Wooly Bully

It’s too late for this year but you might want to pencil the 41^st Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival into your calendar for next spring. I readily admit to being surprised at how big it is. The two day event at the Howard County Fairgrounds attracts about 85,000 visitors from all over. It is the premier festival “celebrating all things sheep and wool” in the world.

It’s free too.

We watched sheep dogs go through their paces, ate lamb sausage sandwiches, sampled lambs milk cheese, and checked out at a lot stuff made out of wool.

There was even sheep art. Conni Tӧgel has a collection of works she calls Sheep Incognito, perfect for this crowd. This work is entitled “Ewe Tube.”

It’s a dry event and after all that lamb I was a little thirsty so to keep in the spirit of things I picked up a six pack of Baba Black Lager on the way home. Not baaaaad.

Ahem.

All in all, it was a wooly bully day.

You can see more pictures of the 40^th Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival here.

Comedy is Hard

This weekend, the 2^nd annual Spring Celebration in Ellicott City featured four comedy acts in addition to a wide assortment of bands on three stages. I was able to catch partial performances of two of them; Michael Freidman at the Tiber Park stage and an act called SM Stefano Stratakis at the Wine Bin stage.

I came to the conclusion that grassroots loco comedy is hard. Just because someone tells you that you are funny doesn't necessarily mean that funniness translates into a successful stand up act. Both of these acts struggled to elicit any kind of audience reaction. As a few people pointed out, all successful comedians likely started out this way. I couldn't help but think that this is a very hard road to travel.

Other than the comedy acts, you’d have to call the Spring Celebration a big success. The weather was perfect and the crowds turned out. Dave Carney told me that the ECBA is working on a summer festival too, most likely to occur in mid July.

You can see additional pictures of Saturdays’ event here.

Spring Celebration 2013

This Saturday the Ellicott City Business Association will host their 2^nd Annual Spring Celebration in the historic district. Live entertainment, craft beers and Earth Day activities will be spread up and down Main Street from noon to 7 PM.

If Foot’s Forecast is right, the weather should be perfect. “Morning clouds will break to a fantastic afternoon! Skies will gradually become sunnier, with highs reaching generally the lower 60s.”

Perfect weather for festing!

Preaster

Those of us who aren't actively religious still acknowledge certain traditions at this time of year, just like humans have done since mankind began. Certain religious rituals are harmonious with the notion of renewal that comes with spring. I know fellow Catholics who haven’t seen the inside of church in years, yet still give something up for Lent, sincere or otherwise. I actually gave up beer for about ten days, well short of the required forty, a damnable offense I’m sure.

Today I bought a traditional ham, as well as some secular Easter stuff; hollow chocolate bunnies, three dollar cupcakes, cards, and some tulips. A couple of weeks ago I bought home tulips from Wegmans for the first time and was pleasantly surprised by the quality. Under Mama Wordbones practiced hands, they lasted twelve days, which is not too shabby for grocery store tulips.

I didn't buy a Wegmans ham. I would have but I only needed a small one, just like the ones they sell at the ham store in Dorseys Search. It used to be called Heavenly Ham but that company was bought by Honeybaked. I don't care what they call the place as long as the ham is the still the same .

At the ham store they were rigged up with stanchions and rope to handle Christmas sized crowds but I breezed right through. The cashier told me that this was just an abnormal break between storms. I was just lucky. Then again it was the middle of the work day.

It was a very quiet day at our office. It’s Good Friday and good Catholics don’t work on Good Friday. I figure there must be an awful lot of good Catholics because all the office parking lots in Columbia were empty but the retail parking lots around town were buzzing. I forgot to check the church parking lots.

There was one other thing I couldn't get at Wegmans, an iTunes gift card in a denomination below fifty bucks that didn't say Happy Birthday. Their stock had been depleted so from the ham store I headed to the Giant where I spotted this impressive display of spring flowers. I decided that for a non religious guy like me, today was more like pre-Easter than Good Friday, or Preaster for short. A Friday in spring when work slows down and people buy flowers in grocery stores.

Happy Preaster!

St Patrick’s Day in Ellicott City…Mid Day Report

The real action was last night of course. Revelers were out in force in the pubs and restaurants in Ellicott City and apparently so were the HoCo Police. I say apparently because we opted take our St. Patrick's vigil to the Ale House Columbia last night instead. I received all my info on the historic district revelry second hand.

Today, however is St. Patrick’s Day and no matter what day of the week March 17^th falls on, it is a day to put on a bit of green and celebrate the impending arrival of spring. There is also the ACC basketball tournament going on which by itself would be enough of an excuse to sit in pub and enjoy a beer or two. Then again the wind sort of came out of that sail last night too.

Voices for Children hoped to get things going early today by promoting a pub crawl that began at 11:00 AM. Last night, as Mama Wordbones and I discussed this, we agreed that 11:00 AM on a Sunday morning is different than 11:00 AM on a Sunday. Sunday is a day to sleep late and get up slowly, even if it also happens to be St. Patrick’s Day. Consequently t-shirt traffic was a little off from last year when it fell on a Saturday.

The volunteers were out there though, selling t-shirts while quaffing hot chocolate. This also turned out to be one of those cold St. Patrick’s years but it didn't seem to daunt their spirits (one wonders what else was in that hot chocolate?)

Nathan, the River House Pizza Company guy, was out this morning too, selling his popular breakfast pizza. I haven’t tried that yet but the reviews I’m getting are all good. Truthfully, I need to be focusing more on granola and fresh fruit right now than breakfast pizza anyway.

Talk of beers and breakfast pizza were almost drowned out by the chatter about parking. Last Thursday public works crews from Baltimore County swept in and created a no parking zone in front of Wilkins Rogers Mill. This little stretch of non-metered  roadside parking, just over the bridge, had become popular with locos. Within hours the BC police had slapped $52.00 parking fines on several vehicles.

Upping Her Game

Tomorrow night loco celebrity status will be measured by the amount of tips given to six loco luminaries. Tom Coale, Mickey Gomez, Paul Skalny, Vicki Goodman, Dick Story and Pam Klahr will serve as celebrity bartenders for the HoCo library’s black tie fundraiser, Sparkles and Spurs. They will use charm and wit to see who among them can cajole the most tips to benefit the library.

Last year, when it was my chance to be measured against other loco standouts behind the bar, Mickey Gomez won the night. That got her invited back for another stint this year.

She is a very formidable competitor. Last night, on her blog “Life & How to Live It”, she wrote an open letter to one of my favorite humorists, Dave Barry. In the letter she tells a tale of a canine caper that reduced her autographed copy of his book “Insane City” to shreds.

“On Thursday I brought the book home. I took it out of my bag – worried about it getting crushed or torn there – and placed it in the middle of the dining room table. The large dining room table. My husband and I went to dinner and returned less than ninety minutes later to find the book laying open on the floor. The cover had been removed and – how shall I put this? – artfully redesigned by Shiloh, Mischief Dog. He even ate part of it.”

It’s a very funny read.

The best part though is that instead of appealing to the author for another signed copy of his book, she asks for a donation to the library.

“If you happen upon this message and are so inclined, I’d like to ask you to consider helping to promote our local libraries. They are top-notch, but – as with all libraries – there are programs that need support in order to continue. I’ll be raising money this weekend as a Celebrity Bartender during Evening in the Stacks, their annual fundraiser that supports two exceptional programs: A+ Partners in Education and Project Literacy.”

Nicely done.

Ruminations on Presidents Day 2013

Presidents Day is one of those half holidays, sort of like Martin Luther King Day. Banks, schools and government offices are closed but in the private sector, commemoration of the holiday is not universal. From my own experience, I’d guess that only about a third of our HoCo loco non retail businesses gave their employees the day off.

That would include my own company.

For those of us who were trying to conduct business today it can be challenging. In my own personal experience, more often than not the person I really need to speak to will inevitably be one of those who have the day off.

That’s not to say that nothing gets done. There is even a certain bravado expressed among those who had to work. When a meeting is held on day like today there is certain to be someone who points out that “at least somebody is working today,” as if being stuck at work today was some sort of badge of honor.

Then there is the whole homogenization of what once was celebrated only on the 22^nd, no matter what day of the week it fell on. Congress gave that up in 1971 after deciding that a wandering holiday was inconvenient. It makes you wonder how long they’ll tolerate the 4^th of July.

I did find a couple of Presidents Day items in The Washington Post this morning. First there was this column by John Kelly about a book entitled “The Smithsonian Book of Presidential Trivia” It includes multiple choice quiz for serious history buffs. Until today I never knew that Grover Cleveland was called the Buffalo Hangman by some critics.

Then there is this feature by Chris Cillizza in which readers are asked to weigh in on the most underated and most overrated presidents. This is a political minefield and picks are bound to reflect personal political affiliations. One reader, identified as “blackwell575” tried to achieve balance.

"Over-rated by the right – Ronald Reagan 

Over-rated by the left – LBJ 

Under-rated by the right – FDR 

Under-rated by the left – Warren G. Harding"

Happy Presidents Day!

All Spur and No Sparkle

More than a few people have asked me what we are doing for the Evening In the Stacks party this year. The theme for this year’s library fundraiser is Sparkles and Spurs which pretty much tells you it’s a Texas theme. I think it’s the sparkle thing that throws folks off.

It may be a case of taking the whole sparkle theme too literally. It’s a black tie optional event which generally indicates that the ladies will be getting all gussied up and in my experience that usually includes accessorizing with jewelry. That would seem to cover the sparkle angle adequately enough.

I’m hoping people don’t take the spurs thing too literally as well. One can only imagine the fallout on the dance floor when you combine spurs with alcohol. I’m suggesting that perhaps a cowboy hat would satisfy the western theme without endangering fellow dancers.

What’s that?

You haven’t purchased your tickets yet?

Come on. What else are you going to do on a cold Saturday night in February?

For those guys who are tired of scrambling to find something thoughtful for a Valentines Day gift, Sparkles and Spurs could be just the ticket. Instead of flowers that only she can really enjoy, you get to spend a night out together drinking and dancing in the library. This year the party will include an Antler Bar with beers from the Ale House Columbia and a Cactus Bar with margaritas prepared by the folks at The Wine Bin.

You can still get tickets at the discounted price too. After this Thursday the ticket price goes up to $125 as opposed to a hundred bucks right now. I wouldn't wait too long either. Only 600 tickets are available and as of this past weekend over 300 had already been accounted for.

Spurs of the Moment

We had a discussion about spurs this weekend. The theme of this years Evening in the Stacks library fundraiser is “Sparkle & Spurs,” so Mama Wordbones was contemplating how to work spurs into her evening wear.  

I may go an entirely different route.

We have time. The event is a little over a month away so there is still plenty time to get your tickets and find your own spurs. It’s a fun event and a great way to shake off those winter blues. You can find more information here.

A Night of Madness

The crowds turned out for Midnight Madness in Ellicott City last night. By the time we arrived around 6:30 PM the parking lot up by the courthouse was already full. Though a light rain fell intermittently throughout the evening, it didn't put a damper on the festivities.

After grabbing dinner at the Ellicott Mills Brewing Company, we headed down Main Street to check out the scene. It wasn't long before we caught a whiff of something that smelled downright delicious. It was the La Pearle Waffles food truck which had commandeered a parking spot along a very narrow stretch of sidewalk. 

Further along we ran into Gunther Miller pedaling Choose Insanity bumper stickers. Gunther told me that sales were a bit off from previous years as the novelty has begun to wear off. To counter this he has diversified by adding HoCo magnets with turkey vultures to his product offerings.

High school madrigals are a traditional part of Midnight Madness and last night was no exception.

At the bottom of Main Street I spoke to a hot dog vendor who had commandeered another parking spot. Brendan told me that he was the guy behind LaLa’s ice cream parlor. The shop has been “coming soon” for almost a year now.

“It’s been a challenge trying to get open,” he told me. One of the problems he faced was the ceiling height in the space. It is two inches lower that the health department regulations require. He told me that he believes they've resolved that issue and are now on track for an April 2013 opening.

We finished up our Madness night with a wine sample at The Wine Bin. They were offering a red called Santa's Little Helper. It's the kind of wine you buy for the label, not what's in the bottle.

Madness and Open Studios

In addition to the annual Midnight Madness celebration in Ellicott City tomorrow night, it is also open studio night at the HoCo Center for the Arts. Local artists working in a variety of media will open their studios to the public in the re purposed elementary school from 5:30 to 8:30 pm. We went last year and were pleasantly surprised at the variety and quality of the work of our HoCo loco artists.

It is also a good opportunity to browse the center’s galleries.

My best advice is to go early, before heading down to the fun on Main Street. The arts center is in a residential neighborhood with somewhat limited parking and they don’t have a spiffy little parking app to help you find an open space. By 7:00 PM cars will be lining the streets surrounding the building. 

This weekend is also the last Second Sunday Market of the season. So if you haven’t stocked your larder with that good loco honey yet, this would be a good opportunity to do so. After this Sunday the market will go on winter break until next April.

Clover or Wildflower

At the last Second Sunday Market, I stopped by the Apex Bee Company booth. With the onset of cold weather, we tend to go through honey quicker than in the warmer months. If you've ever warmed your pipes with tea, whiskey and honey you’ll know what I’m talking about.

“Would you like clover or wildflower,” the beekeeper asked.

I didn't know there was a difference. I thought honey was honey. I’m not very well versed in apiculture. She offered a taste of both. They were different. I thought the clover was a little less interesting than the wildflower. I went with the wildflower.

Honey isn't just for whiskey either. In this post by James Byrne on the Scientific American blog I learned that it “has some pretty amazing properties, it’s broadly antimicrobial and seemingly able to promote healing.”

“While only preliminary, it seems honey and its various components might have more secrets to unveil which will further develop our understanding of the anti-microbial nature of this environmental product and at the same time its pro-immune responses elicited when we use it.”

Byrne suggests that you “should rub honey on your everywhere." 

Sweet!

According to a tag affixed to the jar, my wildflower honey came from Honey Bee Restoration Project Hive #2 located in Freeland, MD.

That’s good stuff.

Postcard from the Road

Yesterday we were among those 883,000 Marylander's on the move for the Thanksgiving holiday. Yesterday afternoon Peanut and I flew out of BWI airport for our annual trek to my sisters home in St. Augustine Beach. According to this story by Candy Thomson in The Sun, approximately one in six Free Stater's is on the move for a feast with friends and family this year. Unlike us, most are driving.

                                                            

“Driving remains the way to go here in Maryland," said AAA spokeswoman Ragina Averella. "We're in a really good location on the East Coast, with many destinations two to four hours away. For a family with two or three children, it's cheaper to drive than fly."

I can attest to that. Even with taking advantage of early discounts, the round trip cost for Peanut and I to fly south was almost a thousand bucks.

It’s worth it though. We’ll spend a few days here with family and head back home before we've had a chance to do too much damage. As my mother used to say, “after three days, out of town guests and fish start to stink.”

Happy Thanksgiving. 

Five Thursdays

I am trying to adjust to the fact that Thanksgiving is only a week from today. By law, the holiday is always observed on the fourth Thursday of the month and this year November has five Thursdays. In my mind that makes Thanksgiving a week early.

I realize that it’s not. It’s been the fourth Thursday in November since 1941. The last time November had five Thursdays was 2007. I can’t recall if the holiday felt early that year, maybe that’s because I was too preoccupied with the poinsettia tree saga. Five years ago the poinsettia tree was removed from The Mall for the first time since 1972. It came back the following year and has returned every year since.

Anyway…

It’s now upon us. By Tuesday next week the wheels of commerce will have ground to a halt for just about everyone who isn't involved in the retail trades and, of course, those whose work knows no holiday.

The upside of the early holiday is that it provides a little breathing room between Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

Frankenstorm: Giving Up the Ghost

Every year, my neighbor Peter goes all out for Halloween. His front yard ghoulish display is among  the best I've ever seen. Each year he even adds a new character or prop. Last year it was a full sized coffin. This year it was the Mummy. A larger than life Frankenstein is a standard feature of the tableau.

Frank and the Mummy have retreated into the garage. It’s a wise move. They may inflict shivers and chills on children but they are no match for Frankenstorm. Yesterday, three days before Halloween and in the face of Frankenstorm, the display came down.

I’m thankful too. Fifty mile an hour winds could easily put Peter’s monsters on the move. I like them just fine in his yard but not so much sticking their heads through the screens on my screened porch.

Our display is much more modest. Since CG was just a little girl Mama Wordbones has always put a simple little homemade ghost in a front yard tree. That ghost is gone now too.

Peanut got some good news this afternoon. HoCo schools are giving up the ghost too. HCPSS announced at noon that public schools will be closed tomorrow.

At WSw the temp is now 56.3 degrees, and humity is 66%.  Pressure continues to drop at 29.42 inHg. Average wind speed has doubled to 4 mph.

Baby steps of the beast

MSMF 2012

By any measure you’d have to label yesterdays Main Street Music Festival in Ellicott City a success. The weather was perfect, the music was great and the crowds showed up.

Since I live just a little over a mile from Main Street, I was able to make two visits to the festival. I first stopped down a little after noon, just as things were getting underway. I easily snagged a parking space on the street right in front of Ellicott Mills Brewing Company. From there I walked down to the B&O Stage. While listening to acoustic artist Brian Kelm I also chatted briefly with the representatives of CSX. CSX, along with Heavy Seas, Metanoia, Ellicott Mills Brewing Company, Indigo Ink and the Ellicott City Business Association were the sponsors of the event.

Back up at the Heavy Seas Stage in the Wine Bin Parking lot I caught the performance of Root Three before heading back home for awhile.

When I returned to Ellicott City around 4:00 PM there were many more people than earlier but I still found a parking with relative ease. It does help that, as an EC loco, I happen to know a few places that the casual visitor might pass by.

This time I dropped in on the Ellicott Mills Stage in Parking Lot D where Chris Wojtal and the Hilltown Getdown were performing. I noticed that the beer line was a lot longer than it was earlier too. On the other hand a beer line is always an easy place to start up a conversation with strangers. While patiently awaiting my turn I met a woman who told me that she and her husband rode their bikes to the festival from their home in Catonsville, a little over a mile away. I suggested to her that ride home, being mostly uphill, would be a little less fun.

Back across the street at the Heavy Seas stage I wrapped up the day listening to Dirty Secret, just as the beer ran out.

Instant Village

As we were leaving the Maryland Renaissance Festival yesterday, I stopped and asked a period dressed hostess how many people had passed through the gates that day.

“We had somewhere between twenty-two and twenty-five thousand revelers in the village today,” she replied.

I knew it was a big crowd but I didn’t realize it was that big. I wondered if that was close to some kind of record.

“No. We once got pretty close to thirty thousand,” and added, “that was a lot of people.”

I thought twenty-two thousand was a lot of people but the weekend period village of Revel Grove is spread out over 25 acres so it never felt claustrophobic. If anything, the large number of attendees made the overall experience more festive.

Some of those attendees go all out in getting into the whole medieval spirit thing.

There were lots of things that made us laugh too. Who knew the 16^th century could be so funny?

The wooded setting is perfect too. Yesterday it was cool under the trees yet warm in the open air spots near the Kings Field jousting arena. This is one of the few places you can go to enjoy Maryland’s official sport.

There is a HoCo connection too. The festival began in 1976 on what was then undeveloped land behind Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, some of which is now the Village of Hickory Ridge and the interchange of Broken Land Parkway and Route 29.  It moved to Crownsville in 1985 where it could finally erect structures that could stay in place year round.

The 36^th Maryland Renaissance Festival runs every weekend up until October 21^st. If you plan on going, plan on going early. The gates open at 10:30 AM and by 11:30 the traffic begins to clog up the two lane roads leading to the site.

If you haven’t been, it is well worth the price of admission, especially on those gorgeous fall days like yesterday.

Main Street Music Fest 2012

On Saturday, September 29^th, the historic district of Ellicott City will play host to the inaugural Main Street Music Fest, a day long showcase of forty of the area’s best unsigned musicians in conjunction with the annual Fall Festival.

The music fest will feature blues, acoustic, alternative, classic rock, pop, reggae and more, at five separate venues along Main Street including two outdoor stages. The line up so far includes: Sons Of The Radio (Rock), Victims of Experience (Rock), Sin 4 Sin (Rock), Cafe LaMotta (Pop), Yo No Say (Rock), The Control (Alternative), Velma, (Alternative), Mark Whiskey and the Sours (Americana), The Vault (Rock), Radiant Sonance (Electro/Dance), Garrett Anderson (Singer/Songwriter), Chasing Scarlette (Alternative).

It will be a good day for loco beer lovers too. One of the sponsors of the music fest is Heavy Seas and their brews will be available at discounted prices throughout the town.

The action will begin at 1:00 PM and its free. To keep updated on the bands that will be participating, check out the festival facebook page.

Here’s a little sample of what you can expect…

Banner Men

The HoCo school board was well represented in the HoCo Fair Grand Opening parade on Sunday. Janet Siddiqui, Ellen Flynn Giles, Cindy Vaillancourt, Brian Meshkin, and Allen Dyer all took time out on Sunday to march down the midway.

I was a bit surprised to see Allen Dyer leading the procession representing the school board, despite facing impeachment and having failed in his bid to be reelected for a second term.

Then again, I shouldn’t be all that surprised. Allen has always been, and always will be, a man who craves attention. From my perspective, he’s always been more about himself than the students in our schools.

I did find it appropriate that his fellow banner man was Brian Meshkin, another school board member of dubious distinction.

Fair Games

Yesterday, as we were driving out to the 67th Annual Howard County Fair, I asked Peanut which part of the fair she liked best.

“The animals,” she answered without hesitation.

I told her that it is the people I find most interesting.

As it turned out we arrived just in time to catch the Grand Opening Parade. I expected to see a full compliment of our loco elected officials marching down the midway with the tractors and fire engines, showing their support of county agriculture.

All I saw was the red team.

 “It’s not an election year,” Warren Miller pointed out. He was there of course, along with fellow Repubs Gail Bates, Allan Kittleman and Greg Fox. Though West Friendship is generally considered red country this is still our county fair, election year or not. It would have been nice to see at least one member of the blue team, if only to lend support to their own volunteers manning the Dem party booth.

It’s not like HoCo Dems don’t go to the fair. I saw more than a few loco Dems as Peanut and I made our way around the grounds.

I like our fair. It’s small enough to still feel like a real homegrown country fair. We saw  4-H members parading their animals in funny costumes, checked out the livestock, consumed some Glenelg High School french fries and even took in a couple of rides.

In other words, we had a pretty good time.