Too Much Rain In Virginia But At Least It's Not Snow (Like Chautauqua)

The Bissells

Sunday Morning at 7:30, in Bristow, Virginia

Up at 5:30 on a rainy morning in Virginia, more rain forecast for today.  It snowed in Chautauqua last night so I should not complain.  Both Drew and Jill are up now, at 7:00, getting ready for the big day, Dance Studio competition for our granddaughter Hayden, literally an all day event.

Yesterday was a dreary day, but fun with our granddaughters, though we did not do much, hang around the house, take a couple of small shopping trips, then go out for dinner.  Evie and Halle tried to get in an early walk but got soaked, as it rained from early morning on, much of the day.  I went off to Sports Authority, looking for bear mace/pepper spray, yep, that's right.  No luck so I found a great sun blocking shirt at half price, so I bought it.  Who knows what that means other than it's probably hot and does not breathe like most shirts.  The newest gimmick I guess to keep us healthy in the sun.

Later morning, Jill, Evie, Halle and a friend drove to the Merrifield Nursery, an amazing place, filled with just about anything green you might want, plus all kinds of garden related products, even a small cafe and the best part, free popcorn.  Evie wanted to pick up some geraniums but they do not have their flowers in yet, so we just browsed a bit, bought the girls a couple of small items, and went home for lunch.  Because it was a rainy afternoon, with little to do, we decided to watch a movie and were able to get THE BOOK THIEF, a fairly new movie that had a PG rating.  It was pretty good movie, hard to watch at times, because it's set in Nazi Germany, where a family hides a Jewish man, and we see the horror and racism of the regime, through the eyes of a young girl, struggling to grow up in this period, after having been sent by her mother to a family to live because she, too, is Jewish.  Hayden really liked the movie, especially since her class had studied the Holocaust in school.

Halle and Her Granny

Around 6:00, we went off to eat, to a new Portuguese/South African chain called Nando's, which speciality is peri peri chicken.  It's fairly new and I am sure I ate at one when I was in Cape Town, South Africa, back in 1995.  Unfortunately, it was packed, over a half hour wait or longer, so we went off to Glory Days, a wing place like BW3, only better according to Jill and Drew.  It's like a sports bar, so we were able to watch Dayton lose to Florida, but the kids liked it and the wings were good, as was the draft Blue Moon. We stopped at Zinga, for the kids, a yogurt ice cream place, that has all the fixings for a great Sunday.  You make your own, they weigh it, you pay and out you go.  I had vanilla yogurt with nuts, marshmallow and hot fudge, my all time favorite.

We went home, the girls and Evie watched Legally Blonde in the basement, while Drew and I stayed up to the bitter end, watching Wisconsin finally win in overtime, another game that seemed interminable with timeouts, foul shots, commercials, and officials peering over a TV screen, deciding what was the right call.  What a bore.  We were all in bed by 11:30, tired from doing nothing.

Today, Evie, Jill and Hayden head off to the dance competition at 9:30, probably will not return home until 9:00 tonight, after all the competition and the awards at the end, a very long day.  Drew, Halle and I will head over around 10:30, take time out in between dances to get lunch, watch some B-ball, then go back and watch more dance when Hayden's team is up.  We will leave early, not staying the entire time.