Jean and Dick Visit - Jan 2012

Jean and Dick on WiFi!

We invited Keith's parents to come and see the new house so we opted for MLK weekend as the best 3-day weekend before summer.

They arrived on the Thursday night, so Keith picked them up right after work.  We showed them around the house and then headed off to dinner at Little India, our backup dinner because India's Pearl was closed.  We started with the Veggie Samosa and split the Lamb Vindaloo for our main course - excellent.  This will be a great backup if India's Pearl does not open again.

Friday we carpooled to work so that Jean and Dick could have the 4Runner.  They went to see a friend from Lindblad cruises over lunch and then another friend from Bell Helicopter in the late afternoon.  We were home at 7pm as we went to a clinic to do something about the cold that Shawna has been battling for 3 weeks or so.  Z-pack in hand Shawna was quickly better.  Dinner on Friday was at the Washington Park Grill on Gaylord - the second time there for us.  Dinner was delicious: we had Bruschetta for our appetizer, Pan Roasted Veal Fillet with Baked Lobster Mac and Cheese, and skipped dessert.

Dick after a hard day

Saturday was more leisurely - we got up at 8am and relaxed over coffee.  The morning was spent doing jobs around the house: installing the new iMac, Dick installing the new thermostat controls, adding tennis balls to the garage ceiling so that we know how far to bring in the cars, and putting the new dartboard up on the wall in the basement.  We played a bit of ping pong and darts - with Dick in a panic that the darts would miss the board and hit the drywall.  His nervousness was confirmed when Jean's first dart penetrated the drywall perfectly!  After a walk in the park and lunch at home we headed out to see The Iron Lady at the Mayan Theater.  The Mayan is an art deco building built in the '30s that is now a Landmark movie theater.  That night Margaret's friend Kelly joined us at the house for drinks before we all headed over to Bistro Vendome for dinner.  The food was quite good: we had Salad Campagnarde for our appetizer and Confit de Canard with Pommes Frites for main course, and the Fig Tart for dessert. 

Shawna and Kelly

Sunday morning Keith and Dick headed over to Keith's office to get the large mirror we had delivered there.  They also picked up some material at Home Depot to build a peg board in the garage for all the yard equipment.  Dick was then able to spend some time getting that fixed up.  Keith and Shawna went for a run around Wash Park in the afternoon before we all headed out to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and then dinner at Duo where we started with Mushroom Toast and Croquetes, had Short Ribs for main course, and amazing Sticky Toffee Pudding for dessert. 

Although we had Monday off for MLK day, we both needed to catch up on work so did that in the morning.  Dick did a run to Whole Foods to get lunch and dinner items.  We did our first "winter run" around the park - it even started snowing while we were out.  We all went to see My Week with Marlyn which was just outstanding - Michelle Williams definitely deserves awards for that movie.  Shawna made pork tenderloin for dinner and it was an early night to bed for a 5am wake-up to head to the airport and work.

Keith and Shawna - winter run