Ravens vs Giants

Today's game was against the Giants, and the Ravens crushed them! It wasn't an incredibly exciting game, but hey, they can't all be. For our pregame show, we "premiered" the "new" Baltimore Fight Song (the old Colts Fight Song renamed because of the new words). I feel like we got a better response when we played "Living on a Prayer" during the game (we had to cut off early, and the crowd was singing along - really cool). Once again, I'd like to thank everyone who tried to help me out by voting for the Ravens Fight Song, but I have to get on my soapbox here. I'm really kind of angry at the Ravens. The whole reason why there was voting and a big push for the Colts Fight Song to replace the Ravens Fight Song, was because it appeared that a whole heck of a lot of people knew the words to the Colts Fight Song, and held it near and dear to their hearts. While the band was out in the parking lot practicing this morning, I could hear the Baltimore Fight Song blaring over the speakers in the stadium. The Ravens Fight Song was never promoted like that. We were told that the words to the Baltimore Fight Song were going to be put up on the JumboTron (not really what it's called) so that the crowd could learn the words and sing along. That was never done for the Ravens Fight Song. If the Ravens had put half the effort into the Ravens Fight Song that they're putting into the Baltimore Fight Song, I think that it would be just as popular. And you know what? There are plenty of die hard fans that know the words to the Ravens Fight Song. And during pregame, right before we played the Baltimore Fight Song, the announcer said, "Now turn to page 24, and sing along with ..." And they did the same thing once during the game - "Turn to page 24 and sing along with..." How unfair!

Wedding Reception

Tonight, Melissa and I waited on a wedding party. I wanted to share how beautiful their cake was. It was made and decorated by Desserts by Rita.

It had white chocolate seashells - yum!

Press Conference

Tonight, before band practice, I attended a press conference announcing the "new" Ravens Fight Song. Thank you, to everybody who took the time to vote, but my preference lost. What did the Ravens have to say about it? Read their take here. See the video from the Baltimore Sun here. They even scanned by me a couple of times - I'm the one on the end with the flute.

A Christening

At work today I waited on a party for a christening. The linens they had us use matched the décor of the banquet room quite beautifully.

The cake was by Desserts by Rita.

Vintage Bling

Today, since Tom took the Russians to New York for the day, I decided to take a vacation day. I actually completed the charms for the Vintage Bling Charm Swap for Silver Bella! I'm so proud that I was able to just sit down and do it. Here are the completed pieces.

Ravens vs Panthers

Wow, what a crazy night! Tonight was the first preseason game for the Ravens. We played the Carolina Panthers and won 12-17. What made the night so crazy was the rain. Before we left the buses, it was drizzling, and we were going to get raingear, but the rain stopped and it looked like it was done, so we didn’t. We performed our usual concert at Camden Yards, and then our Pregame show – which was cut short unexpectedly due to the team staying on the field and practicing longer than usual. After the game started, though, it started to rain again. And it didn’t stop for the rest of the game. We were soaked! Normally, we try to protect the uniforms – it’s expensive to get them all dry-cleaned – but I think that the raingear was left with the buses, and by the time anyone could gather them all up, and bring them back to the stadium, we’d be soaked anyway.

Keep Voting

We found out at band tonight that voting hasn’t been closed for the Fight Song – so keep voting and telling your friends to vote. Thanks for your support.

Vote here!

Help Me!

There nothing like a worthless cause, but I love to be competitive! The Baltimore Ravens are having a poll on their website to determine what the Fight Song will be. It has been proposed to change the current Ravens Fight Song, which was written by John Modell when the Cleveland Browns came to Baltimore and were converted into the Baltimore Ravens, back to the old Colts Fight Song. The Colts Fight Song is near and dear to many hearts in Baltimore, but it's my belief that the Ravens are our new team, and we should keep our newer Fight Song. Please help me! If you follow this link, you can read about it, listen to some recordings, and vote. Already, it's 78% for the Colts Fight Song, and 22% for the Ravens Fight Song - I need more votes! Even if the Ravens Fight Song loses, I'd hate for it to be such a landslide victory for the Colts Fight Song. Please vote for the current Fight Song on every computer that you have access to, but I'm assuming that voting will end at midnight on Tuesday, since the winner will be announced on Wednesday. Tell your friends, tell your enemies, and vote!

Howard County Fair

The band’s annual appearance at the Howard County Fair was today. It was a good time. We had a concert first, then led a parade around the Fairground. I enjoyed some deep-fried Oreos with Lynette – a fellow section member, then decide to look around for a change. I saw cows, pigs, and sheep/goats - I thought they were sheep initially, but they were bigger, like I’d imagine goats being. These looked like members of the KKK with their hoods.

I even checked out the 4-H building. Before I left, I picked up an ice cream cone dipped in chocolate.

Ravens Scrimmage

The Ravens had a scrimmage today, and the band played for the people waiting outside of the stadium. We found out afterwards that the Ravens only predicted 20,000 people would attend, but the numbers were looking more like 45,000. After we were done playing, I went inside to check it out. The stores and food vendors were open, and there were “booths” on the concourse – TastyCake was giving away free munchies, Verizon was displaying their newest phones, the National Guard had a HumVee on display, among many others. The team was doing exercises on one side of the field, and playing against each other on the other. I only hung around for a little bit, but it was pretty cool.

Wedding Reception

I waited on a party tonight that was pretty special. It was a wedding reception, and their wedding was held on the lawn at the Tidewater. That doesn’t happen very often. They rented the Dining Room and had a really great cake.

They also had pretty centerpieces that they let us keep.

Cornfest

At Huber today, we had Cornfest. We cooked up fresh local corn, had home grown tomatoes, and store bought watermelon. I brought some basil honey butter, too. A couple of weekends ago, Mel brought corn in to the restaurant and made some basil honey butter there. It was fabulous. Fresh and sweet, and I was hoping to reproduce it. Mine didn’t turn out as well as Mel’s, but it was okay. Maybe I didn’t add enough honey, she used fresh basil where I used freeze-dried, who knows? But, just in case you’d like to try it, here’s a recipe I just pull off of the internet – maybe I should have done that before trying to make it…

Honey Basil Butter

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
1/4 teaspoon salt*
*If using salted butter, omit salt.

Directions
1. In a small bowl, combine butter and honey; mix well. Stir in basil and salt. Store in an airtight container.

Done!

I sent the packages out today! What a crazy swap I’ve hosted. I’m a whole month late mailing them out, since I was waiting for people’s packages, two of which never arrived! I hope that everyone likes the finished product.

Putting Together Packages

After coming home from work today, I finally started putting together packages to send out for the “Around the World in 20 Tags” Swap. Assembling and addressing boxes, and inserting goody bags and tag books while watching “Dogma” and “Ocean’s Eleven” took up the whole evening. But, I feel like I got a whole lot accomplished. Now, after I mail them out, I can get to work on some of the other swaps I’m committed to.