And now, the REST of the story
(with apologies to Paul Harvey)
In the tale of the week in DC, I think I left off when the bbq was delivered from Rockland's for the CASC dinner at the house. That was quite tasty. But since it was Tuesday, I had somewhere to be by 8:30pm! [At brunch on Sunday, the girls decided we had to do a "surprise inspection" on the boys at RiRa on trivia night - provided I could escape casa Fratkin.] Dad was nice enough to lend me his car (and I was well-behaved and brought it home safe and sound). Even with the help of "the trinity" - Patrick, Dallan and John - we came in third. Dallan went so far as to tell me that we "didn't suck too badly." But, we had a BLAST - we were laughing so hard there were tears streaming down Dani's face - and it was fantastic to spend more time with the girls (and the boys) again. Our downfall I think was the music round, and we weren't clever enough to use "Dallan loves Patrick" as one of our answers. (it worked a few weeks ago!) Patrick's arm is mostly healed (he probably should take his Vicodin more often), and I noticed for the first time that he has a tattoo! Down the inside of his arm, it says "Tir na nOg" -- which makes sense, because the story is about St. Patrick.
So that was Tuesday. Unfortunately, I had to get up at 6:30 on Wednesday morning, for the CASC meeting. The day went very well (I drank a LOT of coffee). We had dinner at Acadiana, a new, fantastic restaurant near the DC Convention center. We ordered their interesting take on deviled eggs for hors d'ouvres (three variations - crabmeat, lobster, or caviar on top of the egg). Crab cakes for dinner (or steak), then the chocolate bread pudding for dessert. I am not a bread pudding person in general, but let me tell you, this was GOOD.
Thursday was the Council's HPC Users Conference - the one I was planning before I left to move to Austin. It was an excellent conference, and it was so great to see everyone! I love that I get to go to conferences and just sit and listen and take notes. I was honored that the president of the Council thanked me for my hard work on the project before I left, and congratulated me on my new job - in her opening remarks! Totally unexpected.
After the conference, I met Gigi for dinner and drinks at Agua Ardiente in West End. It was pretty good - although they didn't have any sangria or the dessert I wanted - but not as good as Jaleo. We shared a bunch of different dishes, but we were both so tired, we had cabbed home by 7pm! I couldn't even stay awake long enough to watch the end of the Federer-Blake match. (Blake played some amazing tennis, but Federer is just too good... as he proved yet again by winning the US Open AGAIN on Sunday night.)
Friday was finally relaxing. I went to see Luigi at the Watergate Salon for a trim. He cut off about an inch of my hair. It looks cute! Then I walked over to the Council to have lunch with Jen. I spent a lot of time chatting with everyone and trying to accept the fact that I'd been gone for 2 months! (Thanks for lunch, Jen! it was a great burger!) After a quick email check, it was definitely nap time.
Then, because we were all there, dinner was a celebration of Dad's birthday (coming up in a few days). We went to 15 ria (at 1515 Rhode Island Avenue, so that's where you get "RIA") . It was good, but not great - we rated them a 7 out of 10 on most of our dishes. The baked Alaska dessert was odd... instead of meringue baked all over the ice cream, the chef topped the ice cream with some puffs of whipped whites, and then poured chocolate sauce. It was ok. Not going back there any time soon.
phew! I'm still exhausted. But that was the end of the DC trip. Mom drove me out to the airport nice and early on Saturday... I had an empty seat next to me on the plane... and I got a free upgrade on my rental car (see below). It's nice when things go right! :)
In the tale of the week in DC, I think I left off when the bbq was delivered from Rockland's for the CASC dinner at the house. That was quite tasty. But since it was Tuesday, I had somewhere to be by 8:30pm! [At brunch on Sunday, the girls decided we had to do a "surprise inspection" on the boys at RiRa on trivia night - provided I could escape casa Fratkin.] Dad was nice enough to lend me his car (and I was well-behaved and brought it home safe and sound). Even with the help of "the trinity" - Patrick, Dallan and John - we came in third. Dallan went so far as to tell me that we "didn't suck too badly." But, we had a BLAST - we were laughing so hard there were tears streaming down Dani's face - and it was fantastic to spend more time with the girls (and the boys) again. Our downfall I think was the music round, and we weren't clever enough to use "Dallan loves Patrick" as one of our answers. (it worked a few weeks ago!) Patrick's arm is mostly healed (he probably should take his Vicodin more often), and I noticed for the first time that he has a tattoo! Down the inside of his arm, it says "Tir na nOg" -- which makes sense, because the story is about St. Patrick.
So that was Tuesday. Unfortunately, I had to get up at 6:30 on Wednesday morning, for the CASC meeting. The day went very well (I drank a LOT of coffee). We had dinner at Acadiana, a new, fantastic restaurant near the DC Convention center. We ordered their interesting take on deviled eggs for hors d'ouvres (three variations - crabmeat, lobster, or caviar on top of the egg). Crab cakes for dinner (or steak), then the chocolate bread pudding for dessert. I am not a bread pudding person in general, but let me tell you, this was GOOD.
Thursday was the Council's HPC Users Conference - the one I was planning before I left to move to Austin. It was an excellent conference, and it was so great to see everyone! I love that I get to go to conferences and just sit and listen and take notes. I was honored that the president of the Council thanked me for my hard work on the project before I left, and congratulated me on my new job - in her opening remarks! Totally unexpected.
After the conference, I met Gigi for dinner and drinks at Agua Ardiente in West End. It was pretty good - although they didn't have any sangria or the dessert I wanted - but not as good as Jaleo. We shared a bunch of different dishes, but we were both so tired, we had cabbed home by 7pm! I couldn't even stay awake long enough to watch the end of the Federer-Blake match. (Blake played some amazing tennis, but Federer is just too good... as he proved yet again by winning the US Open AGAIN on Sunday night.)
Friday was finally relaxing. I went to see Luigi at the Watergate Salon for a trim. He cut off about an inch of my hair. It looks cute! Then I walked over to the Council to have lunch with Jen. I spent a lot of time chatting with everyone and trying to accept the fact that I'd been gone for 2 months! (Thanks for lunch, Jen! it was a great burger!) After a quick email check, it was definitely nap time.
Then, because we were all there, dinner was a celebration of Dad's birthday (coming up in a few days). We went to 15 ria (at 1515 Rhode Island Avenue, so that's where you get "RIA") . It was good, but not great - we rated them a 7 out of 10 on most of our dishes. The baked Alaska dessert was odd... instead of meringue baked all over the ice cream, the chef topped the ice cream with some puffs of whipped whites, and then poured chocolate sauce. It was ok. Not going back there any time soon.
phew! I'm still exhausted. But that was the end of the DC trip. Mom drove me out to the airport nice and early on Saturday... I had an empty seat next to me on the plane... and I got a free upgrade on my rental car (see below). It's nice when things go right! :)
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