As opposed to last weekend where Brian and I sat around and played Lego Star Wars 2 all day, we actually left the house this weekend. Brian has been wanting to see the National Portrait Gallery for a while, and while I’m not a big fan of art museums, he bribed me with ice skating afterwards Actually, the museum wasn’t that bad, and as long as I stayed away from the modern art, I was OK. I enjoyed the much older portraits though. There were a lot from the revolutionary and civil war periods.

Afterwards, we went ice skating at the sculpture garden. It’s a really small rink, and fairly crowded at about 6pm. Brian’s feet hurt, so we stopped a bit earlier than the end of the session, but his feet felt better once they weren’t in the skates any more. I had a good time, it’s been probably 2-3 years since I’ve been on skates, and I was still fairly comfortable on them.

Later on in the evening, we met Brian and Hallie at the Brickskeller. I had never been there - mostly because I don’t drink beer, and I had heard horror stories of the smoke in the place. DC’s smoking ban has been in effect since Jan 1, and it was smoke-free. I enjoyed it. It has “beer food”, and beer. I liked the Lindemann’s Lambic that Brian originally ordered - it didn’t have the bitter aftertaste I normally associate with beer. I tried another Lambic - Duchess something or other, but it did have the bitter beer taste, so Brian offered to trade with me. Apparently, the stuff is available at Whole Paycheck, so we’ll have to go get some. It’s amazing - I’m drinking beer, and I kinda like it.

Sunday, Brian and I went to dinner at his dad’s - a nice hike from DC. I enjoyed myself, and got to try lamb chops - which I really enjoyed. I had never had them before, but they were like tender beef, and yummy…