Martin's Grocery Store in Eldersburg Burns Down!

Don't you love the rumor mill?  I subscribed to the Sykesville Freedom District Fire Department's page on Facebook, so I get updates when they post them.  And apparently others in my circle of friends subscribe to it also, because the rumor of the fire spread quickly.

Around 11am they posted that they were responding to smoke in Martin's in Eldersburg.  Later posts indicated that units from Carroll County, Howard County, and Baltimore County responded to put out an electrical fire.  I think at one point I saw that there were 11 apparatuses at the scene.

Then as the posts were shared, it was reported that there was a big fire in the store.  Then the roof collapsed.  Then the store burned down.  Then people were hurt.  Then the rumors ebbed back to reality, but the store was going to be closed for several days while the roof was repaired.  There was comments that the power was out for several hours and all of the refrigerated and frozen foods needed to be destroyed.

Later this evening, my wife went to Kohl's and said that there were people shopping at Martin's.  It's absolutely amazing that the store can burn down, then several hours later be totally rebuilt and restocked and open for business.  I LOVE the 21st century!

Pap-Pap's in Eldersburg Closed?

Have you noticed that Pap-Pap's is closed?  Someone left a message on my blog about it, so I drove by (about 2 weeks ago).  There's a sign on the door that says, "Sorry we're closed".

I'm not sure if this means they are closed right now, or they are closed permanently.  I can imagine a privately owned business like Pap'Pap's closing for a couple of weeks so that they can take their summer vacation.  But it's hard to tell if this is closed for good or closed for now.

Here's the inside of the store.  It's very barren, though they left the plaques on the wall from all of the sports teams they support.

I checked their website.  It is still up.  I then emailed them, but got no response.

Does anyone know the details?

Martin O'Malley Makes It Official

Martin O'Malley made it official the other day.  It's the news we all knew to be true.  In fact, we've known it to be true for a long time.  The speculation has been there for months, if not years.  Now there is no doubt.

O'Malley had not outright denied it in the past, but he has brushed it off as something that would evaluate and let us know later.  Some news journals have even ranked him against other politicians.  What were the possibilities?

Now - it's official.  Martin O'Malley is the biggest buffoon in the history of Maryland politics.

Oh, and in other news, Martin O'Malley announced that he is building the framework (re: collecting as much money as he can from suckers) for a possible run to run for President of the United States.  This also means that he'll be spending less time in Maryland as the governor.  You know, here in the state.  Taking care of Marylanders.  When instead he'll be gallivanting across the country trying to get his name out there.  Is he spending Marylander's taxes on travelling while he is governor building his "framework"?

Maybe that's a good thing - that he won't be here in the state.  That gives him less time to piss off the 1/3 of the state who lack appropriate representation in state-wide politics.

Casey Cares 5K at Camden Yards

My family got the opportunity to participate in the Casey Cares 5K this morning.  8am bright and early. It's always good to have fun with the organizations that supported us during my daughter's treatment for leukemia.

I think all runs in Baltimore City are at 8am instead of 9am now because of heightened security alert because of the Boston Marathon Bombing.  As everyone knows, by moving a competition run back an hour, the terrorists will oversleep and cancel their plans.  Because they're going after little-known races.  This is clearly a case of the Baltimore City Police feeling that they have to do something in response to the terrorist attack, even if the response is totally ridiculous.

So, regardless of the heightened security alert, we go to hang out at Camden Yards for a bit.  Keith Mills was the MC for introductions.  He sounds as Glen Burnie in person as he does on the radio.  But that's what we love about Keith Mills.  After the race, Keith was down on the field with the runners.  I was next in line to get my picture taken holding the Casey Cares home plate when Keith nearly walked behind the guy in front of me getting his picture taken.  I said, "Hey, Keith - photobomb him!"  He turned and looked with a scowl on his face.  I guess he didn't find it as funny as I did.

Here is Keith Mills interviewing WBAL radio personality Robert Lang, not to be confused with the former Washington Capital of the same name.  Nick Markakis and his wife Christina and their two kids were on hand to thank all of the people for participating.  I forgot to take a picture of them.

Robert Lang is here in front of me filming the family whose son was the ambassador of the event.

Apparently not a lot of people understand race protocol.  If you think about it for 0.2 seconds, you'd realize that the faster runners ought to be in the front, and the walkers and fatties should be near the back.  First the 5 minute milers, then the 6 minutes milers, etc...  I'm in the 8 minute milers section.  It took several minutes to wind my way through the herds of people not adhering to this protocol.  

Once I finally broke free near Light Street, it was nice running.  It's mostly flat, though with the occasional trolley rail line or cobblestone street.  I passed the 1/2 mile point at 3:58, which is nice for me.  We then passed Federal Hill, then made a U-turn on Key Highway near some condos.  We then zig-zagged though the neighborhoods around Federal Hill and South Baltimore before finally crossing the West Hamburg Street bridge, then into the parking lot at Orioles Park at Camden Yards, then through the tunnel and out onto the field.

I think my time was around 25 minutes.  I was too focused on getting to the finish line and not running into anyone to see my time.  Then I forgot to turn off my running app to see the time.  I finally remembered a minute or so later, which said 26 minutes and some seconds.

Overall, it was a great event.  The temperate was not that bad and we had a few sprinkles, but to a runner, that's nice!  Thank you, Casey Cares, Keith Mills, and Nick Markakis for supporting this event!

O'Malley Raising Money For Unspecified Potential Federal Campaign Sometime in the Future

Can Maryland Governor and superfly rockstar Martin O'Malley be any more ambiguous in his recent announcement about raising money?  It seems like everyone knows what he is doing, but he refuses to say what it is.

You may remember that Owe'Malley became the Mayor of Baltimore and its crime back in 1999 when he won the primary against Carl Stokes, current member of the Baltimore City Council, and Lawrence Bell, both of whom destroyed their own campaigns by getting into an idiocy fight during a televised debate.  Martin O'Malley wisely sat there and said little.  Unfortunately, he now says and does too much.

This week Martin "Raising Your Taxes" O'Malley announced that he has raised nearly $500,000 for an unspecified federal campaign sometime in the future.  We all know he wants to run for President, especially if Hillary Clinton doesn't wreck him like she did the integrity of the ambassador's office in Libya.  Will O'Malley meet some thugs in a dark alley that convince him not to run for office?  (Hi, Doug Duncan!)

The Washington Post identified some of O'Malley's donors.  Who says that political payola (pay to play) is illegal or dead?  It's alive and thriving in America and Maryland.

John Coale - this was the most interesting donor on the list.  He's the husband of right-wing Fox News host Greta Van Susteren who talks out of the side of her mouth.  It reminds me of the husband and wife combo of James Carville, the entertaining high-strung left-wing whackadoodle who worked with Bill Clinton and is on the liberal Sunday talk shows to criticize Republicans about everything from their strategy to create jobs to the way they breathe, and his wife Mary Matalin, a moderate Republican consultant to former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

William Dockser - he's a member of the Maryland Port Commission.  He was appointed by Martin "I Can Be Protected By Guns But You Can't" O'Malley in 2007.  Pay back?

David and Pam Zaslav - David is the President and CEO of Discovery Communications (Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC, etc..).  The Maryland-based Discovery Communications tags the Guv in their blog all the time.  They also have one of my all-time favorite pictures of Marty.  Check this out.  Everyone look at the camera.....except you O'Malley.  You look over there instead.

David Gelfand - , a Washington, D.C.-based anti-trust trial lawyer.  I'm suspicious of this one.  What are they up to?  Gonna bust up Google?  Do they want to destroy Wall Street?

With O'Malley starting to ramp of his focus on a future run for an unspecified federal-level office, we can only assume he will be paying less attention to the state he purportedly governs right now.