December 7th, or possibly the first Thursday of December, marks the time when Baltimore’s DPW gets out the old holiday lights and strings them up on the Washington Monument. You might be thinking: “I thought the Washington Monument was in DC?” Well, you thought wrong! That two-toned obelisk is actually a knock-off monument. Even worse, it was knocked off by the very same architect who designed our beloved scepter-esque tower to the north. Did this man know no shame? Apparently not!

Perhaps stemming from this lack of recognition, Baltimore lights up the monument so it can be seen from far and wide. This year it seems that there are some new lights, because a number of bulbs were out last year. No such problem this time around. Anyway, fireworks get shot, suprisingly enjoyable bad music gets played, historic buildings get toured and butts get frozen.

In an unrelated event, Joey is very interested in what is going on in this drawer.

(Generally, I’ll try to avoid posting pictures of Joey, as it is a good rule of thumb that photos of your pet are only cute to you. Thanks for humoring me!)