"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.

Vacation Blog 2: Sea Glassin' Adventure Fun Time

One popular pastime in Puerto Rico is goin Sea Glass huntin.’ Sea Glass, in a weird way, is pollution turned pretty. To be more specific, it is glass found on beaches along oceans or large lakes that has been tumbled and smoothed by the water and sand, creating small pieces of smooth, frosted glass(Thanks wiki).Apparently Rincon has a big history for having some of the worlds finest sea glass. So when in Rome, do like the Romans or when in Rincon do like the Rinconians(?) and grab some sea glass. Here are pics from our adventure which also included Mr. and Mrs. Gerlitzki and Mr. and Mrs. O’Connell:

And here is what we ended up taking home with us, which should make for some pretty fun Arts and Crafts projects:

Vacation Blog 1: Our Place

We could not be more thankful that Bobbie’s parents asked us to vacation with them for a few days in Rincon, Puerto Rico. A place that neither Bobbie nor I have ever visited and really knew very little about. Our flight had us taking off at BWI early on Wednesday morning with a stop in Atlanta then landing in San Juan, which is really the COMPLETE OPPOSITE side of Puerto Rico that we were staying on.

Thankfully the O’Connells, who had already set up camp in Rincon, are very kind and didn’t mind spending the day traveling to pick us up.

When we finally got to the place we were staying – we were simply floored! Take a peak at some of thes the video tour and some great pictures:

Welcome Chelsea to Strathmore

It has come time to officially introduce the newest member of House On Strathmore. Please welcome Chelsea a 1-year-old terrier and lab mix.

After two days of running around to various shelters we found the playful mutt at the SPCA on Falls Road. The people there were great and we found the adoption process at the SPCA to be pretty painless. Bringing Chelsea home, we found her to be very subdued and timid. Here is her first tour of the house:

Click here if you can’t see the video

After about 4 or 5 days, Chelsea became much more comfortable and now she is running around and is a full on active puppy.

Click here if you can’t see the video

Now that we have had her for about a month, here are some Chelsea Fun Facts.

- Chelsea like a lot of dogs came home with a pretty bad case of Kennel Cough. We had great help from our Vet at the Parkville Animal Hospital and The Pet Plus ER.

- One another medical note: Chelsea ripped off part of her nail while playing in the house. Bobbie doctored and bandaged her up until we could get here to the vet. Duane S. Mangini V.M.D. has a very sophisticated tool to fix these problems.

- Chelsea's best friend is Molly

- Chelsea loves walks, but loves to pull the walker begging the question “Who is walking who?” I am trying to work on this by using the advice of the Dog Whisperer.

- Stuffed animals are a favorite toy of Chelsea but she tears through them pretty quick. If this also true for your dog we suggest you get stuffed toys from the Goodwill. They have a wide selection and they are really cheap. We also got her a Kong, but that only seems to entertain her until she realizes she’ll never get the treat out.

One final story – The Great Steak Incident: We decided not to crate Chelsea while we are away from home. After a few days of Chelsea being really good and not getting into anything, thought it would be no big whoop if I left our steaks out to thaw. That was a wrong move of course. While we were at work Chelsea had a nice steak lunch and “saved” the other steak for later. Later that night while we were watching TV, I felt a wet spot on the couch. I then reached in-between the cushions and found a perfectly good piece of steak. We now store all thawing meat in our microwave while we are away at work.