Merry Christmas from John and Bobbie 2009

Here is our Video Christmas Card for 2009:

Click Here if You can't see the video

Yes, 2009 ended with a bang - us getting engaged. Click here for more about our engagement.

AND for more Holiday fun, John put together Christmas Cards for 98 Rock and WBAL and Bobbie is in a New Years Card for Towson University's DECO

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Engagement

It all went down on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009. John managed to get Bobbie to come to the corner of St. Paul and Biddle Street in Mt. Vernon Baltimore, the spot where John and Bobbie first lived and fell in love. Across the street were many members of our friends and family. Here is the engagement from their perspective:

Click Here if you can't see video

Long story short, Bobbie said "yes" and there was much rejoicing! 2010 will be a busy and FANTASTIC YEAR!

And for those who care, here is a picture of the ring.

Hamilton-Lauraville Tuesday Market at the Connection

On Tuesday, Bobbie and I decided to hop on over to the 4500 block of Harford Road for the Hamilton-Lauraville Tuesday Market at the Connection. The Market has grown quite a bit since its first days just about a month ago. Now there are about 20 to 30 vendors offering all kinds of local food and products. We decided to skip out on the dinner we had planned to enjoy some of these local flavors. Not only was the food tasty, but it was pretty cheap. We had 21 dollars and were able to have these meals:

Bobbie:
- Fresh Mint Lemonade
- 2 Chorizo Tacos from one of our favorite area restaurants, Clementine (we also hear their expanded restaurant should be open sometime in the next week or two)
- Frozen Fresh Fruit Slushy thing

John:
- Fresh Mint Lemonade
- Chilled Cream of Asparagus Soup
- A Killer Brisket Sandwich from Chef Mac’s Louisiana Cuisine.

I was very excited to hear from Mac himself that he would be opening a Louisiana style restaurant where the Alabama Bar B Que used to be.


With all the food purchases done, that left me with $5 left over to donate to the true highlight of the Market: the talented St. Veronica's Youth Steel Orchestra pictured here:

I wish I would have had my flip camera to film them, but I was able to track down this video. Good stuff. The band, as detailed on their website, is a program called Pan in Community and it “uses the medium of the steel drums to re-direct the young people of our community into positive social and behavioral ideals.” Find out more about these guys at http://www.paninthecommunity.org/

Good times had - we hope to catch you out at the next Hamilton-Lauraville Tuesday Market at the Connection. It happens everyweek between the hours of 4pm and 8pm.

Our Dog Sleeps on Our Kitchen Table

Twice Bobbie and I have come home from a date night to find Chelsea sleeping on our kitchen table. Thanks to Bobbie's iPhone we were able to catch a shot of this.

I am not sure what to do about this. Maybe this guy can help.

Orange Sky on Strathmore

Hit Play and Enjoy

Adventure on Strathmore: Public Enemy + Roots!

I don’t usually use this blog to do any music/concert reviews, but I was so excited about The Roots Picnic in Philadelphia and had talked about it so much that I though I would share some pics and videos of our time there. And no hate to any of the great artist that where there like TV on the Radio, Santigold, Black Keys, Asher Roth, and more – BUT my true love at the festival was getting to see Public Enemy backed by The Roots and Antibalas performing one of my all time favorite albums “It Takes A Nation Of Millions to Hold Us Back” so that is what our pictures and videos are of. But let’s start with a picture of the concert crew:


There is Bobbie, John, Grubb, and Laura

Now on to the Show

Here is Chuck and Flav back to back as they kick into "Party for your right to Fight"

Here is where I couldn't believe my eyes. Chuck D, Blackthought(Roots MC), ?uestlove (Roots drummer) and Flavor Flav

How about some videos? Starting here with a clip of my favorite Public Enemy song "Prophets of Rage"

Another favorite of mine - "She Watch Channel Zero?!" which, I was excited to hear what the guitar part would sound like, but was more impress with the sound of the Antibalas horns who I try to feature in this video

And I wanted to finished with this video. It's the end of the night and the Roots are closing off the evening with a killer mix of thier favorites. Not only did they start the set with a 25 minute version of "You Got Me" which also included a version of "Sweet Child of Mine" in the middle of it, but at some point they break into the Curtis Mayfield classic

BEST SHOW EVER!

New Lawn Mower and a New Found Love for Consumer Reports

With spring and summer time comes my favorite time of the year: The season of yard work and lawn cutting. I say this with absolutely no sarcasm, I LOVE to mow a lawn. I am not sure exactly if it’s the smell of freshly cut grass, or the sense of accomplishment when you finish, or just how a yard can look 120% better after a fresh cut but I do know that if this radio thing doesn’t work out, I would be more then happy in the landscaping business.

Now, with my first house comes the purchase of my first lawn mower. Seeing how I take lawn mowing very seriously and I don’t make any major purchase on whim, I knew I would need some help to decide which mower was the right for my yard. I found that help with Consumer Reports and their ultra helpful website comnsumerreports.org. I CAN NOT STRESS how much I love me some Consumer Reports. Imagine a company where all they do is just test things out. And they report on EVERYTHING from Cars, to digital cameras, to kitchen knives, to coffee. The next time you want to over analyze your purchase of a meat thermometer, this would be the place to do to it.

But let's get back to the mower. I started my journey by watching the Buying Guide that taught me all the stuff to look out for in a good mower like cutting performance, discharge, start up, and other special features. Take a look for yourself:


Click Here if you can't see the video

The most helpful tool from consumer reports was the ranking of the best gas push mowers that they tested. In the top 5 were:

1. Lawn-Boy 10640
2. Cub Cadet 11A-18MC
3. Bolens 11A-414A
4. Poulan Pro 96130008
5. Craftsman 38905

I printed out and took this ranking with me to the Home Depot. When I got there, I almost couldn’t believe that they had the Consumer Reports highest recommend buy in stock waiting for me.

It was the Lawn Boy 10640, a 20-inch mower with no-prime starting and can side-discharge, mulch, and bag all while being backed by a 2-year. AND 40 bucks lower then the suggest retail price. Sure enough, that was all I needed to make that purchase.
So starts a summer full of lawn cutting with my new Lawn Boy. The first cut was nice and smooth, a very nice, even cut with great mulching. We’ll check in through out the summer with how the Lawn Boy is running and, I am sure, plenty of more valuable information from Consumer Reports.

Chelsea's New Trick

Sooo, I am very excited I was able to make this happen.

Chelsea's New Trick from John Laur on Vimeo.

Not quit as cool as Molly's "Give someone a beer" trick. But I love it.

"O"pening Day Photos

Katie, Bobbie and Troy - 3 tickets, 3 friends, a bunch of other people and here are the photos:

Bobbie and Buzz - pre game

J.T. was an early front runner for the Mr. Pat look-a-like contest.

O'Connell gals

Bobbie and work buddy Mike

View of the field

Troy, Bobbie and souvenir cups

O's Win 10-5

Brian and Mr. Pat celebrate the victory

John and Bobbie (and a sneaky Troy) at Mothers Fed Hill

A Father and his Daughters

Troy signing up for this year's Hot Dog eating Contest. A huge effort - He came very close to winning, just like last year.

Nervous John, Confident Troy

Mr. Pat and Mr. Matt - BFF for over 20 years

All in all a great day and looking forward to big things this season for the O's!

Birthday Party On Strathmore

Ain’t no party like a Strathmore party, cause a Strathmore party don’t stop. Well at least until John passes out on the couch watching reruns of The Office. But that would happen for this party to celebrate Bobbie’s 27th birthday. A shin dig that started with Bobbie saying “I don’t want anything too big for my birthday” turned into a pretty nice sized bash with a four person Party Planning Committee (known as the PPC).

The evening began with a nice dinner with friends and family. Lauren’s Chicken Tacos, Kristin’s Home Made Mac and Cheese, John’s Sweet Baby Ray’s Meatballs and a green salad started off the food with desert consisting of Katie’s Confetti Cake and the KEY LIME PIE THROWDOWN! See that what happens when two people bring the same dish to a party, you have to have a throw down!

So here are the two pies:

Kristin’s the one that actually looks like a Key Lime Pie where as John’s was yellow(?). Now on with the taste test.

if you can't see video, click here

While John’s pie may have won the taste test - it was true, Kristin’s Mac and Cheese was the best dish, in fact, it was the only dish that we would not have left-overs of the day.

After dinner, the party became a typical House on Strathmore bash. There was good friends . . .
A dance party . . . .
And of course flip cup . . .
This is where Bobbie, the birthday girl had a legen…wait for it...dary performance during a round of survivor flip cup where she knock off 4 guys in a row to take home the championship.
So, all in all a pretty successful Party on Strathmore and a great birthday party for Bobbie.

Big thanks to all that came and HUGE thanks to the rest of the P.P.C.!

Thanks to Katie O'Connell for additional photos.

Vacation Blog 3: Rincon Bar Crawl

Well, come on, it was vacation and what would vacation be with out some delicious local cocktails?

Bar #1 – One of the MANY Roadside Bars. About every mile in Rincon there are these little roadside bars which are just a shack with a pool table, a jukebox and some cheap drinks.

I had been eyeing up these bars since we made it to the island, so I was very glad that it was our first stop. Our bar tender did not seem to know too much English so our drink orders were fairly simple. Rum and Coke for Mr. O’Connell, Passoã and Orange Juice for Bobbie and her Mom, and for me - Medalla Light, my go-to beer in Puerto Rico (only 3 carbs and its “full of Spirit”).

Bar #2 - Shipwreck Bar and Grill

For me, Shipwreck can be described like this – simple décor, fun feel, and GREAT appetizers. They had some pretty killer calamari and an interesting take on Jalapeño Poppers – it was more like a single fried cream cheese and jalapeno cake, if that makes any sense. For drinks this go around: Mr. O’Connell and Bobbie had their favs, Vodka Tonic and Rum and Diet, respectively. Mrs. O’Connell had the Medalla Light and I went with the frozen Piña Colada.
It was also here that Bobbie adopted a new motto:

Bar #3 - Villa Cofresi Hotel & Restaurant

The good times rolled on at this little hotel hut bar. It was just at the end of hotel's open air lobby and next to the swimming pool and featured an excellent view of Rincon beach. What made this place a lot of fun was their famous "El Pirata" drink, or Pirate Drink. It’s a pretty toxic mixture of multiple rums and other ingredients, including evaporated milk, served to you in a coconut. Our bar tender lets us in on how the drink is made:


Click here if you can not see the video:

Yo Ho Ho Yum . . .

Bar #4 - Calypso Cafe & Tropical Bar
The final stop is probably one of the most talked about watering holes in all of Rincon - Calypso Cafe & Tropical Bar. Calypso is noted mostly as a surfer’s bar, and for good reason. The beach is home to one of the world’s great surfing locations and with the Calypso’s great selection of munchies and active night life what surfer would not love to be at this great beach hang out. While there, I highly suggest ordering the Jalapeño burger, so good I had to visit the bar more then once to get another taste. Calypso also features a great gift shop to pick up items for those back at home.