What are all these young males doing on street corners?

The ice storm came. As Davey and I went out to get some food, we could hear the ice pattering down on the trees, the cars, the pavement, the people. It was different. The car was encased in ice. After being in the store for an hour, the car was completely encased in ice again. I've never experienced this. It's not hail, it's neither rain, nor snow....could this be the elusive sleet that I've heard so much about but never believed really existed?

Additionally, I was in B-More for a meeting and for the first time in my big city experience, I had the opportunity to observe large groups of young males hanging out on street corners in hooded coats. It's as intimidating as the movies portray it. The combination of large groups of idle males, the knowledge of B-more being the heroin capital of the US, the really cool architecture, the inferiority complex of being stuck between DC and Philly, their bold pronouncement of being one of the World's (yes, the world) Most Improved Cities (the rest of the list is comprised of foreign dangrous cities like Capetown), their obsession with crabs, and the fact that a BayArea guy like Adam Duritz sang about rain in Baltimore makes the city so so so so so so so messed up. And cool. What was Adam Duritz doing in B-more anyway? Anyone there could have spotted those fake dreads and he would have been head first in the bay with a shiv in his kidney.

We just finished watching the second season of Arrested Development which means we've watched all three seasons (although these seasons were missing episodes with Maggie the prosecutor, meaning there are still some episodes out there that we've seen on cable but not on the DVDs). Hmmm. The show kills me. Just kills me. Absolutely fantastic. I think my all time favorite moments are Gob's magic shows where he plays "The Final Countdown" by Europe. Buster functioning as his assistant usually just adds to it. Even the bits that get replayed kill me: The "chicken" dances of the siblings, Gene Parmesan appearances, Bob LaBlah, Oscar's constant allusions to being Buster's father, Buster's hookhand...scenes with the hookhand are genius, especially with him and Oscar ex. When he first gets the hook and starts massaging Oscar and severs a tendon.