Lovely weekend

It was the first weekend in about six weeks that I got to spend with Drew and Rachel, since I'm no longer working nights/weekends, and it was great to be with my family full-time. A few highlights:

--Saturday we had friends over for brunch -- Tracy (former colleague from the Oregonian, now working for the D.C. bureau of the Boston Globe, who told Rachel "your mommy is my mentor! She taught me everything I know"), her partner Gerald, and their adorable son Langston, who is 18 months old. It was wonderful to hold a baby in my arms again and inhale his wonderful smell. He was kind of shy for a while (although he devoured the frittata I made), but then when he saw Rachel cavorting around, he decided our living/dining room/kitchen was a terrific place to run around. I could tell Rachel was delighted by him, and by the end of the visit she sent a message to Tracy and Gerald (she was in her room getting ready for a playdate) that she'd had a really good time and she hoped they'd come over again soonl

--After the brunch I took Rachel over to her classmate Libby's house for a playdate. They live fairly close by and I've been waiting for a chance to get to know Libby's mom Kelly for a while. Kelly works in the Interior Department and is a very kind person. So, while the girls were downstairs watching movies, Kelly and I sat on the couch in the living room with cups of tea and talked for about three hours. (She's from Michigan, which is why we probably connected so well since we've both lived in the Midwest!). We both fretted that people are so busy here, they just don't have the time to drop in unexpectedly, and Kelly said "hey, we can change that!" She also gave me a tip on a good place to camp and hike about four hours away from here.

--Drew picked us up and we went back home to wait for AAA (my car battery died in this intense cold we've been experiencing), while Drew had a snowball fight in the front yard with Rachel in the gathering darkness. I watched from inside because my pinkie toe STILL HURTS -- it is a disgusting back and blue. Drew picked up a pizza and cupcakes for Family Movie Night (oh, how I've missed that!), put Rachel to bed at around 9:30 and then he and I finally found a movie we wanted to watch ("Thank You For Smoking" -- absolutely terrific) around 11. Result: We got to bed very, very late.

This morning we didn't wake up until 10:30 or so; poor Rachel is so patient in the mornings about waiting for breakfast on the weekends. After we'd all eaten, we headed out to an open house (not that we're in any position to buy a house, we just wanted to get a sense of what's out there) and then to the library so I cold do some prep work before a job interview I have on Tuesday. We were there much later than I'd planned to be, so instead of cooking we went to our favorite Lebanese restaurant near our house -- the one I want to bike to in the summer. Then it was home, Skyping with Darryl, Daniella and Valerie, and then Drew headed out to the grocery store while I read to Rachel, gave her a bubble bath (I had almost as much fun as she did), put her to bed and headed to the family room downstairs to watch "Downtown Abbey."

And now Drew is doing still more organizing of our study (he has made great progress so far and we are hoping this task will be finished by the time our guest, my former law school colleague Warren Binford, arrives in two weeks). And I am heading to bed.