I Do Stuff…

Don’t get my wrong, I love my dad and I wish he could live forever.  The other day it was his birthday so we all got together for a little surprise party to celebrate another year this earth.  At 63 he is grateful for each year and he says all the time he is “living on borrowed time” because of some things that happened early in his life.  All I care about is he is still alive and kickin’, he actually things he is in his 40′s with how active he is.  He helped me move into my new townhouse a few weeks ago, travels all the time on vacation, and does a ton of yard work each weekend at his house.

Red Fox Inn - Middleburg, VA

So Pat organized a little dinner at the Red Fox Inn in Middleburg as a nice place to celebrate.  She got a room at the inn and the attached restaurant comes highly recommended.  When I told a few others I was going to the Red Fox everyone agreed that it was a nice place and the food was impeccable.  To top off the nice setting and wonderful food I found out my brother would be there.  I was so excited to catch up with him, the last time I saw him was Christmas and actually only talked to him once since then.

We arrived on the outscirts of town with about 10 minutes to spare before the 7:30 meeting time.  We quickly noticed Middleburg was a ghost town.  Not a single business was open other than “essential services” and the street were empty.  We had all the street parking we could have wanted.  When we walked into the restaurant the hostess quickly sat us at the table, the last to arrive.  With so few people in the restaurant it was easy to know what party we where with.

The house that has the restaurant was originally built in 1728 using field stones from the surrounding area.  When you walk in the decor has not changed much since it was first built.  There are stucco walls with giant exposed wood beams holding the whole place up.  One aspect of such an old building that I quickly noticed was the slow ceiling height.  People back then were much shorter than they are today.  See, milk does a body good is not just a good slogan, but the truth.  There are old paintings hung on the wall and a few stuffed animals around as well.  You could say they are an originator of putting nick nack crap on the walls.  Even with cliche stuff on the wall it is very intimate, and by intimate I mean dark, on the inside.  There are not a ton of windows to let in natural light and very few lights.  Again back when this was built they just didn’t have large bay windows to allow natural light in.

After we sat down we all greeted each other and quickly looked over the menu.  After a drink order was placed it was back to talking.  I sat next to my brother and we started catching up.  It literally had been 7 months since we last saw each other so we had a lot to talk about.  Finally I forced myself to study the menu and decide what I wanted for dinner.  I noticed a brazed duck breast with potatoes, carrots, and some sauce.  It was so good, the proportions were just right and the sauce made the dish.  Very rich and added to the flavor of the duck without over powering it.  Even had a dessert, lavender creme brulee.  I am a sucker for some creme brulee and thought I would give this a try.  Even though the lavender was just a hint, I thought it ruined an otherwise great dessert.  All the food was excellent and I would definitely come back again to have dinner.  Might even stay at the inn considering it is so far away from my house.

Red Horse Tavern - Middleburg, VA

When we finally were finished with dinner it was only 9:30 but the restaurant was completely empty, we had closed the place down.  This small little town closes up at 5 and there is not much to do.  For all of us the evening is just getting started so it was hard to wrap my head around a town that closes down so early.  We were hoping to find a bar for a drink because the restaurant doesn’t have one.  When we asked the hostess if there was any place to get an after dinner drink she told us the Red Horse Tavern was a couple blocks down the street and open till 1am.  I was shocked anyplace in this town was open that late.

After a short walk we took a seat at one of the tables on their large pattio and ordered a round of drinks.  It was a nice evening to sit outside.  Only issue was the live music blasting from inside the bar.  It made things very difficult to talk to anyone.  I wouldn’t have cared so much if the music was good, but of course it was just loud and obnoxious.  Half way through the beer it started to rain so we headed inside to enjoy the last of our drinks.

Once finished we all headed back to our cars and my Dad and Pat headed to their room for the night.  Dad was surprised by everyone showing up and had a wonderful evening.  I think Stephen coming for dinner was definately the highlight for him.  It is not often that my brother comes to family events so we all enjoyed it while we could.

Not sure what we will do for his 64th birthday next year.  But it certainly will involve the family and doing something fun, can’t wait.

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When I went to the Nats vs. Red Sox a week ago a good friend of mine, Rob, wanted to come along.  But with the game sold out it was impossible to get three tickets next to each other.  Instead we decided to catch another game.  He had never been to the stadium and wanted to see a game, just like me he is not a big baseball fan, but it’s good to say you did it at least once.

The best day for everyone was a Sunday afternoon game on the 5th of July against the Braves.  If Will and Saundra were able to make it for the fourth, I thought this would have been a great way to end their trip to DC.  But after getting all interested parties together, it would be my Dad, Nancy, Rob and myself going to the game.  We of course followed the same plan as with the Sox game: meet at my Dad’s house, drive to Pentagon City Mall, and Metro to the stadium.

Me, Nancy and my Dad

When we arrived because Rob had never been to the stadium we walked around some so he could get a good look at the stadium.  We also got food and beer, what would a ball game be without beer?  Our seats for this game were right behind the visitor dugout.  These seats were covered so when I checked the weather early in the week there was a possibility of rain, but we would have been protected.  The weather could not have been more perfect game day.  It was in the mid-70′s I believe with near zero humidity.  Clouds hung in the sky most of the day, but rain was never a threat.  For being the dog days of summer the weather sure was not playing along.

The crowd for the game was much thinner.  I should not have seen a sold out game vs. the Red Sox first.  There might have been 15,000 people that day and that is probably just because it was a Sunday game after the 4th of July.  Everyone is already in the city for the fireworks so why not catch a game.  Even with the low turn out the crowds was pretty good.  Again there were a lot of Braves fans in the stadium, this time we Nat fans were not outnumbered 4 or 5 to one.

your OUT!

This was the third in a series with Atlanta, tied at 1-1 with the Nats winning the game on Saturday they were heading into game three with the pendulum swinging toward their side.  Right from the start the Nats quickly took the lead and by the third inning were up 3-0.  The Braves struck back and took a nibble out of that lead in the third with one run scored.  By the ninth inning, with the game all but won, the score was 5-1.  We were still staying till the final pitch was thrown and the game was officially over.  But the Braves had a little life left in them and scored two in the finally inning.  It looked like we had a game on our hand and extra inning was a possibility.  But with some great pitching the Nats won the game 5-3.  My Dad’s win streak was still holding with a win every time he sees a game.

Once the game was over we decided to hang out and let the crowds die down before fighting the crowds on Metro.  This time the staff was more vigorous in getting the people out of the seats.  With fewer fans in the stadium it was much easier to clear out.  Getting kicked out was not a problem, we decided to take the hint and hit the Capitol City Brewery in Shirlington again for some victory drinks.  We ponied up to the bar and ordered a round while we savored our teams victory.  I couldn’t wait to get to work on Monday and nag John about the Nats victory.  He is a huge Braves fan and the lowly Nats won two in the series.

crazy shot

After the first round of drinks it was getting pretty late and we needed to head back to my Dad’s house.  My Dad was grilling flank steak and Rob was staying for dinner.  With such nice weather we decided to eat out on the deck.  But before we left Shirlington we stopped by the Best Buns Bread Co. to get some bread for dinner.  While there I also picked up some lemon squares for desert, everything looked so good.  When we did get back to his house we started cooking and had some great wine to go with dinner.  We sat outside for several hours enjoying dinner and just talking.

It was a great idea Rob had to see a game at the ball park and Sunday was the perfect day to do it.  A lazy Sunday afternoon at the ball park, drinks after, and a good home cooked meal on the deck, life is perfect.  I can’t wait to do it again.

July 5, 2009

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Atlanta	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2		3	9	1
Washington	1	2	0	0	0	1	0	1	X		5	14	0

crazy

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Being only 25 miles from DC I was looking forward to going to the city to see the fireworks display on The Mall.  I have seen it several times in the past, last year in fact I made the trip up.  But I have never been able to get Nancy to go with me.  Yeah it might be a small trip and there are a TON of people that attend it each year.  But how often do you get to participate in something as extravagant as this, right in your back yard?

I had Nancy convinced to go to the city to enjoy the celebrations, but not because of my doing.  Her brother and wife were coming up from North Carolina to visit and they wanted to see the fireworks on The Mall.  Unfortunately at the last minute they couldn’t make it because of work so the plan of going to DC got scrapped.  Instead we headed to my Dad’s house to celebrate our nations birthday.  I certainly knew we were going to eat well if we came.  Matt mentioned a week earlier that he was planning on smoking some ribs on his brand new grill.  Yum.

When we arrived Matt was almost finished smoking the ribs, the smell coming off the grill made me want to dive right in.  I had not eaten all day so I was definitely hungry for some food.  After he took the ribs off the grill and let them rest he cut a rib for himself, my Dad, Nancy and I.  Sometimes it pays to hangout with the cook, normally you get to try stuff that “falls off the plate” before anyone else.

With the ribs finished and plated, we headed to a neighbors house in my dad’s culdesac to party it up with a few friends and lots of family.  In fact half the people at the party was our family, we certainly brought the troops.  Walking through their kitchen and out onto the deck we passed a full spread of food, enough to feed a small army.  At least enough to make everyone in attendance stuff with good food.  After the mandatory mingling the hostess opened the flood gates for everyone to grab a plate and start eating.  There was so much food I was a kid in a candy store.  I didn’t get a lot of any one particular things, but I made sure to sample everything that was offered.

Nicolas Cage from The Rock

It was wonderful sitting down talking with everyone and catching up with my family.  Bobby and Tracy brought over both kids so half the time they were chasing Ellie around while the other one had Ty.  Nancy did some baby holding and even I got in on the fun.  He is so tiny and I am so big I was afraid I would cruse him or possible drop him.  But Tracy said not to worry, kids are pretty durable.  I must have held him for 3o minutes, most of the time he was awake and staring back at me.  Cute kid.  Very animated too.  He was smiling and laughing the whole time and I didn’t have to do much.  Tracy was saying he doesn’t do that often so it felt good that I could get him to smile.  You know we bro’s got to stick together, I certainly look forward to him getting older and then we can have some real fun.

After everyone was stuff and desert was served it was getting pretty late and about time for the adults to have a little fun. We didn’t have a large collection of fireworks that shot into the air, to my disappointment.  But we did have more bottle rockets and fire crackers then we knew what to do with.  So for about an hour Matt, Bobby, Nancy and I are firing these things off as quick as we possible could.  We even started to get crazy with them and hold onto them or throw them, crazy stuff that no one should be doing when handling high explosives.  Fortunately by the end of the evening everyone had all their fingers and toes with no extra holes in our body.

yikes!

As the night started to wind down I headed inside for a few minutes to catch A Capitol Fourth on PBS.  Every year in addition to the huge fireworks display there is a concert and big production put on next to the capitol building that is televised.  All I cared about was the fireworks display.  I certainly got my fill of fireworks and when it was over it was back outside for more firecrackers.  The show stopping finally Matt had was a giant roll of two thousand firecrackers.  He set it up in the middle of the culdesac and let things rip.  It took about 60 seconds for the entire roll to go off and it was pretty cool.  What was not cool was cleaning the giant mess afterwords.

After a long day of great food and company it was time to head home down 95 where Nancy and I were treated to more fireworks from people that lived next to the highway.  For a state that outlaws fireworks that shot into the are, there certainly was a tone of illegal fireworks around.  But one day out of the year to do your civic duty and celebrate the birth of our nation, I think the cops can over look.  But if you loose an eye don’t come crying to me, your an idiot.

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Through a series of events I owed my dad a nice dinner out.  Not to one of our usual meeting spots: Fireside Grill, Hard Times, or Lucky’s Sports Bar.  I owed him something like Morton’s or Ruth Chris, a nice place.  So what I decided to do instead was take him to see the Nationals play and buy him a hot dog for dinner.  When I told him of my plan I started it off by saying I would buy him a hot dog.  I could hear it in his voice he was a little disappointed, he was hoping for something more.  Once that settled in I told him the hot dogs would be at Nationals Park for a ball game.

Now, what game to see?  I checked the schedule real quick and was not impressed with the home games I saw for June.  Unfortunately the Nationals have some crappy teams in their division and I didn’t want to see any of them.  However late in the month I saw a ray of hope, the Nats would be playing the Red Sox.  Official tickets were sold out so I had to use a ticket broker to find a pair in the outfield.  Later while at the game I found out it was an inter-league game and the Nats don’t play the Sox often at all.

view from our seats

We were going to see the last in a three game series.  The first two were looses for the Nats, in fact the first game was a complete blow out with the Nats loosing 3 to 11, 6 of those runs coming in the eight inning alone.  The Wednesday game was still a lose, but not nearly such a beat down, loosing 4-6.  My Dad and I were not holding out much hope for a win, but we had luck on our side.  Even with the worse record in baseball the last game my Dad went to, the Nats ended up winning.  We where hoping his luck would hold and we could get a little revenge.

We meet early at my Dad’s house and drove up to Pentagon City to catch the Metro to the stadium.  If you are going to see the Nats play, Metro is the only way to travel.  Yeah you can park on site, but it’s $40 and in my opinion a rip off.  The Metro was packed with fans making their way to the stadium.  Tuesdays game was record attendance, then Wednesday broke that record.  Thursdays was sold out and would be close to a record, if not breaking the record.

We had time to kill before the first pitch so we walked around the stadium and got some food.  I was very impressed with the new stadium.  If it right on the water and the whole area around the stadium is being revitalized.  Currently things have slowed down because of the financial crisis, but all that will turn around soon and the place will be hopping.  After I bought my Dad hot dogs, and fulfilling my obligation for dinner, we took our seats in anticipation of the game.  I was shorta shocked by the number of Red Sox fans in our section, and in the stadium period.  When the Nats were introduced I heard more boos then cheers.  When the Sox took the field I could have swarn we were in Boston by how loud things got.

savoring the victory

When the game finally started I was excited for the team, I had a feeling.  We were surrounded by Red Sox fan, clearly out numbered.  Our only compatriots where a group of six right in front of us, a great group of drunks.  Not sure why but during the first inning things were looking really good for the Nats.  They scored 4 runs immediately, everyone was getting a hit and getting on base.  Only downer of the whole inning was I believe they left the bases loaded, but with 4 runs scored it was alright.  This certainly had a psychological effect for both teams.  The Nats were flying high on cloud nine and the Sox tried for the rest of the game to climb out of the hole they found themselves in.

With the four runs in the first scored the crowd was also knocked out of the game.  It was a shame that more Nat fans didn’t show up, the stadium was unusually quite for most of the game.  It was not till the sixth inning that the Sox fans had something to cheer with, they scored their first run.  But in the botton of the sixth we scored two more, way to steal their thunder guys!

It was at this time that I went for my last beer and meet a lovely lady in line.  After we confirmed from others around us, Michal Jackson was in deed dead.  With that downer we changed the subject, back to the Sox.  I told her I was amazed by the number of Sox fans in the stadium, she was not at all surprised.  She was from Boston but had been living here for several years.  She said it is so difficult to get tickets to Fenway that fans travel to see them play.  It is actually cheaper to travel than get home tickets, shocked the hell out of me.

When I returned to my seat we had put another two runs on the board.  Now the score was 9 to 1 and needless to say I was feeling pretty confident about our win.  Not so confident as to walk out screaming at the Sox fans saying they suck or anything, but darn close.  As the game went on they had a ray of hope in the 9th inning.  One  guy got on base and another player hit a home run.   Just like that life was breathed into this dying team.  What fans still remained were getting all excited, they thought maybe, just maybe their beloved Sox could pull a ninth inning come from behind victory.  But thanks to some great closing piching, finally, the Nats were able to pull out a win with the final score 9-3.

and another score

My Dad and I stuck around for a while, waiting for the other fans to leave before we started to make our way home.  It was just after 10pm when the game ended and we were not quite ready to leave yet.  We wanted to revel in the victory just a little longer.  Eventually security came along and forced us out of our seats.  “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”  So we shuffled along with the rest of the fans, out the stadium and onto Metro.  Within minutes we were back at the car in Pentagon City, still not wanting to head home.

To celebrate a little more we headed to Shirlington and the Capitol City Brewery for a victory beer and wings.  Since it was after 10pm, it was happy hour all over again.  We walked out of there for less then $12 bucks, with tip!  What a great way to end the perfect day.  Long live my Dad’s streak of Nat victories.

June 25, 2009

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Boston	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2		3	8	2
Washington	4	0	1	0	0	2	2	0	X		9	11	1

me and my Dad

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Last year I went to my Dad’s house for Fathers Day and cooked him  a spectacular meal.  Getting the best ingredients and making everything from scratch.  It is labor intensive, but I think the final product is well worth the effort.  Well this year Nancy and I continued that tradition and again cooked a wonderful meal to celebrate my Dad and all he has done for me.  This year especially he has helped me get my house and it is the least I can do to honor him is cook him a great meal and bring him some beer.

This time around we had a four course meal.  Well actually it was only three courses, we took the salad course and just included it with the mean.  Only fresh ingredients were used to cook all the food.  Not even the sauces were store made, all made by Nancy and I with love.  She has asked me before about short cutting certain portions of the dinner and I told her no.  I love to cook and especially for something like this I don’t mind putting in the extra effort to come up with a great meal.

Appetizer: Sizzling Garlic Shrimp
Salad: Orange, Walnut, Gorgonzola, & Mixed Greens
Main Dish: Grilled Tasty Chicken Kabobs
Side Dish: Sauteed Asparagus with Dijon Vinaigrette
Dessert: Zabaglione with Raspberries & Peaches

Things turned out really well and we spent several hours on the deck talking and eating.  To me that is one of the most important things about holiday, spending time with your family.  I even got my dad to enjoy some dessert, which he rarely eats.  But it was peaches, raspberries and a custard that plated really well.  Who could say no to that?

I love you Dad.  Thanks for being there and for everything you have done over my life time.

Zabaglione w/ Raspberries & Peaches