The Counter, Palo Alto, Califonia

Well, sup blag. This is contributor K, actually making a post. Since I have spent the past couple months traveling and eating, I have a backlog of posts about food I could be making, so I'll start with a delicious burger place because nothing says summer like a delicious burger.

Restaurant name: The Counter
Wobsite: The Counter Burger dot Com

The Counter appears to be a franchise that is located mostly in California, though there are locations in Plano, TX and Charlotte, NC. It's goal is to serve you a gigantic burger of your own making -- the menu is attached to a clipboard and you get to denote what toppings, size, rareness, sides, etc. you want out of lists of the possibilities. The usual choices are all present, but this is the burger that I came up with:



2/3rd pound of medium rare beef,
honey-cured bacon,
Tillamook cheddar,
sprouts,
hardboiled eggs,
peanut sauce,
honeywheat bun.
& sweet potato fries.

I know the hardboiled eggs are a little weird, but it was Easter weekend when I was there, so I was feelin' it. Anyway, it was decadent, and they have a ton of really fun and intriguing sauces and toppings and things to try, and outdoor seating nestled into Santana Row. So uh, it was delicious.

Speaking of burgers, for Memorial Day my roommates and I made some delicious burgers, about 3/4 of a pound of beef each loving fileld with green apples and bacon, with a slice of Tillamook cheddar on top. It was pretty phenom.

Music of the Spring

So if you check out Kat's LiveJournal, you'll see that she was tagged, and then left an open-invite tag for everyone. I'm accepting that challenge. Here is the description: List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring.

So here they are, my seven songs and some explanation. In no particular order

1. The Astronaut - Something Corporate: Victoria got me into these guys, and yes, I know I am behind the curve. That's just how I roll when it comes to "new" music. Regardless, this is my favorite song of theirs, and I've been listening to it obsessively.
2. Violet Hill - Coldplay: Their first single from the new album "Viva la Vida, or, Death and all His Friends." Pretty catchy, not their best song, but I've been listening to it a lot.
3. Symphony No. 2 - Sergei Rachmaninoff: So I heard this in concert once, and listened to it a ton right afterward and then promptly forgot it. I rediscovered it the other day at work. It's not the best symphony ever (really overly, hammer-to-the-head romantic) but it's really catchy and just altogether good to listen to.
4. Peter Grimes - Benjamin Britten: I'd be remiss if I didn't put this here, as it was the basis for my senior capstone project and pretty much defined my spring.
5. Heaven - Bitter:Sweet : Another recommendation from Victoria, the group (?) is kind of electronic, smooth, lounge-music. Very enjoyable, and this is one of my favorite songs of theirs. Props for featuring some bass clarinet on the album.
6. Nantes - Beirut: This is a band that Kat introduced me to. Zach Conlon has an amazing warble of a voice and is backed by some melange of a Gypsy band. Hard to categorize, but they rock. The first album was great, but the new album ("Flying Club Cup") kicks all sorts of ass. This is my "Rob says go buy it" album of the year thus far.
7. See you Again - Miley Cyrus: Alright, I just died inside typing that, but I cannot get this damn song out of my head. It's terrible, it's bad, but it's so freaking catchy. There, I admitted to it. I tried figuring out a song I could justify over this, and I couldn't. I am so ashamed...

Alright, there are my seven. Go ahead, put yours in the comments.

Whale Killer!

So I just found this video of Pops in Spain on Colonial Hoops. I wasn't sure if you had seen it yet, but it was worth posting anyways. It's chock-full of the Pops Mensah-Bonsu that we knew and loved. Yeah, remember those days, back when GW didn't suck? And when we had class-act players on the team? Yeah, those were fun times...

More Mambo Sauce

One last "Welcome to DC" update. We're on Mambo Sauce's myspace page now! Badass!

Here is the link, I hope you all enjoy.

Welcome to DC

For you bandys who want a video of it, here is the CBrass playing Welcome to DC. It's not great, but it'll do.

Bowie Baysox

Alright, work is beginning for the summer, so I ought to be updating this at least a few times a week. I promise.

I'll be back in the WRGW booth tomorrow helping out in another season of Bowie Baysox baseball. I'll be doing production duties for the first half of the game and your play-by-play will be provided by the ever-glib Steven Smith.



For those who don't know, the Baysox are the AA affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, and really a lot of fun to follow. I did production/announcing all of last summer for them, and had a blast. Right now the Baysox sit atop the Eastern League standings (Southern Division). Be sure to tune in and hear some winning baseball, since the Nats, O's, and my Mariners don't seem to be doing much of that lately. Oh, and it's Pat Sajak day, so if you want to trek up to Bowie, you can meet the man and get a bobblehead of him. Awesome.

Game Facts

Bowie Baysox (31-18) vs. New Hampshire Fisher Cats (15-31)
Prince George's Stadium
First Pitch: 2:05

Baseball Season

So we're supposed to be all about sports, food, and travel. You'll be getting some of the food and travel this weekend as both K and I head off to Winston-Salem, NC for the Davis Cup (more on that later). But right now, it's time to talk a little baseball. By way of introduction, I am a die-hard Seattle Mariners fan. They hooked me when I was 8 years old in the strike-shortened '94 season, and I've never looked back. But, as I was telling a friend today, if you couldn't get hooked on baseball when you were cheering for in-their-prime Griffey (best swing ever), Johnson, and Rodriguez (before he became a d-bag), then you probably could never get hooked on baseball.

So with the college hoops season winding down, I couldn't wait for baseball to start again, not only because the Mariners look to have some hope this year (though the 3-5 start makes me a bit uneasy) but just to have baseball back. It's really the background noise to my springs and summers for as long as I can remember. So, a few notes/observations from the first week of play (plus a little).

• Living in DC, it was nice to see the new Nationals stadium get the kind of opening a stadium deserves. Zimmerman's walk-off was pretty awesome, and I don't have anything but a passing interest in the Nats (they serve more as a "Oh, I want to go see some baseball and they're here" thing than a team I really follow)
• The Tigers, as everyone has said, look awful. I thought coming into the year that their rotation was weak (why so much for D-Train? He's overrated! He wasn't even cutting it in the NL, how do they think he can transition to the better bats of the AL?!) but they had a lineup which could make opposing pitchers wet themselves. That said, where are the runs? This has to be a fluke, there is no way that lineup continues to be 37 different kinds of suck like they are now.
• The AL Central in general, come to think of it, is just full of surprises. The Royals and White Sox tied at the top of the standings at 5-2? I certainly didn't see that coming, though the White Sox are a really underrated team this year. They've got some great pop in the lineup (Thome, Konerko, Pierzynski, Swisher), some solid starting pitching, and a vastly improved bullpen from last year's model. I wouldn't be surprised to see them still in contention in late September. (Full disclosure: the White Sox are the only other team, aside from the Mariners, that I tend to root for regularly. Definitely my second favorite team...)
• The Orioles?! Best record in baseball? Weird...
• And part of that best record came at my expense. I got to travel up to Baltimore to see my first ever game in Camden as the Mariners made their one pilgrimage there this year. They lost (they actually got swept in the 4-game series), but the park was really a cool place. I enjoy the open effect behind center and right fields. I sat way up in the nosebleeds in left, and the view was great. One thing of note: most teams tend to show a highlight video before the game so fans can get pumped up. I'm thinking it's not a good sign for the O's that they opted out of that option and instead went with... a video of their videoboard being installed. How meta. And boring...
• Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN is one of the best traditions in sports. I know there are a lot of people out there who don't like Jon Miller and Joe Morgan, but I always enjoy their Sunday night broadcasts. It always seems to be a game worth watching and they always make it better. Bonus points for getting to see the Sox stomp the Tigers.

Alright, that was possibly an excess of bulletpoints, but I hope to update with more regularity as the season goes on. Go ahead and put your opening week+ snippets in the comments below.