Super Bowl = Super Post?

Last week was a busy work week for both of us, but Ben also had several networking/social functions after hours that made for a long week.

We got our weekend off to a good start with "G-Man" subs from Mangilardo's and a movie. We rented 50-50 with Seth Rogan and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. We spend most nights hanging out at the house with the dogs and going to bed at a reasonable hour. We like to joke that we're glad we moved to the big city, pay quadruple the rent, deal with the traffic so we can rent a movie from Red Box and stay home!

On Saturday morning, we took the dogs on a decent walk around Lincoln Park and let them socialize with a few of the neighborhood dogs at the park. We ran a few errands around town before heading to the National Portrait Gallery to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit. Parking downtown can be very tricky. There aren't many spots to begin with, and the ones that are open challenge even the best parallel parkers. Kelly's skills were put to the test, but she prevailed and we had a front row spot outside the museum.

(Not much room to spare)

There were some outstanding photographs of various subjects, but Kelly's favorite was a picture of Niagara Falls. The gallery also had an "Black List" exhibit, displaying portraits of prominent African-Americans.

After the gallery we headed to Cleveland Park for lunch at our favorite Thai restaurant. The"Siam House" is so good, we have discussed moving to the Cleveland Park neighborhood just to be closer. With a full stomach, we headed up to the National Cathedral to look around.

It is a beautiful church with great stain glass windows. During the earthquake this summer, some of the church was damaged, including several pinnacles and buttresses. They displayed some of the fallen pieces throughout the church.

Our next stop was the Smithsonian Zoo. It was decent weather for a day at the zoo and the crowds were small.

We made it around to all the animals, but the cutest by far was the Giant Pandas. There were a few beautiful peacocks that were roaming around the aviary.

 

As we were wrapping up it started to rain, which somewhat dampened what was otherwise a great day in D.C. We made it back to the apartment in time to try a new homemade thin pizza crust recipe and for Kelly to prepare to win an ebay auction for a belly putter that she is obsessed with.  As most of you know, Kelly enjoys playing golf but has always struggled with putting. Convinced by the hundreds of professionals that have switched to belly putters, Uncle Tom, having a dream recently about being runner up in a major championship and desperation have convinced Kelly to try to acquire a belly putter and see if that is the ticket out of a day job and onto the tour! Unfortunately, she lost that auction, but was able to win a putter later on. We will keep you updated on how the belly putter works out.

Super Bowl Sunday was a good one.  Before settling in for the big game, we decided to do a few things.

We stopped by Dick's Sporting Goods to mess around on their virtual driving range and putting green (again, this was for Kelly to try out belly putters). We picked out a driver to demo and asked the employee for permission so he could tape it up. His reaction was somewhat disturbing. He first asked us how often we play golf and then told us we couldn't hit the club if our swings weren't good enough. Offended by this subjective judgement, Kelly offered her opinion on this company policy and told them that "the golf industry was built on people with bad swings." After giving him our two cents, we decided to continue on our way.

Back at the apartment we started our Super Bowl food preparation, including pretzel wrapped hot dogs, guacamole and cheese dip, little smokies and sugar cookies. Mo and Dexter got to indulge with a extra big rawhide. Mosley doesn't get excited for much, but rawhides gives her a reason to keep breathing.