Ed at alumni banquet, 2005

Here's my best photo of Ed at the banquet (remember, you can click on the photo to see it larger or click on the "more of my photos" link to your right to see this one and others). I had an easy trip back. No real traffic. Lots of time to listen to the satellite radio. Stopped at Wegman's, Country Cupboard (for sticky buns), a fruit stand in Maryland and briefly at the outlets in Leesburg. Didn't get anything there because Restoration Hardware didn't have the paint I wanted.

Quiet day at work. Perhaps Justice Rehnquist is going to stay around after all (watch him prove me wrong tomorrow).

No big plans for the holiday weekend. It was good to see everyone in LV. I hope Ben's kids aren't driving their parents nuts with demands to go to House of Guitars.

New camera, new guitar

No photos this week because I'm charging up the new camera I got yesterday. Well, it's new but not different.

The flash on the otherwise very good Kodak camera we bought ourselves for Christmas stopped working a couple weeks ago. For one of the rare times, I'd purchased the service contract from Best Buy when I got it. That turned out to have been good. After first taking the broken camera and saying they'd get it fixed, Best Buy decided to just give us a new one instead. And now the new ones come with a printer/charger docking station - not just the charging station we had before.

So for no extra cost we now have a photo printer. We'll need to compare the cost of buying the paper and cartridges to having photos done at Target, but it's still nice to have the option of doing it ourselves too.

For Father's Day I bought myself another guitar. Just a low-end acoustic. Watching M and the guys having fun with theirs made me jealous.

E "took" me out to lunch today at a nice place called Coastal Flats. I say "took" because I paid the bill. She also made me a card. So far, M's given me a hug. He says he's got a surprise for me as well.

C is in West Virginia with Fenix. We hadn't been there since April and in the meantime there have been the plumbing problems. So one of us needed to get up there to check the house out. She says all seems OK.

I may be on the Fox Network's morning news/entertainment show Monday. A producer called me earlier to ask if I would and said he'd call back later with details. He hasn't done that yet, though, which makes me think they may have thought better of the idea. I will send out an e-mail if the gig gets confirmed.

M seems happy so far to be working at Target. He says the registers are more modern than Kohl's. He also had his Sat. and Sun. gigs at Potbelly's again this week. I caught some of it yesterday. While I was there, a group of teenage girls sat right in front of him and got him to play Happy Birthday for one of them.

I plan to leave for LV early Fri. morning. Will be bringing my good suit for the wedding.

Hot weather, Hot 'Nats

Not only did I get out to the Air & Space annex Saturday (see next two postings for more), but I also got to another Nationals game that night. And they won again.

This time, Matt and his buddy Tyler came along. I already had two tickets before we got there, so I sent them in while I bought another. Mine turned out to be in a better location (upper deck, third base line), and two seats beside me were empty. So they joined me around the third inning.

The Nats, as seems to be their habit, fell behind in the early innings - but only by a run. They came back late in the game to win 2-1.

Today, we did some work around the house, read a lot and generally relaxed. E is here now with Pat. She's got a job interview Wednesday at the American Eagle (clothing) store in the mall. M has resigned his position at Kohl's in protest over too much loading dock work. He's due to start work at Target next week. They've said he'll be doing cashiering and other things in the store, which is what he likes.

If you go to "onthemedia.org" you should be able to hear an interview I did with the show.

Pretty in pink

C at the Air & Space annex (see post directly below for more on our visit there Saturday).

Two 'Amazin Guys

Saturday, when C's parents came down with a busload of folks to visit the Air & Space Museum annex at Dulles, we went out to meet them. We didn't know it, but there was a special event going on - you could walk outside to see unique planes and talk with the pilots. And one of the pilots turned out to be Gus McLeod, who with his daughter was a contestant in The Amazing Race (my favorite show) earlier this year. C snapped my photo with him. Gus is the first guy to have piloted an open cockpit plane to the North Pole. Now he's going to fly around the world via the poles.

Nats win, Ruby Tuesdays loses

E and Ruby Tuesdays parted ways after two days on the job. The manager signed her up for nearly 40 hours a week, about twice what she'd wanted and thought she'd signed up for. So she's back on the job market. We suggested she explore the retail industry, as her brother has done.

I spent much of the afternoon at the Nationals-Marlins game. C was taking the train back from New York (and the big book fair). She wasn't due to arrive at Union Station until 4 p.m. E and her beau Pat didn't want to come. M couldn't because he had his gig at Potbelly's. So I drove in to D.C., parked at Union Station, walked to RFK (took about 30 minutes), bought a $10 outfield ticket and went to the game.

It was a good one too. A pitchers' duel until the late innings, when the Nats broke it open. I left in the 8th just after Ryan Church put Washington ahead for good with a three-run homer. (You can see a replay of his home run here: http://www.washingtonnationals.com/. I suspect it will only be posted for a day or so, though.)

By the time I got back to Union Station, C's train had just arrived. Perfect timing.

She had a busy but good time in New York. Saw some celebs (Mike Myers, Kim Catrall, Bill Maher and a few others). Was treated like the important reviewer she is by the publishers. Sounds like it was a great trip.

And the weather's finally hot down here. We've got the a.c. running.