Most of Sunday morning was spent in an unconscious state, recovering from yesterday's drive(s) and concert. Chris' new dog Jack is the excitable type - or rather, he's the type to wake the entire zip code up at 7 in the morning because a gnat is walking too loudly across the street in front of the neighbor's house, and GODDAMMIT GNAT SHUT UP BECAUSE WE'RE TRYING TO SLEEP HERE WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF. So except for that 10-minute shit-my-drawers morning panic attack, we were mostly unconscious until about 11. Finally sated our hunger with an obscene amount of breakfast food, watched SportsCenter, took Jack for another walk, and then headed out for a round of golf. Chris thoroughly thrashed me and that's about all I have to say about that.
The late-afternoon weather didn't lend itself to the home improvement we'd had on the agenda, so instead we headed out to Pat Troy's, a local establishment that's one of the few dog-friendly restaurants in the town of Alexandria. Turns out an ordinance was passed a few years ago banning animals in most eateries, but since this place has a separate patio, and since it's a local institution, they have their own doggy menu. Chris and I dined on the Kenmare salmon while Jack partook of Pat's finest chopped chicken and a couple of milkbones as an amuse-bouche. Then back home to ignore the fact that the Sox were no longer in the playoffs - we queued up game 5 of the 2004 ALCS, whose TV coverage I had never seen due to being at the game. Good times. Good, good times.
Next morning, after Chris split for the Capitals game (he's a season ticket holder), and a couple hours of work (I brought the trusty laptop along with) it was off to Philly. Rolled into town, spun around the block a few times, and found the Trocadero...smack dab in the middle of Chinatown. The place was built in 1870 and remodeled in 1986 as a concert hall. But for a solid block on either side, it's Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and various other Asian establishments - restaurants, markets, grocery stores, dry cleaners, clothing stores, music stores...apparently all sprouted up around this concert hall. It's a nice enough place though it looks a little run-down inside. And the crowd seemed run-down as well - the place held 1200 and I'd be surprised if they sold half of the tickets. Considering John lived in Bucks County, and the band came up through New York, it was disappointing to see the room so empty and the crowd so dead. The setlist was solid enough, and the playing was fine - they ran close to 2 1/2 hours when all was said and done - but this is a band that feeds off the energy in the room, and there was close to none all evening long. I did get to hook up with a few friends and drop off a package of tapes. In the "boo-fucking-hoo" department, I found out that my VIP pass really got me absolutely nowhere - I was following a friend out of the venue, then realized I wanted to go back in...but no dice. The guy was nice enough about it, but...a little disappointing.
On the way to my brother-in-law's place - about a 30-minute drive - I listened to the end of the Yankees-Angels game, and was quite satisfied to hear the Yankees lose. Thuhuhuhuhuh Yankees lose. Once the postgame wrapup was over, I flipped over to FM for the last 5 minutes of the drive...and either through an incredible coincidence or a wiseass local DJ, the station had the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy For The Devil" in rotation. My bro-in-law greeted me at the door, we watched the end of Monday Night Football, and finally called it a night. 700 miles on the odometer.
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