Emma’s First Half

A huge part of the reason that we chose last weekend to go up to DC was that my sister Emma was running her first half-marathon, the Nike Women’s Half Marathon.  Even though I’ve run ten halfs (halves?), it still means a lot to me when I have friends and family out on the course and considering it was her first, I thought Emma could use some mid-race support.

Jason and I got up and took the Metro to Smithsonian station.  There was a course map online and we found a spot right before Mile 11.

You can’t see it in this picture, but right after here, the runners went into a tunnel that had drummers (and maybe strobe lights) inside.  We put on our best spectating faces.  That’s Jason’s “Go Emma” fist pump.  And what’s up with my neck?  Anyway.

Seeing all the runners really made me wish that I was running too.  It was the first time I’ve ever been on the sidelines at a big race.  Though I’ve done a 5K and a 10K this year, I haven’t run a half-marathon in over a year and while I haven’t really felt like I’ve been missing out on anything, in the moment, I missed the feeling of being one of those runners who was being cheered on.

There’s no real reason that I didn’t sign up for another half-marathon after my last, which was in March of last year.  I just felt burnt out.  I felt sick of training all the time, sick of never PRing and just sick of it all.  Ten seemed like a good number to stop, so I did.  And while I know that at some point, I’ll want to run another half, right now isn’t that time.

After Emma ran past us, we made our way to the finish line.  Though we were only at Mile 11, the finish line was much less than two miles away.  The poor runners saw the finish line to their left and then ended up having to run to the right for another mile and double back (or something like that.)  What a cruel course!  As we made our way to the finish, we were able to see some of the DC sites.  Sometimes I forget I used to live here.  Now I feel like a tourist when I come back.  And take the pictures to prove it.

Somehow, we missed Emma crossing the finish line but she did it!

Drinks and Indian Food

My 3-day weekend is going to be one of those annoying things that takes up three separate posts. I can’t help it. I did three entirely different things this past weekend and if I tried to fit them all in one post, it would be very, very long. Plus, it helps my writer’s block.

Since our three year anniversary is coming up in just two months, we decided to head back to the scene of the crime. We drove into DC to the hotel where we got married and had a drink.

They had remodeled the bar area, so it looked different than we remembered but it was still fun.

After our drinks, we went to my mother’s boyfriend’s house for a little bit before heading out to Rasika for dinner.  Rasika is an upscale Indian restaurant that’s very popular.  We weren’t able to get a reservation before 9:30 pm.

My mom and I had looked at some Yelp reviews the day before and a bunch of people recommended the Palak Chaat.

We also got the Sev Batata Puri.

Forgive my awful iPhone pictures.  It was pretty dark in the restaurant.  For our entrees, I ordered the Vegetable Biryani.  It was almost like a pot pie and much bigger than it looked.

Jason got the Tandoori Chicken Tikka.

My mom had the Khatta Meetha Black Cod.

And Marty had the Tandoori Lamb Chops.

We all shared a bread basket full of naan and some rice.  Everything was really, really delicious.  It was one of the best meals that I’ve had in a long time and a really fun night.  Of course, I was full for about 24 hours afterward, but that’s okay.

 

 

 

Crispy baby spinach / yogurt / tamarind / date

Barbecue in Bethesda

I had a nice three day weekend in Maryland with my family.  Somehow it passed by way too quickly, but it always does.  On Friday afternoon, Jason and I flew in to BWI airport.  It’s a little farther from National or Dulles, but sometimes you can save as much as $40 per person. My mom took the day off so she was able to pick us up.  We were going out to a nice dinner on Saturday night, so we decided to keep it laid back and stay home and grill.

First up: shrimp!

I don’t know why I never think to grill shrimp when I’m at home, but I never do.  It’s easy though and they were tasty.

We also had salad.

And I sauteed some brussels sprouts basically using this recipe, which is my go-to brussels sprouts recipe.  The key is getting them charred.  Really.  The key would also be to take a picture that isn’t blurry, but I apparently haven’t quite mastered that yet.  Or the char, I guess.  These could have used a little more.

For our entrees, my mom and I shared some swordfish, while Jason had steak.

Grilling is one of those things that we always say we need to do more often and then we don’t.  I guess it’s because Jason and I really only have one night where we eat dinner together (Saturday) without him either being very tired (Friday) or needing to be tired so he can go to sleep (Sunday).  So we often will go out to dinner on Saturday nights.  But, we really do need to grill more often.

Wedding Weekend

Like always, my time spent in Maryland went by way too quickly.  But it was a good weekend, filled with family, so it’s okay.  It’s always hard to see everyone that I want to see when I visit.  This time it was easier though, because though my parents are divorced, they both attended my cousin’s wedding. The groom is on my dad’s side (he’s my dad’s brother’s son) but my mom has remained close with them.  So it was a win-win for me, having both of my parents there.

The weekend started out with a rehearsal dinner at Cafe Deluxe in Gaithersburg.

It was fun to see all my relatives but both Jason and I were pretty tired afterward and ready to go home and call it a night.  Especially Jason, he had been up for something like 24 hours.

The wedding was on Saturday at 4:30 at Strong Mansion, which is at the base of Sugarloaf Mountain, about 45 minutes from my mom’s house.  They had the wedding outside which was risky for November, but they lucked out as it wasn’t too cold and the trees were still pretty.

(That’s my sister.)

The reception was in a heated tent.

Jason and I were sat at a table with my brother and sister (they are really my half-brother and half-sister, but I never call them that) and some cousins – one who lives in DC, two who live in Pittsburgh and one who lives in Cincinnati.  It was fun to catch up.

Do we look alike?  Same father, different mother, although they have the same mother.  And for some reason, I didn’t seem to get any pictures of my father or stepmother.  Photog fail.

And like that, my weekend in Maryland was over and we were boarding the plane to Atlanta.

Okay, really that was two days later, but it still felt really short.

Lunch with Lauren

Jason and I are in Maryland for the weekend. It was my cousin’s wedding last night. But before that, we went to lunch with Lauren and her husband Greg.

Lauren and I have a ridiculous amount of things in common and it’s about time we finally got to meet in person. Just off the top of my head, and I’m sure there are more, we both:

* are from Maryland
* have art degrees
* are the same height
* were both RAs in college
* have similar histories with food and healthy eating/working out
* have golden retrievers
* have similar political beliefs
* and as of yesterday, have the same red Toms

I’m sure there’s much more, but I can’t think of it right now. I’m also flustered because I’m using a PC and don’t know how to make a bullet point. Reason #1234 why Macs are better.

She lives about an hour from where my mom lives and since we didn’t have a ton of time, they drove up to Rockville (about 15 minutes for me, maybe 45 for her) to eat lunch at Lebanese Taverna. It was nice out so we sat outside.

I had the Olivia’s platter which was a choice of three mezza dishes. I chose spicy hummus (though it wasn’t very spicy), vegetarian grape leaves and salad.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to spend with them, since the wedding was at 4:30 and about an hour away. It was still really fun to meet and hopefully next time, we’ll get to hang out longer (and meet their goldens.)

And she brought me Kind bars!

Ben’s Chili Bowl

In all my years of living in the DC area, I’d never been to Ben’s Chili Bowl. I’d always sort of just assumed that there was nothing there that I’d want to eat. After Obama got elected and ate there, Jason really wanted to try it. When we were in DC for Thanksgiving, we tried to go but there was a line around the block and we were too cold to wait. Fortunately, it wasn’t as crowded this weekend and we were able to see what the hype was about.

As I do for pretty much every restaurant, I looked up the menu beforehand. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had a lot of veggie options. Not only did they have a veggie hot dog, but they also had veggie chili and a veggie burger.

There was a big line inside but we managed to get through it in about ten minutes.

I ordered a veggie dog with veggie chili. Jason had the half-smoke with regular chili and we shared an order of veggie chili fries.

I thought the veggie dog was pretty good, but the chili and fries were a little bit of a let-down to me. Even so, I was so happy that they offered them, that it didn’t really matter what they tasted like. Plus, it kept me from scarfing down the entire basket of fries anyway.

After Ben’s, we went to the International Spy Museum.

It was cool but it was really crowded and hard to see the exhibits with all the people running around. We had plans to meet my mother at Dupont Circle and had about 45 minutes to kill so I suggested walking there from Gallery Place (about 2 miles) instead of metro-ing it. It was hot and humid and we got pretty sweaty but it was worth it because we were able to walk right by the hotel where we got married, a little over a year ago.

I have this same picture somewhere, only we’re in our wedding clothes and my head doesn’t look double the size of Jason’s!

Day Three in MD

You know what else I am thankful for? Wi-fi. My mom doesn’t have wi-fi and it’s making it really hard to blog. I am managing to get a weak signal from the neighbor’s house. Yay for townhouses.

I can’t believe the 4-day weekend is almost over. We’ve been busy, busy, busy. We had dinner on Thursday at my dad’s house. My stepmother made a ton of food, including some special vegetarian stuffing and brussels sprouts (everyone else’s had bacon) for me. I somehow forgot to get pictures of most of the food, but we also had sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans and of course, there was a turkey.

I was extremely full after dinner, but managed to have a piece of pie anyway.

I started Friday morning out with a run. My mom lives right on the Capitol Crescent Trail so I always try to run there when I am visiting. My plan was to run 6 miles, which I did, but it wasn’t pleasant. I don’t know if it was the 2.5 glasses of wine that I had at Thanksgiving dinner or it was just one of those runs, but it sucked and I felt kind of nauseous the entire time. It didn’t help that it was cold and rainy out. I got it done and that’s the important part, right?

Since we didn’t get to spend Thanksgiving with my mom (the joys of having divorced parents), we had a second Thanksgiving dinner at her house on Friday.

My mom made spinach and meat lasagna and chicken caccitore.

I made brussels sprouts and cookies.

This morning brought another blogger meet up. This is the second time I’ve met up with bloggers in the past week. When it rains, it pours, right? I met up with Erin, Emily, Sana and Erin’s roommate at Le Pain Quotidien for breakfast.

I had some sort of porridge that was one of their daily specials. I don’t know what it is, but oatmeal always tastes so good to me in restaurants and so blah when I make it at home. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.

I used to get nervous at blogger meet-ups, but everyone is always so nice as were these ladies. We had a nice time chatting.

Jason had requested that we check out Ben’s Chili Bowl while we were here. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they had several vegetarian items on their menu so I was pumped to try it out.

We walked to the metro and took it to the U Street station and were kind of bummed to see a huge line that wrapped around the building.

We wouldn’t have minded waiting if it wasn’t windy and freezing outside. Instead of waiting, we walked down the street and ended up in a noodle place. A huge bowl of warm noodle soup was perfect to warm us up.

Ben’s Chili Bowl will have to wait for next time, I suppose. One more night here and then back to Atlanta, so I’m off to enjoy it. Although, it’s really freakin’ cold out…

Author leebecknellPosted on November 27, 2010Categories Blogger Meet-Up, DC, FamilyLeave a comment on Day Three in MD