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.