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Gorgeous day today. Thom and I dropped the Prius off at the dealer for an oil change, and then walked to the strip mall across the street and had lunch at Hops. Good stuff. We browsed for a bit at Old Navy and Barnes & Noble–it’s a string of big boxes over there; there’s also a Target, Best Buy, et al.–before walking back to pick up the the car. Then we saw Spider-Man 2, which was okay, I thought. Maybe just not my bag. Oh, and would Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) and Harry Osborn (James Franco) please get it on already? I guess that’s just the movie in my head. But on a serious note, I’d love to see Kirsten Dunst in a role where she can work her acting chops. Granted I haven’t seen her other movies, apart from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but I feel like given a role and script she can sink her teeth into, she’s capable of more.

After we got back home, Alex and I sat out on the balcony for a while. I soaked up the last few rays of early-evening sunshine, while reading Augusten Burrough’s Dry and having a hard cider and a smoke. Multitasking, I tell you. Alex laid himself down against the wall, and tried to take a nap. How leisurely.

What? I have to go back to work tomorrow? I can’t hear you, la la la.

Yikes. This is one dark and stormy Fourth of July. It’s been thundering and pouring rain most of the day so far. Yesterday I had thought we might go picnicking by the river tonight and watch the fireworks, but now, not so much.

In any case, happy Independence Day. Here’s to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

ARLINGTON, VA.–We got back Tuesday night, and I feel like I’ve been sleepwalking the past few days. Thom has had the rest of this week off (lucky bum, good for him), whereas I’ve been back at the office. Can’t complain too much, though. Last night I went out with a bunch of co-workers for happy hour (one-dollar pints!) at Rock Bottom. Adam’s running joke of the evening was eyeing one of the waitresses from afar and saying, “I’d like to rock your bottom.” And then singing it to the tune of various songs. After a few beers, still funny.

Today our company is closing at noon to let everyone get an early jump on the Independence Day weekend. Yay! So all told, these two weeks amount to: (a) four-day New York vacation, (b) two and a half days of work, (c) three-day holiday weekend, (d) four days of work, and (e) weekend again! If only it were like this all year.

By the way, the new season of The Amazing Race starts this Tuesday. Our TiVo has been ready for days now. And speaking of travel, my New York trip report (with photos), which I know you’ve been waiting for, will materialize soon. I’ll give you this tidbit to chew on: early on during the trip, Thom had said we deserve at least one celebrity sighting, and on our last night in town, we got our wish.

NEW YORK, N.Y.–It’s been a lovely time here (only one day left!), and I promise a full report when I’m not quite as tired; we’ve been out and about, here and there. For now I’ll post a couple of photos I took yesterday. After dinner at Tavern on the Green, we went for a walk through Central Park, and here’s (1) a view across Sheep Meadow, and (2) Thom with the Bethesda angel fountain in the background:

Thom and I are off to New York tomorrow! And it happens that our anniversary getaway coincides with a couple of events: Pride (the parade and festival are on Sunday) and Restaurant Week (in which participating restaurants are offering prix fixe, three-course lunch for $20.12 and dinner for $30.12). We’ve already made reservations at a few restaurants using OpenTable, which makes it super easy.

Theater is essential to a New York trip, of course; we’ve decided on Bombay Dreams, Assassins, and Rent. (On our last trip, we saw Wicked and Avenue Q.) Thom hasn’t seen Rent before (incroyable, right?); I’ve seen it on tour a few times, but not yet on Broadway, so it’ll be kind of a first for me too. What else? Shopping, definitely. And art. I’ll look up what’s on at the galleries, and there are a handful of exhibits I want to check out at the Met, especially a couple on Art Deco.

Any other must-sees or must-dos? We’ll be in the city through Tuesday. If all goes well with the hotel’s free Wi-Fi, I’ll try to file a trip report. And I’m bringing along my digital camera, for which I finally bought a new, more spacious memory card. (By the way, the plastic packaging for those cards are so freakin’ hard to open.)

Have a great weekend, kids.

Nate Lippens offers “Advice for Recent Arrivals: Dos & Don’ts & More Don’ts for Gay Boy Refugees” in The Stranger‘s queer issue:

So you made it out of that backwater town in one piece. Now comes the hard part–acclimating to a new place and living an openly gay life. Soon enough you will discover which bars cater to your distorted physical ideals, that meth is very bad, and that a deep tan is ugly and pre-cancerous–but what about the other stuff? Here’s a cheat sheet to save you some time and trouble.

Note to self: I am not a strong black woman.

Aside: A few weeks ago, I started to tell Thom about an article I had read in The Stranger (you know, the Seattle weekly), and responding to my question about whether he was familiar with the paper, he said, “Oh, so you don’t mean the Camus novel?” I love this man.

Assorted links for your consideration:

• The MLA has a neat interactive language map and accompanying data tables, broken down by zip code and county, based on answers to the 2000 U.S. census question “Does this person speak a language other than English at home?” According to the data, Tagalog (the Philippine dialect dominant on my mother’s side of the family) ranks fifth among foreign languages, and slightly more than half of Tagalog speakers live in California. The more commonly spoken foreign languages in the U.S. are Spanish, Chinese, French, and German. (Link via The Map Room.)
• Briticisms (or is that “Britishisms”?) are creeping into American English. I guess this has been pretty obvious, but an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education points out the more stealthy ones, as used in the press, most of which I take for granted, not striking me as having a British provenance, like “to go missing,” “sell-by date” (in a metaphorical sense, referring to something past its prime), and “run-up” or “lead-up” (to an election, say) (“American Idioms Have Gone Missing,” 18 June).
• Couture goes from runway to fairway? “[G]olf has become more athletic, and the players’ clothes are beginning to reflect the new, cooler muscularity that is being flexed on the PGA Tour. The young cubs chasing Tiger–Charles Howell III, Justin Rose, Hank Kuehne, Luke Donald, Aaron Baddeley, and Adam Scott–are known as much for their attention-grabbing threads as for their new-generation swings” (“Dressing to the 9-Irons” in the Times, 13 June). Cute.
• In Mongolia family names were taken away in the 1920s by Communists, and Mongolians are just now, within the last decade, bringing back old names and finding new ones (Globe and Mail, 12 June).

I’m thinking about switching away from Sprint PCS. I’ve had cell-phone service with them for over four years now; I’ve renewed my contract a couple of times, and it turns out my last renewal ended in October 2003: I’ve been free from early termination fees this whole time, and didn’t know it! While the service hasn’t been horrible, it hasn’t been great either. My gripe basically has to do with reception, which is unreliable in my apartment and nonexistent in the Metro. (Whenever I need to call Thom while commuting, I have to wait until the train briefly resurfaces over the river or at Arlington Cemetery.) I’m leaning toward Verizon, partly because that’s Thom’s provider, and he seems to like them. Anyone have advice or experiences to share, concerning either wireless providers or phones themselves? (Right now I have a very basic Samsung model, so anything new will be a step up.)