Late yesterday afternoon, I met with Justin, Jon, and Brad of the Aten Design Group (they are building the next phase of Knight Pulse) over paninis at Busboys and Poets (Brad Jon, a fellow foodie, also chose a peanut butter + banana panini).

Later, I convinced Drupalers (it’s DrupalCon this week) to meet at Biagio for a Madecasse tasting. The fabulous Liza shares her opinion:

Ian countered with this comparison:

Then, I was enchanted by Annie’s art in Andrew and Annie’s beautiful kitchen:

We drank home brew (always a good idea) from a friend of theirs,

and cooked dinner talking about Andrew and Annie’s upcoming travels, the importance of taking vacation, Annie’s stellar site launch checklists, Andrew’s vision of progress through science (read the blog), and the delightful eccentricities of family gatherings.

And then Ian and Liza convinced me to head back over (ancho caramels are quite motivational) to a rooftop in Adams Morgan, and there was blueberry beer on the table, 12seconds uploading happening, and all sorts of code-related antics were being planned at neighboring tables, small droplets loosely joined in this place newly filled with hope…

Related posts:

1. kidnapped by @missmodular
2. Street sparklers, expatriate bloggers, and foodseeking
3. all for a local butcher shop

In recognition of Captain America’s return to Charlottesville, we deemed this past Saturday America Day II: Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through.

Like last year’s first America Day, we determined to spend the day doing very American things; this time, relating to music.

(Follow the rest of the adventure after the jump–)

Keicy, Jordan, Dana, and I began the day with a visit to Dave Matthews’ farm, Best of What’s Around, for fresh eggs and a lesson about chickens from Matthew and Suzanne Holt.

As the rest of the hipster musicians dragged product through their hair and arrived at America Day HQ, we took a few band pictures on a bridge (no troubled water in sight) and headed off to a small town. (Ben’s parents live in this same small town.)

Delighted, Nina and Laura discovered a bike a fan had left for them in downtown Waynesboro.

Then we all looked for (caffeination and) non-obvious books about music at Stone Soup Books;

Jordan chose Oliver Sacks’ Musicophilia, I chose Puff the Magic Dragon, Laura found a book with scores and woodcuts titled My Pious Friends and Drunken Companions, and Jeremy located a Johnny Cash biography by his wife.

We detoured to Ben’s grandmother’s house to visit and she graciously pressed homemade sweet potato pie on us, fueling our journey to Wright’s Dairy-Rite in historic Staunton.

Nina, owner of alternative label of Hoss Records, evaluated our options on the jukebox before seemingly everyone in the diner surprised me with a chorus of “Happy Birthday.”

Riding milkshake sugar highs, we followed a slightly akimbo Statue of Liberty pointing us back to Charlottesville for American Idol karaoke (after Laura accompanied Dana on the guitar piñata),

And in fantastic leggings, Steph crawled the VIP booth at Escafe and directed us to a party at Kiki Bar’s closing night.

A few hours later, the shimmering continued as we toasted Easter with wild hibiscus flowers opening in flutes of cava,

biscuits with butter and jam, carrot cake, croissant pudding, rainbow chard, roasted lamb, potatoes, aioli, iberico ham,

and eggshells dusted with gold and silver that, peeled back, yielded solid chocolate fillings.

With gold dust on our fingers, and locals in the know, we shall have music this year wher’er we go…

For more pictures, see Laura’s Flickr set, my Flickr set, and see the video in HD on Vimeo.

Related posts:

1. america day III: a new hope in nashville
2. charlottesville and courses
3. lobster roll quandary and lemon meringue