Ice storms, unexpected guests, and clear roadways.
Last Friday seemed to be the day of the ice storm that wasn't really. That morning, sure, the cars were coated with ice (as I discovered at the same instant that I found I had no gloves with me) and the roads were wet, but in truth they really weren't as bad as everyone made them out to be. I had little difficulty making it in to work that day, and even less trouble returning home that evening. For this reason, I find it quite strange that so many offices in NOVA were understaffed that day, but then again what do I know? However, the weather was certainly poor enough to strand Fuscia, a good friend of Lyssa and myself, in the DC area on Friday night. Rather than leave her to camp out at BWI (which, even though it's possible doesn't mean that it's fun) she caught the Metro out to the apartment and we gave Fuscia crash space for the evening. We wound up driving out to Minerva (on route 50 west in NOVA) for a late Indian dinner and then returned home for the evening to relax and catch up on the last few episodes of Torchwood (though we had to stop before the latest because all of us were tired and wanted to catch a couple of hours of sleep). Hasufin stopped in for a couple of hours that evening, also, and the four of us geeked out until the wee hours of the morning, when we really did have to call it quits for the night.
The company that Fuscia works for was kind enough to arrange a train ticket to get her home, but the train was to leave Union Station at noon on Saturday, so we found ourselves getting up around 0800 on Saturday morning to get everything packed up and ready to go. With a few hours to kill, we hit up the Dominion Deli for coffee and a sit-down breakfast, and then a fast trip to the local Metro station to speed her on her way. That done, Lyssa and I had a couple of hours to kill before meeting up with the rest of the Mad Scientist Coffee Klatsch, which we decided to spend at home. Unfortunately, a minor problem that had been plaguing Lyssa for a couple of days had worsened and the afternoon was spent at the office of our local physician waiting to get Lyssa checked out. Specifically, Lyssa did most of the waiting while I was stuck in traffic in between errands, which ate up the entire afternoon. Thankfully, we managed to get everything taken care of and made it in plenty of time to Mika's birthday dinner at Outback Steakhouse a little after 1900 EST5EDT.
One of the errands I ran that afternoon was a trip to Tyson's Corner Mall to pick up a fountain pen for Mika to help feed her writing addiction, a gift which was very well received that night. Saturday night was spent preparing for another weekend outing to Spellbound in downtown DC, this time to celebrate Mika's birthday. To that end, Lyssa and I returned home to get ready, and we reconvened with everyone around 2200 EST5EDT to caravan to our weekly haunt. Much to our surprise, I managed to find my way there with no trouble at all, and we arrived in record time. Rialian and his friend Leaf were also in town that weekend, so once again we found ourselves with a crew to hang out with. Oddly enough, a large number of casuals also came to Spellbound that night - that isn't something that I have a problem with (personally, I don't care how you're dressed as long as you're not causing trouble and having a good time) but I kept hearing from people that some of them were two or three sheets to the wind and, in fact, making nuisances of themselves. I danced a couple of sets that night and had a great time, but wound up spending quite a bit of time hanging back and people-watching. Lyssa and I wound up heading for home around 0200 Sunday morning. Unable to sleep, I didn't turn in until 0300 EST5EDT or therabouts.
We slept in on Sunday morning and, to be frank, had a hell of a time getting ourselves in motion. It seems that the lazies had set in and we wanted to do precious little other than sit around at home goofing off. Somehow we found the drive to make our way to Anita's for breakfast (fast becoming a Sunday tradition for us) and then get some needed resupply shopping out of the way. By 1400 EST5EDT we'd done what we needed to do and called it quits for the day. After heading home, cleaning out the fridge, and putting the groceries away, I set out once again to explore more of route 50 east, something that I've been meaning to do for a while. In due time I found G Street Fabrics in Seven Corners, Virginia... and nearly collapsed from a fabricgasm.
Bolts upon bolts of cotton, linen, silk, and even wool suiting. Findings. Needles. Hundreds of different kinds of thread. Buttons. Patterns - oh gods, the patterns.
My sewing machine arrived this afternoon, Lyssa tells me.
I'm going to be very, very busy for the next few weeks.