From Greensboro to Chapel Hill

This past weekend I took the short flight down to North Carolina to visit Amanda in Greensboro. I flew in Thursday and we drove into downtown Greensboro to have a some great sushi.


Friday we worked from Amanda's apartment and then went down to Chapel Hill, to meet her friends from Northwestern Brian and Alexis. They have a great townhouse down there with a super-cute rotwiler-mix dog, Haley. Shortly after we got there, we headed over to Durham to see the Durham Bulls (from Bull Durham) take on the Columbus Clippers (including Evan Langoria). We had a good time at the game, once we moved away from a group of annoying pre-teenage kids.

Saturday we headed over to Raleigh to see my former boss and friend, Neil. We got some cute gifts for Neil's two little girls, Riley and Camryn. Neil took us on a tour of NC State, and downtown Raleigh. They actually have a statue that says "Long live the confederacy" in the square in front of the capitol building. Scary. After that we had a beer and talked awhile more with Neil.

Saturday night Brian and Alexis took us to Top of the Hill, which is a really nice restaurant in Chapel Hill. I had a great tilapia while Amanda had a rigatoni. After dinner we went to a martini bar and I had a great dirty martini, while Amanda got creative with a Kuroyale. Unfortunately this did not turn out to be a Kuroyale and instead was a champagne drink in a martini glass, and a bad one at that. We then headed back to Alexis/Brian's townhouse, but not before grabbing some fruit and sangria at the local Harris Teeter. We polished off a bunch of that while playing some heated games of Cranium and Dance Party. Apparently I am an incredible clay molder.

Sunday we headed back to Greensboro and stopped off to see Bourne Ultimatum, the latest edition of the amensia stricken American James Bond. I think this was about as good as the second Bourne and excellent nonetheless.

After Bourne I packed up and flew out back to DC. It was a great weekend, getting to explore NC, see Amanda's college friends who we always have a great time with, and of course, seeing my girl :).

New Scott Best 76!

While it certainly isn't a course record, Saturday morning I treked up to Frederick and shot a personal best at my favorite Maryland Course, Maryland National by hanging a 76 from the golds. My stats from the day include 32 putts (no 3 putts), 6 of 13 fairways hit, 9 of 18 greens, and a chip in on 18 from 50 feet. Quite an incredible day since I have been working towards this for the last two years. Now, to just keep it up! Of course, my new Callaway FT-5 didn't hurt things either.

Friday night we met up with Amanda's friend Trisha and her fiancee Marcos. We went to a rooftop party at a sweet apartment in DC. It was fun although we were pretty tired and had to leave a little early.

Saturday night we bagged plans to go to the DC Zoo and instead saw Transformers. I have to say, this was pretty good. My boy Shia Lebouf (from The Greatest Game Ever Played) and Meghan Fox were great. The effects were phenomenal and the storyline wasn't half bad. I can't say more in case you haven't seen it.

Sunday Neil got us free tickets to a sweet luxury box at Camden Yards to see the O's play the Yankees. While I hate the Yankees, we really went there to just have a good time. That's definitely what we got as Neil hooked us up with free parking and a stocked fridge of beezos. My buddy Mark from work was there so he stopped up for a couple minutes and we left just before the game ended. Neil also proved his power by getting the DJ to play Baba O'Riley before the 7th inning.

This weekend we'll be in Greensboro/Raleigh to see some friends down there. I'm looking forward to seeing where Amanda works and have some fun!

Announcing Portia Lotus Cina!

Monday, July 16th at approximately 4:00 pm EST Jolie gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Portia Lotus Cina. Portia is 7 lbs 2oz and 19.75".


Today Sean and Jolie took Portia home from the hospital for the first time. Amanda and I visited both the proud parents and the new baby this past weekend and she is a cutie pie! I took several pictures and video so I will post them as soon as possible!

Cho, TGI Blech, Nationals Hang on

Monday I was called out by Joe (or as Philadelphians say, "Cho") for not trying to reschedule our dinner for some time.  While I have thought about reaching out to Joe, I just hadn't taken the time.  Good thing Joe called me out because we turned it around fast and met up last night for dinner at TGI Fridays.  Well, the food could have been better - my sizzling Chicken and Shrimp kept sizzling until I went to sleep some 5 hours later  and Joe's quesedillas apparently had some lasting effect on him until today, but the conversation could not have been better.  Its always a good time to see Joe and catch up with him and last night was no exception.  We kibutzed for a couple hours on a variety of topics including our trip toHawaii, the Grizwald (Ryder) Family trip to Chicago, USDA, DLA, the Lost season finale, HD TV's (shocker!), and even my new swimming routine.  It was a great time and made me miss seeing Joe all the time on CP5 - 10.  Hopefully Joe gets his own blog going soon so we can get a glimpse into his mind for a change.  I will be sure to post a link to his site once it is available.

Today, my career counselor TJ took myself and some of his other counselees out to a Washington Nationals baseball game.  It was a lot of fun to go to a game (TJ got great tickets), see and talk to TJ who I never see now, and to see my friend Nick who I used to work with on DLA.  Nick gave me a lot of gossip and details of whats going on over there.  Between last night and today, I feel like I never left.  

Right now i'm watching Conan from the other night.  I think it must have taped some Leno because Minnie Driver is on and singing.  I think my ears are starting to bleed she's so bad.  I don't think her voice is so bad but the song is terrible and I have no idea what she's even saying.  That reminds me, the other night I heard a Mark Ronson original on Conan and it was pretty good.  I'm going to have to look up some of his stuff.



Mom is a FAN!

Mom is a FAN!  I just talked to my mom tonight on the drive home (took over an hour, DAGGER!), and she told me she loved the blog.  Here is to hoping she continues to read. If you read and you have comments, please leave them below.  Your feedback is always appreciated.

I'm here watching the start of the MLB All-Star game and the tribute to Willie Mays.  Willie may go down as one of the best players of all time, but don't forget that it all started in New York when the Giants were the New York Giants.  It was only years later in 1958 that they moved to San Francisco.  This game would be almost interesting to watch except Barry Bonds has ruined the game for me.  That and the almost excruiciatingly boring pace that baseball has.  

Post July 4th weekend

We had a great weekend. Saturday we spent the day at the Innagural AT&T National Tournament played at Congressional Country Club down the street in Bethesda, MD. We camped out at behind 10th green, 15th Green, 16th tee and 18th fairway. We saw a great deal of golfers, including Olin Browne, Hunter Mahan, Chris Dimarco, Jason Gore, Todd Hamilton (sweaty pants), Rich Beem, Tim Herron, Jim Furyk, Stuart Appleby, KJ Choi, Sean O'Hair, Chris Riley, Notah Begay III and none other than Tiger Woods. We actually got to see Tiger up close and look into his eyes as he walked from 15th green to 16th tee. Amanda claims that he asked her to be his nanny but I have my suspicions. The only unfortunate part was the shuttle bus actually passed by 7501 twice.



On Sunday, we went to the pool, where Scott learned the butterfly. He's really quite good. After the pool, we trooped outside with our trusty cooler-on-wheels (everything should be on wheels, always!) to grill our dinner. We grilled two steaks (they turned out very well!), an onion (the best part of dinner), corn, and potatoes (the weak link of the dinner template). After dinner, we made S'Mores - which are decidedly difficult without an open flame. We met some of Scott's neighbors as well, one of whom was apparently named "Z" - in a clash of realities.


After dinner, we finished up the weekend with the boys from Entourage. So sad to be returning to work tomorrow :(

July 4th

Today is July 4th and we decided to have our friends Aaron and Sarah (and Sarah's sister Beth) over to hang out. We spent a couple hours at the pool and then headed over to the BBQ. Last night we bought a bunch of meat, sausage, and brautwurst from Balducci's (excellent meat department). Aaron and Sarah brought over two racks of ribs so we cooked those as well. We used the charcoal grills out back of the other building in my complex. It started to rain, but luckily Aaron brought his tent so we stayed dry. The tent is actually going to be used for tailgating so it has much more fun to go! We ended the bbq by having some smores and watermellon. You can see the link to the photos on the right!

Tomorrow I have to go back to work (boo!) and probably work Friday as well. If I'm lucky, I won't have to work Saturday, which is when we are planning to go to Tiger Woods' new PGA tournament, the AT&T National, played down the street at Congressional. Definitely looking forward to that.