it's been a busy past two weeks - that's why i've been neglecting the blog. but, i've accumulated maraming kalat during this time, so i'll mention a few of these things now. so i guess what i'm saying is that my domingo cinco spans the past 14 days. aie.

1. wine wednesdays at dino. fellow rockwellian dean gold has started up a 6-week wine wednesday special at his restaurant, dino. a week and a half ago cavin and i checked out the first wine wednesday and it was pretty decent. you get three flights of italian wine which are paired with 3 appetizers for $25 per person. cavin and i split the appetizer, which was on the small side but we also ended up ordering a bunch of stuff off the regular menu to supplement. we missed the second week because of our hectic schedule, but hopefully we'll make it back this week for the rosso di montalcino, and toscana wines.

2. we actually had two different visitors come to dc at the same time. woah! triumph (cavin's younger bro) detoured to dc on his way to the annual croquet match between the u.s. naval academy and his alma mater, st john's (annapolis, md). apparently the schools play croquet on the front lawn of st. john's, which has been called by gentleman's quarterly (GQ) "the purest intercollegiate athletic event in America." in actuality, it's an excuse to be outside and drink all day, no matter who wins (for the record, i believe st john's won). the b.o.b. and ga also were in town for a wedding and made it out to a sports bar by court house metro to watch the devils/lightning game. [note: don't EVER go to ireland's four courts. complete cheeze hell.]

3. who knew the extent of the florida market? we sure as hell didn't. luckily for us, cultural tourism dc had free walking tours last weekend which gave cavin and i an excuse to go out there and see what there is to offer. it's more of a warehouse-type district, which is understandable; the florida market mostly deals wholesale, but we were given a "tour" of which places sell to smaller scale purchasers. we finally went to litteri's, a small, but packed-with-great-italian-products store that i've been hearing great things about. we picked up a made-to-order italian sub (capicola, ham, fresh mozzarella on a hard roll) that was outstanding. i can't wait to go back and sample the crazy amounts of balsamic vinegars, olive oils, and italian wines.

4. i'm glad cavin also has a close-knit family. cavin's grandpop passed away on monday so we took some time off of work for the viewing and funeral and to spend time with his family in pa. it was a very sad time but it was comforting to all be together. i didn't know that his grandpop was a p.o.w. in poland (for over a year) during wwii, nor that he was a pilot, and that he also was a train conductor for septa. from what i've heard everyone say, he was really a great man. i wish i could have known him more when he was still around. there is a nice write up about him in the philadelphia inquirer.

5. i like games. this weekend i was determined to go to this store i keep seeing, five below. the store's sign is a bit misleading. the "o" in below is written like it's a degree (say fahrenheit or kelvin), creating the illusion that the store actually has something to do with cold weather sports, like snowboarding or skiing. not that cavin and i go skiing or anything, but we (or rather, i) was very curious about the store that i've been seeing all around. so since we had some free time this weekend, we decided to go in and check it out. not only does it have nothing to do with snow sports, it doesn't have anything to do with cold weather! it's basically a glorified dollar store - everything in the store is five dollars and below (thus "five below"). i just went to the website and the tag line is, "the cool store for teens and beyond" - woah, we were way off.

i just realized that the three things we bought were all games: purple dice (we'll bring these on vacation), umjammer lammy for ps1, and an official wiffle ball and bat. later that day jano and gavitron beat cavin and me in a friendly game of wiffle ball 9-7. (i scored a hr, as well as a sore pitching arm.)

also, sunday morning we all went to facenda whitaker lanes, where the four of us bowled unlimited games from 9am-12noon for $38, including shoe rental. my high was 87. man, i suck.

Labels: domingo, event, games, philly, restaurant, wine