The Mega Post (Part 1: Old Friends and New)

I've been lax in updating again, which means that in between watching the Euro Cup Final, I'm going to try to crank out three parts to a Mega Post that picks up from where I left off last time. Oh, and that promised Friday mini-update never happened because... well... I was tired. That week was long, damn it. Without further ado, let's launch into the first part of the Mega Post.

Since Kay joined Brian in Philadelphia, she has been working roughly five billion jobs at once, leaving her precious little time to get away and hang out in D.C. beside her lazy grad student husband with absolutely no responsibilities. So while Mike and I have seen a fair amount of Brian - and that is awesome - we have been severely deprived of Kay. Two weeks ago, the tables turned. With Brian in California learning special West Coast maths, Kay took a bit of vacation time and wandered down to Arlington to see her family but mostly me and Mike.

Tuesday night, I picked up Kay from her parents' place in Arlington and drove over to Courthouse for margaritas and tacos. Mexican food is awesome. Margaritas and time to chat with Kay like old times? Awesomer. We both encouraged Kay to come back soon and make Brian move down here post-doctorate if possible too. Oh, and while we were chatting, a really douchey parking cop ticketed my car - not because it was parked improperly, but because of a late inspection. Yes, this is my fault. Yes, I immediately fixed it. Yes, this cop remains a douche.

Having been ticketed, I worked from home Thursday and got the car inspected, skipping Twilight Thursday in town and no doubt lots of great Noah food and even better Noah-isms. Work continued to be busy with long, slow, tedious journeys through the House Journals mixed with bits of frenzied writing about old, dead Speakers. (Speaking of which, way back in the 1790s, this guy was our first Speaker of the House:

Fat, German. Super non-controversial.

Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania. His major contribution to history besides holding the position first was keeping the bill alive to vote appropriations necessary to apply the controversial Jay's Treaty meant to decrease tensions between Great Britain and the United States. After casting the deciding vote in favor of appropriating funds for the treaty's implementation, a bunch of Germans hated him forever and his own brother-in-law stabbed him. So, you know, good news!)

After that, I spent basically all of last weekend in D.C. celebrating Davia's birthday. At the launch of birthday week, I drove over to Goo's and helped her and Davia set up her house for the massive Disney party she had planned. Sadly, I had just gotten a haircut and a shave, so my Phoebus (from Hunchback of Notre Dame) costume wasn't as good as it would have been earlier in June. I also didn't have golden armor because that is somewhat expensive I have heard. I did, however, make this awesome chip dip I had up in Pennsylvania at Kay's last cast party. It was four layers: rice, black beans, red onion, and hard-boiled egg marinated in a red wine/olive oil dressing. It was delicious AND healthy! I also nabbed the raspberries that Noah chose to garnish (shudder) the amazing cupcakes with. There was a BUNCH of food, PLENTY of alcohol, and a pre-pre party, a pre-party and then the actual party. I was there from about 1 PM to 3 AM, most of that in costume. Speaking of which, that costume kept getting progressively unbuttoned further, and none of that was me. GGSS parties are special.

It's really difficult to describe just how fantastic this party was, so I'll let some pictures speak for themselves:

Emily as Cruella and Dan as Gaston were two of the best
costumes. Also Dan is blind here.

Mike as Captain Hook. Kelsey was
Tinker Bell. Weird dynamic.

Selena (Wendy), Will (Aladdin), Cain (The Huntsman), and
Steph (Mulan) complete with tiny draconic Eddie Murphy.

Luis (Sebastian), Jeff (Burt from Mary Poppins), and
others brandish their "weapons."

J.R. (Michael from Peter Pan) who
actually came in a onesie with Goo
and Christina (Snow White).

Amy Reno (Minnie Mouse) and Goo again. Also balloons.

Set Crew Awesomeness! Not the best picture of any of us,
but screw it, we're beautiful. Also, hey, the birthday girl!

So yeah, that was awesome. I crashed on Davia and Sara's couch with plans to see Brave on Sunday. After stopping by Goo's under the guise of helping clean up (thanks for taking care of all that, Selena!) we horfed lots of leftovers and helped Goo and Noah decompress. Davia had a board meeting while Jeff and Sara went to go look at houses. So in the meantime I sat on their couch more and watched some Kung Fu Panda 2 on my phone. Yay, HBOGo. Sara, Jeff, and I met Davia out at Chinatown and went to see Brave.

Noah is tired. Goo (not pictured)
is having none of this shit.

It's not my favorite Pixar movie, but it was definitely a gorgeous film. I felt it was truer to the old Pixar storytelling even as it told a much more conventional story of a mother and daughter in conflict. Being long-time fans of Emma Thompson, Kelly MacDonald and Pixar, this was a no-brainer movie to see in theaters. I definitely think it's getting beat up more by the critics because it's a more standard Disney-ish story, but the relationship dynamic between Merida and her mother is one of the best mother-daughter relationships I've seen on film. Also, pretty CG Scotland and fancy music. So... win-win.

This post was kind of rushed, but yeah, it was an awesome weekend. More to come soon. Also, wow, Spain just embarrassed Italy in the Euro Cup Final while I was writing this. 4-0; that was sad.