Tia's here!

My sister, Mary, is visiting this week. It took "Tia" (Spanish for aunt) about five seconds for Andy to decide he prefers her over me. At least he gave me the courtesy of a few minutes before chucking me completely.

We've had a fun few days. Thursday I took off work and we went into town to rent kayaks on the Potomac River. The folks at the rental place were friendly and the kayaks were serviceable enough. I thought they were fine, but Mary is a real kayaker and was less impressed. But for $8 an hour, it was still a bargain. We paddled for a few hours up toward Great Falls and back. It was a beautiful day with sunny skies and low humidity. It was also great that we went Thursday before the article in the Washington Post on Friday saying the water is filled with fecal material and unsafe for swimming. Yum! I'm glad I did wash my hands before we settled into one of the slowest lunches ever at Tony and Joe's afterwards. Granted, it was on the waterfront on a beautiful day, but should it really take 2 hours to get soup, salad and crab cakes at a seafood restaurant during peak hours?

Friday, we went shopping at the Leesburg Outlets. We both needed new purses and the Coach outlet delivered. Good thing, too, as my friend Armando has been researching purses for me and it turns out the "stylish" ones from Louis Vuitton and others start at $2,000. Seriously? Who are the people who drop that kind of money on a purse that is so trendy it will be out of style next season?

Today Mary's vet conference started downtown, but we met for dinner and then went to the Goo Goo Dolls concert that was playing for attendees. It was a good show although it was funny to see all these really smart doctors dancing around, most of whom had probably never heard of the Goo Goo Dolls. The best part was a cute couple two-stepping to Slide. I did feel my age, though, as we only lasted about an hour before we declared it too loud and left. Granted, I think they start turning up the volume as they went along. It was fun though.

Picture is of Mary at the concert despite their instructions to not take pictures. I know, we're rebels. Anyway, that's the Goo Goo Dolls on the stage. You can see that, right?