Weekend Miscellany

A Fed Is in Da House
J.'s permanent job finally came through earlier in the week. It's the same job, but she is no longer a contractor. She is employed directly by the Federal Government now. Scary thought. Got a fat raise out of the deal, too, so she is pretty happy. I am happy for her, of course, and ecstatic about the fact that she will have real vacation now. I don't care about the cash so much. Friday night, I threw together a semi-celebratory meal of pan-seared salmon over roasted green beans with black olives and anchovies. Not my original recipe (Jamie Oliver's, actually, I'm a little embarassed to admit), so I'm not posting it here. Came out pretty well. Opened a bottle of Dyed in the Wool Pinot Noir from New Zealand. Good -- on the light side, but bigger than some pinots, bright, with fair amount of bite and decent fruit. I was worried about how it would take to the anchovies, but it didn't clash.

Why Me?
I got a group together to go to Crystal City Uncorked on Sunday -- a street festival focused on wine tasting and food samples from local restaurants. A few friends actually took me up on it -- something that does not happen very often. Of course, as my luck would have it, it was complete bust. The organizers appear to have seriously underestimated the turnout, and the lines to each of the booths were absolutely enormous. So much so that an organizers' representative was walking up and down the admission line telling people basically to have low expectations. So we bailed at the last minute, and ended up having some mid-afternoon tapas and wine at Jaleo instead. It worked out ok for the most part, but we had to sit inside despite the beautiful weather (seven people was apparently too many people for the patio), and C.S. and his girlfriend felt screwed over, I think, since they trekked down from Germantown for this, and got there late, so they couldn't participate in making the decision to bail on the festival. Why is it that the one time I plan a group event, it goes wrong?

Books
Finished Standage's A History of the World in Six Glasses. A quick and simple but very enjoyable read. The quotes of old advertising copy and 19th century medical opinions are priceless.