week #22

Wow, I had a night of newness today. I had planned to go to the Cleveland Rib Cook-off this weekend, and I miraculously had my Sunday night free instead of working. So, I met up with two friends and headed down to the Time Warner Amphitheater for some rib eating. Just going to the festival was going to be new enough for me, but oh no, there was more to come. First, we decided that to maximize our rib variety, we would get a tasting portion of 3 or 4 rib bones from each place so we got to try more. We ended up trying 6 of the 10 cook-off competitors. We had two favorites, but I like Texas Thunder the best. The ribs were meaty and tender and the sauce was thick and sweet and spicy.

The rib fest alone would have been enough for me, since I've lived in Cleveland for almost four years and hadn't made it to the cook-off yet. While there though, I knocked out another new thing, sorta. I've never been to a concert. If you know me, or read the first entry of this blog, you knew that already. You also probably knew that I'm planning on rectifying that this year. It was supposed to be a surprise, but I have tickets to the Lady Gaga concert in July. SURPRISE! I'll talk more about that in a later post. It related to this post though in that I had my first taste of concert-going at the rib cook-off. L.A. Guns. Live.

The sound was great, classic, hair metal, and the crowd was fantastic. I really wish I had my camera to capture the eclectic mix of people there. Quite some characters. We only stayed for a few songs, but it was pretty fun.

Wait, don't leave yet, one more new thing happened tonight. After the ribs and music, we wanted to get some beer because the brewskis at the event were super expensive so we went to this little place by my apartment called Carney's. Evidently this place has been on my street foooooorrrrreeeevvvvveeeerrrrrr, but just recently they did some remodeling and actually put up a sign that they were there. I love a place with history. It's a total blue collar place and local laborers had been going there for years even without the sign. You just had to know it was there. The people were friendly. The place was clean and well decorated. And Billy the dog roamed around and I wanted to take him home with me. In short, I love this place. Also, I had a Blatz. Who has Blatz beer anymore? It went down like water and I'm pretty sure I'll have the biggest hangover tomorrow, but who knows. Blatz. Classic.