My Weekend

So on Friday morning I'm headed down to Mary's not without a bit of drama at the rental car place. There was one person in front of me and the clerk I knew told me they were waiting for his car to come up. I handed her my American Express card and license and then his car came up. He left and the clerk asked me for my card and license. I gave it to you. No you didn't. Yes, I did. No you didn't. Oh wait. Oh my god, I gave it to that man.

She runs out of the place and luckily catches the guy before he drives off. Had he done that, I don't know what  choices I would have had -- couldn't take an airplane; even Amtrak asks for photo ID sometimes. So I'm glad she moved fast. I had no traffic going down -- made great time.

On Friday night, we celebrated Fran's birthday. Note birthday crown. Also in attendance were Michelle (who is also a college friend) and her friend who we also know named Corinna who were on a road trip from Austin. And, of course, we were all gathered at Mary's. We had Italian food delivered.  We had this great pasta dish with lobster and bacon, some baked ziti, four-cheese ravioli, salad and stuffed mushrooms. And for dessert...

Mary got a dozen cupcakes all decorated like ice cream -- really beautiful.

This was mine -- I chose pistachio.

Here we are -- Corinna took this -- Michelle and I seated and Mary and Fran standing.

We hung out on Saturday and then about 3 left on our mini-road trip to visit our favorite destination restaurant, Capt. Billy's, but first -- on the way there...

We re-enact John Wilkes Booth's escape. This is Maryland about a mile from the restaurant and he crossed the Potomac to get to Virginia.

,We arrive at Capt. Billy's. Mary dropped us out front to go park the car and Michelle and Corinna went inside and I waited for Mary outside. This older gentleman walked by this other woman and me. He was carrying a bunch of mail and he greeted us and wished we had a pleasant meal. I said to her light-heartedly, "I wonder if that was Captain Billy" and she said very seriously, "Oh no, he died, but he's a family member."

Mary and Michelle split a dozen crabs whose market value price was $30. Out of curiosity I asked the server the price variance, and she said the lowest they are is $28 and the highest they are is $60.

This is messy eating. All that pounding, tearing, cracking, picking.  Here are Mary's hands, all covered with Old Bay seasoning and bits of crab. I, for one, don't like working that hard for food, so I had crab stuffed shrimp which were really good.

On the way there, we'd spotted a sign that said "Early Churches" and since it was still early, I suggested we go see if we could find them. This was a few miles from the restaurant. We also saw this state park, which was quite peculiar. It was a dirt road through a corn field... we followed the road and then it entered this very dark and sort of sinister looking forest and I would have continued, but Mary and the others were spooked and it devolved into a joke that I believe Corinna started that we'd be attacked a la Deliverance by a bunch of hillbillies lying in wait. So we got out of there.

Here's the "early church" -- am not sure if there are two, or we missed one. I should have taken a photo of the b uilding, but it really didn't look that old -- more like late 19th century, but it was kind of cool to see this place in such an out of the way spot. And since Michelle grew up in Maryland, she knew Maryland history, including the name of the boat that the first Catholic settlers arrived on -- Maryland's answer to the Mayflower, but now I can't remember the name.

I became obsessed trying to get a picture of Milo looking at the camera with his eyes open, and he was totally uncooperative, bored by my efforts.

Now it's Sunday morning and Dave arrived. Dave is Meredith's husband (who is in Afghanistan) and Michelle is Dave's mother-in-law. Of course, poor Dave got immediately sent to the grocery store to get paper towels and ice. Quite dutifully, Dave was up for the challenge and returned with 20 pounds of ice in his backpack and a giant package of 8 or 10 rolls of paper towels. We were quite impressed.  Oh yes, and the plastic wrap. This is Dave, writing down his shopping list so he didn't screw up.

The brunch was Tex Mex and this is Michelle's salsa and guacamole.  Michelle also made queso.

Fresh fruit. Note the lovely slicing of the bananas (which I did).

Meredith called from Afghanistan and we all had a chance to talk with her, including Matt, Mary's nephew, who is a high school chemistry teacher and puts up with remarkable good humor with a whole lot of everything from Aunt Mary and her friends.



Corinna made two breakfast casseroles. This one and one she made with homemade chorizo that she brough with her. Both of them were wonderful.



But all good things mustg come to an end. I left about 2, and this is the first time I saw the NY City skyline, from New Jersery, where you can see the almost-finished World Trade Center which is the tallest building here.

Coming across the Hudson, via the Lincoln Tunnel, incto Manhattan.

Where I got in Tony's traffic. This was the red carpet which was along Amsterdam Avenue... In the middle, someone was interviewing these two short guys in white suits. Have no idea who they are.

And one block from home. Here is the mess of the Second Avenue subway. This is Second Avenue between 86th and 87th so if you look at the darker structure, I live down that block. I wanted Stephanie to see what the neighborhood looks like. I'm glad I'm not living in that building, being blocked by these structures.

All in all, home safe and sound and a good time was had by all, especially me.