Limping into the 5th anniversary

And by limping I mean literally. Thursday morning I was walking Illa with some new shoes that have only fabric covering when he decided he needed to go see another dog that was out, and in the process of restraining him he managed to land all 75 pounds on my not very protected foot. Ow. The middle toe on my right foot is still pretty black and blue, although I’ve mostly stopped limping.

Friday was the actual 5th anniversary, but we knew we wouldn’t want to celebrate on a Friday so hadn’t made plans. Good idea, as we were both tired and had leftovers – I even went to bed first.

Saturday was the first of three glorious days of sleeping in. This was also the first weekend in a while where we didn’t have any big plans or shows. The big accomplishments for me (aside from a lot of reading) was downloading and converting all the music for artists at ACL I hadn’t already obtained CDs for, as well as making two DVDs. Jill almost finished a knitting project, but ran out of yarn.

Jill requested pulled pork sandwiches on Saturday, though she had to go out twice as she managed to not pick up two items on her five item long shopping list (ok, I enjoyed that). I tried a new BBQ sauce recipe, but wasn’t enamored of it.

Sunday we celebrated by heading over to 2941 for an early dinner – we’d been there for brunch and lunch, but never for dinner. We were the first customers, and scored a nice table overlooking the lake. Both our eyes went to the four course tasting menu, so we ended up making the same choice for the first three course (very unusual for us).

We started with the Maine lobster summer roll, looked like a sushi assembly but tasted like lobster salad, though the caviar left it a tad too salty. Next up was a creamy gnocchi soup, very tasty but still a bit salty. It went down well with the onsite baked bread, I really enjoyed that. The main course of Wagyu beef strips on green beans and a warm tomato sauce was the highlight, each flavor set off the other perfectly. For dessert I had the figs, and Jill had a plate of fresh fruit.

Today was the Herndon Labor Day Jazz & Wine Festival, and Jill headed over early to do some tasting. I joined her and the Jewells to check out Bill Evans Soulgrass Acoustic with Tony Trischka (great mixture of jazz and bluegrass), but the rain which was drizzling at first increased in tempo, driving most folks away. Jill and I went to the Breeze to order pizzas, then came back. Only Stuart was left, but we were witness to some smoking bluegrass with Michael Daves on tenor and Tony Trischka on banjo (who was Bela Fleck’s teacher).

We had a lovely evening with the Jewells after we picked up the pizzas. We also picked up some salad fixings so Janice could make a Greek salad (they already had fresh feta, tomatoes and olives). We chatted for a good long while, but headed home as everyone has to head out early tomorrow.