Many Places, One Place: Part 1

Behind.  We are horribly behind on updating this.  The good thing is that we are actually busy with things unrelated to cleaning the rowhouse.  Let me go over some of the things we have seen in the past two months.

First:  The first weekend here we took a walk over to the Mall in an attempt to check out the health care reform protest.  We were too late to see the likes of Sean Hannity and Mark Levin, but boy did I find exactly what I was looking for.  My intent was to find “Real Americans” who had a message to spread!  The representative we found was the perfect person.  She had a van decked out in window paint and signs like cheerleaders going to the homecoming game.  I walked up and proceeded to talk with her about the events of the day and she lit up like a big bottle rocket on Independance Day!  Saying excitedly, “We’ve been out here since 8 am… and… and protesters walked past our van for three hours straight… right here… and they had signs… and we had signs… look at this one (caricatures of Pelosi and Reid)… and I kept screaming ‘baaah Obama, baah’… and people loved it… and they… and it was great… and this health care thing is crazy… and…” on and on and on.   She was absolutely great.  And I just stood there listening and dying inside.  I asked her to take a picture and she obliged, she even gave me a shirt.  Michelle was so embarrassed that I was acting so interested.  Alright, so maybe it was a little mean on my part, but I did mostly agree with her on the issue.  I say, good for Americans who try to get things done.  Anyway, the picture is below, clearly it’s one of those pictures that will come back if I ever ran for political office, which I never would.

After walking around the aftermath of protest, we ended up walking 4 more miles and grabbing a bad dinner in Chinatown.

Second: Michelle’s supervisor over the summer, Brad, from Shriners gave us a gift certificate to go kayaking on the Potomac.  We went to Jack’s Boathouse after having lunch with Becky from church and cast off into Washington’s river on a beautiful afternoon.  For two hours we relaxed and kayaked towards Virginia and enjoyed a very nice time.  I highly recommend doing this sometime Jack’s is only $10 per hour and even has a patio area to grill on.

After getting back we were graced with the first $50 gift from DC parking enforcement.  I kid you not, this was absolutely ridiculous.  AND it was a Sunday afternoon.  The person gave tickets to about ten cars in a row who all interpreted the parking sign instructions the same.  DC is insane with parking tickets.  Did I tell you about my $100 parking ticket for literally two minutes of parking?  I was picking up a bike from my coworker’s place and we ran in and back out to assure I didn’t get nabbed, but this guy was quick.  As we came out he was speeding away as I yelled to stop him.  If you have ever watched Parking Wars, you can imagine how DC parking enforcement operates.  But hey, I fought the tickets and actually got out of the $50 one, so take that!

Third:  The Capitols is the hockey team here.  What an obnoxius team.  No history or pride combined with fans who actually think that the Caps are all that.  Are they good?  Yes.  But please, make no mistake, they are not nor will they be a real hockey team for the long haul.  Anyway, the Hawks were only scheduled for a preseason game in DC, so per Michelle and my agreement that we would attend sporting events anytime a Chicago team is in town, we obtained tickets.  We got them from Crosstown Tickets online for only $9.  This broker was great and his operation runs out of a place on Milwaukee just up the street from Northwest.

I was happy to go because I believe it is very important to support the boys at every opportunity, but the game was terrible.  The hoopla of Verizon Center was terrible and annoying, of course when a team doesn’t have any rich history they must resort to over the top shenanigans to get the fans geared up.  Worse than that, the punk Ovechiken (or however you spell his name) made the net look as large as the Redskins endzone.  I don’t know why people here like that idiot, nobody else in hockey world does .  He is classless and verbose.  I take a quality leader like Johnny or Sid the Kid any day over some jerk like him, I don’t care how many points he scores.  It is funny how blind people in DC are about hockey, they are clueless, non-invested fans.  The Caps and Ovechkin are a match made in heaven.  Original 6 will always be the king’s court.

At the end of three periods, Hawks got killed 1-5, but as a result of the Hawks gift, we got 20 free wings from a restaurant here.  Great promotion and because it was pre-season I didn’t feel bad about cashing in.

Currently, the Hawks are losing 0-3 against the Coyotes.  Not typical against that pathetic team.  We’re still in first in any case.

Fourth:  Michelle and I went back to Illinois for a weekend to see Jimmy and Lindsay get married in Springfield.  That was a good time.  We got to see many cool people and Jimmy gave me a hunting knife.  Awesome.  Dancing at the reception was a blast.  When we arrived at O’Hare at 11:00pm, we went straight to TBK for a Mexican fill before driving down state that night.  Much needed for our four hour drive.

Fifth:  Pittsburgh was my territory for all of two months so I made some trips up there to meet with customers (my territoy will be changing to somewhere closer).  It’s about a four hour drive.  Michelle came with me to see the leaves changing in mid October becasue it can be a beautiful drive.

In Pitt, we got to spend the evening visiting with most of the Musgrove clan.  Amy and Ella were in town and it was great.  Ella gave us a good greeting and kept giving me and her grandpa coasters for no apparent reason.  We even got a to hear a good Napolean Dynamite impression from Amy’s brother in law Zach.

On the way back to Washington, I kept taking the scenic routes, which Michelle got tired of quickly.  Driving through Eighty Four, Pennsylvania was interesting.  I felt like I was seeing down home America.

We’ll, gets us closer to the present.  I am tired and need to go to bed.  Hope you are having a good week.  Enjoy the weekend!

-George and Michelle the Place Goers

Ya!

Real America

The Symbol of Our Home

Kayaking

Navigating the Potomac

Typical Michelle

We Lost

Caps Ice

Vestin’ it Up

Just Dance

I Rock

Cool People Table

Pennsylvania View

Eighty Four, PA

Cows