Wednesday, August 30, 2006

The Chesapeake Explorer Gets Political

As some of you may know, the neighborhoods of urban Baltimore are organized into little political groups called neighborhood associations that act as the sounding board for the 'hood and liaise with the city govenment to help put the citizens' perspective in front of the politicians.

I became involved in our neighborhood association when I wanted to generate funds and permission to build the bocce ball court. And, when that project was finished I was in the throes of getting married and was pretty busy at work so my involvement lapsed.

For fun, I went to a meeting a couple of months ago and found that almost the entire board was empty because of others doing similar kinds of things with their time. So I volunteered to be the Vice President of the association. A vote was taken and voila, I was in.

Two days later, the President of the association called me up and announce her resignation because she had just gotten married.

Hm.

The good news is that this term expires in October -- that's the cool part about being voted in during the term. We'll see what happens after that.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Nachos at James Joyce -- Thumbs WAY UP

Last Friday night Hambone and I wandered around the Baltimore Harbor to the James Joyce pub, where we discovered "stealth Irish Nachos."

Because really, isn't an Irish pub the last place you'd expect to find good nachos? And the real stealth move is that they aren't called Nachos. In the Irish rendition, they're called "five layer dip."

The other way they fool you is by serving the guacamole, salsa, sour cream and refried beans in an ice cream sundae glass that is surrounded by nacho chips around the base of it. When these nachos arrived, it looked for all the world like we were receiving dessert.

But I have to say, the chips were insanely fresh and delicious and the chip-to-topping ratio was right on. Even the guacamole was fresh. I have to give this the thumbs up, with extra points for creative presentation.

Me gusta mucho!

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Damn Paparazzi

So I have recently become FED UP with my really kinky curly hair. This summer with its 92% humidity has pushed me over the limit. I would come home from a particularly stressful day and Hambone (who has asked if I would please please stop cutting my hair so short I look like I'm playing for the 'other team') would openly jeer at my mile-high hair.

Last week I went to the new salon on Charles Street called "M" (that's the entire name) and asked them to either straighten my hair somehow or to just shave it off. They decided to do a "reverse permanent" on me, which took my wild and ridiculous hair and straightened it right out.

Surprisingly, after the deal was done, my hair is long enough to cover my ears. Who knew.

Now that my hair is ... more normal, I have been trying the hairdos you'd usually see on TV and in the Movies. My current favorite is the "Carmella Soprano."

Yesterday I was having lunch at a cafe in Mt Vernon and this Chinese girl at the next table held up her phone and took a picture of the top of my head. I was really quite put off by this.

I think her picture looked something like this -- I tried to re-create the photo when I was sitting in my office this afternoon. (That's how I roll) I can't see what she wanted from that picture...