Hanging out in the doughnut shop

However, I think a party might be in order, assuming I get to go back to work after the 7-4 holiday.

What really makes me want to have a party is the sighting of cool looking giant plastic pinwheels at Target. I just think they're the coolest and I can't think of any good reason to have one, unless I had a party.

If I were actually to plan a shindig, I think the order of business would be that everybody should invite a friend I don't know. We could all meet some new people. You know, it'd be fun!

So, Ed and I went out to run errands earlier tonight. I mentioned that I my impression of drivers in the DC metro area is that the worst of the traffic offenders seem to come from Maryland. (I am not including the cabs in this survey; cabbies are by far the worst offenders.) As we drove around, we looked out for people making bonehead moves with their cars. Except for the loser making a left turn from the middle lane whose car had the Pennsylvania tags with the state's URL, all the boneheads drove cars sporting Maryland tags.

The most obstinate of these folks was a woman with whom Ed actually conversed. He was pulling into a parking spot at Krispy Kreme--why else would we have been in Alexandria at 11:00 on a Saturday?--when he tapped her bumper. She hollered at him, so he got out to make a show of pointing out that the tap hadn't left a mark. She proceeded to lecture Ed for several minutes about the right way to parallel park.

Sort of. Her theory relied on "that" not being "how you parallel park." Right then. After a moment passed, as Yapping Woman continued to relate the story of the bumper tap to her companion, who was a younger man carrying two dozen doughnuts, the car in front pulled out. Ed pulled up and we went inside, lured by the siren song of the hot glazed.

We stood in line, and every so often one of us would glance outside to see if she was still there. For several glances, she was. Seemed like an awful long time to spend on an incident that caused no damage at all and that ended up with an "I apologize" to her from Ed.

We each got a hot glazed to go and stood in front of the big window behind which lies the Theatre of Doughnuts. Circles of yeasty dough rotate on racks until they empty into a river of hot grease. A man wearing heat-resistant gloves has a stick; he helps the fledgling doughnuts along, and he fishes out the mutants. One side cooks, then each line of almost-doughnuts flips and the other side browns.

The last trial is the fall of sweet white glaze. Then the doughnuts journey up an inclined conveyor belt.

When you order hot glazed, the counter woman goes through a swinging door. She stands at the start of the incline with a stick and she takes your doughnut.

Then you give her $0.60 plus tax. This may be the most fun you can have for less than a dollar.

before - after