1a) reviiew of the latest all-american rejects album is up on music.elscorcho.org

2b) i put up new pictures from the cape

3c) right, i went to the cape with jen last weekend. she took friday off and picked me up from work around 3, and we got to our place in hyannis before 6. we stayed until sunday around noon, and really, we had an excellent time. there are a few highlights, but most can be guessed from the photos i linked to earlier.

we got there and walked around a bit and then drove around the cape in a botched attempt to get food. remember, bring cash because lots of places only take cash. we finally got some food at this place called jt's around 9pm. they had the best onion strings i've ever had (yes, better than bartley's), and the fried clam roll was... well, spectacular. my mouth is watering right now thinking about it.

our primary goal was to go to a place called cobies that geoff had, and here is an understatement, strongly pushed. this place only takes cash. by the time we got there, to a bank of america, and then all the way back, cobies was closed for the night, forcing us to go to jt's. anyways, i said it before and here i'll say it again - bring cash.

we watched the incredibles that night (ahh netflix). well, i should say i watched it, cuz jen fell asleep about halfway through. the movie was pretty damn enjoyable for a disney flick, and i'm sure i would have appreciated it more if i had to recently deal with some lesser children's fare, i.e. if i were a parent. anyways, it was a decent flick, you should see it.

i slept in on saturday, but jen woke me up around 11 with a belgian waffle. the inn we were staying at had a continental breakfast with a waffle maker. good stuff. we got ready and took a harbor cruise around whatever harbor we were in, which was kind of cool. it was relaxing and the boat was mostly empty, which was nice. we got to see where all the crazy kennedys and schrivers live, which was neat. and yeah, a simple boat ride. good stuff.

we then went over to cobies for our second try at getting food there. geoff's love of this place was pretty spot-on. i had the scallop roll, and i don't think i've ever had scallops that were so friggin tender and delicious. i was not a huge fan of scallops before this sandwich and now i love them. that's all you need to know. there are a few photos of this place here and here. pretty damn cool place.

now my personal highlight was our next little adventure. we went down to yardmouth to see the y-d red sox play orleans.. the orleans whatever they are called in a cape cod baseball league game. holy crap, this was amazing. i can't believe i never went before, i can't believe thad/phil/asian/parker/nick/ken/myself did not somehow make this trip while were in school... it just blows my mind. this is pure, unadulterated baseball. people watch the game, cheer when their team does something good, and that's pretty much it. the chatter in the crowds included two people discussing whether or not they should have sent the runner from 2nd with no outs on a single (no, stopping him at third was the right move) and someone asking me how i scored a routine grounder that the second baseman on orleans totally muffed (i know he wanted to score it a hit, but i scored it an error). people were just focused on the baseball and did not need any of the other gimmicks that surround major league games. the talent was pretty good (a large number of current major league players have played in the cape league) and the price was unbeatable - free, but donations accepted ($10 for jen and myself). nothing about this afternoon/evening was not perfect... well except for me spilling dr. pepper... but that didn't even get on jen. that's how good things were going.

i followed up this amazing game with an amazing meal at roadhouse cafe in hyannis. this place got a really strong phantom gourmet review and was listed as one of the best fine-dining restaurants on the cape. once we finally got to the place (we were misled by the guy at the inn as far as where the restaurant was and how far away it was), everything was great. the atomosphere was kind of mish-mashed and weird, but the food... mmm. shrimp cocktail was decent (only 4 shrimp? for shame), but the filet and lobster tail was awesome. and yes, i finally had surf and turf. jen seemed to like her ravioli, too - it was nice that this restaurant, unlike many on the cape, had legit vegetarian options. then again, the two places we went to eat prior to roadhouse were basically shacks on the side of the road, so i should be happy that they had vegetarian choices.

sunday was spent driving back and doing all sorts of other stupid things once we returned to boston, so our trip essentially finished here. actually, that's not true. on the walk back from roadhouse, we witnessed some sort of outdoor youth militant rally for jesus. also, we went into a bowling alley because jen wanted to play skeeball and had a weird, weird experience. basically, jen was trying to get tokens and couldn't. as she realized the machine was off, some guy a little younger than us sneaks in (even though it is pretty bright in the front hallway), looks at us and puts a finger to his lips. "shh." and plugged in the token machine. jen changed a dollar, and the guy unplugged the machine and snuck out of the bowling alley. we then played our game of skeeball, which was a back-and-forth battle which came down to me being on the short end of a 21,000 to 18,000 score with one ball left for each of us. i flung my ball up the ramp and hit the 10,000 hole. jen couldn't get it to the crazy 10,000 holes and i won the game. by the time we were done, the gameroom was full, with one of the people playing an arcade game being the same guy who helped us change tokens earlier. how confusing is that?? we walked out and saw the token machine was still plugged in and everything, and we left pretty fast. it was all very fucking confusing. just re-read that paragraph twice.

so that was our trip to the cape. it was pretty damn awesome. skeeball was fun, surf and turf is amazing, and cape cod baseball is pretty close to heaven for a true baseball fan, i think. keeping score to the game was pretty damn fun too. we're thinking about going back this saturday, just for the 2pm game in hyannis. maybe we'll go early and get cobies, too.

mmmm.