Spoils of MS&W

What a great weekend!
First, Anya and I were both a bit trepidatious about our knees holding up for an 18 mile bike ride, but not only did we both hold up just fine, we both decided we needed to do more of it, because our knees felt better afterwards. And it couldn't have been a better day for a ride. Beautiful weather, beautiful friends, sexy boyfriend...oops, sorry - back on topic. I guess I haven't even mentioned where we rode - we wanted to do the Mt. Vernon trail, but not an out and back. So, we parked one car in DC, and the other in Mt. Vernon and off we went. As I say, it couldn't have been a prettier day for it.

But, we got a late start. And by the time we were finished, chances of us making our dinner reservations were slim to none. So, on the way back to the car parked at Mt. Vernon, we started brainstorming where to eat. We were cruising down Washington St., just past King street in Old Town when we remembered this great little Italian restaurant SigO and I had eaten at before. Both of us immediately went heads down to our iPhone to try to remember where it was and what it was called when Jim (Anya's squeeze) pipes up: "Is this it?" Purely random. He just noticed a restaurant up ahead a little ways. We look up from our iPhone, and in stereo: "YES!!" You probably had to be there to appreciate how surreal it was, especially after hearing how often Jim and Anya had been lost in the surrounding area for the past two days. The restaurant is called Trattoria da Franco and has some of the most authentic Italian food I've eaten here in the U.S. Needless to say, the four of us had a wonderful meal with wonderful conversation.
Sunday, I finally went to Maryland Sheep and Wool (MS&W) fest. I've never gone before - to me, it's like being an alcoholic in a bar - and I'm just not as strong as Sam Malone. But, Anya was here, and I wanted to spend as much time with her as possible, so I took one for the team (yeah, right). Even better, I managed to convince the SigO to come along - ladies, here's the trick: Wait until morning, when he's moving out of heavy sleep and into almost ready to wake up. Then go down, kiss him sweetly and say "Are you sure you don't want to come with me today?" He'll be so befuddled, he'll pretty much agree before really knowing what he's agreeing to. Worked for me, anyway.

At the fest, we found lots of great vendors, looked at lambs ranging from newborn to almost grown, watched the border collies do their thing herding up the sheep, oh, and bought a little bit of yarn. Hardly worth mentioning.... yeah - I'm gonna need another storage bin.
So, as I said, a wonderful weekend. Here's to more like it - but cheaper.