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Rain, Sun, Noodles
J:
We had a happy little party on Friday night. The weather outside was
extremely cats and dogs, but I managed, with the help of Jenny and an
umbrella, to light our traditional campfire. I used old scrap boards
donated by Gary, and sloped them to make a roof for the fire beneath.
The boards remained soaked on the outside but burned nicely inside the
hollow cavity; flames came out of the top and cracks of the wooden
oven. A few of us die-hard fire people stood out in the drench, and
laughed and talked while circling the fire to keep away from the
wandering smoke and steam. Most everyone else sensibly stayed inside
and ate up the food. The deluge soaked my back, but my front remained
mostly dry. Mostly.
On Saturday Alfredo took Kelly, Gina, and me to a Paul McCartney
concert, which was awfully kind of Alfredo, I must say. Before the
concert we all took the subway to a favorite restaurant called Jaleo,
where we gorged ourselves on tapas and washed them down with lots of
sangria.
Paul's concert was mighty fine, rich with music and full of exciting
visual effects. Paul sang lots of new and old songs, many with backup
by his talented band and plenty of pieces just by himself on guitar or
piano. Having already been to one McCartney concert and thereby having
something for comparison, I have to say that Paul looked relatively
tired this time around. I mean, he had lots of energy, but compared to
last time he looked a little subdued. Of course for a 63 year-old man
to be able to play and hit all those notes so well and put on such a
great show, well, that's certainly amazing on its own. I hope I'm that
healthy when I'm 60. Nonetheless we worried a bit about him. Cheers,
Paul, thanks for the gig! And thanks to Alfredo and Kelly for such a
good time.
After listening to a real, live Beatle (how historic!) we made our way
back to our neighborhood and caught the very very end of Izolda's
birthday party. She and Rich still had plenty of leftover homemade
Ethiopian, Mediterranean, and Japanese food; we were happy to
help them get rid of it. Izolda gave us the highlights of the
"secondary talent show" portion of her party, things like this being
traditional events at Rizolda's birthday celebrations. Sounded like
they had great fun.
On Sunday we took the Metro once more downtown with Tom Sweeting to
meet up with Jenny to tour the solar house exhibit
on the national
mall. Students from all over this country and Canada built 18 fully
contained solar houses, and are even now competing against each other
in several categories of design, efficiency, and overall energy output
of each house. Each house even has an electric car which must be
charged from the house. The team that drives their car the farthest
wins that part of the competition. We walked through a few houses with
shorter lines. Team members gave tours and answered questions. I was
particularly intrigued with the many different energy saving appliances
available nowadays, many from major appliance companies.
We heard lots of noises from some bizarre Christian carnival on the
other side of the mall. Somebody was wasting lots of energy yelling
through huge amplifiers as skateboarders skated for Jesus. No, I'm
not making this up. Most of the time it just looked and sounded
like a big distant carnival with rides and bleachers and a loud
announcer who would just not shut up, but every now and then I'd hear
some godbother commercial testified across the land at eleventy-one
decibels. Still, while the constant feverish noise pollution must have
been tortuous to even the Christians among the solar house teams, at
least the believers across the way weren't wasting extra hydrocarbons
by running a big tractor-pull-for-Jesus.
To celebrate the Dread Pirate
Columbus Day (what some of my friends call "mass-murderer day") I
went for a walk in the forest with Dana and Joey and Sandy, Joey's dog.
We were looking for mushrooms but didn't find any. Instead we found and
discussed wild plants and ate some, threw sticks for Sandy, and added
sticks to a large primitive shelter Joey is refurbishing. We also
walked by my little shelter that I made a couple years ago. it's still
standing!
On Monday night Dave Chalker and I drove to the Columbia Ale House to
compete in a World Tavern Poker event. I didn't do so well, but I blame
the cards. And I blame the TVs, of which there were 12 at last count,
and I believe by the time we left there may have been 14 or 15, as I
suspect the noisy buggers were procreating. Along with the roach-like
TVs -- all on alternating sports channels, all loud -- there was also
plenty of cigarette smoke to breath and squint through. Playing poker
in a sports bar is a little bit different than playing with friends or
playing online. There is extra yelling. And smoke. And TV. I think I'll
wait till some bar in Montgomery County joins in the poker fun--
that'll take care of the smoke, which might make the rest of the scene
a little more bearable. Dave lasted longer than I did, but he found it
difficult to bluff. When practically no one at the table is paying
attention, you're bound to get any bet called. Here's an interesting
tidbit: while waiting for the game to start, one of the players, a
chain smoker, sat down next to me with her drink, and let us know how
happy she was that night. Her 17 year-old daughter who had run away
from home had just returned that day. I guess the daughter's mother
decided to celebrate by playing poker at the local bar.
Tuesday I stayed home and proved to myself I could still actually win a
few games of poker, at least when it comes to play money. Then I went
out with Gina and bought a PS2 so she can play DDR2
and "Calamari Damn Nazi".
Later Gina and Lori took me to a birthday dinner at one of my favorite
restaurants, Noodles & Co.
We met Dave there, and he came home with us for some of Gina's
delicious homemade banana bread. She and Dave played lots of DDR and
Calamari Nazi. I played some poker and stunk out which is like sucking
out but due more to my faults, not the cards'.
Today I found lots of late blooming field mushrooms, in the same place
they sprouted this Summer-- the grassy areas around the building I work
in. I need to check the secret places in our woods for my favorite
fungi, the beefsteaks. 'Tis the season.
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THE HEAP
where we wade the web
in
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wikipedia:
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david
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david
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biography:
walt whitman
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solar
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andy
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hybrids
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leonardo
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gorillas use
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file lawsuit
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sought for fbi...
innocent
in london
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meet
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if
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the
sinking state
fur is
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crazy
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words
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god:
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wild
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cok exposes md
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early denn
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fsm - the
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igod
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