Weekend Review

Saturday Jason and I went to the Washington Auto Show. It was completely packed, but it was really cool. In a couple of years (hopefully) I'd like to either get an Acura TSX or a Toyota Camry Hybrid. I sat in them both, and they are very nice. They are super fancy compared to my Mo (he's a 99 Civic) and he doesn't even have a CD or tape player. I think they became standard the year after I bought the car. After the Auto Show we had a nice dinner of steak and wild mushroom rice. We watched the Fifth Element. I had never seen it before, and I thought it was a good movie.
Sunday I went and got a facial at the Aveda Salon in King Farm. King Farm is this hoity toity village of apartments and townhomes with nice restauarants and a grocery store in walking distance. I had the worst date of my life with a guy who lived there. *shudders*
The facial was very nice and pampering. The lady told me I had very good, young skin. Thanks, Ima! She's almost 60 and her skin is really lovely. She waved three different scents under my nose to try, and I picked tangerine. It was so yummy...I wanted to eat my face. I was a little sleepy on the drive home so it's a good thing I didn't have to go far.
I got on AIM and saw that Danny was online, so I invited him and Linda to dinner. I called Steve and Jason and everyone met at my place. We went to Applebees and sat and sat. I probably should have either gone to the hostess and asked her to reseat us, or tried to flag down someone on the staff. The waitress told the table near us that something the guy was eating was comped which leads me to think he complained. Everyone wanted to watch the Dresden Files so we just went to Red Robin instead. I had a yummy fruity drink called Sand in Your Shorts, and a burger. Dan and Steve both got hamburgers with a fried cheese wheel and a fried egg on it, because they are insane. :)
We had a good time.
We got back to watch the show just as it was starting. It was pretty good. I liked the first episode better. They are based on a series of books written by Jim Butcher. They suck you in, but are extremely violent. It was a bit of a shock with the first book for me. But the show is not nearly as violent, at least so far. Still pretty suspenseful though.
I have one more day here at work that will be completely boss free. I am going to enjoy it as much as possible. :)

Patting myself on the back

It appears I made about $1000 on my investments last year, not including my 401K. Not too shabby. And I did it all by myself.

Music or Movies?

I was thinking about the this or that on Weltek's blog where she asked: music, or movies? My answer without hesitation would be music.
I can't imagine my life without it. I've often felt at times there is a soundtrack to my life. I'm always listening to something.
Dad grew up on 50's and 60's R&B classics, and of course rock music. He collected thousands of 45s and 33 and 1/3rds.
When I was growing up, we had record nights. We lived in a split level house, and in the basement dad had his record player hooked up to the stereo. He's spin tunes like a dj and we'd dance around the basement in our pajamas. I have fond memories of those times. He would do silly things like find a song like Stop in the Name of Love and just play the word stop, and then find another song that started with Go. And he'd dub them on tape so we'd here, Stop...Go... Stop...Go. And then we'd laugh and tell him to play another song.
I remember in the 6th grade when some horrible rap remix of Happy Together came out. George (he was such a snot) asked who wrote it and I said The Turtles. He just looked at me like I was stupid and said, "no, the real song." I looked right back at him and said, "That is the real song. It's classic."
Dad was pleased.

Florida

Florida was wonderful. Dad was nice enough to take us to the airport early in the morning, and our flight was very smooth. We stood in line for a bit and got our rental car. We got a Chevy something, medium sized. I got us a GPS unit so we could figure out where we were going. We decided to go to the Science Museum first before we checked in. I had a lot of fun playing with all the gadgets and interractive things. Then we drove over to the hotel. It turns out that Weston is a pretty new town, so the GPS didn't exactly get us there. But we were close, and when we called it only took a few minutes. I got the room for free because of my Mariott points. We took a much needed nap, and then headed over to the game. The less I say about that the better. Let's just say that I showed up, and they did not. We had club level seats, and they had all these nice food stands on our level. I had a very good chicken sandwich. Jason was cold...I forgot to warn him that the rink would be cold; I guess I've grown used to it over the years. After it became very clear the Caps weren't going to win the game, we got a piece of key lime pie which Jason fed me in bed. It was very decadent.
The next morning we got up and went to the Sawgrass Mills outlet mall to get Jason a swimsuit. All the times last year we went swimming he wore his shorts. We found a decent one at Target, and got a beach towel for two. We drove down to Key Biscayne, which has a state park and a less crowded beach. I went their last when I was in Miami for New Year's 2000 and I remembered it was lovely. The water was a beautiful clear blue, I was surprised by how clear it was. It was windy on the beach, and we had a couple of very brief (about ten minutes tops) showers, but we had a very nice time. We even got in the water a bit and had a nice walk on the beach. It was good to feel sand between my toes. We went back to the hotel and showered and changed for dinner. We went to this seafood place called 15th St. Fisheries, which had a great view of the Ft. Lauderdale waterfront. The food was delicious.
Monday morning I used the GPS to find us a restaurant near the airport for brunch, and it turned out to be in a Jewish community! It was so funny because it was a complete accident. They had a Sephardic temple nearby, which made sense to me. The Sephardim (Hebrew for "Spanish") are those descended from Jews who migrated from the Middle East to the Iberian Peninsula in the 8th-9th centuries, and scattered since 1492 throughout North Africa, south-eastern Europe, back to the Near and Middle East, and parts of the Americas. The food was very tasty. We drove back to the airport and dropped off the car, and flew home. Everything went smoothly again, and we arrived to a day that had been in the 70s. Mother nature must have known we were coming from 80 degree weather and didn't want us to go into shock. :)
Dad and Ima looked after Ari, and dad took some cute pictures. As soon as he sends them to me I will post them.
Unfortunately, I didn't bring a camera with me so I have no pictures. It's a shame too, cause I bought a new swimsuit and it's super cute. :)
Jason and I had a wonderful time. We had been away together before, but never just the two of us. I never got tired of his company. He's so interesting and intelligent and funny and sexy. I'd marry him tomorrow if he asked me to. Too bad life is a bit more complicated than that. :)

Just In Time

Now that it was finally chilly this morning (it was a COLD walk to my building from the metro) we are going to Fort Lauderdale this weekend. :)
I got Jason tickets to the Caps-Florida Panthers game for Christmas. And we are going to the beach in Key Biscayne on Sunday. I'm very excited. I love to travel, and it's always nice to get away, even if it is just for the weekend.
Dad has volunteered to take us to the airport on Saturday morning since the train won't be running yet. Our flight is at 7:30. I wanted to have as much time as possible to enjoy our time there.

I may be a wee bit stubborn

Yeah, so I have an ear infection. Never mind that I could have gone to the doctor a week ago and been fine now. Heh. :)
I feel much better already. Plus my sister had been there an hour before for a blood test, so the nurse called me LeDeborah.
:)

Great Weekend

New Year's Eve Jason came over and I made chicken chili. Jason helped me... and it was delicious. We had chocolate covered raspberries and desert wine. It was soooo yummy. We drank bubbly and watched the ball drop. We both agreed it was the best New Year's Eve EVER. :-)
Monday I went to the hockey game with Abbi. John was there with his other two kids but decided to sit in cheaper seats than we had. It was pretty fun even though the Caps lost. That night Jason and I went to this brew pub and had tasty dinner. I had a tuna steak and he had salmon. And we split a creme brulee.
Yesterday I was feeling kind of punk so I rested. I've been having ear ache pain for about a week now, so I made an appointment to see the doctor for this afternoon. I get to see Ima and dad for dinner.