True DC Style

We started this blog to communicate with our family and friends who don't live near us about our daily lives in our nation's capital. I think most would agree, that we are in a unique city with a lifeblood of politics. That makes certain activities around here seem weird.

A good example of the DC's political focus and quirky nature shines through during the elections. While most people beyond the beltway are barely registering the conventions we are monitoring it with CIA-like scrutiny. For example, the Washingtonian, a magazine for DC locals, has posted where you can go around the city to watch Obama's acceptance speech this evening. Yes, socializing centers around a political event such as a speech. I mean really, if I weren't in this industry and of course, without the entire history making portion of it all, this would rank #1 as B-O-R-I-N-G. If you want to know what trumps that, people do the same thing every year during the State of the Union.

All I can say to conclude is that we must have converted over to the DC side because in true DC style we are hosting a few friends over to watch the speech.

The "Big" 30 Party Pictures

Here are a few pictures from last week's 30th birthday week. A couple are from eating at Rustico on the actual birthday and rest are from the party on the roof. My favorite is pictured on the left.

It was fun week celebrating Chris's 30th, but the one question I was asked a lot was, "What are you doing for your 30th?" The answer is I am too tired to even think about it. However, if I were to hazard a guess it may have two words: New Orleans. Stay tuned!

It's so unfair!

You know how you come up with this brilliant idea and think if I only had the money to see it through? Well, that is me right now. I have proudly inherited a portion of my mom's ability to cook and have fooled enough people into thinking it's good. So, I get the "why don't you opening a restaurant/start a catering business" question a lot. I reply with that's too stressful and I don't want people putting my food under a microscope. I don't think of myself as some iron chef kind of cook, but rather good at following directions in cookbooks. So in a city where people crave unique flavors and the next hottest thing I would gravely be inept.

However, I have always thought if I ever did open a restaurant it would be small space below our fictional apartment and the few tables would be filled with random people enjoying a particular menu for the evening with an even variety of choices. I saw it like a dinner party in someone's house. Now the NY Times has a story about "The Anti-Restaurant" and people doing something similar and it's gaining ground! Now, I don't think I'd be hacking up meat like the first guy, but charging folks to eat dinner in our apartment is exactly the kind of thing I would love. Ugh. I guess this is a lesson in going after something you believe in. Unfortunately, the "aha" moments are few and far between.

The Beer List

In anticipation of the big 30th birthday party, we are publishing the "30 Favorite Beers List." True to Chris's style we have an excel spreadsheet. Don't count because you may need some Reaganomics to get exactly 30.

Tips

If you want to branch out here are a few things to keep in mind while sampling.

1. You aren’t going to like everything, so don’t worry if a particular style isn’t your cup of tea. And there will be sufficient Bud Light if you want to work up enough liquid courage to try something new.
2. Head is good. Begin by pouring a little beer down the side of your glass like you would at a keg party and then pour directly in the middle to cause at least a finger’s worth of head. Nothing is wrong with a foam mustache.
3. Smell and look at the color before you drink.
4. Let the beer warm for a minute. You want your beer to be cold, but not ice cold. The only companies that advertise ice cold beer are those that want to numb your taste buds.
5. Double fist. It is a lot easier to identify what you like when you take a sip of one then a sip of another.

Wheat Ales	# of 12oz.
Allagash White	4
Bells Oberon	14
Brooklyn Weisse Beer	2
Paulaner Hefe	1
Fruit Ales and Lambics
Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale	2
Lindemans Peche Lambic	2
de Boomgaard Framboise Lambic	2
Lagers
Bohemia	6
Bud Light	24
Efes Pilsner	6
Heineken Light	14
Paulaner Oktoberfest-Marzen	14
Rogue Dead Guy Ale	1
Sam Adams Black Lager	1
Sam Adams Light	1
Victory Prima Pils	8
Belgian Delegation
Chimay Premeiere Dubbel	4
Victory Golden Monkey Tripel	6
Pale Ales, IPAs, Amber Ales, and ESBs
Anderson Valley Boont ESB	2
Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA	2
Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA	6
Harpoon IPA	1
Smuttynose Shoals Pale Ale	2
Stone IPA	6
Troegs Pale Ale	2
Troegs Hopback Amber Ale	1
Brown Ales
Rogue Hazelnut Brown Ale	4
Hook and Ladder Backdraft Brown	2
Porters and Stouts
Sierra Nevada Porter	2
Anderson Valley Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout	6
Rogue Chocolate Stout	4
Stone Imperial Russian Stout	2

30

My first thought on the morning I turned 30 was that I was sore. I will just assume it has more to do with the fact that I had a long workout last night than the fact that I am now an old man and my body is breaking down. In the end it was nothing that a little stretching couldn't fix. While stretching I was watching Olympic table tennis. One of the competitors plays in the equivalent of a double-A league in China. Who knew there was minor league table tennis anywhere?

Today is going to be a good day. After watching table tennis I went to a diner near work for breakfast and had chocolate chip pancakes. One thing I like about the place is that they leave the syrup in the Aunt Jemima container. I like Aunt Jemima. Tonight Lelaine is taking me to Rustico, a pizza place in Alexandria. I'm looking forward to it. And my office always has cake for people on their birthday, which is very nice. I'm also looking forward to this weekend when my mom and dad are coming into town - unfortunately Matt can't make it due to work (Lelaine wanted to call a GE lobbyist and yell at him) but Matt Vega can, so at least one Matt will be there - and Lelaine is throwing a big party Saturday night. It is a going to be a banner week.

Many people have asked how I feel about turning 30. I understand why. It is kind of the thing to say, like when you fly somewhere and after you land someone asks how your flight was. Of course it was ok. If it weren't you would see the results on the news. And if I wasn't "ok with turning 30", would I really want to talk about it? Anyway, I feel fine...maybe even indifferent...about turning 30.

Part of it is probably because I'm not the type of person who worries about age, at least I don't right now. It might be different if I was born in the 14th century and life expectancy was in the 40s while you tried to dodge the black plague, but luckily times have changed. The biggest life altering event that happens today is that in the gym on the ellipitcal machine I now move down the list to the 30-39 age group when looking at my target heart rate. And this is a good thing, because according to the chart I can exert myself less and still qualify for the "fat burn"! [Yes, I realize this is incorrect, but I think it is funny.]

The other part, as in most things I can think of, is best explained through a Pearl Jam song, or in this case just a small part of the song. The other night, EV played I am Mine, which includes these lines:

I know I was born and I know I will die
The in between is mine
I am mine

My in between is great. I have a wonderful family, great friends, good health, and a job that I enjoy. Life is good. If you are reading this, there is a 99% chance you are part of the wonderful family or great group of friends (the other 1% typed in the wrong url). So thank you very much for making my life enjoyable to the point where turning 30 isn't a bad thing. It is pretty much like any other day, only with chocolate chip pancakes, cake, pizza, and parties to look forward to. I couldn't have made it here without you, particularly if your name is Lelaine, Marcia, Chris, Matt, or last name is or was Vaughan, Pinkerton, Moore, etc. Thanks again.

sometimes i speak of nothing at all

Last night Kellie, Isaac and I went to see Eddie Vedder. I've never seen him solo before and it was quite an experience. The eleven Pearl Jam shows I have be to have all been at large venues. The type of show where you are pretty confident you damaged your hearing when all is said and done.

This was different. It was at the Warner Theater downtown. Most of the "performances" there are filled with an audience that dresses to the nines. The walls are ornate and painted gold. There is a huge crystal chandalier in the middle. It only seats 1700 or so. And the place was built for sound.

EV sounded amazing. We were up in the balcony but a couple times I closed my eyes and it sounded like he was playing in my living room. You know when you are listening to music as you go to sleep and you enter the state between consciousness and sleep where instead of just hearing the music it seems to be incorporated in your thoughts? It sounded like that. It was awesome.

He played a mix of songs, ranging from the Into the Wild soundtrack he wrote, covers and PJ songs. Just him and his guitar, mandolin, and harmonica. It was the most unique show I have been to. A lot of chatter between songs, ranging from political talk to him saying how he hung out at the 9:30 Club earlier in the day (it is right across the street from our apartment!) to listen to a bunch of little kids bands.

Highlights for me were Sometimes, a PJ song I have never heard live. The title of this post comes from a line in the song. Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in a Small Town was great. EV said it was time for the 7th inning stretch and he asked everyone to stand up and sing. At the beginning of the show he requested that everyone take advantage of the theater's fancy seats and sit down for the show. The second to last song he did is Arc, which is just him chanting and written after the PJ Roskilde show when nine fans died in 2000.

Unlike all PJ shows, EV has had a very strict no taping or cameras policy for the audience. This is kind of a bummer, but he had people filming last night, which I assume means they will release the show as a DVD. This would be a great thing.

Big thanks to Kellie for getting tickets. As you may know, even after recruiting many of you to help me try to get 10 Club tickets for their sale I came up empty handed. The day of the general sale, Kellie managed to score tickets from Ticketmaster. Thank you so much for your fast clicks of the mouse.

More Jersey Adventures

Work took me to Jersey on Friday. I'll spare you the details of the trip which proved Murphy's law and just say when you are in a County law library and a man pees in a chair you are not having a good day.

I did add another tick on the Diners, Drive-ins and Dives tour. I ate at the Tick Tock Diner in Clifton, NJ. For some reason, it's hard to get good corned beef and hash consistently around DC, but I must say the Tick Tock Diner delivers--and a huge portion. On a sweet note, you might think that I had two kinds of toast in this picture, when one plate is in fact toasted pound cake! Brilliant.

It is embarrassing to admit this, but I even went back to the diner for dinner before I left. I wanted to go to White Hanna (also on triple D)for hamburgers, but my iPhone was in desperate need of charging and I needed it to find the turnpike. Plus it was the only other place I could find with the paper directions I printed out. If you look at the picture, you'll see that the hamburger places was tiny.

For round 2 I enjoyed the diner classic meatloaf. It was a very good meatloaf, but what blew me away was the portion size. For about $15 you get a salad, two side and FOUR slices of meatloaf. Needless to say I took some home as well as a couple of cannolis for Mr. Big and piece of chocolate mousse cake for me.

Eeeck, Eeeck, Eeeck

At 2 a.m. this morning we woke up to the horrific sounds of our fire alarm. Although, we are sleepy now, looking back you just have to laugh.

First, by pure instinct Chris gets up and starts pounding the smoke alarm presumably to the off button. Apparently, his first thought was I was cooking and somehow set off the alarm. In his defense, our smoke alarm goes off at the mere whiff of steam, so it is something we deal with during our waking hours.

Once I tell Chris it is not the smoke alarm and it’s the fire alarm, he instantly turns into serious Chris. He says something to the effect of, “OK. Make sure you are dressed to go outside, grab your things so we can immediately evacuate.” It was like a military order and carried such force, I actually did so (I actually checked very quickly the hall for smoke first) despite my slight inclination to just try and ignore the deafening sound and go back to sleep.

We evacuate along with many of our neighbors and unsafely just hang out in front of the building. There are a few smarter folk that cross the street and sit on that side, but it really just seemed like a lot of work.

Unceremoniously, the fire truck arrives a few minutes later. I am disappointed because I could have walked to the fire department and woken them up and gotten them to our building faster than whatever signal they got to respond. The fire department can’t be more than 500 yards away—we know because we hear them respond to many calls throughout the day.

Fortunately, there is no dramatic ending except for we all go back inside after the firemen turn off our alarm and try to go back to bed.

jersey shore

We spent the first week of August at the Jersey shore with my fam. We had been looking forward to the trip for a long time and it was nice to go to the beach for a week. My family used to go there fairly regularly, but we hadn't been in 12 years, so it had been a while.

Saturday we drove to Philadelphia and picked Matt up at the airport. We were then off for an obligatory cheesesteak - chose Ishkabibbles on South St - before driving down to Sea Isle City where we met up with my mom, dad, Glo, Justin, Jared, Tiffany, four year old Kylee, and not-quite-one-year-old Taylor (aka the 7am alarm clock). We were in a nice new house right on the beach. While there we also saw my aunt Sonnie, Brenda, and cousins Kim, Ron, Drew, Helen, Josh, and Peter from Philadelphia.

The water was a little chilly at first, apparently the water in southern New Jersey has been near record lows all year, but the weather was perfect. It made for several great days on the beach, including me and Kylee racing several times - her dad told her of my legendary speed and the wonderful races we used to have (I only pushed Kylee down once), trying but not having the patience to build sand castles, whooping my dad in body surfing - he had some excuse about not having championship level waves to work with, and Lelaine, Justin, and me trying and failing miserably to use a skim board.

One night we went up to Atlantic City and ate at Bobby Flay's steakhouse at the Borgata. It was one of the best steaks I have had and made better by winning $100 playing craps and blackjack later on at Caesar's. In fact, of the five gamblers, three of us - my dad, Justin, and me - won, with only Lelaine and my mom donating money to the casino.

Lelaine was happy to be able to eat seafood several times throughout the trip. One night my dad bought a bunch of crabs and clams and steamed them back at the ranch, which made Justin and Lelaine very happy. Lelaine spent the rest of the time wondering why, based on the number of restaurants, everyone from Philadelphia and NJ only eats hoagies, cheesesteaks, and pizza, finished off with ice cream. One day we drove down near Cape May to go to a buffalo wing establishment that my co-worker Jean, an expert on wings, thinks is the best place on earth. It was a good recommendation.

Another afternoon we went to the boardwalk in Ocean City and had pizza at Mac's. My brother and I loved going there when we were younger and it didn't disappoint. It was a greasy as I remember it and the crust fantastic. Kylee went on a few rides, including one with Unc (short for Uncle Jared) that scared the bejesus out of her. While in Ocean City Jared made a return visit to A La Mode, an ice cream place he went to every day for two weeks the last time we went to the shore.

One night my dad convinced Lelaine, Matt, Justin, Jared, and me to go to McNutly's, a bar a few blocks from our house, for what he claimed was a big Wii bowling tournament. Not sure if McNutly's gets a super early crowd or if it just reflects the state of nightlife in Sea Isle City, but there were about five other people in the bar and we were the only ones in the "tournament". My dad entertained everyone in attendance with his bowling prowess, complete with a leg kick in his follow-through. He somehow did pretty well, but not good enough to beat me.

On Saturday we got up and drove back to Philly. My dad gave most of the group a tour of the city, including the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Ben Franklin's grave, the Betsy Ross house, and the not-quite-as-famous Bigelow house where he grew up. Since we had seen that stuff a time or seven, Lelaine and I took Matt to Ikea to dine on sweedish meatballs and shop for furniture.

Saturday night we went to a Phillies game. Their team is playing great - currently in first place - and it was nice to go to a game in a nice new stadium with a sellout, something that doesn't occur outside of opening day for the Royals or Nats. My dad managed to score a suite behind home plate, complete with hot dogs, sliders, buffalo wing wontons, cheesesteak eggrolls, crabcakes, chicken kabobs, probably some other stuff I can't think of, and desserts. Kylee got her mom, dad, and grandmother to take her to a novelty stand. When they came back they looked like they had been Phillies fans for life, complete with a hats, tshirts, and even a Philly Phanatic doll. The Phillies won the game - I'm two for two at the stadium (went to a game there in 2006 the afternoon before a Pearl Jam show) so the team should hire me to go to their games.

Sunday morning everyone went to the airport and Lelaine and I went to a diner we had seen in Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. It was a great breakfast and way to end our trip, particularly the largest cream puff I have ever seen that I bought to snack on during the drive back down to DC.

This morning we woke up and went to work. The first morning back to work always reaffirms what a great time you had on vacation. Instead of waking up, seeing the whole fam, and strolling down to the beach, I walked to the metro and sat at my desk all day. We are already looking forward to a possible trip next year.

Here's the link to our Jersey shore pics on our flickr page.