About the time we got hungry we headed home to search the cupboards. We were home only long enough to get geared up to set out on the next leg of our Fourth of July journey: The North Carolina Symphony’s free Independence Day concert at the outdoor Booth Amphitheater in Cary (about a 40 min drive west of where we live). We saw online that this concert year after year is acclaimed the best free thing in the area to do on the Fourth. Even better, as the last note of the symphony was sounding, the fireworks began! Check out the two videos below. All in all it was a tiring but exciting day of exploring new things we our new Poppy.

Anyways, I thought I’d do a quick post filling you in on our upcoming Thanksgiving plans. Although I’ve (Drew) not got class all this coming week, Emily’s still got to go Monday and Tuesday for lectures. Our work is closed Thursday and Friday so we’ll be driving up to Beckley Tuesday night to have Thanksgiving with my parents one last time in West Virginia. We’ll then be back in Wake Forest Friday night-ish. This will be the last Thanksgiving in West Virginia for the Maust family as you probably read previously of their planned move to Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh. My mom writes in an email:

I just wanted to update everyone on our moving plans. It seems like the process has been going on forever (since August) but now it’s only 2 weeks away!! The movers will be here Monday Dec 1, it takes 2-3 days for them to pack and load so we will be out on the 3rd. The plan is to close on the house in PA on the 3rd also.

Sounds like it’ll all be happening pretty quick. We’ll be sure to snap some pictures of the Thanksgiving feast while in Beckley.

On a side technical note: I’ve upgraded the MOT server to unlimited disk space and bandwidth for free in exchange for allowing the hosting company to use our site as a tester for an upcoming move and upgrade on they’re planning. So if things may get crazy; but hopefully not too crazy. Just, if you try to access MOT (which I know most of you do daily!) and the server’s down, it’s only a slight malfunction. MOT will still be here and may just be down for the moment. Look on the positive side though: now with unlimited disk space and bandwidth we can blog more, share more videos and pictures, and you can browse more. (Haha. Yeh right! We don’t even come close to using all the disk space and bandwidth we had before unlimited! Oh well.)

Another side note: I’ve set MOT to automatically import posts I do on my personal blog at KataDrew.com to the main page of MOT here. Don’t be confused; read my other blog, too!

That’s all for now. Later!

This past Monday, July 7th, was the first annual Town House Party. I debuted my wicked mixing skills by playing some banging house and electro tunes. I was hoping Emily would catch a video of me djing but I think she was too busy mingling and playing Wii. Oh well. You can still see some pictures from the shindig in the photo gallery.

Now, before you think too highly of my cooking, I have to give credit where it's due and point you to my new favorite website, Recipezaar. It was there that I got inspired to cook the above menu for St. Patty's Day: their suggestion…all of it. And we weren't disappointed in the least. The corned beef was perfectly juicy and full of flavor, and the soda bread changed my life (I had never had it before nor was I expecting to like it so much simply judging by the ingredients). And since the recipe called for 4 1/2 lbs. of corned beef brisket, Emily and I decided to call in the reinforcements to help take the meal on. You'll see in the pictures and video that two of our pals, John and Aaron, came over to celebrate.

In closing, I have a couple questions to ask our MOT readers, if they care to answer:

1. Did you do anything special for St. Patrick's Day?
2. Does this sound like a traditional Irish meal to you?
3. Have you tried soda bread before? If so, what'd you think?
4. What about corned beef? Yay or nay?
5. Do you think you'll be trying either of the recipes we used?

Here's a link to the recipes: corned beef (upon recommendation of other users, we didn't make the cabbage in the crock pot with the beef) and soda bread.

Poor little Peanut had to drive the 2 1/2 hours to Charlotte today by herself because today was also the first day of the Spring semester at Southeastern. I would have skipped class but my Hebrew professor let us now that we were hitting new stuff pretty hard today. But, after being in class today and worrying about Emily driving to and from Charlotte, I wish I would have just skipped and worried about Hebrew instead of my dearly beloved. She made it though no problem! That’s my girl.

In other news, I’ve added 393 pictures from our Christmas break in England. That’s over 300,000 new words in our photo gallery! New albums include pictures from Christmas, goofing around after a pantomime, Oxford, some other randomness, and our canal boat experience over New Years (there’s also a new, not-so-exciting video from the canal boat on the videos page).

Massive discounts indeed. How about a portable DVD player for $50? That’s a bargain boys and girls. We got a Wal-Mart flyer in the mail yesterday advertising this sweet little $50, 6 inch-screened bundle of DVD viewing joy. A couple of small problems however: 1) very limited quantity, 2) going on sale at 5am, 3) on Black Friday. I didn’t realize how much of a problem these factors would be until I found myself at Wal-Mart this morning at 6:17am.

Emily leaves for work this morning at 6:00am. “Drew, you should go get one of those DVD players at Wal-Mart for only 50 bucks…what a steal!” Drew rises from his slumber: clothes, scrapes frost off windshield and heads toward the brand-new Super Wal-Mart.

I thought the roads seemed about normal with traffic for 6am until I neared University Towne Centre, the plaza where our first of two new Super Wal-Marts calls home. Traffic was buzzing. Impatient minivans full of shopping-frenzied soccer moms sped along, weaving through traffic like a rotund bloke chasing a Krispy Kreme down a hill. I passed Best Buy (the electronics super-store) on the way to Wally World. The queue was out the door. It’s one thing to wait at the checkout but these bargain hunters were getting frostbit just waiting to get into the store! I’m pretty sure I saw some RVs in the parking lot. Did they camp outside Best Buy the night before? You would think Best Buy was giving out bags of rice to starving refugees.

Wal-Mart came into view and its parking lot was pregnant with said soccer mom minivans, SUVs and rusted up clunkers. Making my entry to Wal-Mart, I noticed a Rent-a-Cop armed with mace and a whistle checking everyone’s receipts and carts. The electronics section soon came into sight, teeming with life it was. The queue at the electronics checkout was laden with mullets, beer bellies and price-too-low-to-show bargains. I was flashed by one gentleman. Yep, he wiped his brow with the lower portion of his shirt while in the checkout, revealing girth and lipids. Are you sure you really need that new Nintendo, sir? Shame treadmills aren’t on sale.

Refocusing on my mission, I searched for the portable DVD players. Here was the display case. The cheapest one was $120! Where’s the one for 50 bucks? What kind of sick joke was this? I made my way to a Wal-Mart Associate. “Excuse me, where’s the portable DVD player advertised for $50?” Before he could reply, the Rent-a-Cop guarding the electronics domain emerged out of nowhere and mockingly spouted, “Haha. Those sold out in the first five minutes.” The time was 6:20 am. One hour and fifteen minutes late. What do you get when you show up late to Wal-Mart on Black Friday? Laughed at by a Rent-a-Cop.

I drove away dejected, wishing for something to raise my spirits since Sam Walton left me out to dry. I stopped by Old Navy to check out their deals. At the entrance of the store five or so soccer moms had congregated. They were plotting their next move. “I can’t believe the Dollar Store doesn’t open until 8am!” quipped the one still wanting her two front teeth for Christmas. Her flannel-shirt friend appropriately countered, “It’s not like it matters. Everything’s always a dollar anyways.” Good point, senorita.

I quickly realized I didn’t have what it takes to survive Black Friday and headed for home.