komen race for the cure and crystal city rocks 2006
two weekends ago, i planned an aggressive schedule which i surprisingly survived with ease. the goal? go to nations to see the crystal method spin, a late night past 2am endeavor, then wake up the following morning at 6am to run 5k for the komen national race for the cure event. grunters had even more crap in mind after that, but luckily his invitee came down with a case of mono, and thus we didn't have to go to eat korean bbq immediately after nor did we go out for sushi and clubbing that night. :p
the person who actually was passed out for most of that weekend was actually grunters. driving up late from north carolina probably had something to do with it, but normally he's the most energetic of anyone for anything. he was so wiped out in fact, that he skipped out on going to nations friday night leaving wes to hawk the ticket at a discount. :p then he proceeding in napping yet again on sunday after the crystal city rocks event, this time blaming it on consumming alcohol in the sun. :p i think his thyroid medication got adjusted a little too much. :p
by the time i arrived at wes' on friday afternoon, singe had staked his claim on the floor while grunters was ... i believe taking a nap. :p wes shooed us off to find food while he also conked out for several hours thanks to his new 5-8am job at the nearby gym. after grunters and i checked out petsmart while singe picked up underwear at tj maxx, we picked up some kabobs at kabob palace, one of what seems like 4 kabob places in a row in a nook of crystal city. massive crowds on fridays i tell you. oh also 15 minutes were spent peering at ear plugs and hair gel at the cvs next door. grunters is a browser, and singe is indecisive in stores. :p
by the time 11 rolled around, grunters was completely knocked out and feebly waved us away saying he'd forfeit his $23 ticket. :p none of us were really feeling it that night at nations, and crystal method definitely wasn't as exciting live, especially since all the mofo did was have his henchmen do all the work while he fed his ego with the crowd. plus, i'm not as impressed when dj's spin with cds versus regular records. :p the most amusing part of the night for me was when wes tried hawking his ticket to a group ahead of us in line, and they flat out ignored him. they were facing front and completely cold shouldered him! then when they found out that tickets were $25 at the door, they actually had the nerve to go find wes and ask him if he was still selling. :p i was gleeful that wes told them he sold the extra ticket for only $15. take that you unfriendly bitches! XD ohhhh and the other good thing about that night was we found out ferry corsten is doing glow at fur this friday night!! i've been waiting for him to come back to dc for 3 years!! :D
leave it to us to show up 2 hours early before race start and still manage to get to the start line late. :p wes drove this year and saved us a 30 min metro ride, but we realized after walking a whole hour back and forth around the event area that nothing was open foodwise. so despite showing up early, the acts of getting food at starbucks and meeting with the accenture coordinator to get our free shirts ate up so much of our time that we arrived too late at the start line to actually start AT the line. :p there were so many people in front by then that we were pushed back enough to get caught in a 3 minute traffic jam after the bullhorn sounded GO. it did give us plenty of time to wave at condoleeza rice who was cheering away on an elevated platform. she sure is short. :p oh yeah, we were supposed to meet up with wes' vball friend amy, but she showed up late and then later blew by us during the race. she recently ran a 10 miler with no training. :p
i wasn't sure how i'd do this year since i actually didn't train specifically for the 5k this time around. all the biking paid off though, b/c i was able to run the entire time instead of having to stop and walk the last 1/3 like i did last year. :p plus this was on 3 hours of sleep, barely any food (half a scone at starbucks, no water), and after walking around aimlessly for almost 2 hours straight prior to the race. my visual clock in was 32:40, and my offical time was clocked in several seconds later after standing in line for the ppl to snip off my number from my bib. i'm semi disgruntled with my time, b/c so much of it was wasted being so far from the start line this year. PLUS i started right at the line last year and walked 1/3 of it, and my time then was 38 minutes! boo. jake and singe ran in at 28 minutes, which is the same from last year. :p all of our shameful times are posted online here. i'm pretty sure i can get under 30 minutes next year just by starting at the line. :p
oh and um... one of our favorite things about the komen race is the looting afterwards. :p :p
after divying the goods, singe and wes dashed off to play tennis while grunters and i hit the mall. i'm sure to hit luxe status on my BR card with him in tow. :p i was about to buy a compromising sundress at AX when wes called us to urgently meet him at harris teeter to get extra grill supplies. the result was a rushed 45 minute grilling at his pool. (no grilling allowed past 8pm) it was my first time having grilled butternut squash!
wes marinated these chicken wings in honey and some other mess i don't remember. :p
some ballpark franks left over from memorial day weekend. i could easily eat 4 of these things, like candy!
canned baked beans with sliced up franks. the grill has a nice little side stove to heat up things in pots.
chicken thighs marinated in peppercorn and meditterean spice mix.
bone-in ribeyes with sea salt and cracked pepper. this picture was actually from grilling on sunday. saturday, we had boneless ribeye. :p the consensus is bone-in for grilling since it comes out so nice and moise.
a quiet night of scrabble finished off the day. no one played online poker the entire time. impressive. :p
sunday was leisurely. wes and i woke up semi early to check out the farmer's market in dupont circle, then kicked singe and grunters out of bed for the crystal city rocks festival happening right outside wes' condo. the mentality behind cc rocks = a neighborhood that's attempting to re-invent itself to attract more foot traffic. it's pretty much a business heavy pseudo downtown looking section of arlington that turns into a ghost town on the weekends. :p the event this year had vertical horizon playing and all the local restaurants peddling their wares for only $1 each. some places like starbucks and subway had wandering merchants giving free samples to boot. the longest line was at ruth's chris, but their food was definitely far from the best out of the pickings. a good crowd showed up, but waiting in the lines with no cover from the bright ass sun drained me of energy. i noticed a lot of ppl sitting out sunning in the nearby grass. definitely not for me. :p i also half expected to run into dc foodies penchantnyc or twilight, and apparently the former WAS there out sitting in the grass. :p
they finished making it a good hour later. was fairly decent, a chicken and mushroom paella. grunters bought jose andres' cookbook after tasting it, pausing only ever so slightly after learning it was $39. :p
slices of filet mignon served with a glob of horseradish sauce on an oversized bun. they had huge whole loins sizzling on an outdoor grill. wasn't worth standing in line for, but our curiosity was sated. :p
buffalo burgers from ted's montana grill served on buttermilk biscuits. these things were TINY, but they were the most memorable item for me.
grilled corn topped with mexican cheese and a spicy dry chili mixture from oyamel. it's hard to tell in the pic, but one of the ears of corn is twice as big as the other. :p wonderfully sweet with a spicy kick from the chili. overheard while eating this from two different couples: "oh look, those ears of corn have toppings! that's totally chicago style." "man will you look at that? that's not mexican, that's exactly the same thing they do in new york street carts!"
pork bbq. there was 3 types of pork bbq, but i recall none of the names. :p this one didn't cause me to jump up and dance or anything.
buffalo chili from ted's montana grill. i went back in line for this one. it was a good solid chili, not too thick, not too watery, none too spicy or too hearty, but nothing was terribly breathtaking about it.
singe was in a hurry to catch his flight, so we ended the grill session abruptly with him and grunters dashing off to DCA. wes and i went to practice vball, and within the hour we got another call from singe to say he had missed his flight due to a completely unforseen circumstance. see, singe always checks in online the day prior but waits to print out his boarding pass at the airport kiosks. however the 7:40 chicago flight had happened to be the last flight out for united on sunday, and so by the time he got to the airport, all the ticketing counters AND the self check-in kiosks had closed since they close an hour before the last flight. all singe had to do to get on the plane (he got there approx 40 mins ahead of departure) was to get pass security and to the gate where all the remaining united associates were. you'd think this was an easy process, but due to new security measures, they had NO MEANS aka had no clue of how to call over an agent from the gate to let him in nor would could anyone open up the ticketing counter or turn on a kiosk for him. us airway who recently partnered with united couldn't help either. they wouldn't even allow security to escort him over to the gate, nope. and so he missed his flight. :p customer service, TSA, and their sometimes assinine policies, i could rant pages about them.
anyway, i can't wait for the komen race next year. perhaps joe will be running with us? it's for a good cause it is. :p