March

On Wednesday the 2nd we took Nina and a friend into DC for concert #8: Dua Lipa. We had dinner at Nando’s as we often do for shows at Capital One Arena, then headed in. DC had just dropped their vaccine mandate, but the show had been advertised as vaccine required until 2 days earlier, so we felt safe wearing our masks. Openers Lolo Zouaï and Caroline Polachek (ex indie rocker from Chairlift) were good, but the audience audibly groaned about a second opener. But Dua Lipa got the appropriate welcome for churning out pop bangers during a pandemic. It was quite a show, and Nina loved every minute (except for leaving during the encore).

Nina

Friday Jill was off and took Nina to Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience. Afterwards they got takeout from Taco Zocalo. Saturday Nina had her first non-family sleepover as Jill relented and let her have one with her best friend. Sunday the 2nd rescheduling of the Snow Patrol show for the Lincoln Theater actually happened, but Jill could no longer attend. No one wanted a free ticket, so I went solo for concert #9. Iain Archer was the unannounced opener, but I after I looked him up and found he was a former member of Snow Patrol, I paid close attention. As I suspected, he showed up again playing keys for their set. Lead singer Gary Lightbody was very relaxed, joking with the audience and laughing off flubs for what turned out to be a fun, mostly acoustic show.

Jill Nina

Thursday the 9th Jill flew up to help her mom pack for her move (evicted by her mom’s mom, but that’s a long story). The school days were fairly uneventful, but Friday night after Tae Kwon Do, Nina wanted to eat outside at the South Lakes Village shopping center at a table whose benches were swings. We got takeout from Cafesano and we got to watch some police officers argue with a very upset guy (about what we never discovered). Then we went to Safeway as Nina wanted to make a special dinner the next day. That turned out to be unicorn rolls (crescent rolls with ham, cheese & butter cooked in), fairy punch (Sprite with lime juice, lemon juice, honey & frozen blueberries) and fairy popcorn (with added raisins, craisins, pretzels & M&Ms). The latter was shared with her friend Celina, who came over later to watch Turning Red with us (what a great movie, and perfect timing to have the audience for it). Sunday Nina had a Girl Scout meeting (where I had to submit her outfit to Jill for approval).

Nina

Monday I said if you’re an Encanto fan, Nina told me about this: an original song set in the movie. She can’t stop singing it too. Friday the 18th we went out for a real dinner, at Blend 111 in Vienna. I’d read this fantastic review, and it was good practice for Nina as they had their menus in Spanish. Very tasty, I especially liked the tiradito de palmito, and Jill liked the pabellón criollo.

Nina

Tuesday the 22nd it was Nina’s last day of drama club and the parents were invited for the performance of 2 plays, the second of which featured her as one of the hairdressers who have a bunch of fairytale characters as clients. Later I was reminded it was Stuart’s birthday and of course I hit “Bri” that day on my journey through my music collection, and this came up.

Nina

Friday the 25th Nina had her first camp out at Camp Crowell‘s High Top Treehouses. Jill and I dropped her off, then went over to Vienna to eat outside at Bear Branch Tavern (good burger), then came out early the next morning to help clean up and do pick up. Nina’s troop leader said “Our first troop camp out was amazing! Yes, we were a bit chilly and learned that we need to bring warmer clothes and squishier sleeping pads but every Girl Scout had a huge smile at pickup. I was really impressed at their constant, positive attitudes and watching how well they all supported each other and took ownership of their camp out. I can’t wait to go camping with them again!” This seemed like a good time to share some of my pandemic archival work. Here I synched up a video with poor audio from several years back to a then just released audio version of the Foo Fighters at the 2005 HFStival. R.I.P. Taylor.

Nina

Sunday Nina and Jill got pedicures. Wednesday the 31st was the Terraset basketball challenge Nina had been preparing for. She sang withe the choir to start the game and performed with the cheerleaders. That night we packed as spring break started the next day, and I finished the taxes, which I’d been working on all week thanks to the new 3rd party payment rules on my eBay sales (thanks to filing them under Schedule D as collectibles meant I didn’t owe any tax on them).

Jill Nina