I guess I'm doing quarterly updates these days?
Oh, right! Blog! Looking back, it's been kind of a kickass year so far, with a few big exceptions.
April: Seattle trip! We went for 5 days just for fun and to evaluate whether we'd like living there some day. (As suspected, we would!) Stayed in a cute, very convenient B&B. Walked everywhere, went on a great food tour, drank high quality booze (walking home with a belly full of absinthe was simultaneously the best/worst thing I've ever done; it was cool to see a proper louche, though), and generally bummed around checking the place out (flick photoset). It didn't rain one drop while we were there. We were deliberately very city-centric on that trip, so I hope we can go back, rent a car for a day or two and drive out to see some of the more outdoorsy things.
The one Big Bad of the year is that Dan lost his job just before we went to Seattle. We'd already bought tickets and paid deposits, so we took and enjoyed the trip anyway. He's still really, really worried, but I suppose I should allow him to blog about that, should he feel so inclined. Suffice it to say, after April, we battened down the hatches and slowed down on unnecessary spending.
... however, we'd already spent money on tickets for several shows, so we went ahead and enjoyed them! We saw Demetri Martin in DC (the Warner) and Flight of the Conchords (DAR Constitution Hall) in April. Ugh. I'm NEVER driving back and forth between DC and Baltimore on a weeknight EVER AGAIN. It was awful. But happily, Demetri was adorable and amazing. He did plenty of new and old stuff, with an especially fun segment where he took audience requests. He also got into a pleasant shouting conversation with a young lady in the upper balcony, i.e., What's your name? MEREDITH! What do you do? CANCER RESEARCH! Whoa, really? Holy shit, give her a hand everyone.
As for the FotC show... not as satisfying. Kristin Schall is (a) not funny and (b) really shrill, and the sound guy was crap and allowed her to destroy all of our ears. Bret and Jemaine were spectacular, but the audience was TERRIBLE, drunk and razzing them. I guess the entire security staff had gone on break. The FotC boys were good sports for a long time, but they eventually got sick of dealing with the hecklers, so they seemed to cut a lot of between-song banter and just moved from song to song and GTFO'd as fast as they could. Boo.
May: May was Nightwish month! Oh, holy hell, how I adore them. Awhile back, lead singer Anette got really sick, so they had to cancel several East Coast tour dates, Baltimore included. Dan, Mike (who took the train down from NY) and I were scheduled to go and were SO SAD about the last-minute cancellation. Thankfully, they were kind enough to schedule replacement dates. May 2, the three of us went back up to the Nokia, which is one of my favorite concert venues, and enjoyed the show there. Then 3 days later, Dan and I decided we loved them too much to miss seeing them again, so we bought tix for the Sonar show as well. I have never been as crazy about a band as I am about Nightwish. NEVER. They are so fun and cheerful, and they really put their whole hearts into the show. AND THEY ARE FUNNY, OMG. Before Romanticide in both shows, Marco did a little intro about how in so many relationships, romance is dead. And in the Baltimore show, he slipped on the unfamiliar English terms and said, "You know how sometimes... you're with your spice... erm, your spouse, spouse... I don't know. Better just make sure to wash your balls." Aaaaaagh, so cute!
June: June was a pretty low-key month. I spent a lot of time cleaning and getting rid of stuff. There was kind of a baseball theme, though! First, Kit alerted me to an interleague game between the O's and the Mets; this was the match-up of a lifetime for Dan and me since he's such a Mets fan and they hardly ever play Baltimore. We had a great time at that game. Then a week or so later, we went to O's/Nationals with Kit, Mary, and two of their other friends. Fun times! Lots of snackin' and drinkin' and cheerin'. It was a good game and we REALLY enjoyed the pepperjack cheese balls at Pickles. My god. I could go for some of those now. Nom.
July: Okay, THIS is where things start to get busy. July 4th, Dan and I went to a small party at my folks' house, just us and their group of friends. It was nice to have him meet these people who I grew up with; we sat around for hours drinking wine, picking crabs (it's been so long, I'd forgotten how to do it properly!), and shooting the breeze in my folks' wonderful sun room. Then the weekend after that (a.k.a. last weekend), I flew out to Atlanta. Ben, my best bud from college, was at the end of his PhD program and as a graduation present, his in-laws paid for 1 friend to fly in, watch his dissertation defense, and party hearty to celebrate. And awwwww, he picked meeeee! I got to know Ruth a lot better (we'd only talked once or twice in person and a little on facebook) and I played with their lovely pets, 2 kitties and 2 doggies. He was really stressed, so Ruth and I alternated between distracting/cheering him up and leaving him alone to get good work done. His presentation was stellar and he passed with NO REVISIONS, WOO! Then we had a party at their local game store, which they were able to rent out as a private venue for the night. I played a ton of fun new board games and met their awesome friends. It was a great time and now there are TWO doctas in their house. Niiiice. His new job starts VERY soon and he'll be staying with my folks in Damascus until his home in Takoma Park is ready. Good times!
So that brings us up to date. This weekend is Otakon and I might go down for a day to peek in, even though I'm totally out of touch with the scene. Mike will be in town from NY again, so we'll probably grab dins. Then in August, I'm attending a family reunion in Kansas -- that'll probably be, um, interesting? Yeah. Interesting. We'll see.
In general other news, my little plant babies are doing well! I have some green peppers growing, one of which is huge, but has been green for ages. Ripen to red, damn you, I don't eat green peppers! The nasturtiums are flowering and trailing over the edge of the balcony to show off their orange and crimson cuteness. The spinach is a lost cause, but I've learned my lesson on how/when to grow it. I allowed the dill to flower because I was curious to see what it looked like, but then... duh, putting out flowers takes mega-energy, so the leaves are now kinda brown, droopy and unappealing. The mint has whiteflies, so I cut it back and bought some marigolds in the hopes that they'd make a good companion plant to drive away pests. We'll see. The rosemary bush is the same, but needs pruning. The outer layers of the garlic are browning (this is a good sign), so soon enough I'll be able to harvest and cure it. The basil is amaaaaaazing, and now has a tiny parsley neighbor to snuggle with. And just for fun, I bought some sweet little daisies and lobelia. They're doing okay, but need a little lovin'.
April: Seattle trip! We went for 5 days just for fun and to evaluate whether we'd like living there some day. (As suspected, we would!) Stayed in a cute, very convenient B&B. Walked everywhere, went on a great food tour, drank high quality booze (walking home with a belly full of absinthe was simultaneously the best/worst thing I've ever done; it was cool to see a proper louche, though), and generally bummed around checking the place out (flick photoset). It didn't rain one drop while we were there. We were deliberately very city-centric on that trip, so I hope we can go back, rent a car for a day or two and drive out to see some of the more outdoorsy things.
The one Big Bad of the year is that Dan lost his job just before we went to Seattle. We'd already bought tickets and paid deposits, so we took and enjoyed the trip anyway. He's still really, really worried, but I suppose I should allow him to blog about that, should he feel so inclined. Suffice it to say, after April, we battened down the hatches and slowed down on unnecessary spending.
... however, we'd already spent money on tickets for several shows, so we went ahead and enjoyed them! We saw Demetri Martin in DC (the Warner) and Flight of the Conchords (DAR Constitution Hall) in April. Ugh. I'm NEVER driving back and forth between DC and Baltimore on a weeknight EVER AGAIN. It was awful. But happily, Demetri was adorable and amazing. He did plenty of new and old stuff, with an especially fun segment where he took audience requests. He also got into a pleasant shouting conversation with a young lady in the upper balcony, i.e., What's your name? MEREDITH! What do you do? CANCER RESEARCH! Whoa, really? Holy shit, give her a hand everyone.
As for the FotC show... not as satisfying. Kristin Schall is (a) not funny and (b) really shrill, and the sound guy was crap and allowed her to destroy all of our ears. Bret and Jemaine were spectacular, but the audience was TERRIBLE, drunk and razzing them. I guess the entire security staff had gone on break. The FotC boys were good sports for a long time, but they eventually got sick of dealing with the hecklers, so they seemed to cut a lot of between-song banter and just moved from song to song and GTFO'd as fast as they could. Boo.
May: May was Nightwish month! Oh, holy hell, how I adore them. Awhile back, lead singer Anette got really sick, so they had to cancel several East Coast tour dates, Baltimore included. Dan, Mike (who took the train down from NY) and I were scheduled to go and were SO SAD about the last-minute cancellation. Thankfully, they were kind enough to schedule replacement dates. May 2, the three of us went back up to the Nokia, which is one of my favorite concert venues, and enjoyed the show there. Then 3 days later, Dan and I decided we loved them too much to miss seeing them again, so we bought tix for the Sonar show as well. I have never been as crazy about a band as I am about Nightwish. NEVER. They are so fun and cheerful, and they really put their whole hearts into the show. AND THEY ARE FUNNY, OMG. Before Romanticide in both shows, Marco did a little intro about how in so many relationships, romance is dead. And in the Baltimore show, he slipped on the unfamiliar English terms and said, "You know how sometimes... you're with your spice... erm, your spouse, spouse... I don't know. Better just make sure to wash your balls." Aaaaaagh, so cute!
June: June was a pretty low-key month. I spent a lot of time cleaning and getting rid of stuff. There was kind of a baseball theme, though! First, Kit alerted me to an interleague game between the O's and the Mets; this was the match-up of a lifetime for Dan and me since he's such a Mets fan and they hardly ever play Baltimore. We had a great time at that game. Then a week or so later, we went to O's/Nationals with Kit, Mary, and two of their other friends. Fun times! Lots of snackin' and drinkin' and cheerin'. It was a good game and we REALLY enjoyed the pepperjack cheese balls at Pickles. My god. I could go for some of those now. Nom.
July: Okay, THIS is where things start to get busy. July 4th, Dan and I went to a small party at my folks' house, just us and their group of friends. It was nice to have him meet these people who I grew up with; we sat around for hours drinking wine, picking crabs (it's been so long, I'd forgotten how to do it properly!), and shooting the breeze in my folks' wonderful sun room. Then the weekend after that (a.k.a. last weekend), I flew out to Atlanta. Ben, my best bud from college, was at the end of his PhD program and as a graduation present, his in-laws paid for 1 friend to fly in, watch his dissertation defense, and party hearty to celebrate. And awwwww, he picked meeeee! I got to know Ruth a lot better (we'd only talked once or twice in person and a little on facebook) and I played with their lovely pets, 2 kitties and 2 doggies. He was really stressed, so Ruth and I alternated between distracting/cheering him up and leaving him alone to get good work done. His presentation was stellar and he passed with NO REVISIONS, WOO! Then we had a party at their local game store, which they were able to rent out as a private venue for the night. I played a ton of fun new board games and met their awesome friends. It was a great time and now there are TWO doctas in their house. Niiiice. His new job starts VERY soon and he'll be staying with my folks in Damascus until his home in Takoma Park is ready. Good times!
So that brings us up to date. This weekend is Otakon and I might go down for a day to peek in, even though I'm totally out of touch with the scene. Mike will be in town from NY again, so we'll probably grab dins. Then in August, I'm attending a family reunion in Kansas -- that'll probably be, um, interesting? Yeah. Interesting. We'll see.
In general other news, my little plant babies are doing well! I have some green peppers growing, one of which is huge, but has been green for ages. Ripen to red, damn you, I don't eat green peppers! The nasturtiums are flowering and trailing over the edge of the balcony to show off their orange and crimson cuteness. The spinach is a lost cause, but I've learned my lesson on how/when to grow it. I allowed the dill to flower because I was curious to see what it looked like, but then... duh, putting out flowers takes mega-energy, so the leaves are now kinda brown, droopy and unappealing. The mint has whiteflies, so I cut it back and bought some marigolds in the hopes that they'd make a good companion plant to drive away pests. We'll see. The rosemary bush is the same, but needs pruning. The outer layers of the garlic are browning (this is a good sign), so soon enough I'll be able to harvest and cure it. The basil is amaaaaaazing, and now has a tiny parsley neighbor to snuggle with. And just for fun, I bought some sweet little daisies and lobelia. They're doing okay, but need a little lovin'.