Ohhhh Meriadoc. We will have a ton more opportunities to hang out, especially when I figure out where my brother will be playing minor ball. Obviously, when he makes the big I will be in DC a lot. So exciting. I love DC!!! That said, you should probably stop working on Saturdays. There is far too much life to live! I've only had absinthe a couple times and the first was in Italy when I was 16. The bottle we got came with this nifty little flat piece of metal with a handle that could sit on a glass and it had holes in it for the sugar cube. It works really well. We did the whole sugar cube sha-bang how you outlined above with assistance from some local Italians. I liked it but I was too young to fully appreciate the flavors and everything. Maybe I should try it again.
That's called an absinthe spoon! You can get really, really gorgeous ones too. There are so many fantastic kinds! If he sticks around with the Nats farm system, it's still around the DC area! AAA games are so much fun with the O's at least, so I'm sure the Nats would be great too. Oh man I can't wait til the end of the summer. No more Saturdays at work!