Weekend Stuff

First, thank you all very much for the good birthday wishes. It seemed I had a real blog party. I even won Carmi's weekly "Caption This" on Sunday. I've gotten honorable mentions before, but it was a first to get the win.

As described in Saturday's post, Dan planned for me to take Fern and her friend to a afternoon concert at the Ramshead in Annapolis. There were three acts, Curtis Peoples, Ernie Halter and Tony Lucca. The girls loved loved loved it. Tony Lucca didn't end up playing Devil Town but laughed along with us when I told him that's why we came and that he had ruined my birthday. All three acts hung out long after the show to sign autographs and talk with folks. The girls got lots of pictures; it was hard pulling them away. This is Curtis, see why the girls loved him...

Eventually we got to the mall and didn't get a lot of shopping done. I guess I wasn't hip enough to know "shopping" really involves spending an hour in Sephora trying on all the make-up and walking out empty handed.

Sunday was a quiet day, I'm not sure where the time went. The kids and I went to early church and stayed to be greeters at the late service. I had to bribe Kevin with Five Guys to get him to church so we headed there after our greeting duty. We had the place to ourselves since it was still very early in the business day. Their CD player was stuck on California Girls. About the third or fourth play through Fern decides it's time to learn the lyrics and starts to try to sing along. We got half-way through the first verse when they fixed the player. Oh well.

I made two blocks for the block-of-the-month project for my quilt guild. The pattern this month is a tiny 2" paper pieced heart. A heart at Thanksgiving? Huh? The BOM coordinator thought that if you made the blocks in advance, maybe the quilt would be finished by the holiday it actually represents. So the winner of the hearts should have a finished piece done by Valentine's day. Theoretically. My first block came out perfectly. The second block was done from a different copy of the pattern printed from a different printer and came out almost a quarter inch too small. Oh well. I'll have to post pictures of them if I can wrangle my camera back from Fern. That girl needs her own. Sheesh.

Sunday night Dan and I had dinner at Marcel's on Pennsylvania Avenue near Foggy Bottom. The menu lists selections in seven courses, you can pick anything from any course for a starter or entree, or you can pick items to construct your own tasting menu. Dan and I each chose a five-course tasting menu. I had a duck ravioli, Dover sole, diver scallop, lamb in phyllo, and finished with a cheese course, St Andre served with ultra thin slices of raisin toast, almonds and dates. Dan had the diver scallop, turbot, bourdin blanc (chicken & pheasant sausage), bison, and hazelnut souffle. Our waiter found out it was my birthday and also brought me a glass of champaign and an array of mini desserts. Dan and I give Marcel's four thumbs up.

Tonight Dan planned for Kevin and me to go to Cirque du Soleil, so I'll have to post about the rest of my birthday weekend tomorrow. I'll be tired though, the show doesn't start until late. I'm tired now, what am I saying?