Labor Day Sunday Night at Galaxy Hut, in Twitter Posts

Reblogging my Twitter posts (I still refuse to call them "tweets") kind of defeats the purpose, but it's instructive at looking at my state of mind through the evening. Or something:

Getting cabin fever. Heading out to Arlington for a bit. 09:10 PM August 31, 2008 from twhirl

State of mind: Bored. (Duh.)

Random cameraphone photo #1.

At Galaxy Hut - the Labor Day Sunday crowd is a lot different, I have to say 10:02 PM August 31, 2008

I'm more of a mid-week Galaxy Hut guy, so I can't say for sure that all Sunday nights are like the Sunday night before Labor Day. But it was certainly different, especially with the Clarendon Ballroom refugees questing for three-dollar pitchers (off a mistaken listing from some happy hour Web site)

This is kinda odd - like an aging frat boy party, with best-of-metal hits playing on the jukebox 10:24 PM August 31, 2008

I'm not kidding.

The guy next to me just confused Motorhead with Radiohead (the song, incidentally, was Ace of Spades) 10:30 PM August 31, 2008

Admittedly, I only know Ace of Spades from that stupid AT&T Wireless commercial.

The tool next to me says, 'Look at the tools walking into here.' 10:52 PM August 31, 2008

I think the Dragon's Milk (9% alcohol by volume) was starting to kick in.

I'm watching the US Open and I don't particularly care, but for some reason, I'm remembering the name Mats Wilander 11:00 PM August 31, 2008

The US Open was on the TV. I remember watching the final in 1988, when Mats Wilander won a 5-hour, 5-set match.

Nick the bartender is sporting skinny jeans and a (hopefully) ironic rattail 11:06 PM August 31, 2008

I don't have a related photo. Here's an unrelated one:

Random Cameraphone Photo #2

You can't do the robot to 'Don't You Want Me Baby', dammit 11:12 PM August 31, 2008


I'm serious, someone was doing the Robot -- the part with the broken, dangly arm swing.

The ability to give an orgasm is simultaneously subservient and empowering 12:07 AM September 1, 2008

I have no idea where this came (ahem) from. Although I think I was at Clyde's for a nightcap at this point.

Anyway, that was Sunday night.

Tags: galaxy hut

What Is, Stumbling My Way Into the Championships?

Back in September, I blogged about winning at Jeopardy night (sorry, "JOTTpardy" night) at Jimmy's Old Town Tavern (primarily because the frontrunner forgot to answer Final Jeopardy in the form of a question).

I got a call this week from Jimmy's saying, "Congratulations, you're in the finals." I replied, "Huh?"

I knew the three best scorers from all the weekly winners would get to play in a championship game, but I figured that my point total was low enough to keep me out of the Top 3, so I pretty much forgot about it.

I was sort of right -- apparently, one of the top 3 finishers had been an out-of-towner and wasn't going to be available, so I moved up into the championship game. (Kind of how Maverick and Goose made it to Top Gun after Cougar turned in his wings.)

Anyway, since crowd participation is allowed (and even encouraged -- you can shout out the answers), if you're going to be around next Tuesday night (January 29), stop by Jimmy's Tavern in Herndon about 8:30 pm or so and give me some help, and I'll buy you a beer out of my (presumed) winnings.

Tags: jimmy's tavern, jottpardy

Weekend Wrap-Up: Crafty Clarendon Bastards

As predicted, I bagged the Book Festival on Saturday and headed straight (and late) to Clarendon Day. It was a beautiful day, so we immediately ducked into Hard Times. (I had two chili dogs.)

The rest of the day outside was nice, even though they only had Miller Lite left. We met up with a few more folks and headed to the roof deck at Clarendon Ballroom (walking past the band on the main floor that, at the time, was playing to a completely empty house -- though things picked up later in the evening).

There was a series of pipes that looked straight out of Blue Man Group:

Rock Concert Movement #1: One, two, ready, go.

We then went to Eleventh Street Lounge to carouse for the rest of the evening. There was a private party at the new downstairs, so we just lounged upstairs:

Me, lounging in borrowed sunglasses.

Colored ceiling.

More pics of unindicted co-conspirators here.

Sunday, also got a late start (sensing a trend here) and rolled out to Crafty Bastards. As last year, in the face of sensory and hipster overload, I didn't take very many pictures.

Well, there was evidence of one fine specimen of human being who evidently felt it necessary to take a VW Thing and lower it:

Argh.

I bought a few t-shirts, which I'll try to model this week (they're keen). I also went to Amsterdam Falafel. It was good, even though I failed to achieve optimum condiment distribution.

That was about it.

Tags: crafty bastards, clarendon day, clarendon ballroom, vw thing

My Friends Are a Bunch of Useless Drunks

And yet, Tuesday night, I still managed to eke out a win at "JOTTpardy," a flavor of Jeopardy at Jimmy's Old Town Tavern where crowd participation is not only allowed, it's encouraged. Without a single correct answer from my compatriots.

I got there late during the qualifying rounds, so I was thoughtfully volunteered to go up, but I made up for it in the tiebreaker (movie quotes -- easy ones, too: The "census taker" bit from Silence of the Lambs and the "mad as hell" bit from Network).

Now, going in, I had pretty low expectations. In high school, I was on an "Academic Challenge" quiz show team. We were smart. We practiced. We got stomped.

(Just like in the Voight-Kampff test, reaction time is a factor.)

I did OK in Heroes (song titles) and Spam Trivia, got blown out in Canadian Provinces (spelling) Carls, and, um . I managed to steal enough points that I was in second place going into Final Jeopardy, which was Bush Cabinet members.

I bet it all (less one), and as it turns out, got it right (I mean, really -- the Secretary of which Cabinet Department would you expect to make an appearance on Jeopardy?).

It would have been all for naught, though, since the guy in first place got it right, too... except he forgot to answer in the form of a question.

Hey, I'll take what I can get:

Tags: herndon, jimmy's old town tavern, reaction time is a factor

Social Roundup: Kickball, Over the Rhine, Jimmy's and Liberty Tavern

Our first kickball game of the spring season was this week; I'm playing Thursday nights with the David Hasselhoff Fan Club. Our color is brown:

Jason pitches.

We didn't win.

I hung out at Carpool for a bit, then bolted for Jammin' Java in Vienna, where
Over the Rhine was playing a show rescheduled from December.

I got there a little late, a few songs into their set. It was a seated show and I was in the back, but I was eventually able to work my way up to the side of the stage:

Over the Rhine's Linford and Karin

It was a good show. I bought 2 CDs (though one was a compilation album). You can see the full Over the Rhine photoset here.

I also ran into my friend Mike, who's a photographer and shoots there a lot.

After the show, I made it back to Carpool (at about 11pm) to hang out with the holdouts.

My back and legs were really sore the next day, which is kind of sad, since I only made it to bat once, so there wasn't really any running to speak of. And, of course, it was only tonight that I realized that an over-the-counter painkiller might help with the soreness. Duh.

Friday, went to Jimmy's for the fish fry, where I had a very large piece of fish.

The crowd seemed a lot more college than I remembered, and it wasn't just because of all the Virginia Tech shirts. I'd just gone to get something to eat, so I left before the fire-breathing bartender show at midnight.

Saturday, I was woken up by the credit card company, calling to check on some suspicious charges on my card. Boy, that got me up in a hurry -- I fell out of bed going for the phone.

It turns out that my payment to my French-based domain name registrar triggered the alert, which was a bit odd, since I've used them for a few years now.

Saturday night, went to Liberty Tavern (after reading this blog review); as Metroblogging DC notes, it was very loud. Plus, the bartenders were slammed (a situation not helped because they didn't have a door guy and they had to check IDs); hopefully, both of those things were just part of the opening commotion.

I didn't take any pictures (didn't have the camera, but had the new phone, which has a 2-megapixel camera). There was lots of eye candy in the bar; there was also a lounge area that we didn't get to sit in. The space is a lot like Harry's Tap Room or Boulevard Woodgrill -- any of the newish, mostly-interchangeable places in Clarendon that cater to suburban professionals.

Sunday, just read the paper, messed around with some kickballers in the park, bought some groceries, and cooked some chili. That was about it.

Tags: carpool, dhfc, jammin java, liberty tavern, over the rhine