Johnny's Half Shell Happy Hour & DC Aggies Two-Step

Today at work was not as intense as usual. It's been nice to get some work done on my long term projects, though. We had a new student intern start, his name is Chris Beaudoin and he's from Regis University in Denver, CO and will be here for the next 3 weeks. We had an intern meeting this morning with Melissa Manzione, who is basically in charge of coordinating our schedules and activities. We discussed what I've been working on so far and what Chris and I both plan to work on over the next few weeks. Chris is more interested in the Payment side of the unit, while I'm more interested in the Advocacy side, which works out well so our projects won't really overlap.

I meandered into DC to check out the happy hour at my mom's cousin's restaurant. Her name is Ann Cashion and the restaurant is Johnny's Half Shell. Of course my mom told me about the restaurant originally, but I also read about it in my DC insider's guide in the 100 Free (or nearly free) Things to do in DC.

ECONOMICAL EATS AND CHEAP HAPPY HOURS
Eat organic at Johnny's Half Shell, where James Beard award-winning chef
Ann Cashion's mini-burgers and mini Asian tuna sandwiches are just $2.50 and her
fried oysters and gumbo are $6 each during happy hour.

So I went for happy hour, which is 4:30-7:30. Check out the entire Happy Hour Menu. My bill was under $20I had a Stella Artois, Barbequed Shrimp and Asiago Cheese Grits, and Half Dozen Charbroiled Oysters. All so delicious and reminded me of home. The greatest part about the restaurant is that there are old black and white pics of my family on the walls. Most of the pictures are from Galveston, TX and are of my great grandparents (Mom and Pop Pequigney) and my grandma (Mom Shepherd) and her brother (Uncle Bub) and sister (Aunt Margie). Ann's mom is Aunt Margie, who was my grandma's sister. I'll need Mark Daly genealogy master clarification on whether that makes us "second cousins" or "first cousins once-removed." The waiter was so very nice and personable, Kurt was his name. He showed me around the restaurant so I could see all of the pictures. Unfortunately Ann wasn't there last night, so I guess that means I have to go back again.. darn. I'm actually supposed to be going to a fundraiser there next Tuesday, small world.

After dinner, I met up with my new DC Aggie friends for drinks and two stepping at the American Legion Post #8. There's this great band that plays there called the Wil Gravatt Band. They played some Texas Country covers and I had a great time dancing with new friends. Some of the same people from the Howdy Hour were there: Kelsey, Alyssa, Carlos, Paul, and Parker. The bartender was slightly off. I asked for a Crown and 7 and he told me "no that's a terrible comination." He thought I wanted Crown mixed with Seagram's 7. Then after that confusion was cleared up, he wanted to give me ginger ale instead of sprite. The whole ordeal took entirely too much brain power for a patron/bartender interaction. I met this super sweet guy who ended up giving me a ride home, which was great since it was almost 12:00am whenever we left.