Monday, April 24, 2006

Not quite a wash-out

Fri Kerry & Hugh invited us to join them at the movie cafe to see "Benchwarmers". I'd seen a quick preview and thought this appeared to be one of those mind-numbing films that I'd wished I'd only paid $3.79 to rent, rather than $18.-19. for me and Joe to see. Fortunately, I was wrong. One of the lead roles was played by John Heder of 'Napoleon Dynamite' fame, playing and equally geeky teenager role. He doesn't play Napoleon, but dorky and awkward teen who is bullied.

The movie cafe is like a conference room with a movie screen in it. Instead of typical rows of stationary seats, it has tables and office chairs. A waiter takes your order and then brings you food once the movie starts.

At Kerry & Hughs' recommendation, Joe & I got the "I Can't Make Up My Mind" combo, which consisted of a bucket of popcorn, a pitcher of soda, a personal-size pizza, an order of nachos, and a basket of french fries, 2 chicken fingers, 2 mozzarella sticks, and 2 jalapeno poppers. Perfect!

The movie was much funnier than I expected, causing eruptions of laughter from everyone, and the food was tasty and exactly what I was expecting it to be. Probably not so great for dieters or people with cholesterol problems, but great for the occasional splurge. We had a great time.

Afterward we went back to Kerry & Hugh's house to visit, see their photos and DVD, and hear their stories of their recent visit to the Gulf Coast. They spent a week helping in the rebuilding effort after hurricane Katrina.

Then Sat we picked up Joe's mom and my aunt Mary and drove out to Browntown for the Redbud Festival. Browntown is a tiny little itty bitty hamlet about 9 miles outside of Front Royal. The narrow and winding road leading from Front Royal to Browntown has lots and lots of redbud trees, which were doing their best to show off their exquisite beauty despite the intermittent rain and gloomy skies. The "redbud festival" should probably be renamed something less formal and more appropriate like "redbud day", because the term "festival" just implies too much. Afterward we went to lunch in Front Royal and then stopped at Big Lots for a few essentials. After dropping the ladies at their respective homes, Joe & I stayed in the rest of the evening.

Sun we slept in late. It was raining and we didn't have anything planned for the day. We finally got ourselves out of the house around 11:30 and went to breakfast at the Charlie Horse Grill. We ran into a couple we knew from church, Tom & Travis. We chatted with them for a few minutes, until our food arrived. Then we decided to go to SteinMart. We'd heard commercials about it and since we really had nothing better to do on a rainy Sun, we drove out to Leesburg to check it out. (You'd never guess that gas is $3. a gallon by all the driving we did this weekend.) Just as we were arriving, the skies began to clear, the clouds broke up and the sun came out. So after giving Stein Mart a cursory walk-thru, we drove back home and dawned tennis shoes and shorts and began cleaning up our front yard. Our beds got no attention at all last summer so we are trying to do a better job this year. We pulled weeds and bagged leaves for a while until our neighbor Suzanne came over. Then we sat on the front porch chatting with her for a while.

We both showered and went to dinner at the Taco House. Despite the dismal start to the day, the afternoon/evening was lovely. We sat outside and enjoyed a lovely spring evening as we ate our fajitas. I also enjoyed a tasty frozen marquerita that went down so smooth, I could have easily had another! Then we picked up a Bavarian cream cake and headed over to the Newlyweds. We had dessert on their top floor balcony, catching up on each others' careers and basking in the breeze. Then we came home and watched 'Sopranos' and 'Big Love'.

So, despite the wet weather, the weekend wasn't a wash-out.

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