( The First Supper )

We went to Mount Vernon hoping to take the National Treasure tour, but by the time we got there, they were completely booked for the weekend. Like Christmas weekend, it was quite busy, with all the overflow parking lots filled and several bus tours out front, but the grounds are so extensive that it never felt crowded; I imagine it was more so in the house itself, but we've taken that tour three times in the past few months so we skipped it this time. Instead we visited the gardens, wharf, pioneer farm, 16-sided barn, slave cabin, storehouses and newly restored gardener's house, but the highlight was seeing the Hogg Island sheep, many of whom had just had babies!


( Easter Lambs at Mount Vernon )

We came home craving peanut soup, so Paul made that for dinner which we had along with cheeses and turkey salami. Then we watched Blades of Glory on HBO, which was just as funny as the first time we saw it -- we were counting all the ways in which MacElroy and Michaels' routine was illegal in competition, from the music to the length to the pathetic lack of jumps (Scott Hamilton going berserk over side-by-side double axels like that's unusual) to the backflip, although the Van Waldenbergs' routine with JFK and Marilyn and the pills wasn't exactly regulation either. I'm not a big Will Ferrell fan -- couldn't sit through Bewitched and barely made it through Elf -- but when he's right for a role, like this or A Night at the Roxbury, he can be hysterically funny.

Hope everyone who celebrates has a lovely Easter...we are meeting my in-laws (after they go to church) in Baltimore for the afternoon and evening. Paul's brother David's oldest stepdaughter is visiting them so it will be nice to see her!