Plaid, Leather, & Infidel Lushes at Al Jazeera

cheeeeeeeeers!!!

With the exception of the big shindig last night, the past few days have been wonderfully mellow, calm, and lovely. With deliberately late starts to our days and quiet domestic bliss, we took it as easy as possible before Saint Cat dove back into her intense work schedule again, which began this morning. But yeah... yesterday was Target and Giant Grocery for replenishment of larder, Cat making her very first pie ever (a gorgeously dee-lish leek and bacon pie), me doing laundry, and us both getting all gussied-up for her work's bash.

Today was SC running off to work, my getting up and earning my keep by spiffing up the pad a bit, and stepping out in the late afternoon for a wee exploratory snow-flurried(!) walk around the cool neighbourhood. I gotta say, I'm really liking DC, and I haven't even hit the museums and monuments yet!

(I apologize in advance for the über-braindead quality of writing; some really good stuff is in the works for your upcoming entertainment... promise!) In the meantime, here are some pics I've taken from the past two days.

Hard to believe, but Saint Cat lives conveniently two blocks from Target. And look! Seriously? La bière? Whoooo hooooo!!!




Saint Cat's icebox. And yes, that is Condy on the far right! Now can you name the other ones?
























Getting ready to go to the party as Goth Girl.




Just a bit of background about the party: It was the 2nd Anniversary of the launch of Al Jazeera English in Washington DC, and took place at a very swish little French hotel a few blocks from the White House. Since the employees of the company come from all over the world, travel and broadcast from all the different offices and bureaus, this was virtually the very first time in pretty much a year that everyone actually got to see each other as a group and hang out... so it was a pretty special time. However, employees only received one drink ticket each, and after that (and for all the "plus ones" like myself), mixed drinks were $12, and imported beers like Guinness and Heineken were $11! GACK!!! Nevertheless, a ball was still had by all.









The bakery spelled the network's name WRONG, unleashing a bevy of flashing reporters' cameras at the most popular fixture of the night. Do I predict the potential loss of a client, hmmmm?




Beautiful.




Yeeeee-ah... forgets that crap I says 'bout martini glasses. Yesh, Occifer... Martini glasses, good.




Dude, you're like totally staring.




In case you missed the Daily Show's reportage of the launch of Al Jazeera English two years ago (and Saint Cat can be seen briefly in the newsroom!), here it is again with host, Samantha Bee. It'll go a long way in explaining the Johnny Prepschool thing.

And The Man himself.




Checking in to say "hi" and help "pick out the blinds" ~ a "Lost in Translation" reference Boy uses whenever I call home.




And today... when I got home from my walk, I opened the door and was greeted by a mewing Grendel and the astoundingly gorgeous and haunting strains of Arvo Pärt's "Te Deum"... Evidently, I'd left my music running on the computer, and what a welcome home that was; I nearly melted on the doorstep with my dinner in hand.




The old historic Baptist church facing Cat's apartment.




Someone's beautiful front step... Absolutely adore seeing flowers bloom in wintertime, especially roses.




My Japanada dinner, consisting of a Dynamite Roll (a baked confection with spicy scallops, tobiko, and crabmeat) from Nori, a tasty pear and marzipan empanada from Julia's Empanadas, and a glass of Yellow Tail Shiraz from Giant. With this lovely treat of a meal, I watched the rest of a doc on Scottish and Irish history, then an old episode of "French in Action" on some cool educational channel they have here. Heaven.




My sweet and ever-constant companion, Grendel, who's right behind me now as I'm typing. A wonderful memory from around fourteen years back is of my standing behind the till at the bookstore where Saint Cat and I worked, and Saint Cat running up and slapping her hands down on the counter, squealing, "I just got me a baby and I'm naming her GRENDEL!!!"