As I was watching the Orioles pre-game show last night (before watching the Capitals miserable loss) I saw that MASN was promoting a video blog created by one of my favorite Orioles, Brian Roberts! Well he picked the best name possible for his blog, “The B-Log“.

Saturday I went to to see the Orioles lose to the Angels in Baltimore. On our way out of Oriole Park at Camden Yards we saw the van pictured above and I must say that it is awesome and I must own one. Obviously vans are pretty cool to begin with, but adding an Orioles paint job adds to the grandeur.

About 10 minutes after I took this photo, we walked through the Inner Har and happened upon people fleeing one of the buildings. Apparently, there was a shooting moments before we arrived after a few rival gang members happened upon each other in the most tourist filled area of Baltimore. Fortunately, no one was killed though it was still a pretty nasty scene – we saw police attending to a shot gang member through a doorway and we almost stepped in some blood outside…ugh.

Thankfully I spotted this van and stopped to snap a few photos, otherwise we might have arrived at the Inner Harbor a minute earlier…

Third place! That’s where my basketball team, The Dream Team, finished in this year’s Philadelphia Sport Network winter Thursday night ref league. At least that’s where I think we finished since our last game was supposed to be last night and I believe the other team forfeited (seems both teams lost interest since we weren’t in the championship game not to mention the NCAA tournament starting).

I averaged 6.83 points per game with a single game high of 14 and a single game low of 2. Sadly, unlike Stanus.butt, I did not video tape any of our games so I cannot accurately report on any other stats (which I know my faitful reader are clamoring for!).

I had fun, and I may look into playing in a similar league when returning to the DC area. Really it’s the only thing I’ve done in recent months that got me excercising.

In other news, it seems my 2 week long flu/cold combo is just about gone. Finally.

I’m sick. I’ve been sick for a week and it only got worse today when I realized I had a fever. The doctor gave me some heavy duty cough syrup to knock me out tonight since the NyQuil didn’t have much effect so that should be fun. Apparently I have some sort of flu-like thing, but not the typical flu that’s going around…whatever that means.

But, before I realized I had a fever, Katie and I attended the Flyers / Capitals game yesterday to watch the Caps win 2-1! We’ve had the tickets since Christmas as a present from my brother and I’d been looking forward to it for a while. I didn’t realize how easy it would be for us to get to the stadium area (Phillies, Eagles, 76ers, and Flyers all play in buildings within walking distance of each other) and it was a short subway ride to get there. Going to definitely attend a Phillies game or two once the season kicks off.

Flyers fans (and I guess Philly fans in general) were pretty brutal. They booed the refs before the game even started and cheered when one got knocked down mid-game. Then after each of the Capitals starters names were announced the entire sold out crowd yelled together, “SUCKS!”. Not to mention the boos every time the league’s best player (and Washington Capital) Alex Ovechkin touched the puck.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so I only snapped one quick photo of warmups with my phone. Katie and I quietly cheered for our team and respectfully clapped when we scored. A louder Caps fan near us was being heavily berated by those around him and I wasn’t much in the mood for that being sick and all … plus it’s not like it’s a baseball game or something, it’s hockey.

On a related note, I just realized the Phillies play the Orioles in June! Though I’m not sure we’ll still be in Philly then…

Phils Win! The city went crazy and I went out to take part in it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a die-hard Orioles fan – but I couldn’t not go partake in the craziness. I actually have a two sets of photos of the fans rejoicing – one from the night of the World Series win and one from the World Series parade.

The night of the World Series win, people took the the streets. I took a walk down to Broad Street (4 blocks from our apartment) where most of the madness was happening. I saw people stealing Phillies banners (above), riding moving firetrucks, and lots of general craziness. At one point someone started throwing glass bottle full of blue and red paint…they would smash on the ground (and probably on heads) and get paint on everyone. One landed about 5 feet from me and got paint on my new kicks – that was my cue to head home.

“Take it Easy” was more of a command I was trying to get myself to follow this week which didn’t really happen (until the weekend). My birthday was this week and I went to not one but two Orioles games against the Nationals (one win and one loss). Katie arranged for a couple pals from out-of-town to make a surprise visit and we all went to the Saturday game. Stan (pictured) was confused when he didn’t see a hoop anywhere, then apparently took a nap.

Even though Arriving Shortly was a pretty random week of photos, I really like how a lot of them turned out. The photo above was taken on National Go Skateboarding Day 2008 at Powhatan Springs Park in Arlington, VA. I forget how I heard about this, but I made a point of going specifically to try and get some good action photos.

I actually took up skateboarding for probably a good year in middle school. I saved up and ordered a custom board (as in ordered all the deck, wheels, trucks, and bearings all separately) from a magazine either my neighbor Tim, or I had. I really wanted to find a better picture of the board but I can’t even remember the company that made it. The only photo I have is below (with my neighbor Tim on his porch after a hardcore skating session!). Anyone know what brand my skateboard is?

Years before I became a “real skateboarder”, my parents gave me my first skateboard for Christmas (I think). It was a Valterra ALF skateboard (pictured below!) After doing some Googling it looks like it was only made in 1987 so I must have been about 5 years old when I got it. That skateboard was totally bad-ass.

I should definitely become a skater again.

Anthony helped put the finishing touch on a fun week of photos. He’s definitely dunking on a real ten foot rim here…he’s got ups.

This week’s uber-literal theme (suggested by Stanus) may have been my favorite theme to date. It seems I go through cycles of creativity and subject selection… Some days or weeks the photos come easy and turn out great and sometimes they don’t but, this week seemed to come pretty naturally from start to finish. I think it also stayed interesting since 6 out of the 7 days I was taking photos of people (even though three were self portraits). If anyone would like to volunteer for a photo, let me know…I can only take so many pictures of my remote controls.

Next week’s theme: Simplicity.

I finally received my strobist kit! I still have a lot to learn but I’m already liking the results. This week’s theme was “Let There Be Light” pretty much because I just wanted to randomly play with my new gear. I took a few portraits this week and even a freaky clone shot of myself.

It’s starting to get a bit warmer out – anyone up for some basketball? lg ringtones cricket free ringtones free phone ringtones verizon wireless christian music ringtones free real music ringtones sprint cell cingular free phone ringtones real music ringtones download free mobile real ringtones t free real ringtones tone free us cellular audiovox ringtones free jamster ringtones cell phone ringtones wallpaper hotlink maxis caller ringtones cingular free ringtones free music nextel real ringtones cingular free phone ringtones samsung polyphonic ringtones free mp3 ringtones converter make your own free ringtones free get ringtones

It smells like dog food outside and I’m heading to Dave’s Taverna Express. Where am I?

I was watching game 2 of the World Series and Fox talked about Taco Bell for about 10 minutes straight. This included an interview with the Taco Bell COO, giving away free tacos to America because a base was stolen, and listening in on a player in the dugout that was talking about the free tacos. During the interview the COO talked nothing of baseball but said how fresh their tacos were about 3 times. Then the interviewer actually said of Boston fans, “we think outside the bun.” Fox you are a tool. Damn it…now I’m hungry for a taco. I’ll just have to wait for a free one (I hear they’re fresh!) on October 30 from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.