Here Comes a Regular

We rang in the new year with some repeat visitors. The Gamblor, Frohn Dancis, and their girlfriends flew in on Friday and stayed til the following Tuesday.  I'll be honest - I was a little nervous about how this would all go because I'd only met both girlfriends once.  Frohn Dancis and The Redhead visited last spring, so I'd spent a weekend with her and knew we'd get along just fine.  But I'd only met The Gamblor's girlfriend at our friend Thanksgiving fiesta in Austin back in November, so it wasn't like I'd actually gotten to really know her.  In the end, everything worked out fine but I was glad I'd spent time planning for the weekend instead of just leaving things open. 

Our whirlwind weekend of activities included

drinks at Rock 'n' Roll Hotel,


 

dinner at H Street Country Club where they feature an indoor miniature golf course, although we didn't play... here's a glimpse at the rules:

I particularly love the first rule - don't drive the ball.  You know there's a rule because at least one person tried it.  Inside.  In a restaurant.  I can only imagine the chaos that ensued.  This was our first time dining at H Street and I have to say, it was really, really good!  Service was horrible (not the server so much as the pace) and we were sitting right by the door on a very cold night and they don't have two sets of doors or a curtain or anything to keep the cold air out, so that was also a downer, but the food was so fresh and bright.  If it were more convenient for us to get to, I think we'd go back a llot.  Anyway, after dinner, we headed down the street for more drinks and a little booty shaking at Little Miss Whiskey's Golden Dollar on Friday.

Saturday included lunch, shopping, and a viewing of the TAMU bowl game in Georgetown.  We capped off our Georgetown afternoon excursion with frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity.

I'd been wanting to hit up Serendipity ever since it opened last summer but had yet to find time or a reason to get L over to Georgetown (he hates the traffic).  No one else in the group had ever been to any of the Serendipity locations in NYC or Vegas, so it was a fun trip for all.  Each couple split a frozen hot chocolate and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it.  That night, we ate a fabulous NYE dinner at La Tasca and partied and danced the night away at Whitlow's with several other friends of ours.

We were all a bit tired on Sunday, so we spent the day at our house watching movies and football and making lots and lots of food.  Like, completely way too much food.  Our spread:

What you see above, clockwise from the top: bread, buns, fish (under the foil, for The Gamblor's vegetarian lady, who I shall henceforth refer to as Platinum), ribs (yes, the smoker was busted out on Sunday), salad, homemade macaroni and cheese, baked beans, and brisket.  What you don't see is the queso and what I refer to as Angie's Salsa that I made for apps and the dessert (chocolate chunk bread pudding).  Here's a visual of the salsa:

How pretty is that???  I love that it's so fresh and colorful.  And delicious.  I could eat it with a spoon.  Yum.

Despite the fact that everyone had been to DC before, The Gamblor and Frohn hadn't done the whole monument/memorial thing.  Platinum and The Redhead had, but it had been many years and no one (including me and L) had seen the MLK memorial.  We spent about 3 hours working our usual circuit and managed to see them all.  Thank goodness the sun was out because it was quite chilly and VERY windy, and The Gamblor didn't think to bring a coat or any cold weather gear with him, although we happily loaded him up with a scarf, gloves, and earmuffs.  But he still froze the whole time.  We had mid-afternoon snacks at Old Ebbitt and then strolled passed the White House on our way to happy hour at Elephant and Castle, where we warmed up and watched more bowl games.  Then it was off to dinner at our favorite, Founding Farmers.  The Gamblor and Frohn were particularly excited to eat here again; The Gamblor didn't feel so hot when we took him there on his last visit and Frohn had buyer's remorse when he and The Redhead ate lunch there on their last visit (he enjoyed his fish and chips that day but wished he'd ordered chicken and waffles when he saw an order served to another diner).  We all had a fantastic meal.  It's just so hard not to there, especially when you get an awesome server like we had.  If anyone reading this is planning on eating there soon, ask to sit in Bernard's section.  I wanted to shrink that guy and put him in my pocket so I could take him everywhere with me.

Platinum and I headed home after dinner (I had to get up early and go to work the next morning; Platinum felt she'd had enough for one day) and the rest of the group went out for more football watching and imbibing. 

All in all, a great trip!  We love when friends visit.  The one down side: such a long visit with so much non-stop action so soon after our trip to Texas ended up taking it out of me.  I took my first sick day in about a year and a half last Thursday.  Bleh.  Luckily, a day of sleeping and hydration did the trick and I've been on the mend ever since.