Not really the great outdoors, since I never left paved areas, but definitely not breathing conditioned air. Ok, maybe Friday night, as we had some leftover pasta with shrimp, sausage and chicken from a dish Jill had made earlier in the week – it was pretty tasty. I watched a little TV, and finished planning the rest of the weekend.
Saturday morning I headed down to college for homecoming – I try to attend the tailgate whenever I can. The only bad part was the band was now facing the tailgate area, and that made it hard to carry on conversations. But it was good catching up, and there was a couple of guys I hadn’t seen for a number of years.
I only stayed a couple hours, as I also wanted to go to Blocktoberfest, the sequel to Shamrockfest, also now at RFK. I got there with time to spare before emmet swimming, so I got a beer and hung out. They put on a fun but short show. Todd joked they he wanted a beer girl costume, but they didn’t make one in his size, and that his kids were there somewhere, probably at the beer truck.
I saw a number of bands after that, including Stroke 9, whose “Little Black Backpack” was so prevalent a couple years back. For whatever reason, they provoked a dance off between two groups of guys, quite possibly inebriated. I also enjoyed the guy who tried to catch a football and nearly took out the first aid tent. I stayed for the Gin Blossoms, as I enjoyed their new album, but they were dragging out the jams on the new songs (and there was something wrong with the harmony vox), and I left before the end.
Today I got up early again (maybe tomorrow I’ll sleep in) and headed to the Metro, meeting Dad at the other end of the Blue Line as it was time for our annual Redskins game (at least once a year). He’d brought some sandwiches and beers, so we tailgated (again!) for a bit before heading inside. I’d obtained “obstructed view” seats, which meant we couldn’t see about five yards leading up to the eastern end zone, but it also meant we were covered and got no sun, nice on a hot day. The game was great, and we stayed until close to the end when there was no doubt in the outcome (and got stuck in a little traffic, but nothing too bad). After I got back, I played with Illa, then went outside and finished reading the paper on the deck.