Stephen has taken to getting up really early, so we were both up and dressed before 7:30am. Stephen went to Balducci’s to get something for breakfast and was there 10 minutes before it opened!
BBQ assembly was the first thing on the agenda, before it got too hot to work outside. We logically (thanks to me!) worked our way through the instruction manual and didn’t have to take anything apart later to fit bits on! It only took a couple of hours to put it together…man and his missus working together in perfect harmony!
A work in progress
A proud and happy man with the finished article!Then it was onto the TV search…we’d been told about the Giant Telly Company, or some such place, which was good for plasma and LCD’s. We’d even been told roughly where it was…which didn’t stop us driving halfway to California trying to find it! As a sop for having sat in the car like a good girl, we decided to go to the Bed, Bath & Beyond we’d passed which I’ve been looking for since we arrived. I first found this store when we were on holiday in Florida and it is fabulous! Everything you could think of for the…well…bedroom, bathroom and kitchen really!! As we were driving up to it what did we find?? Yup, the TV store. Result – both happy!!
We popped into Margaret’s about 6pm. Her house is really charming – very different in feel from ours! They were once the same, but have been remodelled over the years. Ours is quite light and fairly modern looking, and Margaret’s is very dark and traditional. I suppose they built these houses with the idea of having a basement room which would stay dark and cool in the summer – which describes her ground floor to a T! And I’ve been worrying that our Den is gloomy, and buying cream rugs to lighten up the dark brick floor!! It was a fascinating couple of hours! She had some leaflets on the area for us, and photos in a book of our houses being built. The amazing thing is the lack of woodland behind them! The ancient woodland is in fact only about 50 years old – before then it had been a Civil War fortified battery. We were asking when she had moved to DC (she’s a Texan) and she said during the 60’s. It turns out that she had worked on Capitol Hill for her Texan senator, was at JF Kennedy’s inauguration, roomed with President Lyndon Johnson’s secretary (so met and knew him) and knew First Lady “Ladybird” Johnson “quite well”. I think there was a “Texan Connection”…Ladybird Johnson died in Austin this week, which I assume was her home state.
Jim (the Scottish father of our neighbour) was spotted wandering up to our back gate, so he was invited in for a drink too. He hasn’t really lost his accent, but there is a definite twang of American in there too! I think possibly more to do with the phrasing and the rhythm of his speech….Stephen tells me that I’ve started to do that to, so please feel free to give me a kick if I ever say “Have a nice day” to you! That would be a step too far!!!!
After a couple of glasses of rather nice Virginian wine we staggered up to our “local” for something to eat. There is some ruling here that bars have to give over a certain percentage of the floor space to serving food, so every bar serves food. Southside’s serves Southern food (it still surprises me that this area is considered Southern!!) – so we went for a couple of Southern classics…Stephen had Chicken Fried Steak which is basically steak, covered in breadcrumbs and deep fried…Kentucky Fried Steak I suppose! I had Gumbo which is a chicken, shrimp, spicy sausage and vegetable stew. Nice, but not my favourite thing to have!! Should’ve had the ribs….
(Saturday 14th July)
We popped into Margaret’s about 6pm. Her house is really charming – very different in feel from ours! They were once the same, but have been remodelled over the years. Ours is quite light and fairly modern looking, and Margaret’s is very dark and traditional. I suppose they built these houses with the idea of having a basement room which would stay dark and cool in the summer – which describes her ground floor to a T! And I’ve been worrying that our Den is gloomy, and buying cream rugs to lighten up the dark brick floor!! It was a fascinating couple of hours! She had some leaflets on the area for us, and photos in a book of our houses being built. The amazing thing is the lack of woodland behind them! The ancient woodland is in fact only about 50 years old – before then it had been a Civil War fortified battery. We were asking when she had moved to DC (she’s a Texan) and she said during the 60’s. It turns out that she had worked on Capitol Hill for her Texan senator, was at JF Kennedy’s inauguration, roomed with President Lyndon Johnson’s secretary (so met and knew him) and knew First Lady “Ladybird” Johnson “quite well”. I think there was a “Texan Connection”…Ladybird Johnson died in Austin this week, which I assume was her home state.
Jim (the Scottish father of our neighbour) was spotted wandering up to our back gate, so he was invited in for a drink too. He hasn’t really lost his accent, but there is a definite twang of American in there too! I think possibly more to do with the phrasing and the rhythm of his speech….Stephen tells me that I’ve started to do that to, so please feel free to give me a kick if I ever say “Have a nice day” to you! That would be a step too far!!!!
After a couple of glasses of rather nice Virginian wine we staggered up to our “local” for something to eat. There is some ruling here that bars have to give over a certain percentage of the floor space to serving food, so every bar serves food. Southside’s serves Southern food (it still surprises me that this area is considered Southern!!) – so we went for a couple of Southern classics…Stephen had Chicken Fried Steak which is basically steak, covered in breadcrumbs and deep fried…Kentucky Fried Steak I suppose! I had Gumbo which is a chicken, shrimp, spicy sausage and vegetable stew. Nice, but not my favourite thing to have!! Should’ve had the ribs….
(Saturday 14th July)
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