Diane

My husband and I walked in to our suburban "town" for dinner at a little Italian restaurant on the terrace. Walked back home and watched the Redskins pre-season football game on television. Saturday AM I walked to the library to pick up some fiction and nonfiction books on London and Paris. My son and I did major grocery shopping in the afternoon. After dinner husband and I went to the movies (The Score, I like Robt DeNiro and fellow Marylander Edward Norton; movie was sufficiently entertaining. Sure would like to visit that jazz club next time we're in Montreal...) Sunday we met with a large group of DC area Fodorites in Bethesda for lunch. Always a pleasure and got to meet a few new folks this time. Came home and sat out on the patio reading. Totally delightful evening.

John

Omigod, Lidija, I did! Now I discover they left a couple of years ago! (Guess that tells you how often I was a customer.) <BR> <BR>Well, their underwear wasn't all that hot anyway. But I will miss the bangers.

dddd

<BR>chris, You started your Saturday by saying the cat was sick, but never mentioned him/her again, just went running off to sleep in a tent somewhere! <BR>So I'm worried about the kitty. How is she/he now?

frances

We travelled to London for the night on Sunday to visit the Tate and meet up with some friends.I was horrified by the price of food in our hotel and felt guilty that tourists from outside the U.K. were being ripped off.The quality of the food was good but the portions were abysmally small. <BR>Sorry to all those of you who come here from abroad! <BR>On the second day we ate in a pub which was far more acceptable

Joe

I live in a suburb of San Francisco. <BR> <BR>On Friday night, we had a dear friend for dinner. Actually, she is the Mother of our Son-in-law and has become a dear friend. It was a warm (actually, perfect evening), so we had Planters' Punch Cocktails with our hors d'ourvres, canalope wrapped in Parma Prosciutto, home grown cherry tomatoes stuffed with anchovies, and a great Spanish Monchego Cheese. We visited for quite a while and later in the evening, we started the coals for our dinner, grilled seasoned salmon fillets wrapped in fig leaves (from our tree); home grown, frenched string beans; acorn squash taken from it's skin, sliced, seasoned and grilled in foil (delicious); and an orzo salad with home grown tomatoes and lemomon cucumbers (I love my summer garden). We had a very good Columbia Crest, Grand Estates Chardonnay (92 rating by Wine Spectator) and a 1986 Devlin (Central Coast) Pinot Noir from my celler. Later, we had a slice of Crenshaw Melon for dessert. We ate outdoors and sat out sipping wine until 10:30 What a way to end the work week. <BR>Saturday, we did our housework and gardening and that evening, my wife and I took in John Elton's Aida in San Francisco. Late after dinner snack at Max's. The Show was great. If you get a chance to see it, do. <BR>Sunday Morning with the San Francisco Paper and coffee (home ground beans; equal parts of Italian, Espresso, Kenyan, and Costa Rican; strong, full-bodied, very flavorful; been drinking it for years). Early afternoon we picked up our second daughter in San Francisco and went to Fort Funston on the Beach to give her little Chihuahua./Pug a good run. It was a beautiful day in San Francisco. The sky and the water were dazzeling. Back to my daughters place for cocktails (Scotch Old Fashions) and her home made hummus with cut up vegetables and a good visit. About Seven, we walked down to China Town to our favorite Chinese Restaurant, Lychee Gardens. We started with clams steamed in ginger and oyster sauce and shrimp cakes over steamed tofu; scrumptious. We ordered several dishes knowing my youngest daughter would join us as soon as she could get away. She was volunteering her skills at a benefit luncheon hosted by Alice Waters for her Chez Panise Foundation. Entres were Lychee Gardens' Special Sweet and Sour Pork (they use thinly sliced pork chops) the best I've ever had. We had a broccoli/asperagas in crab sauce, a whole steamed Rock Cod Fish, carmalized rice noodles with onions and bean sprouts and steamed rice. We were the only Caucasions in the restaurant when we arrived. I bring this up to emphasize that the food is authentic Chinese, not Americanized Glop. If you are in San Francisco, try it. It is on Powell Street between Pacific and "I forget". Fabulous! My third Daughter joined us near the end of the appetizers. We had a passable Sterling Chardonnay (wine list is weak); actually two bottles (shhhh). All the tables are set up in banquet style with large lazy susans in the center. Makes sharing easy. We spent about three hours at the table. The pace is easy, the conversation was good. We had to hear about our daughters' adventures. The Pastry Chef was working side by side with some well known TV Cooking Personalties. My second daughter, an accomplished artist, worked during the week in a Julia Morgan designed house and looks as if she will soon do some work in the house of a very well known actor/producer that lives in the Bay Area. Life is good.

Cris

I'm in Sunny golden California south of San Francisco and North of San Jose, on the peninsula... our weather has been GLORIOUS, wonderful perfect.... <BR> <BR>Here's my weekend.. <BR> Friday evening; My sweetie was coming over so, I made fettucini alfredo, garlic bread, fresh string beans for dinner to the sounds of a Gloria Estefan all in Spanish CD. Made brownies, which we munched happily with milk while snuggled up on the sofa watching tv..had the white lights on the patio and turned the fountain on; nothing on tv so turned it off and read, snuggled up together crushing brownie crumbs into my poor sofa. <BR> <BR>Sat am: <BR> I woke up too early! meandered downstairs, made coffee... listened for waking sounds from upstairs while crocheting a baby blankie gift thing... <BR>Brought fresh bagels and coffee upstairs which we munched while watching cooking shows. Oh yes. crumbs in bed matching the decor downstairs of brownies stuck in sofa.. <BR> Later we went to Hakone Gardens, a nearby Japanese Horticultural garden, very lovely tranquil...drove home through Saratoga (seeing how the Other Half lives)... stopped and rented a couple of videos. I barbecued some London Broil for dinner with..potatoes i did something with and put in the oven.. don't ask me ? but they turned out delicious..That evening we watched... 'Chocolat' on video (popular thing to do on sat nite??) while adding more crumbs to the sofa.. <BR> sunday!! Made scrambled eggs, hash browns, fruit, coffee for breakfast and was just finishing the last bite when the phone rang, my younger son and his girlfriend were in town and did we want to go out to Hobee's for Breakfast??? Uhmm...I told them to come on over; showered and cooked another breakfast!! They ate out on the patio while we sipped coffee and got caught up on their recent escapades. Later we ALL went downtown to our favorite used bookstore and wandered blissfully in the narrow aisles till they had to get going... <BR> All in all it was a most delightful weekend spent with people I love!! <BR> <BR>I'm enjoying reading all the posts...how delightful! <BR>

Lauren

I live in the Washington, DC, suburbs. <BR> <BR>Last weekend was not a Bank Holiday in the US. We have our equivalent next weekend: Labor Day. <BR> <BR>What did I do last weekend? Catch up on my sleep from jet lag from my trip to Germany and France, catch up on the accumulated mail from my law practice, empty my suitcases and put them in the attic, catch up on the goings on on the internet while I was away, and begin dreaming about next year's trip. <BR> <BR>There wasn't anything as interesting as a Norwegian royal wedding here last weekend and, Florence, your English is perfect. If the spelling/grammar police get after you, I'll fill my suitcase with books and hit them with it.

SFE

my weekend: <BR> <BR>I live in Sonoma County, California (about ˝ hour north of San Francisco). My husband and I have two teenagers who are still too young to drive, so we do a great deal of teen chauffeuring (I think after reading about our exciting weekend those of you who do not currently possess, or perhaps never have possessed, teenagers will rush right out to your local emporium and get yourselves a couple of them. Or perhaps you will rush right out to your local place of worship, fall on your knees, and thank the Lord.) <BR> <BR>On Friday evening my husband drove our son to soccer practice, while I drove our daughter out to the barn to take care of her horse. When we all got home, we had a gourmet meal sort of like the one Joe described above, only WITHOUT the cocktails, the prosciutto, the salmon, and the chardonnay, and WITH grilled cheese sandwiches and lemonade. Then we watched a video on the VCR which I only saw about 20 minutes of because I fell asleep on the couch. But don’t worry, I woke up on the couch about 2:00 AM and made it back to the bedroom, tripping over the dog and the cat on the way, but apparently causing none of us permanent damage. <BR> <BR>On Saturday morning I dragged our daughter out of bed to go to her soccer game which started at 8:30 AM, while my husband drove our son to a friend’s house for the day. Then my husband met us at the soccer game, which started an hour and a half late, where we at least got to watch our daughter’s team win (she scored all three goals …World Cup scouts are you listening?) although it was so hot the soccer ball almost melted on the astroturf. We stopped at one of Sonoma County’s finer fast food establishments for lunch on the way home. Then my husband and daughter went out to the barn because the farrier was coming to shoe her horse. I stayed home and read “Pillars of Hercules” by Paul Theroux, who I personally think often writes as if he had his head up some bodily orifice or other (his own I mean), but I still enjoy reading about the places he writes about, so I try to tolerate the sometimes-annoying flashes of his personality that come through. After the barn-goers returned, I drove my daughter to a friend’s house to spend the night and picked up my son and three of his friends to spend the night at our house. We stopped and picked up a couple of pizzas on the way home. My husband and I spent the rest of the night cowering as far away from the four teenage boys as we could get, and spraying “testosterone-be-gone” liberally about the house. <BR> <BR>On Sunday morning, the boys slept in and my husband and I took the dog on a nice walk to a nearby creek and had some intelligent conversation (well as close to it as we ever get anyway). Then we returned home, watched the boys eat left-over pizza for breakfast, and sent them all out on their bicycles/skateboards, etc. for regions unknown. Then it was time to pick up our daughter. The compelling activities of the rest of the afternoon escape me: gardening and reading mainly. But that night both kids were invited to spend the night at friends’ houses (it’s still summer vacation for them), so after we dropped them off, we drove into San Francisco for dinner at a tapas restaurant and then to a movie that’s too artsy to come up to our neck of the woods in the country. <BR> <BR>And this is the honest to God truth, I swear: although we used to be sane and interesting people, we looked at each other during dinner and sadly said “Just think, in a couple of years the kids will be off to college...” and we BOTH got tears in our eyes. <BR>

mary

Friday: took my daughter-in-law and granddaughter to the beach at Warren Dunes in southwest Michigan. the waves were just enough to give you that undulating feeling as you let them slide past. spent the whole day there and got home at 7 pm. <BR> <BR>Saturday: it was rainy outside so i cleaned house, spent a lot of time on the internet and studied for an oncology exam i HAVE to take in sept. ugh!! <BR> <BR>Sunday: we picked some of our tomatoes and zucchini and i baked 9 loaves of zucchini bread for the freezer this winter and canned 7 jars of salsa and 1 jar of hot tomato juice. did laundry and hung it out to dry and studied some more. another ugh!! <BR>then started searching the web for fares to paris and got availability from hotel for thanksgiving week. still waiting on fares -i hope they come down after labor day. <BR> <BR>

Art

Quiet weekend for me. I went out to dinner with a friend Friday evening. Spent Saturday teaching. Vegatated Sat evening. Sunday teaching last class before my trip. Mid afternoon as I was wrapping up the class, my students presented me with a card, a billblass pen and pencil set and a carry on duffle bag for my trip. Caught me totally by surprise and totally unexpected, especially since they pay for the classes out of their own pockets. Only 20 more days!!!!! <BR>