Saturday I went to my myo, then wanted to make it back to watch a documentary on A&E about Star Wars. About five minutes in, I realized the same doc was on the new DVD, so flipped over to Toon Network and watched an episode of the new Justice League (very good, I was surprised at the number of obscure characters they used), then read the paper. Once Jill got up from working the night shift, I made some food (mostly leftovers) and we channel surfed for a bit.
We got to Ballston around 6. The Blocktoberfest was a fenced off area of Wilson Boulevard in front of the Ballston mall. We got there midway through Shane Hines’ set. We got a beer (luckily they had Red Hook in addition to the usual suspects) and watched him, then caught the end of Fighting Gravity’s set (they ended with “Ring Of Fire” and “Tainted Love”, an odd mix). We sat down on the curb until emmet swimming started, then got up to the second row.
This was emmet’s second show with new bassist Scott Brotemarkle. While Scotty has played with Todd numerous times, and come up to sing with them (most notably during “Broken Oar”on Earplugs 50), this was different. And excellent. I’ve never been to an outdoors show that had the vibe of an indoor one, and this felt just like a show at TTs (well, without people trying to get to the bathroom by going between you and the stage). The show was great, and Scotty’s voice blends well with Todd’s, even on the songs he hadn’t done before.
After the ‘fest, we decided to get some dinner, which was a bit of a problem, as it seems everyone else had the same idea. Even a couple blocks away was crowded. We tried to get a table at Gaffney’s but there was a 45 minute wait for food. We went to Flat Top where they were able to seat us right away, but the food did take a while. Next we stopped by Dave & Melissa’s to pick up the wedding leftovers (table cameras and centerpieces). Finally we went down to Adams Morgan where Katie (one of Jill’s coworkers) was throwing a rooftop party. Jill enjoyed chatting, and I couldn’t take my eyes of the skyline – you get an amazing view of DC from 11 stories up.
We didn’t get home until after 2, so we slept in Sunday. And we were glad we did, because it was a big cleaning day that wore us out. Started off with huevous rancheros (it was going to be an omelet, but I had run out of cooking spray and was using butter which caused the egg mixture to stick), then moved to the dining room, where we sorted gifts, got trash and paper recycling piles together. Next stop was the basement. I keep boxes for shipping eBay auctions, so I had to reorganize the boxes and packing materials. Jill brought down all the new stuff that we didn’t have room for upstairs. While I finished the basement, Jill moved to the kitchen to box up the old dishes and put away the new. At least that was the plan until she discovered we were out of dish soap. She made a Target run while I read the paper. Then I grilled chicken that had been marinating in a wasabi ginger sauce and cooked some beans, then we watched some Simpsons eps (nothing to watch on TV), finishing with brownies and ice cream (all low carb, and pretty tasty).
Today I was expecting a phone call about a job, so didn’t get online until now. I did run all the paper recycling out (filled my entire car), dropped the table cameras off for development, and got gas and groceries. I cleaned up the kitchen and living room while I watched the Star Wars:Empire of Dreams documentary. Good stuff on there, including screen tests by Kurt Russell and William Katt, and some interesting deleted scenes (Han kissing Leia on Cloud City) in addition to insightful comments by Lucas and all the actors.