First, I will probably be unable to update next weekend.
I had a reasonably busy week, with a few quick turn tasks to do at work. Fortunately, I didn't have anything to do on Wednesday that required deep thinking, since I was a zombie after going to Speakeasy on Tuesday night. This was the first time I'd been at the new venue and I definitely like it better than the old one. I took advantage of the theme (which had to do with rescues and close calls) to pull together a story that had been on the back burners for several years. It worked okay, but still needs some more tweaking. I may use it next weekend, but I have something else I'd like to get into tellable shape by then, too.
The highlight of the week was a visit from Robert. I'll note that the weather had been gorgeous on Wednesday and Thursday, getting up to near 80. The temperature dropped rapidly on Thursday night and Friday started out with cold rain, deteriorating to wintry mix. By the time I met him at West Falls Church, it was a mix of heavy wet snow and sleet. Fortunately, the roadway was still warm enough that I-66 home wasn't bad. I was concerned when we went out to dinner, but it was a short drive and only slightly nerve-wracking. Fortunately, the restaurant had underground parking and the weather had let up for the most part by the time we left, so it wasn't quite as bad getting home.
As for the restaurant, we went to Bazin's on Church, in downtown Vienna. Overall, I thought it was good, but not quite good enough to justify the prices. The appetizers and desserts were better than the main courses, which is actually frequently the case. I'll particularly note the hazelnut crunch bars I had for dessert, which were sort of like solid nutella. The service was efficient, but was also a bit rushed.
We had a very late breakfast at IHOP on Saturday and I will leave it to the reader to figure out why it was about noon before we got out of the house. After eating, I drove to the metro and we took the train into the city to go to the National Building Museum. The building itself, which is the former Pension Building, is definitely the highlight of the museum. I thought the selected exhibits from the permanent collection was the best of the four exhibits there. I did find the current special exhibit on The Globe Theatre to be more interesting than I expected. I think both of us were disappointed in the exhibit on green architecture. We should have left more time for the museum shop, which is fabulous. Robert only made it halfway through the bookstore section of the shop, for example, before we got kicked out at closing time. All in all, it was worth a few hours.
We took the metro over to Dupont Circle and had dinner at Teaism. My palak paneer was okay, but not great, with some of the paneer oddly crispy in texture. Robert seemed happier with the chicken curry he got. It's good value, though, and a nice atmosphere. I'd thought there was a used bookstore further up Connecticut Avenue to kill some time at, but I guess it's closed. And he wasn't willing to go into The Pleasure Palace. We ended up killing some time at the record store across the street and then going to Kramer Books for a while. We stopped and had some coffee at Java Hut, before continuing to Theatre J to see Family Secrets.
This is a one-woman show about a Jewish family and had gotten very good reviews. We both thought Sheri Glaser was obviously a talented actress, but were disappointed in the show overall. Robert felt it was hard for a man to relate to much of the show, while I had expected there to be more of a narrative arc. Instead, each of the five characters Glaser plays has their own story, only two of which were particularly humorous. There was some funny material throughout, but there was also a lot of uncomfortable stuff. It was good to see it, but I didn't feel like I'd have to run out and see other works by her.
As for today, it took some effort for us to get out in time to have breakfast at Silver Diner before I had to take Robert to the airport. I have to give him credit for having listened to some things I told him in the past. And, no, I am not going to explain that further in public. Now, if he'd only pay as much attention to my oft repeated suggestion about our spending a weekend together in Paris...
After I dropped him off, I went to knitting group. There was a relatively small turnout, but it was still fun. One woman finally finished an afghan she's been working on for 25 years and brought it in to prove to us she had actually bound it off. I don't think I have any projects quite that old, but I do have lots of UFOs (unfinished objects, in knitting parlance) of my own. Then a quick run to the supermarket and an attempt to catch up on all the weekend stuff I didn't do because I was with Robert instead.
Copyright 2007 Miriam H. Nadel