Mumford & Sons

Time to check another item off of my list of things to do this year. Last week we saw a new band, Mumford & Sons at Merriweather Post Pavilion. Jennie & Conor and Annie & Jamie met us at the venue. We had our mini-tailgate of sandwiches and beers. But then the sky opened and it POURED for almost an hour. We huddled down in our cars to wait for the storm to pass. When it finally did, it only left us time to see Mumford & Sons. We missed both opening bands. But staying dry and out of that crazy storm was the better option :) Finally got in just in time for the show. Pretty clean performance and the sound was pretty good. Overall, a fun concert!

Set List:

Sigh No More

Roll Away Your Stone

Winter Winds

Below My Feet

White Blank Page

Hopeless Wanderer

Little Lion Man

Lover of the Light

After The Storm

Lover's Eyes

Timshel

Thistle & Weeds

Awake My Soul

Dust Bowl Dance

Encore:

The Cave

CSA Week 3

I'll start off this week with a photo of one of last week's dinners. Huge side salad with radishes, arugula, green leaf and mizuna from the CSA with a side of egg and cucumbers from the farmer's market. I also made some small red potatoes from the market and a tilapia filet. Pretty good meal!

This weeks picks:

1 head green leaf lettuce

1 head red leaf lettuce

1 bunch spinach

1 bunch arugula

1 bunch chard

1 bunch broccoli leaves

1 broccoli

4 zucchinis

1 bunch red onions

My Talented Husband

Mr_BTM's hobby is photography. He pretty much has his camera with him all the time, especially when we eat! He posts some of his photos on Flickr. Well, that turned out well for him. Two of his photos from Flickr were chosen and published! The first was published on the Pellegrino website. Click on "Live in Italian" and then "Truly Italian." It's the article on cheese.

The second was published in the print magazine, Modern Luxury DC (page 54-55).

Oddly enough, both of these photos were taken during his birthday dinner last year at Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore. I'm so proud of him! Now if I can only get him to get prints made so we can display these fine photographs of his at home!

Another Norah Jones Concert!

Kevin and I had extra tickets to the Norah Jones concert so we invited our friends Tom & Victoria to the show. As part of the deal, they needed to take us out for dinner before the show. We chose b: A Bolton Hill Bistro as our dinner location. We'd been there before but it was a first for Tom & Victoria. Tuesdays are half price wine bottles and we decided to have two! We had a great dinner there with a cheese plate appetizer, entrees and yummy dessert! Off to the show at the Lyric Opera House, our first concert there. This location is nice and the sound was pretty incredible inside. We had great seats! Center state, first row in the upper balcony. The crowd was definitely older, like much older. Which meant that during the show it was extremely quite and a polite applause was given at the end of each song. And then it would get really quiet before the start of the next song. Really strange. But, show was good and the new band is pretty talented.

Here is the set list:

1. I Wouldn't Need You
2. Tell Your Mama
3. Light as a Feather
4. Chasing Pirates
5. Even Though
6. It's Gonna Be
7. Broken
8. Waiting
9. Sunrise
10. You've Ruined Me
11. Back to Manhattan
12. Sinkin' Soon
13. Bull Rider (Rodney Crowell cover)
14. Man of the Hour
15. Don't Know Why
16. Young Blood
17. Stuck
18. Come Away With Me
19. Strangers

Encore

How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart
Lonestar

Snow!

I made a quick video of the blizzard outside right now. It's still snowing and a lot of it is just blowing around! Crazy!


Below is a view of the back yard as of this morning. Snow is almost covering the a/c unit. Kevin shoveled off the flat part of our roof as well, just in case. This was last night and it had already started snowing again.

CSA - Last Week!

We made it through the 2009 growing season with the CSA and it's been an overall positive experience. Here's a list of the last pick up of the year!

1 bag potatoes

1 bunch cilantro

1 bunch chard

1 bunch collards
1 bunch mustard greens
1 bunch kale
1 bunch spinach
1 bag mixed salad greens
1 green cauliflower
1 bag shallots
1 red cabbage

CSA Week 10

I've been riding my bike to pick up our produce every week. Usually, it's no big deal. It's only 1.4 miles round trip with it being uphill most of the way back home. This week, I had a few things working against me. It was 95+ degrees with high humidity so I knew it would be hot but I wasn't expecting this week's produce picks to be so heavy! I managed to bike home a watermelon, a melon and a bag of potatoes! I'm so proud :)

The stuff:

1 melon

1 watermelon

1 bag potatoes

2 red onions

1 head green leaf lettuce

1 bunch chard

1 bunch green onions

3 green peppers

And here's last night's meal using the green peppers and chard from the CSA and tomatoes from our garden.

CSA Week 9

Week 9 for the CSA finally brought us some more fruit! We haven't gotten any fruit since week 1 when we got a pint of strawberries. This week we got a cantaloupe and a 1/2 pint of raspberries. And yes, we even got more squash :(

This week's picks:

1 head green leaf lettuce

1 bunch chard

1 cantaloupe

1/2 pint raspberries

1 bag patty pan squash

3 red onions

1 bunch green onions

1 bunch beets

3 zucchini

CSA Week 8

Here we are with Week 8 of our CSA veggies. I think we're doing a good job of eating the veggies in time, but I'm kinda done with squash at the moment. I was hoping for some more fruit, perhaps some peaches?

Week 8

1 bunch green onion

1 bag potatoes

1 green leaf lettuce

1 bunch chard

1 head red cabbage

1 bag patty pan squash

6 yellow squash

5 cucumbers

1 garlic

Eagles of Death Metal!!

We went to see Eagles of Death Metal on Saturday night at Ram's Head Live in downtown Baltimore. While the venue isn't the greatest, there's usually no wait to get a drink at one of their many bars and the prices are generally reasonable. This was our second concert there and we'll probably continue to see concerts here because it's so close! This was our third EODM show and they didn't disappoint! This band is full of tons of energy and the crowd always gets into it! We decided to brave the floor and got about 3 rows from center stage. Pretty awesome! I had a great view with no tall people in front and rocked out to my favorite song, Cherry Cola! I've been searching for a set list online but can't find one yet. Perhaps too soon? Not sure, but I surely can't remember all the songs they played. They were on stage for almost 2 hours and provided a solid set list of songs from all their albums. Mr_BTM even got an awesome mustache rides t-shirt!

CSA Week 7

Since we were out of town last week on the Eggerding family vacation in Wisconsin, Week 6 produce went to Karen & Eric. This week we got a few new items and lots of repeats. We're getting pretty good at preparing chard!

Week 7:
5 cucumbers
4 yellow squash
1 bag of eggplant
1 bag patty pan squash
1 green leaf lettuce
1 bunch beets
1 bunch chard
1 bunch green onions
1 garlic

CSA Week 5

Another week of beautiful produce from our CSA! Last week we made a slaw from the cabbage and beets that turned out pretty good and tried the broccoli greens sauteed and served over rice. Not too bad. We still have our broccoli and snap peas from last week to eat. Got too busy to eat the good stuff!

This weeks produce:
1 bunch broccoli leaves
1 bunch broccoli
1 cabbage
1 bunch spinach
1 green leaf lettuce
4 zucchini
1 bunch beets
1 bunch small onions

CSA Week 2

Last week we used all the greens (kale and chards) in a wonderful steak & greens recipe with a bit of brown rice. We made a small salad with some of the lettuce's and still have some of that leftover.

This weeks picks:
1 bunch spinach
1 romaine lettuce
1 red leaf lettuce
1 green leaf lettuce
1 bunch kale
1 bunch red chard
1 head cabbage
1 bunch garlic scape (pictured below)

CSA Week 1

This year we signed up for a share in a Community Supported Agriculture program ("CSA"). The CSA is with One Straw Farm, the largest organic vegetable farm in Maryland. The CSA provides weekly produce (whatever is ripe!) from June through November. Each week you get 8 items that you pick up at a nearby site and you'll have more than enough produce to last you the week. We had our first pick up this week and got a lot of stuff! Below is the list:

1 bunch romaine
1 bunch red leaf lettuce
1 bunch green leaf lettuce
1 bunch kale
1 bunch rainbow chard
1 bunch red chard
1 bunch arugula
1 pint strawberries

New Kids On The Block and a special visit!

When I found out the New Kids on the Block were going to be in Baltimore I called up the sisters to see if they wanted to come out for the show and spend the weekend in Baltimore. Gretchen said yes and decided to bring a mystery guest with her. I suspected the mystery guest was my other sister Heidi, but she wasn't able to get off of work to make it out. So, I was surprised with a visit from my best friend Becky! They arrived on Thursday afternoon and we headed to Cross Street Market for lunch. Becky got her coveted chinese take out and Gretchen and I got cheese steaks. After lunch we took a quick walk to Federal Hill park for a view of the harbor. We headed home and got ready for the concert. We hit up the liquor store for those cute little booze bottles that we could smuggle into the show to avoid the expensive drinks there. All we had to do was buy some coke or sprite and we were set! The opening act, Jabbawockeez, was a dance group and they were okay but not all that entertaining. On to the main act - having never been to a show of NKOTB's in the past, I had no idea what to expect. The sound of that many girls/women screaming was incredibly loud! Holy moley! It was an insane amount of noise...the loudest concert i've been to! The drinks definately helped cope with that aspect of it! The show was good although I still wish I had seen them when I wanted to as a kid. Set list is below, which kicked butt...sang all the songs I wanted to hear and closed with Hangin' Tough, that was pretty darn cool.

NKOTB Set List:
Call It What You Want
My Favorite Girl
The Right Stuff
Didn't I Blow Your Mind
Valentine Girl
Please Don't Go Girl
Grown Man
Dirty Dancing
Games
Single (B STAGE)
If You Go Away (B Stage)
Two in the Morning (B STAGE)
Tonight (B STAGE)
Twisted
Baby I Believe In You
Give It To You
Joe's Medley (I Remember When, Where Do I Go From Here, Thank You)
Cover Girl
I'll Be Loving You Forever
Click, Click, Click (with Pose Off)
Summertime
Step By Step
Hangin Tough

One of the few photos I took from the weekend is of us totally smashed at the Brewer's Art after having a delicious dinner at b a Bolton Hill Bistro. Notice how none of us really have our eyes open except Gretchen, who normally always has her eyes closed so it's always a good clue to look for when she's been drinking!

Modest Mouse at Ram's Head Live

Last night was our first show at Ram's Head Live in downtown Baltimore. Michael & Caitlin got us (and themselves!) tickets for the Modest Mouse show. We met up at Houlihan's for a quick dinner and headed to the show around 8:00 PM. There were two opening bands, each playing a half hour set. The first band wasn't all that great, but was upbeat and had a lot of energy. The second band, Mimicking Birds, played a better show, but their music was a real downer! No energy at all and kinda boring. Modest Mouse then took their sweet ass time getting on stage, having us wait an hour and half between sets for them to come out. A little long, in my opinion! They didn't start playing until 10:30PM, already way past my bedtime! They put on a decent show and the energy was good. There were a few technical difficulties with the mics giving some feedback during a few of the songs, but overall it was pretty good. The venue, however, is strangely designed with three levels. We grabbed a spot at the railing on the second floor and had a good view, but there were definitely drawbacks to the design and places where the sound wasn't all that great. I'm sure we'll head back for more shows just because it's one of the places in town that has shows we like. Below is the set list for Modest Mouse - and no they didn't play Float On!

Set List:
Spitting Venom
Never Ending Math Equation
The View
Doin' the Cockroach
Fire It Up
Wild Packs of Family Dogs
Here It Comes
Dashboard
Guilty Cocker Spaniel
Tiny Cities Made of Ashes
Bukowski
Dramamine
Education
3rd Planet
This Devil's Workday
Paper Thin Walls
Parting of the Sensory

Encore:
The Good Times Are Killing Me
Bury Me With It
Alone Down There
Blame It On The Tetons

Christmas Tree!

This Christmas will be our second Christmas in Baltimore. However, last year we were still in transit and didn't have a permanent home. Plus, we spent almost 2 weeks in Ohio and Illinois for the holiday. So this year, now that we have our house, we bought our first fake Christmas tree. This year we'll only be spending a few days in Cincinnati so we'll have time to enjoy it at home. We opted for a non-pre-lit tree since the pre-lit trees looked skimpy. The tree we got is 7.5 fee tall and is pretty wide and full. We decided to put it up in the 3rd floor office since we have the most open space there and I get to look at it all day while I work. It's got white lights and lots of ornaments! And there's even a few presents for us under the tree.

All moved in!

We moved into our new house last weekend and have been unpacking ever since. We've also been doing a ton of shopping to buy back all the stuff we didn't move with us from Portland. Lots of good consumering going on. Our list seems endless...mattress, vacuum, tv, dressers, organizing stuff, cleaning supplies, garbage cans, recycle bins, etc....

But...it's all worth it and I love our new house! It feels so good to finally be in a place of our own. We have lots of ideas floating around on what we want to do to improve the space. But, first things first, we need to finish unpacking!

The fam is visiting in less than 3 weeks so we have a lot of work ahead of us.

Closing Time

Our original closing date had to be rescheduled...underwriting wasn't done yet. Good thing we only had to move the closing out by one day. We close this afternoon and will be celebrating soon thereafter! I believe 40s and crabcakes are on the menu. Finally, after almost 2 1/2 months of living with other people, we can unpack and move into a place of our own. And I can't wait!

On the home front

We finally found a rowhouse we like enough to put an offer on! The offer was accepted and we're now wading through the red tape of home ownership on our way to the closing date. Very exciting! We have a few things to settle before we're ready to close, but we're already making lists on what we need to buy when we finally get the keys! Like new locks!