This has been one of the busiest weeks working at The Brass Elephant. It’s Restaurant Week in Baltimore, meaning many restaurants have discounted menu and specials to attract customers. Sometimes those customers aren’t the ones who are accustomed to fine dining.

The past week I’ve been part host/part coat check/part valet. Multi-tasking has become my greatest strength. I have had some time to sit back and take everything in. Some good and some bad…

The chef at the restaurant takes things too personal. There was an article in the Baltimore Sun that really didn’t bash him, however he spent 15 minutes with customers discussing his dislike of the writing? Who cares? I’ve been told I need hair plugs and fake teeth. Boo-hoo.

Yesterday we had a table of 4 that were very unhappy. They had to wait 20 minutes for their table to open up. We seated them in our front dinning room, probably our most beautiful room. About 90 minutes later, I had a gentleman tape me on the shoulder and say “I need to get my coats and pay my bill”. I was a bit confused as usually people pay before they grab their coats. I found out that it took them an hour and fifteen minutes to be served their food. Too long, way too long. We ended up comping $100 off their bill, leaving it at $40.69. They left $41. Then they tipped me $2 for getting their coats. Can’t win them all.

We have decided to extend Restaurant Week an extra week. Hopefully it will be as busy with less problems as the first one…

In my previous post, I was sorta upset that the US Senate voted to delay the digital conversion. Needless to say, I forgot Congress was made up of two entities. Today the House of Representatives denied the bill that would have pushed the conversion date to June 12. The bill actually got the majority of votes, however fell 26 votes short of the needed 2/3 margin for passage.

The House looks to pass the bill next week with a simple majority. For now, get rid of your rabbit ears so I don’t have to see any more commercials!

In a somewhat non-surprising move, the US Senate voted to extend the digital television conversion from February 17th to June 12th. The move was made so that poor, elderly, and those in rural areas can still have a chance to get a digital converter box. Keep in mind, the original conversion date was set back in 2004.

This delay in the conversion is a mistake. What greater motivation would people have than to have their TV’s turned off on Feb 17th? You know those lines at Radio Shack, Best Buy, and Circuit City would be huge.

Regardless, now I have to deal with those stupid DTV Conversion commercials for another 116 days. Thanks!

Lots of couples have their perks. Brad and Jenn adopt/have kids like children are going out of style. Ryan and Rachel had The Notebook. Tom and Katie have alien spaceships. Mari and I have our birthday wishes.

November 4th is Mari’s birthday. I can’t totally recall everything that happened that day… but something like the most historic presidential election of all time?

January 18th is my birthday. I was born in Pittsburgh, so it was a great gift to see the Steelers advance to the Super Bowl.

I can’t wait to see what we get next year…

Sorry I haven’t been posting the past few days. I started working again at The Brass Elephant, a place I’ve worked for in the past. I have been working some crazy hours, so I haven’t had the chance to update anything.

The next few days you will see a lot of entries. Enjoy!

The soft chants of “Here we Go… Here we go…Here we go, Steelers, here we go… Pittsburgh’s going to the Super Bowl” are playing in my head as I write this. I am really excited to see the Steelers make it. Heck, in early August, many ‘experts’ didn’t have Pittsburgh making it out of the first round of playoffs. Some people even though Cleveland would win the division (could you be any further off?). Dallas and New England were the overwhelming favorites to win the Super Bowl… at least they made it to the playoffs.

As many of you know, I am currently living in a suburb of Baltimore and it was difficult to watch the Steelers/Ravens game with my Ravens fan uncle. I honestly felt bad when they lost. I got over it though.

I have talked Mari into becoming a Steelers fan. Maybe the Red Sox are next?

Few things I heard when I was back in da Burgh over the holidays.

70% of the Earth is covered with oceans. The other 30% is covered by Troy Polamalu.

Four football fans are standing on a cliff. One is a Steeler fan, one a Patriots fan, one a Browns fan, and one a Cowboys fan. They were trying to prove how loyal they were to their team. The Patriots fan said “This is for my team!” and jumped off the cliff and died. The Cowboys fan did the same, and he also died. The Steelers fan took a deep breath and screamed, “This is for the Steelers!” And he pushed the Browns fan off the cliff.

It should be a good game (not really) and I have faith the Steelers will end up on top.

Obviously today was the inauguration of the 44th president, Barack Obama. I watched coverage starting at 10:30am and didn’t really stop all day. I made a bunch of notes so here I go…

1) The crowd at the National Mall was enormous. I truly wish I was there. It would have been such an experience to be in the crowd.

2) The Oath - Little bit of a slip up… not sure if it was Chief Justice Roberts or President Obama’s fault, but certainly allowed for some ‘comic relief’ within a very momentous occasion. Though Barack took the oath at 12:04pm, he officially began his term at 12:00pm, even without taking the oath. I would be lying if I said I didn’t tear up. The realization of what was happening was hit me and was very overwhelming.

3) Sasha and Malia are the cutest things in the world. They add a different dimension to the White House that will be very refreshing.

4) The Inaugural Speech - While there were no ‘one-liners’ that I can think of (ex “I have a dream”, “Ask not what your country…”,”The only thing we have to fear…”) the general message of the speech was very profound. We, as Americans, are called to serve for the greater good. Just as past generation have paid the price for freedom, we too must now pay what is due.  It will not be easy; it’s not something that will be attained overnight. Very powerful, very moving. People will look back at this speech and this day and say that this is when America turned the corner and renewed their status to the world.

Who is proud to be an American?