staycation of sorts: 2 of 2

On Saturday night, we walked around some more, and it was a lot cooler with the sun down.

We went to a lovely Italian restaurant in Dupont Circle. The waiters were really from Italy and they were the nicest servers I've ever had at a restaurant. I ordered something with rigatoni, a tomato cream sauce, mushrooms and Italian sausage. Glorious. Tim ordered some type of calamari stew.

                                     


There was a band of brass players playing on the street, most of whom were young kids. They were really talented.

                                   

Then we walked down to the White House and monuments. They were so pretty at  night. The World War II memorial was especially lovely with all of its water and such. It was a nice respite from the heat because we dipped our feet in the water.

                                     

                                     

Other random detail: this is the shower in the hotel we stayed at. The tile was so pretty. I love that aqua color.

We didn't have such high expectations for our little trip; after all, we've been to D.C. many times before and we live only an hour away. But, it was a wonderful time spent.

staycation of sorts: 1 of 2

Last weekend, for a belated-anniversary celebration, we went to D.C. for the day and night. Although it was only a short little trip, we had such a glorious time there. It was lovely simply to walk around leisurely and not have too much to do.

One of the best parts of our trip was swimming. I chose our hotel based upon the fact that it had a huge outdoor swimming pool; and it's a good thing, too, because it reached 102 degrees that day. Although the water temperature was probably 90+, it was still nice just to be wet. We went swimming right when we checked in, later on in the afternoon, and then in the morning before we left, so we definitely got our money's worth. Swimming is such a novelty to us because Baltimore doesn't have very many swimming opportunities.

We walked around the National Portrait Gallery, our favorite museum in D.C. Note the nifty picture of Bobby Kennedy below, a personal hero of mine.

Some pretty stained glass:

We also visited Ford's Theatre, where Lincoln was shot. They have the gun that killed him on display, which was fascinating, and the photo below shows where he was sitting when he was shot:

a sad day

Something tragic happened today in our household; I discovered my beloved copy of the movie You've Got Mail is no longer functional.

You've Got Mail is not my favorite movie or anything (It's a Wonderful Life is); however, I tend to watch it about 3 times a year for some reason. I have probably seen it about 30 times, but have yet to tire of it. I think it's like comfort food for me. It just makes me feel happy and content. Plus, I love Tom  Hanks and he's hilarious in this movie.



It's been so hot these days, and all I wanted to do this evening was lay on the couch in front of the air conditioning, browse through some old Martha Stewart Living magazines that I got at the Book Thing and watch You've Got Mail, but when I put the DVD in the DVD player, it was fuzzy and distorted and kept freezing up. Tim and I both tried to fix it, but it was hopeless. I had to say goodbye.

I will have to purchase another copy one day.

Does anyone else like this movie?

p.s.--the best part of the movie is when Tom Hanks is meeting Meg Ryan for the first time and he has his friend peek in the window to tell him if she's pretty or not. When his friend informs him that she is, in fact, good-looking, Tom Hanks flips out and says, "She is! I knew she would be! She had to beeeee! She had to beeeeeeeeeeeahhhhhhh." and jumps up and down against a fence.

canoeing and camping trip

Last weekend, some friends of ours and we went on a canoeing and camping trip along the Juniata River in Perry County, Pennsylvania. 

It was so beautiful out there. We rented two canoes; the girls rowed one and the guys the other. The river was very shallow in some parts, so we actually bottomed-out on numerous occasions and had to get out and drag the boat. On the first night, we canoed for about 2.5 hours, and stopped along the way for swimming and going off of a frighteningly-high rope swing. Then, we parked out boats and set up camp. Elisa built a fire:

                                       

While the rest of us scavenged for wood:

Stephen used every opportunity to use his machete

Mark and Becky had to leave that night, so they were unable to camp. Here is a shot of the women before they left:

 The next morning, the four of us remaining rowed for about five hours to reach the canoe rental place. It was so hot, and about halfway through, we found a cold spring in which to wade, which was a refreshing oasis. By the time we reached the endpoint, we were exhausted, hot and out of drinking-water. It was wonderful to be back on dry land, but it was lovely to have been on the water for so long.

 We are thankful for good friends and beautiful scenery.

summer in the city

I'm sure most people know the song "Summer in the City" by the Lovin' Spoonful.

I've loved this song since I was young, but I couldn't relate to it because I never lived in a big city. Now that I live in Baltimore, the lyrics just remind me of summers here.

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn't it a pity
Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city

All around, people looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head

People really do walk around the sidewalks looking half dead because it's so hot. And there doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city because it's basically all blacktop with very few trees, sadly.

The most prevalent sound in the summer if you take a walk around my neighborhood is the din of air conditioners humming.


SHOUT OUT TO FUNMILOLA!

apple scruffs

On Friday evening, we went to an epic concert of a local band called the Apple Scruffs. For those of you non-Beatles fans who don't recognize the term Apple Scruffs, it was the name given by the Beatles themselves to the dedicated fans who used to wait around Abbey Road studios or Apple Corps in hopes of speaking with the band members.

Anyway, we saw them play last year at Belvedere Square, and I looked early on in the summer to see when they were playing this year. I wrote it on my calendar long ago and have planned my life around it. I am a huge Beatles fan (I used to be unhealthily obsessed, but now I'm just a normal fan, I suppose) and this band is amazing. They're not a tribute band, so they don't dress up cheesily or anything. They just play all Beatles music, and they play it well. They get all the nuances right. They don't just play the hits; they also play some of their more obscure music. For example, last year, at the end of the concert, they played half of Abbey Road from "She Came in through the Bathroom Window" all the way to "The End," which is a memory I will never forget. Because I'm too young to have seen the Beatles perform live, hearing their music played live and well (even if not by the Beatles) is transcendent.

Here are a few clips from the concert. They were taken on my terrible phone, so don't watch for the picture but for the sound:

Amazing vocals on "Oh Darling!" which is a difficult song to sing

Crowd-favorite "Hey Jude"

"I've Got a Feeling"

simple and tasty recipe

I made this dish tonight that I found in an old Martha Stewart Living Magazine. There are only 5 ingredients, which makes it easy, and you don't have to use the oven, which is good for the summer. It was sooo delicious. It's also really healthy, too.

All you do is cook up about 6-8 oz of whole wheat pasta shells, to which you add three huge handfuls of fresh arugula, 2 cans of tuna, 9 peperoncini peppers chopped up and about 1/4 c of olive oil. Mix it all together and that's it. If you want to be able to store it as a leftover, don't add the olive oil to the whole dish, I guess, and just let people drizzle some on their individual servings.

I've never really bought arugula before, but I am going to buy it all the time now. It has a lot of flavor.

flowers

These pretty zinnias grew in our garden. It's nice to be able to snip some flowers whenever you want them because having fresh flowers in the house just makes life better for some reason.

Tim brought home these white spider mums yesterday from Wegmans because it was our 2 year anniversary. I made my wedding bouquet out of white spider mums from Wegmans.

fireworks and golf-club-walking-sticks

For fourth of July, we went to Oregon Ridge Park up in Baltimore County (where's it's a lot less hot). Our friend works for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and had extra tickets to the BSO's Star Spangled Spectacular, so we all went together. The concert was lovely, featuring patriotic compositions and military theme songs and such, and the fireworks afterward were fantastic.






On the walk back to the car, Tim looked so ridiculous (as usual) that I snapped this photo:



It's hard to see because it was so dark and I don't have a flash on my phone, but he was wearing bathing suit shorts, a button-up short-sleeved white shirt half buttoned, brown socks up to his calves and brown shoes, and a large cooler slung on his side like a messenger bag. If you think that's bad, the worst part was that he was walking with the aid of two golf clubs--using them as makeshift walking sticks.

 If anyone has had the pleasure of walking through the woods or going on a hike with Tim and me, you probably know that Tim always has to find a big stick to use as a walking stick because he thinks it's cool. He thinks it makes him look extra rugged or something.  I inevitably have to steal this walking stick and either throw it into the woods like a javelin or break it in half because he's taking himself too seriously. ahaha. It's one thing to have a walking stick if you're climbing a mountain, but if you're just walking in the woods, you DON'T NEED A WALKING STICK! (If anyone is reading this and thinks I'm just mean, you're probably right. But I'm mostly joking and he knows it). Nevertheless, I could not javelin his golf-club-walking-sticks because there were too many people around and those TaylorMades are too valuable to discard. Oh well. Tim is just a crazy guy.

concoctions from the farmer's market

This is the story about how 4 vegetables we bought at the farmer's market for $8 became the centerpieces of 4 meals (sort of).

Here's what we got this past Saturday:


Two eggplants ($2), 3 large carrots ($2), a bunch of garlic ($2) and a huge head of romaine lettuce ($2).

LETTUCE:
After having washed all the lettuce, the leaves filled three huge tupperware containers, which is enough to make 10 decently-sized caesar salads with homemade croutons and dressing.




GARLIC
With the garlic, I made pesto. I got the basil from our huge stash grown from seed on our terrace and in our front lawn.





EGGPLANT
The other night, I made eggplant parmesan. In addition to the fresh eggplant from a local farm, I used tomatoes grown in our very own garden.

                                       
                                          

CARROTS

With the carrots, I made carrot sticks. I guess that's not a proper meal, but oh well.

All in all, it's way more fun to cook with fresh produce (and if you grow it yourself, that's a bonus). It seems more satisfying for some reason.

homework buddy

Sealion isn't a very affectionate cat. When you want him to sit on your lap and snuggle with you, he will not oblige. He is, however, affectionate at the most inconvenient times, like when you're trying to type an email and he sits on the keyboard, or, like last night, when Tim was trying to do his homework and Sealion laid all over his papers and books.

good thing we have a pull out couch

This has been our sleeping quarters for the past couple of nights. The temperature and humidity necessitated our sleeping in the living room with the ceiling fan and cross breeze from the windows. Our bedroom is quite stuffy. Luckily the bed is comfortable!

scenes from the day

indoor batting cages for a respite from the heat

Strolled through Lake Walker. Note the great height of the trees

...and how pretty the houses are

harvested some of our basil to make pesto