Coming back from Atlanta

I was down South for a couple of days, did you miss me? I'm sure that you did. The reason for the sojourn to Dixie? Aly's niece, Samantha, was getting baptised. This meant that the whole Manasso brood was to descend on Atlanta like Sherman, destroying everything in our paths until we got to the ocean.

Ok. Not really, but there was a bunch of us: Aly, me, Lauren and Bob, Jackie and Roy plus John's wife Christie's family. It was quite a Yankee (Northern folk, not the damned team from New York) army down there. We landed on Saturday, said some pleasantries and went to the greatest store in the world, Distant Replays.

I know I wrote about this place last year, but it bears repeating, this place is like a museum where you can buy the aritifacts. I got a t-shirt with this logo on it:



I think it's pretty damn cool, but Aly hates it. I also nabbed a mid 80s Houston Astros hat. Maybe it will bring the Sox the luck that my 1986 Seattle Mariners hat brought to the team last year. This is what it looks like:



Following that we went back to John and Christie's house where they had a barbeque waiting. Good stuff, John made his own sausage and also had hot dogs and burgers grilling up. We sat around for most of the night eating, drinking beers, swapping stories until we decided to head over to the Brick Store Pub.

This place was really cool, check it out here:

Brick Store Pub

There is a flash presentation, but it's ok. Just wait the 15 seconds. They don't have many American beers, the only states stuff is microbrews, but they have a ton of European brews. I tried a Paulaner, and while I probably won't buy a six pack of the stuff soon, it wasn't too bad. I then had a couple pints of the old standby, Guiness.

The cool thing is that each beer came in it's own glass. I wanted to nab the Paulaner one, but I just had nowhere to put it. Next time.

On Sunday, we had the Christening to go to. Standard church stuff, the priest was from Slovakia, so much of his homily/service was tough to understand, but he seemed like a good enough guy. Joey was a little rambunctious, and there was a bit of drama, but all in all, it was a fine time.

When we got back to the house, the caterers were already there. And it was Mexican food. I ate like a damn pig, but I didn't give a shit, the food was that good. Man, I wish we can cater our wedding with Mexican food. Maybe next time I'll marry a Mexican chick.

We were all beat from staying up late, so we went back to the hotel room and watched the Sox lay the smack down on the Yanks 8-2, this the day after thoroughly whipping them 17-1. Not a bad way to spend a weekend in the Bronx.

Monday, we did nothing. We rented, "Meet the Fockers", it blew. Everyone in the flick didn't act, they sped read their lines and slept walked through the entire movie. It was obvious they were in it for the cash.

And then on Tuesday we left. If it seems like we didn't do much, it's because we didn't. It was very relaxing and that was part of the reason why we had such a good time. More tomorrow.