Busy, Busy

I feel like it's been non-stop activity since Friday night! John and I barely limped home on Sunday afternoon. I love being busy and hanging out with friends, but some weekends are just too busy, you know?

It all started Friday night with the weekly dinner at my parents'. Jim and Geneva joined us as well. Ann was at a lecture and Jules went to a "mixer". After stuffing ourselves with Thai food, we met William at the CP for a couple beers. We were so stuffed from dinner, we didn't even order pizza. That's very unusual, but probably a good thing.

Saturday, we had two parties to attend. The first one, at noon, was a 50th birthday bash in honor of John's former boss, Tom. The party invite was very short notice, but we always love going to the West River bashes.

Tom had tons of food (salads, bbq, meatballs, desserts), a moon bounce for the kids and boat rides out cruising the river. And of course, crabs!



Tom's neighbor caught these the day before the party, right in the waters off their dock.




We headed home around 4:30 to pick up some records for Robert & Pokes' Album Party. It's always fun to hear old tunes and an interesting mix of music. Rita was the main DJ with help from BHL and Natalie (merrrr... I forgot to take pix!). It's a shame I was still full from the crab feast, but I did manage to have a yummy piece of raspberry cheesecake later in the evening.

We left the Album Party a bit after 9:00, I think. Woot! Such partiers, aren't we?

Sunday, John and I went to the Maryland Renaissance FEstival.After watching the "O'Danny Girls" perform, we met up with Joey, Michelle and Kathy. The weather was beautiful, bringing out the crowds and making the festival a little overwhelming. Because of the crowds, I think we wandered around more than we normally might have. I had a hard time deciding which shows to catch! I couldn't remember what I saw the time we attended the festival four years ago, but I think they're probably the same skits/performances year after year.

One thing you must experience at a Ren Fest is the smoked turkey leg. It's very barbaric. There's no dainty way to eat it, especially since the skin and membranes get a litte tough during the smoking/cooking process. Joe and I were the only ones willing to give it a go this year...


I think we left the festival around 3:00 and when we got home, I basically fell out onto the bed for a much needed nap. Apparently, I'm too old to party like it's 1999. Tragic.

Hot 'n Spicy

This weekend flew by too quickly, didn't it? Friday night, we were expecting our usual FND at my parents' but instead we were treated to Korean BBQ in Wheaton. YUM! Saturday, John was on call, so I ran a bunch of errands -- including two grocery stores. I went to Joann's to get some fabric to line my knitted purses. I was looking for a specific fabric I saw on a knit blog. It had sock monkeys on it! I'll have to keep looking, I guess.

Sunday, I woke up and fixed sausage and pancakes for breakfast and then made a chicken curry for Khalid's annual Thai dish b-day gift It was really spicy! Even the addition of a third can of coconut milk didn't help! We headed over to the party, and once again, Nicole cooked up a fabulous feast! John's favorite foods -- chicken, bbq pulled pork, burgers and dogs. What's not to love?

I do have to say it was really weird attending a "Chumado" party with no Morenos in sight. Quite disconcerting! But more food for the rest us. John enjoyed another round of bbq pork and I had Texas Caviar and chips. Delish!

Of Crabs and Lobster

One of the best things about summer is attending an awesome cookout/crab feast. Another great summer fete was hosted by Joey B and wife Chris on Saturday. There were tons of good eats and lots of good friends -- and a celebration of daughter Katie's graduation from high school. No pics of all the crab eating, though. Nerts.



This guy was wondering where Nate was. Disturbing, I know.



Sunday morning, John and I got up early and headed to Burtonsville. John's parents' friend, George, had been bugging us to take the '33 Dodge up there for a weekly car show. We figured it would be like Wednesday night gathering at Three Brothers (maybe 10-20 cars) but this was pretty amazing for a bunch of people hanging out at the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot!



There were new and old cars. Hot Rods, classics, new Ford GT's, Ferrari's. And a beautiful morning to boot. Afterwards, we headed to my MIL's to switch the red '33 Dodge with the green '34 Ford (pics of that when we get it cleaned up a little). A few hours of relaxing at home and watching Kimi Raikkenon win the F1 race and we headed out for an early dinner.

In celebration of our 2-year wedding anniversary, we went to The Palm. Freddy had given me a gift certificate for my 40th birthday last year and I couldn't think of a better occasion to use it. Here's John getting ready to dig into his crab cakes:



I had lobster and we got desserts too (7-layer chocolate cake for me and peanut butter pie for John). Thanks, Freddy, for a wonderful belated 40th birthday dinner. Your constant generosity never ceases to amaze me!!!

Belated Good News and Randomness

BHL and Baby
Congrats to my favorite Big Head, Shaun, Alyssa, Little Talli and their (extremely extended) family on the arrival of new baby boy, Lorenzo Dean. Go check out the pics here.

Author on the Loose
I also want to congratulate Laurie on finishing her book, which she has been writing for a few years now. It’s fiction based on some real-life events. I can’t wait to read it!

It's Friday... (in Chris Tucker's voice)
And a belated congrats to Nate on his new job! Working from home -- what’s not to like???

Weekend
This past weekend was fairly busy with lots of errand running and birthday celebrations. Saturday, we celebrated MIL's b-day with dinner at Ram's Head Tavern. Afterwards, John and I headed over to Freddy's for Dinner B where Kevin had cooked a pasta feast. We watched Georgetown crumble and the first half of the other game. Obviously, it wasn't a very thrilling game... I don't even remember who played.

Sunday, we ran some more errands and prepared for Griff's belated birthday celebration with Tacofest. Here he is blowing out his candle (we didn't have 13 of them, so we opted for one):


I've been obsessively working on my sweater as time permits. I can't wait to finish this thing, but having a job and stuff gets in the way of working on it. A week ago, I had only completed the first diamond. Look at it now!

I also purchased a new accessory for my iPod. It's like the iDog, but a PENGUIN! Isn't it the cutest thing ever???

Last random thing... we saw this guy on the deck last night after dinner:

Is this a robin? 'Cuz he sure looks too FAT to be a normal bird. Weird, huh?