Snow bound!

Baltimore received a decent snowfall last week. At least, it was decent for our part of the country, where the occurrence of good snow is few and far between. It makes a snowboarder want to weep... The plan was to pick up some new snow pants for M and some beer. The parking lot of The Old Vine is somewhat sloped, but the GTI is front-drive and my tires are in good shape, so I didn't think about it. Mistake.

I used to drive one of these:



I would've been better off and I could've ticked off that time without any sort of acknowledgment. Sometimes, I miss my Rangie, but it broke down. Alot. Of course, buying a British car of somewhat indeterminate mileage probably wasn't smart to begin with. In fairness, that's how everyone bought their used Range Rovers back then. There's also the fact that filling up said beast with petrol would cost me over $80 each time. I could pretend that I'm very concerned with global warming and that my car purchases are thus affected. Actually, that's the truth. My '06 GTI gets around 25 mpg in the city and 32 mpg on the highway despite its sporting nature. That and good snow tires would've made for a completely uninteresting anecdote.

No one likes getting stuck in the snow, but it's particularly abhorrent to me since I'm used to driving vehicles quite proficient in the slippery stuff. I rescue - I don't get rescued! After trying for an hour to drive/race up all possible side streets to the mecca of the main road, I gave up, called for help and walked 2.7 miles to meet my ride. The walk was nice, despite getting splashed by a dorkus in a Jetta, because: 1. I had beer to keep me warm and 2. I like a quiet walk now and again. It's probably as close as I'll ever get to being on Survivor.

My lovely bride came to rescue me, and all was well. My folly in the snow was rewarded with a bike ride back to Mt. Washington to get the car a few days later. Thankfully, the car was where I'd left it. I guess it's off to get new tires for me!

Down with Chuck E. Cheese!

Who doesn't love birthday parties? The singing, the cake, the fun; it's all wonderful. What isn't wonderful is having to spend such time in a place as awful as Chuck E. Cheese. I've always made sure to keep a safe distance from the place in the past, but having family means that someone at some point somewhere will think that going to Chuck E. Cheese is a good idea. Now, I can legitimately hate the place as an educated consumer.

At this point, you're probably thinking, "Oh, what a snob! He just thinks the place is beneath him and his family!". Not so, and there's no need to get personal here. I wouldn't begrudge anyone's desire to have a party in a place they deem appropriate for their children. Chuck E. Cheese is made for kids and there's no denying that they love the place. Of course, it's been proven over and over that kids have no idea what's good for them.

The occasion of our visit was my 3-y.o. great nephew's b'day. Yes, "great nephew"; more on that some other time. He's a great kid and we love and admire his parents. They're not the problem. The problem is that Chuck E. Cheese (CEC) is waaaayyyy too over-stimulating. There's the animatronic band playing along to videos playing on wall-mounted monitors. There's the light and sound of the video games, the noise of the kids running in and out of the play areas, the incessant messages from the overhead system (louder than anything else happening in the place) re-calling everyone back to their seats for a live show with Mr. CEC himself, for the cake-cutting, for the pizza. Of course, there really isn't any sort of order to the chaos. Imagine kids running to climb and slide, then running back to their tables for pizza, then running again to climb and slide. It's too much. Our lovely 2-y.o. did all these things happily until it was time to go home. She put up a bit of a fuss about going home, but that's not extraordinary. We thought all was well while we were driving home and she fell asleep. Suddenly, she awoke whining and holding her stomach. Exactly 8 seconds later, she vomited electric blue all over herself and her car seat! It made for an aromatic ride home.

She's fine now, but her dress was ruined, my back seat, and her car seat required serious attention. I had to completely disassemble the car seat, run the cover through the washer and clean the base. I'm not looking forward to finding out whether leaving the car windows down overnight did the trick. I may be scrubbing the back seat of the GTI for many days to come.