Well, this morning I had breakfast in New York City, lunch in Waahington DC, and am well on my way to having dinner in Wichita KS. Nick isn’t able to make the trip to Kansas with me due to his departure for Europar tomorrow. Overall, I am very glad that I came out two weeks ago for a last visit, and am curious to see other family that I haven’t seen in a bit that will also be heading out for the funeral. And also, traveling with an iPhone is money.
Tonight after work, NJ and I headed down into the DC for his 5:45PM appointment at the Grooming Lounge. I had bought Nick a gift certificate for a hot lather shave last year when he passed his preliminary thesis review and advanced to candidacy in the thought that it would be semi relaxing (the grooming lounge was written up in playboy awhile back as an it spot). The verdict? Chairs could have been a bit longer, but Nicks chin is as smooth as I’ve ever seen it. All in all, he seemed to enjoy the experience, and I can’t ask for more than that:)
Our run tonight got revised to a walk around the city due to our parking location, and we got to cowgirl creamery after it closed so that is still on the to-try list, but I am psyched to have spent the evening with my Nick, And dinner at teaism twice in 1.5 weeks is awesome:).
And! Two less things to worry about- thanks for coming down for a visit with the pets and us at the end of the month, mom!
We kicked off Silverdocs 2009 with a viewing of “Splitting Hairs” last night at the Round House Theater in Silver Spring. The documentary – and it’s filmmakers – was/were hilarious. Any 30 minute movie about a beard and mustache worldwide competition must be, wouldn’t you think? Some of the footage was pure gold – wonder why they stopped at 30 minutes. Anyway. One of the filmmakers was (seemingly) so excited about the opening that he overindulged in (alcohol?) before the screening and was completely out of it the entire time, which made for an eventful pre- and post- screening commentary. Note that the text link above will take you to the website of the movie itself, while the picture (should) take you to the AFI commentary on the movie. Nick and I both thought it had a sort of “King of Kong” feel, and completely dug seeing Phil Olson in person leading the AFI Beard & Mustache contest after the screening. (I can’t help but think that Nick B-R would be all about this!)
And with that, we’re off to the races with another 6 documentaries over the next day and a half. Our full schedule is below – let us know if we should be looking out for you at any of these! Info on each of the movies can be found here.
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Thursday, June 18th
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10:30 PM |
SPLITTING HAIRS
F. Stone Roberts 2008 | Short Film, Special Program | 28 min.
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Round House Theatre | ||
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Friday, June 19th
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8:45 PM |
BEST WORST MOVIE
Michael Paul Stephenson 2009 | Feature Film, Theme: Pop Culture Films | 92 min.
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AFI Silver Theater 2 | ||
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11:30 PM |
CAT LADIES
Christie Callan-Jones 2009 | Feature Film, Theme: Senior Interest Films, Theme: Women’s Interest Films | 60 min.
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Round House Theatre | ||
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Saturday, June 20th
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1:15 PM |
PARTLY PRIVATE
Sterling World Competition 2009 | Feature Film, Sterling World Competition, Theme: Health Interest Films, Theme: Jewish Interest, Theme: Middle East Interest Films | 81 min.
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Round House Theatre | ||
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4:45 PM |
OLD PARTNER
Lee Chung-ryoui 2008 | Feature Film, Theme: Asian Interest Films, Theme: Senior Interest Films | 77 min.
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AFI Silver Theater 3 | ||
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9:00 PM |
NO IMPACT MAN
Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein 2009 | Feature Film, Theme: Enviromental Interest Films, Theme: The 21st Century Family | 92 min.
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AFI Silver Theater 1 | ||
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11:15 PM |  |
WINNEBAGO MAN
Ben Steinbauer 2009 | Feature Film, Theme: Pop Culture Films | 84 min.
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AFI Silver Theater 1 | |
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In other random news, this week we booked tickets to Amsterdam! Woohoo! Nick is going for the full week for EuroPar, and meeting me in Amsterdam proper on Saturday for a long weekend in the Netherlands. I’ve never been, and am pretty excited. Any travel tips? Let me know – I’ve been searching TripAdvisor thus far and am pumped.
In other travel news – all of the hard work with booking Oktoberfest tents seems to be paying off, as yesterday Frau Rutar (that’s me!) received another table reservation offer via snail mail for Sunday at noon. We’ve now secured 4 table reservations from noon-end on Sunday! That’s a lot of beer … and a lot of chicken … can’t wait 
And one more set of travel stuff – I’m working on a new project at work with a demo in Seoul, South Korea in August! I was so excited to go, before I realized that with the long flight, I’d have to miss a family wedding…and thus, no South Korea for me this summer. In future phases though, that may be a good excuse to go!
Local news – after 6 years of living in the DC metro area – we just last weekend made it to the Jefferson Memorial. I dug it.
—-Follow Up —
SilverDocs was the awesome, and is officially something I’d miss if we ever left this area. All the films were great – looking forward to getting a pass next year!
Wow – Day 4 already? Again, the forecast is for scattered showers, and after the jam-packed 3 days before now, today will be a bit more low key.
-Waffles/pancakes for breakfast
-Lounging on the home front for the morning
-Taco Soup for lunch
-Trip down to the Dullus Air & Space Museum. Nick and I have been meaning to get down there since it opened, but somehow this will be our first time too! There are 3 potential shows going on this afternoon we may stop into – Fighter Pilot, Blue Planet, and the Magic of Flight
-Star Trek in iMax!
-Heading home for a steak and potatoes dinner
Today, again, the forecast is for clear skies and a high near 80. We’re heading back into the city after breakfast at home (hash brown casserole and scrambled eggs)!
Our potential itinerary for today is:
-National Zoo – gotta see the pandas!
-Madame Toussauds Wax Museum – I’m pretty excited about this. Maura and I went to the London branch with Kristin back in 2000 (?!), and I think that the boys are going to get a kick out of it.
-Lunch at Gordon Biersch
-Heading back up to pick Pinot up from doggie daycare before 7PM
-Our awesome, new-to-us Greek restaurant for dinner
-Night at the Museum II! How cool is it that this movie is set in DC, and it opens today – and we’ve potentially gone to most all of these places by now!
Hooray! Today, Derrek and Louie arrive from Nebraska and Nick and I get to play tour guide for the long weekend! With the forecast of sun and a high of 80 degrees, it is going to be a great day to be outside in the city. Our potential itinerary for today is:
-Dropping Pinot off at Doggie Daycare for an overnight
-Picking Derrek & Louie up from DCA around 9:30
-Heading into the city, and walking around the mall and monuments (Lincoln, WWII, Washington, Vietnam, Korea, Jefferson?), and also walking by the White House
-Lunch at Fogo de Chao – all the brazilian bbq’d meat you can handle!
-Heading back to the mall to check out some museums – the Air & Space museum (possibly with the Black Holes show at the planetarium), the Natural History museum (dinosaurs & hope diamond), and the American History museum (old glory, kermit, and so much more).
-Heading down to Nationals Park to catch the 7:05PM baseball game, pitting the Washington Nationals against the Pittsburg Penguins – hoping that Derrek will catch either a home run or a foul ball! (I’d settle for a t-shirt even ) Oh, and ballpark hot dogs for dinner, of course.
After the first full day in the DC, we’ll have to head back to DCA to pick up the car and make the trip back to Gburg. I’m a bit worried it’s a lot on our plate for the first day out, especially with the early flight those two are taking our way, but Nick tells me that his dad is up that early anyway, and that Derrek will have more energy than we know what to do with, so all in all, bring it on!
I have a feeling that I’m not going to get a chance to go back and edit these to what we actually did/pictures/reviews/ect until after the entire weekend over – but I’ll try to tweet what we’re up to over the course of the weekend, and the photos will come later!
Thursday night, we went to see New Kids on The Block (NKOTB) at the Verizon Center in DC. And it was….in my opinion….the awesome!! We met up with about 15 or so other blockheads at Clydes restaurant before the show, where they were running NKOTB themed drinks – so fun. I loved how much people were into this – I thought I was silly leaving the house with rolled jeans, slouched socks, a flannel around the waist c. 1990, and my original 1989 NKOTB buttons – but these folks outdid me, handidly, and it was awesome. Nick got to wear my one and only Joey Joe pin – something that I never even let Melanie wear growing up. Our camera was low on batteries, I forgot to charge it – but everyone else took some great pictures. 
Before the show even started, Nick made me feel like a rock star by heading out to the bathroom, and returning with a Cover Girl tank top, which he promptly threw up to me before he climbed back into our row. What a sweetheart
The show was a lot of fun for those of us that knew most of these songs in and out – the new stuff was fun to listen to. For folks like my wonderful husband, who knew maybe 3 songs going in – Nick said he had a good time, and was really open-hearted the entire time, with one liners that only he could come up with and dancing around like the best of us. Let me assure you, it was NOT easy to get up this morning – as it was, I woke up 35 minutes after I should have been at work, flew out of the house in 5 (you 
can imagine how I look this morning), and I’m completely exhausted – but it was worth it. Great time
