Tuesday, I went for a near 3 mile jog in the heat, then rewarded myself with a nice cold bottle of wine and a home-made tomato basil tart. Zeke had late softball games so I was solo. It was one of the Southern Living recipes... basically a frozen pie crust rolled out, baked, then topped with tomatoes and a mixture of pesto, cheese, basil, and a little mayo. I didn't like this recipe as much. Probably because I put way too much cheese on it, so it practically fell apart when I tried to eat it. Next time I'll skip the mayo, use homemade pizza dough instead of a pie crust, and hold back on the cheese.
Wednesday, I went to extended happy hour with one of my favorite co-workers Mattie. She introduced me to my first DC dive bar called "My Brothers Place"- I felt right at home. For a bar on The Hill, I was pleasantly surprised by the music and ambiance. The place has a very "Velvet Melvin" vibe but is separated in to small rooms, 3 stories, and has a screened in patio out front. They played everything from Pat Green to Lil Wayne to Lynrd Skynrd. Maybe that's why I didn't want to leave!
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| Not a "Double T" flag, but it'll do. Go big XII. |
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| Car bombs |
We stayed long enough that we somehow managed to meet the bar owner and two elected officials from Wyoming. Not sure what their titles were, definitely not Congressmen, but some sort of delegates and they were wearing cowboy hats, so naturally I struck up conversation. You know the scene from Old School where Frank is in the debate and totally blacks out while he's talking? That happened to me. All of my talking points from O'Reilly and articles I read during my commute came flowing back, and I got into an hour long discussion about alternative fuels, Libya, and Medicaid reform. Go figure. Later, we discovered that one of these guys had a access to the top floor of the 101 Constitution Avenue building, so a group of us went up for a photo shoot! It's the most amazing view of DC I've yet to see.
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| Sporting the Wyoming official's cowboy hat. |
Thursday morning was not fun. I managed to push through and actually had a productive day at work though. It was our 2nd monthaversary, and we had a romantic chef boyardee ravioli dinner, watched "So you think you can dance", and I was asleep on the couch by 9:00 pm. Romance at its finest.
Friday night, we had 8:00 reservations with Brittany and Kyle at this Moroccan restaurant on New York Ave in DC called Marraskesh. It was one of the coolest places I've ever been to!
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| Not our group, but you get the idea. |
Everyone was dressed like Aladdin, there were no menus, and no silverware. If you've ever seen Along Came Polly, it totally reminded us of the restaurant where they sat on the floor and ate Indian food. Anyhow, the server came over to "describe the menu" to us... it's a 7 course pri fixe meal served family style, and you eat it with your hands!
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| First course, variety of marinated fresh vegetable salad. Cucumbers, squash, roasted red peppers, carrots... all very fresh. |
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| 2nd course- cinnamon and powdered sugar covered pastry filled with marinated chicken. Words can't describe the deliciousness! It was fun to eat, too. We poked it with our fingers and dug right in. |
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| 3rd course was 3 day marinated whole lemon chicken. It was so juicy and fresh, and literally fell right off the bone. It was gone in a matter of minutes. |
Once the sparklers burned out, it was pitch black again, and a spotlight came on in the middle of the room to reveal a beautiful belly dancer on a podium. Zeke and I had no idea there was belly dancing, so we were amazed! 5 stars to this restaurant for atmosphere... they keep you constantly guessing what's next.
The next 4 courses were steak kabobs, couscous, a fruit platter, then spearmint tea and pastries. This is quite possibly one of the best dining experiences I've had in my life- THANK YOU Brittany for inviting us!! We will definitely add this on the list of "places to take people to eat then they visit".
After dinner, we hopped in a cab to visit the Georgetown Waterfront since I've never been. Not sure if this made national headlines, but DC got a bunch of rain last month and this place was submerged in water up to the 2nd and 3rd stories. The only bar that was open is outdoors, and it was packed, but it still gave a great view of the Potomac.
We had a couple of beers and headed home around 1:00. Nothing too crazy- a very "grown up" Friday night :)
Saturday, I woke up and made myself a brunch sandwich- turkey, mozzarella, and basil on toasted wheat pita bread. Delish.
I waited for Zeke to come home from golfing, and we packed up our lawn chairs & a cooler and headed to Clarendon to watch the 2011 Air Force Cycling Classic. It was a gorgeous day outside, perfect for race weather!
Next, we headed to one of our regular bars, Spider Kellys, for $10 corona buckets and lunch.
We finished the day with a movie across the street at the Arlington Cinema Drafthouse. We watched Hesher, an indi film that the CEO/founder of Zeke's company co-produced. It was a weird story line, but had a great cast including Natalie Portman, Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office), and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Check out the trailer here- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1403177/
Today we're taking a bike ride down to Crystal City to watch the 2nd round of races and get some exercise. I haven't told anyone yet officially, but I'm doing my second sprint triathlon on August 7th in Manassas, Virginia! I need to kick it into gear- less than 2 months away! I signed up with two of my co-workers. We all agreed that if we don't have anything to train for, we will be lazy this summer, so why not challenge ourselves?!
Here's a link to the race- it's a POOL SWIM so I'm pretty stoked about not having to endure another open water race! http://www.triitnow.com/summersupersprint.htm
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are enjoying your Sunday!
