Awww... you guys missed me? Right now I'm in BALTIMORE!

So, I’ve had quite a few complaints about not updating the blog in the last six months or so. I got busy moving, setting up a new household, discovered FaceBook (oh my good golly Molly, that thing is addictive) and just stopped updating it. But I’ve officially had enough complaints and threats that I’m back! I was even offered a bribe... (I'll be calling to collect, you-know-who-you-are).

I'll dive right back in with what I'm doing right now (because it's interesting), and then follow up in the next few days with a quick update on my life and what's been going on for the last few months. And probably a rant or two thrown in for good measure - how could I hold my tongue and not tell you exactly what I think of the incredible hypocrisy of the asshole/anti-Semetic/sexist/adulterous Mel Gibson... again.

So right now I'm in Baltimore, MD. I'm tagging along on a business trip with J. And it rocks! After a good ten years of business travel (most of it really boring and stressful), I finally get to be the one that gets to tag along and spend my days exploring. We flew in late Tuesday night and found that the car we'd reserved wasn't available. Immediately the scene from Seinfeld starts playing in my head, "Anybody can TAKE a reservation, it's HOLDING the reservation that's important." But before I could even complain, they upgraded us to a 2010 Mustang convertible. Awesome! Except it hasn't stopped raining since we got here. Heehee.

Anyway.... J is in training during the days so I have the days to myself to do the stuff he wouldn't want to do with me anyway. Wednesday I dropped him off, headed back to hotel to work out (good Heather) and then hit the shops. Spent the day shopping and got a mani/pedi. Total girl day. ATI (the company J is here to train with) took all the owners and spouses out to dinner that night. We went to the Rusty Scupper on the Inner Harbor. Had the crab cakes - because you HAVE to - and they were wonderful. So was the Toasted Head chardonnay (my favorite familiar fallback white). But the best part was that this place has the best view of the Inner Harbor - spectacular view of the Bay and the entire area from the top floor, where we were. Great start to the trip.

Thursday was awesome. Starbucks, workout and then headed into downtown Baltimore. Started the day at the Baltimore Museum of Art as soon as they opened. I love museums and taking my time strolling through them... if J were with me it would have been a fight to get him to go and after about twenty minutes the questions would have started - "Are you ready?", "About done?", "What time is it?", "I'll just meet you at the car..."

So since I had the day to myself, I spent a leisurely three hours exploring the museum. As you would expect in Baltimore, they have a very large collection of colonial era artwork, silver, etc. I saw the original trophy used for the Preakness and it was just gorgeous. But I couldn't get a decent picture of it - they ask that you don't use a flash, and the lighting just wasn't working when I tried to get a pic of the big beautiful ornate trophy. So... use your imagination and be impressed.

They also had a beautiful collection of 5th century Antioch Mosaics - from an excavation of the ancient city of Antioch (known today as Antakya in southeastern Turkey near Syria). Just amazing. This one of Oceanus and Tethys resembles J and I in the mornings...

Of course, Rodin's "The Thinker"...

They have a large collection of Matisse. Above is his "Interior with Dog". They had a lot of his sculptures, painting and drawing. I've always really enjoyed Matisse so it was a special treat to see this. They also had a lot of Monet's works, Andy Warhol and plenty other famous pieces you'd recognize. But a lot of other wonderful unfamiliar works. I really enjoyed the day.

By the time I'd explored the entire museum I'd worked up a nice little appetite. My Starbucks venti skinny caramel latte was a distant memory, so I headed to Gertrude's. Gertrude's is John Shields' restaurant located right there in the museum. My fellow foodies will recognize his name, for those of you who aren't huge foodie dorks, John Shields is a Baltimore based celebrity chef (think Emeril, but he just hasn't hit it that big yet) - he's big in Chesapeake Bay regional cooking (duh), as well as the slow food and local food movements. ANYWAY... I was excited when I found out Gertrude's was at the BMA and even more excited when they said they could seat me at the bar without a reservation. It's not a particularly cheap place to eat (and I was surrounded by folks who don't care about the price)... so I had a small lunch. But I had to splurge. I had the small plate of single-fry fried oysters (ersters to the locals) and a nice glass of Chardonnay. Followed up by about half of a piece of chocolate bourbon pecan pie.

Enjoyed my lunch chatting with the bartender, she is working her way through college with an art history major; the older gentleman to my right, he works a few blocks away and loves the crab soup at Gertrude's and eats there almost every day; and the young college student to my left, he's broke but wanted to splurge at Gertrude's and enjoy the museum (also an art history major and he ordered the same thing I did).

All in all, it was an awesome day exploring a little corner of Baltimore alone. Picked J up from training and we headed to Rams Head Tavern for dinner. It's only about three minutes from where J's training. They were having a new beer launch from Fordham Brewing Company (Maryland's original brewery), so it was busy but it was still delicious. Jeremy had the shrimp salad sandwich and I had the crab bake. And of course he tried the new beer - New World Wheat Hefeweizen - which was REALLY good. I had a peartini which was... eh. But the dirty martini after that was delicious, as always. I don't know why I'm always trying a sweet drink just to decide, once again, that I don't like sweet drinks and settling back into my usual dirty martini. Duh.

Tonight we're meeting a couple of J's friends from high school for drinks and dinner. Hopefully I'll be cracking some crabs tonight. Now it's time to hit the shower and head back downtown for a little independant exploration...