Friday Jill was planning on coming with me to meet up with Dad and see the Nationals take on the Diamondbacks, but she was feeling a little under the weather. I headed out on my own since Dad had already left for the the game and it was better than normal traffic and Metro ride in. I got there a little early, but couldn’t find him until he turned on his phone, and I bought some tix and went in. Our seats were in 111 row EE, higher and farther away from the plate from the last game, but easier to take in the action. And there was a lot of action, as we saw a Zimmerman homer and they extended their win streak to six in a row (and incredibly it’s still going on, eight as of tonight). We also enjoyed some Ben’s half smokes and tasty adult beverages before heading out in the top of the ninth.
Saturday Jill and I really slept in, to close to noon. The weather the night before was perfect, and it started warming up. By the time Illa and I got back from a run/walk, we were panting more than usual. I spent the afternoon getting Dad’s new laptop ready (a retirement gift from us and Sharon) and Jill got some rotisserie chicken for dinner. We’d planned to leave for Nissan Pavilion at 4, but we left 45 minutes late. It was ok, we tried a new route and made good time. We tailgated with the chicken, some veggies and chips and guacamole Jill had made, then we went wandering and found my old elementary school classmate Greg and his wife (I’d seen on Facebook they were going) and chatted with them until showtime.
Donovan Frankenreiter was pretty good – if you like Jack Johnson, you’ll like him, but I don’t know if I’d see him as a headliner. Dave Matthews Band killed it, as usual. I expected the show to be strong since last year’s show turned out to be LeRoi Moore’s last, but it was stellar. Starting off with my favorite new songs, “Why I Am” and “Funny The Way It Is” was good, and an inspired pairing of “You Might Die Trying” and “Lie In Our Graves” was appropriate, but my last “Raven” was 7 years ago and it was my first “I’ll Back You Up” in 10 years (and that was a Dave & Tim, have to go back 14 years for a band version). With rarities like that and awesome jams on “Lie In Our Graves” and “#41” it was verging on great, and then they busted out a cover of “Burning Down The House”, then followed up with “Dancing Nancie” and “Grey Street” – no contest. As usual at Nissan, we left before the encore, and it was an easy out this year.
Today we got up early in order to make it over to Alexandria to check out an early showing of the new Harry Potter movie in IMAX. It’s become a tradition for us to see it in IMAX, but this time Udvar-Hazy wasn’t playing it. Picking the first 10 minutes to turn into 3D was an odd choice, though reassembling the house was cool (the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs trailer was a better use of 3D, but it was a good flick overall, really ready for the next two now. I’m also going to miss Alan Rickman in his role when they’re all done.
We went to lunch next door at Delia’s Mediterranean Grill and Brick Oven Pizza where Jill had a grilled salmon sandwich and I had half a Prosciutto White pizza, then we headed over to Sharon’s where she was having a housewarming/moving party since she’s only been there a couple months, but she’s moving to Boston by the end of the month. I showed Dad how to use the new laptop and we got to chat for a while (including grilling Sharon’s neighbor about her Date Lab appearance before heading back. For dinner I grilled some burgers and corn, then sauted some green beans and made oven fries. Now I’m surfin’ madly, should probably get to bed soon (Jill went to sleep a couple hours back).