Month: January 2004

I went with Dave & Hannah to go see Henry Rollins last night. Interesting mix of stand up comedy and political rants – very entertaining and I’ll definitely go see him again. Equal time for W., Ann Coulter and Sheryl Crow.

The highlight of the night was Nectar, just 3 blocks away from Lisner. I had the hanger steak with potatoes and a spinach puree that was superb. For dessert I had a “Pie A La Mode… Kinda”. It was the guts of a pie, on a bed of ice cream, surrounded by a pastry shell. Good, but odd to look at – kinda like an apple pie autopsy.

So we went to the Girlyman show last night, and they were great. Short set (they were opening), but still worth going. However, it took longer to get there then we stayed for the show.

Jill showed up early, so we were ready to go on time. When we got to the platform at Ballston, the next train was 10 minutes away – during rush hour. When we transferred at Metro Center, there was a 10 deep crowd waiting for the Red Line towards Shady Grove. We caught the second train going through. Very crowded (we didn’t need to hold onto a pole, we couldn’t move) for several stops. When we were almost at Grosvenor, our train came to a stop. The train in front of us was having mechanical difficulties, so they had to get everyone off. Then we pulled up, and that train’s passengers came aboard. Nice and crowded again. We got to Shady Grove, and went to the bus stop. The bus we were waiting for pulled up five minutes later, but the driver wouldn’t let us on. A couple minutes later, Metro cops turned up. Some guy was not getting off the bus. It wasn’t clear if he was drunk or on drugs, but he couldn’t walk under his own power. The cops got him off the bus and administered smelling salts, then we were allowed to board. We got off at our stop – according to Metro’s Rideguide, it was a block to the BBQ place where the show was. It was close to a mile, over a bridge, with no sidewalk (thanks to the snow) and the cars whizzing by inches from us.

Thankfully, due to leaving early, Girlyman was just starting when we arrived. We’re About 9 were good and the ribs and beer (Killian’s on draft) were tasty, but the trip there was draining and we left after the first set. The trip back was uneventful; we took a cab to Shady Grove, then Metro to Ballston.

So I saw a banner ad on the Post site a couple weeks ago about a drawing for free Redskins season tix if you sign up on the waiting list. Did it, didn’t think about until today. I got a voice mail from someone in their ticket office, asking me to call them back. When I did, turned out she wanted to sell me club level seats – which START at $275. Now while I might pay that much for a concert (though I haven’t yet – think my max was $200 for Jill’s bday gift of Celine), there’s no way in hell I’d pay that for more than one game a season, if that.

I’m miffed ’cause they got my hopes up and pulled a bait and switch.

Snow, freezing rain, ice. Today and tomorrow will not be fun. Might work from home tomorrow. I shoveled a cubic crapload of snow this morning. Add that to the skiing I did yesterday (at Roundtop with the Ski Club of Washington DC) and I’m feeling pretty sore.

Saturday was a clean up the house and cook day, followed by a nice relaxing evening where I read newspapers and Jill did cross-stitch while we drank wine in front of the fire. Friday we hung out with friends at JD & Sue’s – even got in a little hot tubbing.

I went to drop my car off to get the oil changed (and now apparently get new rear brakes – sigh). I thought I had timed it to catch the bus across the street, but I must have just missed it and had to wait half an hour for the next one. I went to the Burger King down the block and had a breakfast sandwich and some coffee, but I was pretty cold by the time the next bus showed.