If you had told me a few years ago that I would spend a Thanksgiving outside of a football stadium, I would have said you were crazy.
I would have had to eat those words.
Last summer when the Ravens announced their schedule, I saw that they were playing the 49ers. This was right after the news that Jim Harbaugh (Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh's brother) had been hired as a Head Coach of the 49ers. I was on Ticketmaster the morning tickets became available to the public and in my search for games, I decided for fun to try and see if I could get tickets to the Thanksgiving game, or Harbaugh vs Harbaugh as I was calling it. Well no upper deck sideline tickets were available, so I decided to try for the corners. There were tickets available so I snatched them up.
That was in July. The working plan in mind was I would likely spend Thanksgiving with my cousins in the morning and then head up to the game that night with CW. Of course life doesn't always go according to plan, but it can come up with something more interesting.
A month or so ago I went to a bull roast fundraiser for one of the Ravens Nest organizations and I made friends with a few folks at our table. I ended up talking a lot with CS and of course, being fans, you make sure to keep in touch with them, especially when you belong to one of the best fanbases in the NFL.
So then it turns out that CW has a conflict, and some of my cousins will be out of town, plus I was asked by some other friends if I could dogsit for them so they can go visit family for Thanksgiving. All of that adds up to I'll be in Baltimore anyway, but now I need someone to go with me to the game. So I check with a few direct friends, they can't go, so I put the word out on Facebook that I have an extra ticket to the Harbaugh Bowl (as it's now being called). CS sees it and is interested, so we're set up to go to the game.
Now we get to the plan, CS knows other folks at the game, so I will be tagging along with her as we tailgate before we head on in. I hear there will be turkey and all of the fixings, so my Thanksgiving will be spent in the parking lots outside The Bank, then going in to watch what should be a hard-hitting game and football at it's finest. The Harbaugh Bowl is the first time in history that two teams are playing where they are coached by siblings, and now it's a Thanksgiving game on top of that.
There will also be no doubt that I was at that game, thanks to the planned FanCam: http://www.baltimoreravens.com/News/Articles/2011/11/Press_Release_-_Ravens_FanCam_Coming_to_MT_Bank_Stadium.aspx
You know I will make sure to be in my seat by 8 PM.
So anyway, It should be a fun Thanksgiving, even if it's non-traditional. I can't wait. I hope everyone I know has a safe and happy Thanksgiving.
GO RAVENS!
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
November 24, 2011
December 01, 2008
Being Thankful
With the Thanksgiving holiday come and gone, it gave me pause to think about just what it is I am thankful for.
I am thankful for who I am and where I am at, the family I have and the friends I know. It hasn't been without its challenges, but it has been worth it.
February 14, 2008
Valentines Day Fun
JH and I had our first Valentines Day together, though the festivities really started out the day before. Basically he planned the activities we did the day before, and I planned the activities we did today. What's that, a relationship where both partners make things equal? That's unheard of!
It started out with a trip to the Build-A-Bear workshop in Annapolis. It took us nearly an hour, but we did get our teddy bears picked out and dressed. JH went with a monkey that he named Major League (they were out of a bear he wanted) and he's dressed up in a Baltimore Orioles uniform. I went with a bear that I named Thunder, and he has a Baltimore Ravens outfit. Perfect for the sports lover in both of us ;-)
Since we had some time before our dinner reservations (they couldn't take us early), we drove around Annapolis. JH used to work in the area, so he is familiar with what is around and where to sightsee, so we did that.
Dinner that evening would be at The Melting Pot, which was oh so sinfully delicious. We started out with the Mediterranean Cheese fondue, which was not the best one, and our waitress did offer to make something else, but really, they were busy, and it had looked good on paper, so I didn't want to make her do the extra work. At least I made a better choice on the wine I ordered with our meal. We each had our salads, then our main entree was various meats and seafood that we cooked in Coq Au Vin. For dessert, JH picked out the S'mores Fondue, which was chocolate and marshmallow fluff with graham cracker crumbs. We had items like strawberries, pound cake, and marshmallows to dip in. However, the best thing I found to dip in the smores mixture? Rice Krispies Treats squares! I basically mentioned to the waitress that these were perfect for the mixture, and so she brought out a plate with a few more on it. That rocked. Overall I loved going to the Melting Pot, and it was a very nice night out with JH.
Tonight was where I got to surprise JH and show off my cooking skills in the kitchen. I had been keeping him in suspense with what I was planning, which as I have learned, he doesn't like being kept in suspense. Too bad, he's going to have to deal with that from me on occasion when it comes to planning something special ;-)
JH came to my apartment to the smell of sauce that had been bubbling all day and roasted garlic, along with various items in bowls. In this case, it was build your own pizza, and all the ingredients were from scratch, including the dough. I haven't made homemade pizza in over two years, which is a major change from my childhood when I made it at least every other week. JH was not only impressed with the fact that I remembered his favorite pizza toppings and had them available, he was really really impressed that I whipped up that dough from scratch. It's not a difficult recipe, though I'm not sharing it here, family secret and all, mwahahahahahahahaha!
So JH and I each made our own pizzas, and I had already baked a garlic pizza to snack on as well. We watched some Simpsons DVD's, and so now I sit writing this up before I head to bed and get ready for day of work before the three day weekend :-D
So without further ado, here's a picture of us and our creations:
It started out with a trip to the Build-A-Bear workshop in Annapolis. It took us nearly an hour, but we did get our teddy bears picked out and dressed. JH went with a monkey that he named Major League (they were out of a bear he wanted) and he's dressed up in a Baltimore Orioles uniform. I went with a bear that I named Thunder, and he has a Baltimore Ravens outfit. Perfect for the sports lover in both of us ;-)
Since we had some time before our dinner reservations (they couldn't take us early), we drove around Annapolis. JH used to work in the area, so he is familiar with what is around and where to sightsee, so we did that.
Dinner that evening would be at The Melting Pot, which was oh so sinfully delicious. We started out with the Mediterranean Cheese fondue, which was not the best one, and our waitress did offer to make something else, but really, they were busy, and it had looked good on paper, so I didn't want to make her do the extra work. At least I made a better choice on the wine I ordered with our meal. We each had our salads, then our main entree was various meats and seafood that we cooked in Coq Au Vin. For dessert, JH picked out the S'mores Fondue, which was chocolate and marshmallow fluff with graham cracker crumbs. We had items like strawberries, pound cake, and marshmallows to dip in. However, the best thing I found to dip in the smores mixture? Rice Krispies Treats squares! I basically mentioned to the waitress that these were perfect for the mixture, and so she brought out a plate with a few more on it. That rocked. Overall I loved going to the Melting Pot, and it was a very nice night out with JH.
Tonight was where I got to surprise JH and show off my cooking skills in the kitchen. I had been keeping him in suspense with what I was planning, which as I have learned, he doesn't like being kept in suspense. Too bad, he's going to have to deal with that from me on occasion when it comes to planning something special ;-)
JH came to my apartment to the smell of sauce that had been bubbling all day and roasted garlic, along with various items in bowls. In this case, it was build your own pizza, and all the ingredients were from scratch, including the dough. I haven't made homemade pizza in over two years, which is a major change from my childhood when I made it at least every other week. JH was not only impressed with the fact that I remembered his favorite pizza toppings and had them available, he was really really impressed that I whipped up that dough from scratch. It's not a difficult recipe, though I'm not sharing it here, family secret and all, mwahahahahahahahaha!
So JH and I each made our own pizzas, and I had already baked a garlic pizza to snack on as well. We watched some Simpsons DVD's, and so now I sit writing this up before I head to bed and get ready for day of work before the three day weekend :-D
So without further ado, here's a picture of us and our creations:
December 17, 2007
Could Wednesday Just Get Here?
The last few days have been a roller coaster, and not in a fun way.
Friday afternoon one of the software testers comes to me and says that they have a problem with one of the instruments I released earlier this month. Apparently when they exit the survey, they get a red X of death that states there's a memory access violation. Last month's survey release did not do this, but something about this month's has. I spent the afternoon with my project manager hammering away at this issue, trying to figure out what was going on. We were unable to figure out what was going on that would cause this error, yet even though this error was going on, it did not seem to be dropping data out of the instrument either.
Eventually I left and met up with some friends to go out to dinner. It was nice, had to leave early though because I was under the mercy of the Metrobus system, and I was thinking they were going to close up shop around 10 or 11.
Saturday was nice, I accomplished a major task of shopping thanks to Costco once again. I spent the afternoon puttering around, doing some cleaning and such. Talked to my cousin Josie and there's an offer on the table to go up and visit with her and her kids and grandkids for Christmas day, I may take her up on that. I really don't know what I want to do in all honesty. Part of that is just that I am still in that bit of self-denial about the fact that I am not going home this Christmas, but that's just how it goes when your life is in upheaval at the time you should be buying plane tickets.
Saturday night was split between two Christmas parties, one with some friends from church in Bowie, great spread and lots of good conversation. The second one was in DC, and it was being hosted down at the 17th Street Cafe by a friend of mine from New Mexico that I had not seen since I had moved out here. He just moved to Arlington so it was my chance to re-connect with him, which I did. As usual I don't consider the fact that it's a party in DC and show up underdressed, but I didn't care, I wore that nice T-shirt with a whole lotta confidence.
Yesterday was the usual morning service at church, this time discussing the gospel lesson of John the Baptist sending out his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the one, and being told to observe and report back to John about what they saw and heard. I actually participated in the sermon by reading the part of John in a small skit that imagined the conversation between him and one of his disciples about what they saw and heard.
I went down to Joshua's house that afternoon and got to meet his new boyfriend. He's a pretty nice guy and Joshua's pretty devoted to him. We went to a Christmas party down in Accokeek thrown by a mutual friend of ours, Chet. The party was fun, mostly spent the afternoon shooting the shit with people and playing pool as well. One thing I did notice (and so did Joshua and Bryan) that a lot of the guys looked the same, basically shaved head and goatee, I think that says something about the host's preferences in men.
Anyway, so we got back and watched The Simpsons and Family Guy and American Dad as well, and what I will say about all of the rest of that night is that I love Joshua to death, but he was being a bit overprotective of me in regards to my relations with J. However, he did admit that he really doesn't want to start drama over it, he just wants me to be happy.
As for today, it was basically spent hammering away at this program, and still no success on figuring out what was wrong. So we're going to roll back to the last month's survey release (no content changed so it's a bit more transparent) which gives me some breathing room to figure out what the hell I did to break the damn thing. Actually, this survey is sorely in need of having it's code re-written, and perhaps this situation will make a case to our sponsors to spend the dough to have it done, but we'll see.
Friday afternoon one of the software testers comes to me and says that they have a problem with one of the instruments I released earlier this month. Apparently when they exit the survey, they get a red X of death that states there's a memory access violation. Last month's survey release did not do this, but something about this month's has. I spent the afternoon with my project manager hammering away at this issue, trying to figure out what was going on. We were unable to figure out what was going on that would cause this error, yet even though this error was going on, it did not seem to be dropping data out of the instrument either.
Eventually I left and met up with some friends to go out to dinner. It was nice, had to leave early though because I was under the mercy of the Metrobus system, and I was thinking they were going to close up shop around 10 or 11.
Saturday was nice, I accomplished a major task of shopping thanks to Costco once again. I spent the afternoon puttering around, doing some cleaning and such. Talked to my cousin Josie and there's an offer on the table to go up and visit with her and her kids and grandkids for Christmas day, I may take her up on that. I really don't know what I want to do in all honesty. Part of that is just that I am still in that bit of self-denial about the fact that I am not going home this Christmas, but that's just how it goes when your life is in upheaval at the time you should be buying plane tickets.
Saturday night was split between two Christmas parties, one with some friends from church in Bowie, great spread and lots of good conversation. The second one was in DC, and it was being hosted down at the 17th Street Cafe by a friend of mine from New Mexico that I had not seen since I had moved out here. He just moved to Arlington so it was my chance to re-connect with him, which I did. As usual I don't consider the fact that it's a party in DC and show up underdressed, but I didn't care, I wore that nice T-shirt with a whole lotta confidence.
Yesterday was the usual morning service at church, this time discussing the gospel lesson of John the Baptist sending out his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the one, and being told to observe and report back to John about what they saw and heard. I actually participated in the sermon by reading the part of John in a small skit that imagined the conversation between him and one of his disciples about what they saw and heard.
I went down to Joshua's house that afternoon and got to meet his new boyfriend. He's a pretty nice guy and Joshua's pretty devoted to him. We went to a Christmas party down in Accokeek thrown by a mutual friend of ours, Chet. The party was fun, mostly spent the afternoon shooting the shit with people and playing pool as well. One thing I did notice (and so did Joshua and Bryan) that a lot of the guys looked the same, basically shaved head and goatee, I think that says something about the host's preferences in men.
Anyway, so we got back and watched The Simpsons and Family Guy and American Dad as well, and what I will say about all of the rest of that night is that I love Joshua to death, but he was being a bit overprotective of me in regards to my relations with J. However, he did admit that he really doesn't want to start drama over it, he just wants me to be happy.
As for today, it was basically spent hammering away at this program, and still no success on figuring out what was wrong. So we're going to roll back to the last month's survey release (no content changed so it's a bit more transparent) which gives me some breathing room to figure out what the hell I did to break the damn thing. Actually, this survey is sorely in need of having it's code re-written, and perhaps this situation will make a case to our sponsors to spend the dough to have it done, but we'll see.
November 24, 2007
Thanksgiving and Black Friday
Thanksgiving was different this year for me, but it was a good one. Instead of being with any family this year, I spent the day with one of my best friends. I went down to Joshua's house where he was cooking dinner, and I brought some pumpkin pie to share. The afternoon was spent watching The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and How It's Made. Dinner consisted of a roasted stuffed chicken, green bean casserole, and mac and cheese. It was excellent, and there was enough left over to take for lunch at work the next day.
After dinner Joshua went to nap, and I headed home to grab some things since we had made plans to hit the Black Friday sales. I got back and watched some TV for a while before Joshua woke up. We had dessert, and then started watching The Return. We got so bored with it after 40 mins. that we ended up turning it off. Around 10 I crashed out since I planned to be up by 2 AM to get in line for Black Friday.
I was woken up at 2 AM, and by 2:30, we were standing at a Best Buy in Alexandria. We estimate that there were about 150 people in front of us. This year I wasn't trying to score one of those overly insane deals on some hot item that people get into fights over. The item I wanted was the new Nintendo DS Lite Gold Bundle. If you know me, you know that I am a Zelda geek, hands down. There were a few stores offering it for Black Friday, and it was not only at that price for a few hours, but it was that way through the weekend. Best Buy sweetened the deal by offering a DS Lite Starter Kit for free if you bought this particular DS.
So we're out there, and it's a bit chilly, people are getting in line and then getting one of their friends to go over to the local IHOP and get coffee or whatever. 3 AM rolls around and they're handing out tickets for various items. The only tickets that made it back our way were for the GPS system and the 40 inch LCD TV. Neither of those were items I wanted (or could have afforded) so it was rather easy to take a pass. I get the feeling the GPS was something the manufacturer really just wanted to unload and get rid of because this Best Buy store had 150 of them.
4 AM rolls around and they've got the cops out there to monitor things and they start tightening up the line to prevent folks from cutting in front. As I would learn, there were folks who were lined up since noon on Thanksgiving. Man, I didn't realize a laptop or TV could be that important to some, but whatever. I'm sure someone reading this will give me shit because I was out at 2 AM, but realistically I knew that the store would be a real clusterfuck if I was farther back in line. I was willing to take the risk.
Finally it's 5 AM and we're in the store by 5:10 or so. I get to video games, the DS's are gone already. So we head out of the store and over to the Target, thinking it had just opened. Nope, Target was opening at 6. Joshua really wasn't looking for anything this Black Friday, he just liked to people watch. However, yesterday he had mentioned he was looking for a Christmas tree and I saw a 7.5 ft pre-lit Christmas tree for $48, which is basically a steal. So we stand in line, there's maybe 40 people in front of us. The Target associates hand us bags with some foodstuffs inside as well as a sort of "survival kit".
The store opens and I get my ass in there and over to Electronics. I ask an associate where to find the DS's, and he tells me to stick by him as they're on their way out right now. So the associate with the cart full of the video game systems comes out and I'm instructed to follow him, he goes to the counter, and then the guy tells me to get in line. It pissed me off a bit because I was told to follow this guy, not get into a line elsewhere, but I just make a remark about getting some bad instructions and head into the line. I get to at least the back part of the counter, and perhaps it was because I had been nice, or the guy realized how I had been misinformed, but he hands the DS to one of the cashiers and calls me up to the front. So in the end, I got my hot little hands on the Nintendo DS that I wanted, plus a $10 gift card to Target since that was part of the promotion. It will be put towards buying screen protectors.
Joshua and I headed to the Christmas section and found the tree in the ad, along with a few odds and ends he needed for himself, and then we got out of Target. Our next stop was over to Michael's since Joshua wanted to pick up a frame for his certificate for completing the number of course hours needed to become an Electrician. Michael's had a coupon for 25% off of your entire purchase if you came in between 6 and 9 AM on Friday, so he found what he was looking for, along with a gingerbread house kit. I dropped him off at home and it was time for me to head to work.
Along the way I saw Macy's so of course I stopped in to see if there was anything to take advantage of. I picked up some 180's headphones that were on sale for $15 and a nice polo shirt that was regularly $55, but on sale for $10. I also tried some Calvin Klein Euphoria cologne that I had sampled in my latest Maxim, but I didn't get it. Actually it's not a bad scent after a few minutes, but when it was first sprayed on, the alcohol smell was a bit overwhelming. I may go and try it again at another store just to see if maybe it was a bad tester bottle.
Got to work and got a lot of work done. I know I was dragging a bit because I was tired, but I still got everything done, plus I got what I wanted. So Thanksgiving and Black Friday were both good days.
After dinner Joshua went to nap, and I headed home to grab some things since we had made plans to hit the Black Friday sales. I got back and watched some TV for a while before Joshua woke up. We had dessert, and then started watching The Return. We got so bored with it after 40 mins. that we ended up turning it off. Around 10 I crashed out since I planned to be up by 2 AM to get in line for Black Friday.
I was woken up at 2 AM, and by 2:30, we were standing at a Best Buy in Alexandria. We estimate that there were about 150 people in front of us. This year I wasn't trying to score one of those overly insane deals on some hot item that people get into fights over. The item I wanted was the new Nintendo DS Lite Gold Bundle. If you know me, you know that I am a Zelda geek, hands down. There were a few stores offering it for Black Friday, and it was not only at that price for a few hours, but it was that way through the weekend. Best Buy sweetened the deal by offering a DS Lite Starter Kit for free if you bought this particular DS.
So we're out there, and it's a bit chilly, people are getting in line and then getting one of their friends to go over to the local IHOP and get coffee or whatever. 3 AM rolls around and they're handing out tickets for various items. The only tickets that made it back our way were for the GPS system and the 40 inch LCD TV. Neither of those were items I wanted (or could have afforded) so it was rather easy to take a pass. I get the feeling the GPS was something the manufacturer really just wanted to unload and get rid of because this Best Buy store had 150 of them.
4 AM rolls around and they've got the cops out there to monitor things and they start tightening up the line to prevent folks from cutting in front. As I would learn, there were folks who were lined up since noon on Thanksgiving. Man, I didn't realize a laptop or TV could be that important to some, but whatever. I'm sure someone reading this will give me shit because I was out at 2 AM, but realistically I knew that the store would be a real clusterfuck if I was farther back in line. I was willing to take the risk.
Finally it's 5 AM and we're in the store by 5:10 or so. I get to video games, the DS's are gone already. So we head out of the store and over to the Target, thinking it had just opened. Nope, Target was opening at 6. Joshua really wasn't looking for anything this Black Friday, he just liked to people watch. However, yesterday he had mentioned he was looking for a Christmas tree and I saw a 7.5 ft pre-lit Christmas tree for $48, which is basically a steal. So we stand in line, there's maybe 40 people in front of us. The Target associates hand us bags with some foodstuffs inside as well as a sort of "survival kit".
The store opens and I get my ass in there and over to Electronics. I ask an associate where to find the DS's, and he tells me to stick by him as they're on their way out right now. So the associate with the cart full of the video game systems comes out and I'm instructed to follow him, he goes to the counter, and then the guy tells me to get in line. It pissed me off a bit because I was told to follow this guy, not get into a line elsewhere, but I just make a remark about getting some bad instructions and head into the line. I get to at least the back part of the counter, and perhaps it was because I had been nice, or the guy realized how I had been misinformed, but he hands the DS to one of the cashiers and calls me up to the front. So in the end, I got my hot little hands on the Nintendo DS that I wanted, plus a $10 gift card to Target since that was part of the promotion. It will be put towards buying screen protectors.
Joshua and I headed to the Christmas section and found the tree in the ad, along with a few odds and ends he needed for himself, and then we got out of Target. Our next stop was over to Michael's since Joshua wanted to pick up a frame for his certificate for completing the number of course hours needed to become an Electrician. Michael's had a coupon for 25% off of your entire purchase if you came in between 6 and 9 AM on Friday, so he found what he was looking for, along with a gingerbread house kit. I dropped him off at home and it was time for me to head to work.
Along the way I saw Macy's so of course I stopped in to see if there was anything to take advantage of. I picked up some 180's headphones that were on sale for $15 and a nice polo shirt that was regularly $55, but on sale for $10. I also tried some Calvin Klein Euphoria cologne that I had sampled in my latest Maxim, but I didn't get it. Actually it's not a bad scent after a few minutes, but when it was first sprayed on, the alcohol smell was a bit overwhelming. I may go and try it again at another store just to see if maybe it was a bad tester bottle.
Got to work and got a lot of work done. I know I was dragging a bit because I was tired, but I still got everything done, plus I got what I wanted. So Thanksgiving and Black Friday were both good days.
November 16, 2007
Orphan's Thanksgiving Anyone?
For many of us in the DC/MD/NoVA area, there's family in the area or close by that you can visit on Thanksgiving. However, if you're like me, perhaps the family is far enough away (Phoenix) that it's not practical or inexpensive to go home for Thanksgiving.
Joshua is planning on holding an "Orphans Thanksgiving" for those in the area who otherwise would end up staying home. I plan on attending, would anyone like to join us? Leave a comment with a way to contact you and we'll talk.
Joshua is planning on holding an "Orphans Thanksgiving" for those in the area who otherwise would end up staying home. I plan on attending, would anyone like to join us? Leave a comment with a way to contact you and we'll talk.
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