The rush of the party

The buildup for Noah's 2nd birthday party has actually been like a month and a half long. It was supposed to be on the 15th, and we spent the week before that preparing...only for Noah to catch Foot and Mouth Disease the night before and we had to postpone two weeks. So, we then spent two weeks fixing up the living room with new paint and new furniture, and then re-cleaning the house.

This morning, our to-do list was mowing the lawn, cleaning, and then cold prep. We got up at 7am to start it all, for an 11am party. We worked ALL the way up to 11 to get things ready! Not sure if we're just inefficient or what, but it seemed like we just ran out of time to do everything, so we rushed getting things done up to 11. Then we enjoyed about the first 15-20 mins of greeting people and letting them see the house and backyard.

Then it was grilling time. I've never grilled for more than the three of us plus one guest. So now facing grilling for 20 people...yikes. So as a decision made way back, we decided to grab a big box of frozen Kunzler hot dogs and 2 boxes of Bubba Burgers from BJ's. So, first lesson learned...frozen hamburgers are easy to break off and throw on a grill...hot dogs not at all! I managed to "break" 2 or 3 off intact, then I had to run water over the whole package to get any more to thaw enough to seperate, and that took another 10 mins. Noah took a spill during this, so I ran to help him and we got him ice. So by the time I finally got everything ready to throw on the grill, it had pre-heated for about 20 mins. Uh oh...

So second lesson learned...Bubba Burgers must be pretty high fat content. As soon as I threw those things on the grill, LOTS of smoke started pouring out. If anyone took pictures of me during grilling, I must've looked like I'd had acid poured in my eyes. I couldn't see anything because of the smoke singing my eyeballs! I guess I'm just used to 80/20 or 93/7 ground beef fresh hamburgers. My first instinct was blaming the frozen hot dogs for causing the smoke, but it was definitley the effect of throwing 12 Bubba Burgers on the grill. I felt bad for anyone who had to walk past my towering inferno of a grill during this time. Quality wise, I think the Bubba Burgers dried out a bit more. That could've been because I was trying to juggle turning hot dogs really often, grill the burgers, and get the smoke out of my eyes at the same time. In hindsight, better to get the hot dogs done seperately of the burgers. Also better to focus on 3-6 burgers at a time, not 12.

But in the end, I fed everyone, we have leftovers, and no one complained about the food. Not sure if they were just being nice. If they are, please tell me, it won't hurt my feelings. I'm trying to work my way to becoming a grill master here. I also need to remember to clean the side of my grill, those Bubba Burgers left a TON of grease on the spatula, which was then transferred to the side pieces on the grill when I set the spatula down. Oh yeah, and I need to find the one hot dog that fell behind the grill before a ton of bugs take up residence on my porch.

In any case, a big step in my education of grilling.

Death of the Indie Kid's Dream...

I was inspired to write on this when I passed by the local Blockbuster...So, as I'm sure most of you know, Blockbuster hasn't been doing so well lately. Netflix has eaten them alive. The business model for Netflix took off like a rocket and Blockbuster just reacted too late. In fact, the last time I remember going to a Blockbuster was before we got OnDemand. And when we lost OnDemand, it made more sense to go with Netflix anyway. But to get back on point, the local Blockbusters in Westminster is shuttered with a sign out in front, saying some spiel about how you can still go online to Blockbuster's website to order movies and get them in the mail and stresses in big letters "WE ARE NOT CLOSING"

So the first thing that hit me was the irony of the statement. "We are not closing"...but this store is closed. The next thing that hit me was wondering who had to put that sign up. Was it a chump from Corporate (side note, I'M corporate, so I guess I would also be a chump from corporate) who was sent out to shut it down? Or was it the store manager, in his last act before locking the store down? (My last act would be raiding the good movies, games, and snacks). Thinking about if it was the manager, I started wondering why anyone would want to work at a Blockbuster store that's CURRENTLY open. You can see the writing on the wall...In a couple years, the only way that chain is going to stay alive is to go with online business or the gas station rental kiosks.

And that's what this whole post is about. No one can deny these kiosks work well, it's just the way the world is now. It's a lot easier to shop online during a lunch break, or while you're eating breakfast in the morning, or make a quick run to get snacks from the convenience store and pick out a movie for a weekend date night in. But it got me thinking about R&TT...that's Record and Tape Traders. When I was but a young lad in Catonsville, that used to be something to do on a day home. "Hey, going to go up to the Record and Tape Traders...what for? Nothing really, just want to browse, maybe listen to some CDs, soak up the aura" It wasn't just them, you could definitley find a local music store where you'd just go in to soak up the ambience, if you will. It's not like I spent hours and hours there, but I enjoyed going there to get music as opposed to an FYE or Circuit City (Avoiding the Walmart and Target references for something later) because the people there weren't just working a job, they were people that worked there because they loved music. You always felt like an FYE or Circuit City was more...generic?

So, now applying this Blockbuster thought to music stores...I can't name ANY music stores in Westminster. There's an instrument store on Main Street, but I've never seen any "local record shop" type stores. What we have really? Walmart, Target, FYE. And that's just how it is today. If you did a random poll, I bet you the #1 source of music sales would be "iTunes\Amazon\Website", #2 would be Target/Walmart/Best Buy/FYE "generic stores" types. This is, in my opinion, due to that same shift in technology. It's so much "Easier" and "convenient" to buy music online, slap it right on your iPod/iPhone/MP3 player, and go. And if you want to stick to those "crazy" antiques known as "Compact Discs", you just burn a disc on your computer, off and gone. And if you REALLY need that CD in your hands, you most likely will buy it online and ship it (If it's a hard find) or go to Target/Walmart to grab it (if it's popular and you need it now).

Growing up as a teenager, as a "indie kid", I always harbored a secret dream to work at R&TT. Because, in your head, you'd get paid for listening to and selling music all day. Could there be a cooler job? And then you'd start looking at the movies that made it look so cool...Empire Records (crazy things that happened to them aside), High Fidelity...Now, I never did end up there. I worked at Charlestown to get a scholarship, then worked at my college, which worked out good for my career now. And I knew people who did work at R&TT, and while I wouldn't say it was bad, it was probably NOT like Empire Records and High Fidelity, where you're cracking Top 5 lists all day or burning holes in a CD you didn't like to play. But, it was still kind've an iconic place to think of. I feel a little sad that "indie kids" who come up today have no real place to put that label on. I mean, dreaming or working at an FYE seems like dreaming to work at a grocery store, or a gas station...there's nothing SPECIAL about it. And I don't mean that as an insult to anyone who works at an FYE or grocery store or gas station. Job is a job and money is money. But it's not something you're generally going to brag about to your friends. I guess in today's music scene, kids are probably dreaming of working in a band, or with a band, or maybe as a sound engineer.

But for a minute, I'm going to hold a minute of silence, and pour a 40 (of milk, which I am pouring for Noah) on the sidewalk for what I'm going to call "The Death of the Local Record Shop". I don't really think they will go away entirely, what you'll probably see if vinyl shops and local CD stores get combined. So there will always be somewhere to go for that aura/ambience. But there won't necessarily be one in every town, so for the young indie kids out there, time to pick a new local haunt to dream about working at, if only for a little while.