HOLDING PATTERN

Hallo! We're off to Costa Rica in 5 hours and have to sleep between now and then, so I can't update the tantalisingly few remaining days of my blog. But I will do when we're back (I won't blog about Costa Rica - that'd overstep the blogging mark and veer into the territory of someone just wittering about their holiday. Oh hang on...).

In summary...

- SUNDAY: we had an amazing webchat with our friends' Greg and Jane's brand new baby boy Isaac (right) and I saw for the first time and LOVED 'Mr Smith Goes To Washington'

- MONDAY: we had supper with Alison, Emily and faux-Gavin at a burger joint run by the winner of 'Top Chef' (Masterchef to you and me)

- TUESDAY: I discovered the joy that is the Gap outlet store in Alexandria, which had 40% already discounted prices that were really low in the first place (hello, Costa Rica!)

- TUESDAY: we had dinner with Jack Straw's son and I managed to not mention pot once (but did have wine again - first time since falling off the wagon last week)

- YESTERDAY: we went to Pennsylvania AGAIN, because Max finally managed to sort out the doorstepping-with-a-union-person thing that he was meant to be doing the day we visited Amish country. I don't like PA.

- TODAY: we're extreeeemely excited about our holiday! And have been running around like crazy things, trying to get everything done, so are now somewhat exhausted.

Have a happy fortnight! xx

KAYAK MARATHON

CRAZIEST THING I'VE SEEN EVER - LET ALONE JUST TODAY: a squeaky ball of two baby bats, rolling around fighting on a footpath!

I've really enjoyed the past couple of days of working - I've had a nice sense of achievement at getting things done - even including the boring online US election stuff - and the TV work I'm doing is analysing a timeslot on Channel 4, which calls for many spreadsheets, which is a happy bonus! I like a nice spreadsheet.

Last night we met Leanna to go and see 'The Dark Knight'. Patrick is still out of town, so we wanted to keep her company. It seems she's doing really pretty well since the miscarriage, which is good.

We met in Chinatown and Leanna was a little late, which wouldn't have been a problem were it not for the fact that we had to stand and listen to offensive drivel being shouted into a microphone by a load of militant Nation of Islam people. Seriously, it made me so angry, the dude was saying stuff like white people are the devil and the only reason black men smoke weed is because they've been 'sissyfied' by going to church. I really don't understand how he's allowed to stand there saying that, when a KKK member spouting similarly offensive anti-black sentiments on a street corner would surely be stopped. It makes me kind of cross about freedom of speech. But only kind of.

Leanna eventually arrived and we had a pretty grody meal at a Chinese restaurant, then went to see 'The Dark Knight'. The cinema was packed, so I was relieved that I'd been so paranoid as to pre-book and collect the tickets before supper, then get us there super-early. The movie was every bit as amazing as the rave reviews led me to believe it was. Christopher Nolan was great at pacing everything for the maximum tension and I think he must direct actors really well, as Christian Bale, Aaron Eckhardt and Heath Ledger were outstanding. I even liked Michael Caine and I think he's the most overrated actor ever! (except in 'A Muppet's Christmas Carol'.)

We got home in time for the best episode of 'The Soup' I've ever seen. Keith Olbermann (presenter of 'Countdown' - a left-wing news programme on MSNBC) made an uncharacteristically hilarious cameo and Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes (nee Stephenson) were on to promote 'Spaced' which is only now being released on DVD in the States! It was a laugh riot, I tells you.

This morning, Max slept really late, but I used the two hours I lay perfectly still in bed to cook up a most excellent plan for what seemed to be a very sunny day. My wheeze was to walk to Georgetown and out on the tow path that Anne and I had cycled along to go kayaking that time. If, by the time we reached the boathouse, we felt like a bit of kayak action, then we'd get one and if not, we'd just walk back through the pretty countryside lane.

Max liked the sound of this plan, when he finally surfaced, and we planned to head straight out. Unfortunately - and almost improbably - we got sucked in to 'Three Men & A Little Lady', which was on TV when we were eating breakfast.

But soon the hilarious japes of Tom Selleck, Ted Danson and the mighty Steve Guttenberg were behind us, as we strode off towards Georgetown (looking out for rats on the pavement, natch).

We ducked in and out of a few of the lovely Georgetown shops, then got some sandwiches and went to eat them by the riverfront. The walk along the wooded path was just gorgeous, though somewhat unrestful, as we kept getting mown down by cyclists. But once again I was amazed that such a lovely walk was within just a few miles of our flat.

We were knackered when we reached the boathouse, but also exceedingly hot and the idea of getting splashed with cool river water really appealed, so we decided to get a kayak for an hour. I was so pleased, because I don't think Maxy really wanted to do it originally, I think he was a little nervous about it. But the moment we got out on the water, he looked like a natural and once again it was lovely to be on the lovely calm Potomac, surrounded by amazing countryside. And as if we didn't already feel enough like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, there were people on the far side swinging into the river from a rope attached to an overhanging tree!

We paddled in the opposite direction to the one Anne and I went in, heading upstream. There was far less floating around chatting this time and much more serious paddling, as we tried to get to a bridge in the distance.

Any longing I had to join the swingrope people disintegrated as soon as I realised that there was loads of grode in the river. There was a scum on the surface and big blobs floating by us. Max swears blind that it was algae, but I'm convinced it was raw sewage. Eugh.

The banks weren't teeming with wildlife as they had been when Anne and I went kayaking, probably because there were so many people on the water. But as we got further upstream, we came across loads and loads of hispanic people fishing.

We made it back to the boathouse right on time and rewarded our hard work with a delicious ice lolly before heading back home, this time along the side of the canal on a tow path that runs parallel with the path we were on before, right by the river. It was a lovely walk and there weren't any cyclists this time, which made for a more relaxing stroll. We saw the crazy fighting baby bats and also an enormous heron sitting in a tree.

We were utterly exhausted by the time we got home, but worked out that we'd walked about eight miles and kayaked two, so felt our exhaustion was justified. The only mistake we made was sitting down, as we were due to go out ten minutes later with Anne.

Fortunately she was running late too, but we were soon on our way to the E St Landmark cinema, our local arthouse movie theatre, which we hadn't been to yet. We hadn't factored in that the cinema's in quite a business-y area, and found it really hard to find somewhere to eat. In sheer desperation, we even ventured into the ESPN Zone (a bit like Hard Rock Cafe for sports), but were relieved to have to venture straight out again when told the wait would be 90 mins.

With 20 mins before the film began, we plumped for Ollie's Trolley, a buffet diner that looked a lot nicer than it actually was. But by that time, we weren't being too picky and managed to make it to the cinema in time to see 'Brideshead Revisited', which I've been really looking forward to, as it stars Emma Thompson, Ben 'mmm' Whishaw and Matthew 'swoon' Goode.

Unfortunately I came over all ill before the film started and spent most of the trailers (my favourite bit) in the loo, but not before seeing the trailer for 'American Teen', which looks wonderful. I've been getting excited just reading about it (it's a year-long observational documentary shot in an American high school), but the trailer nearly made me cry.

I felt rotten throughout the movie. It didn't help that the film kind of sucked. I was so disappointed. It's just really flimsy and insubstantial and I didn't think that Emma Thompson or Matthew Goode were particularly good. Michael Gambon and Ben Whishaw were the best things in it, but Hayley Atwell as Julia was like someone in a college play. And the lighting was really annoying (as it was in 'Mama Mia', too - I forgot to mention that).

I noticed on one of my many trips to the loo that the cinema is hiring - I could handle a job there. But I guess it'd be illegal cos I don't have a visa. Boo.

SO LONG, SOBRIETY!

NUMBER OF WEEKS I WENT WITHOUT BOOZE: 8.

I've been given a couple more days' TV work by my company back in London this week, which has been really welcome. Morning movies are only fun if you should really be doing something else, or at least have the prospect of something else to do looming on the horizon. So I was a little worried a third day of lounging around might make my brain turn to mush.

But I only had two days to do a large amount of work, so was really busy all day today, trying to get a good start. Things weren't made easier by me taking a bit of a break to go and get some cash out, only to discover that Max had my keys. Thinking I was just dashing out for 5 mins, I got all hot and bothered when I was still wandering around half an hour later, trying to find Max. We'd arranged to meet at Dupont Circle, but he wasn't there when I got there and still hadn't turned up when I'd very slowly got my money. So I started walking in the direction of his office, expecting to bump into him.

When I managed to not only reach his office but actually go all the way up to his desk without bumping into him, I knew something was amiss. So I walked back home, not quite sure what I was planning to do by way of getting in the door, and found him at our rendez-vous place. Turns out he'd got there early and started walking in the direction of our flat, expecting to bump into me, but got all the way home without seeing me.

Thinking about it now, it seems one of those oh-too-chucklesome quirks of fate, but it wasn't fun while it happened - I had way too much to do and it was way too hot for such shenanigans.

I was a little relieved when Jean cancelled our tennis game tonight, as it gave me time to catch up. Then Anne came round to show me a dress she's bought for her sister's wedding in a couple of weeks. So far I've vetted two dresses she's bought, neither of which were particuarly good, but this one was DIVINE. It's a purple silk Vera Wang dress, strapless, knee-length and quite figure hugging, but the material has a nice rouching to it - a bit like my wedding dress - so it gives Anne a lovely sculpted figure, but has room behind the rouching for a bit of a tummy after a fat wedding food. It's just jaw-droppingly amazing (if slightly reminiscent of a Silk Cut ad from the 80s) and the colour suits her pale skin and orange hair really nicely. If I had a job, I'd buy one for me.

Max invited Anne in for a glass of wine and guess what? I had one too! I'd just had such a hectic, rubbish day that for the first time in ages I had a hankering for a nice glass of wine! Or three, as it turned into.

The three of us had fun chats and Anne told us for the first time that her sister's girlfriend is a TV producer who works in New York on my most favourite idea for a TV show ever. Awesome! I must meet her and get her to give me a job.

So it turns out that 200,000 people went to hear Obama speak in Berlin today. I don't fancy my chances getting into that 76,000 capacity football stadium in Denver, now. *sob*

After Anne went home, we watched 'The Daily Show' and 'Colbert Report', as part of our post-West Wing TV rehabilitation programme and both were just outstanding - they've been really excellent lately.

THE OUTDOOR TYPES

Yesterday was a day of guilty pleasure. I watched a DVD at 10am! Such decadence. It was 'Chasing Liberty', which I don't even think got a theatrical release in the UK and can now understand why, though wasn't really expecting too much when I put it on our NetFlix queue. I was just really taken with Mark Harmon as CJ's CIA agent in a couple of episodes of 'The West Wing' and wanted to see something else he'd been in. The fact that it also stars Matthew 'swoon' Goode was but a happy coincidence!

It's really very awful and Mandy Moore is INCREDIBLY annoying, but I listened to a bit of the commentary afterwards and it would seem that Matthew Goode's quite fun and Mandy Moore draws extensively on her own personality when portraying annoyingly lame people on film.

This afternoon, I made yet another picnic (yes, mostly consisting of nuggets) in our cute little picnic cooler, as this evening we went to watch an outdoor screening of the Robert Redford movie 'The Candidate' on the Mall.

We were invited by Max's colleague Zoe, who I'd met at our housewarming party and is really fun. We'd mentioned it when we went for drinks with Tennis Jean last week, so she came along too, as did Zoe's brother who's married to Sarah Smith - More4 newsreader and daughter of the late John Smith, head of the Labour party (she came to the movie, too). Max's Guardian friend Oliver turned up as well, so I was scoffing nuggets surrounded by the cream of DC's expat media crop!

It was kind of weird though, because Sarah and Simon have not been married very long and they were all over each other, doing really tonguey kissing, which I only found strange because I'm used to Sarah being all earnest and professional fronting More4 News.

It turns out that Jean is really fun! We had a really nice time chatting and eating, having met a few hours before the movie began (good thing we got there early too, as there were loads of people there already, creating a sea of rugs).

When the film finally began, at sundown, we found our view precariously contingent on the minute movements of a man with a massive afro, a bit like in a cartoon of someone who's really unlucky in the cinema. However, we gave in in the end and just enjoyed sitting out on a beautiful warm night, watching a film with the Capitol in the background and fireflies darting about in front of us. I ended up lying on Max for most of it (well I could kind of see...), just marvelling at how lucky we are.

I found the film a little slow and not much happens. But it was eery to spot the similarities with the Obama campaign - relatively inexperienced idealist runs for Senate against an established Republican - and it felt like a two hour episode of the West Wing! (but with people talking much more slowly.)

Today was not so different from yesterday, in that I watched a film this morning - 'Grey Gardens', the extraordinary Maysles brothers' documentary about Edie Beale and her daughter Edie (aunt and cousin respectively of Jackie O) and the eccentric life they lead in their house in the Hamptons.

It really is extraordinary and I only wish I hadn't been distracted by a phone call and dropped off for a mini-nap in the middle, as it was really well-made and I was dying to work out whether the filmmakers were poking fun at the two strange characters, or whether it was a sympathetic account.

I had lunch with Max in an extremely hot Dupont Circle and then tonight, we went for more balmy evening outdoor fun, this time at Wolf Trap, in Virginia. It's a DC summertime institution and we were invited by Michael and Marie to see Mark Knopfler in concert there.

We're not massive fans of aging members of Dire Straits (in fact Max issued a 'no photos' edict, for fear of evidence of us at a Mark Knopfler concert getting out. Sorrryyy, Max!), but we liked the idea of spending a warm summer's evening listening to music outside with Michael and Marie, whose company we enjoy. So we drove out there with them and once again found a sea of blankets. There was hardly any room for us to squeeze in, but we managed it (much to the chagrin of the party next to us) and had a nice picnic (no nuggets this time - just fancy grownup food, like barbecued prawns, from Michael and Marie) as the sun went down.

The Wolf Trap building is an extraordinary structure and reminded me of an ark (because I've seen a lot of those...). It's all wooden and angular, with spindly wooden walkways leading off from it, set against a backdrop of a forest, as if it's emerged from the natural world. There are fancy expensive seats under cover near the stage, then a big slope looking down, where the less fancy people (or people less interested in the music and more interested in the whole Wolf Trap experience) sit on rugs and risk getting rained on.

It was a gorgeous evening and we spent most of the concert lying down, looking at the sky and listening to Mark Knopfler and his band wig out in a very controlled way for 10 mins at the end of every song. It was actually a pretty fun gig and the band were really tight. It rained a little bit towards the end of the mammoth 90min set, but the big sploshy drops were actually quite welcome after such a hot day and we just let them plop on our heads.

I feel sure that there were some disappointed connoisseurs of the more obscure bits of the Knopfler oeuvre, but we were relieved that he stuck to the hits and recognised 'Romeo & Juliet', 'So Far Away From Me' and 'Brothers In Arms'. The best bit was that everyone was expecting him to encore with 'Money For Nothing' (my least favourite song in all the world), but he went for the theme tune from 'Local Hero'! It was great!

The crowd was very conservative and middle class, so listened in polite silence. Which caused the banshee behind us to stick out like a sore thumb! She was this really fun lady who was very friendly to us when we were having our picnic and who was obviously just the most enormous fan of Mark Knopfler, so kept whooping and cheering and jigging about. People around us were fuuuurious and kept shouting at her to be quiet, but she carried on regardless, which I think is quite right - it's a concert, after all. Loosen up, daddio!

PHOTOS: BALTIMORE

Click HERE for photos of our weekend in Baltimore.

SEWERS, ABBA & THE AMISH

BEST INVITE OF TODAY: Alison called to invite us to a game of nighttime frisbee on the Mall tonight! Unfortunately we were too exhausted by the time we got home, but will SO be there next time!

We had a delicious brunch at a cafe down the road from Susan's flat, on Anne's recommendation. It was a really cool place, with lots of lanterns hanging from the ceiling, tasty food and particularly cool loos (left), where the walls are lined with album covers.

As we were finishing up, who should we see leaving, but the family from Cafe Hon yesterday! And one of the boys was still wearing a nice string of beads!

We took a tantalising and misguided saunter around the shops after brunch, before packing up and going into town. We visited a particularly cool bookshop which looked like my friend Tom's ideal store - all comics and McSweeneys and rare DVDs.

I didn't really feel the need to linger in Baltimore much longer, but it felt like a waste of the car hire to go back to DC at lunchtime, so we took Anne up on another of her recommendations and went to the Baltimore Museum of Public Works. It's a sewer museum. I obviously had my doubts, but Anne had been so adamant that it was really good and all her other suggestions had been so spot-on that we thought there must be a good reason to go.

Erm, unfortunately it was really boring and a little stinky. I couldn't quite work if they were going for the conceptual, smell-o-vision museum thing or not, but - contrary to the sign outside which proclaimed it to be 'the surprisingly interesting Baltimore Public Works Museum - it was just really boring. I had a bit of fun on a computer game where you drive a massive rubbish truck around Baltimore, but I kept veering onto the pavement and mowing down cars and got the impression that Max was getting a little twitchy about surviving the drive back to DC, so packed that in.

I wasn't sad to leave Baltimore, though am glad we went and would definitely like to go to the baseball again, but there's a weirdy trolley/train that goes straight from DC to outside the stadium on Friday nights, so I think we'd do that in future, rather than sticking around for the whole weekend.

On the way out of town, we drove through Little Italy and managed to find the old, pre-Inner Harbour centre with a cathedral and big statue of Washington. But neither made me any fonder of the place. Max really liked it, though.

It was so early when we got back to DC that after we dropped the car off, we decided to go and see 'Mama Mia'. It was indescribably hot, so the thought of being in an aggressively air conditioned cinema for a couple of hours really appealed. We were basically liquid forms of ourselves by the time we reached the cinema, only to discover that it was sold out!

Extremely reluctantly, I agreed to go back to Union Station, where we'd just dropped off the car, and where there's the weird horrid cinema there, which has bad sound and a deficient projectionist. We hadn't been there since seeing '21' a few months ago and I wasn't too keen to go back, but it all turned out ok.

I wouldn't say that the film was worth the odyssey it took to get there and I was sad to see Colin Firth surrender his dignity, but it was fun enough and the music was ace. It annoyed me that Pierce Brosnan is so handsome (and sings like a bear with an itch), because he was the only really unpleasant person I ever looked after on 'Parkinson', but Julie Walters was hilarious and I just know that Mum's going to love the film.

I much more enjoyed 'Witness', which we watched when we got back to the flat. We'd put it on our NetFlix queue after our visit to Amish country in Pennsylvania, because Max has never seen it and I haven't seen it for years. It's such a terrific film - all mood and tension and atmosphere and I'd forgotten what an adorable little boy Lukas Haas was, now that he's a slightly gangly grown up.

BAWLMER

MOST SATISFYING BAR EXPERIENCE TODAY: being able to follow the second Orioles/Tigers game on TV tonight with some interest and a little excitement.

Oh my goodness, it's been SO hot today. Bleurgh. Hooray for our car having a/c and also at least it's just been a very hot heat, rather than heinously humid.

So it turns out that Susan lives in a really nice area. It mostly just consists of one main street that runs along about three short blocks, but it's really pretty and has nice boutiques and cafes. Hampden is the heart of John Waters' world and we went for brunch at Cafe Hon, which celebrates the big beehives and horn-rimmed glasses of John Waters movies.

There's a little boutique in the corner of Cafe Hon, pedaling tat like plastic flamingoes and Cafe Hon glasses and stuff and we watched with amusement as three boys between the age of about 3 - 7 raided this boutique of its most flamboyant items, bedecking themselves in beads, feather boas, sunglasses and visors, all of which were very at odds with their baseball t-shirts! We got the sense that their father was a little mortified, as he made them take everything off. But just as he was unravelling one boy from a moulting boa, another was making a bee-line for something else distinctly feminine and flamboyant!

After brunch we wandered around a really nice boutique - a little like Joy in London - across the road from Susan's flat, then got in the car and went into town. Lots of the streets were blocked off for some street event, so we headed out to an out-of-town mall. On the way out of town, we kept our eyes peeled for blocks like on 'The Wire'. I was particularly keen to see somewhere like Hamsterdam. But then I realised that all that really is is a scuzzy and slightly threatening row of houses in a rundown area, and to expect to be excited by such a sight would be akin to a 'Shameless' fan being wild about Manchester's council estates.

As such, I found Baltimore a little scuzzy and gross, but got a bristle of excitement when we saw (and sped past) houses that looked like Snoop had been there with her nailgun.

Forgive me - I know an out-of-town mall's not the most edifying first stop for a visitor to a new and historic city, but it had shops in it that we don't have in DC! Anyway, I didn't manage to buy anything. Except an eraser and a pencil sharpener - I've been looking for those for ages and found them in a massive arts and crafts emporium that would've been a dream to the Fimo-obsessed 11-year old Soph!

We left the scary Stepford mall as soon as possible and went back into town, where we followed Anne's advice and visited the American Visionary Art Museum. She'd warned us that the museum itself is really expensive and pretty patchy, but that the giftshop rocks. And sure enough, it does! It reminded me of toyshops I used to go to when I was little, because it was just crammed with trinkets and boxes of little things, with stuff hanging from the ceiling and the walls busy with pictures you could buy.

There was enough visionary art outside the museum for us to get our fill, including an enormous shiny mosaic egg, a gigantic guitar and a big hand emerging from the building, as if giving away the location of the rest of the body belonging to the Monty Python foot.

Right opposite the museum Federal Hill Park, which overlooks the city, so we went up there to get a look at the Inner Harbour area, which has been redeveloped and swankified to persuade people that Bawlmer (as the locals call it) is a nice place to visit. It kind of isn't, really. The city reminds me of Philadelphia, in that quite rundown, no real cohesion way and the Inner Harbour is just really aggressively modern and souped-up.

There was a wedding party up on the hill, having their photos taken with the Inner Harbour as their backdrop, which seemed a strange decision to me, but I guess if you love Baltimore, then that's a good place to go.

We were boiling by the time we got down the hill to the Inner Harbour, so got some lishy sorbets then went up to the top of the World Trade Centre - the world's tallest pentagonal building - where you get panoramic views of the city and beyond, from 423 ft up.

It was as exciting as looking at any city from very high up ever is, but fun to spot the Orioles stadium where we were last night. As we were leaving, we spotted a suspicious abandoned brown paper bag full of something (ie not all scrumpled up and obviously empty) and told the giftshop girl, who very boldly just went over and picked it up. Turned out just to be some food.

So unimpressed were we by the Inner Harbour, that we decided not to have supper there, but head to a place Anne had recommended, called O'Donnell Square. But before we did, we hit Filene's Basement - Max's favourite store of designer bargains - where Max snapped up some sunglasses, swimming trunks and Lucky Brand top for something stupid like $40.

O'Donnell Square was really nice and reminded me a bit of a French place, as it was a rectangle of grass and trees lined with glowing bars and restaurants. We had supper at The Speakeasy Saloon & Dining House, where Max had the most enormous steak I've ever seen - it was wider and higher than any slab of meat really should be, if consumed by but one person.

Hampden was buzzing when we got back to Susan's flat, so we dropped off our bags and went for a wander up and down the main street. Much to my don't-shop-on-Sunday dismay, the street is lined with fabulous little boutiques of dresses and trinkets and I saw a couple of lovely dresses in windows, but unfortunately won't be able to go and snap them up tomorrow, due to my pesky principles. Ah well.

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME

BIGGEST BASEBALL MISUNDERSTANDING TONIGHT: I thought people were booing an Orioles player, but in fact they were chanting Luuuuuuke, cos that was his name. It's like when people chant Bruuuuuuce at a Springsteen concert, which I also mistook for booing at first.

I had to do my half day of online US election stuff this morning, then this evening we picked up a hire car and skipped town to go to Baltimore, to watch the Orioles play the Detroit Tigers.

It took about an hour and a half to get to Baltimore in the rush hour Friday night traffic, but it was really exciting when we finally reached Camden Yards - the stadium. We got half-price tickets ($25 each) on the internet that we had to pick up there, so I never quite believed that we were actually going to see the game. I thought we'd get to the collection window and be laughed out of town with our plausible-looking reference number.

But sure enough, it worked (must learn to trust the internet. I hear it's the future) and we had great seats - just 4 rows back from the front and at a really good angle so we could see all the action. The stadium was recently renovated in a kind of cool old-fashioned way and there was a really exciting atmosphere there.

It was a little stressful, finding a food place that sold hot dogs (who runs out of hot dogs at a ballgame?!) and then a little tricksy trying to get our many hot dogs, chips, beer and souvenir jug of Coke back to our seats (I now need to stop being bemused about why I was a bigger size in Lucky Brand the other week!). But once we were settled, it was really good fun and we drank up the atmosphere. We got there in the 4th inning and the Tigers were 3-2 up. But then for about 3 innings, nothing really happened - no-one scored.

In a wonderful twist of fate, my disastrous softball experience came in really handy, as I managed to employ my new-found knowledge of those rules to understand better the baseball game! It was great - I was getting all excited when a batter had been pitched 3 'balls' and was about to get a 'walk' and stuff.

Max has been singing, whistling and faux-trumpeting 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' all week, so was thrilled when the ENTIRE stadium stood up and sang it during the 7th inning stretch! And another fun diversion during the changeover of innings was the 'Kiss-Cam', which was hilarious - cameras would beam shots onto the big screen of a random couple sitting in the crowd and if you saw yourself on the screen, you had to kiss and everyone cheered. It was just really funny, because every single couple's reaction was exactly the same: when the camera found them, they'd still be smiling about the previous couple, then they'd realise with wide eyes and open mouths that they were on the screen and then scrappily kiss each other - invariably with the man being way more into it than the mildly mortified woman.

Eventually people started scoring again and there were a couple of home runs, which were excited and accompanied by fireworks. There were also a healthy number of Mexican waves, which was fun. Max informed me that they get their name from their popularity during the Mexico Olympics, rather than coming from Mexico itself.

I managed to miss the moment when the Orioles stole victory from the jaws of the Tigers, as I needed to go to the loo. But I was back in time to see the Orioles mascot do a victory lap and a spectacular firework display - way better than DC on 4th July.

Our trusty satnav (mercifully better than the one we had in Pennsylvania) got us to Anne's sister apartment very smoothly after the game. She lives about 20 mins drive out of town but we didn't really get much of a sense of the city as we drove through the night. Susan's apartment is in Hampden (she's living in New York all summer, which is how come we could have her flat for the weekend), which seems like a nice neighbourhood. Her street - the excellently named Roland Avenue - is lined with quite scuzzy looking houses with overgrown front yards and we were bracing ourselves for an 'authentic' Baltimore experience, preparing to throw ourselves into life a la 'The Wire', until we realised that Susan's apartment is in a really fancy redeveloped red brick building at the end of the street. Suddenly the thought of A/C and no cockroaches was terribly appealing.

Susan's apartment is an archetypically cool new apartment, with lots of exposed brickwork and a kind of mezzanine level where the bed is. It's pretty small, but way cooler than we were expecting. I must confess to being a little stumped by the lack of TV, but we checked out funny photos of Anne when she was a teenager and chatted, just like in the old days.

WHEN BLOGGERS GO BAD

After our late night West Wing blowout last night, I woke up at 11am. While this wouldn't usually be a problem and is most befitting a lady of leisure such as myself, I'd unfortunately made plans with Anne for this morning, so had her knocking on the door and brandishing frozen yoghurt at 11.15am. Fro yo for breakfast isn't so nice. But it was good to see Anne and get the keys to her sister's flat in Baltimore, where we're going this weekend to watch a baseball game and try not to get shot while scoping out locations from 'The Wire'.

Anne had to go off to pick a car up for a trip she and Hugh are taking this weekend, then came back over for lunch. My palate still wasn't quite in the mood for Greek salad a mere 90 mins after I woke up, but I soldiered on and it was great to gossip with Anne.

I was MORTIFIED and then FURIOUS this afternoon when Max emailed me something that had popped up when he was Googling his own name (his story is that he wanted to see what happened, so he could give advice to his cousin who wanted to find his news stories). It turns out that the kudos of having your name put to your work (unlike most BBC online journalists) has a downside. And that downside is vitriolic, illiterate bloggers. Click here for the full horror. Poor Maxy - I want to hunt that girl down and poke her in the eye! At least Clinton lost... What an idiot. Grrrr. I felt all 'Godfather' for most of the afternoon - 'eh, you dishonour my family...'. Grrr.

I was meant to play tennis with Jean (State Dept girl who learned tennis in Bogota) tonight, but the queue for the court was really long so we went for a drink instead. Max came along to meet Jean, which was good because Jean's starting a new job in a couple of weeks, where her job will be looking after foreign journalists at events like the conventions. Handy! We went back to the courts after our drink, but there was still a queue, so we reluctantly left it.

Max and I went for supper at Afterwords, where we shared the MOST divine dessert EVER. It was sumptuous chocolate brownies smothered in hot fudge sauce, topped with vanilla ice cream and sprinkled with nuts! Mmmmm. So bad and yet so very very good.

It was funny not to have 'The West Wing' to watch when we got home, but nice to re-discover actual TV and feel part of the real world again.

AND SO THE END IS HERE...

NUMBER OF LICENCE PLATES LEFT TO SPOT: 6!! Alaska, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Utah and Nevada.

Monday this week was the first day I had where I had nothing to do. I haven't been given any TV work since before the Pennsylvania/Tess & Bob/4th July week and don't even have any errands to run! So that afternoon, after lunch with Maxy at Dupont Circle, I sat and watched 'Gone Baby Gone' - another of the NetFlix DVDs we've ignored for weeks.

It's Ben Affleck's directorial debut and I had no idea it was based on a Dennis Lehane novel (I really like him. He's one of the writers on 'The Wire' and 'Mystic River' is an adaptation of one of his other books). It didn't get a theatrical release in the UK because of its similarities with the Madeleine McCann case. And sure enough, the little girl who gets abducted does look eerily like Madeleine McCann and she's taken after her mother leaves her sleeping to go to a bar. So I thought it was going to be all about the distress of parents who lose their child. But it totally isn't - it's a really twisty tense thriller in which the abduction of the child - or at least her mother's distress - is really secondary to what else is going on.

I couldn't work out if it's a good film independent of Lehane's excellent story and writing, so couldn't really discern whether Ben Affleck is much cop as a director. But I really like Casey Affleck, who plays the lead guy and Amy Ryan (also Beadie from 'The Wire') is terrific as the crackwhore mother and totally deserved her Oscar nomination (take note, Saoirse Ronan).

That evening, we went for a really nice dinner with Anne at an Eritrean restaurant, just down the road. Well, the meal was actually horrible, but the company was great and the three of us had a really fun evening. We were tempted to go to the Belgian restaurant at the end of our street, because it was having an enormous Bastille Day celebration (I'm not sure anyone had the heart to point out France and Belgium are different...) but it was a little hectic, with men running around in French maid outfits and others in big powdery wigs.

So we opted for Eritrean and, in typical sod's law fashion, I decided to come off the wagon that evening as I fancied a glass of wine for the first time in weeks. But I forgot to take my ID so was denied! Gnaaah.

The food was a little grody. I didn't like the big pancakey things that you wrap the meat up in, because I don't like pancakes and these ones expand in your stomach and make you feel gross by the end of the meal (Max and I both had upset tummies the next day). But as is becoming something of a habit, we spotted Max's friend Oliver as we were finishing up supper! He was wandering past with some other girl from The Guardian this time.

That same day, Max had finally managed to get to the doctors to get a prescription for the asthma medicine he really needs, having run out of it ages ago. He got a prescription for 10 inhalers, to last him the whole of the rest of our time here, and went to the pharmacy to pick it up, only to be asked for $200!!! Our insurance will pay him back, but not until 3 weeks from the date of his claim, so he has to stump up the money in advance. Who can afford to do that?!

But WAY more astonishing is that once Max had handed over the money, he only got one inhaler back, not 10! I was exasperated when he told me, convinced he'd made a mistake and that the pharmacy owe him a further 9 inhalers. It's not revolutionary medicine, it's taken on a daily basis and half the world has asthma, so how could it possibly be practical for the medication to be so extortionate? And how come it only costs £6 back home? Surely $200 for 10 makes more sense - $20 each and all that...

So Max duly went back to the pharmacy while I researched his medication on the internet and sure enough, we both discovered almost simultaneously that it is indeed $200 per inhaler! Have you ever heard anything so outrageous?!? It only made me more desperate for Obama to win the election so he can introduce his healthcare plan. Aye carumba.

On Tuesday I played tennis with Caroline, who was the one I had that amazing game with a few weeks ago. We went back to the same courts as before (no sign of the omnipresent Micah this time - it was softball night), but there was a really long queue and people were really aggressive towards me when I asked when they'd be finishing, so we ended up having to drive to different courts, in the north east of DC, in Caroline's lovely new swanky convertible car.

Unfortunately, after all that hassle, I then proceeded to play like a monkey with limited motor skills. It was so awful - I think I'd have been better off at softball! - especially as I'd been looking forward to playing with Caroline again for ages. There are few things that make me more grumpy than playing tennis badly.

Last night was much more fun - we went to hear the Marine Corps band play a free concert of dixieland jazz on the steps of the Capitol! We went with Alison, whose downstairs neighbour plays in the band. Alison had heard him practising the night before and asked what he was up to and he invited her along. It was so much fun and such a classic example of why I like DC. It was a really nice balmy summer's evening, we had a picnic (featuring chicken nuggets and little else) and listened to this fantastic, Jeeves & Wooster-esque music as the sun went down over the Capitol in one direction and Washington monument in the other. No-one was really dancing, but I enjoyed jigging about and just wish Max and I knew how to do swing dancing, because we could've busted out our moves. There was a really cute little boy who was totally possessed by the music and flailing about all over the place in rapture.

Alison's neighbour was really good and was playing a most curious trombone - it had valves like a trumpet, rather than the traditional slide. Makes much more sense to me.

When we got home, the moment we always knew was coming finally arrived. We finished 'The West Wing'!! We finally have a life again and our NetFlix subscription will no longer go to waste! (we've been borrowing the WW DVDs off Anne and Megan). It took us until 1am, but we finally did it. To be honest, I haven't much enjoyed it since season 5 and though I love Santos like he is my husband and even have a soft spot for Arnold Vinick, I was the tiniest bit relieved when it was over. It had just been getting a bit too random lately - too many storylines introduced and then inexplicably abandoned and a bit too much pandering to the audience, I reckon. Still, I've learned a massive amount about American politics, so the election should be a blast!

PHOTOS: VINEYARD

Click HERE for photos of our trip to the Hillsborough vineyard in Virginia

WINE WINE EVERYWHERE BUT NOT A DROP TO DRINK

SADDEST NEWS OF THE WEEK: Mum has had to go to South Africa for the funeral of her brother-in-law, Nando. Apparently she's keeping aunty Alice's spirits up, but uncle Nando died very suddenly and everyone's very sad.

I'm not really sure why, but Alison has a Saturday job at a vineyard in Virginia and yesterday we went out there to check it out with Emily and her friend Grace. Emily was late picking us up and we spent an hour like urchins, sitting on the steps just inside the front door to our building (WAY too hot to wait outside). While we were waiting, we bumped into Paula from upstairs who was on her way to see 'Edge of Heaven' at the arthouse cinema we've yet to visit, and also saw Jonathan. Twice. Once on his way out to get breakfast for him and Megan and once on his way back.

By the time Jonathan appeared, we'd had to fire into our picnic and were merrily scoffing the chicken nuggets (SO good. Seriously, forget fancy cold meats and cheese and olives - all Devo picnics from now on will only consist of cold chicken nuggets). Fortunately Emily turned up in time for us to have some picnic left for the vineyard and we sped off in her righteous ride - a sweet old convertible jeep. It was so hot yesterday that that's really the only place to be, other than perhaps submerged in a swimming pool.

It took about an hour to get to the vineyard, which is in a breathtakingly beautiful spot up on a hillside. Alison and Emily's other friends Kristy, Katie and Katie's sister were already there when we arrived, so we went straight in to do a bit of winetasting and watch Alison strut her stuff with the various flights of wine. I'm still not drinking and wasn't even inspired to fall off the wagon while surrounded by fine wine in a lovely setting. But it was fun to hear Alison's spiel and Max had a good time quaffing away. No spitting, though.

Once Emily, Grace and Max had decided on their favourite of the wines they tasted, we got a bottle of that and headed out to join the others outside, overlooking the vineyard. Then we just spent a really nice lazy, very hot afternoon sitting there eating our picnics and drinking wine (well they did). It was really nice and the other three girls were really fun. Alison's been in California all week (with Brewster! Things are getting serious...), so it was nice to see her again, but she was super-busy.

It became increasingly clear over the course of the afternoon that Emily has something of a predatory crush on Max, which got a little annoying. Especially as she insists on calling him Maxy, while everyone else seems to twig that that's what only people close to him call him. Anyway, far more annoying was a massive stretch limo that pulled up, blaring out music and deposited a massive group of women in garish t-shirts on something of a vineyard crawl. But they were soon squirreled away in a back room of the tasting building so didn't bother us again.

Because I hadn't been drinking, I drove us home in Emily's jeep (insurance here works so that anyone's insured to drive your car). Turns out it is a very sweet ride, but really tricksy to drive and the steering's kind of loose. But we managed to get back in one piece.

We decided to give 'The West Wing' a break for an evening and watch one of the NetFlix DVDs that arrived ages ago and have been mewing at us from the top of the TV ever since, as we constantly shun them for the trusty WW. We watched 'Sullivan's Travels', which came highly recommended by my most discerning friends/brother. But unfortunately - much like the only other Preston Sturges film I've seen, 'The Lady Eve' - I didn't really like it that much. It was ok, but not super-great.

Unfortunately last night we suffered the downside of the lovely collegiate feel of living next door to Anne and Megan and being able to flit between flats and have friends on just the other side of the wall - we heard Megan and Jonathan having sex. Hdddrrrdrdrrr. Fortunately our iPod alarm clock was loud enough to drown out the noise, but I'm not looking forward to the next time we bump into them! Awwwwwkward.

I came over faint AGAIN in church this morning. I don't know what's going on. But before that happened, I was amused by a cool little boy who had a telescope and scrutinised the vicar and readers through it.

After recovering from my funny turn (hooray for peanut M&Ms!) and a good chat with my sister, we took the metro miles away to Alexandria in Virginia. Alexandria is known as Old Town (there's a restaurant there which opened in 1967!) and is basically one long cobbled street that leads down to the waterfront and is lined with many quaint shops - excellent for antiquing, (if only I was into that). It's got a really nice feel to it and will certainly be on our list of things to do with visitors - it's lovely to just wander around and windowshop.

We took a really long time - including having lupper (the 'brunch' of the afternoon) at a nice grill restaurant - to get to the waterfront, where we were a little perplexed to see a bunch of parrots there, one of whom looked ready to eat a baby. Regardez:

But there was also a magician and a balloon artiste there, so they were part of the waterfront entertainment. Max bought me a massive ice cream and we sat and watched boats and ducks and a little boy terrorising the ducks.

After sauntering along the waterfront (not much to see), we took an old town trolley back up to the metro and went to Chinatown to see 'Wanted'. As we suspected, it was really pretty awful, but James McAvoy as an action hero - having been the most unlikely prospect since Keira Knightley as anyone alluring - was fantastic! He's such a dude. The whole thing looked like a computer game and I really liked a massively long shootout at the end, where McAvoy just dispenses with everyone in his path (I make no apologies for spoiling a film you really shouldn't be going to see anyway).

OPERATION HOLIDAY

CHECK IT OUT: look at the crazy weird bug that was on our window the other day! It's got a weirdy long tail...

So this week has been pretty uneventful, but for a huge amount of 'West Wing' action. I'm slightly wistful about this time last year, when I was working on my favourite TV project ever - the Stephen Fry documentary - and everything was crazy busy and dynamic, but really really fun and excellent. Ho hum. A few daytime trips to the park will stamp that out!

A while ago, one of the partners at the TV company I was working for before we left London employed me to do half a day's work every week between now and November, monitoring the online activity in the US election. Partner man usually makes the Lib Dems' party political broadcast for them, but this time around would like to consult them on what would work best on the internet. So I have to check out Obama and McCain's websites as well as keeping tabs on any 527 groups doing anything significant (527s are the groups that are associated with a candidate but can campaign more aggressively and negatively than the candidates themselves can).

So this all sounded fine - keep my brain ticking over and get me money for our summer holiday (of which MUCH more later! 'citing!), but unfortunately it's proved such a small amount of work that every week since I was set the assignment, I've found it's fallen a bit by the way. So this week I've been catching up on about three weeks (1 1/2 days) worth of that work.

Obama's website is so impressive that by the time I finished analysing and describing it in great detail, I was inspired to donate to the campaign, so ordered a bunch of stuff from the online store (non-US citizens aren't allowed to directly contribute to any campaigns, but you can buy merchandise and get your money to them that way).

McCain's site on the other hand is just the most chaotic, boring turgid mess ever and - no word of a lie - every day I've been scrutinising it, I've found myself having to go for a nap! Every single time, no matter how much Dr Pepper I have beforehand or how awake I've felt for the rest of the day. McCain's site is a soporific mess. Ugh.

On Monday we walked down to Georgetown to see 'WALL-E'. We took a detour along the waterfront, which of course i've seen from a kayak but never the landlubber's view! It's really nice and has a big bit of grass right by the water, which must be nice for picnics and the like.

WALL-E is a triumph - I absolutely loved loved loved it and am so pleased that there are people out there with the kinds of souls the Pixar people must have - it's imbued with such a wonderful way of looking at the world and is really funny, touching and moving. The children of Pixar people must be very lucky - they have very cool parents and probably get to screentest all the movies in advance, too.

I thought I was going to be bothered by how much WALL-E looks like the robot from 'Short Circuit' crossed with ET, but I wasn't at all. I just chuckled at how the object of his affection - as so many of us - was basically a beautiful sleek iPod that looked like what aliens would look like if made by Apple. In fact Max told me that Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple) is somehow involved with Pixar, so perhaps this is no coincidence.

I had to keep reminding both Max and myself that it was animation, as all the textures and landscapes looked incredibly realistic - it was amazing. And I'd like to see 'Hello Dolly' now, too.

We've been trying to work out where to go on our annual two week summer holiday for ages. Max has got 1 - 14 August off work, but we couldn't decide where to go. Until this week! It had long been between Trinidad and Tobago (Max wants to get back to his steel drumming roots) and Costa Rica, because we're planning a big coast-to-coast roadtrip over 4 weeks at the end of our time here, so wanted to go somewhere outside the US that would make the most of us being on this side of the Atlantic already.

This week we finally decided on Costa Rica and I've spent most of the week earning my travel agent's qualifications! Unfortunately I contacted Patrick for advice, as his sister's best friend lives in Costa and Patrick told me that Leanna miscarried a few days ago. What's worse is that he is out of town until the middle of this month. It's just awful. They had been really cautious about getting excited (I only know she was pregnant because I guessed that was the reason Leanna has been poorly for ages) and were only too aware of how many first-time pregnancies often end in miscarriage, so hopefully they're taking a lot of strength from that. But it must be really hard to be apart and they also lost the house they were going for a couple of weeks ago, so they've gone from being about to own a house and have a baby to having none of that.

Umm, so we're going to Costa Rica! We decided there'd be more to do there than on T&T and are going to spend the first week travelling around the greatest hits of the country - a caribbean beach where turtles lay eggs, taking a boat through the rainforest, hiking up an active volcano, visiting hot springs with waterfalls (it'll be like in 'Cocktail'!) and going on a tour of a national park on the Pacific coast.

We'd love to be those intrepid travellers who fly into San Jose and then just wing it, doing all this under our own steam and going off the beaten track, but found our 5 weeks in Mexico/Guatemala/Belize a few years ago really hard, as we have no Spanish and just found it really difficult to move around, be understood and even book hotel rooms. So we're coming clean with ourselves, admitting that we're not as intrepid as we'd like to think (though I should imagine if Max was by himself, he'd happily go where the wind takes him) and sought the help of a tour company who've put the whole itinerary together for us. So we're paying them a lump sum and they're booking all our hotels, arranging private transport between all places and booking bilingual guides to take us on daily tours of wherever we are.

It's taken about 3 days of toing and froing to get all this in place (not helped by them having an internet outage due to rain and wind knocking trees onto the phone lines!), but the lady we're dealing with is super-efficient and nice and now we're just massively excited about our trip!

It took us ages to work out where to spend the second week, which we wanted to spend just staying put on one beach. But after extensive research, we've found a fantastic place on the Pacific coast, and are booked to stay in a bungalow on stilts right on the beach, with two private hammocks and a barbecue underneath!! It's going to be aaaaawwesome. I'm going to learn to surf. I just feel like something of a fraud, because I really don't feel strung out enough to deserve a holiday and am having quite a nice little break here in DC as it is, thank you very much! The flights were a nightmare (long story to do with countless malfunctioning websites), but we've finally found better ones than we thought we could ever get - less than $400 (£200) each!

While in travel agent mode, I also booked myself flights to Denver, so I can join Maxy at the Democrats' convention and hopefully get to see Obama speak when he does his final night speech in a football stadium, rather than the convention centre. It was only once I'd booked those flights that I realised that Max is going straight on to St Paul for the Republicans directly after Denver, so I cancelled my return flight and have booked myself on a flight from Denver to LA and then back to DC a week later! I'm going to visit my friends Tom and Nina and Tom and Bambi and am really excited as I've been hoping for ages to make the most of being this bit closer to them all.

So in the month of August, because every flight I'm taking involves a change, I'll be on 10 planes! I feel this is most appropriate of one with no job or steady income, but every day hail the weak dollar, as it's costing less than a cheap return to New York from London. All these plans have the added bonus of ensuring we're hardly in DC in August, which is when the weather gets so hideous that people just stay inside all the time - it's a humidity-orama. We're back for just a week in between Costa Rica and Denver, when Max's parents are coming to stay for 5 days.

Last night we discovered a whole new park near our flat and sat and watched baseball for ages - it was really cool. Then tonight we went to Ailsa's leaving do at overrated 'concept' restaurant and venue of choice for all BBC leaving dos, Vapiano. It was fairly lame and Max is really sad Ailsa's leaving, because she's by far the most fun person at the Bureau. We saw Geoff and Sarah for the first time in ages, as they've been on honeymoon fishing in Alaska for the last couple of weeks. But they're nowhere near as fun as that first night we met them. I also met an obnoxious colleague of Max's who everyone loves, but I find annoying and arrogant and had my dislike of him confirmed when he balked at our raving about 'The Soup'. It's a show on E! that's a bit like 'Harry Hill's TV Burp' - a sardonic (and quite handsome) host just takes the mickey out of clips from that week's TV. It's freaking hilarious and the greatest thing on TV. But fathead flamboyant man doesn't like it. Whatever.

Unfortunately I made a glaring booboo while talking to one of Max's more earnest colleagues when she was talking about her time in Jakarta and I made some reference to, "well that's how it is in India", only to have her pointedly correct me with "Indonesia, actually". Whoops. Yeah, I don't know how I got an A in Geography A-level either, so stop wondering!

In good news (Indonesia lady obviously hadn't talked to her yet), Ailsa's replacement nobbled me to say that they're desperate for freelance producers to do 'shifts' at the Bureau and she's really really keen to use me. They'd pay me to shadow someone for a couple of shifts (I have NO idea what a shift involves) and then if I liked it, they'd put me on some kind of casual rota. Sounds good to me, after all I am Little Miss Ten Flights. I just hope the shifts don't require a firm grasp of geography...

PHOTOS: DEVOS DO DC pt.2

Click HERE for random photos of the last 6 weeks or so...

SNOREth OF JULY

THE MOST TELLING SIGN THAT WE'RE IN DC SPOTTED TODAY: all the graffiti in the loo of the soulfood place we ate at tonight was about the election! It was still pretty crude and rude, but all about Obama and McCain, with a bit of old-skool Clinton thrown into the mix.

After our hot day of much walking yesterday, I was exhausted this morning as I got up and made breakfast for Tessa and Bob. They had to leave early, to get to upstate New York in time for 4th July fun tonight, and we were sad to see them go - it's been a really nice visit.

I was good for nothing, so we basically spent all day watching 'The West Wing'. Anne and Alison are both out of town, so it's not like we had the option to do fun 4th July things with someone to whom it actually means something. We're heavily into (the penultimate) series 6 of 'The West Wing' now and I heart Jimmy Smits as Matt Santos. It's really weird to be watching the storyline that was based on Obama (FACT. Though it was written like, 3 years ago) with Obama running such a similar campaign now.

We found out that Jimmy 'swoon' Smits was compeering the 4th July celebrations on the Mall this evening, but everyone says it gets really crazy busy down there, with masses of crowds and it's a nightmare to get back on the metro afterwards, so we decided to go to a roof terrace party thrown by one of Max's colleagues, just around the corner.

When we emerged from our 'West Wing' cocoon, we discovered that nearly everywhere - including most restaurants - was closed, like on the last public holiday here (Memorial Day). It had also been raining heavily, so we weren't even sure whether the fireworks were going to happen.

We had dinner at Madam's Organ (in Adams Morgan. Geddit?) because Max was jonesing for some soulfood, which he thought was sufficiently American-ish for such an occasion.

The air was really weird and moist - not humid, just heavy with moisture - when we came out of the restaurant and there was thick cloud cover in the sky. I wasn't much in the mood for a party, but there was a great view from Max's colleague's roof terrace and it was nice to see Ailsa from the Bureau, as well as meet a few new people.

We had to watch the fireworks from underneath umbrellas, as it kept raining, and I swear they weren't a patch on the Bonfire Night fireworks at Ravenscourt Park. But I took my tripod along so enjoyed taking photos of the display. My lack of patriotic party mood wasn't much helped by the distinctly unamerican-ish Turkish pop music that Max's (Bulgarian) colleague played throughout the fireworks.

We hung around for a little bit after the fireworks, then headed back to the apartment for some more West Wing. It was like walking through London in the 19th century, as the combination of the thick cloud trapping the firework smoke and the massive amount of moisture in the air created a thick fog everywhere - it was a real pea souper. In fact, as we left the roof terrace, we were surprised to see the Capitol building had disappeared, having had a great view of it before the fog rolled in.

TESS & BOB

MOST EXCITING TELEVISUAL DISCOVERY OF THE PAST COUPLE OF DAYS: we can get Wimbledon! Woo!

Yesterday was a hectic busy day, because we welcomed my aunt (and godmother) Tessa and uncle Bob who are visiting en route from Dallas (where they live) to upstate New York, where they're spending the summer.

Our Pennsylvania trip wreaked havoc with my guest preparation schedule, such that I spent yesterday tearing around the flat, trying to make it vaguely presentable. Unfortunately this place just doesn't really get clean, so it still looked really grubby after I'd hoovered and scrubbed everywhere.

But the real disaster was the bedding. As anyone who's stayed with us in London knows, I pride myself on Hotel Devo boasting lovely matching bedding, but have little to work with here. I washed the one set of spare bedding we have here and it broke the washing machine!! The washing machine just stopped, mid-cycle and when I tried to manually shift it on a bit, it just filled even more with water! Aaaarrrggghhh - SO not what I needed a couple of hours before Tess and Bob arrived.

Fortunately Anne was home and let me use her washing machine to rinse the stuff, but in doing so, I managed to drip water everywhere between here and there and the sheets weren't going to be dry before our guests arrived, so I had to cobble together a woeful mishmash of sheets and pillow cases for them, while hanging my head in hospitality shame.

What's slightly worse is our washing machine is full of water and because it's 4 July weekend, a maintenance man can't come until Monday. I feel sure that a washing machine full of stale water will in no way stink after 5 days in this hot hot heat. Nice.

I had just about got my act together by the time I opened our bedroom blinds to find Bob outside, having miraculously parked in our parking space, despite not knowing which ours is. They were going to call ahead from the road and I was planning to tell them stuff like that and that our front door isn't actually on 19th St, but they just arrived and as such I had to go down and rescue Tess from knocking on many wrong doors.

It was lovely to see them and they both seemed very well. I made them some tea and we sat down, chatting, then didn't get up again or stop chatting until it was time for supper! It was really nice to get to talk to them both at such length as, due to our gigantic family and their living over here, we usually only get 15 mins of 'how are you' at family dos before one or either of us has to move on to talk to someone else.

We walked down U St for supper on the roof terrace of Local 16, which was very nice. Last time I was scuppered by not taking ID and therefore not being allowed to drink, but this time it wasn't a problem, as I'm still off the booze (good thing I took my ID anyway though, as they wouldn't let me through the door without it, regardless of whether I was drinking).

A slightly flustered Maxy met us with the good news that he's definitely going to both conventions in August. This is great, as we worried he'd be expected to stay in the DC office and just give instructions from afar to correspondents who are at the conventions anyway. It'll be the political highlight of his working life here and he'll finally get to see Obama, having had to endure covering Clinton and McCain already!

Today was busy and utterly exhausting. I'm so embarrassed that I'm more knackered than my aunt and uncle in their 70s and 80s!

After a morning of sitting around chatting, I took them to see the Jacob Lawrence exhibition at the Phillips Collection down the road, which they both enjoyed. Tess has an even shorter attention span than me at galleries, so it was great - we just dashed around the greatest hits and then headed to the fancy Italian place down the road for an al fresco lunch of cold meats, bread and olives.

Weirdly, one of our fellow diners was the old chap I met in Georgetown aaaages ago - Lanny Carew - but I didn't re-introduce myself.

We stopped off at the BBC Bureau after lunch, where Max gave us the tour (turns out it's way bigger than I thought it was - I hadn't had that tour before), then headed to the Mall.

It's been SO hot today, it's unreal. Both Tessa and I came over all faint a couple of times and I regularly thought I was going to pass out. Tessa and Bob used to live here (Bob worked for the FBI) and Tess was a bit disappointed when we got to the Mall to see that there was a huge event taking place, with masses of tents and flags and things, as she was looking forward to seeing it in all its unencumbered glory.

I couldn't quite get to the bottom of what the event was, but it's been going on for two weeks and seems to be celebrating Bhutan, Texas and NASA. Quite what those have in common, I'm not sure. But we watched some Bhutanese folk dancing, which was interesting - the ladies were wearing funny clogs and the men's shoes were curly at the end like Rumplestiltskin - but they must've been BOILING in their traditional dress. I felt hot just looking at them.

Bob was very keen to see the World War II memorial, as that's the only one that wasn't here last time they visited. So we trundled down the Mall, desperately trying to not melt on the way. SO. HOT. It's been really brilliant getting to know Tess and Bob more, as there's lots I didn't know about their lives. Tess told a funny story about how she met Bob when she was travelling in Mexico and her Dad got him checked out by J Edgar Hoover's deputy, who knew a friend of his! And I learned about all the places they've lived, including Guadalajara, Bogota, Caracas and New Mexico and how Bob was the only FBI agent allowed into Jonestown in 1978.

I also hadn't realised that Bob served in WWII (just), spending two years with the airforce in the Philippines. By the time he got there, there wasn't much combat going on, but it was interesting to find out how he felt about it all. It sounds like he very much just took it in his stride. Anyway, there's a pillar at the WWII memorial for the Philippines, so it was nice for Bob to see that. I meanwhile was resisting the temptation to dive into the massive fountain in the middle. AND I was outraged to see that the memorial bears in the name of George W. Bush - it's the George W. Bush memorial. What an outrage. But I think it has something to do with him being the president when it was created.

I tried not to cry as we passed a hopeful-looking park ranger standing in front of a sign saying that his next talk was in 5 mins, with no-one waiting for him, and we limped home in the heat. I was absolutely exhausted when we got home and embarrassed that my aunt and uncle had way more energy than me!

We had dinner up the road at the very fancy Cashions, which Max and I had been wanting to visit for ages now. But unfortunately it was really disappointing. There just wasn't anything on the menu that appealed to me or to Bob and it all took ages to arrive. As we were leaving, Max's friend Oliver accosted us and it turns out that he'd been there all along. He was having dinner with a friend who does interviews for the Guardian. I'd like her job, please.

Having shunned the over-priced desserts at Cashions, we dug into some tasty Ben & Jerry's frozen yoghurt back at the apartment and chatted even more.

PHOTOS: AMISH COUNTRY

Click HERE for photos of our trip to Pennsylvania and Amish Country.

AMISH COUNTRY

MOST INGENIOUS INVENTION SEEN TODAY: the quillow. Is it a quilt? Is it a pillow? The beauty is, you don't have to decide. It's a pillow that can fold out into a quilt! I'm still grumpy with Max for not letting me buy one. We need a quillow in our life.

I woke up this morning to find a very dejected - and awake - Max. He'd been up for ages, having checked whether his McCain townhall piece had been published on the website yet and finding it significantly changed. He was sad.

He eventually pinned his editor down to explaining why and it seems to me that it's purely stylistic and that particular editor is the kind who has to change everything that comes their way, to justify their existence. But Max's confidence wasn't improved by the stinking unions still not coming through with anything for us to do today.

I watched the curiously awful 'Georgia Rule' (the film that Lindsay Lohan behaved so badly during the shooting of that the producer sent her an angry letter that was 'leaked' to the press) in our hotel room while Maxy made and waited for calls and eventually we decided to sack it and have a day out in Pennsylvania instead.

So we headed to Lancaster County, the heart of Amish country. We had lunch at a place that had llamas and a donkey and some billy goats in the garden and saw some real Amish people having their lunch. There were men with braces on their trousers and a little old lady with a white sort of cap on. The restaurant was this big wooden place that felt very homely and had a nice view (left). The food was very wholesome and our placemats had suggestions of graces we could say before eating, with different options for different faiths.

Afterwards, we headed up to the gift shop upstairs and got some locally-made trinkets before doing down the road to a village called Bird-In-Hand for a buggy ride around the local area. While we were waiting, we saw the weirdest most hairiest hen ever:

The ticket booth for the buggy rides was run by a little boy and his sister. They were both proper Amish. Eventually we got to go on our tour. It was just the two of us in a horse-drawn buggy with a guide who grew up Amish (his father was a pastor), but left the faith after his rumspringe - he got too used to driving a car and didn't want to give it up.

Our tour lasted about an hour and a half, as we clip clopped along little windy country roads just like in Dorset. It was a really nice and restful way to see the countryside, which was mostly big crops of corn that had grown unusually high this year, dotted with smallholdings with big bullet-shaped seed store towers.

It was a real privilege to get such a long one-on-one time with someone so familiar with the Amish and we ended up basically interviewing him for the whole time. We asked him about what it's like to be an Amish child, how they date, how they vote, what he reckons the future of the Amish is and lots and lots of other things. He knows the school teacher from the place where the massacre was a few years ago, so that was really interesting, if upsetting. Apparently the school house has been burned down now.

Part of the tour was visiting an Amish home, where we met an Amish fellow who has an extraordinarily industrial setup in his garage, for one who's not allowed to use electricity. He turns plastic tubes into railings using massive hydraulic machines. I would like to've taken a photo of him, as he had a beard and no moustache and braces on his trousers, but I was painfully aware that that would effectively reduce him to animal-in-zoo and apparently the Amish aren't too keen on photos anyways.

He had a huge house and lots of land and we went down into his basement, where they hold church services every Sunday. His wife was upstairs, sewing stuff and they had two little kids running around. Increasingly as our tour went on, the uncomplicated life of keeping things simple made real sense in such serene surroundings. But then we saw a man ploughing a field with some horses and I thought that things could probably be easier for him. We also saw a one room schoolhouse which was tiny.

It was all fascinating and I was really pleased that Max's work fell through (though I think he's a bit worried about it, as he was hoping to make up for the heavily-edited piece he wrote yesterday).

The satnav scaled new heights of awfulness on the way home, but we did manage to get to Ikea, where we bought massive frames for the Jacob Lawrence print Max bought me and a huge poster I got made of one of my photos of a beach in Montauk. Our flat looks well fancy now!