Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Crab fest!
Last night, I joined my Web geek colleagues at a genuine Chesapeake Bay crab fest! at this restaurant just over the Delaware state line -- called the Old Mill Crab House. What a bizarre experience. I've never had good crab (except in cream of crab soup, which I adore), really, so I have generally avoided the exercise altogether, but by the time I watched our waitress dump a pile of at least a dozen steamed and seasoned crabs within nine inches of me last night, I had fairly well resigned myself to the notion that I'd be trying crab last night.
This was Maryland blue crab, not the kind you typically get anywhere else in the country, and it had the mark of Maryland crab -- namely, Old Bay seasoning. And, OHMYGOODNESS, it was *awesome*. Totally yummy.
I was sitting next to this guy who works for the Social Security Administration near Baltimore and obviously has spent a good deal of his life living near the Bay and/or eating crab, because he was extremely skilled -- far more so than anyone else I've ever seen -- at cracking open crabs and getting at the meat. It was my good fortune to be sitting next to him, because he was able to coach me on how to crack my crabs, and even cleaned up a couple or three crabs for me, or handed me legs already cracked off with huge chunks of meat hanging out the end.
I didn't stuff myself with crab (that takes a lot more effort than my feeble skills would have allowed), but I did get reasonably full and had fun.
On our way back to the hotel, I sat next to a woman from Kansas State University whose husband is getting a Ph.D. (at KSU) in Military History. She's working on a master's degree in Mass Communications. I had a fantastic time talking to her -- we have a lot in common, and she was really cool.
So it was a fun evening. I came back to the hotel, finished up my presentation for today, and settled into bed with Harry Potter #6 -- which I finished. I have to say, I wasn't all that shocked with the ending, though I did cry just a TINY little bit. It was definitely one of Rowling's better books, though, ranking right up there with Azkaban, in my opinion. And it ended on far more of what I'd call a cliffhanger note than most in the Potter series, so I'm completely anxious to know how this all ends. (Not that I think it can be any but one way.) Perhaps the most satisfying part of No. 6 was the revelation that suspicions I've had all along about one of the teachers at Hogwarts were finally confirmed. Thank goodness. I was getting sick of constantly being assured my suspicions were unfounded, when I clearly knew they were.
Anyway, two more things on the crab fest ... yesterday in one of the sessions I attended, a woman from UMASS was talking about their calendar system. We submitted an event to their calendar (which will probably be taken down very soon, so click now!) for last night's event -- be sure you check out the location of the event (hehe); in that same event, we also submitted a random URL for the event, without first checking what was actually AT that URL, and found this delightful slogan: "Its not just Crabs ... its the Experience." Audience comments immediately after the Web site pulled up were, in this order: "What an unfortunate slogan" ... and, "Guess grammar's not their thing, eh?"
And that's EXACTLY why I love these people so much. These are my people! :)
This was Maryland blue crab, not the kind you typically get anywhere else in the country, and it had the mark of Maryland crab -- namely, Old Bay seasoning. And, OHMYGOODNESS, it was *awesome*. Totally yummy.
I was sitting next to this guy who works for the Social Security Administration near Baltimore and obviously has spent a good deal of his life living near the Bay and/or eating crab, because he was extremely skilled -- far more so than anyone else I've ever seen -- at cracking open crabs and getting at the meat. It was my good fortune to be sitting next to him, because he was able to coach me on how to crack my crabs, and even cleaned up a couple or three crabs for me, or handed me legs already cracked off with huge chunks of meat hanging out the end.
I didn't stuff myself with crab (that takes a lot more effort than my feeble skills would have allowed), but I did get reasonably full and had fun.
On our way back to the hotel, I sat next to a woman from Kansas State University whose husband is getting a Ph.D. (at KSU) in Military History. She's working on a master's degree in Mass Communications. I had a fantastic time talking to her -- we have a lot in common, and she was really cool.
So it was a fun evening. I came back to the hotel, finished up my presentation for today, and settled into bed with Harry Potter #6 -- which I finished. I have to say, I wasn't all that shocked with the ending, though I did cry just a TINY little bit. It was definitely one of Rowling's better books, though, ranking right up there with Azkaban, in my opinion. And it ended on far more of what I'd call a cliffhanger note than most in the Potter series, so I'm completely anxious to know how this all ends. (Not that I think it can be any but one way.) Perhaps the most satisfying part of No. 6 was the revelation that suspicions I've had all along about one of the teachers at Hogwarts were finally confirmed. Thank goodness. I was getting sick of constantly being assured my suspicions were unfounded, when I clearly knew they were.
Anyway, two more things on the crab fest ... yesterday in one of the sessions I attended, a woman from UMASS was talking about their calendar system. We submitted an event to their calendar (which will probably be taken down very soon, so click now!) for last night's event -- be sure you check out the location of the event (hehe); in that same event, we also submitted a random URL for the event, without first checking what was actually AT that URL, and found this delightful slogan: "Its not just Crabs ... its the Experience." Audience comments immediately after the Web site pulled up were, in this order: "What an unfortunate slogan" ... and, "Guess grammar's not their thing, eh?"
And that's EXACTLY why I love these people so much. These are my people! :)
// posted by Liz @ 3:56 AM 
