August 2007 Archives
This past weekend I headed out to Saratoga Springs, NY to spend some time with my family out there. I hadn't seen them in over a year and hadn't been to Saratoga in even longer. I figured a weekend of some gambling, some drinking and some family would be a nice little get away for me.
The big thing about this weekend in Saratoga was it was the weekend for The Travers Stakes, which is one of the biggest races of the season at Saratoga. This meant it was going to be a packed house in the area.
Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense was one of the horses running this year. My family I was going to visit happen to be friends with his trainer, so it made for a much more interesting weekend.
Friday night was filled was some drinking around the some of the bars around Saratoga, including MARE, Gaffneys and the Tavern. Was a good time spent with my cousin and a bunch of his friends (two of whom actually live around the corner from me).
After a late start and some breakfast on Saturday morning, mimosas started flowing around 1. Due to the excessive heat, the part eventually moved to a friend's house (mansion may be a better word) for some more drinking and some cooling off. We finally arrived at the track between the 8th and the 9th races. We watched the 8th race and then headed over to the Paddock. The Paddock is where they saddle up the horses right before the race. This is very much a VIP privilege, so it was very cool getting to be in there. As we were leaving the paddock, my mom called to tell me that we had all been on TV :) We watched Street Sense get ready and then headed towards the track.
Next, we watched the race:
What a race! After the race ended, we headed down to the Winner's Circle. Sadly, we were not in the winner's circle picture (we were like the next few people to the left of the picture). But it was rather cool to cheer on the winner. After the winner's circle, we headed to the Saratoga room for the after party with champagne and hors d’œuvre.
At this point we were all hurting pretty bad, so we headed to a local establishment to get some food in to us before another night of partying :) We once again headed to MARE, but this time, we ended up there all night (it was after 3AM when we left). Good times with lots of interesting people.
Sunday was breakfast and some shopping (and maybe a couple of drinks). I finally hit the road after 5PM (not what I had planned). Got home around 8:30 and was in my bed before 10.
Overall, a great weekend doing some real cool stuff.
One of the possibilities of another race for Street Sense is here at Suffolk Downs. Hmmm, could make for some fun! :)
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Can someone explain to me why everyone and their brother is doing a covers album now?
Sunset is a Battle is playing at The Bullfinch Yacht Club on Thursday. Bands start at 8:30. They are the third band on, but that is subject to change. You definitely should come out and check them out (and then afterwards, NIV at the Bell.
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I guess this is two days too late for me :)
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This could be helpful!
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Some neat Quicksilver tips
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More fun stuff :)
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This sounds very interesting to me. May have to look in to this further.
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This one looks interesting for some collabortaion type stuff.
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Was sort of psyched when I heard she might do lost, but I think this will be much more interesting.
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NIST Net is a network emulation package that runs on Linux. NIST Net allows a single Linux PC set up as a router to emulate a wide variety of network conditions.
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FreeBSD dummynet tutorial
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More on FreeBSD's dummynet
of the bands you like getting more popular is that they start playing worse and worse venues. The first time I considered going to see Umphrey's McGee, they were playing at The Paradise. The Paradise is probably my favorite place in Boston to see a band these days. I have a certain spot I always stand in, the beers are cheap, the sound is good and the place is small enough that you feel like its a very personal experience. Sadly, I missed the show, I think I was heading out of town or soemthing.
A few months later they came back around and played at Avalon. I like Avalon as long as it's not overcrowded (I used to like it a lot more, but all the expansion has made it a less and less desirable place for me. I have seen Umph 3 or 4 times there in the last few years. I've dragged different friends to each show and they all had fun. The last show they played there was starting to be on verge of overcrowded (and crowded with the "wrong people").
Well, I got the sad new today that the next Umphrey's show will be at the end of October at The Orpheum Theatre. Now, The Orpheum is ok for some shows. And in general, it's not a terrible place to see a show, BUT it's definitely one of my least favorite places. This is for a bunch of reasons. Number one, it's a seated venue. I had seated venues. Number 2, you aren't allowed to bring beers in to the Theatre. So, you have to shotgun beers before the show starts and during intermission if you want to drink. Third, I just don't think it's a great place. It really needs a wicked overhaul (sitting underneath the balcony when people are dancing on it is a terrifying experience. I have seen that thing move a good foot during some shows).
I _MAY_ consider heading up to Burlington to see the 2 shows at Higher Ground just to enjoy Umphrey's as they should be enjoyed. Sadly, my "couch" up there just recently moved to Boston (after a long time talking about it), so I don't have crash space, so it makes the whole thing a lot more expensive (and well, it is week day shows).
So, who knows? I think it's awesome that Umphrey's is getting big enough to play places like The Orpheum, but in the same breath, I'd rather be seeing them at The Paradise.
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I am SO not sure what to think about this.
This Friday, August 17th, the Never In Vegas boys hit Parris in Fanueil Hall for the first time ever. You all show be there, it will be an amazing time. These guys always put on quite a show and Parris will be a great room for them to get everyone going.
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Sequoia is a transparent Java middleware solution for offering clustering, load balancing and failover services for any database.
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Holy Diver by Killswitch Engage Watch it on MySpace Videos.
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A mixed bag of emotions over this one :)
Not too much to report. Did the same run I did on Monday afternoon. I did run the entire "running" portion of the distance for the first time. I also did the whole thing about a minute quicker than I did on Monday, so progress :)
