2008 Folklife Festival in DC

Some friends of ours invited us to go out to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the Mall this past weekend. I haven't been to the Folklife Festival in a few years, but once I heard that the state being represented this year is Texas, you know I had to make an appearance. I am always critical of Texas interpretation, so I wanted to go and see how authentic their Texas representation would be. The focus was on Texas music, food and wine. I couldn't find anything negative, although the bar-b-que tent that was serving "Texas Bar-b-que" was from a restaurant in DC. I was amazed to see all the Texans walking around in their burnt orange or some other form of Texas representation. They had two tents with musicians playing, and when I heard the Tejano and country music, I got a lil' tear in my eye. I miss Texas more and more each day.

The country represented this year is Bhutan. Can you find it on a map? It is located very close to Tibet and Mount Everest. It was very interesting to see the culture, because it is not very well known. They built a replica of a Bhutanese temple that contained artwork. We never made it inside, because there was a huge line and it was really hot. The humidity was in full-force that day.

The culture that was represented was NASA. I know it does not seem like NASA is a culture, but if you had seen the set up they had, you would think differently. We saw many gidget and gadgets and a replica of the space station. It was pretty cool.

My New Toy

This is whitey, my new toy. The time finally came to get a new phone and switch over to AT&T with Atom. He switched last year and received an orange Treo. I had my eye on the Centro, but they had only been offered through Sprint. I'm glad my contract held out longer than my patience, because AT&T started offering it recently. I love this lil' devil. It is just like my old Treo, but new and improved. For instance, this lil guy is so much smaller and less bulky. There is no antennae and is almost as small as a deck of cards. It is that small and still has a full size keyboard. The keyboard on the centro has rubbery clear keys that make it easier for my fingernail to grip while typing. If I wanted to pay for it, I could have XM on my phone as well as MobiTV. Unlike most, I can survive without a television in front of me all day long. Smartphones have revolutionized my scatter-brained life. I don't think I could ever go back to a wussy little flip phone.

School's Out for Summer!

I now have the rest of the summer to enjoy myself! Summer session has ended, I'm pretty sure I pulled two A's, and I still have 2 months left to frolic in the summer heat. Next up on the calendar is 4th of July. We still do not have any plans yet. The weekend after that is Lebowskifest. I'll be reporting back with full details and photographic evidence.

I'm Like a Bird

learning to maneuver
Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

I finally got to cash in my gift card for Hang Gliding today. The dear hubby gave me hang gliding for Valentine's day. I had originally scheduled it for the end of May, but there was a storm that day and the flight was cancelled. I callled this morning and they told me to come on down, because it was a perfect day to fly. It took about two hours to get to Ridgely, Maryland. As we got closer to Highland Aerosports, we could see hang gliders soaring in the air. I have to admit that when I saw how high they were, I started to freak out a little. Once we got there and I saw that things were not as scary as they looked from a distance. My flight instructor was Adam (ironc..I know) and he was very re-assuring about the safety of the glider. We were up in the air before I could change my mind. We were towed by an ultra-light plane which took us to 2500 feet. There were quite a few thermals which helped us rise to 3200 feet. I had the opportunity to steer the glider and my instructor said I was a natural. We were up in the air for over twenty minutes and my instructor said I had the best tandem of the day. I think this may have helped me with my fear of flying (MAYBE). I would even consider doing this again in the future. It was amazing. Now Atom wants to try :) If you would like to see more pictures from my adventure, just click on the post title to go to the flickr link.

Time to Hang

Well it looks like the weather may be cooperative this weekend, which means the time has come to perform aerial acrobatics. I am scheduled to go hang gliding this Saturday, the 21st in upper Maryland. There is a 30% chance of storms, but I will not know for sure if I can fly until I call Saturday morning. The longer this keeps getting pushed back, the more my anxiety increases...so I am ready to get this flight over with. I am sure it will be an exciting and exhilarating experience, but the build-up is killing me! Wish me luck.

Our Weekend in ATL

This past weekend we were in Atlanta for my sister-in-law's wedding. She is no longer Ms. Shock, but Mrs. Aquillano...put that together and now we're the Shoquillano family. A good time was had by all! We pigged out on yummy food and washed it down with way too many white russians. We met our new brother-in-law's family and friends and they were a spectacular bunch. They were all very welcoming and made us feel like we'd known them for years. The wedding was beautiful; Almost as beautiful as the bride.


On Sunday, we headed over to the Georgia Aquarium. I am a fish/swimming mammal fan, and I have been wanting to go see this hyped-up fish bowl. It was a great aquarium. I'm not going to say the aquarium was the best I have ever seen, but the place was put together nicely. Any time I can see some Beluga whales and otters frolicking around, I've had a good day.



After the aquarium, we headed over to Papa Shock's house in Snellville to take him out to dinner. He picked Texas Roadhouse. I have to mention that places such as this, give us Texans a bad name. Sure the food was good, but do they have to subject us to the wait staff line dancing to the cheesy techno version of the cotton-eyed joe? Aside from the strong stereotyping of my native land, Chris, Atom, Papa Shock and I enjoyed our food.

We didn't stick around too long after dinner, because we had a long drive and the affects of digestion were about to make us fall asleep at the wheel. We got back to Atlanta and spend the rest of the evening hanging out with Scott, Anyess and the Mighty Quinn.


Quinn just happens to be one of the most spectacular babies we know. We hope to pop out a friend or future husband for her some time soon. We arrived home safely on Monday afternoon, just before DC was hit with a hellacious thunderstorm. We picked up Wunderdoggy Solace and then crashed hard. Friends, Family and Fish make any 4-day weekend great.

US Air Guitar

Last night, we went to the 2008 DC US Air Guitar competition. I had no idea how much fun I would have. We got to the 9:30 club around 7:45 and waited for the opening act. We saw some of the contestants wondering around, so we got a sneak peak at some of the outrageous outfits. The opening band was Tragedy. They are the world's best metal tribute band to the Bee Gees in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut tri-state area. From this point on, I will never listen to the Bee Gees unless it's being played by Tragedy. They were hilarious.


The air guitar contest started around 9:30. There were 21 contestants this year, which is an increase from last year. This means the word is spreading!



The winner from last night's competition will compete in San Francisco at the National Championship. The national winner then goes on to Finland for the World Air Guitar Championship. It has been won by Japan the past 2 years and the US wants to try and dominate. There were some very lame acts, some mediocre and some spectacular! The guy who won is a true professional. In the final round, the top 5 contestants each had to perform to "Ace of Spades" by Motorhead. It was Craig "Hot Lixx Hulahan" who stole the show. In his performance, he climbed to the top-most speaker, leaped down, landed, rolled and jumped up, going back in to air guitar assault mode, he then went to the front of the stage, and in the final moments kicked a drink out of someone's hand, splashing it all over us in the front row. It was glorious. Hot Lixx got a 6.0 from all three judges. A perfect score is something that doesn't happen very often, but he deserved all 18 points. Everyone after him, pretty much couldn't live up to his standards. He was awarded DC US Air Guitar Finalist.