It’s been a busy weekend. Friday night I met up with Stephen for dinner at Union Barrel Works in Reamstown. I’d never heard of this brewpub, and their beers were pretty mild, but everything in the sampler we got was clean finishing and good (Sampler: Kolsch, Mai Bock, Pale Ale, Dopplebock, Dubbel, and one other I’ve forgotten..). The food was good and reasonably priced, and it’s right down the street from Stoudt’s so it’s good to know there are other options for good food and beer around there. I didn’t stay out too late though, since I needed to get up early the next morning.
I got up shortly after 6 on Saturday morning to hop down 202 to be the guest on another Computer Corner show to talk about Ubuntu. Once the podcast is up I’ll post it and discuss this more.
After the show I drove back home, relaxed for a bit and then headed out to Jersey to meet up with my friend Mike and 4 of his friends to grab some lunch and then hit that evening’s Iron Maiden concert. Now metal isn’t really my “thing” – if I have a “thing” when it comes to music. But I do enjoy a bit of it from time to time, and I tend to enjoy concerts of all kinds. Plus, I’ll try anything once! So we grabbed lunch, left Mike’s around 4:30, got parked, picked up our tickets, and were seated by 7. We went with box seats, which were a bit expensive but when the sky opened up and a huge thunderstorm swept through we were glad to have the seats we had – and doubly glad we didn’t go for lawn seats, those people got drenched.
The first opening band had the lead singer who was the daughter of one of the Iron Maiden guys. I’m not much of a judge of metal, but I wasn’t overly impressed. I’ll be fair though, they had just released their first album so they’re quite new at this. The second opening band was Trivium, and while really not my style I found myself enjoying their set a lot.
During the set change to Maiden was when the thunderstorms rolled in. The crowd was already pumped, and the storm really “charged” the whole place, cheers erupting for each big wave of lightning and thunder. Around 9 Maiden came on – and played an amazing show. This was my first metal show, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the music was loud and fun, the crowd was great, the sets were spectacular, the pyrotechnics were awesome and the band really rocked out, the lead singer running all over the stage with different costumes throughout the show. Wow, it was fun. I really must go to one again sometime!
When the concert wrapped up I got my first taste of having my ears not work properly after a metal show. A couple of the people I went with had earplugs, which after last night really seem like a good investment, my ears are still ringing a bit. Four of us then went for food at a diner not too far from where Mike lives, and finally around 2:30AM I made the drive home – putting me back home around 3:30AM. As such I didn’t wake up until noon today. Mmmmm sleep.
Now I have some Work to do – starting on a data migration for our accounting system, later I’ll be heading over to the house to work through some financial stuff with Michael.
The weekend isn’t long enough.
