flip flop weather

During flip flop weather, there's nothing like being a tourist in your own city. Having recently put brand-new tires on my bike (thanks to the fine folks at Silver Cycles, who didn't swindle me when I came in to get it checked out), I've been out touring the trails and sights of DC - namely, Rock Creek and Mount Vernon trails. I think it would be cool to do a blog post on good bike-and-lunch destinations one day, so stay tuned for that in the future. 


I spent this past weekend entertaining my parents, during their belated trip to wish me a happy birthday. They love to visit free museums, so off to the Mall we went. We went to the American History museum for my mom where we watched videos of Julia Child roast a lobster in 2 sticks of butter, and we went to the Air and Space museum for my dad. My favorite exhibit featured the history of passenger airlines, complete with a walk-in cross section of a plane. 


It is funny that people used to get dressed up to fly on a plane. I am just glad that nowadays I can wear my jeans and flip flops and snuggle up next to the window whenever I fly. Plane naps are the best. Second to that are metro naps. See, normally naps make me feel like I am wasting time. But, if I am en route to a destination, I really don't have much else to do, so it is very efficient to both travel and nap. Plus, I feel somewhat victorious for being able to fall asleep amidst the noise of engines and people talking.  I am flying this weekend, actually, to go visit some friends in a flip-flop friendly clime, so I am looking forward to some spectacular plane napping. 

just another weekend around DC

Since my boyfriend got an iPhone recently, we checked out the "urbanspoon" app to find a good place to eat on Friday. We locked in on a "$$" place in "Old Town Alexandria", and shook the phone. For those of you wondering, "$$" is supposed to be 10-15 per entree. Bam! Instant suggestion. It suggested that we go to "Landini Brothers", an Italian place. Well, the restaurant was great, very romantic and candlelit, but the "$$" was definitely very off-base. It was more like $16-25 per entree. There was a $780 bottle of wine on the menu! $780! It's a recession, folks! Maybe they mean that you only have $10-15 left in your wallet after you eat here. Anyway, it was a fun little outing, but I'm not sure if I will trust Urbanspoon if I'm feeling frugal in the future.

No success with finding a bike this weekend. More slippery folks on Craigslist. One guy wanted to drive here from the beach to sell bikes and was trying to get everyone together to look at bikes at the same time (I have a hard enough time getting people I actually KNOW together to do something, getting a bunch of strangers together to meet at a metro just sounds like a poorly planned idea). Another guy kept telling me to call him back to see if he had anything in his shop (I really love telling you the kind of bike I want each time I call you). And another set of folks were "in town for the weekend, but maybe we can meet you somewhere, we've heard DC is convenient to navigate". Translation: telling people where to meet you in an unfamiliar location almost always winds up with you sitting around for half an hour while they get lost. My other favorite: "It's a small bike...I'm 5'9". Oh yeah, and the chain is a little loose!"

Now I know how people on dating websites must feel.

Anyway.

I also did one of my favorite weekend night activities this weekend....Sunday Night bowling! I love going out on Sundays because, well, what else is there to do. There's a couple of places in the area that I like to go to, that have "trendy" bowling, meaning the kind where you DON'T show up with your own bowling gear, and those are Lucky Strike in DC, and 300 in Gaithersburg. 300 is very large, with lots of lanes and music videos playing. They also have a nice system for getting your balls and shoes - you pick the ball out at a counter along with the shoes - so you're not rooting through balls trying to find the right size. However, their menu is lame (they have "gourmet chips" on the menu). The music videos also distract me from beating my boyfriend in bowling, which I love to do. I start grooving to "Put a Ring on It", and the next thing you know, my ball is heading straight down the gutter.

We actually went to Lucky Strike this time instead. It's not really that crowded on Sunday evenings, which is awesome (try getting a lane on Saturdays...). I like the food there (as bowling alleys go). They also only show sports on the big screens, which has the distinct advantage of NOT distracting me. I am very excited because last night, I bowled over 100 in one of my games! I got 2 strikes (plus one 9) on the last turn! (Yep, I beat the pants off the bf on that game.)

bikes

I'm obsessed lately with finding a new bike. I don't really know why, either, but I would love to ride again. The old one succumbed to rust, and it wasn't really worth the money to fix the wonky brakes (that was before it got rusty). Also, I forgot the combination (how sad! I used that lock for what...4 years?).  I've been trying to chase down deals on Craigslist, but I gotta say, these bike sellers are slippery folks. I've gotten plenty of good things out of CL, but dealing with obnoxious people is not one of them. That's how it goes I guess. Too many people with poor CL skills who don't respect the way things are usually done there. Anyway, it seems like there are a lot of overpriced "vintage!!" bikes out there, hard to tell if something's really worth it or not, and I don't have time to go driving all over the DMV in the rain. I'll probably go check out this local bike restoration guy this weekend if he's got anything.

Besides, life is short.

In other news. . . . . . .

Really good podcast for those of you interested in how psychology works in every day life - thepsychfiles.com. I've been listening to it frequently, and it's great!