Hello to all, and a happy Independence Day to everyone for whom that makes much of a difference (it doesn't to me, much... perhaps it would if I thought we lived in a country that truly had "liberty and justice for all". I don't, but that's a separate entry.)
Denise and I had dinner on Tuesday night with my mother at a small French restaurant in Old Town Alexandria, which is a neat place to visit but a tad on the pricey side... otoh, my mother was paying, so what they hey. :^) I wanted to have dinner at Bilbo Baggins, which is a really neat restaurant, but they were hosting some kind of huge event, so we had to give it a miss. The food was fantastic -- Denise and Annette both had the crab ravioli, and I had the lamb shanks, and of course we did the dancing forks thing. For dessert, I had the vanilla and chocolate mousse cake, Annette had the fruit crepes, and Denise had mango sorbet, which I just had to take a photo of when it came. If you look at the photo of Denise's dessert, you'll see why I had to immortalize it on film. Or, in this case, on a CCD.
All in all, it was a rather pleasant evening... Denise and Annette had another opportunity to get to know each other, the food was great, and Denise also got to learn some funny stories from my childhood, such as the time my idiot father cut down a tree in our yard and destroyed our neighbor's pool. :-) On the way back to the Metro, we saw some fireflies, which Denise had never seen before and found very intriguing. Annette also took this photo of me and Denise as part of the evening's festivities.
On Thursday afternoon, to celebrate the beginning of the three-day weekend, Denise and I met at Union Station around a quarter to five. We did some window shopping, had dinner at The Station Grill, dropped in the Discovery Channel Store and said hello to my old classmate Larry again, and did a bit more window shopping, stopping in at two of my favorite stores, Illuminations and Appalachian Spring (web site still under construction). We then went to see "Hulk", which was very good although not outstanding. In addition to the usual type of stuff you'd expect, there were some genuinely funny moments... one good one was where The Hulk destroys a tank, then breaks off its cannon and begins walking around with it as a club, lightly tapping it against one hand as he stalks the next tank. Stan Lee (the DC creator of "The Hulk") and Lou Ferrigno (who played "The Hulk" in the TV series back in the late Seventies) also have a brief cameo together as a little nod-and-wink to superhero enthusiasts.
The theater goers, as usual, were quite rude -- they always are at Union Station -- but they actually pretty much shut up about twenty minutes or so into the film after another theater goer loudly yelled, "Hey, quiet down, man! Please!" The crowd was much larger than I'd have thought it would be, too, even for a weekend night -- the movie's been out for a couple of weeks now, but it's still getting pretty solid attendance, and the opening of "Terminator 3" apparently hasn't detracted from that very much. Anyway, Denise and I got home at about 11, spent a little time checking our email and the like, then tumbled off to bed.
Today has been fairly uneventful so far. We diddled around the house for a while, then left for The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City to have lunch at Ruby Tuesday's. The food was mediocre, but that was to be expected at that kind of place. We had a good meal together, marred only briefly by the fact that we had a window seat, and two young children got it into their heads to come over to window and stand there watching us eat. I yelled at them to go away and waved them off, shooing them... they didn't seem to get the message at first, but eventually I got thru to them.
We then headed across the street to Border's to have some chai tea and continue our pontifications about everything and everything, including passing each other some notes on Denise's Clié. After finishing our tea, I picked up a tin to take home with us, and we spent a bit of time wandering around the store, both together and separately, before deciding to return to the peace and quiet of the apartment. On the 4th of July, the entire city becomes an absolute zoo, and it was already getting pretty nutso as we were on our way home at about 6 PM. Everyone seems to be wondering why Denise didn't want to go to downtown DC tonight to see the fireworks. Everyone except me and Annette, because we've both done it. *grin* Yes, the show is great, and the fireworks are nice, but the event is about as autie-unfriendly as any venue could possibly be.
I think the plan for the evening is to stay home for some peace and quiet and rest up. Denise and I are going to Blair Mansion tomorrow night for a murder mystery/dinner theater thing. I've never done that before, but it sounds like fun. Story to follow, along with photos if they allow photography.
Posted by Zathras at July 4, 2003 08:41 PM"On the way back to the Metro, we saw some fireflies, which Denise had never seen before and found very intriguing."
I once freaked a guy from California out by taking him to the park in Louisville, Kentucky. There were hundreds and hundreds of lightning bugs and he said, "what the heck are all those lights?" I said, "lightning bugs." and he said, "you mean fireflies? I've read about those but never saw one!"
I grew up with tons of them around. We used to catch them at night and put them in jars. Now that I think about it, there aren't any here in Idaho, either. It must be too arid out here for them.
At least there aren't any mosquitoes out here, either. The chain stores like WalMart put out tons of citronella and OFF and I just laugh at corporate sending all that stuff out here where there aren't any mosquitoes to ward away. It just sits on the shelf for the most part (except for people planning trips out of the region.)
I guess I can live happily without lightning bugs if the trade off is that I don't have to endure mosquitoes.
Posted by: Sparrow at July 9, 2003 09:15 PM