Baltimore

We had a great weekend in Baltimore, catching up with old friends. We toured Catonsville with Jason and Kate, and then met up with Niki for dinner in Baltimore. We had a yummy dinner of barbeque, complete with enormous side dishes. (Mmm, sweet potato fries!)

Then we had a triple dose of Battlestar Galactia, including the series premiere. We hadn't seen the show since the very first episode, but our friends did their best to get us addicted to it!

We ended the evening with some Wii. Wii bowling was a lot of fun, and Niki was the champion of Wii boxing! We even tried some of the other games -- like a version of Skee-ball that they had renamed "Skill Ball." (Worst name ever, since skill doesn't really seem to be required.) They also had Beer Pong, which they'd renamed Ping Cup. (Who knew that Beer Pong was copyrighted?)

We even got to see Niki's new (well, new to us, anyhow) apartment, complete with craft central! She's in the downstairs of a Victorian house, so it has tons of character. And it's a great neighborhood, too -- she's in walking distance of the library. (It's not at all what I had imagined when she described it. Somehow I'd imagined her being downtown in a row house. Not quite!)

The only downside is that it's not quite big enough for the Open House party. But fortunately, once Jason and Kate's basement is finished, I'm guessing we might have a solution to that problem. :)

The main reason for our trip was a going-away party for our grad school friend Fish, who is headed to Iraq for a few months. He's a civilian, but he works for a defense analysis organization. I think he's a little crazy for going over there when he doesn't have to, but he's looking forward to it. (He was telling me that he had to get special ballistic-proof sunglasses, in case of mortar fire. Yikes!) He's going to be in the Green Zone, which up until recently was a relatively safe spot. In any case, it was great to see him, and we'll be optimistic that his trip will go just fine.