Ground Hog Day

It's Ground Hog Day (not Seagull Day, but read on), and my friend Mike from Tennessee has sent me the same message at least ten times. Hearing from him and my kids this week has me a bit homesick for Tennessee. The house has really come together - we couldn't ask for a more beautiful place - and I know I'll learn to like the area, but things are certainly different in Maryland from what I'm used to in Tennessee.

Last night, I set out on a futile effort to find a bar with a Texas Hold'em game. In Knoxville, I could name 5 well-known bars with Wednesday night poker games, but there are none here. You know why? 'Cause they're illegal. Oh, but you can gamble away your paycheck playing Keno in hundreds of places. I guess that money goes to the state, so they don't complain too much. But a free poker game, that's downright immoral! There are some games in DC and Virginia though, and I'll have to find one soon. I did discover a bar with $1.00 drafts and 15 cent wings last night. They even had NTN trivia and a live sports trivia game going on. It's called the Fireside Inn in Glen Burnie. The wait staff was friendly and the crowd welcoming. I'll go back there!
The Bay has been interesting this week. I went out last weekend and fed the seagulls. All I have to do is walk out onto the dock with a piece of bread or something, and dozens fly around. Some are braver than others and will almost take the food out of your hand. We also saw a couple of white swans that day. They didn't seem to be pets and stayed far away from the shore. The water level has been higher this week than before, after very low tides last weekend. I'm not sure why, maybe a combination of the moon and wind. We've spent all our money lately getting the house fixed up (Do you know how much curtains cost? Whew!) so we haven't made much progress on a boat. I saw a fishing trawler heading out of the river this morning and I wondered what they were catching this time of year. I hope to find out soon!

Oh, and btw. I finally got some pictures up on the web that Dianne took of our New Year's weekend in Dayton, Ohio. You can see them by clicking here. -Shawn