Caviar and Olives

I feel like this weekend was non-stop adventure from the time I got home from work Friday night to Sunday evening. Not that I'm complaining, 'cuz we had all kinds of fun. Just that I'm a little beat- mageat this morning.

After dinner at my parents', we headed over to El Aguila in Silver Spring where Robert was hosting a little belated birthday thing for Pokey and Bianca. John and I had never been there but have always heard lots of good things about the food. Bianca's bridal shower was held there, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it. Since we had already eaten, we just ordered drinks (a giant mojito!) and I sampled some of William's shrimp from his fajita platter. I also had some coffee and xangos, which was like a dessert taquito with banana and some kind of creamy pudding filling inside a fried dough (like a flour tortilla).

Saturday morning, John and I headed to Lowes to look at medicine cabinets for my parents' bathroom. The one they had was some kind of resin/plastic and one of the two mirror hinges broke off the plastic part (not repairable). So, we ended up getting a really nice stainless mirrored one with glass shelves.

Next was a search for some white pillowcases that weren't 600 thread count (seems like they're all like that anymore!). By the way, why is it you can buy a flat sheet and make 3-4 pillowcases out of it for half the price of buying regular pillowcases??? I found a good deal and then we headed to the grocery store where I picked up some stuff for us and ingredients to make Laab Gai for Khalid's birthday party.

Compared to last year's bash (when Khalid turned 40), this was much more low-key. It was a little chilly outside for this time of year, but always good times. Here's Khalid looking a little suspicious that Nicole would smash the cake in his face (it's been known to happen!).



William, Nicole and Pokey:


Khalid opens his gift from me and John (a dreamy Freddy pillowcase):



Sunday, I had planned to head to Adam's Morgan for a craft fair. My brother called on Saturday afternoon and asked if we could take Jules to her soccer game Sunday afternoon as he and Ann were going to the Redskins game. At first, I thought we could go to the craft fair, take my niece to her game and then install my parents' new medicine cabinet. Oh... and somewhere in there, stop by Freddy's for a 'Skins game cookout.

It didn't exactly happen that way though. Around 12:30, we installed the cabinet at my parents' and then went down to Takoma Park where they were having their Street Festival. We ran into Don, Nate's brother, and were surprised that we didn't bump into anyone else. I didn't look very closely at all the vendors, but I did find this little "caviar ring" at the Mann Made Designs booth:



It's glass with little bubbles (like caviar). The picture doesn't bring out how cool it really is. If you look at it from the top, it's this blue/green color. As you look at it from the side, it turns blue/purple and then an orange/amber. They had this other green oval glass design with a red spot in it (like an olive). Cute!

Around 3:00, we walked back towards my brother's where we had parked so we could get Jules and take her to her game. I don't think I could ever coach a team of kids who were just starting out. The coach was really great. There were only encouraging words coming out of his mouth. Me? I was like, "What the... ?". I do have to say that Jules has some skills, but the team is a mix of kids who have played since they were 5 and those who look like they just started this year.

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Although this picture looks like there are 3 teams playing (turquoise, red and teal), the turquoise and teals are one team. That's Jules on the right. In her "teal" shirt. They split up Jules' team from last year and stuck her on another "teal" team, but they have different shirts. For the fee you pay to play, don't they give you a new shirt so everyone on the team can match? The game ended in a tie even though teal was leading 3-1 for a good portion of the game. Two late second half goals tied it up.

After we dropped Jules off at Ann's mom's, John and I were starving but too tired to go to Freddy's. So we had dinner at California Tortilla and then looked for Cinnamon Almonds at Trader Joe's. They were still out... would it kill them to RESTOCK the cinnamon almonds???

I'm glad busy September is over. We already have a couple things on the calendar for October. I was hoping we could have another Chumado party at the beach cottage before it gets too cold. Maybe we'll just stick to the annual one in the summer.