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Best of Washington?









It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The famous opening of The "Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens, could have been the opening of our evening at the National Building Museum last night. My wife signed us up to leave the comfy confines of suburban townhouse living to experience the nightlife of the "pretty people" of DC. And pretty people there were, of the "augmentation" type (I did not know they existed in such numbers here!) as well as the fashionable type. In all cases, they were on hand for the best that Washington DC has to offer in food and drinks as declared by the writers and readers of Washingtonian Magazine.

As the valet took forever to retrieve our car afterwards (the head valet apologized as his "slow" man was giving the task of grabbing our car, after finally arriving to discover that he was just a seemingly confused, disoriented college kid with over-sized basketball shoes), we reflected on the night that led to a getaway drive back home. Of course, the night was a fundraiser, money going to a good cause (Lymphoma and Leukemia Society), and so was some of the savories (drunken chicken, lamb burgers, chicken nilgiri korma, tomato tartare, and tuna crudo, to name a few) and sweets (cherry-almond "shooters" and those delectable Georgetown cupcakes). But alas, a number of the items we would have tried were flush out by the time we arrived at the table. Not to mention the loitering of the fabulous people, which have some peculiar tendencies to say the least.

With so much good food and so many pretty people, why leave in such a rush? Well, it's been some time for us married home bodies since hanging around hoards of single people preening for the attention of others, even if done expertly and demurely, as several exhibited their skills. After a couple of hours, it was enough, I suppose, to get a taste of what we could and head home to spend some time with our shaved pup. She was grateful, and so were we, as we really need to get ready for the really big event tonight - the final Harry Potter movie!

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