Well, as most of you know, I spent a wonderful 10 days with Rose in Virginia last week for Thanksgiving. She picked me up at BWI on Saturday morning, and we drove straight to Charlotte for Phil’s tenth annual “Martini Day.” Great people, great food, great drinks, great times. The party was Saturday night, then Sunday we went to brunch and stuck around to watch the Saints destroy the Seahawks at The Thirsty Beaver. We even got a retweet of that one from @OfficialSaints. 🙂 Then we drove back to VA and Rose went to work the next morning while I cleaned the apartment. After a way-too-long-ass day at work, we went to dinner after I realized she had a flat tire and filled it up just to go to dinner and deal with Tuesday while she was at work.
I drove about 20 miles to Sam’s, since they’re usually the cheapest. I wanted them to try to fix it first, but the guy seemed determined to sell me a tire, so I left and went to the nearest pep boys to get it fixed. I walked about 5.65 miles (thanks CardioTrainer app) while waiting for them to fix it, and shopped at the Salvation Army store I stumbled across, and then to Popeye’s to taste what non-NOLA Popeye’s is like. It’s not bad, but it’s not the same. It’s like it’s not as juicy or something. Got back to Pep Boys, they fixed it, said the other rear tire needed to be replaced, I said I’d deal with that later. Since I was a member of Pep Boys Rewards Club, or whatever they called it, it was free instead of $14.99, which I was glad about by Saturday…
Wednesday while Rose worked I bought some groceries from Giant and made broccoli casserole, baked macaroni, and sweet potato crunch. We fixed the turkey thursday morning, and had a delicious first Thanksgiving. And I’m not just saying first Thanksgiving as in since we’ve been married. I’m pretty sure she’s worked every Thanksgiving since I’ve known her. But I could be wrong. Since Rose doesn’t have a tv, I researched and actually found a place online to watch Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
She was off from Thursday-Sunday. After dinner (lunch) Thursday, we headed to the metro (which plays tricks with my vestibular system, unless I’m drunk, then I’m fine) to go to 18th Amendment, which is a Saints/Panthers/LSU bar. But they were doing some kind of construction inside, so we went down the street to the Tune Inn instead and caught that whew-dat of a game.
Friday we went to see Tangled, followed by a visit to do some neuro-analysis on Sinatra, a 16ish-year-old horse. Later that night we went to Bar None (if I remember right) to hang out with “Pastor Randy,” where we heard the best pitch-man ever for “DOS EQUIS!!” (read that in your head as a happily-buzzed black man doing his best impression of a happily-buzzed mexican).
Saturday was supposed to be Smithsonian day, but as we exited the apartment complex, someone pointed out that our tire was flat. Yes the one we fixed Tuesday. So we filled it up and headed to Sam’s. After a discussion about speed ratings of tires, and one of the tires being the wrong speed rating for that car, and that we shouldn’t mix speed ratings like you shouldn’t mix good batteries with bad batteries, or mogwais and water, or mogwais and food after midnight, or Donald Glover and Spiderman, we settled on getting 4 new tires. So she should be set for a few years. Hopefully by the time she needs new tires we can trade them in on a new car, cuz by then she’ll be done with her residency. 😉 We later tried unsuccessfully in a huge mall to find a blue bowl, gave up, and went to Jake’s parents house for Thanksgivingukkah and a delicious meal.
Sunday we went to church at St. Mark’s, followed by the Smithsonians. Monday Rose worked while I packed and dealt with some work stuff, we went to dinner that night, sad that the end was already near. Tuesday she dropped me off at the Metro station, where I took the Orange to the Red and the Red to the Amtrak/MARC station, where I took a train to the airport, followed by a shuttle to the terminal, followed by a plane to home. So I took just about every public transportation available, and it only took me 2.5 hours to get to the airport that’s about an hour away. 😛
Speaking of airports, I didn’t have to go through the naked death-ray scanner either time. Just the plain ol’ metal detector. Guess they’re still good enough for now, eh, Chartoff? I digress. I ran into Chrissy, who used to work with CM, at BWI. She was there for her 10 year high school reunion. Small world. She was also taking a 10:20 flight to NOLA, but hers wasn’t stopping in B-ham. At least I didn’t have to get off the plane in B-ham, which allowed me to move up to the 4th row. I’m new to this whole open seating idea, too. Weird.
Well, that’s the week-and-a-half in a nutshell. There are pictures up there in the menu. Check’em out. Oh and hey, how do ya like the new fancy seasonalization of the blog? 🙂
