...and things have been relatively sedate around here for a while. Denise and I had dinner with my mother on Thursday night at a restaurant I picked out called Corduroy, a hotel restaurant at a Four Points Sheraton downtown in the District. Hotel restaurants are usually pretty mediocre, but I got a recommendation for this one from the Washingtonian, which said it was pretty good. It was. Very good.
Today, Denise and I ventured forth to Pentagon City to check on some electronic equipment and to get her bracelet repaired. I typically avoid shopping malls in December -- I've been doing it for so long that I had completely forgotten why I hate it so much. It is a damn zoo out there. Jeez!
Anyway. We did some window shopping, got her bracelet repaired, then stopped off at Giant on the way home to pick up some supplies. We're going to try for a quiet, home-cooked, candlelit dinner this evening, with some soothing music (probably Steve Roach) to go along with it. I'm sure everything will go well, with the possible exception of the tater tots -- those can't be microwaved, so I'm going to take a stab at pan-frying them in oil. Wish me luck. :-)
Giant was also predictably crowded and included the usual gang of idiots, including one little girl in the checkout line who said, four times in a row, "I'm looking for Vanilla Pepsi." There was also an elderly lady in the bake section who said that there was only one kind of bread she ever ate, and if Giant didn't have it, she'd die. Afterward, Denise told me that we were both fortunate that our autism isn't so pronounced that we took her literally.
In other news... I was doing a search today on when I can expect to see the fifth season of Babylon Five on DVD. Looks like there's no date announced as of yet, but in searching, I discovered that there are "Easter Eggs" on the Bab 5 DVDs that I already have. Seasons Two and Three include blooper reels, including some really funny outtakes. One gag, in particular, sticks in my mind: there's a scene where Morden is being held in a prison cell, and Sheridan is watching him on the monitor. Sheridan turns to the monitor to look at Morden, then turns away to speak to Lyta Alexander (off camera). He shakes his finger at the monitor and says, as he does in the episode, "Every record we have says that that man is supposed to be dead!" Ed Wasser, who plays Morden, then clutches at his chest, feigning a heart attack, and keels over. The crew and everyone else on the set immediately starts roaring, and Boxleitner looks around in puzzlement, not knowing what was going on since he wasn't facing the monitor at the time. "Huh? What?"
This has kind of got me curious as to which of my other DVDs, if any, also have Easter Eggs... I'll bet at least a few of them do. I'll have to do some more searches.
More later... for now, I'm trying to win a copy of "Pirates of the Caribbean" on eBay, and I want to keep an eye on my auction.
Posted by Zathras at December 13, 2003 07:22 PMmy friend dave works as a cashier at giant - he has a gazillion stories
Posted by: shaw at December 13, 2003 11:59 PMHmmm - the pepsi and bread incidents could be auties with rigid tastes in food. :) Nah - probably just cranky NT's :)
Good luck with the tater-tots. When I fry anything, I use a "grease sheild" or "spatter shield" - it is a round flat grating with a handle that you place over the pan that is frying the food, and it prevents the grease from spattering all over the kitchen (and you).
About the Xmas crowds - I have seen actual fist fights erupt in stores during the holiday rush. Then again, I am close to NYC...
Posted by: Matt at December 14, 2003 12:49 PM