Tag: entertainment

There will come soft rains

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Hannah hit Saturday early afternoon with lots of rain and wind, but not much of anything else.  It was a lazy day for us.  We didn’t sleep in late, but we took a lengthy nap in the middle of the day.  It was pleasant listening to the rain pound on the roof and wind whip through the rafters.  In the morning, I actually sat through 1-1/2 hours of VH1 Classics watching "Totally 80s" videos.  About the best video I saw was Def Leppard’s "Armegeddon It".  About the only thing I actually did during the day was fill my car up with gas.

Lazy, lazy, lazy, and then, around 7 PM (after the rains had stopped and the skies had mostly cleared up), we headed over to Pentagon City to pick up AJ and Denisse.  We headed to Shirlington, where we had dinner at Capital City Brewery.  We then walked to the movie theater to see the 9:10 PM showing of Vicky Kristina Barcelona.  Something about the introduction made me think it was a Woody Allen movie, and sure enough, it was.  It featured Scarlet Johansson, which was a plus, but it also set a personal record for me.

It was the first Woody Allen movie I’ve ever seen that I really didn’t like.

This lead to minor controversy after the film.  I tried to explain what bothered me about the film.  The characters didn’t really change, for one thing.  They ended up exactly where they started off.  I didn’t like the narrator.  It seemed like the narrator should have been Woody Allen, but it wasn’t.  Furthermore, the narrator’s dialog read like a Hemingway novel, with these terse sentences that seemed to talk down to the audience.  All of the performances (including, yes, Scarlet’s) were muted, and the best performance was provided by Javier Bardem.  As is often the case when I don’t like something, I’m sure it’s more my failings than the films.  Nevertheless, I really didn’t like this one.

After the movie, we headed back to our place and sat around chatting until almost 1 AM.  I took AJ and Denisse back to the metro station and when I got back home, we went to bed.

House guests and meetings

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Got home just after 4 PM yesterday and vacuumed the entire house, took out the trash and recycling, and tidied up a bit. Carmen arrived just as I was about to pick up Kelly. I dashed up to Pentagon City while Carmen waited patiently at the new place. When we got back home, we gave Carmen a tour of the new house. Shortly thereafter, Leanna arrived, and finally Jen. Carmen brought us a bottle of wine and Jen came bearing cupcakes from Cakelove. We sat around talking, drinking beer, having a good time. We ordered some pizzas and ate them, and also had some of the cupcakes that Jen brought over. Around 9 PM, everyone headed home. It was a lot of fun. Kelly and I watched another episode of Dexter before heading off for bed. I had some trouble falling asleep, so I went downstairs and read another chapter in The Science of Science Fiction Writing.

Up this morning before 6 AM. Today is Kelly’s Friday off (she gets every other Friday off because she works 9 hour days). That’s a good thing because we have more guests coming in for the weekend. Kelly’s parents should arrive sometime late this afternoon. rubysnina, he11o_sunshine, and stubiebrother get in around 10:30 tonight.

Normally, Friday’s are relatively quiet days in the office. Not today. Somehow, I managed to get wrangled into meetings for the majority of the day. The first one is at 11:30 AM and after that I’m stuck in meetings until 4 PM. Odd for a Friday.

Monday evening

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Kelly met me after work and we went home together. She’s still sick (she stayed home today) and when get got back to the house, she went right to bed and slept for a few hours.

I got my bike back together and then took it out for a test-drive. I rode up Army-Navy drive to the country club and then turned around and came back. I had a headwind on the way, plus it is a gradual climb, so it was more of a workout than I expected. Also, I still need to do some adjusting of the rear brakes. But the bike is now fit for road travel and anytime, I can start riding to work.

Kelly had eggs and beans for dinner and I had French Bread Pizza, which did not really fall into the “no carbs” category. Also, I noticed after that the last remaining piece of French bread had a little mold on it. I guess it wasn’t enough to hurt me, but it creeped me out a bit.

When Kelly woke up, we passed the evening watching a few episodes of Dexter on Showtime HD On Demand. Kelly frames some more photographs and put them up in the family room, so that, between the mantle and the coffee table, we have a ton of pictures on display.

Got a “Save the Date” magnet from Lauren. I was in such a fog yesterday that when I stuck it on the fridge, I didn’t even look to see what the “date” was. I have no idea.

Late night. Got to bed sometime after 11 PM and up this morning around 6:30. Kelly is still sick. She decided to take the day off today, which I think was a good idea. She can use the rest to try and get better.

Poker night and productive Saturday

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We were out late last night, at Todd and Jen’s for our second poker night. We arrived there right about 8:30 and we left 4 hours later, after once again losing at poker night. This time I think I was 4th out, out of 7. Jen won and Karl came in second. It was a lot of fun and we’ve decided to do a poker night on the first Friday of each month. Next month we’re doing it at our place.

Didn’t get to bed until after 1 AM and then I was up around 7 AM in order to do some chores before heading to my 8:30 Saturn appointment. I went to Saturn of Alexandria for the first time. The purpose of the appointment was to get my Virginia safety inspection and emissions test. The whole thing took about 2 hours. My car passed inspection with 1 adjustment. Apparently, my horn was not loud enough for VA state requirements. It had to be replaced. The inspections cost $44 and the horn replacement $200. Go figure. But I really didn’t have a choice if I want to register my car in Virginia.

After the inspection, I drove up to Rivedale to pick up a bunch of cat food I’d ordered for Zeke. 2-16 lbs bags and 2 cases of wet food. I came back here. Kelly had put together the office/guest room and the house is essentially in good order, one week after we moved in. We took my bike to a bike shop near Kelly’s old place and I had a full tune-up done. Cost me $200 but it includes new tires, a new lock, and new bike computer (speed, mileage, etc.) They’ll call me sometime this week to come pick up the bike and then I can start riding to work.

Early this evening, we went to the Pentagon City Mall to see if we could get Kelly her new phone, but they were out of iPhones until tomorrow. She returned some clothes, and then we headed over to Potomac Yard in order to see the 5:20 PM showing of The Dark Knight. I thought it was good, though not quite as good as the last one. Also, it seemed to go on a little too long.

After the movie (during which it had poured!) we stopped at Target and then Giant, and finally headed home. I made Macaroni and Cheese for dinner. Kelly added steamed broccoli, and I had a baked potato.

It was a productive day. We’re having AJ and Denisse over tomorrow. Possibly Sarah, too.

Productive Saturday

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We got off to a productive start to our day. First, we headed over to the bank, hauling a bunch of change that I had collected. We used the change machine and when all was said and done, we got more than $160 for the change. After that, we headed to Goodwill where we dropped up a bunch of stuff that we were donating to charity. From there we headed to the Pentagon City Mall where I got some new gym socks and new gym shorts (and where I also picked up my gym back and dirty gym clothes which I accidentally left at work over the weekend.)

Having been productive, we headed back to Kelly’s and then walked up the street to Baja Fresh, where we had lunch. We went back to Kelly’s and lazed around for a while, napping and finally collected the rest of the laundry and both headed to my house (in separate cars).

Kelly started laundry and then we headed up to Greenbelt to walk around the lake. From there, we headed over to Prince George’s Plaza and caught the 7:30 PM showing of Hancock, which turned out to be a fun movie that we both enjoyed (despite the mixed reviews that it received). When the movie was over, we headed to the Outback for a late (for us) dinner, and finally back home.

I have an Orioles game tomorrow.

Independence Day

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Today was the first time since living in the D.C. area that I actually went to the National Mall to watch the fireworks. Kelly and I headed over to her place around noon. We took care of a few things there (and I managed a nice nap) and then, around 3 PM, we headed over to Sarah’s house for an Independence Day BBQ. It was a lot of fun.

There were 10 or 12 people at the house. We hung out, drinking beer, eating chips, listening to music. And the BBQ was excellent as well. Burgers, brat, pork, potato salad. It was all delicious. Eventually, we played flip cup, guys vs. girls (except that Kelly was on the guys team) and boy did we blow the girls away. I think we only lost two rounds. That was a lot of fun too.

Around 8:30, we all headed out toward the Capitol building. The streets and sidewalks were crowded with people, but it was a festive atmosphere. Eventually, we found a spot west of the reflecting book in front of the Capitol (and not more than 50 yards away from some massive cannons that kept firing in tune to the “1812 Overture”). Sometime after 9 PM, the fireworks started. We were somewhere around 1/2 mile away but we still managed to get a good view of most of them. And we had the band behind us supplying music. It was a lot of fun.

We walked back to Sarah’s afterward and watched as fireworks (big and small) were launched from the street in front of her house. Sometime around 11 PM, Kelly and I decided to call it a night and headed back to her place.

Weekend update

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We had a busy day on Saturday and a less busy day on Sunday. We were up early on Saturday. We were supposed to go to Annapolis with AJ and Dennise, but I had a message from them in the morning saying that they wouldn’t be able to go.

First order of business was getting to the bank to open a joint account. We were at the bank 15 minutes after it opened and it somehow took over an hour to get our account setup. That seemed a bit excessive to me, but at least that’s done.

Next, we cleaned out a good portion of Kelly’s storage area, throwing some stuff away and setting aside other stuff for donation. We then headed over to the donation site and dropped off a carload of stuff.

Then it was off to my house for a quick stop, and then on to Annapolis. We had lunch at Buddy’s. After lunch we decided to walk to the site of a restaurant that is a potential location for our rehearsal dinner. The walk was about a mile but it was a pleasant one. We walked back and decided to stop into the Calvert House to take a few pictures. From there, we walked to another hotel where we reserved a block of rooms in order to see what it was like.

We left Annapolis and headed back toward home, with two brief detours. First, we stopped at Costco to look at flat panel TVs. We found one we think we like, and I need to ask around a bit about it’s features, knowing little about what to look for. I made some notes. While there, I found that HBO’s miniseries John Adams had been released to DVD and I bought it. David McCullough’s book, John Adams is perhaps the single best piece of non-fiction I’ve ever read, so I was anxious to see how the miniseries was done. Finally, there was some grocery shopping and we called it a day.

Sunday I was craving pancakes and we went to IHOP for breakfast. I surprised myself by demolishing in minutes my plate of strawberry banana pancakes, sickly sweet though they were. After breakfast we went for a walk around the lake and then decided to head out to Bowie to do some shopping. I got new hiking shoes, to replace the ones I got 4 years ago, the bottoms of which had worn flat. I also got a new shirt for our engagement photo shoot on Wednesday. On the way there, I saw an accident happen. First I saw it happen before it happened, then I watched in anxiety as it happened. We were stopped in some traffic and there was an intersection without a light. I don’t block intersections so I stopped before the intersection, leaving a gap for cars to make turns through. A minivan approached from ahead and made a left turn into the space we’d left in front of us. I assumed he’s slow to to check cross traffic in the lane next to us. I glanced at my side mirror and saw an SUV barreling down the lane. In that instant, I knew there was going to be an accident. The minivan crossed in front of us and never stopped, never looked. The SUV had no chance–it broadsided the minivan. It didn’t look as bad as I though it would, but it got my adrenaline going. The driver of the minivan was an idiot as far as I am concerned.

Kelly headed home around 1 PM or so and I spent much of the rest of the day watching the remaining episodes of John Adams. It was spectacular. It did both the book and the reputation of HBO films justice.

And Sunday evening, we confirmed that we have an officiant for our wedding.

41 hours

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I set a personal record by going 41 hours without sleep. After work yesterday, Kelly and I went out with another friend to see Sex and the City. It was a 7:10 PM show and I remember seeing the movie just fine. But I remember almost nothing thereafter. Kelly tells me we walked home, I took a shower and then went to bed–and that would have been sometime around 10:30 PM. But I don’t remember. I got an amusing “drunk dialed” voice mail from Carmen last night and Kelly says I listened to it last night, but as far as I know, the first time I heard it was this morning.

I slept for around 10 hours and it was great.

We were up this morning around 8 or 8:30, and we both headed to the gym. I did a 30 minute cardio workout, pushing a little harder than usual because I knew it would be only 30 minutes.

Kelly and Sarah have just left to go dress shopping. They’ll be back in a few hours. Meanwhile, we have the dinner cruise this afternoon at 3 PM. And the temperatures in the metro D.C. area today are expected to be 105 (with the heat index) and 110(!) tomorrow.

Movie night

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After a long, tough day at work, Kelly and I decided to take a night off and go to the movies. We headed over to the Balston Mall to see Indiana Jones. It was a blast. The movie didn’t take itself seriously, which was great because it made it even more fun. Even the very first shot in the movie poked fun at itself, which set the tone for the rest of the film. We both had a great time and thought the movie was a lot of fun.

My landlord took some people to look at the house last night while I was away. They seem very interested and so it looks as though he has people to take over the rent as of August 1, meaning I can be released from the last month of my lease. Have I said what a cool guy my landlord is?

He did discover a bird’s nest in the vent for the dryer on the side of the house. When I get home this evening, I need to pull it out because, apparently, it is a fire hazard of some kind.

Another busy weekend coming up. Dad comes to town for his first O’s game of the season. He arrives tomorrow evening. Kelly’s brother and nephew will also be in town this weekend. Lots to do!

Lazy Wednesday evening

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We had a really lazy evening last night. Kelly got home from work and we sat on the couch for five hours doing very little. We watched TV, mostly switching between the Yankees game and the Travel Channel, where we were amused by a show, “Disney on a Dime”. After that, we watched an episode from the first season of House before we finally went to bed.

Heard from Rich, who made it safely to Balad. More on that in the next post.

We have our first softball game of the season this afternoon. If the weather cooperates.

May Day

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Kelly put on Futurama (the movie) last night around 8 PM and tried as I might, I couldn’t make it through it. I fell asleep something like 40 minutes into the thing. When we finally went to bed, we were kept up by the noise of moving furniture in the next apartment. Given that it was April 30, I figured someone was moving out. It seemed to last until around midnight or so.

Luckily, I could sleep in this morning and I was into the office around 8:30 AM. Busy day today, writing SQL code. My grandboss was in the office too and hosted a luncheon for our group. We had a fire drill this morning. I had a “tip” that it was coming so I pulled out my softball mitt and a ball and when we all marched over to the gathering area as part of the drill, I had something to keep me occupied for the 15 minutes or so it took to count everyone. Turns out that the president of the company was in town. When I worked in Santa Monica, I was his assigned computer support guy and I hadn’t seen him in a while. I said hello, and since he’s a Red Sox fan, we talked baseball on the walk back to the office.

I had to walk home from the Metro station this evening because my car was at home (I drove Kelly’s car into work yesterday), but it was nice out–warm even. I called Rich and left him a message. Tricia told me he’s deploying to Iraq in about 3 weeks. He’d called the other night but I’d already gone to bed. I also called he11o_sunshine and we talked for a while.

Spent the rest of the evening watching episodes of the fifth season of The West Wing. I’ve only seen the 5th-7th seasons once and I was reminded of one of my favorite (and to be honest, one of the funniest) lines of the show. It’s when President Bartlett, ranting about the importance of scientific research says, “Have you seen these grant applications? Thank God they didn’t have these in Einstein’s day or goodness knows what E would have equaled.” I think that series was the last television show that had consistently brilliant writing. Even The Office, whose first three seasons were hysterically written, turned me off, more or less, with last week’s episode. I’m not even bothering to watch it tonight.

Besides, I should be writing. I should be getting back to the gym. I should, I should, I should.

What the heck’s the matter with me, anyway?

Mayday! Mayday!

Things are warming up

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I left the office at 4 PM yesterday, after a busy day, and headed over to Kelly’s, enjoying the walk from the metro station, down the hill to her house, because the air is finally getting warming around here. Eventually, we headed back up the hill for dinner, going to a place called Mexicali, which we thought was Mexican but might have been Salvadorian. Kelly had fish tacos and I had two shredded beef tacos and 1 chicken taco. It wasn’t bad. The guacamole wasn’t particularly good, but I’ll be in Southern California next week and plan on dining on good Mexican food a couple of times while I was there. On the other hand, they had $2 drafts, which was nice.

Earlier in the day, I picked up a copy of Juno on DVD as a little surprise for Kelly. I gave it to her yesterday when she got home from work, and then we watched the movie before going to bed. We’d both seen it before together when it was in theaters. Kelly saw it another time with a friend. Even on a second viewing, it was a great movie, with a great soundtrack.

I had a dream last night that I was having a bad allergic reaction to something and was breaking out in hives. I’m pretty sure I know what that dream was all about.

Got to sleep in this morning, which was nice. Two full nights of sleep in a row. It was warm already when we left for work. It’s supposed to be up in the 70s today and into the 80s tomorrow. Tomorrow, we’re planning to attend our first “outdoor” happy hour of the year.

548 pages through In Memory Yet Green. No writing yesterday.

Busy day at work today, I’ll be in meetings from 11 AM – 4 PM. Which means I won’t have time to get a whole lot done.