Be Cool, Eat a Rita's... In North Carolina

Let me first just start by saying that iPhone weekend was exciting and long, but alot of fun. I cannot wait to get my own phone (Labor Dayish).

Mom and I were chatting this morning and were talking about the weekend this morning. My Cousin, Eric, Play lacrosse for Triangle Select Lacrosse in North Carolina and this weekend he played in the Tri State Tournament this past weekend. The family was up in Princeton, New Jersey. While I heard that Eric's team didn't play to well, I am still pulling for him to get a scholarship to UMBC. Fingers Crossed. Anyway, while there my Aunt told my mother that she purchased the rights to open up two Rita's Water Ice Franchises in North Carolina. This is very exciting news for many reasons.

First and foremost, as a kid who grew up in Philly, Rita's is the best of all summer treats. It is the best. As an expanding company, it is also great to see my Aunt making moves to continue to prosper on her hard work. Actually, this could be great for my whole family. My Aunt and Uncle want my Step-Father to move down to the NC and manage one or both of the stores. It would be very cool, but it does give me some apprehension, since my mom and step-father would be moving. I still have very strong ties to the Philly area. While I love in Baltimore, my heart is always in Philly and I will always be a Philadelphian.

But seriously, how cool would it be to have some Rita's right now.

Home Again, Home Again

I headed back to the greatest city in the world this weekend. I am headed to my friends Bacholer party later tonight. It should be ab interesting night. Depending on what happens I will give you a recap soon.

I did want to mention that I became official this past week in a couple of ways. I turned Twenty One.... ok, not really, but it was worth a shot. I did become an official resident of Maryland. I went to the MVA on Wednesday morning. I was actually quite surprised by the service. I had heard nothing but horror stories about this place, but it really wasn't bad at all. There was however the woman who clearly had Tuberculosis and was coughing all over the public phone behind me. Seriously, she shouldn't even be living, let alone driving. Why did she need to be there, at the MVA, spreading her death cough. It took me about two hours to get everything done (license and tags) and probably would have been quicker if I had done them in the opposite order than what I did. If you need to move to Maryland, get your license and then your tags.

The second way I became official is that I got my first check from Apple Inc. YAY... I work at Apple. So Cool. There really isn't more I can say than that, but YAY.

Update on the List

That is right... it is update time... aren't you excited???

So, Moving to Maryland... yeah... that is hard. I am waiting on copies of fun documents like a birth certificate, you know, proving I exist... cause standing in front of someone does not seem to be sufficient.

So, Joining ACM and PMI... this is actually on track. I just need to get some money together to do this. Stupid money and me not having enough.

Getting a CAPM Certification.... I am on my way. I had my first class and am trying to keep up with the reading (there is alot of reading). I think I am going to be ok, and I hope it pays off.

Go Soda Free for a Month.... This is actually going to be much easier than I thought. I am going to slowly step away from the soda and replace that with tea... from there it will be another step to water. I am doing pretty well with this, though I did slip last night at the IIBA event (I didn't even think about it.)

I hope to actually cross some things off soon... we will see. Only 963 Days left.

The Items, they are a Fallin'

Sorry folks, I have been a bad blogger. Things have been really busy at work. We got through most of our testing on Friday before the Go/No-Go meeting. When we got back from lunch after the meeting there were balloons and cards from my boss. The project is a go and it was really nice to be recognized, even in a small way by the boss.

Anyway, this post is not about work. It is about life. Actually, it is about getting things done in my life. Today that is what I did. I started a bunch of the items on my list and can cross off one more. First what I started:

#68 - Move to Maryland. So I have been in MD for a while, having gone to school here for seven years and worked here for almost six months, but I have never actually moved here. I still have a PA license, and PA tags. My insurance is through a PA address and all of my mail still heads to Huntingdon Valley PA. I am a PA kid through and through. But it is time to officially move to Mary-land.

So this little item actually has quite a bit involved with it. It takes alot to move to another state. Unfortunately, what it takes to actually move here I don't have here. I need my birth certificate, title to my car, a gazillion different pieces of proof of residence, the full knowledge of what is in Area 51. You know, the normal. So, it is going to take me a little longer to actually make the move. I am hoping to be an official resident by the first week in September. Keep your fingers crossed.

You know what would have helped in moving? Having all of my important papers in an organized fashion in some sort of system, potentially folders and such. Hey look at that #52 on the list is to get organized. With all the work that will go into moving, it only makes sense to have gotten this one crossed off. I went to Target (it is a French Boutique) and got a decent traveling file cabinet and some colored files. I made my folder tabs and did my best to get it all set. Next time I go home I will be able to bring this with me and get the papers I need. It is a good feeling to have this organized. Item crossed off!!

I also got started in a really fun item. I purchased the cookbook that I am going to cook every recipe in. I took a look at Alton Brown's "I Came here for the Food", but it was just to big. I think I would need 2002 days to cook all of them, but I did find something with Alton's flavor.


This book seems really good. It has a wide variety of foods, some chefs I really like, lots of different cooking styles, and there are not a ton of recipes. I think it is going to give me a really good start to improving myself in the kitchen. I am going to try my hand at my first recipe tonight for the roommates. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Moved...

Sorry for no post yesterday. Things have been super busy at work and I have been moving, so you could imagine how much time that takes.

Speaking of moving, I have moved out of the apartment that I was subletting to a townhouse of a friend of mine. The place is pretty nice, near UMBC and pretty well priced. I think I am going to be here for a while. It will be nice to not move for a bit.

I have a nice little setup and I really like the other people in the house, and there is a huge TV and a Wii.... YESSSS.

In other news I picked up Madden 08 yesterday, but have not had a chance to play it. Expect a full review soon.

I am looking for a way to maintain our routers signal. It seems to drop alot. Also my Tivo is getting a really fuzzy picture, but not the TV input, it is a little worrisome. I really don't want to get another Tivo. I hope I can fix it.

I promise better posting to come. If you are bored re-read the last post, then comment on it, then link it to your blog and write about it. It will be fun.

Moving: Part 2975

Just for clarification, I am moving to Catonsville on the 17thish

Moving: Part 2974

This weekend I once again started to move. On Saturday, Elan and I headed to the City of Brotherly Love, to casa de Bricknhymr. I was looking to move my Desk, which is a really industrial metal/wood corner piece, and my bed, which is the most basic twin you have ever seen. We were meeting my Father and his friend at 8am on Sunday to make the drive down to my new place. I lucked out cause Dad's friend Jimmy had a small pick-up which would come in really handy. I had contacted U-Haul, but they wanted like 150 bucks, and I would have to take the smallest truck, not the cargo van that I wanted. (whining) "Cargo vans don't go one way"... Ummm , Sorry U-Haul Man, but I am pretty sure that if the cargo van can go two ways, it can go one way as well. Just stop a two way trip half way through....

Anyway, I went to pickup Elan at Greenbelt (that is the northern most metro stop for you non Balto-Wash peeps) and we were off... sort of. It was like one and I had not eaten and was starving, as was Elan, which was convenient. We punched up a bagel place in the GPS and were off... except, there was not bagel place. There was nothing. This sucked. I was still hungry and my digits were beginning to look mighty tasty. We happened upon a little flea market. It looked somewhat promising, so we stopped. This was a mistake. First I am sure there was some fantastic food at the market, but I couldn't order any of it. This was entirely due to the fact that I know absolutely no Spanish. If I was adventurous I would have tried to get some tacos or something, but it was just not going to happen. On the plus side, I now know where to get a framed picture of "Jesus", if I ever happen to need such a thing.

We headed out, from the flea market and decided to head to Tawneytown Sandwich Shoppe, and yeah, it is a Shoppe. This place is one of the best kept secrets in Catonsville. Lets just say after a Blues Brothers and a slice of Chocolate pie, I was set. However, it was about this time that I realized that I did not have the keys to my house. That's right, we were about to shove off without any possible way to enter my abode, so we had another detour on the trip. Back to my apartment we went, which wasn't so bad since it was basically on the way.... Except 495 was backed up like something crazy... I am beginning to think that this may be the worst trip home ever, and I still have 175 miles to go. SUCKS!!!!

We made it to my apartment after heading through the back roads of Owings Mills. At this point we were about 2 hours into our journey. We checked the traffic, which was clear, grabbed some water, which was cold, and we were off. It is at this point that I decide to pull Super Huge Bonehead move of the day. That is right, I locked the keys in my apartment.... Seriously. We had to head over to the leasing office and get them to come open the door. Hours = 3. Distance equals basically zero. I was back where I started. SUCKS!!!!!

We did finally got on the road and had a pretty smooth trip up to Philly. The skyline of my home town has always been something I have really liked.

It is pretty nice overall, it has character, grace and you can still see Billy Pen on the top of city hall from most parts of the city. But now the Comcast building is being put up, making the city look something like this:

(Artist's rendition)

The thing is a giant blue monstrosity. I am not sure it really works, I guess I will have to wait and see for it to be complete and lit up.

So we finally made it home and I set off to start to break down furniture, but was distracted by the new Verizon FIOS service that Mom got. It is pretty sweet, at least for TV. I will give you all an internet update at a later date. The big distraction was that we stumbled upon Smokey and the Bandit... Yup, Burt Reynolds, Sally Fields and that great song. Sooooo Goood. Seriously, just look at this poster, how could you go wrong.

After seeing the Bandit get the best of that Sheriff, we finally got to taking care of the furniture, of course, this is also the same time that my sister came home and we decided it would be a good time to head to dinner. We went to Maggio's, a really good Italian place. They have the best Pizza and pasta. This place recently moved from its famous strip mall facility to an old supermarket around the corner. During the move, something amazing happened. They hired the best looking wait staff I had ever seen. It was like some sort of Mecca. Tons of good looking girls. The type you would... well you know. Oh and this is our waitress...

Yeah, we got the one non-18, non-hottie... seriously.

Well , the food was pretty good and we headed back to the house to take care of that furniture, and then we got the call. My friend Andy called and said we should come over to see his new place. We, of course, obliged and headed down the street. I must admit that Andy's new place is really nice. The furniture he and Jerri got from the Room Store was really nice, though they jumped through some crazy hoops to get it. After a Mock Draft (to be discussed in a later post) and a beer, we once again headed back to the house to move that furniture downstairs. It was midnight when we started, but things went pretty quick and we were done by one, and I fell asleep at around two.

This would have been no big deal if my dad come to the house when we agreed too, 8am... yeah, he called at 6:21... SERIOUSLY. He and his friend Jimmy, with his pickup truck were headed to the house, and they would be there no later than 7am.... SUCKS!!!!

We did get everything into the truck, made the trip down to Baltimore, and my new room in Bengi's place. but man, it was a weekend. I am sure there is more to add, but my fingers hurt.

Moving, Life and Updates

Hello My Peeps,

Life has continued down some interesting paths. I began the process of moving... yes it is a process, and I should be done at sometime this coming weekend.

Yesterday was my first day/night in the new place, and of course I have noticed some things. First I am super afraid of electric bills. Halpern was not there all the time, so he didn't use alot of electricity, and having heard the horrors of BG&E (thanks Gerard) I am worried about the extra cost. So AC will be used sparingly, and I am sure I will no longer keep my PC on when it is not in use.

The gym at the place is pretty nice. All updated machines, with TVs in front of each one. Normally I will use headphones, though when I am on the bike I am a little to tall to have the ear buds reach the jack on the TV. It is one of those sit back and relax type bikes. Maybe I will read... yeah... read. There are also some nice weight machines, I will probably use those ever couple of days as well.

Having those three hours back is really nice, though yesterday I only had 1.5 back. I feel like I am going to be able to be much more productive, healthier and happier. It is going to be hard not having a roommate. Living with Elan has been really good, though he does need to figure out his whole work - life balance thing.

The UMBC peeps went to this place, Mongolian Grill, last night. It was really good. It is an all you can eat place, where you grab your veggies and noodles, choose a meat, or not, put it all into a bowl with some sauces, spices and hand it off to be cooked. It is delivered to your table when it is done. It was a little reminiscent to the Dining Hall, but much better.

I am going to a Couple of Yankee Games next week. Game one is Sogeti night at the ballpark. It sounds interesting and there should be a bunch of people from work there. They buy food and such that you pickup in the parking lot before the game. I am looking forward to that. The nest night is UMBC night at the park, which will have a bullpen party before the game and then an upper reserve seat for the game. I am excited to get to see the Yanks... Most of the time the game is sold out, but they are so bad right now that I can get to see them.

Dad has an appointment today, keep your fingers crossed.

My sunglasses broke the other night. I was taking them off of my head and they just snapped. I had these things for just over a month. I go another pair on the way back from Philly this weekend, they are comfortable, but look a little silly.

I cannot get the Plain White T's song "Hey There Delilah" out of my head. It is amazing, and it, without a doubt, is the way I feel right now. It is what she does to me.

I started to watch Arrested Development last night. It is really good and really funny. If you have not seen it, just watch the extended pilot, it is hilarious. And yes, I got season one on DVD.

A little here there and everywhere for this post, but I had alot to say and I am a little worried, as you can imagine, but things are going to be great.