of the characters in the forthcoming motion picture based on the event - Mickey Bolton, Jed Dobbs, Steve Cardina, Chas Carlson, and Wille Callahan.

Setting the Stage
Planning for this buffet of banter began back in January. The Charlottsville Branch of banter, a sibling organization of the Albemarle County Light Ales Research Collective, needed a place to hold their annual seminar. Mickey Bolton was planning to spend a two-week roadtrip working on a photo project in the American South which would culminate in the crescent city. Agreement on the setting was unanimous. WC secured a flight from the PNW into Baton Rouge, Dobbs fired up the LAV and drove south from Nashes, and Steve and Chas used miles to fly from the CHO to the NO. I, um..., Chas, was the last to arrive, reaching 928 Bourbon around 6:30pm.

Arrival
I will forever have vivid memories of the moments immediately following my cab pulling up to the house. On the great stoop in front of the house was Mickey with a guitar, Steve sounding a gong, and a shirtless Wille photographing the nonsense as it unfolded. Upon (over)paying the cabbie, I was immediately placed on a bicycle older than myself and instructed to circle block and then speed down Bourbon Street for a classic bit of excitement. My words simply can't do justice to the absurdity of this scene, but it is emblazoned in my mind for good. The juxtaposition of glorious weather, the front-end of a weekend holiday, seeing good friends after too-long absences, and a perfectly absurd arrival scene converged to create a unique sense of happiness and well-being that is difficult to duplicate.

Friday Evening
After greetings, photoshoots, abitas, and some pre-banter banter, we hit the town slowly and skillfully making our way to a delicious and raucous dinner at Herbsaint. The banter continued on the town until the wee hours of the morning. Friday could be described as an explosion of energy and banter. After returning to the house, we learned about a fantastic company in Scranton, PA from a well-traveled hobo. Feeling re-energized, we (stupidly) went back out on the town.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Slack

2007-04-19T16:50:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend.

I am the worst blogger ever.

That is all.

NCAA Exits and Memories

2007-03-20T14:35:00.001-04:00

Greetings friend,

This past Saturday saw my beloved Terrapins ousted from the big tournament. As a tribute, I will post my random recollections on Terrapin NCAA tournament exits since 1997. Since I am short on time, I will only post what I recall as opposed to facts gleaned from research.

1997
The Terps lose in the first round to the College of Charleston. I am a freshman in college watching in a dorm room with about 20 other people. My (not so) soon to be wife traveled to Memphis for the game with the pep band. The only good outcome of the loss was getting to see her sooner. The only thing I vaguely recall about the game was that CoC had a big man that they called the "Shaq of the TAAC". Keith Booth's senior year - not a great way to go out.

1998
Realizing that pep band was a good deal if you cared about basketball, I joined. This year the Terps win their first two games. If memory serves, we beat the Aggies of Utah St. and the Fightin' Illini of Illinois. These games were in Sacramento, which meant on the off days, we hung out in San Francisco and spent a day skiing Heavenly in Tahoe. Great trip. The Sweet Sixteen was in Anaheim, so after 2 days back in Maryland, it was back to BWI for another chartered flight to Cali. We played a silly gig in Disneyland, and eventually made it to The Pond for the game against the defending champion Arizona Wildcats. The shotr story was that Mike Bibby and Miles Simon put us to bed.

Regarding the Terps, I remember GW putting Terence Morris in the game when it was too late. T-Mo hit some 3's. This was the Rodney Elliot, Sarunas Jasekavisciusciucis, Terrell "Cheesesteak" Stokes, Laron Profit, and Obinna Ekezie team. One other memory I have is a small, loud dude running around with the team. He was a relatively unknown redshirt freshman. He was Juan Dixon.

Also important to note from this year: I roomed with James and Kevy on the Anaheim trip. This pretty much marks a) the start of our friendship, b) the first time I saw James do "The Cobra", and c) usage of the term "chode".

1999
Another Sweet Sixteen year. This year is known as the Steve Francis year, or alternatively, the year Steve Francis jumped over Ademola Okulaja. Also, it was the first signs of Lonny Baxter's emergence. Obinna went down with a big injury and LB stepped in and played pretty well. The NCAA first and second round games were in Orlando, so the pep band played yet another silly gig, this time in Disney World. I can't remember who our opponents were this time around. Iona? Valpo? Creighton? Anyway, we lost to St. Johns. I didn't go on that trip, so I don't recall where we were.

2000
My senior year of college. The early Steve Francis exit left all of us Terps supporters feeling glum. However, Allegeny Hall instituted the Justin Tubb Free Throw Challenge, and directly because of this, a freshman point guard named Blake, and Steve Francis's understudy name Dixon embarked on their path to College Park lore. I was in England/Scotland/Ireland for this NCAA tournament. All I know is that we were bounced in the second round by UCLA. My Dad informed me of this via telephone when I called him from Edinburgh. I think Earl Watson shot 48 of 49 on his 3 pointers. In the first round we beat Iona? Valpo? Creighton? Anyway, London, Edinburgh, and Dublin made for some serious spring break fun.

2001
Shades of Glory. I was living in Maryland and was taking a grad class in Combinatorics on the side at UMCP. Anyway, this allowed me to continue playing in the pep band. (Yes, cominatorics, extra pep band, big dork. I know.) While I didn't go on the first round trip to Idaho (Birds of Prey!) - I stayed at Fort Chode with Dru watching the Hampton Pirates upset Iowa State and Jamaal Tinsley - I did go to the rounds of 16 and 8 in Anaheim, and the Final Four in Minneapolis. (The Combinatorics class paid off!)

Anyway, we fared better in Anaheim than in 97 as we knocked off Georgetown and then the heavily favored Stanford (featuring Casey Jacobsen!). However, the Final Four saw us losing to Duke. I'm not really one to blame the outcome of games on the officiating. However, if there is any game I blame on the officiating, it is this one (and possibly the Final from this year). It still makes my blood boil. LB's last two foul calls were unconscionable displays of bad judgement/favoritism by the referees. This game makes me far madder than the game we blew at Duke earlier in the year (up by 10 with 53 seconds left). We blew that game (Drew Nicholas should have made his free throws), but it ultimately made us tougher and I think played no small part in 2002's outcome. Anyway, Duke went on to "win" the championship this year over the Arizona Wildcats in a game officiated by blind, octogenarian donkeys from Durham.

2002
Glory! Magical year. We exited from the NCAA's as Champions. Hats off to GW, Juan Dixon, Lonny Baxter, Steve Blake, Byron Mouton, Chris Wilcox, as well as Drew Nicholas, Doo-doo Tahj, Mike Grinnon, and others who I'm having trouble recalling. Probably my greatest sports-related memory. I love seeing the floor from the title game on the wall at the Comcast Center. Be-autif-u-ll

2003
Steve Blake and Drew Nicholas end their careers in respectable fashion. I recall watching the Terps in the first round with the K-Man at the K-Man's house. They were playing Directional Carolina (or Michigan) and pretty much lost the game. However, in the waning moments, Drew Nicholas hit a running, off-balance 3 for the win. I think we beat Xavier in the second round, only to fall to the Spartans of Michigan State in the Sweet Sixteen.

2004
By rights, this team was left for dead going 7-9 in the ACC. A Magical 3 days by psycho John Gilchrist propelled the Terps into the tourney, where they would beat somebody (was it Xavier this year), and lose a very close second round game to Syracuse. This year we began to see the cracks. The team featured Gilchrist, The Great Hyphen, Mr. Garrison, Chris McCray, and the then young guns Mike Jones, DJ Strawberry, and Ekene Ibepickupstupidcheapfoulsearlyineverygamekwe.

2005
I don't believe an NCAA tournament was held this year.

2006
No tourney this year. I think it was raining.

2007
Close first round win over Davidson. Close second round loss to a heady Butler team with some great shooters and smart, team-oriented players.

2008
?

I blame James

2007-03-09T08:31:00.000-05:00

Greetings friend,

Well, it turns out that my "Realist" bracket prediction was also a bit too "Optimistic". The Terps of January showed up and laid an egg. A great big Dodo egg. They played like they were either a) hungover, b) entitled to win, c) aware that James wasn't watching on TV, d) of the mind that free throws are overrated, or e) assuming Miami would underestimate the Will of Bowers.

My guess the answer lies in c). In any event, it was disheartening because the Terps were the hottest team in the conference heading in to this tournament. We had a legitimate shot at a 3 seed in the NCAA's, possibly even a 2 by winning it all, but now I'm going to go with a 6 or 7. Just horrible. Here's hoping this was a wakeup call.

Also, the Sun's beat reporter, Heather A Dinich is terrible.

In better news, Spurs beat Braga 3-2 last night behind two goals from Robbie Keane, one in the 90th minute, to take a step closer to the UEFA Cup quarterfinals! Take 2 of this matchup is Wednesday at the Lane.

ACC Tournament Time

2007-03-08T08:26:00.000-05:00

Greetings friend,

Today marks the start of the fabled ACC tournament. Perhaps it's not fabled yet, but soon I will compose a basketball fable that involves a friendly brown bear that is raised by a school of field mice. Over time, the bear learns about basketball and particle physics from his tiny caretakers. Eventually, the bear sets out on his own and befriends a kindly female moose. They realize that they can never be together because the field mice that raised the bear don't get along with the amalgam of plankton that raised the moose. It is an ill-fated love, story, but the bear and moose hoop it up every day after school, and that's how the ACC Tournament began. But that's another story for another day. Right now, it's prediction time.

Below you will see my Optimist bracket followed by my Realist bracket. Not a whole lot of difference between the two. Anything can happen this year. ANYTHING!

The Optimist Bracket

Ok, obviously my optimistic bracket has the Terps winning it all. In this bracket, they would get FSU in the semis, which is highly unlikely. However, Al Thornton is an unadulterated beast, and if he takes over, well... Anyway, this is how I'd like to see things play out.

The Realist Bracket

Ok, here we have UNC winning it all which I truly believe to be the most likely scenario. They've been on the schnide lately, but Psycho T is going to come out with a mask on his face like the one the Joker made his ladyfriend wear in the first batman movie, and scare all the kids in the arena. While that's unlikely, it is quite likely that ol' Roy will get the best from his playas. It will be tough for the Terps to take another game against the Tar Holes on a neutral court, but it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility.

The other difference in this bracket is my lack of faith in UVa. They have not been a convincing road/neutral team this year, and while Duke is clearly garbage, they're still Duke and are still coached by an evil villain. I do think that Georgia Tech has been playing well at the right time and that they have a legit shot at coming out of this half of the bracket.

We'll see what happens. See you!

Thanks for Playing

2007-03-07T17:35:00.000-05:00

Greetings friend,

A big howdy-doo goes out to our friend Arsene Wenger and his boys at Arsenal who have now been eliminated from the Carling Cup, the FA cup, the Champions League.

Meow!

Happy Belated Casimir Pulaski Day!

2007-03-06T09:13:00.000-05:00

Greetings friend,

Ad Homonym would like to wish you a happy belated Casimir Pulaski Day!

See you!

Catching up on Things, Stuff

2007-03-03T10:24:00.000-05:00

Greetings friend,

As is my custom, I have fallen off the blogwagon for quite some time. I can’t claim any good reason, save perhaps that I just haven’t had the writing bug. My fire for churning out nonsense on the internet has gone AWOL. Why you ask? I’m not sure – maybe the fact that I have been working 2500 hours per week (perhaps fewer)? Maybe it’s just that January and February tend to be dreary, boring months spent indoors getting fat. Whatever the reason, I can’t say exactly. However, now it is March – the month of the year that sees the Madness whisk us into Spring and plenty of new beginnings, playing outside, and interesting things. Before we get there, I thought I’d share a few of the things going on my life at the moment. We’ll see how this goes…

Music
Not so much going on with the playing of the music. I have been teaching saxophone lessons most Thursday nights and that has been fun. It brings in a little extra coin, all of which goes into a box in anticipation of my next trip to NYC, which means dinner at Babbo, which means unadulterated culinary bliss. On the listening front, I’ve gotten a bit stagnant. A few new bits: Just got the new, nicely titled Of Montreal album, Hissing Fauna, are you the Destroyer? off of iTunes. We’ll see if it lives up to the outstanding The Sunlandic Twins album. Further, I’m really digging the Lily Allen single, Alfie. Finally, while composing (composting?) this post, I purchased 2 tickets to see Ben Gibbard at the 9:30 club on a Thursday night in May. Not sure if I can even go, but I figure I can unload them on eBay (or one of you) if I can’t make it. I’ll be pretty excited to see the show if I can swing it though.

Italy
Haven’t forgotten about my Italian excursion dreams. If it’s to happen in 2007, it’s looking like sometime in late fall is the only possibility. The idea of a Thanksgiving in Italia has crossed my mind. N and I continue to take language lessons at Ecco Italy in CVille and it has been great. We’ve met some really neat people, and have learned quite a lot. I still can’t speak with any comfort, but I feel pretty comfortable with my ability to read and get the gist of it. Let’s talk about the trip, I really want to go to Italy this year.

Cooking
Spending lots of time indoors in the winter does afford me the opportunity to take on some nice culinary projects. I particularly like the long, slow braises of various beautiful cuts of beef and/or pork, simmered in wine, herbs, etc. My pasta making has improved quite a lot in the past year or so. I still have a long way to go, but I’m now reasonably consistent, though my rolling still takes me too long. The other great discovery in my kitchen is the use of guanciale – a cured hog jowl, not unlike an artisanal bacon. It’s the key ingredient in Bucatini all’Amatriciana, and it’s got an intense, rich, porky delightful flavor. The nice folks at Feast in Cville were able to procure this cut for me, and I salute them. It came from Salumi in Seattle.

Fitness
Given my increased consumption of braised meats and fatty cured pork, you’re probably thinking that I am now a chode (wider than tall). Not quite. Though my running has dropped off precipitously since the race I ran in early January, I have joined a gym! The Charlottesville ACAC. My company subsidized memberships, so N and I joined and so far so good. I’m only going about twice a week now, but it’s a start. Thanks to Denny for providing some nice workout plans.

Travel
I haven’t really had to travel much recently. We did the Disney half marathon in Orlando, but I’ve pretty much stayed local since then and it’s been great to just enjoy life in Virginia (The Homestead was particularly nice, thanks Colonel). However, more travel is on the horizon. I’m expecting a quick trip to Bonn sometime soon, followed by a long trip to New Zealand. If things go well, NZ will include 2 weeks of work followed by 2 weeks of play. Unfortunately, the scheduling is dependent on many variables well outside of my control, so stay tuned. Coming up later in March is the annual “CVille branch’s thoughtful weekend away for the benefit of wives only, and not because we’re going to have any fun” weekend, also known as the men’s banter weekend. (If you recall, last year this took place in NYC). This year, the gang heads to New Orleans. Unfortunately, I am still on the fence about attendance due to the (now fading) possibility of my having to be in Wellington (or Bonn?) on the appointed dates. Rest assured, whether I attend or not, New Orleans will be thoroughly bantered.

Sport
Of late, my teams have been heading towards greener pastures after weeks of middling in brown poofields. Spurs are winning and they face a struggling Hammers side tomorrow in a Premiership derby match. They were gifted a bye in the UEFA cup thanks to Feyenoord’s brawl with Nancy (I love football, where else do you get a team called Nancy?) Also, my Fantasy EPL team, Real Collins, has surged into a solid second place in the FC Charlottesville league. We’ve already discussed the Terps who have suddenly become one of the hottest teams around. Here’s hoping they continue it this afternoon and complete the sweep of the state of North Carolina.

Photography
I’m considering purchasing a nice camera, but I haven’t quite decided if I’m going to move forward with this or not. My favorite photog MB is hopping over to the states for most of March, and I’m looking forward to discussions with him on this topic. I’m motivated by a few things. First, New Zealand. I think it is one of the most beautiful places I can ever imagine, and I’d like to take some photos while I’m there on what could be my last trip there. Second, it’s a hobby I’ve thought about getting into for a while, and under the tutelage of MB, I think I could learn quite a bit. Third, Italy? Fourth, kids someday (though this is a few years off, I may want to let the technology evolve some more). Fifth, I gave the freaking government a no interest loan over the course of the past year and now they’re paying me back.

The major drawback, in my opinion, is that when I travel, I really like to soak up where I am, to chat with the locals, and to experience the place as fully as I can. I’m afraid that if I’m messing with a camera or always worried about getting a picture, I’ll trade the richness of the experience for photographic memories of a place that I didn’t fully experience. That probably sounds a bit wacko, or half-baked, but it’s really my biggest hangup on this purchasing decision. However, in casual situations among groups of friends (see the upcoming men’s banter weekend), we’re always thankful that MB catalogues the experience so very well. If I can find the happy medium, I’ll be ok. As far as hardware, I’m looking primarily at Canon’s digital rebel XTi (or 400D if you’re in Europe).

Home Improvement
An area in which I am completely slacking. Here are some goals for the spring, not all of which will be accomplished, but I’d like to knock out at least 2 of them. Powerwash the deck, build a planter-wall thing in front of the house to fill the gaping hole left by my demolition of the boxwood and holly bush, install recessed lighting in my bedroom, redo both bathrooms upstairs, and… That’s all I’ve got. If I get two of these done before July, I’ll be pleased.

See you!

Transformation Complete

2007-03-01T17:36:00.000-05:00

Photo credits to Dru

Greetings Friend,

Yes, it's been a while since I've posted. I hope to do a quick round-up post on a bunch of topics soon (ala Wacky Neighbor, but far less intelligible), but for now, it's Terp Time baby! Much like Bambale Osby's transformation into The Hulk is complete, the Terps (23-7) transformation into a legit contender is complete. Left for dead three weeks ago, the Terrapins have formed into a cohesive unit, a well-oiled machine, a group of kids that now seem to just get it. The young guys have been accepted by the old guys, the seniors are playing their roles, and everyone is just playing all-around tough, unselfish basketball. The General had more assists (12) than the entire Duke team (9) while coming 1 rebound short of a triple-double!!

For the first time in two years, I will have a personal interest in March Madness. Let the games begin!

And a big "thanks for nothing" goes out to ESPN for last night's coverage of the game. We miss the first 7 minutes so we can watch a parade of fouls and freethrows in a crappy Big East game, and then we twice lose the video feed in the last 6 minutes of the game. Not to mention how we got to see some digital renditions of Duke's new practice facility while the game was in progress... Also, I think Dick Vitale's color commentary included a quip that Britney, Paris, and Lindsay would all be dead by 40. Put that one away for a rainy day.

Signing Day

2007-02-08T08:35:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

Yesterday was college football recruiting's signing day. I haven't followed this at all. However, I noticed in the Post that the Terps picked up a 350-lb OL named Bearthur Johnson. His name is Bea Arthur?!?!

Punch Out!

2007-01-25T16:21:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

For anyone who's ever spent significant time playing Mike Tyson's Punch Out!

AeroGarden Update 3

2007-01-25T09:20:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

The AeroGarden is growing gangbusters, reminding me that I need to blog more.

I'm going to blame it on being sick this week. You heard me.

January 24, 2007

AeroGarden Update 2

2007-01-18T09:32:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

What a difference a week makes! The salad greens are growing in full force. I estimate that between one and two weeks from now, we'll be ready for the first harvest.

January 17, 2007

RIP

2007-01-15T19:45:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

A sad day in the world of the saxophone greats. A latter-day legend, Michael Brecker, passed away on Saturday, January 13, 2007.

Bend It

2007-01-12T09:44:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

As you may know, my interest in football (soccer) has risen slowly but surely. It really started with the 2002 World Cup, but has risen asymptotically since this past summer's competition. Since then, I've sporadically tried to watch MLS, but unfortunately I find it almost entirely unwatchable. The quality of play in international fixtures ala the World Cup, and the various top-flight international leagues (though I really am only able to follow the EPL) make it seem like an almost entirely different sport. I'd like to see MLS do well here, but I'm not convinced that it can.

Even so, major news this week with Real Madrid benchwarmer and international super-brand David Beckham coming to play for the Los Angeles MLS team. I'm not sure that this will mean a great deal for football here, save perhaps for LA Galaxy games getting picked up by some network so they can show the peacock parade of Hollywood A-listers that flock to see Becks Bend it Like Frank Lampard. (refer to Lakers home games).

Anyway, in a much quieter corner of the world of international soccer players coming to the US, there is a much more important rumor. One I confess that I have mixed emotions on. While Davids doesn't get much playing time at Spurs (or as the Britons say "is surplus to requirements at Spurs"), it always fires me up when the Dutchman runs around all crazy like when he comes out onto the pitch. It's always easy to pick him out irrespective of camera angles.

Glory, Glory, Tottenham Hotspur!

Walt Disney World Half Marathon 2007

2007-01-11T22:18:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

As many of you know, N, myself, my sister, and my parents all traveled south to Orlando to run the WDW Half-Marathon. We all finished the race and we all have our Donald Duck medals to prove it. I am quite proud of my family, especially the parents who are new to the whole running game. We're known in the running community as the CC Cats and we have the shirts to prove it! Bet!

N and I ran the entire race together and finished with a chip time of 1:44:16, which is a 7:57/mile pace. We were very pleased as we shaved a minute or two off of our time from last year, despite a training commitment that was feeble at best on my part. The time difference was likely achieved by starting in a favorable starting corral this year. Last year we were passing folks who set out to walk the entire race for the first 6 or 7 miles. Anyway, you can check out our official results here...

The race itself is great fun. It starts near the Epcot park, heads for the Magic Kingdom, goes through the Magic Kingdom, returns to Epcot, and goes through Epcot. Lots of characters, music, and entertainment throughout. I'm sure the full marathon is even more fun, but I'm just not ready to commit to that. I can pull my junk together for a half in a matter of weeks, but a full is a completely different animal and I will require some kind of external motivation if that's to happen again. I'm lazy and don't like pain. Perhaps Denny will motivate me and we'll ambitiously try to qualify for Boston together. I'm WAY ahead of myself now...

Anyway, a few pictures from the Florida weekend. (Check out the full set of my photos here!)

Pre-race Family Photo, ~3:15 AM

Family Hits the MK

Post-race, N and I back at the Hotel Pool

Sister K and I Eating Ice Cream and Watching a Parade

AeroGarden Update 1

2007-01-11T22:07:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

For Christmas, N and I received an AeroGarden device from E and S. It is perhaps the coolest thing in our house. It is essentially an indoor hydroponic garden in which even those with the brownest of thumbs can grow produce. Using only water, nutrient tablets, light, proprietary seed pods, and the voodoo magic known as photosynthesis, we are able to grow salad greens, chili peppers, herbs, man/goat hybrids, strawberries, and what have you. The only downside is the proprietary nature of the seed pods...

At any rate, a little over a week ago, N and I kicked off the process of growing salad greens in this newfangled greenery factory. I intend to provide weekly photographic updates. And now, photo the first...

January 10, 2007

PSA: Zebras

2007-01-11T08:34:00.000-05:00

Time for a change

2007-01-03T10:01:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

I decided it was time to retire the absurdist banana in the ear self-portrait on my blogger profile. I'm going to go with this new artsy, emo shot for a while.

See you!

Let the walrus keep his bucket, sheesh!

2007-01-02T17:01:00.000-05:00

Post-Christmas Blues

2006-12-28T12:36:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

As always, apologies for the dearth of posts recently. Christmas is in the rearview mirror and 2007 is around the bend. It seems that this season gets shorter and shorter with each passing year. Perhaps it was this year's lack of humorous online shopping experiences, or perhaps I'm just getting old. Regardless, before the typical depressingness of January sets in I figured I'd compose an ambling, go-nowhere blog post.

In the days leading up to Christmas, we celebrated N's birthday with a trip to Christian's Pizza followed by a viewing of the old favorite Christmas Special, Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas with The K-Man. After the movie, we sat around with a late-arriving TJ and reminisced about various childhood Christmas traditions. It was a great time all around.

Christmas break was a fun time, as always. We left Cville Friday afternoon and met my sister and cousins in DC for a tapas dinner at the always great Jaleo. After dinner, it was off to The Brickskeller to meet up with Let it be released from the mind and to enjoy some fine beers from around the globe. Are you fellas goin' to the globe tonight?

After that, it was the long weekend of nonstop driving visiting folks in Columbia, Finksburg, Walkersville, Hanover, Annapolis, and Sykesville. All of our visits were nice and all too short. For Christmas, I received many nice gifts including an array of cooking-related accoutrement, some new threads, and a much-needed new winter coat that I am quite fond of.

What's on deck you ask? Well, tomorrow we head to Pburgh with TPwTBB for a long New Year's weekend with James, Bri, and Jacob. The following weekend, we're off to Orlando for the Disney Half Marathon. After that, no definitive plans.

In my sports world, the Terps take on Purdue in the Champs Sports bowl in Orlando Friday night at 8pm. We'll be watching in Pittsburgh if it's not blacked out as Terps games are wont to be in Pittsville. The Ravens are looking scarily well-balanced and are poised to make a nice playoff run. This could get exciting. Terps hoops are off to a nice start despite the losses at BC and to ND in BB&Crap Tournament. After a 10-day or so layoff they looked like doody against American. We'll see how they look against the Mt. St. Mary's juggernaut tonight. Spurs dropped a pre-Christmas tie 3-1 with Newcastle, but rallied behind Berbs (2 ast) and Defoe (2 goals) to beat Aston Villa 2-1 in a Boxing Day fixture at the lane. This leaves them 7th in the table 3 points behind Liverpool (6th) and 5 behind those Arsenal wankers (tied for 3rd with Bolton).

Finally, an update on the keywords people are using to find Ad Homonym (this amuses me to no end).

Mozambique!

2006-12-21T12:33:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

Allow me to draw your attention to a new blog setup by my dear friend JD. It will chronicle the fast approaching African adventure of two great people helping out the world as best they can.

And now, I give to you...

Mozambique Winter 2007

See you!

Profiling

2006-12-14T17:08:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

Have you ever wondered why people visit Ad Homonym? Have you ever wondered what knowledge they are seeking when they find themselves at my virtual doorstep? Well, now you can know without even asking! Check out the current most popular search keywords that direct folks here from their friendly neighborhood search engine. I'll bet Jeff Steuben is really into Serachi Sauce.

In other news, thanks to Denny for pointing out the great online resource, Gmaps Pedometer. Interfacing with Google Maps, you can plot out a course and this nifty tool will kindly tell you the distance. Great for all you runners out there.

See you!

Rocket Man

2006-12-14T16:26:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

My lovely wife N was in Orlando this past weekend, and what did she see? Well, she saw the space shuttle Discovery launch into space. Please enjoy the few photos that she was able to snap from the Downtown Disney marketplace area.

Rocket in Sky

Rocket at Night in Sky

Can you find the rocket?

See you!

Spielraumfotos

2006-12-06T17:13:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

Here are a few photos from my recent journey. I am now schooled in the ways of gluhwein and reminded of the pleasure of a cup of tea at every possible moment. Enjoy my photographic ineptitude!

Marktplatz Tree
This is the tree outside my hotel (The Sternhotel). Sometime between my arrival on Tuesday and Wednesday evening, this tree received a weave from Mr. Ray. It was nowhere near this full-bodied, and, instead of two-thirds lit, it was zero-thirds lit.

Saxophon Nuftet
Out in the Weihnachtsmarkt, there was a Christmas Saxophon [sic] ensemble. It was cheerful and it brought back memories of my marching band daze.

Weihnachtsmarkt
This is probably the best shot I got as far as capture the mood of the streets of Bonn. It was really pretty spectacular. I might have to mull up some gluhwein at home soon.

Come On You Spurs!
We watched Spurs v Arsenal at Suave's friend Andy's house. Before the game we went to the team shop just outside of White Hart Lane where I procured a sweet Tottenham polo. Spurs defintely played like poo and didn't deserve to win, however, all three Arsenal goals were 100% bogus. Two errantly awared PK's, and a botched offside call. Also, I hate Arsene Wenger. What an arrogant twit. He gets under my skin much like Coach K. I hope Henry goes to Barcelona.

Londontowne
Here's a view of London from the hill at Greenwich Park, home of the international date line.

Look Kids!
Bantering around Westminster.

Lord Palmerston!!!
Bantering at the local Walthamstow pub, enjoying a pint of the bitter.

These are my photos. I'll post some of Suave's sometime soon. Lots of great banter shots around London.

See you!

Yet Another Milestone

2006-12-05T13:15:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

I just found out that your very own Ad Homonym is the number 2 overall search result on Google UK when you search for "flagellating buttocks".

Exhibit A

Thanks to all who made this milestone a reality.

See you!

Horrible Quality Phone Pics

2006-11-30T10:24:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

N was kind enough to send me some of the camera shots I sent her from the market. Enjoy!

Sternstrasse

Cookie Stand

Glühwein

Liebe Cookie

Dispatches from the Weihnachtsmarkt Bonn

2006-11-30T03:41:00.000-05:00

Guten Tag, friend.

Quick update from Bonn. The Weihnachtsmarkt in Bonn (Christmas market) is going on right now. It's a bit kitschy, but mostly awesome for someone who's never been to one before.

With all of the lights and decorations, the roasted chestnuts, and the hot mugs of glühwein, the Weihnachtsmarkt is as festive as festive gets!

Also, London looks to be a go. Early Saturday arrival with enough time to purchase some Spurs gear, and then off to the Lord Palmerston in Walthamstow with Suave to watch the North London Derby match against the Gunners. Sweet!

See you!

Travel Woe at the CHO

2006-11-27T18:15:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

Early this morning, N graciously volunteered to drive me to CHO for a 9:22am flight to Philly where I would putz until a 4:30 flight to Frankfurt. There was enough time for us to have a nice breakfast together at Bodos before going to the airport, so I had swell everything bagel with egg, ham and cheddar. Arriving at CHO, we said our goodbyes, and the bimmer sped off into the sunrise.

Flight to Philly? Cancelled. No other US Air flights to Philly in time for my Frankfurt flight. Instead, I am re-routed through Charlotte leaving CHO at 5:19pm with enough time to connect to a 7:30pm flight from Charlotte to Frankfurt. Well, thankfully N picked me up so I didn't have to spend 8 hours at the airport. I made it into the office and was actually somewhat productive. At 4:00, I met back up with N who drove me back to CHO.

I check in, go through security and all that fun stuff. The plane arrives. Maintenance issue. US Air has now booked me on a United flight that leaves CHO at 7:30 in time to catch my 9:53 flight to Frankfurt. Rad!

I have my doubts that this flight will actually take off. C'est la vie!

See you!

Pre-Thanksgiving Update

2006-11-21T13:17:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

Time for a lunch-hour blog-post-slash-pre-Thanksgiving update.

Half day in the office tomorrow, and then N and I pile in the wagen for a holiday drive up to the greater-Maryland area. Wednesday night is the 11th (is that right?) annual Wednesday Before Thanksgiving Party hosted by Denny. These parties are always fantastic and are a great way to get together with folks I (sadly) rarely see anymore.

This year may feature, for the first time, the entire cast of the Fall 1994 (or was it early 1995?) (i.e. The OJ Movie Epoch) full-length, often apocryphal, feature film/epic - The Trials and Tribulations of O.J.. The only attendance question mark is the actor who portrayed O.J. himself. Attending will be the actors who deftly (or perhaps daftly) portrayed the chief of police, Kato Kaelin, Lance Ito (both Judge and Ninja versions), F. Lee Bailey, Johnny Cochran, Nicole Brown Simpson, Ron Goldman, Denise Simpson... Brown Simpson... no just Brown, Al A.C. Cowlings, Sherlock Holmes, Robert Shapiro, Marcia Clark, and a Keebler Elf on a Pogo Stick.

Further, TPWTBB has graciously mastered the original film onto DVD and has included selected features such as The FDR Movie, and The Danko Head Show. Next stop - YouTube. If someone shows up with a videocamera, I can see some new special features being recorded such as Lance Ito's book/tv special "If I were a Ninja, here's how I did it".

Incidentally, I need to get a copy of the OJ script scanned in and posted on this blog. Who has this valuable piece of memorabilia?

Thursday, early AM, N and I pile back into the vehicle and make the drive to NYC (Now with EasyPass) to visit with R. I find Manhattan to be just amazing during that time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I expect no less this time around. All signs point to a non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner out on Thursday, followed by more fine dining on Friday (perhaps my favorite restaurant on the planet? We'll see, could be tricky.)

Anyway, back in Cville sometime on Sunday, just in time for me to maybe, maybe not fly out Deutschland on Monday. If that happens, chances are I'll pay Suave a visit in London the following weekend. I expect London to be decked out for Christmas Dickens-style. This would of course mean that I would watch the Spurs/Gunners derby match at the pub. Holla!

Back to work.

See you!

Haste makes Paste

2006-11-16T21:22:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

Perhaps I was a bit hasty in my assessment of the Terps. After a thorough dismantling of the Red Storm, perhaps I need to give them a bit more credit. Especially Mr. Ibekwe. It appears his freethrow stroke has changed for the better (still a bit odd with that chin thing).

I saw strong senior leadership, and fiery unselfish play. If the scrubs hadn't taken over with 10 minutes left, the Terps may have won by 50+.

See you

2006-2007 Terrapin Basketball

2006-11-16T09:58:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

Another college hoops season is upon us. Last season, I gave you haphazard, sloppy reviews of the Terps frontcourt and backcourt. Well this year I intend to give you an even more haphazard and even sloppier review of the team.

General Thoughts
The past two seasons have been unadulterated disappointments. The post-glory recruiting class capped off their respective ignominious careers in embarassing fashion by missing a second straight NCAA tournament. Possibly worse than the on-court performance was the off-court performance. Failing out of school, sexual harassment, drunkenly screaming embarassing things on the streets of Maine (?), selfish point guards, etc... A humorous, but spot-on summary of this disappointing era is the TerpTalk post titled "Before we look forward, let's bash the past". Favorite quote from said post:

...As for Caner-Medley, I kept waiting for a news item indicating he was in a car accident as he wildly crashed into a Dunkin Donuts (get it, cause on the court he was always out of control driving to the "hole"? Its late, what can I say).

But now, the past is just that. Fresh hoops-blood is in the Comcast center, and I for one have no idea what to expect. I'm excited about the unknown. They are 3-0 through 3 games winning by an average of 28pts. Wins over Hampton, Vermont, and Florida A&M don't really tell you much about your team. However, I'm encouraged by the 24 assists dished out in the most recent Florida A&M game, and intrigued that Vermont (who the Terps beat 81-63) subsequently beat #14 BC 77-63 in a BC home game. That's neither here nor there. My purpose at the moment is to quickly give you one, perhaps two, thoughts on each player on Maryland's roster. Keep in mind I've seen one game (vs. Vermont) and have little to no basis for my claims.

On with the show.

The Cast

Will Bowers, Sr, C
5 fouls, no discernible skills.

Parrish Brown, Sr, G
Energy guy, backup, backup point guard. Probably a bit undersized.

Jerome Burney, Fr, F
I don't know a thing about this guy.

Gini Chukura, Sr, F
Garbage time only.

James Gist, Jr, F
Phenomenal athlete, still seems to get lost a bit, but enourmous potential.

Eric Hayes, Fr, G
Steve Blake v2.0 (the trite comparison used in every article/blurb ever written about Hayes @ UMD). Will get lots of PT early. A coach's son, and a pass-first point guard with a solid feel for the game and solid skills. Rep as an excellent outside shooter.

Ekene Ibekwe, Sr, F
Another great athlete. Career marked by intermingling moments of brilliance with moments of unbelievable stupidity (i.e. the propensity to take at least 1 3pt attempt per game. Always ill-advised). However, he seems to be a good guy and good student and is a great shotblocker. Worst freethrow motion in the history of mankind. (They say it's been fixed, but they said that last year too. It wasn't.)

Mike Jones, Sr, G
Who? Fan favorite for a while. Early signs make it look like he's worked on his game to be more than a spot-up sharpshooter. Defense is better than it was. Jones is a big X-factor. I say if he averages 16+ a game, MD is back in the NCAAs.

Jason McAlpin, Jr, G/F
I've never heard of this guy.

Landon Milbourne, Fr, F
Another lanky, athletic forward in the mold of Rodney Elliot, Terence Morris, Chris Wilcox (a bit out of place on this list), Ekene Ibekwe, James Gist. It's like we have 3 of the same player on the team right now. Doesn't quite make sense. Haven't really seen him yet as he's had a foot or toe injury or something.

Dave Neal, So, F
Probably won't see too much time unless we need to foul Tyler Hansbrough 5 more times.

Bambale Osby, Jr, F
Absolutely the fan favorite. Whatever you call him (boom, boom-boom, bambo, os, buttercup), this guys is refreshing to watch. He is the Anti-Garrison. Thick and strong, likes to mix it up under the hoop, and has shown some surprising touch early on. The fro is super-awesome, though I heard he wore cornrows in the last game. Os is JuCo transfer and is expected to be raw, but we've sorely missed his toughness under the basket. We haven't had this kind of presence/toughness since Lonny "worst assasination attempt in history" Baxter (well, possibly Jamar Smith) patrolled the paint in Cole.

D.J. Strawberry, Sr, G
Hopefully D.J. Tanner won't have to play much point this season. He's so much better as a slasher/defender. Given our lineup, I think we'll see a lot of 3-guard sets this year with DJ often playing at the 3. DJ is the quintessential Gary-guy and should have his best year as a Terp.

Greivis Vasquez, Fr, G
Another combo guard. Probably the most exciting new addition to the team. A fiery Venezualan with some great ballhandling skills, a nice shot, smooth moves, and loads of passion. Will probably share point duties with Blake... err.. Hayes. With both of these important players being freshmen, there will definitely be some growing pains. It does seems like a great base to build on though, and I'm excited!

First away game tonight. Terps vs. St. Johns at MSG in the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament. Then Terps vs. Texas or Michigan State on Friday depending on the outcome of tonights games.

See you!

Do all the interns get Glocks?

2006-11-14T08:44:00.000-05:00

No, they all share one.

Greetings, friend.

This morning, while perusing the Cagninas blog, I was reminded of the weekend of October 21, 2006. And what a great weekend it was. This was the fab wedding weekend of Drs P-west and now, S-west. The families of the bride and/or groom put us (a bunch of rowdies) up in a sweet beach house in Duck, NC with approximately 5,000 bedrooms for a long weekend (Thursday through Sunday). The families were amazingly hospitable and welcoming and we can't thank them enough. I had forgotten my camera, but now thanks to E, there are pictures to pilfer.

As you might imagine, there was banter, banter, and more banter. Party and nightswimming Thursday night, sports, rehearsal luau, dinner, pong, spaceballs, the greatest game ever Friday, wedding-5k race, football, wedding ceremony, fiesta con bailando Saturday, and farewell brunch Sunday. The weekend left me exhausted but glowing because of the celebration and the precious time with good friends all gathered together in the same place. The only thing that could have made it better would be N's presence (she had to speak at a conference in Bethesda - boo).

A few pics, credit E:

5K Glory
Yours truly, Willy, and JD finishing the wedding day 5k on the beach in record time. Or at least in a silly fashion.

Rehearsal Dinner
This pic is from the Friday night rehearsal dinner. The weather was perfect and so was the evening. We also celebrated JD's birthday at this table by passing the community champagne bottle.

Football Huddle
Beach football on a wedding day is fan-freaking-tastic. Almost as great as wiffleball, but much more feasible on a windy beach. Note dr. willy's High Life shorts procured locally.

Wedding Feast
Here's a nice picture from the wedding dinner. It was a good bit colder Saturday night compared to Friday night, but once DJ Dan started spinning the tunes, we were en fuego.

The Quack Shack
Our home away from home for the weekend. Good times.

For pictures of the happy couple and loads of other great shots go here.

Past 2 weekends, the short form

2006-11-13T12:07:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

Here's a recap of my past two weekends in short, bulleted list form:

Friday 1 - Chipotle dinner, followed by a poker game (net Collins household result -$9).
Saturday 1 - Early, cold 5k race, long slow cooking of a ragu bolognese, MD beats Clemson, make pasta, compile lasagne bolognese, proceed to eat it for the next week. Drinks at Zocalo with eponymous, TJ, and others.
Sunday 1 - Church, 10-mile run, tuna barbecue.

Friday 2 - Wine tasting at Market Street, dinner at Il Cane Pazzo with the Colonel and Mrs. Good food but somewhat overpriced.
Saturday 2 - Depart early for Miami vs. MD. Forget tickets, retrieve tickets, depart again for Miami vs. MD. Great tailgate, great game. Hottub.
Sunday 2 - Wake up, dump 16oz of hot coffee on Dru, return to Cville, Work, watch football. Spurs lose to Reading. Garbage.

The end.

Short-lived Glory

2006-11-09T12:06:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

The celebrations at Ad Homonym have ended. Ad Homonym is no longer returned as a search result when Google is queried on 8000 calorie burgers. Easy come, easy go.

In other seemingly unrelated news The Heart-attack Grill in Tempe Arizona has added an 8,000 calorie burger to their menu.

Ad Homonym - Search Engine Update

2006-11-09T12:04:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

Today Ad Homonym has reached yet another important milesone.

A google search on "8,000 -calorie burger" returns Ad Homonym as Number 7 on the search results list.

Thank you for celebrating this occasion with me.

Glory, Glory!

2006-11-05T13:02:00.000-05:00

Spurs 2
Chelsea 1

!!!

I Recommend: The Decemberists - The Crane Wife

2006-11-03T08:26:00.000-05:00

Greetings, friend.

On the new music front, I've decided it's time to recommend to you the new album from The Decemberists - The Crane Wife

This is the band's first effort on a major label (Capitol), and is a strong one in my opinion. LOL! The Crane Wife retains the 'Brists penchant for storytelling lyrics inspired by historical events and folklore from a bygone era, but it amps up the musical ... lushness ... considerably from previous albums. It's hard to classify their sound, but it's a hybrid of balladeering folk, indie pop, and prog rock.

The concept of The Crane Wife album, and in particular the epic eponymous tracks, is based on an old Japanese folk tale shockingly called The Crane Wife. Wikipedia's recount follows:

The Crane Wife is an old Japanese tale. While there are many variations of the tale, a common version is that a poor man finds an injured crane on his doorstep (or outside with an arrow in it), takes it in and nurses it back to health. After releasing the crane, a woman appears at his doorstep with whom he falls in love and marries. Because they need money, his wife offers to weave wondrous clothes out of silk that they can sell at the market, but only if he agrees never to watch her make them. They begin to sell them and live a comfortable life, but he soon makes her weave them more and more. Oblivious to his wife's diminishing health, his greed increases. He eventually peeks in to see what she is doing to make the silk she weaves so desirable. He is shocked to discover that at the loom is a crane plucking feathers from her body and weaving them into the loom. The crane, seeing him, flies away and never returns.

Colin Meloy's lyrics capture this simple story in an effective and musically powerful way. The story is broken into 3 distinct parts, with the 3rd and final part leading off the album and parts 1 and 2 near the end. I am curious to know why they chose to do this. I believe it has something to do with the listener's emotional response to the story within the context of the rest of the album.

Speaking of the rest of the album, it is similarly intriguing. A mix of tragic love stories, murderous butchers, civil war soldiering, and a particular strong round called Sons & Daughters. A solid album, but my favorite Decemberists track remains July, July! from the Castaways and Cutouts album.

Have a listen. Particularly you, Wacky Neighbor. I think this will fit in nicely with your recent music library building efforts.

One more reason I am drawn to this group - as a footnote to their biography on their website claims "The Decemberists travel exclusively by Dr. Herring's Brand® Dirigible Balloons."

The best burrito...

2006-10-19T14:22:00.000-04:00

...is a free burrito.

Greetings, friend. (Should the customary Ad Homonym salutation have come before the title lead-in thing?)

Tomorrow is a grand occasion. The one and only chain restaurant whose arrival I can fully advocate is opening at Barracks road. However, today is an even grander occasion. Prior to opening their doors for business, the newest Chipotle offered burritos for 100% off. Including a drink.

I dutifully waited in line for 45 minutes for my delectable free-range carnitas burrito with black beans, cilantro-lime rice, hot&mild salsa, cheese, and guac.

Satisfaction with a side of fiscal responsibility, please.

Now we just need a CVille Babbo. Right.

oligolopolistropolismopolis

2006-10-19T09:50:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend.

I love it when Klosterman write for ESPN.com Page 2. This article is a good example of why. He's like a more cerebral, interesting Bill Simmons, without all the inane gambling and Boston banter. That and he extrapolates social meaning by observing popular culture through the lens of Save by the Bell.

Perhaps I'll pick up his most recent tome before my flight to Germany on Monday. You heard that right. I think I live in Bonn now. My German is still terrible. Ich möchte ein bier, bitte. kölsch, bitte.

See you!

Milestone

2006-10-10T08:48:00.000-04:00

Greetings, friend.

Ad Homonym has reached an important milestone. If you search on google for Knibb High Football Rules, Ad Homonyn is the #8 link on the search results page.

Thank you for helping make this important milestone possible.

See you!