Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - "What's WMATA with You?"

For this week's added shot from my archives, we have this photo of an Orange Line train in DC's subway system that I took on my walkabout last weekend. One of my contacts on Flickr pointed out that it looked like it could be a scene from a sitcom.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 298/365 - Spicehenge

After walking from Crystal City up to Rosslyn, over to Georgetown, and down to Foggy Bottom yesterday I didn't feel like doing much today. Mostly I just watched old movies I'd recorded on my DVR and finished up the book I'd been reading. In fact, the only time I left my apartment today was to go to the sports pub up the street to get dinner and read my Entertainment Weekly.

That meant I didn't have much of a photographic palette to choose from for my 365 shot today, so I decided to construct a model of Stonehenge using the spice jars I had in my cupboard. It's not entirely accurate, and it's certainly not to scale, but it's a fairly close approximation of Stonehenge anyhow.

The things I do to amuse myself...

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 297/365 - I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"
William Wordsworth
1804

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 296/365 - Nibble and Nosh

This was my late afternoon snack today. The General Counsel invited us over to her Capitol Hill rowhouse tonight for a BBQ send-off for our summer interns. I didn't know how good the food would be, or if it would be lame and I'd want to bail early, so I made sure to eat a snack.

It actually turned out to be a quite nice. The GC's hubby cooked us up some burgers and hot wings on his fancy "Green Egg" grill (it looked more like a cross between an avocado and a golf ball than an egg) and we stood around drinking beer, stuffing our faces, and shooting the breeze. Their rowhouse was nice, and away from the office the GC was very laid back and low key.

There were two guys there and I thought one was her dad and one was her hubby, but it turned out the old guy was her husband and the other dude was our new Deputy General Counsel who starts next week. Oops. Glad I didn't say anything. That would've been embarrassing.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 295/365 - Post-It Note Impression No. 8

Change of pace this time -- instead of a person I'm a thing. Quick, what am I?

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 294/365 - The Color Purple

I never thought I would like this musical. I haven't ever seen the movie (it looked too girly), so when the Kennedy Center announced they were bringing a touring company production of the show to town I was less than impressed. But then earlier this week they sent me an email advertising the fact that tickets to many of remaining performances of "The Color Purple" were being discounted to $49, so I figured 'what the heck, I'll give it a try.' Glad I did.

I went to see it tonight with my friend Pia and her musical-mad niece and we all enjoyed it. It's certainly not the happiest and most lighthearted of musicals. There's a lot of sorrow and suffering, hardship and hate in it, but despite that it manages to be very uplifting with numerous laugh-out-loud moments. The story focuses on the struggles of a woman who loses everyone she loves and is victimized by everyone she doesn't. The play follows her from the age of 14 to her grey-haired old womanhood and recounts the many memorable characters that pass through her life and the trials she endures.

The set design and staging is very stylized and evocative and the music and songs are memorable and rousing. The performances are simply outstanding. American Idol winner Fantasia burns brightly in the lead role of Ceelie. I was surprised at how good an actress she is. She doesn't play the part so much as she inhabits it. And man, can she sing! Her voice is an unstoppable force unto itself. As good as Fantasia's performance is however, the play is absolutely stolen by the actress portraying the feisty and unyielding Sophia. Her "Hell, no" song was the highlight of the evening for me.

Now after enjoying the play I'm going to have to rent the movie and give it a chance. Sometimes being proven wrong can be a good thing.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 293/365 - World's Coolest Lunchbag

That's my badass, pirate-themed, insulated vinyl lunchbag ($10 at Target) framed inside a gussied up old police call box. I set up this shot today on my way over to the U.S. Botanic Garden Conservatory for lunch.

It was pretty cool sitting at tree-top level in the rainforest while I ate my lunch and read my book. A bit on the humid side, however. I really should've gone over there for lunch when I was reading all about the 'green hell' of the Amazonian rainforest in The Lost City of Z. That would have lent it the perfect atmosphere.

Although, come to think of it, there is a desert room at the Conservatory that would go well with the book set in Egypt that I'm reading now. Dang, I should've thought to sit down there today instead of trekking up to the gantry overlooking the jungle section.

I love themed activities.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 292/365 - If I Win the Lottery...

I don't buy individual lottery tickets, but I do have a lottery subscription. It's good for six months at a stretch and I'm automatically entered in every drawing during that period. At the end of the six months they send me a check for my winnings (if any), and then I renew my subscription. Usually I don't win anything, but I have won four or five bucks a few times and once I won fourteen. I know, I know -- lotteries are essentially a tax on people who are bad at math (guilty as charged), but I don't care. If nothing else, being able to dream about winning is worth the cost of the subscription.

I've spent a good deal of time daydreaming about what I'd do if I won. First, I'd pay off all of mine and my family's debts. Then I'd endow two trusts -- one to cover all my family's medical and educational expenses for hopefully several generations and one to make charitable contributions (kids and animals mostly, I'm sappy like that) and fund a couple scholarships at my law school alma mater.

I'd quit work and take everyone at the office out for a big fancy lunch somewhere, complete with a fleet of hired limos to chauffeur us there and back. Then I'd hire a firm of naval architects to design me a yacht that looked like a millionaire's pleasure craft from the 1930s, but was state of the art with the latest in technology and comfort. I think I'd call it the Vagabond Prince. This next part is where my detail-obsessive lawyer side comes out -- I'd set up a corporation or LLC to contract for the yacht and be responsible for employing on the crew to shield my assets and protect me from liability and I'd set off on an around the world cruise that took however long it took. I'd take loads of photos and make notes with the goal of getting a coffee table book of my trip published at the end of the journey. I'd have a website too that would include a map with real-time positioning data and webcams so you could see where I was. I'd post a few photos and notes too just to whet people's appetites for the eventual book.

Hopefully doing it this way would mean I'd be able to consider it a business venture rather than a pleasure cruise and maybe write off a portion of the trip as a business expense. Tax law not being my forte however, I'm not sure about that part. I'd have a personal assistant/operations manager that would take care of port clearances and logistics and all other administrative details so that I would only have to worry about deciding where to go next and how long to stay there.

The first leg of the voyage would be from DC down to Miami and I'd invite my friends along and it would be one big floating party. Then I'd charter a plane to fly them back home from Miami and I'd set off on my circumnavigation of the Earth. And that's what I'll do if I win the lottery.

What would you do?

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Fortress in the Clouds

This week's added shot from my archives is a photo I took last weekend of the I.M. Pei-designed East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. I liked the way the roof of the building looked like castle battlements and framed the sky.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 291/365 - Quick, Take a Shot of Something

I've done nothing all day but read a magazine and watch tv. Then I remembered I needed to take a shot for the 365 project, so I decided to photograph me doing what I did best today -- sitting on my butt. Hope your Sunday was as restful (although hopefully more productive).

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 290/365 - Keep on Trekkin'

This is part of a larger Shepard Fairey mural pasted on the side of an alley in the Dupont Circle section of Washington, DC. During the summer and fall, I try to go on a photowalk through a different part of the city once a month or so. However, I hadn't been on one yet this summer and given that today is supposed to be about the only dry day for the next week, I decided to grab my gear and hit the streets.

I started out in the U Street area and then moved on through Shaw, Logan Circle, and Dupont Circle before ending up in Farragut. All told, I walked just over three miles, explored some parts of the District I hadn't seen before, had lunch and dessert at Circa, picked up a book at the store inside National Geographic HQ, and took 130+ photos (84 of which turned out to be worth keeping). If you haven't gone on a photowalk where you live I highly recommend doing so. It's a great way to learn a city -- just get yourself a map, grab your camera, and go. There's always something worth photographing just around the next corner.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 289/365 - Jazz in the Sculpture Garden

Jazz in the Sculpture Garden is a free outdoor summer concert series in Washington, DC that is held every Friday evening in the National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden. I think that makes reason number 2416 why it's pretty damn awesome to live/work in DC. This concert series has been going on for years, but tonight was the first time I'd been. The Young Lions were playing and they were pretty good.

I got there an hour after the concert started and by that time people had parked themselves in nearly every available inch of the garden. There were people picnicking, people dancing, people drinking, and people just hanging out and enjoying the music. Now that I've been, I'm going to have to come back and check out some of the remaining concerts in the series this summer. I'll have to try and get there earlier, though, so I can stake out a good spot.

Normally there are long, arcing jets of water spraying across this fountain, but they turn them off for the concert. In wintertime this fountain is converted into an ice skating rink. That's something else I haven't been to check out yet, but I plan on doing so this winter.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 288/365 - Hat Trick

I had trouble thinking of something to shoot for today's photo, so I fell back on an old game I used to play when I was cooped up indoors during my high school years and got bored. To wit -- get a hat, turn it upside down, and try to toss a pack of cards into it one by one.

Not the most scintillating of past-times, but it gave me something to do while I was waiting out the rain delay of the Nats-Cardinals game on tv. Plus, it gave me something to shoot. When I played this game in my younger days I used my genuine Indiana Jones felt fedora, now long since lost. This time I had to make do with the synthetic straw hat I bought to keep the sun from baking my brain when I went to Egypt several years back.

This hat came with an olive drab (accent on the drab) hat band that was kinda bleh, so I took an old cloth belt that I'd bought in the Caribbean when I was in the Navy, cut it to the proper length, and glued it together. Voila, instant tropical-flavored hat band! This shot wasn't rigged or staged, btw. Those are how (and where) the cards actually landed. Looks like my aim hasn't improved much since high school.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 287/365 - Rockin' the Red Loft

Our office, including our summer interns, headed out to Nationals Park tonight to catch the game against the Mets. We got there about 90 minutes before first pitch and hung out in the Red Loft bar drinking and gabbing. It was a fun night out and it got even better when the Nats beat the Mets 3-1!

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 286/365 - Belgian/Baseball Self-Portrait

In honor of Belgian Independence Day, this week's self-portrait is an homage to Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte's painting The Son of Man. Given that I don't own a bowler hat I decided to put an American twist on it and substitute a baseball cap and then, in keeping with that theme, I swapped out a baseball for the green apple.

Happy Independence Day, Belgium!

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 285/365 - Nerdvana

This is one of the bronze lion statues flanking the entrance to the Corcoran Museum in Washington, DC. Given the look of wide-eyed wonder on his face, he seemed the perfect subject for today's shot. Tonight I attended a rather interesting lecture about Howard Carter, the discoverer of King Tut's Tomb, at the Corcoran. It was delivered by an author who had recently written a biography of Carter tracing his life from his childhood as the poor grandson of a gamekeeper who drew portraits of people's pets for money, to his becoming the most famous archaeologist of all time and a man who charged $10,000 per speaking engagement.

As tonight's outing goes to show, yet another of the innumerable advantages of living/working in the DC area is the fact that, if you were so inclined, you could attend a lecture or presentation every night of the week and twice on Sunday. There are lectures on art, science, history, books, politics, music, and a thousand other things. They are held at museums, galleries, coffee shops, bookstores, offices, and an endless stream of other locales. No subject is too esoteric, no topic too wonkish, and no theory too farfetched. It's like geek heaven (or maybe given that most lectures cost to attend, Disneyland for dorks).

The statement that "DC is like Hollywood for ugly people" gets thrown around ad nauseum, but I think it might be more accurate to say that Hollywood is like DC for dumb people.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Run Away with Me to Paris

For this week's extra photo from my archives we have this collage shot I took of photos from my trip to Paris several years back, along with the accompanying bit of drivel that inspired the shot. Not sure what lead to this. It just popped in my head one night while I was eating dinner at a Lebanese restaurant. Go figure.

------------------------

Run away with me to Paris and we’ll live la vie Bohème
We’ll be poor as church mice, free as birds, and happy as clams
I’ll grow a beard and learn to smoke a pipe
You’ll buy a beret and pastel skirt and ride a bicycle everywhere
We’ll live on baguettes and cheese and crepes and love
I’ll write obscure poetry and mutter darkly of ‘revolution’
You’ll make charcoal sketches and utter ‘merde’ under your breath
We’ll drink large glasses of wine and little cups of coffee
I’ll scowl and have a quick, cynical, barking laugh to mock the world
You’ll pout and have a sharp laugh of merry abandon to puncture my pretension
We’ll walk hand-in-hand beside the Seine and sit in the sun at sidewalk cafés
We’ll whisper ‘je t’aime’ and shout ‘vive l’amour fou’
We’ll live and laugh and love as though nothing else mattered or had ever mattered
Run away with me to Paris

(Taken with my Nikon D80; underlying photos taken with a Pentax K-1000)

Day 284/365 - (500) Days of Summer

Today was another day that was too beautiful to let pass by without getting out and enjoying it, so I decided to head to Bethesda. My friend Pia had raved about Ali Baba's Falafel in Bethesda and the arthouse movie theater there was one of the three in the area showing (500) Days of Summer, which I'd been anxiously awaiting. Who am I to resist kismet?

The falafel was the second-best I've ever had (first best is still L'as du Fallafel in the Marais section of Paris) and while I was sitting there on the curb scarfing it down who should walk by but Pia? She and another friend of hers were there perusing the goods that the outdoor bazaar at the Farm Women's Market had on display. We chatted for a bit and then I did my own turn of perusing the wares before heading down the hill to the movie theater.

After buying my ticket I still had some time to kill before the show started, so I popped into the Gifford's next door and got myself a peanut butter cookies and cream ice cream cone. Yummmmmmm. The movie turned out to be as good as I'd hoped. It was sadder and more realistic than most romantic movies. It's a non-linear, out of sequence narrative that charts various events over the course of a guy's life in the five hundred days that pass after he meets a woman named Summer.

There are sweet, romantic, happy, funny scenes and bitter, cynical, sad, funny scenes -- with the latter predominating toward the end. The casting is perfect. Even though Zooey Deschanel doesn't fit the cookie cutter Hollywood sex object mold, she's completely believable as the irresistible attractive and destructive force in the guy's life. The lead characters are both annoying and likeable in their own rights. They're much like real people in that regard.

The movie's bittersweet love story of a quirky couple and scrambled narrative style are probably most similar to another movie I loved, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Even the soundtrack for (500) Days is awesome, with the exception of two snippets of Patrick Swayze warbling "She's Like the Wind." Gack. The excellent group dance scene set to Hall and Oates "You Make My Dreams Come True" in the middle of the movie atones for even that horror, however.

I'll be curious to get a woman's perspective on the film to see if the apportionment of blame for the couple's problems is different from the female point of view. I put most of the fault on Summer, while recognizing that the guy had his own share of issues. I could maybe see the pendulum of blame swinging the other way, though.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 283/365 - The 'W' Is for Woeful

After a cloudy, rainy, miserable Spring we've lucked into a delightful Summer thus far in DC. We've only had a very few days in the 90s. Most days have been in the low to mid 80s with blue skies and low humidity. That's very unusual for this area. Normally summer is one big muggy malaise.

I was reluctant to let the lovely weather slip by unappreciated today so I pried myself off my couch and had lunch at an outdoor cafe in the District. Then I walked down to the National Gallery of Art to check out an exhibit on Venetian sculpture (it was okay) and another exhibit on Spanish royal armor and portraiture (it was very cool). After the gallery closed and they herded us all outdoors, I ambled around the National Mall for a bit before heading over to Bartholdi Park to see the flowers.

Then it was time for the Nationals game. Ugh. I should've just called it a day and gone home. Up until that point the day had been glorious, but unfortunately it couldn't last. For the third straight day, the Nats lost to the Cubs. The Nats were up by 4 runs after two innings but of course they let the game slip away from them and ended up losing 6-5. This season Nationals Park has been a Bermuda Triangle for hope and a black hole for happiness. Firing the pitching coach didn't make the team any better and neither did firing the manager. They're just flat out lousy.

I'm beginning to question the merits of renewing my season tickets for next year. Instead of putting myself through the disheartening ordeal of attending 41 games next season, I might be better advised to just whack myself in the head with a mallet 41 times. That would be cheaper, quicker, and less painful.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 282/365 - Post-It Note Impression No. 7

I haven't done one of these in a while. Quick, who am I this time? Or perhaps I should say, "Qui suis-je?"

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 281/365 - In Vino... Wisdom!

Our half of the Office of General Counsel (the old fogies are up on the 7th floor and the rest of us are down on 5) went out for happy hour tonight at a cool bar called Wisdom near the Potomac Avenue Metro station. Wisdom is an excellent place to go for drinks. It's a cozy, laid back, funky lounge with its own specialist cocktails. We snagged a little curtained, candlelit nook just off the main room and proceeded to try as many different alcoholic concoctions as we could. Clockwise from the top above are a Pears of Wisdom, an Apple Strudle, a Sophomoric Sazerac, a Ghetto Symphony, and an absinthe.

If you're looking for an interesting new happy hour locale in DC, go to Wisdom. The only problem is that it doesn't open until 6 p.m. so we had to first go to Trusty's, a non-air conditioned redneck-ish bar next door until Wisdom opened. Oh well, at least that gave us an opportunity to drink beer out of Mason jars and get glared at by people who weren't in suits.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 280/365 - Playing Hooky with Harry Potter

Thanks to my subversive instigation, nearly my entire office (including both our interns) snuck off to catch a noon showing of the new Harry Potter movie today. Don't worry, we used our vacation time to go so there's no issue of tax dollars being squandered while federal employees go AWOL.

Given that it's summertime I was expecting the theater to be packed with kids, but it was almost exclusively a crowd of nerdy adults. Comme nous. The movie was good, but as usual there was a lot they left out. They kept most of the comedy and romance bits intact, but surprisingly they cut a major action scene from the book. Still, it was a satisfying film and skipping off in the middle of the day to go to the movies was great. Coming back to work afterward, not so much.

Surely there has to be a magic spell to chase away work. Some variation of expelliarmus perhaps, or maybe this calls for a patronus.


(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 279/365 - Spring Awakening

Saw the musical "Spring Awakening" at the Kennedy Center tonight. It was good and well-deserving of its haul of Tony Awards. As have a thousand stories before it, it works the inexhaustible mine of teen angst. Despite the fact that it's among the oldest of story lines (as supported by the fact that the non-musical version of the play was first performed -- and promptly banned -- over 100 years ago), it still manages to seem as fresh, frenetic, raw, and real as youth itself.

This may not be the first choice of play to go and see with your mom or minister given that it deals quite bluntly with sex, sexuality, incest, child abuse, teen pregnancy, masturbation, suicide, and abortion, but it is certainly worth seeing. The set design is excellent, the costuming is quite good, the performances are all solid, and the songs (for the most part) are both good and hummable.

My only quibble really is with the final number, which comes across as a desperate ploy for a "Seasons of Love" type moment. It seems jarring and out of place given the scene that precedes it and the overall tenor of the play to that point. A key character faced with a very trying ordeal decides to resist rather than surrender in a powerful set piece, and then the cast effectively joins hands and sings 'Kumbaya" and chipperly asserts that everything will be alright? WTF? The play should end with a defiant, 'set the world on fire' anthem instead of a limp, treacly, ballad.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 278/365 - The Sum of My Parts

For this week's self-portrait I decided to play around with the mulitple exposure mode on my camera. I extended my zoom all the way, held my camera out at arm's length, and tried to get close-up shots of one eye, one ear, and my mouth.

Looks like my aim was off a little, but it still turned out all right. I like how the curve of my ear blends into the line of both shots of my nose.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Fireworks over DC

For this week's extra photo from my archives we have this shot I took of the fireworks bursting over the National Mall in Washington, DC on the Fourth of July. Given that this was the first time I'd ever tried photographing fireworks, I think I did an okay job.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 277/365 - Lotus Blossom Morning

This morning I caught the subway out to Deanwood and went to the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. I was glad I'd checked the website because that's how I found out that you have to go early in the day before the temperature climbs too high and the blossoms close up. I'd have been annoyed if I'd gone all the way out there just to see a bunch of flowers that weren't flowering.

I'd seen other people's photos of the garden on Flickr and I thought it was high time I went to see it for myself. It's a really lovely garden. There are lots of marshy pools with water lilies and lotus blossoms growing in them and trails running between them packed with amateur photographers. Some of them had some really fancy (i.e., expensive) gear, but I think I did okay with my D90 and 18-200mm zoom. This is the kind of place though that makes me really wish I had a macro lens. That's next on my camera equipment wish list.

(Taken with my D90)

Day 276/365 - Generic Sign Project

I've recently started something I call my Generic Sign Project (GSP). I'm probably the only person in the world who would find this project interesting, but essentially it involves taking photos of random, isolated words on signs. The rules are still evolving, but so far I've decided that it has to be a noun, it can only be a single word or short phrase, no other letters/numerals/words can appear in the shot, homemade signs don't count, no shots that are too cheap/easy (i.e., stop or men's room signs), no proper nouns, it can't too obviously be part of a larger sign, and no post-production trickery like airbrushing is allowed (although cropping is fine).

It's proving to be kind of fun. Not "oh wow, this is so awesome" kind of fun, but "hmm, this is sort of interesting" kind of fun. I guess it appeals to my collector instincts. It's a bit like a photo scavenger hunt or urban/suburban safari, although I'll grant you that venturing forth into the dark, primeval suburbs to stalk the deadly and elusive noun likely doesn't hold quite the same thrill as lion hunting.

Today I walked around my neighborhood checking the signs for stray nouns to collect and this was my favorite of the ones I found. It's the sign for a women's clothing boutique called Gossip. The GSP photos look a bit odd when viewed all together, almost as though they are a ransom note composed of words cut from newspapers or one of those magnetic poetry sets. Eventually I may broaden my photographic vocabulary and include verbs and other parts of speech or perhaps single letters, but right now I'm cool with just shooting nouns.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 275/365 - Beach Nut

This shot wasn't taken anywhere remotely near a beach, unfortunately. It was taken alongside the Mt. Vernon Trail near Reagan National Airport across the river from Washington, DC. I've got a serious case of beach jones at the moment. I haven't been to the beach since I went to San Diego last summer, and I'm jonesing hardcore for sand, sun, and surf.

I've been browsing the web, skimming magazines, and asking friends for recommendations, but I still haven't found my sure thing yet. Key West, Sanibel Island, Bermuda, Barbados, and even possibly Cape Verde are all still on the table. The last one is a dark horse candidate at the moment, however, given that ideally I want to go somewhere within a couple hours flying time.

I don't want to go to a big city or party beach and I don't want to stay at a plush resort or trendy hotel. I just want to find myself a bungalow/cottage at a mellow, laid back beach and not do much of anything. Basically I want to spend 3-4 days living inside a Corona beer commercial. I want there to be a small, cozy town nearby so I can go get a drink or something to eat if I feel like it and some walking/biking paths to explore.

I want to lay in a hammock, sit in a beach chair, stare at the tide, soak up the sun, read, and listen to music. That's my alchemical formula. I don't figure on going until the middle of next month, so I've still got some time to figure things out. Hurricane season could certainly complicate matters, though.

Sigh...

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 274/365 - Auto Accident Abstract

This is neither my car nor my accident. I sold my Jeep about nine years ago and let my driver's license expire around eight years ago. Now I'm strictly a passenger and a ride bummer (bum-a-rider?). I passed by this car parked in the lot of my apartment building when I ambled home tonight after my post-prandial stroll.

I've only been involved in one serious car accident, thankfully. Less than a year after I bought my Jeep, I drove it home to Missouri from Norfolk, Virginia when I was on leave from the Navy. While I was home, my Pops took my Jeep over to the regular mechanic he'd used since he was a hot-rodding teenager to get it fine tuned. It was running better than it ever had.

On the morning I left to drive back to Norfolk it started snowing lightly. The roads were fine. However, the bridges were not. When I drove across a short bridge over a small creek about 20 minutes from my house, my Jeep started slipping and sliding and shimmying like a drunk rattlesnake. Unbeknownst to me, the bridge had iced over. Duh, I should've guessed that one. I knew not to slam on the brakes in that situation. I'd done that once before in my old AMC Hornet when it started to slide going around a curve in the rain and it spun 180 degrees and slammed into the curb. Lesson learned. Or so I thought, anyhow.

But then as I got to the far edge of the bridge my Jeep started heading off the side of the road. Tapping or pumping the brakes would probably have been the smart thing to do. Either that or just letting it go off the road and steering back on once it regained traction on the grass. Unfortunately, I did neither. I stomped on the brakes. Bad move.

For the second time in my life, I sent my car spinning into a 180. Go figure. The driver's side of my Jeep hit a row of deer reflector posts that lined the side of the road. Then it tipped over on its side. I clearly remember thinking at the time "I'm rolling." Oddly enough, it wasn't a panicky or startled realization. It was more like a "hmm, imagine that..." kind of moment. As my Jeep toppled over, my head hit the soft vinyl window and thumped off the ground. Fortunately for my noodle, there was no rock there. Then my Jeep slid on its side down a 30-foot embankment and landed on its roof in a ditch at the bottom. Just a week earlier the ditch had been full of water, so I guess my timing isn't always dreadful.

I had my seatbelt on, but I don't remember hanging upside down or unfastening it. I think the bump on the head stunned me for a second. The first thing I remember after the Jeep landed upside down was trying to open the driver's side door and discovering that it was wedged against the side of the embankment and wouldn't open. So I crawled past the console, which had previously been between the seats but which had come loose and fallen down to the roof in the accident, and got out through the passenger side door.

One image that I think will be fixed in my memory forever is looking back up toward the road and seeing the silhouette of a man running back up the side of the road to check on me framed in the misty haze. Bless him. He asked me if I was all right and I said I thought I was and then he suggested I turn off my engine. Oh yeah. Guess that would be good, huh? Then he gave me a ride to a McDonald's at the next highway exit so I could call my folks (this was in the days before everyone over the age of 8 carried a cellphone).

My Mom freaked out a bit when I told her what had happened, even though I tried to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal. They came and got me and took me to get checked out at the hospital. Apart from having a knot on the side of my head I was fine, so then we drove to a towing company and had them follow us out to the accident site so they could retrieve my Jeep. They flipped it back over and winched it up the embankment and towed it off to the nearest Jeep dealer. There were two other accidents due to that icy bridge that day, but neither of the other drivers were dumb enough to turn upside down.

The next day I caught a flight back to Norfolk. For some reason the insurance company didn't total my Jeep. They should've because by the time the repairs were finally done they wound up paying more to get it fixed than the blue book value. It took nearly six months before it was finally repaired and my folks drove it out to Norfolk to give it back to me.

My Jeep never really ran worth a damn after that, although I still kept it for about six more years. There was always one thing or another going wrong with it. I think it was just pissed at me for wrecking it. Now that I think about it, maybe it's a good thing that I don't drive anymore. Although with the current state of the Metro, the subway is not exactly the most reassuring mode of transportation either.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 273/365 - What's in a Name?

That which we call toes by any other name would still smell like feet...

Hmm, perhaps I need to brush up my Shakespeare. This wooden carving of my name may well be the oldest thing I ever bought that I still possess. I got it at a tourist trap replica of an old wooden fort in Golden, Colorado when I was in elementary school. We have a cousin who works at the Coors Brewery in Golden and we used to go out there every summer to see him and to go camping.

I loved the fort place, although I can't remember what it was called. It was mostly just shops selling trinkets, but they did have a dinosaur ride that I liked a lot. Most of the things I've bought over the course of my life have been lost, broken, or given or thrown away. It's a wonder that this is still in one piece.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 272/365 - I Am a Camera

For this week's self-portrait we have a silly shot of me transformed into a cyborg twin lens reflex camera, courtesy of a Tokina 12-24mm lens and a Nikkor 18-80mm lens. Hmm, I probably should've figured out a way to balance my flash unit on top my head as well.

The outtakes for this shot are here and here. As you can see, my timing remains dreadful.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 271/365 - Pedalboat Pier

This is the pedalboat pier across the Tidal Basin from the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC. I guess it's DC's version of the Molo in Venice. I pass by it whenever I walk home from work, like I did tonight. I've never gone out on the Tidal Basin in one of these pedalboats, although I really want to. It's a very touristy thing to do, but I don't care. I still think it would be fun. Next time someone comes into town for a visit I'm going to have to try and talk them into going out in a pedalboat with me.

As far as I can recall, I've only been in a pedalboat once before. My mom and I went out in one on some lake when I was a kid. Going out into the lake was fun, but I remember getting back to the dock took forever and left us exhausted. Another thing I really want to do in DC that is equally touristy is go for a tour on one of the duck amphibious vehicles. I've tried talking one of my friends into going on the tour with me, but so far no dice. That's another thing I may have to wait on doing until someone comes for a visit.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Happy Venezuelan Independence Day

In honor of our Independence Day neighbor, Venezuela, (and Adri and Des) this week's extra shot from my archives is a photo of an order of arepas (a traditional Venezuelan appetizer) that I took when my friend Pia and I went to dinner at Zengo, an Asian-Latin fusion restaurant in the Chinatown section of Washington, DC. The dish in the background is an order of Won Ton Tacos. Both dishes were delicious.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 270/365 - At the Folklife Festival

This was the final day of the Smithsonian Institution's 2009 Folklife Festival on the National Mall in Washington, DC, so I had to make sure I got my butt up off the couch and went. Each year the Folklife Festival highlights three aspects of various cultures -- one or two of which are American and the remainder international. This year the three sections were "Giving Voice: The Power of Words in African American Culture," "Cymru/Wales," and "Las Americas: Un Mundo Musical."

Going to the Folklife Festival is always a great way to expose yourself to other cultures without having to leave home to do so. And the food they offer for sale at the various stands is usually really interesting. This year I went with one dish from each culture. I think the Welsh section was the most interesting. They had several arts and crafts displays and cultural presentations. The other two were good as well. The "Giving Voices" part had good storytellers and spoken word performers and "Las Americas" had some fun music and dancers.

The fireworks yesterday and the Folklife Festival today (neither of which cost a dime in admission) are just two of the many reasons why DC is such a great area in which to live and work.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 269/365 - Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day, everyone -- from a guy born and raised in a town named Independence. I'm not going to any cookouts today, but I did have a hot dog, beer, and cheeseburger at the ballpark this afternoon. I love going to Nats games on the Fourth of July. The national pasttime should always be played in the national capitol on the national birthday. Period.

To make things even better, the Nats pulled off a 4-run comeback in the bottom of the 8th inning today and hung on to beat the Braves 5-3. Now if I can just manage to get some decent shots of the fireworks tonight it will be a perfect Independence Day. Fingers crossed...

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 268/365 - Summer Reading List

This is the stack of books I'm planning/hoping on reading this summer. I've already finished "The Miracles of Santo Fico" and I'm nearly done with "The Angel's Game." Like everything else about me, my taste in books can be pretty eclectic. There's a mix of fiction and non-fiction, class and trash in this stack. Not to mention the obligatory pirate book. Arghhhhhh...

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 267/365 - Jazz on Jackson Place

Tonight I went to the Jazz on Jackson Place concert at Decatur House just up the street from the White House. It's a great deal. For $25 you get all the beer/wine/soda you can drink, all the appetizers you can eat (tonight it was empanadas, cuban sandwiches, and chips with salsa, guacamole, and 7-layer dip), a jazz performance, and a tour of historic Decatur House. They host it at 6:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month between May and September. Tonight's concert features a pair of excellent tango musicians from Argentina teamed up with some locals playing bass, keyboards, and fiddle. It was a good time.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 266/365 - 99 Problems

Hurray for Day 266! That means I'm down to double-digits now and I only have 99 more days and nights to document. Assuming my math is right, anyhow. That's always a dicey proposition at best.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 265/365 - Warhol Self-Portrait

For this week's self-portrait I decided to do an Andy Warhol-style piece. I took a self-portrait with my Nikon D90, used the stamp effect on an old version of Microsoft Photo Editor, ran it through Picasa to add the tints, and then put the four versions together with Microsoft Publisher and saved it as a jpeg. Voila!

Day 264/365 - Confessions of a Retro Boy, Pt. 2

I've already confessed my love of old movies (which really should've been the first retro boy confession) and old radio programs, so it should come as no great surprise when I confess that I also love old comic strips from the 1930s and 1940s. As with the radio programs, I don't care so much for the old comedy strips. It's mostly the old adventure and detective strips that draw my interest.

Terry and the Pirates and Jungle Jim are two of the best adventure strips and Dick Tracy is unequivocally the best detective strip of all time. Tracy is also my favorite comic strip, period. The contemporary version of the strip is pretty dreadful and not worth reading, but the classic Dick Tracy strips had it all -- action, mystery, romance, melodrama, suspense, high tech gadgetry, fiendish death traps, and larger than life characters. I got hooked on Tracy when I was in high school. At that time, the contemporary strip was still pretty damn good.

When I went away to college my parents would save the comics sections from the newspaper for me so I could catch up on my Dick Tracy reading when I came home. Then, after I joined the Navy, they would clip the strips from the paper and send me an envelope stuffed with them every month so I wouldn't have to go without my Tracy fix. Now I love collecting and reading reprinted editions of the vintage Terry and the Pirates, Jungle Jim, and especially Dick Tracy comic strips. As with most examples of popular culture from that time period, they have a tendency to be casually racist. It's astonishing how the mainstream America of that era had no qualms about employing slurs and stereotypes that make most modern audiences cringe.

I love the old comic strips despite their flaws, although being a white guy probably makes it a lot easier to overlook the racist elements they contain and just focus on the slam-bang stories. There's more than a little guilt associated with this guilty pleasure.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Don't Touch that Dial!

For this week's extra photo from my archives, we have this shot I took of Zeus the French bulldog when I was dogsitting yesterday. He had been curled up beside me on the couch with his head resting on my lap, but when I got up to get a drink he scooched over and snuggled up next to my backpack and rested his paw on the tv remote.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 263/365 - International Gentleman of Leisure

After a day spent wrangling dogs and a night in Adams Morgan I decided today called for something a little more leisurely, so I grabbed blanket, book, and iPod and headed to my secret spot. Down the street from my apartment there is a little park filled with fountains and other water features. On weekends there are always people standing in front of the fountains having wedding/prom/quinceañera photos taken. At the back of the park, a paved path winds its way up and around a grassy knoll. Few people go up that way.

I like to lay there on the hill and forget the world exists. The feel of the pages under my fingertips, the fluid poetry of Puccini on my iPod, the softness of the blanket, the smell of the grass, the coolness in the air, the sound of the water from the fountains, and the thrum and rattle of trains passing on the backside of the hill all formed a perfect equation of relaxation.

For a few hours today, this little patch of grass was my own private desert island.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 262/365 - Adventures in Dogsitting

My friends Des and Chris had to be away from home all day today so I agreed to dogsit their miniature Australian shepherds, Chewie and Wicket, and the French bulldog Zeus they were watching for a friend. Walking three dogs at once is not an easy feat. They kept getting all tangled, twisted, and twined around my legs. We had a pretty nice day, though. We went for a few walks, sat on the grass in the sun for a while, watched a couple movies, and played Lego Batman on the Wii. Well, I played and they watched in between naps.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 261/365 - Air and Space and Ballet

I've been wanting to visit the annex of the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum at Dulles airport ever since it opened years ago, so when my friend Chris said he was taking the day off today to drive his visiting cousin out there and asked me if I wanted to go along I jumped at the chance. It's the quintessential 'boys and their toys' kind of museum, jampacked with stuff they couldn't fit into the Air and Space Museum on the Mall -- commercial and military aircraft, rockets, and even the Space Shuttle Enterprise. No airships, though. We were kinda disappointed in that. Seems like a perfect spot for a zeppelin or blimp.

It's a very cool museum, although the $15 parking fee is a bit absurd given that it's in the middle of nowhere and parking isn't exactly at a premium out there. I finally tried the freeze dried ice cream they sell in the Museum gift shop. I opted for the ice cream sandwich. It's rather dry and hard, but it does taste like ice cream.

After we got back from Dulles late this afternoon I had to upload my photos of the museum, iron my shirt, change clothes, and head off to the Kennedy Center to catch the Royal Ballet's performance of Manon. I hand't been to the ballet in over a year, and this one turned out to be really good. It stems from the same story that served as the source of the opera Manon Lescaut. The plot involves a young girl forced to choose between two suitors -- one a poor student who loves her deeply and the other a rich nobleman who covets her possessively. Dazzled by the nobleman's gifts (and at her slimy brother's urging), she chooses comfort and security over love and passion and of course everything goes to Hell in a handbasket as a result. This was an excellent production with top notch dancers and the music was wonderful.

Ballerinas always amaze me. They seem to belong more to the air than they do to the earth. I love when they float across the stage with a fluttering of tiny, tiptoed steps. I have no idea what that step is called, but it's very cool. I've wondered for some time if there is a way to write down choreography. Can dancers read ballet the way musicians read music? It seems like there would have to be a way to transcribe the choreographic arrangements. Otherwise no ballet would ever be performed the same and great old ballets would be lost or corrupted over time, only the score would remain the same. That can't be what happens.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 260/365 - Third Game's the Charm

Tonight was the only one of the three Red Sox vs. Nationals games for which I held a ticket, and if I was only going to go to one of these games then this was the one to go to! Man, that's a convoluted sentence. Anyhow, after dropping the first two games in the series, the Nats put a 9-3 whuppin' on the Sox tonight. It was the largest crowd in Nationals Park history with 41,985 in paid attendance. Given that the ballpark's listed capacity is only 41,888, that means they sold nearly 100 SRO tickets. That should help fatten up their bank account so they can afford to sign Strasburg. Fingers crossed.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 259/365 - I'm All Ears

For this week's self-portrait we have my left ear. The only difference between it and my right ear is the fact that it's double-pierced, although it is a bit hard to tell that from this shot. I stopped wearing my earrings a couple years back and now my holes have partly closed up. I didn't want to be that old guy trying too hard to be hip, so I decided it was time to let go of the earrings.

I got the first hole pierced when I was a freshman in college. I was out at the mall with my Mom and one of my sisters when I mentioned that I thought it would be cool to have a pierced ear and my Mom said she'd pay for it if I really wanted to get it done, so I took her up on her offer. After I got home though I was worried that my Pops wouldn't approve so I took the stud out. It bled like crazy. When my Pops found out, he said he didn't care whether I got it pierced or not; it was my ear and as far as he was concerned I could do what I wanted with it.

So then I dug my stud out of the trash and went to put it back in, but I couldn't manage to find the backside of the hole. After trying for a while with no success, I just said 'hell with it' and pushed it through. I got the second hole pierced when I was hanging out with some friends while I was on leave during my first year in the Navy. There was no drama or angst associated with that one.

For several years I wore two silver hoops in my ear that were almost the circumference of a quarter. I did (and do) want to be a pirate, after all. Then after a few years of work at my current gig I decided it was time to bling things up a bit so I bought myself a set of diamond studs. I got a couple years use out of them before I gave up on the earrings thing. Now they're just sitting in my dresser drawer collecting dust.

Maybe if I ever have a daughter I can hand them down to her. It's kind of an odd hand-me-down to get from your father, but what girl or woman can say 'no' to diamonds?

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 258/365 - SpongeBob Squarepopsicle

I've seen these SpongeBob ice cream treats at the vendor carts around the National Mall for a while and today I finally splurged and bought one when I was out for a lunchtime stroll. Turns out they aren't very good. First, the manufacturing process seems like it could use a few quality control tweaks because SpongeBob looks a bit mutated. Second, they don't taste like anything recognizable. Third, they melt almost instantaneously.

I had to drop mine in the garbage when I was only about halfway done because it was rapidly reverting to a liquid state and dribbling on my pants. I didn't really mind dumping it, though, given the drab taste. I would have liked to have found out what flavor the gumball eyes are, however. Assuming they actually had one. I should've gone with one of my childhood favorites instead -- either the orange push-up pop or the strawberry shortcake bar. They never disappoint.

That's one SpongeBob treat checked off anyhow. Now if I could just find myself a crabby patty somewhere.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 257/365 - Merry-Go-Nowhere

Not much to say about today's shot. The weather tonight was halfway decent, so I carpe diem'd the opportunity to walk home from work. This is the carousel on the Mall. My path home takes me right by it and when I saw that some of the horses were roped off with caution tape I thought I'd take a shot of it.

Don't know why they are in quarantine. Did they catch the swine flu? Were they getting rowdy and biting the kiddies? Were they laid off due to the economic slowdown? Odds are that it is the much more prosaic answer that they were just in need of a repair job.

I love merry-go-rounds. I don't think you're ever too old to ride them. I just wish they still had brass rings like they did way back in the day.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Fathers, Sons, & Baseball

In honor of Father's Day, this week's bonus shot from my archives is a photo I took of a father and son at new Yankee Stadium on my recent jaunt up to New York.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 256/365 - Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my Pops and to all fathers everywhere. Everything I am that is good I learned from him. Everything I am that is bad I picked up on my own.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)