Monday, May 7, 2012

weekend phone photos

national arboretum
menu
french toast
metro 29 diner
manicure
herb garden
pizza
banjo and larry
national arboretum
frozen dairy bar
cannoli frozen custard
game of thrones
collage - weekend
A few highlights from the weekend:

+ We started the weekend with a trip to the Vienna Farmers' Market. It's about half the size of our usual Farmers Market (Falls Church), but felt so much more manageable (more spread out and less crowded).  Plus, I got to chat with Toya and pick up a bag of her Flax Crackers - which are so delicious with hummus. I know this because I stuffed my face with flax crackers and hummus once we got home and sat down to watch the Caps game! We also picked up some breakfast treats and a quart of strawberries from the market - which is a good thing because when we got home, Gravy went out in the yard and pillaged my strawberry patch in retaliation for going to the market without him. Jerk!

+ We went on the National Arboretum's Full Moon Hike on Saturday night. I serendipitously had booked the hike for the same date as the Supermoon. Sadly, we had full cloud cover on Saturday night and the moon did not make an appearance at all during our hike. It was liberating to hike without lugging my camera with me, but I couldn't resist snapping a grainy iPhone pic of Venus over the limestone columns that used to be part of the U.S. Capitol. I've mentioned before that the National Arboretum is one of my favorite places in DC, and it was really fun to see it at night. The hike description listed the outing as "fast-paced" and let me tell you, they were not joking around. Our guide was in great shape and it took quite a bit of effort to keep up during the four mile hike around the Arboretum grounds. I slept like a baby that night.

+ When we got home from the hike, Larry and I sat on the patio, drank a couple beers, and split a bowl of popcorn while watching the sky. The moon peeked out from behind the clouds for about five seconds. It didn't look very super, but it was pretty bright.

+ Naughty Eats, Part 1: Brunch at Metro 29 Diner in Arlington. Ok, so I think Guy Fieri is the biggest cheese fry on television, but I have to admit I get sucked into watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, quite a bit. If you can ignore Guy's bleached hair, backwards sunglass-wearing, and cringe-worthy catch phrases, he does feature some delicious looking guilty pleasures from cheap restaurants across the U.S. When we saw an episode that featured a nearby diner (and some amazing homemade challah bread French toast), I knew we had to check it out. While I love the idea of diners, 99% of the time I am disappointed by the food. This place was delicious (Guess what I had? Yes, French toast!) and they had the biggest pies I've ever seen. They were topped with a good 6" of meringue. Seriously, these pies were off the chain! (After I wrote that I punched myself in the face.)

+ New favorite nail polish: L'Oreal Precious Coral. A bit of a misnomer, because this color is definitely not coral (which is a color that looks horrible on me), nor is it, uh, precious. In the bottle it looks orange, and on my nails it looks fiery red. I predict I'll be wearing this color all summer long.

+ True to form, as soon as my nails dried, I embarked on a dirty, manicure-wrecking project: gardening. Herb Garden 2012 is about 75% complete. I have a notoriously brown thumb and herbs are about the only thing I can manage to grow. Plus, I love having fresh herbs to cook with. In my container garden: two types of oregano, two types of basil, thyme, sage, savory, chives, and two types of parsley. Hoping to add a few more this week.

+ Naughty Eats, Part 2: No weekend is complete without a trip to Frozen Dairy Bar. Flavor of the Day was Cannoli. Yes, cannoli-flavored frozen custard. It was awesome.

+ I think I'm going to have to stop watching Game of Thrones. As much as I (surprisingly) love it, it's getting too upsetting for me. Yes, I am a total wuss, but I don't need to add mental images of beheadings to my list of reasons I can't sleep. See ya, Theon.

+ Crossed off most of the things from my Weekend To Do List: Farmers Market - check!, Walk Dogs - check!, Full Moon Hike - check!, Caps Game - check!, Yardwork - check! (Didn't come close to completing all of it, but at least I planted my herbs), Frozen Dairy Bar - check!, Brunch out - check!, Mom for Dinner - Nope. Sorry, Mom. Come over next weekend?, Make a Pie - Nope. But I did EAT pie, so good enough!

2 comments:

Lauren Drugan said...

Metro29 is right near my place! We went there once and really didn't like it at all, but I'm going to have to give it a second try one of these days. Maybe for the challah french toast.

Anyway, sounds like you had a GREAT weekend! Can't wait to see how your herb garden progresses.

GO CAPS!

Funnelcloud Rachel said...

Hey Lauren - I think diners can be really hit or miss and because they usually have such big menus, everything can't be a winner. I usually stick with breakfast foods because eggs, etc are pretty hard to screw up. While I can't attest for the rest of the menu, my French toast and Larry's eggs benedict were both good.