Opening Day!

It's always beautiful when peak bloom lines up with Opening Day. Owen drove up from SMCM after his last class in the morning and Mom Mom & Grandpa Don joined us to watch the Nats take on the Phillies. The weather had been iffy all week, but sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 50s made for a gorgeous day at the Nats Park. Keibert Ruiz homered to give the Nats an early lead, and MacKenzie Gore pitched a gem with 13Ks, 0 BBs, and only giving up one hit in six dominant innings. The Phillies scored in the top of the 7th and 8th to take the lead, and the Nats battled back to tie it in the bottom of the 8th. The game went to extra innings and things fell apart for the Nats eventually losing 7-3, but it was an encouraging start to what we hope will be an exciting season of baseball!

(click here for all the pictures)

The Hill is Alive...

Things are weird in DC these days. 19 years olds are firing people in mass and taking over entire agencies. Planes are crashing. Military actions are being planned in chat rooms. International students are having their visas revoked and being taken into custody by ICE. Tariffs have been enacted on islands populated by penguins. 

And while some institutions might shrink from the authoritarian assault on human rights, Noa's incredibly progressive private school has instead leaned in: February was spent cosplaying Orwell's 1984 for two weeks (though I've been told that's an annual part of the sophomore class curriculum), and in March they staged their spring musical, The Sound of Music.

The Sound of Music has always been a little triggering for our family – having loved Mary Poppins, we gifted Owen with the movie when Noa was born, only to find that he identified a little too much with Rolf (who in all fairness, looked a lot like Owen and had a great voice). This resulted in having some conversations with our then four-year old that we didn't imagine would ever be necessary, but which sadly turned out to be really prescient and important for our current state of affairs.

Anyway, Noa was both part of the chorus (which meant that they were one of the singing nuns in the opening number which would have made their Great Grandpa Grady extremely proud) and a Baroness (though not the Baroness) who eventually sells their jewels for a shawl in order to escape with the Von Trapps over the Alps (where it is very cold).

Burke always does a two-week run so we were fortunate that Uncle Dave was in town for opening night and was able to go with me, and that the musical overlapped with Owen's Spring Break so that he was able to go with Allen, Mom Mom and Grandpa Don to the final performance (and seniors' night). 

It was a great show, though it was really hard not to sing along to the hits and a little disconcerting given its message that the catchiest tune was No Way to Stop It. Hopefully, it will inspire us all to stand up for what's right and remind us that when we're feeling sad to simply remember our favorite things.

(To see some pictures, click here.)

Extra Fancy!

It's nice having a lawyer in the family. When dad passed away, Don kindly helped out dealing with all the logistics of handling his estate, and all the complexities that resulted from Dad not having a will. In return all he asked for was to take him out for a fancy dinner. What better place then than Pineapples & Pearls who have Extra Fancy right on their matchbooks.

With the estate finally closed, we booked our evening at P&P and it did not disappoint. The Beggar's Purses a la Quilted Giraffe, the Pork & Pink Pineapple, the Caviar Sauce (with some other stuff),  every bite was delicious! We toasted dad and thanked Don and all enjoyed a lovely evening together.  

(click here for all the pictures)