Mar 6, 2014

I got started a little late but still pretty much when I wanted to leave for Lancaster. It was a long yet enjoyable drive for the most part. Podcasts make it go much more quickly. I got to Buchmiller DGC about ten minutes before we planned to meet there so I used the frozen porta potty and put my boots on.

Joanna got there shortly after I did and we got started on the course. It was completely covered in snow, which wasn't really so bad. The worst part was the tee pads were icy so it was hard to step up to drive. It was a fun course despite the inconvenience, and I didn't feel the snow was much of a detriment.

We weren't sure if we wanted to travel too far to play another course so we went downtown to The Seed, a vegan cafe, where I got an amazingly delicious reuben that I subbed seitan for tofu. I made the right choice. The soup wasn't too good, but I liked the place.

Next stop was Spring House Brewing of course. I finally got to try the Lil' Gruesome Peanut Butter & Jelly Stout. It was okay. I was underwhelmed by it, but I had a pint anyway. I prefer the Chocolate PB Stout.

We had plenty of time left so we went to Gallery Row to check out a handful of art galleries. A lot of local artists have great work on display here. There was no photography that I saw, but I did really enjoy the work of Freiman Stoltzfus, who did paintings over maps and music-inspired paintings. It was a nice collection.

We went to the Federal Taphouse to see what they might have, and I ended up being really surprised and excited to try a bunch of what they had on tap. They had almost 100 taps and an amazing selection.

I started with a Nut Roll brown ale by PBC. Fantastic. I had to have the Lief & Leed by Molen. It's a sour so it was great. Next I had the Koko Brown from Kona, and it was nice to actually be able to taste the coconut in this delicious brew. I finished with a couple of high alcohol beers, the Horn Dog Barleywine by Flying Dog and the Culmination by Long Trail. Both were very tasty and had me feeling pretty good.

We went back to the car to drop off our warm clothes and walked across the street to the venue. We didn't wait too long after going in for Fireworks to begin their set. They kicked off with a new song and then dove into a fast set of mostly Gospel tunes before ending with When We Stand on Each Other... It was a great set except for how extremely short it was.

The Wonder Years were next and the crowd went crazy. I was right up front but I dropped back so I could actually breathe and move by myself. After a few songs it calmed down, but everyone went nuts for almost every song. It was a great set, but they are one of those bands that will always have a great set and leave you still wanting more. I love those guys. Jen and Stephen happened to be there and we met up afterward to talk for a while as Stephen spoke with Nick for a while.

After that it was a long drive home listening to more podcasts and music. What a great day.

Feb 23, 2010

I subbed for Erika's music classes in the morning, starting at Lakeside. It was an easy day, consisting of one class at Lakeside, followed by a big break since I couldn't do individual lessons, then I sat in the auditorium at Memorial while the kids watched Phantom of the Opera or did sudoku puzzles.

I went to Joanna's right after work and Chuck met up shortly after and we headed to IHOP. It is National Pancake Day (not sure if that's just an IHOP thing or if it's national for real..) and that means free pancakes! They were delicious and came quick. I'm sure they have a giant stack of them in the back waiting for people. Maybe not, they would be gross if they sat out very long.

We continued driving west toward Lancaster until we arrived at the Chameleon Club. We got in just in time to see Fireworks play most of their set. They were good again.

We saw Hellogoodbye this time, who we missed in AC (well, I wouldn't say we missed them... they were really good bread bowls..) They were okay. I don't really listen to them at all but I know a few songs.

Saves The Day was great again, maybe even better in a small venue like this. The crowd was into it and they played a lot of good older songs, including "Sell All My Old Clothes..." So good.

New Found Glory hit us with a second dose of their full self-titled album. They played the same encore set as well but it still great and the crowd was really reacting, albeit less violently than the last few times I've seen this band. It was a nice change.

We spent the drive home talking about what we might do in the future for disc golf trips and singing songs from previous trips. Gooood times.

Feb 19, 2010

I got to work late because I overslept. I was in for Mr. Ferzetti's physics class. Oh, Physics Phun, I remember from so long ago. One thing I can say for him is that his classes are all awesome. They are really nice kids and they work. It was a good day and I had some good conversations with the kids. To generalize, smarter kids are far less annoying to me than the not-as-smart ones.

After work I met Katie at The Looking Glass for smoothies. They didn't have any fruit so we got Chai Frappes. They were really good. We got some sweet potato fries to go with it.

I met up with Chuck and Diebra and headed to Atlantic City and the House of Blues. We got there in time to see Fireworks and then we went to get food during Hellogoodbye's set. We got bread bowls of Broccoli Cheddar soup. It was deliciously awkward to eat with a fork and knife.

We came back for Saves The Day, who played a lot of older stuff and good new stuff as well. They always play a good set and always use that banner. Even with the new lineup, they're really good. And they always have a new lineup.

New Found Glory came up next to play their entire self-titled CD for their tenth anniversary tour. All of the songs are still awesome live; it was great to hear some of the songs they never play anymore. It was especially great to hear "Ballad for the Lost Romantics," which was the last song on the album and one of my favorites.

They went away for a while, changed the set and came back for an encore of favorites from their newer albums. The encore wasn't as long as I'd have liked but it was still a lot of fun.

We came back and I got to Rowan After Hours in time to see everything being taken down and then we came back to the room and went to sleep pretty early.

Jul 4, 2009

Our Fourth of July barbecue was pretty small at my mom's new house. Just a few people some food (veggie burgers and turkey dogs for those of us who don't eat meat...) We stayed for a little while and played with Aiden outside until people started leaving.

Later, Chuck, Nate, Katie and I got the train to Philly to continue the festivities. We got some Indian food at Samosa on our way down to the concert.

The Ben Franklin Parkway was packed full of people for the free outdoors concert in front of the art museum. It was a beautiful night.

We got relatively close to the stage to watch The Roots, the main reason we came, and then walked behind the art museum looking for a spot to watch fireworks.

We ended up coming back through the huge crowd and watching the fireworks from the fountain. There were a lot of people in the fountain and it was hard to get a great view but the display was nice.

On our way back to the train we heard several loud explosions that would have seemed out of place on any other night. Nate and Chuck decided that it would be the perfect night to blow something up. They didn't. We just came home. It was a fun day of festivities.