G: Wow,
it kinda looks like we've gone to an every-other-week format, by
accident or forgetfulness. Well, I don't know what this means, but
onward.
On Friday May 30 we went to a funeral in the morning. It
was a particularly sad event; our neighbor and friend's teenage son
died. We feel absolutely terrible for the family and friends. The young
man lived here in our court until a couple of years ago, and he was
extremely polite and courteous, and seemed like a very kind person.
We
got up pretty early and went in a big van with some other Greenbelters
to VA for the funeral and burial service. When we got home John went to
work and I took a nap.
Later that evening I went over to Renée
and Alex's to go with them and Renée's cousin Justine to Silver Spring.
We met a boatload of people at
Piratz Tavern
for dinner. As you may have guessed, it's a pirate-themed restaurant
with hundreds of piratey decorations everywhere. We were a little early
but there was a couple there at a long table already. We waited to
order for the rest of the party to arrive, and that took a while. I
think there were about 16 in all, many of who I had met at The
Gathering. The wait staff was pretty good about getting everyone drinks
but then the waitress seemed to think that's all we wanted and it took
a while to get to order food. But once we did it came fairly quickly.
The vegan corn curry soup was good, as was the tavern greens (with
"smoked mushrooms;" but they meant "a single small smoked mushroom.").
While not outrageously priced, you are paying for atmosphere and these
dishes did not a dinner make. However I wasn't going to order again and
scored some of Renées potatoes.
Anyway, I chatted with Justine
and that was fun. We've both been to Japan so we talked about that a
little. We were at the restaurant a long time, then went over to the
Majestic for some movies. Renée and I met Izolda, Petra, and Cora at
Sex and The City (for opening night). Alex and Justine saw Forgetting
Sarah Marshall (Justine had to save her SATC viewing for when she got
back to NYC with a friend). We had fun. But by the end of that long
movie (during which I had to pee and didn't go, of course), I couldn't
believe I'd been to a funeral that morning, it felt like two days.
The
next day we went to a hospital to visit John's mom Toni who was
recovering from a knee replacement. We spent about 3 hours there,
having a nice time with her. Then we had a late lunch at The Vegetable
Garden. I tried something new on the menu and it was really good. It
was called Fantasy Garden, I think, and had every kind of fake meat in
it. And they were all really tasty. John got the old standby, Curry
Pond, which is awesome except it has okra in it.
Later that
night (after a nap) we went to Renée and Alex's for a game party.
Actually I went and Dave picked up John and Chris and they went to EJ's
Landing for another $5 comedy contest. John texted me that it was
better than the last one and Dorian and Amethyst were there so they
stayed for the whole thing and showed up at RnA's later.
Justine
was still in town and the party was held partially so she could meet
and hang out with RnA's friends. Many games were played, including DDR,
and a party game called
Who?
What? Where? that was loads of fun. We played with
whos, whats and wheres that we
made up, without a timer, not the boxed version. Try it! You'll like
it! Hey Mikey!
That
Sunday I went to my studio for Artful Afternoon, and then we didn't go
to a party we were invited to because we were just feeling like
chilling out at home. We watched a movie.
Thursday the first
Franklin's ride of the season was held. It was only me, John, and
Dorian, and we almost didn't go because of threat of thunderstorms.
After going back and forth for a while, we decided to go for it, and
had a lovely ride. Noelle met us there, and a little later so did Jsun
and Lisa. We had a great time.
Friday we went to Artomatic to
see Craig's List: The Musical. It was silly fun. Then we went to First
Friday at Tom's house. That was also fun. Tom's birthday and Gary's
return were being celebrated, and I got a piece of delicious chocolate
vegan cake. Also, mojitos.
Saturday evening we went to celebrate
Elena's birthday with her at The Vegetable Garden. We hadn't gone there
in months and months and then twice in little more than a week. There
were a lot of people there and we all ordered something different and
shared. That was really awesome. I got to try many many dishes that I
would probably never order and discovered I liked a few quite a bit.
The only problem is overall these dishes are higher in sodium than I
normally eat. They taste great, but then I feel swollen for a day or
two afterwards.
Most of the party drifted off to go to Glen Echo
for dancing, but we hung around a bit longer with Laura and Pat and had
lots of laughs chatting. Another storm was brewing outside, and our
area has been hit with many big storms lately leaving folks without
electricity for days. We've been fortunate enough to have kept ours so
far. It's also been dreadfully hot and humid for a few days and the air
conditioning has kept life tolerable.
Except when it doesn't
work. On Sunday we walked Katy down to the Center in the heat for the
first day of the Greenbelt Farmer's Market. We didn't get there until
1/2 hour before it was closing so we missed out on most things. However
our fridge is quite full and we didn't really need anything anyway.
When
I got home I had a message that one of the air conditioning units at
the studio had leaked a lot of water and some of my things had gotten
wet. So I went down there to see what I could do. The arts coordinator
(Nicole) and my studio mate (Mary) had moved my stuff out of the way
and had rescued something I call a treasure - a huge textured wall
paper book from a home decorating store (good for making cool textures
on clay!). It had gotten pretty wet, but it turned out that even though
the pages are absorbent, they are still vinyl and held up to the
soaking. I spent some time wiping them down and more time and home
drying it out in various ways.
I took a break from that to paint a
onesie
for Diana (the studio manager)'s baby shower. I painted a tomato on it.
Nicole supplied onesies and paint. Sweetness. And I even did some clay
work while I was there.
When I got home John had prepared a
salad bar, so I ate that and then went to dance night at RnA's.
However, I found when I arrived that the air conditioning in the
ballroom was broken, and it was HOT in there. So, I danced a little
less than usual, but still had a great time.
John
and Rich and I
rode to Franklin's Brew Pub last night for Happy Hour. Met Noelle and
Mike there, then TVTom and Gary showed up, too. We had quite an
evening. People were starting to think about going once Noelle and Mike
left, but then we stayed another half hour or so, and left around 8pm.
A thunder and lightning storm was to the south, but it didn't really
seem like it was coming at us until part way through the ride. Before
it started raining, John and I ducked into the 94th Aero Squadron. Rich
pushed on ahead. It started to pour less than a minute after we got
inside. A few minutes later we got a text from him saying
"holy
poop! [except he used another word] Made it to my office." But I bet he
was soaked.
He texted us that he made it
home during a lull (that we never saw), but we'd ordered dinner by
then. We waited for the storm to pass, but I was impatient, as I had
been
developing a headache, and I was cold in the air conditioning, and I
was bored sitting there, and I just wanted someone to come and get us.
I got some pain reliever from the bar and also rescued a firefly
(taking it outdoors). But right around 10 the storm lifted and we just
rode home. It was dark and our headlamps aren't very bright, and it was
hard to see the sticks in the path, and John took a spill over one of
them, but landed okay on the soggy grass. His chain came off and he put
it back on. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. But never easy!