mellow drama

I love three-day weekends. X is off at work - not required, as in dress-up the office-is-open required - but stuff that needs to be done. I've fed the hordes, made a strawberry/rhubarb pie with fresh stuff from the DuPont Circle Farmers Market, and I have a a couple of loaves of potatoe bread rising. One of those will get turned into small, thin toast bits and used for a tapas competition I've entered at school tomorrow night. Since it's allegedly an actual Spanish tapas competition (I know...), I'm adding a romesco sauce, asparagus tips, Manchego cheese, and a light anchovy-olive oil. I've some experience in Barcelona so I'm sticking to the tried-and-true of Catalan cuisine. Who knows? It's also pizza night so I'll be back in the flour in the not-too-distant future.

The 51 has been about on a strange, cultural weekend. On Saturday afternoon we headed into D.C. to stock up on cards, notes, and paper at Pulp DC and then headed to Shirlington to see Kites (NYTimes review here). I'd read a bit about it, as well as heard some review on NPR, so I was pretty intrigued by a mad mix of Bollywood and Hollywood action films. They did it well: action scenes, the boy-girl romance you'll remember from Slumdog, dance scenes (though they edited out a few for the American release), and a strangely happy ending. Was it great? No. Was it entertaining? Definitely. I would have liked the extra dance scenes. Last night we headed into D.C. for dinner and theatre: Rosa Mexicano and Gruesome Playground Injuries (at Woolly Mammoth), respectively (WaPo review of Gruesome, here). Mixed reviews on everything; Rosa wasn't as standardly good as normal and the waitress was inept, at best. The show, a two-actor play/story about growing up, depending on another, and the tragedy of life. It grew on me as the evening progressed but I still have it rolling around in my head. Maybe you'll get a later critique, maybe not.

The older two only have about a week of school left at the New School; I have no idea what to do with them for the two weeks between end of school and our trip to Stowe. It may involve them sleeping in and doing a whole lot of nothing.

While I took the gang swimming at Ft Myer yesterday, I stopped at the wall that runs throughout the base and took a picture. There are over 300,000 soldiers, sailors, marines, and airman buried at the National Cemetery - a flag for each one on Memorial Day.



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