4 Months? Really?!

It’s been 4 months since we’ve blogged. This was supposed to become our primary source of income! It’s okay though - I’ve got a new idea. Starting immediately, we’re going to charge $5 per post. So if you want us to pour the details of our intimate, juicy, lucrative personal lives (and believe me, I need you to want that) into this blog, send $5 to my Paypal account!Just kidding though, our love is free. So here’s what has happened during our vacation from blug blug:

• I purchased one 2007 Mini Cooper S.
  • Since that time, it has been wrecked and repaired at $5000.
  • For the record - I am innocent!
• I went on tour with David Shultz and The Skyline with an awesome guy named Sean Walsh from New York. In fact, we’ll be touring with him again in February  2008.
• Took a trip to the pumpkin patch, got some gords, and carved them up.
• Got VIP passes to Hanson at Toads Place!
• We hosted our 4th annual Thanksgiving gathering, yielding 6 different stuffing variations and one incredible turkey.
  • It’s important to note that the turkey was soaked in a brine for 12 hours, and baked for 5 hours with a fine apple/onion/cinnamon blend INSIDE OF IT!!!

Visible proof of these incredible events below:  

The Official Blog about our NY Trip!

You know you’re having a good time when it takes almost three weeks to find enough time to write about a trip to New York. That’s not to suggest that our trip to New York was anything less than incredible. When you live in the dirty south, it’s a blessing to be able to visit the melting pot of America, and in my case, become a minority. Our trip was totally awesome.

We saw Rocky Votolato and Limbeck (and some other AWESOME band) play at the Bowery Ballroom. I’ve read a lot of reviews on Pitchfork and Stereogum coming from the Bowery, it was cool to actually be there. Rocky was an awesome show. The opener, Limbeck, was even better. So we found some new music. That whole night was awesome - we walked down to… Helens? And met up with Cat Chow (our reason for being in New York was to drop off artwork to Cat Chow). Cat was fun, Cat’s boyfriend Patrick is totally awesome, their whole crowd was cool. And we were incredibly drunk. And walked home like 20 blocks. I don’t know how we did that. But even that was awesome.

It wasn’t awesome when I went to get the car the next day and found a parking ticket on it. And it wasn’t awesome when I had to drive around for like an hour while the hotel couldn’t get a credit card authorized for Diana in the lobby. But we did find an iPhone line somewhere around the campus of NYU. It was like… 300+ people, several blocks long, at 10 AM. And this set the tone for the rest of MY day. I feel bad for Diana, who had to bask in my misery as we were turned down of an iPhone in Queens after waiting in like for 3 hours. I was probably a total bummer to the world, until we got to the 5th Ave. Apple Store and were greeted by Starbucks-ish Apple employees cheering for those who just bought an iPhone.

Saturday morning we met up with Grant Hunnicutt and Brett (aka Blognut) at a doughnut shop. The plan was to do some thrift shopping for most of the day. We actually ended up being blown away ALL DAY LONG with Grant’s wholesome, dedicated shopping techniques. If you never get to experience this side of Grant, pictures will have to suffice.

That night we went to the Queens Beer Gardens. It’s this big outdoor pavilion with tables everywhere, completely filled with young adults getting wasted. The event is run by Czechs, so there were a few interesting beers on tap - pitches for $14. That’s pretty good for premium beer in NY. We ended up camping at a table with our broadway friends, and did “shaky face” and “motorboat” pictures all night. I think it rained twice that night, but somehow it went unnoticed.

Sunday we took a trip to Brooklyn Heights and met up with Grant Hunnicutt for some “tex mex” lunch on a cool outdoor patio. It was literally the most comfortable day I’ve ever experienced. I’m talking about the weather. It just felt SO… DAMN… GOOD. So we walked over to the big overpass that hangs over the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and got the most amazing view of Manhattan. See pictures. That was the perfect end to an awesome weekend in New York.

I love that place. I love Brooklyn Heights. If I ever wanted to not live in Richmond, I would do whatever it takes to live there. Which probably equates to some sort of jewel heist operation. But that sounds kinda cool anyway.Write back. Sike, you can’t, it’s a blog moron!

Another Hair in the Devil’s Mustache.

A new follicle of muscle, masculinity, and noise has appeared on the face of evil. The resurrection of the 1980 Yamaha XS400 at 608 N 24th st Could only have been accomplished at the hand of such a craftsman as satan, or Grant Mathews.
After a long drawn out process of payment to the previous owner, this bike was delivered to the “CHILL” with expedited service, repairs were made, tank was filled, and the great beast came to life. Now stands the task of registration, inspection and licensing. A small task in the wake of such an accomplishment as bringing a $400 piece of junk back to life.
The time and money spent in this endeavor provide a horizon of fun, great gas mileage, and many tiny parking spaces. Don’t worry mom, I’ll be very careful.

1980 Yamaha XS400

A Few Good Quotes Tonight

Sandy, while preparing dinner: “Hey Matt let me tickle your throat with this corn hair”. She said it with such sincerity. Diana, while discussing the new category for our blog: “I created dumb.” 

Patients is a Virtue

So I was walking back to work yesterday and looked at one of the many abandoned buildings that make Broad St. the charming place it is, and saw this.

I knew cell phone technology had grown leaps and bounds in the last few years, especially with the new iphone coming out so soon but I had no idea it had grown to this level. Cell phones treating illness and disease - PERFECT! What will they think of next?
And I thought Doctor’s offices and Hospitals were the only one who had patients.

Potomac River Trip

This weekend was just as tight as last weekend, yall.

Friday was First Fridays on Broad St. I missed that, because The Skyline are stressing hard to prepare for this big wedding we’re playing on June 9th. So far so good, and I can’t wait to post the set list over at matthewrock.com once it’s finalized.

Saturday we all took a trip over to the Northern Neck - a place that Anne’s family owns on the Potomac River. The attendees - myself, Diana, Sandy, Anne, David. We ended up going to Costco the day before to buy a bunch of supply for what we thought would be a much larger group, so we found ourselves obligated to drink two 24-packs of bottles of Heineken/Yuengling. At some point we convinced ourselves that we might run out of beer. I don’t know where that hysteria came from. We picked up another 12-pack of Coors Light. It’s ridiculous, because we ended up returning home with close to 24 beers. I am at the very least thankful that we’re not math nerds. Or maybe we were just unable to count past 10 by that point.

So we spent all of Saturday trying to kill this beer supply. I have vivid memories of Diana and Sandy sharing headphones and bobbing heads to The Format, Ryan Adams, etc. We ended up taking “scenario pictures”, the details of which I will update soon (I’m getting my hands on the pictures now). Shot off some fireworks, played some asshole, all of the party prep work we needed to exercise to get ready for the big July 7th Frat Party. And yes, YOU are invited.

Pictures from the weekend:

Memorial Deltaville Weekend

This Memorial Day weekend was one of the best ones in years. Most likely because a dance party was involved. Now that I think about it, most of the highlights of my life have some element of dancing involved. I’m not saying I’m a good dancer, I just like to stand near people and let my body ride the night out in unison. Not many people feel comfortable doing that, so I’m lucky my friends are just as crazy.

Dance parties at our place are always awesome because we really don’t care about being too loud or too dangerous, and we don’t have to drive home drunk. And we reserve the right to challenge anyone to a dance fight, because it is our dance floor. That hasn’t happened yet, but the idea of a Dance Fight Party really excites me - you know, like you either come in a blue shirt or a green shirt, and it’s like a huge battle between land and sea. The blue team could be called “The Global Warmers” and the green could be “The Recyclers”. I kid. But you know, maybe that’s cool?

I don’t even remember what I did on Friday so I’m going to start with Saturday.

Saturday’s Agenda:

• Went to the 42nd St location on the James River. The river was warm so we were all up in the water, no snakebiting whatsoever.
• Purchased a new Charbroil Commercial Series grill from Lowes.
• Had a cookout at our place, utilizing the 45 burger capacity of new grill.
• Hosted an incredibly awesome and successful dance party. MVP - as always, Jon Stepp.

Sunday’s Agenda:

• Went to River City Diner for breakfast (me, D, Sandy, Anne, David). Had myself the classic Sausage Gravy Plus, which will never, ever let me down.
• Me, D, and Sandy packed up and went to Deltaville. Made it just in time for some afternoon rays, got steak n’ cheeses, etc.
• Went wakeboarding and extreme boating with Grant.
• Played Rumy (spelling?) forever and went to bed where I was haunted by ghosts slamming windows shut.

Monday’s Agenda:

• Sandy and Larry made us all breakfast sandwiches, which were to die for.
• I helped Grant begin putting a roof on the garage.
• Anne, David, Grant H, and Mat Shelton showed up, we all collectively sucked every breath of fun out of Deltaville.

It was awesome. The end!

Digitally, yes… Physically, no.

So far today, we have:
Played Wii
Not made a new song
…but pulled out all the dusty instruments we have stashed away in the music room
Made and drank two pots of coffee
Not taken a shower
Made fun of Matt’s incredibly witty “one liners”
Watched Secondhand Lions
Laid around
Window shopped online for dresses from Anthropologie…
…then looked for the ripped-off version from Forever 21
Played with/Laid with Maynor
Sandy finished school, while slightly still buzzed… (making sure to get her $40 worth from the Canal Club).
Diana ate beef jerkey
Matt still wants a nap.

all this and it’s only 3:30.

On the Windiest Day Ever…

Me and the ol’ D took a trip up to DC on Monday. We had to drop off some mysterious boxes from Quirk to the Czech Republic Embassy. Some of the boxes were just the right size to fit aluminum tubes, some were perfect for nuclear materials. But I’m not here to raise questions about the special interests of Quirk. But if requested, I WILL email you the lab results of my chemical testing of the contents of those boxes. Wow, where have I gone with this.

The Embassy was great, there was enough surveillance and unprompted gate-opening to make us feel like contracted spies. The receptionist was confused as to why we were even there, but we eventually found our target, and dropped off the… art.

Feeling art-less, we made it our beeswax to head downtown and check out some exhibits.

1. The Corcoran was showing an exhibit on Modernism. We spontaneously ended up there first. They put together a timeline showing milestones for the span of Modernism, I found some stuff that reminds me of Diana’s style of work so I snapped a shot of her mid-sentence. The Modernism exhibit was an amazing experience for me, and because of it, I’m now able to make sense of my own life. That’s that.
2. We walked across the street to the Renwick Gallery and checked out George Catlin’s Indian Gallery which is an AMAZING collection of paintings of the midwest Indian life before it was wiped out almost completely by the invasion of dirty filthy Americans! I absolutely love this picture I snapped of the Grand Salon. Quirk frequent Robert Ebendorf even has something on permanent display, which I think is pretty impressive.
3. Last stop and a few thousand blocks of walking lead us to the National Portrait Gallery. They have a special exhibit up right now, a huge collection of Saul Steinberg’s (illustrator for the New Yorker, among other things) work which is completely amazing. It was my favorite exhibit. Hysterical, creative, and colorful, and he just seems like a down ass dude. Then I went and snapped a picture of Tom Wolfe illegally at the Portrait Gallery. But I did it without flash, so it’s literally like nothing happened. Plus, a million flashes of light couldn’t possibly make Tom Wolfe fade out.

Then we found a pocket of coolness in DC with tons of bars and Ethopian restaurants. We went to this corner bar and thought we’d get a drink and some fries. But did you know in DC you don’t have to sell food at a bar? The bartender was like nope… no food… but you’re more than welcome to order a pizza over here. Haha. DC isn’t so bad after all.

On Eating Healthy

I just ate Super King Buffet- so I’m having a hard time pressing the right keys with my crab rangoon-filled fingers. And by the end of this post, you will look back up here and be completely amazed that I had it in me to go to a buffet today.

One of my favorite fun-bloggers as of late is Dooce. She makes a living (ad-supported) writing about her life. Isn’t that crazy? We would be blessed if this blog ever got to pay our Netflix bill every month. What makes Dooce so successful is the way she explains her awesomely hysterical life. Why else would I enjoy reading blogs about the perils of raising a child in Utah, the most boring place on Earth?

The other thing is - the more I read her blog, the more similarity I find between our lives. Such as this blog today where Dooce explains how she and her husband end up resolving their hunger with two trips to fast food joints. Actually reading the post would do it much more justice than I just did. But why is that noteworthy? DIANA AND I went to see Reign Over Me last night. We got RUSHED into it last minute so our little fuel tanks were running on EMPTY. So, for $23 in concessions, we bought the following dinner:

• 1 MEDIUM movie-theater Coke
• 1 MEDIUM movie-theater Diet Coke
• 1 very hard soft pretzel
• Movie-theater popcorn w/ special butter topping (oh hell yes)
• Nachos w/ cheesy cheese cheese

I speak on behalf of myself AND Diana when I say that it was truly awesome. I kind of wish they would have poured butter topping on our soft pretzel, which was so hard that dipping it in soda was considered.

This all comes after we went grocery shopping for things that we can deep-fry. We came out with hash browns that look very similar to McDonalds’ hashies, Crispy Crowns which are like Tater Tots but with more surface area (as per Diana’s preference), and I will be deep-frying various things that are said to be impossible to deep-fry.