As I predicted, Friday was fairly lazy. Jill needed hose for the wedding, so we went to Best Buy (for me – picked up new CDs from Megadeth, Live, and Keane) and Target for her. I got directions for the wedding, then she made a salad and I cooked steaks. She was tired and went to bed, I watched “Real Time with Bill Maher” and a heck of fight between Bill and former Senator Alan Simpson.
Saturday we were on the road by 8:15 (only 15 minutes late), and made the wedding with 2 minutes to spare (2 pit stops were necessary). The wedding was nice (and short). As we later found out, Kayri made her wedding dress, and she and Oran looked great. After the wedding, we had a caravan to the reception as we went up 288 (Richmond’s new highway) and most of us didn’t know the way.
Maggiano’s is part of a chain, but I hadn’t been there before. It’s certainly the best Italian chain I’ve been to – the food was outstanding. They served all the dishes family style, so we just passed them around. The salads were tasty, the calamari was well done, the gnocci was good, and the cheesecake was divine. And then they served us wedding cake! It was fun, but being in the afternoon, the carousing didn’t last too long.
During the toast, one of my fraternity brothers joked about going to the movies, but we liked the suggestion. Everyone’s first choice was “The Incredibles”, and there was a movie theater close by. We got tickets, then went to Rusty’s house (where we were staying) to change. We got there with plenty of time to get good seats for all 10 of us, and we had a good time.
The movie is more than anything an homage to the Fantastic Four, and I thought captured the fun of the best writers on that comic (Lee, Byrne, Simonson and Waid). It wasn’t exact match, but the powers were close, the costumes were very familiar, and having the Mole Man clone come out at the end was dead on. Another great effort from Pixar. They had a preview of “Cars”, though, and that I didn’t think looked too interesting.
We went to McAlister’s, a deli two stores down afterwards. I was not very hungry because I’d stuffed myself earlier, so I had soup (chicken and sausage gumbo) and a salad. Tasty though. We went back to Rusty’s after that and chatted with him and Meredith until the yawns outweighed the talking.
Sunday morning we had a smaller group at IHOP (new grain and nut pancakes aren’t bad). We headed home, getting there just after the Redskins game started. I was happy to actually finish the Sunday Post on a Sunday. I was also happy the ‘Skins won another one, and Jill mad some tasty chicken nugget pita sandwiches.
We screwed up going to the Birchmere – Jill wanted to go see Erin McKeown at the Birchmere, so I had purchased tix last time we were there. She was listed second, and we assumed she was the headliner, so Jill finished watching a show on TV before we went, and we walked in 10 minutes late. She was on first, of course, and her set wasn’t that long. The Waifs were good, Australian pop folk outfit, but we weren’t familiar with the songs. At least we avoided eating at the Birchmere.
We were back by 10, so we watched “Simpsons” and “Desperate Housewives” that I’d taped. Very happy that the Simpsons are back – I alaway enjoy “Treehouse Of Horror” too.