As opposed to the Virginia square. It’s formed by traveling from here in Herndon, down to Richmond, over to Charlottesville, then back home. A very social weekend, and a lot of fun.
We started Friday night. We had a Cinco de Mayo games night planned, but we never got into games. We hadn’t seen out friends Hannah and Dave and Mel and Scott in a while, so instead pitchers of sangria and margarita and lots of food were served. It was good to catch up, but the party broke up by midnight, as we all had busy weekends. We couldn’t resist staying up and catching this week’s Lost, with its shocker of an ending.
Saturday morning we ran around getting ready, then packed up us and the dog, dropped him off in Chantilly, and headed down to Ashland, where my college is. My fraternity was having a lawn party, and we wanted to stop by, especially since we were already headed south for the day. A couple other alumni were there (Jill was convinced one of their children put a bug in her purse), and my bud John made sure there was some Magic Hat on hand. The bbq they had was from Extra Billy’s, and it was mighty fine. But we had a schedule to keep, and headed down through Richmond and over to Charlottesville, with a quick stop in Gum Spring at the BP/Dairy Queen for gas ($2.81!!) and a soda.
We pulled up to our friend Meg’s parent’s house (she and her husband are in the midst of moving back to Charlottesville), and she was waiting for us. After a brief pause to drop our stuff off, we piled into her car and went to downtown Charlottesville. We wandered around a bit, and went and ate at The Hardware Store, where I had a panini and Jill had a chicken salad and fries. We got iced teas because Meg let us know the venue had a big beer selection. We went right over to the Gravity Lounge at 7 to get good seats, and we were first in. After securing front row seats, we wandered around, got drinks (“hairy grape” ale for me and a glass of cabernet sauvignon for Jill) and watched soundcheck while I sat in a chair that was surprising comfortable for resembling a giant hand while we waited for Meg’s husband Jeremy to join us. Jill also had an Allagash White that she drank half of, then mixed with a Lindemann’s lambic at the bartender’s suggestion. It was pretty tasty. I think the show deserves a separate post, so more on that later.
After the show, we went to Zocalo, where Jeremy works, and had drinks outside (Jameson’s and diet Coke for me, margarita for Meg, and a glass of Port for Jill). We decided to walk down to Miller’s – where Dave Matthews got his start as a bartender. We walked inside where it was loud, and upstairs where it was smoky and louder, then heading back outside for another round, beers for us (ran out of Magic Hat getting ours, Jill volunteered to take the hit and have a Smuttynose, but we switched as it was too hoppy for her). We got back to Meg’s parent’s house around 1:30 and met Batman the cat, and Meg generously gave us her room to sleep in.
Sunday morning we woke up, got ready and followed Meg (Jeremy had to work) over to Bodo’s Bagels, where I had an egg and bacon sandwich while Jill had turkey, sprouts, cucumber, and herbed cream cheese sandwich. After breakfast we went our separate ways, us straight up 29. On our way out of town, we stopped at a Target to pickup batteries for the boombox (Jill generously offered to drive so I would when we go to Baltimore, and she still hasn’t gotten another car radio). That caused jill to exclaim, “I love suburbia!”. Strange woman, my wife, but I love her anyway.
We stopped in Ruckersville to see Tamsin, who was one of the massage therapists I saw until she moved out of the area (although she’ll be giving classes soon). We toured her giant new home, and talked about some of the ways she might finish it off, then just chatted for a while. We had to get back and pick up the dog by 4, so we headed back (with a pit stop at Starbucks near Warrenton – I like the green tea).
Jill went grocery shopping as she’s trying Weight Watchers Core Plan this week (their version of Atkins/Zone) and I watched Bill Maher and read Friday’s and Saturday’s papers, then when she got back, marinated some chicken for tomorrow and made summer turkey chili while we watched two Desperate Housewives and 24. Jill had a surprise: cheescake Jello and fruit for dessert after we had the chili, good with the fruit. She’s off to bed as she’s got an early shift tomorrow.