After work today we're meeting A and company for drinks in honor of her birthday, then hurrying home to check in on M-kitty and possibly take her to the vet. She needs another shot of prednisone, judging from the fact that she's been throwing up nearly once a day. Then, tomorrow morning we're taking the Mazda in to the dealer for its first scheduled maintenance and oil change. 

While in Rockville we'll probably do some shopping and get lunch, so the first half of the weekend is going to be a busy one.
In the meantime, it feels like I'm coming down with a cold, or maybe it's just this weather, but all I want to do is stay home, drink coffee, and listen to NPR. It's going to be a good weekend to make soup in the crock-pot! Hopefully circumstances will allow for a lazy second half of the weekend.  

Yesterday we attended a barbecue at A and Y's house in Woodbridge, VA near Potomac Mills Mall. It's a long drive south on I-95, but fortunately traffic was light and we had good directions from A. G carpooled with us as well. It was good to see A again, and the food at the party was excellent. They have a small house on a large plot of land, with lots of grass. J really enjoyed sitting outside by the grass on the patio, so we've decided to add some more greenery to our own rather spartan balcony. One amusing highlight of the visit: while sitting outside, we noticed their neighbor raising a rifle to his shoulder, aiming at some cans, and squeezing the trigger! Fortunately, as our jaws dropped to the floor, there was no loud "bang" but rather a muffled whoosh - it was a BB gun. Nevertheless, it was quite shocking to see the neighbors taking potshots at various targets in a pretty heavily populated suburban neighborhood. There were children walking about, and I pictured a stray BB or two dinging the new Mazda, but fortunately there were no Dick Cheney-like incidents.

All in all, we had a great time visiting, and when we departed we headed to Ikea, since it's only a short drive away. We picked up a lamp, batteries, a couple of Creuset knock-off pots, and G scored some velvet drapes and a tea kettle. By the time we got back to DC, the car was full of merchandise, and our stomachs were full of food. Mmmm...

Friday evening, we met up with a few friends at the Beacon Bar & Grill in the Beacon Hotel across from the YMCA on 17th Street. We were there to celebrate A's new job, the happy conclusion to a very long and arduous job search. G was there too, and several other coworkers and friends of A. We had a great time, but didn't stay out too late because we were exhausted. J and I had a rough week, and we have a lot on our plates this weekend and next week. We've had a lot of weird little setbacks lately, along the lines of the Burt's Bees moisturizer explosion the other day. A huge load of laundry was contaminated by a fuzzy black sweater, and we had to do the wash twice because everything was covered in black fuzz. Also, J received an eagerly anticipated Bollywood movie from Netflix, and it turned out to the the special features "Disc 2" only - the actual film wasn't included. D'oh! She was waiting for it for months, it's one of those high demand titles.

Today, we gave M and his broken television a lift to a repair shop on Georgia Avenue. He dropped the TV while moving it and something broke inside, not the whole picture tube, so instead of spending thousands of dollars on a new flat-screen HD-whatever TV, he's trying to get it fixed first. It's pretty big and heavy, but we manhandled it down the 3 flights of stairs to the street. We were pleased at how well it fit in the new Mazda. I was a little concerned it would scratch the rear bumper or liftgate, but all worked out well.

Later on, we went to a party at our new neighbor's house next door. They're a really nice couple, A and M, and their cute dog. We got to meet their friend and A's family, who seem like good folks. The food was tasty, too! We'll have to invite them over for coffee sometime.

Speaking of coffee, M and E are coming over for coffee tomorrow morning at 10:00, and it will be the first time we fire up the new coffee maker for company. I hope it works well and the coffee is good - M comes from Seattle and likes his coffee strong, while E also has strong opinions on the beverage, so I hope my barista skills are up to snuff. Yeah, pressing a button is SO hard... I guess if it sucks I can blame it on the machine, or the unfiltered tap water.

Last night, we attended the wedding of A. and Y. which took place at the Tregaron Estate, on the campus of the Washington International School, in Cleveland Park. There are pictures of the mansion and grounds, as well as rental information, here: http://www.wis.edu/facilities/rentals/default.htm I'd highly recommend Tregaron as a wedding venue, we had a great time.

The outdoor ceremony was simple and elegant, with about 50-60 guests, and the weather was cooperative. Since neither bride nor groom are religious, the officiant was a representative of the Washington Humanist Society. He did a good job, and as a secular dude myself, I was very pleased. The readings, by Pushkin and Thoreau, were excellent. It's too bad we didn't use them for our wedding! A. and Y. both looked great in their wedding attire.
The reception was held inside and on the terrace of the mansion, overlooking a grassy field and woods. As the sun set, and the moon rose, I was briefly concerned about a zombie attack from the direction of the woods, but fortunately that didn't transpire. Yes, I have a bit of an obsession with zombies; more on this later.

We were unable to secure seats at the table with similar-age DC folks, so J. and I grabbed chairs at a table with some people from VA that we mostly didn't know. I'll talk to anyone, and enjoy meeting new people, so it was fine by me. They were quite pleasant dinner companions. It later dawned on me that they were mostly Republicans based on some of the comments going around, hee hee. I was well-behaved, and didn't say anything controversial. Good boy! The food was excellent, and there were several vegetarian options (the bride and some of the guests are vegetarians). J. mostly ate carb-laden fare, as she was mega-depleted by her earlier 23 mile run. One of our tablemates, a prior marathoner, was passing J. extra slices of bread, which was helpful.

We were able to spend a few minutes with the bride, groom, and their very cool parents at various points during the evening. The father of the bride sang a little song, accompanying himself on guitar, while the couple danced. He seems like such a cool dad. Perhaps A. would rent him out to those of us with highly dysfunctional dads?

One amusing incident: I was in the men's room upstairs, and a young woman strolled in, and we both looked at each other thinking "OMG, am I in the right bathroom?" Fortunately, it was an excellent time to be walked in on, as I was just washing & drying my hands. A few minutes earlier, and she would have caught some urinal action...

Around 11 PM, J. really started to flag; she had been up since 5:17 AM, and run 23 miles earlier, so we had to leave a little early. We had given GG and friend a ride there, so checked with them to make sure they had another way home, and headed out. Didn't see any zombies on the way out, fortunately.

Coincidentally, a few years ago I attended another wedding at Tregaron, of my friends F. & J. Their ceremony and reception were similarly elegant, tasteful and fun, and last night brought back some pleasant memories.