Friday night we (me, David, Lisa, Keith, Michele, Cindy, Pat, and Julie) had dinner at 1789 in Georgetown. Omni didn’t have any work for me, so I left work at 1pm and took the Metro to Lisa’s office. Lisa has a lovely office, even though practically her whole company just got laid off. We came back to her house and changed into schmancy clothes, then picked up everyone else and went into DC to dinner. It was excellent. I had escargot and lamb and chocolate cake. I also drank a really well poured vodka tonic. I think I may have become a convert to Grey Goose, from my previous brand, which was Skyy, which I switched to when I decided it was better than Absolut. Grey Goose is really smooth. After dinner we went across the street and walked down the stairs from The Exorcist. I got kind of vertigo-y on the way down, partially because I was wearing slip-on open-toed shoes and a skirt, and the stone is really worn down in places. I took several pictures of the graffiti, which I will post tonight or tomorrow. The best item was the Lord’s Prayer, except with every instance of “thy” misspelled as “thigh.” We decided that “Thigh Kingdom Come” would be a good name for a porn movie.

Cindy and Pat and I spent the night at David and Lisa’s, and then Saturday I got up, was driven home, and tried to take a nap, but couldn’t, because I couldn’t talk my way out of going down to Diane’s in Fredericksburg (or thereabouts) for an open-house barbecue type of party. So Lin and Matt and I did that, and it was nice (the weather’s been just wonderful this whole weekend). I slept like a baby when I got home, but I had to get up at 8 to get back over here to Lisa’s by 9!

Today we (me, Lisa, David, Neva, Josie, and Cindy) took a day road trip down to the environs of Charlottesville (to Wintergreen Winery), to taste some wine and frolic in the grass and take a winery tour and have a picnic and stomp some grapes. Grape stomping was really, really disgusting. The grapes squishing between your toes feel … well, they feel weird. I only did it for a minute or so, and I did make a distinct effort to stomp on the ones that had not yet been squished, but still. Ewww. I’d so totally do it again. In any case, we had good picnic food and there was a stream and there were climbable trees, and there were lots of other kids, and I think everyone had a really nice day. The weather was just perfect. The six hours in the car today were not as fun, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse.

At the winery, I didn’t really like any of their wines. They do a fairly good Chardonnay and a decent Riesling, but I don’t really drink whites; their Cabernet and their merlot were not to my liking at all. They did have an outstanding apple wine (same process as grapes, just they use apples) that I really liked, but which I would never choose to drink at home. They also served it warm with mulling spices and cider, and while that concoction was just lovely, I couldn’t make myself buy any, because this summer has been so long and so lovely that winter (along with its beverages) is a very foreign concept. This has been a wonderful summer. ANYWAY. I did buy some scrumptious bean salsa and some “how bad can it be” Chesapeake crab salsa and some awesomestrawberry-and-habanero jelly. This stuff tastes amazing. They served samples on Wheat Thins with cream cheese, and it was just a really unique and tasty thing. First you taste the fruit, then you taste the heat, and it just burns and is sweet and good. I can’t wait to break that out at home. I love cream cheese and jelly, and the habanero really works.

When we got back we had some very tasty calzones for dinner. Now they’re putting the kids to bed, after which David will watch the rest of the Virginia Tech season opener (I do not envy the pressure on Marcus Vick, except that I bet he’s better off than Eli Manning was), and I think Lisa and I are planning to watch Sideways, finally.

Tomorrow? I. Am. Doing. Nothing.

I am going to sleep until at LEAST noon, because I simply have not been allowed to sleep as much as I please in ages (two weeks of unemployment really messed up my expectations on that front, let me tell you). I have a short list of things I want to do around the house, but it’s a short list, and then I’m just going to sit there like a lump on a log and luxuriate.