Life on My Own Terms

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(RIP Paul Harvey – I have wonderful childhood memories of listening to him on WMZQ in Augusta, Georgia)

Four years ago, my parents and paternal grandparents worked it out with my husband for them to come to town the weekend after my birthday. It was a complete surprise to me and I burst into tears when I saw them at Austin Grill that Friday night for dinner.

In the years since, my parents have come for almost every birthday (there was one year that Dad came alone, but that’s a story for another time and another venue). It is wonderful having them here. I love them dearly and the three of us grew up together.

You, dear reader, have already read about our Friday dinner.

Saturday morning we met up around 11 and headed downtown to Eastern Market. I’d been told that the eatery inside the market had some of the best crab cakes in the region and we decided to eat lunch there. After parking off of Eight Street, NE we walked through the flea market and then ducked inside the

temporary building for lunch. Hubs and I stood in line to order while the parents walked through the food stuffs. All of us ordered the crab cake sandwiches and we split fries. Yummy. After lunch we walked back through the rest of the market vendors and headed to the car to go see some monuments.

Additional exposition is necessary here. Mom is a kindergarten teacher. She has a stuffed frog from Build-A-Bear that is her class mascot. She brought the frog with her so that we could take pictures of the frog at various places in DC. Please know, dear reader, that we’ve all been to the monuments several times. Going on Saturday was purely for Mom’s kids.

We parked by the Jefferson Memorial and took pics there and were able to get pics of the frog with the Washington Monument as well. Back to the car and hubs & Dad dropped me and Mom off at the Lincoln Memorial. More pics and back to the car. Another drop-off at the White House and pics from the fence at the North Lawn. Back in the car and back home we went.

After beer and naps, we regrouped for dinner at Dogfish Head. I had the fried trio (shrimp, haddock, and cod) and felt crappy afterward. The food was good, but too much oil for my poor body. We said “g’night” to each other and parted ways for the evening.

Yesterday, we had brunch at Whitlow’s on Wilson — an old stand-by from when we formerly lived in the neighborhood. More yummy goodness for all. Good-byes were said and the parents headed to the airport. Husband and I got in the car to run errands.

Home Despot: paid to have our kitchen measured for pending renovation. priced out carpet for install as well.

Best Buy: Wiis!!!!! They finally had them back in stock. We took our gift cards with us hoping that we would be able to purchase one and purchase we did. We headed home (and didn’t go to the grocery store and Target like we should have) to set it up.

Several hours of fun ensued. Lucky was stinking the place up to high-heaven and we breaked to give him a bath. More golf was played and then husband wanted to play his new PS3 game.

I cooked a pot of lentils and a pot of rice for dinner and for my lunches this week. After our weekend of rich food, we needed something lighter and healthier to balance our systems out.

Laundry (in preparation for our house guest tonight) and couch time filled the rest of our evening.

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