G: Is
it official? We seem to have gone to a once every two week update
cycle. My oh my, it could be true.
Way back on the 18th of July, Renee had a birthday, and Izolda had a
book release party. I gave Renee a card at the book release party that
had pictures of two red cheerleading pom poms on it, similar to the
ones we used when performing at the Al shows. I had ordered us each a
set but they hadn't arrived yet.
Izolda's
book release party was at Mayorga Coffee Factory. It was a
nice and funky place. There was lots of coffee, food, and desserts. We
saw lots of people we know and hung out for hours chatting with people.
Izolda was very happy with the turn out and invited whoever wanted to
come back to her office for more celebrating. About a dozen people did,
and there were more desserts and a cake for me since my birthday was
the next day. That was very sweet (and so was the cake).
On Saturday I don't think we did much (except Chris came to town, and I
turned 40. Forty. Forty years old.) until that evening when Nancy was
having a "July birthdays" party at her beau Craig's house in Cheverly.
We got there while there was still quite a bit of light and played a
bit of
corn hole.
Lori had set up a "make your own mojito" station which I used to make
many mojitos (most not even for me). A lot of people showed up and it
was a great, fun party, that went late into the night. Thanks for
coming if you did!
On Sunday I went to a baby shower for Diana (the pottery studio
manager) and Josh and the baby who'd arrived a bit early - Sofia. It
was a lovely little party and the baby was adorable. Later that evening
we went to La Tasca in Rockville and met some friends for a birthday
dinner with Renee. Afterwards we went to Alex and Renee's for a little
while and played Rock Band. Fun!
On Tuesday,
Code
Monkey arrived. He's a little stuffed monkey that's being
sent all over the country (and soon to Europe) visiting with fans of
Jonathan Coulton. I brought him with me most everywhere I went over the
next several days. He visited the pottery studio and "downtown" Old
Greenbelt that day.
Wednesday was the traditional birthday rollercoastering trip. Alex,
Renee, John, TVTom, and I all piled into Alex's car and drove to Busch
Gardens (soon to be
Inbev
Gardens?).
Now, going on long trips is getting trickier in this area. You
basically can't go anywhere anytime near rush hour without hitting
major delays. Since we decided to leave at 8am and didn't take off
until 8:30, there was a bit of discussion as to whether or not 95 south
would be the best way to go. An alternate route was suggested and
taken. But we still didn't get there until 4 hours later. It used to
take about 3.
No matter, once there we headed for
The
Griffon, their newest, and if I was to believe reports,
biggest and baddest roller coaster. We were distracted by nice animals
on the way - the bald eagle reserve and wolf yard. There was a Pet
Shenanigans show going on but it was crowded and that first coaster
ride was more important. We pushed on through Ireland and headed to it.
The coaster handles a lot of people at once - 30 riders, 3 rows of 10
each. So the line went fast. We rode the front and I screamed like I
was going to die on the first 90 degree drop. The coaster pauses at the
top of the drop, hanging you facing straight down. Then I laughed
through the rest of the somewhat short ride.
We rode again right away, and this time I just enjoyed the ride. It
wasn't scary at all after the first time. We got a great picture with
Code Monkey with all of us in the front row, but I have to rant about
how you must buy a "picture package" and can't just buy the picture. I
wanted the larger picture, and you have to choose something like a
frame or a cd case or some backpack thing or a keychain as well. I
wanted the cd case but the fellow said the larger picture wouldn't fit
in anything but the frame. So I got this stupid, enormous frame that
says The Griffon and Busch Gardens on it. I kicked myself later
thinking "I wouldn't have put the picture in the cd case or anything
anyway, I should have gotten something a little more useful. ARGH!" But
I finally appeased myself by deciding I could glue decorations all over
the frame and make it pretty. ANYway...
We rode a bunch of rollercoasters and Code Monkey rode in the front
with me for all of them (okay, except the Loch Ness Monster, we didn't
feel like waiting for the front for that one. But all coasters are
about 10X better in the front row). Oh, there was a new 3D ride thingy
that took a long wait but was really fun called
Curse
of Darkastle.
We had a long drive home too. We were all hungry and agreed on going to
Subway. We saw a highway sign and meandered to one that was inside a
gas station and it was closed. But the next Subway sign boasted
24hours! We were so psyched! It was also inside a fancy gas station.
There was a sign that said they were out of lettuce. Then it turned out
they didn't carry the veggie burger. I was quite discouraged and grumpy
about that. But I was also hungry so I got a veggie sammitch anyway.
We tried to cut through DC on the way home and as soon as we got onto
295 it was all backed up with no way off. It turned out to be closed
completely and we made our way through DC streets that were all under
construction to Kennilworth. Finally we made it home. It was cramped in the back seat of the car so I was glad to be home.
Code
Monkey came with us to Red Robin on Friday night where Renee and I had
free birthday burgers (veggie for me, and not very good, despite
avocado and sauteed mushrooms on it...). Alex, TVTom, Rich and Izolda
came too. I had a Mai Tai which was good. Then RnA, Tom and Ginohn went
to see The Dark Knight.
On Saturday Chris came with us when we took Code Monkey on a touristy sight seeing trip around town. We went to the
National Arboretum, the
United States Botanic Garden, the
Air and Space Museum, and the
FDR Memorial.
That
night we all went to a party at a stranger's house. A nice, friendly
stranger who is friends with an old friend of mine from college, who I
hadn't seen since, well, college. Paul G. found me on facebook a while
back and lives in DC. We'd half-heartedly been trying to get together
ever since, so when he invited me to this party we decided to go. We
were there for over an hour before he arrived, but we had a fine time
meeting new people and hanging out. The party started late and before I
knew it it had gotten late and I was exhausted from the long day. But
it was fun hanging out with Paul and Co. and we may see him again this
weekend.
On Sunday John and I met a fellow Jonathan Coulton fan to pass Code Monkey on. We met up at a Thai place called
Amina
in Rockville since she lives in Bethesda. The food was excellent! We
chatted for a couple of hours and had a lovely time. Then John and I
went to the Regal Cinema to see Hancock.
Tonight we went to the
new National's stadium because Brick sent us two tickets. The stadium
was really nice despite being a stadium. I barely watched the game but
had some fun looking for the veggie food, watching crazy fans, and
chatting with Brick. My ipod touch (did I tell you I got one for my
birthday?) was able to connect to some wifi there and so we showed
Brick a youtube video (
Weezer's Pork and Beans). Thanks for the tix, Brick!