Nick Back in the House

Where the fuck have I been? I have been on vacation and it was glorious. (With the exception of having to watch the Cubs lose twice while I was at Wrigley and having to had to endure the smarmy smile of that cunt Sarah Palin whenever I turned on the television.) It was relaxing time and totally re-charged my batteries.

Joyce and I headed out on the road to Washington D.C. If you have never been there I highly suggest it. My opinion of a city is often times based on their public transit. Washington’s may be the best I have ever been on. Their train system while not only easy to manage (unlike New York’s utterly confusing one) was also clean. We stayed in Northern Virginia and caught the Metro there. We were then able to take the train anywhere we wanted to go.

We saw the Federal Mall which includes the Capital Building, the Library of Congress, the Air and Space Museum and ends with the Washington Monument. We also hit Georgetown, their Chinatown and the new ballpark they built.

The historic stuff is all pretty cool. I thought I would like the Air and Space Museum more but there were an awful lot of yokels there. One thing I did notice was just how many Europeans were in the city itself. If I needed more proof of the weakness of the dollar it was right in front of me. Not that there is anything wrong with the number of foreigners we encountered, if anything they are far more civil then your average Kentuckian.

Georgetown was nice as well, even if I felt about a hundred years old when I was there. Their Chinatown is a bit on the small side but we did eat there one night. We found this place where they have a chef in the window that makes noodles and tourists (like Joyce and myself) gawk at him like he is some animal caged at the zoo. Still, that was the freshest dumplings and noodles I ever ate in my life and it was damn tasty.

The ballpark was nice but very new. There is something about walking into Wrigley that I can’t explain that no other ballpark can duplicate. Maybe it is the smell of onions, grass, trough residue and sweat all mixed together. National’s Park is very modern and has a lot of nice things. But I found it sterile and there was nothing unique about it. The ballpark hot dog was also a miss. I know what you are thinking it is just a hot dog. But, as someone who eats a lot of ballpark dogs, I can tell you there are differences.

I prefer a non plump dog that is longer. Not the jumbo ones. Also, they should be steamed. There is nothing like a steamed hot dog. The bun should also be steamed. What should happen is the hot dog is in the bun already before you get there. Then when you order it up, the server can just give you the dog wrapped in tin foil. In Washington each server would have to get the dog and place it in the bun, which took more time. They did offer brown mustard (which I like) but I did witness a number of hill rods throwing Ketchup on their dogs, which as most know I believe should be an arrestable offense.

We also farted around Northern Virginia, which was rather nice. Whenever I am East of Pittsburgh I make sure to get some Yuengling beer. I love the stuff. It may be my favorite beer. I picked up two cases and hauled them back with me. Yuengling is still an independent brewery so, they don’t have any distribution west of Pittsburgh. Which is too bad because the stuff is not expensive and tastes very good.

On Monday, we headed back home, and Joyce had to go back to work on Tuesday, while I had the rest of the week off. I caught the Cub games on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and left both times pissed off. Don’t want to get into a long diatribe about the Cubs, so I will just leave that at that. It rained balls on Thursday so, that put a crimp in any plans I had. I entertained the idea of catching a movie but, there is nothing out right now that I haven’t already seen that I have any interest in viewing.

Joyce had to go out of town for work on Friday so, that left me a bachelor for the weekend. On Friday night, I ordered a Fasino’s pizza and dived right into the greasy delight. Saturday I had my fantasy football draft during the day and afterwards my friend Bob had his annual bean bag tournament.

I have not played a lot of bags this year, so I was kind of rusty. I got paired with my buddy John Rosier and thought we might have a shot to win the thing. We easily won our first match but in the second round we got smoked by the eventual tournament champs, Bob and Amanda. That makes three years in a row that I have lost to the tandem that won the whole thing. (Which is little consolation.)

Yesterday, I went to the Castle and watched some football and the Cubs choke another one. Joyce got home around 2:30 so, I left the bar and headed back to the ranch. All in all I had a good time and relaxed. Anyone who has ever taken a vacation knows that first day back can be a bitch. Still, it has not been too bad today and tomorrow is Tuesday, my work from home day so, I should be fine.