So its Sunday, and cold and rainy so I’ll give the weekend wrap-up.
We’ve tried to start a tradition of going to a restaurant every Friday, all four of us. We found that the Golden West Café in Hampden is not only family friendly, but has a lot of things Roni can eat and enjoy given her dairy and soy restricted diet. So of course there must be a catch – the last time we went with Micah he got freaked by a large near dot-matrix quality reproduction of the Mona Lisa that hangs on one of the walls – he keeps referring to it as the “man he doesn’t like at the restaurant”. We tried to convince him to go if we sat away from the man, but even mere mention of the picture caused a pre-meltdown. So we decided to Cafe Hon instead – Micah seemed very excited about going to another restaurant, but so soon as we walked in the place he saw a life size statue of Elvis holding a guitar and got freaked out again. This was a facsimile of the thin Elvis - who knows how Micah would have reacted to the 300 lb lamb chop sideburns having, peanut butter and bacon eating, Elvis who died on the can?. So we vacated the place and decided to order carryout instead. Word to the wise - refrain from ordering Vietnamese style food from an Italian restaurant - Pho Primavera? more like faux Pho, thats all I have to say about that.
On Saturday we arose early ready to take on the day – we had big plans in store, including a trip to the Waverly farmers market and a birthday party for one of Micah’s classmates, Liam. We went to the farmers market, but it was kind of rainy so the vendor count was kind of low. We hopped back into the big grey car and headed off to the Lauraville neighborhood for Liam’s 3rd birthday. We got to Liam’s house and Roni and I immediately had a case of house envy. The house is a two story bungalow, with four spacious rooms on the first floor including a large kitchen, and a large and inviting front porch. Our envy increased as we eventually made our way to the spacious back deck overlooking a very nice, but manageable size wise backyard. I’m kind of a real estate nerd anyway, and I read the listings every Sunday, but this place made me want to call an agent right away and start a search.
Anyways, the party was off the hook – Kim and Cathy, Liam’s parents went all out for the affair. Not only was there serious pre-party far to munch on (including Dunkin Donuts munchkins), but pizza was the main entrée, accompanied by a fantastic green salad and a really fresh fruit salad (yummy yummy!). A lot of Micah and Liam’s classmates and parents came, as well as other friends and Liam and his moms. I spent a lot of time hanging out with a really cool woman from DC – I was excited to talk DC with her as I moved to Baltimore from DC about 5 years ago, but still have a place in my heart for it. Turns out she works for a non-profit that is working on a master-transportation plan for DC (subways, buses, bike friendly routes) and also does affordable housing issues – two things I’m into. She also took a liking to Emmet and held him for the better part of an hour. The party climaxed with some serious cake and ice cream, and then the meltdowns started to escalate in frequency. We headed home to get Micah a nap, but took a detour to check out some of the houses in the area – what a cool neighborhood. We love our house now, but it’s a rowhouse, not end-of-group, and we are really jealous of everyone who has four walls of windows. If we knew that we’d be staying in Baltimore after Roni and I finish our degrees we’d probably be on the house hunt right now – but given that we could move to another city in 2ish years , we are holding off for the moment.
Saturday night I grilled to old skool way, with charcoal, drank a few Sierra Nevadas, ad watched a bit of head banger’s ball.
Sunday arrived and it was a cold (like 45 degree) start to a day that actually never warmed up. We tried to go to the park in the morning, but as predicted it was too cold. We headed out to the B and O Railroad museum, as we are members, to take in some trains. Micah loves trains. For some reason he insisted on bringing his new Bob the Builder umbrella with him, and was very upset when we wouldn’t let him open it in the car. He was somewhat appeased when we let him carry the fully opened umbrella through the parking lot of the museum, and he looked really cute, almost like he was using it as a parasol to protect his fair skin as it was quite sunny at this point in the day. We checked out some model trains and then went straight into the roundhouse to check out the historical collection of engines and cabooses. Two years ago the roof of the roundhouse collapsed during a snowstorm, and them museum just reopened in November 2004. The new roof is a serious marvel of civil engineering, well worth checking out live or searching out photos online.
So we frolic through the roundhouse, going on the trains that we allowed to go on, and then head outside to check out a large model train. It was freezing, or felt like it, but Micah insisted on staying amidst the elements for about 15 minutes. We then basked again in the warmth of the roundhouse, and I had a celebrity sighting of sorts, Baltimore musician-poet-tattoo artist- Jew’s harp improviser and Lungfish lead singer Daniel Higgs. This guy is the real deal and an incredible front man - I've had the pleasure of seeing Lungfish about 4 times in the past 15 or so years and they always put on a trance inducing, mesmerizing show.
So we finish up at the railroad museum, get back in the car, and Micah says something that niether Roni or I can hear well enough to understand. We ask him what he just said and he replies "I was talking to Bob the Builder". I ask "what did you say to Bob", and Micah replies "I told him he can't play ball because he's an umbrella". Words of wisdom on which to end the weekend wrapup.
