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Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving weekend is behind us...

It was my wife's 30th birthday on Friday, so I had arranged for us to go to DC for a couple of nights. Her dad and his wife took care of our daughter for that time. It was the first time we had left her alone since she was born (someone else putting her to bed, and all that). She did just fine, but we were pretty nervous about it. Thankfully, everything went well.

On Wed. night we left Baltimore and headed south to the DC-area. We stopped at Siena's for dinner and then went to an Off-Broadway show in Bethesda called "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change". My wife enjoyed the show, but it was a little too much for me. It passed without incident, and we headed off to our hotel (Capitol Hilton - fancy).

We awoke pretty late on Thursday morning. I had packed some bagels with cream cheese and lox, so we had that for breakfast. We then decided to take a walk over to the White House to check out what was happening (not much). I then tricked my wife into walking towards
Dupont Circle (she has no sense of direction) and surprised her with a "traditional" Thanksgiving dinner at Eli's Deli. We walked back to the hotel room and started to watch a movie, but that darned tryptophan knocked us out for a couple of more hours.
The evening plans started with a trip to Royal Dragon for a Chinese dinner, but after we got there we realized that we weren't hungry or in the mood for the limited buffet that they had available. We ordered something to go and headed back into DC to see a show called "Shear Madness" at the Kennedy Center. The show was quite entertaining. The only complaint was that there was a large group of high school kids there to see the show (they were well-behaved, but I just hate spending my free time around adolescents --- I deal with them EVERYday).

All had gone rather well up to that point. Friday, though, was a whole other experience...

First, I had to move the car by 7 am from the street into a lot. We had scouted some lots the night before and found one not too far from the hotel (a block and a half). When I went to park in the morning, I pulled into the lot and headed down the ramp to park. I was looking for the place to take a ticket, but I couldn't find one. That's when I noticed the attendant coming up behind me. He seemed very pissed. Turns out, I was supposed to stop my car at the top and walk up to his window to grab a ticket and give him my keys. It was pretty early so I just blew off his attitude, gave him my keys and headed back to the hotel (there's more to this story later).
On my way back to the room I decided to drop by the spa to check on an appointment that I had arranged for my wife. I figured it was a simple matter of confirming her facial, massage and manicure, but the guy tells me that his esthetician called in sick and that the facial would have to be canceled. That really bugged me because the only thing my wife really wanted was a facial. Also, the spa has a 24-hour cancellation, and if I would have done the same they would have charged me anyway. So I told the guy that I felt that I should be properly compensated. He offered a free massaged and I countered with a massage and manicure and won (I know this sounds like a good thing, but I would have paid money to avoid the stress altogether).
After the treatment I went to get the car. We had to be back in Baltimore by 1 pm to get my daughter. When I got to the lot, the angry attendant and another were there. The other guy helped me out, but as the car came up the ramp I heard a clicking sound. I checked the tires and, sure enough, there was a screw stuck in my rear left tire. I asked the attendants what had happened and the angry pipes in that it wasn't from them and that I could "go check" to see that there was nothing on the ground in the lot. That really got me steamed and I forced them to fill out a damage report.
With a screw stuck in the tire and 60 miles to go we debated if we should drive the car. We decided to chance it and head for home. We made it almost all the way home. We got off 695 and passed the quarry when we heard the dreaded flapping sound. The tire went flat less than a mile from home. My father-in-law was able to grab our daughter from the babysitter and then picked up my wife from the car while I waited (and waited) for AAA to come change the tire (please don't ask why I didn;t change it on my own). I ended up going home until AAA called to say they had arrived and my wife drove me back to the car. The tire was changed pretty quickly but then the car wouldn't start. Luckily, the mechanic hadn't left and he gave me a jump.

I was happy when Shabbat arrived.

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