Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Busy (Not-So Holiday) Weekend

So the visitors arrived and just before they did, Hubster found the Roomba filters in a quite logical place. Much eating of crow was done by yours truly, but all was well and the carpet was vacuumed. YAY! It was especially important when we discovered that the menfolk in the family were allergic to cats. Fortunately, both did well all weekend, although how they managed to avoid petting our adorable little deities is beyond me.

Our guests left us to our own devices Saturday for the daylight hours, but we tagged along as their "Tour Guides" for their Sunday tour of the National Mall including most of the monuments and stopping short of the capital on accounta kids. They had friends drive up from Richmond so we were a crew of 12, half kids and half adults. Big fun until the batteries wore out. Still, we had dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill for the first time in ages, so it was worth all the complaints and discussions of school projects. We really had a great time. Of course, we've got the pictures to prove it:


I love this picture because, although it's speculation on my part, I can imagine that these men are either veterans or friends of veterans. I wonder what it's like to stand there, sixty years later, and share the experience together.



Hubster took this one at the apex of the Korean Memorial. Isn't he brilliant?



This is my youngest cousin interacting with the Vietnam Memorial. Those flaxen curls! Excuse me whilst I photoshop myself having blond curls. I'll be back. Probably in tears, but you know.



This is a lovely quote and image from the FDR Memorial. The integration of stone, water, metal, and words is really well done in this monument.

Aunt, Uncle, and kids all left Monday morning for home. I worked while Hubster watched MythBusters mere feet from me, so I get a gold star for being productive under duress. Mr. T and Southwest came over for dinner, bringing spinach artichoke dip, dessert, and an excellent Argentine Cabernet Savignon (Antigua Cava, 2004 - can't seem to find a link with more info, sorry). I made a Butternut, Rosemary and Blue Cheese Risotto, which was, frankly, scrum-diddily-um-dum-tious. It was also quite easy because you get to cheat on the liquid absorption - no standing and stirring while slowly feeding in liquid for twenty minutes. Southwest is a vegetarian, so I made it with vegetable instead of chicken broth. I also skipped the heavy cream and that was fine. Lastly, the store was out of fresh rosemary so I substituted sage like some of the other commenters, and it was good, although I'd like to try it with rosemary sometime, too. Keeper!

Now if you'll excuse me, my freshly cut fabric calls to me. It says "Maaake mee a puurse. Mmmmaaaake meeeeeeee a puuuuuurse!!!" I should heed the call before this rampant vowel abuse continues.

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