Whew!

Wow! It's hard work playing hooky!! I was going to skip out early today and go to an estate auction that a harmonica teacher's family was having.

However.

At 9:00ish, my friend, the one mentioned in the Oh Drama entry called. It went something like this:

"Hey. Can you cut out early today?"
"How early?"
"Noon"
"Well I was shooting for 1:30, whats up?"
"Theres a food show in Maryland and it's huge. Wanna go? I have a free ticket"

I had never been to a food expo before so I had no idea what it entailed. I knew there was food involved (Duh, ya think?) and maybe some beers if we're lucky.

"Yeah sure, lets go."
"far out see you at 1:00"

So I do all my work by 1:00, leave Miss Wonderful up to her ass in paperwork and ringing phones (ta, ta) and went forth.

If you have never been to one of these things, hook yourself up RIGHT NOW to someone in the food service industry. There were two huge buildings FULL of food..prepared food, frozen food, cookies, pies, cakes, donuts, snacks, produce..you name it, it was there. Big reefer trucks parked outside if they made a purchase today, you could take home your case of product. No lie. And the beverages. 20 spring water booths, every soda company imaginable, fruit juice, smoothies, and....liquor. 3 vineyards were showing off their stuff, "here have a sample", the Microbrewers of Maryland were there, running a beer garden (4 bucks for 12 oz glass, or 6- 5oz tastes for 8 bucks...guess which I picked..) Then we stumbled across some Russian guys hawking vodka. I'm a vodka snob. Pure and simple. My idea of a great drink is a paralyzingly cold shot of GOOD vodka. These guys had just that. Oh. My. God. The Jewel of Russia, I believe it's called. You couldn't even taste it. No nasty afterburn, no raw alcohol taste, just clean icy Yummy. Oh man. We had doubles there. An interesting conversation ensued over the fact that the parent company of Stoli also owns Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins. Whuf. Talk about bursting someones bubble. We had another shot for that. No, wait it was a cosmopolitian made with the pressed berry vodka. Damn. Anyhow, we were fairly rosy at this point, and chatted up the Russian guy sufficiently that we asked for a couple sample bottles for our bar manager (who exists in our imagination) He obliged, partly because we're from PA, and he declared PA's liquor store system "Run Like A Prison" Heh. (Thats a blog for another day)

So after that, we collected a couple more free samples, and hopped back in the Jeep for the breakneck ride home. But first we did find a liquor store and got a bottle of the Jewel of Russia. 23.99 thanks so much. Can't wait to get it out of the freezer..

Note: Jeep Wranglers are very cool...BUT...impractical as hell, cold and drafty. You really need 2 vehicles when you have a Wrangler. But there are holes in the floor to pour out backwash, and deposit old french fries to the highway below.

All in all it was a pretty good afternoon. I got home late tonight, and checked the aforementioned forum. Looks like my buddy has moved right in and has managed to mention her naked husband, her dogs and her beach house all in one afternoon. Wonder what she's gonna talk about for the rest of her time on there? I'm afraid I might have to find somewhere else to play. Or not. Who knows. Time will tell.

Beddie. All the vodka has worn off and it's time now.

Oh and before I forget: HOW ABOUT THEM RED SOX?! HA!
(sorry PDB)