Day 143/365 - Buon Compleanno!

Today was the sixth and final day of my trip to Venice. It's also my birthday. It was a day spent largely disguised as someone cultured and refined rather than as an uncouth Midwestern bumpkin. I got a bit of a late start this morning, but I kicked things off with a trip to the Ca d'Oro Museum (14th-16th Century paintings, sculptures, and tapestries) and then wandered around the last neighborhood of the city I had yet to explore, the residential area of Cannaregio. I saw a church full of Titian paintings and lots of Venetians doing their shopping at the market on a Saturday and then it was time to head back to the hotel and get dressed up for an afternoon at the opera.

Before I left home I found an on-line ticket broker and bought myself a ticket to see the opera "Romeo et Juliette" at Teatro La Fenice, a theater that has certainly earned its name of 'The Phoenix' given that it has burned to a shell and been rebuilt. Twice. It was an afternoon showtime, so before it began I stopped and had a good lunch (pasta and bean soup, squid cooked in its own ink with polenta, ricotta cake, and two glasses of Prosecco) at a restaurant right on the steps of La Fenice.

La Fenice itself is quite a show. It's a little, gilded, cloisonne music box of a theater. Photography inside is prohibited but I managed to sneak a few shots. Judging by the number of camera flashes I saw going off, I wasn't the only one (although I had the decency and sense to turn off my flash at least). The opera was great. They went with a very contemporary staging that had a glam rock, goth, anime, rave feel to it and the set was an enormous record turntable that actually rotated at times and had a moving arm (from which Juliet plucked the needle to stab herself at the end). It was the first time I'd seen a pink-haired Juliet. She even had matching pink laces in her combat boots. She was a phenomenal performer, too. And she was smoking hot. It sounds a bit like an odd choice of production design, especially for such a historical venue, but it really worked well. The story is about 13 and 14 year-olds after all.

After the show I popped into a cafe for hot chocolate and a chocolate and nut covered cookie that served as my birthday cake, and then I went to see another musical performance -- this one by musicians and singers in powdered wigs and 17th clothes. I had hoped to get to attend a peformance of local composer Antonio Vivaldi's "Four Seasons," but evidently they have a rotating schedule and today it was a sampler platter of baroque classical music pieces and arias from various operas. It was held at the Scuola Grande di San Teodoro -- a big, historic music school and concert hall -- and was quite good.

From there, it was time to head to the casino and see if I had any birthday luck. The casino in Venice is the oldest operating casino in the world and, as it's located in a former palace, it's quite swanky. When I walked in there in my suit I had to resist the urge to announce myself as "Bond, James Bond." That would have blown my sophisticated act real quick. I managed to quickly lose 50 euros in five straight spins of the roulette wheel and then spent a few minutes wandering through the various rooms with one hand in my pocket and a glass of Prosecco in the other, fronting like I was cool and sophisticated while I checked out the paintings and chandeliers and other gamblers. It was definitely a high-roller kind of a place. There were people making bets of hundreds and even thousands of euros at a time, which made my little ten euro bets seem a bit anemic.

Being in Venice is like living inside a poem. Tomorrow we reach the final stanza for me however, and I have to pack up my belongings and head back to the decidedly more prosaic DC. It's been one hell of a trip.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 142/365 - Across the Venetian Lagoon

Today was the fifth day of my trip to Venice, and the longest day of sightseeing thus far. I left the hotel at 7:45 in the morning and didn't get back until 7:20 at night. Despite all that (and the fact that I walked 5.5 miles, about a mile more than I've been averaging per day) however, it was a very relaxing day.

The day's journey began in the Castello district. I started off at the Naval History Museum -- five floors of boats, ship models, and military and civilian seafaring artifacts which I had entirely to myself. From there I walked down to the public gardens at the southern tip of the city and sat in the sun and read for a while. Then I moved on to wander around the streets of Castello and I still had some time to kill before my afternoon tour of the lagoon islands, so I decided to have a nice lunch.

Lunch has been something I've either skipped or settled for grabbing a sandwich on the run. Today was the first day I had time to enjoy a good lunch. I picked the restaurant of the Hotel Monaco and I sat on their terrace bordering the Grand Canal while having a salad, baked monkfish with potatoes and asparagus, zabaglione, and two glasses of Proseco. It was tremendous.

Then it was time to join my tour. First stop was Murano, the island of the glass-makers. The glass blowing demonstration was pretty short and not much different than other glass blowng I've seen. This was probably my least favorite of the three island stops we made. Next was Torcello, with its two very old churches. The paintings inside the main church were very Eastern Orthodox in style, which makes sense given that when the church was built this area was still under the sway of Constantinople. Finally, we stopped at Burano -- island of fishermen and lace makers.

After the unremarkable glass blowing demonstration, I skipped the lace making show and just wandered around taking pictures. The houses on Burano are all painted in spectacular colors. They look like a row of gumdrops lining the canal. This was my favorite stop on the tour. On the way back to Venice from Burano we lucked into the beginnings of a rather spectacular sunset, as you can see above.

The last stop of the day for me was Harry's Bar in San Marco, favored haunt of Ernest Hemingway and countless others and birthplace of the Bellini cocktail. I had two of them and they were both great. The bar itself was smaller than I expected, but very cozy.

Tomorrow, it's my birthday. I plan to start out the day in the last neighborhood I have yet to explore, Cannaregio, and then go to see the opera "Romeo and Juliette" at Teatro La Fenice. After that, it's either a Vivaldi concert with musicians in 18th century costumes or a trip to the casino. Or perhaps both. It will be my birthday after all and I certainly believe in spoiling myself rotten.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 141/365 - Veni, Vidi, Venezia

Today was the fourth day of my trip to Venice. Only two more days before I have to say arrivederci and fly home. I spent most of the day in the Dorsoduro neighborhood with a short trip to the islands of Giudecca and San Giorgio Maggiore. This is a side canal in Dorsoduro, a residential section of the city that contains several art museums, a university, and many mask workshops.

I spent the bulk of the day browsing the museums of the Ca' Rezzonico (18th century Venetian and decorative arts), the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (20th century abstract expressionism, surrealism, and futurism), and the Accademia (16th to 18th century Italian painters). I learned that there were other painters who painted like Salvador Dali and that Giovanni Bellini was phenomenal and way ahead of his time in terms of his use of color and his sense of staging. If he'd been born 4 centuries later he'd definitely have been a surrealist.

Venice really is one big bag of eye candy. From the brightly colored jujube houses, to the canals and bridges, to the gilded palazzo and churches, and the priceless treasury of its museums the city is so sumptious to look at it's liable to give you cavities. By day it's amazing and by night it's nothing short of magical.

Tomorrow I'm off to explore the Castello neighborhood and take a guided tour of the lagoon islands of Burano, Murano, and Torcello!

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 140/365 - On the Grand Canal

Today was the third day of my trip to Venice. I spent the entire day in the San Marco area seeing the area around the Rialto Bridge and touring the various sites in the Piazza San Marco (the Doge's Palace, the Basilica of St. Mark, the Correr Museum, and the Campanile). And then I went for a gondola ride accompanied by a guy playing the accordion and a serenading tenor!

The Doge's Palace was really cool. It was both the home of the Doge (the head of the Venetian Republic) and the seat of all the branches of government, not to mention also being a prison. In modern US terms, that would make it a combination of the White House, Capitol Building, Supreme Court, lesser Federal courts, headquarters of the Federal agencies, National Archives, and penitentiary. That's a lot to pack into one building.

Nearly every surface of the official parts of the palace are gilded and covered with paintings. It lets you know just how wealthy the Republic was. Not so the prison. It's just cold and drab and brutal, as you'd expect a prison to be. The notorious womanizer Casanova is reportedly the only person to ever escape from the prison, but it's tough to imagine how he managed it. My guess is he bribed someone. Or several someones.

St. Mark's Basilica echoes the gilded theme of the Doge's Palace. The entire interior of the domes is covered in gold (either paint or leaf, I'm not sure which). It houses the remains of St. Mark, as in Mark the Apostle. The Venetians stole his remains when they raided and sacked the city of Alexandria and then made him the patron saint of the Republic. The winged lion that symbolizes him also became the Republic's national symbol and is all over the city.

The view from the Campanile (bell tower) is absolutely amazing and well worth the 8 euro admission fee. You can see the entire city spread out around you. I'm so glad I came in winter rather than summer. There's no haze in the air to ruin the view and the canal doesn't smell. Plus it's cheaper and less crowded (at least since Carnevale ended, anyhow).

The view from the Campanile and my gondola tour are my two favorite parts of my trip thus far. Normally a gondola ride costs 90 euros, but I booked my tour over the internet before I left home for only 30 euros. There were about 15 of us all together spread over three gondolas along with three gondoliers, a guy with an accordion, and a tenor. It's pretty tough to beat an afternoon of being slowly boated around Venice while being serenaded.

Venice has to be one of the few cities in the world with no cars or trucks. Everything that normally gets picked up or delivered by car or truck (trash, mail, merchandise for the stores, people, etc.) has to go by boat. The lack of car/truck traffic makes it really quiet here. The canals are for boats and the rest of the city is for walking. I haven't even seen anyone riding a bike. I guess there wouldn't be much point though given the stairstep bridges that go over every small side canal. Venice really is a city of a thousand bridges.

Tomorrow, I'm off to the Dorsoduro and Giudecca neighborhoods to hit a few art museums (including the Guggenheim), a museum of Venetian history, and a couple churches.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 139/365 - La Serenissima

Today was the second day of my trip to Venice, or La Serenissima as it was formerly known when the city was the capitol of the Venetian Republic. This is the view from the foot of the Piazza San Marco out toward the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Today I wandered all over the Santa Croce and San Polo neighborhoods, and then went back to San Marco twice -- once during the day to see more people in costumes and once at night to see the Carnevale wrap-up festivities.

The wrap up just turned out to be a big dance party with a DJ and since it was raining and I don't dance, I didn't stick around long. The Carnevale schedule said it was going to be a surprise closing party and I was hoping someone like U2 would play a concert in the Piazza San Marco, but no dice.

San Polo and Santa Croce were pretty cool. It's mostly a residential area so it was quiet and peaceful (incidentally, I think 'La Serenissima' might mean 'the most serene,' but don't quote me on that one). Clothes dryers must be a precious commodity in Venice because nearly everywhere you look you see laundry hanging on the line to dry. Still, I guess it's a small price to pay for getting to live in such a beautiful place.

Navigating your way around Venice means accepting that your map only tells you part of the story and realizing that a fair amount of backtracking and/or getting lost is a given. Still, I managed to hit all the spots I wanted to see today -- the Ca Pesaro ( a modern art museum whose collection included a work by my favorite artist, Gustav Klimt), the Palazzo Mocenigo (an aristocratic mansion decorated and furnished as it would have been in the 1700s), and the Frari church (kinda like a big, gothic Astrodome for God).

Tomorrow, it's back to San Marco to hit all the major touristy stuff there and a gondola tour with a serenade!

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 138/365 - Carnival in Venice

I'm in Venice! Yaaaayyyy! After dreaming about it for years I'm finally here. Switching planes in London was a hassle (moving between terminals, having to go through a security screening again, staring at a status board for 40 minutes waiting for them to assign my flight to a gate, etc.) but all the travail involved in getting here was worth it.

I'm here until next Sunday. There wasn't much time for sightseeing today. By the time I got to my hotel it was after 4:00. I could have gotten to the hotel more quickly if I'd taken the bus from the airport, but I wanted to enter Venice from the water. It just seemed more fitting that way. Plus the cost of the vaporetto (water bus) from the airport was included in the price of the Venice card I bought, so it was even economically sensible. I had to change vaporettos at St. Marks though and being on that boat full of tourists and locals with my suitcase and backpack was no picnic.

My hotel is great. It's just a short distance from the vaporetto stop near the train station. It's a small place, only 50 rooms. It used to be an abbey before it was converted to a hotel. The room isn't very big (it was formerly a monk's cell after all), but it's perfect for me. So far the only downside to staying here are the bells from the nearby church that ring for about a minute straight at 6:15 and 7:15 each morning. Oh well, at least I don't have to worry about a wake-up call.

The first two days I'm here in Venice coincide with Carnevale, so after I got unpacked and freshened up I trundled off to the mask makers fair in Campo St. Stefano to buy myself a mask. I could've picked up a cheap cardboard and plastic, mass-produced, made in China mask from any one of the many stalls in town selling trinkets to tourist, but I wanted the real thing. The one I bought is a hand-made Arlecchino (harlequin) mask made of leather. It only cost me 18 euros and I'm pretty happy with it, although it does make it hard to see down and forget about peripheral vision.

But who cares about that? It's Venice, it's carnival, and I'm here!

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Bon Voyage

In honor of my trip to Venice, this week's photo from my archives is a shot of sunset at sea from the last time I went abroad -- a Caribbean cruise I took with my brother and his family three years ago.

(Taken with my old Canon PowerShot S400)

Day 137/365 - On My Way to Venice!

This was the gate from which the flight that was the first leg of my trip to Venice departed DC. The plane for this flight was a tiny little commuter jet. Honestly, it was like flying in a VW Beetle. And the overhead bins were so small I didn't think I was going to be able to get my backpack to fit. The flight was delayed 30 minutes due to weather issues up north.

Then when we got to NYC, we were put in a holding pattern due to an aerial traffic jam at JFK. And once we finally landed, they had issues with getting the jet bridge to work properly and so we were delayed yet again. All of which meant I had to hustle to catch my flight to London, which was the second leg of my trip to Venice. So instead of lounging around the airport and grabbing a bite to eat, I was running (or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof) from one end of JFK to the other.

Thankfully the plane for this flight was much bigger. It was actually bigger than it needed to be, given that it was only about three-fifths full. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as we left the gate they made us go and park and wait for 45 minutes for the backlog of flights in line to take off cleared. I got stuck sitting in amidst a group of 10 people traveling together who didn't speak English. They were constantly in and out of their seats and talking loudly and to top it all off they had a bunch of kids with them.

Thanks heavens I remembered to put a pair of earplugs in my backpack. I stuffed them in my ears, popped a Sominex, and settled down to try and get some sleep.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 136/365 - One Day More

Only one more day remains until my vacation starts. Pssst -- don't tell anyone, but I have to confess that my backpack and suitcase were both still empty at the time I took this photo. I have everything that I want to pack laid out, I just haven't packed it yet. It's been taking me longer than I expected to get the programs and security suite on my laptop updated. One of these days I really need to buy a faster laptop.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 135/365 - Euro, My-o

After work tonight I stopped by the Travelex currency conversion stand at Union Station to buy myself some euros. I could likely have gotten a better deal on them had I waited until I got to Italy and then just withdrawn money from an ATM. As obsessively overorganized as I am, however, I wanted to make sure I had euros in hand before I landed in Italy.

I only picked up the bills today. The coins I had left over from my last trip to Europe -- Luxembourg and Amsterdam in 2004. I hadn't realized until now that it had been five years since my last trip abroad (apart from a Caribbean cruise with my brother and his family a couple years back). Since that time, most of my trips have been three-day domestic getaways.

It was not long after that last European excursion that I moved into my current apartment. The rent here is twice what it was at my old place, so that cut substantially into my travelling budget. It's worth it to live in a better apartment in a safer, more convenient neighborhood, though.

I feel a bit guilty that my chief reaction to the global recession thus far has been excitement over the fact that I'll now be able to travel more, rather than commiseration with others. Hopefully a karmic boomerang won't double back and whack me upside the head.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 134/365 - The Heavens Are Hung In Black

Tonight my friend Pia and I went to the newly-renovated and spiffed up Ford's Theatre to see "The Heavens Are Hung In Black." It's a new play that was specially commissioned by Ford's Theatre to commemorate its post-renovations reopening. Given the theater's tragic connection with President Lincoln and the fact that this year is the bicentennial of his birth, it was only natural that Ford's would commission a work about Lincoln.

The play is set during some of the darkest days of Lincoln's life and presidential administration: the country is disintegrating due to the Civil War, the Confederate Army is on the attack while the Union Army dithers and delays, critics from all sides are assailing the President and his policies, the Lincolns are mourning the death of their son Willie, and the first lady's reason and sanity have begun to decay. These are heavy burdens to bear and the play gives us an insight into what Lincoln's internal dialogue might have been like during that period.

As Lincoln grapples with the questions of what direction the war should take and whether he should emancipate the slaves, he holds congress with a variety of ghosts, fictional characters, and contemporaries in a style somewhat reminiscent of Ebeneezer Scrooge's visitation by the three Ghosts of Christmas. It's a gimmick that could prove hokey and disastrous if not done well. Fortunately for this production it is carried off well for the most part, although it might be good to cut one or two of these 'asides' in the interest of paring down what is a rather long production.

The play as a whole is both informative and entertaining. The set design is excellent and accomplishes much within the particular limits of the theater, managing to transport us from the Oval Office to settings as varied as a military cemetery and the Mississippi River. The performances are uniformly outstanding and the actor portraying Lincoln does a remarkable job of bringing to life what we think the President might have been like as a man.

Ford's Theatre itself doesn't look much different, apart from the new and more comfortable seating (although the view from many seats is still blocked by various columns). The bulk of the changes involve the shiny new lobby next door with its new bathrooms and elevator. The new lobby is a welcome addition given that the theater's original lobby, a spartan eight-foot wide vestibule, meant that crowds were forced to wait outside in the cold prior to the opening of the seating area. It's always good to come in from the cold.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 133/365 - Post-It Note Impression No. 1

See, now this is the sort of thing that happens when you get 133 days into a 365 Project. You run low on ideas and energy and do wacky stuff, like Post-It Note impressions. I've now decided that Post-It Note impressions will henceforth make random and irregular appearances in my 365 Project (i.e., whenever I'm basically too tired or bored to think of anything else to shoot).

Quick! Who am I today?

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 132/365 - Above and Below

This is the exit from/entrance to the Metro subway stop at Union Station in Washington, DC. I popped over to Union Station during lunch today to grab a bite to eat and pick up a grounded plug converter for my laptop from the travel store in preparation for my trip next week. And while I was at the store, I also found a cool messenger bag that I think will be perfect for carrying my camera, umbrella, book, and assorted other junk with me while I'm trekking up, down, and around Venice.

I was having trouble deciding which day bag to take with me. Taking a backpack makes it a hassle to swap out lenses, so I'd made up my mind to instead take one of the jillion messenger bags/satchels I have. That left me with a Goldilocks dilemma, however: some bags were too big, others too small. But then I found this new bag and it seemed just right. Plus it's yellow, my favorite color!

Okay, I'm starting to get a bit alarmed at the note of girliness that has manifest itself in my 365 project of late. ; ) Yesterday it was a bubblebath. Today I'm all atwitter over a new bag I bought. What's it going to be tomorrow, a discussion of shoes? Grrrr, I feel the need for some beer and sports and jokes centered on bodily functions.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 131/365 - Bubblebath Therapy

For this week's self-portrait we have me relaxing in a bubblebath, which sounds a whole lot racier than it actually is. It's tough to find something more relaxing than soaking in a hot bubblebath with a good book (in this case, Donna Leon's 'Death and Judgment'), a cold drink (scotch and soda), and some chilled-out music (David Gray's 'Greatest Hits').

I give womankind full credit for discovering the wonderful alchemy of the bubblebath.

(Taken with my Nikon D80 -- and I was deathly afraid of dropping it the whole time)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Cuppaccino

For this week's bonus photo we have a shot I took of a cup of cappuccino I got from Peregrine Espresso in the Eastern Market section of Washington, DC. I think baristas that are skilled enough to make designs in the steamed milk foam are flat out awesome.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 130/365 - Sunshine on the Rocks

This is the outdoor ice skating rink at the Pentagon Row shopping district. They put it up every winter and then in summer they tear it down and have bands play happy hour concerts here instead. I was over in this part of my neighborhood today because I needed to get birthday cards for my folks and pick up a couple sweaters and some thick socks to take with me on my trip. At this time next week I'll be wending my way eastward to Venice!

The way the sunlight is stretching across the ice in this photo makes me think of the McBroom books by Sid Fleischman that I read when I was a kid. They were the fantastically tall tales of a farmer and his family. In one of the stories it was so cold one winter that daylight froze and they cut it into chunks and stored it in the icehouse. That way when they needed some sunshine to make the crops grow they could just thaw out a chunk of frozen light and they were good to go.

I remember laughing myself silly over those books. Did anyone else read them?

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 129/365 - You've Gotta Have Heart

Hurray, pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training today! Go Nats!

You've gotta have heart
Miles and miles and miles of heart
When the odds are saying you'll never win
That's when the grin should start
You've gotta have heart

Oh yeah, and I think today may also be some sort of holiday for non-single people. Whatever.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 128/365 - Dante

I ventured over to the Rosslyn Spectrum tonight to see 'Dante' -- Synetic Theater Company's adaptation of Dante's Divine Comedy. Well, it's billed as an adaptation of the entire Divine Comedy but actually it's the Inferno with about five minutes of Purgatorio and Paradiso at the end. That's fine, though. The Inferno is the most interesting of the three parts anyhow.

It took me a bit of wandering around the byways of Rosslyn to find the Spectrum. It's one of the most unprepossessing performance spaces you're ever likely to encounter. It's a drab, concrete, underground auditorium with even less warmth and life than GW's Lisner Auditorium. Once the peformance begins though, none of that matters.

I've been wanting to catch one of Synetic Theater's productions for some time but I always seem to miss out. I wanted to make sure I saw this one, though. Given the source material, I had a feeling they would be able to do some amazing things with this production. I was right.

Synetic relies primarily on dance and motion and silent film style acting to advance the narrative of the works they perform. A few years back they did an entirely silent version of Hamlet that got rave reviews. 'Dante' features a fair amount of exposition, however. I believe this may be one of their most dialogue-heavy shows. That doesn't detract from it being a phenomenal thing to watch.

The set and costume design for 'Dante' are nothing short of brilliant. In fact, it's nearly worth the price of admission just to see the character and set skectches by production designer Anastasia Ryurikov Simes that hang in the Spectrum lobby as pictured above. It's a very visually arresting production. There are images and scenes that will stay with you long after the performance ends, particularly the sight of damned souls being dragged by demons to their torment in slow motion. Visually, the production holds echoes of the movies 'The Cell,' 'Escape From New York,' and 'The Road Warrior'; German expressionist cinema; and various Marilyn Manson videos. That sounds like an odd mix, but it works and works well.

The performances are outstanding, although I'm not entirely sold on the performer portraying Virgil. The score is adequate. It's difficult though to view the various aspects of the production in isolation. It's really a work that needs to be analyzed as a whole and as a whole it's excellent. It's immediately obvious that a great deal of effort and energy went into the production, all to great effect.

Synetic's 'Dante' is an amazing and memorable work of performance art. It's certainly not the sort of thing you'd expect to encounter in an underground auditorium on a sidestreet in Rosslyn. But no matter where this production was being staged, it would be worth going to see.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 127/365 - The Marriage of Figaro

So it turns out that 'The Marriage of Figaro' isn't just an opera by Mozart, it's also a late 18th century comedic play by French playwright Beaumarchais. The play was banned by King Louis XVI because of its proto-Revolutionary sentiment, chiefly the ideas that accidents of birth do not serve as a proxy for true worth and that in many ways a servant might be superior to a master.

Constellation Theatre Company is currently staging a production of Beaumarchais' 'The Marriage of Figaro' at the Source Theatre and tonight my friend Adriana and I went to see it. Before the show, I stopped in at Cafe St. Ex (it's nearly next door to the theater) to have dinner. I'd been wanting to try CSX for some time now, but after having done so I think it's probably a better place to go for drinks and appetizers than for dinner. I had the creamy tomato soup with cheese-coated croutons (really good), grilled rockfish with bacony brussel sprouts and cheese-stuffed figs (just okay, although the figs were yummy), and tangerine creme brulee (so-so). Adriana had to meet up with another friend of hers before the show so she couldn't make it for dinner, but she did swing by CSX in time to join me for dessert (she had the chai ice cream sundae, which was just okay). Then it was off to the theater.

Source is a somewhat unusual theater. The stage takes up more room than the audience seating area. There are only three rows of seats and each row is maybe 15-18 seats long. If you are unfamiliar with the plot of 'Figaro' it concerns a wily servant who is about to wed -- assuming he can stave off the love-starved predations of a thwarted spinster and keep his master the Count from seducing his fiancee, that is. Beaumarchais' play runs a bit long, particularly in the saggy second act. It could certainly stand with some trimming. The play had it's funny moments though, a few of which were unintentional -- as when Bazile's turban came unwound mid-speech and the Count's cape got snagged on a bench as he stormed offstage. In each case the actors responded to the physical miscues with admirable aplomb.

The peformances were largely adequate, with the actress playing Figaro's fiancee Suzanne being the strongest. Given the space and technical constrictions at Source, the set design was excellent. The costuming was also quite good with the possible exception of the drunken gardener, who would have been better appointed with a straw hat instead of an anachronistic stocking cap. Taking into account that we got our tickets for 10 bucks each through Goldstar, I think 'Figaro' was worth the price of admission. I'd likely have felt differently however if we'd had to pay full-price rather than half.

After the show Adriana was feeling a bit peckish from missing dinner so I introduced her to the myriad wonders of Ben's Chili Bowl, where she partook of her first ever half-smoke and we split an order of cheese fries. Now that she's had her baptism by chili, she's an official Washingtonian.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 126/365 - At the Dentist's Office

I was a big, brave boy and went to the dentist's office this morning for the first time in 14 years. And she didn't even yell at me! She did 'tut, tut' a bit, though. I think I picked a good dentist. I always try to go to women doctors and dentists because I think they are less likely to be egotistical jerks than are men. I realize that's more than a bit sexist and stereotypical -- I'm sure women doctors are just as capable of being egotistical and jerky as their male counterparts -- but it generally works out.

I picked my dentist (Dr. Sheila at the South Capitol Smile Center) because (a) she accepts my insurance, (b) she's Metro accessible, (c) she's a woman, and (d) her website said she was from the Midwest (and thus in my biased Midwestern opinion more likely to be nice). Her office is right across from Nationals Park so I got to walk by the ballpark this morning for the first time since the end of last season. It looked a bit sad sitting there all by its lonesome in the off-season.

The results of my exam were pretty good. Apart from the tooth that is falling apart (see Day 117 for details), I have a couple small spots of decay, some filings that need replacing (given that I got them when I was 8, they've held up pretty well), and some wear due to grinding or clenching my teeth (for which I will shortly get stuck with wearing a mouth guard at night). The dentist was amazed. When I told her how long it had been she was expecting a disaster.

Today was just the exam and cleaning. I have to go back early next month for the tune-up. Hopefully I'll be able to avoid a root canal on the falling apart tooth. Thank goodness for insurance. That covered my check-up and will knock two-thirds off the cost of my tune-up. Going to the dentist sure has changed. There's a flat screen monitor attached to the chair and your x-rays instantly show up on it, along with color photos of your teeth they take with this wand-like camera. It was kinda cool, actually.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)