Thursday Next

Song Lyric of the Day:

I don’t believe in / Sanctity / A hypocrisy / Could everyone agree that / No one should be left alone

Filter / “Take a Picture”

“Lost” Recap Haiku – “Numbers“

Bad numbers bad luck
Hurley’s lottery ill gains
Unopened hatch waits

8:30PM.
Alright, Samantha, here goes.

Last Friday night was Rich’s birthday. In honor of that, I made him a mandarin orange birthday cake, complete with cool whip icing flavored with vanilla pudding and pineapple. It was delish, if I say so myself. All that fruit makes it sound like a healthy cake, doesn’t it? Friday night we watched “The Grudge,” which scared us both silly. Me more so than him.

Saturday morning, as is typical for us, we did not wake up as early as we should have, considering we were going to drive to Washington D.C. We packed and I left a pet care instruction sheet for Matt, who was nice enough to help us out by checking up on the little monsters. Sharon, who is a very close friend and their surrogate aunt, was unlucky enough to come down with the flu and could not check on them like she usually does when we go out of town.

Rich and I finally hit the road at about 11AM. We made great time driving until we got to the outskirts of the greater metropolitan D.C. area. (Apparently it’s an unwritten law that you must ride the brakes when you’re that close, regardless of traffic flow). Once in the city, I took a bunch of pictures with our wonderful camera as we drove to our hotel. We finally checked into the Hotel Madera at about a quarter to 4. Upon walking into the cozy, modern lobby, Rich and I knew we had chosen the right hotel for us. Our room was beautiful, complete with a king-sized bed with a very tall, blue velvet-covered headboard and free wireless internet access. Paradise for nerds.

After logging on (have laptop, will travel) we were dismayed to discover that most museums close at 5PM. The whole point of our trip was to see museums. I think I was actually more disappointed than Rich was since I wanted his birthday trip to be perfect; he was just happy to be in D.C. We bundled up and headed out anyway, getting directions from the hotel concierge to a nearby street with independent galleries.

We lucked out in that a few galleries were open until as late as 6:30PM. We popped into about six different galleries, including Affrica, The Alex Gallery, and The Aaron Gallery, which was Rich’s favorite as it featured a kindred-soul artiste named Javier Cabada. We even saw a few diplomats’ residences, including one for a country called Mali and the disproportionately large (to my eye) Colombian embassy.

After hitting the galleries, we made our way to Dupont Circle, a nice, somewhat upscale shopping district. We then made our way back to the hotel to change for our 8:30 dinner reservations at the neighboring Firefly restaurant. Almost two and a half hours later, after a very filling, leisurely meal, we bundled up and headed out for a romantic walk, ending up in the David Greggory RestauLounge for after-dinner cocktails.

Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel and set out about 10AM to go hit some of the big galleries. Rich decided he would be fine spending the day in the National Gallery of Art, versus running through a couple of exhibits in several different museums. I don’t think either one of us had anticipated how truly expansive the NGA is; it covers two buildings connected by an underground concourse. We enjoyed the exhibition of Rembrandt’s late religious portraits and managed to take a lot of pictures throughout several different exhibitions. For reference, of course.

On our way home (after riding the brakes out of the city), we stopped by the IKEA store in Prince William, VA, at the Potomac Mills outlet mall. Our furniture store pit-stop lasted about an hour, during which time Rich selected and purchased a storage cart and magazine storage for his home office.

We finally made it home at almost 9PM. By then, I’d missed almost the whole first hour of the 77th Annual Academy Awards, which has been my High Holy Night of Television for several years running. Alas, I was too tired and hungry to really care. I was just happy our trip went well, our travel was safe, and Rich had a wonderful birthday weekend.

Oh, and the babies were thrilled we were home, too.