Day 220/365 - Got a Plane to Catch

Catching a flight to Texas this morning to go to my niece's wedding. She will be the second niece of mine to be married. The nephews are standing pat. Few things make you feel quite as old as having your nieces get married, especially when you're still single.

There are times when I do feel a bit like an unclaimed suitcase going round and round on the luggage carousel, but whatever. My life is still pretty damn good, even if I am usually the only person in it.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 219/365 - Dream House

This is one of my favorite buildings in the world, even though I've never been inside it. It's the Smithsonian Institution's Arts and Industries Building. It was built in the late 1800s after the Smithsonian's collection outgrew the Castle that was its original home. For the next 70 years or so, this building then displayed the entire holdings of the Smithsonian until they started segregating the collection by subject matter.

The Arts and Industries Building has been closed for the past several years. The interior is in poor condition and they haven't yet come up with a plan or the funding for renovating it. It was still open and being used as an occasional exhibition space when I first came to the DC area and I figured there was no hurry about going inside it. I figured I'd have plenty of time later. Wrong answer.

I really love the way this building looks. I love the design and the shape and the colors and the patterns and the materials of it. I don't much care for any buildings that were constructed after the 1940s. They just seem bland and cheap and soul-less. If I was a jillionaire, I'd like to have a home that was a scaled-down version of the Arts and Industries Building. That would be ideal.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 218/365 - Drinking Double

Had two happy hours to hit tonight. The first was a charity fundraiser happy hour at McFadden's in Foggy Bottom hosted by my kickball league. The second was a friend's happy hour at Porter's Dining Saloon in Dupont Circle. After three Jack and Cokes and a free shot of Cuervo's new Silver Tequila (for which I got to keep the souvenir shot glass and which was verrrrrry smooth btw), all I can conclusively and accurately state is that Porter's has pretty good mini burgers and tater tots. Anything I said that required more mental effort than that would be very subject to skepticism at this point.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 217/365 - Next?

Bad day for DC's sports teams. The Caps got knocked out of the NHL playoffs in a blowout loss to the Penguins and Nationals' third baseman Ryan Zimmerman's 30-game hitting streak came to an end in San Francisco. Oh well, at least the Nats won for a change.

This is one of the statues in the sculpture garden at the Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art in Washington, DC. I stopped by there today during my lunch time walkabout. This piece is called "After Balzac" and it's by a woman who's name I can't recall.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 216/365 - Wolverine

Chris, Adriana, and I went to the movies in Georgetown tonight to see "Wolverine." It was about what we expected from a comic book movie. It's a bit long and meandering without much in the way of a tightly-constructed plot, but there are some good action sequences and some suprisingly good performances, particularly by Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber. It deviates a fair amount from the comic books, which I found a little distressing given that Wolverine was one of my favorite characters from back in my comic collecting days. Adriana particularly enjoyed all the half-nekkid male eye candy. Unfortunately for Chris and me, there was no female equivalent to balance things out. Life is so unfair.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 215/365 - What's Cooking?

Real men wear aprons ; )

This week's self-portrait is a shot of me taken from the perspective of my oven. I wasn't actually baking anything today. I meant to go to the grocery store but it started raining yet again, so I just had some leftover cold pizza for dinner.

I enjoy cooking and especially baking. It's kind of like edible carpentry. You start out with some raw parts that aren't good for much by themselves, measure precisely, combine them carefully, and you eventually wind up with something really good. But unlike the case with a table or bookshelf, you can eat the final product.

I'm pretty good at baking cakes, pies, muffins, and quick breads, but I don't know how to make yeast breads. The whole kneading and rising and punching it down thing seems awfully complicated, so I just cheat and use a bread machine. One of these days I'd like to take a bread baking class though so I could learn how to do it the old-fashioned way.

The other thing I can't bake is cookies. I've tried and tried but I always make a mess of them. They invariably end up either over or underdone. Cookies are my baking kryptonite.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - The Little Church in the Desert

In honor of Mother's Day, this week's bonus photo from my archives is a shot I took when I went to Arizona to visit my parents in 2007. This little church is sitting all by itself in the desert just outside of Yuma.

(Taken with my old Canon PowerShot S400)

Day 214/365 - Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom and to all moms everywhere.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 213/365 - National Train Day

Today was National Train Day in the U.S., although most people probably weren't aware of that fact. Amtrak held celebrations in DC, NYC, Chicago, and somewhere on the West Coast. The DC festivities were held at Union Station. They have model trains, real trains you can tour, and various other activities.

I think last year's Train Day was better. They had more historic trains you could walk through last year, including a really cool old streamlined train. This year it was mostly contemporary rolling stock from Amtrak and local commuter rail lines MARC and VRE. They did have an old Pullman car from the 1930s though, and the railcar Obama and Biden rode into DC for the inauguration. You couldn't walk through that one. You just had to peer through the windows.

I love trains, even though I don't really know much about them. My friend Chris and I have decided that if either of us ever wins the lottery we will put together a huge model train set-up that replicates various regions of the U.S. I've never owned a model train. My brother had one when I was little that made actual smoke. I remember thinking that was pretty cool.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 212/365 - A Glorious Afternoon

Today, for the first time in over a week and a half, we had blue skies and sunshine. I was damned if I was going to let it go to waste while I toiled away in my office all day, especially given that the rain is supposed to return this evening. So I decided to take the afternoon off. Come 12:30 I turned off my computer, grabbed my bag, and headed for the door.

I decided to spend the afternoon in the Dupont Circle section of Washington, DC. On the subway ride there I ran into JW, who had snuck away from her office to meet up with Samer for lunch. It was a great day for escaping from offices. On the subject of lunch, I opted to take mine sitting on the patio of the Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe. I went for the jerked chicken salad, a glass of Riesling, and a slice of blueberry pie. Yummmm on all counts.

Once I finished with lunch, I ambled over to the Phillips Collection to finally see the Morandi exhibit I've been meaning to check out for a while. Morandi was an Italian painter who worked from the 1920s through the 1960s and who specialized in still lifes (on a random note, why is it 'still lifes' and not 'still lives'?). His still lifes are very stark and simple and feature a muted palette and abstract backgrounds. Morandi didn't paint the standard 'bowl of fruit' still lifes. His paintings were of small arrangements of commonplace household items, the artifacts of everyday life.

The focus in his work is always on containers or vessels of some sort -- vases, cups, bowls, tins, pitchers. With the exception of a few paintings of flowers, the containers are always empty. It's as though they are waiting to be filled with whatever the viewer wishes to project into them. For all their stark simplicity, there is something very zen, patient, and contemplative about his still lifes. It was an interesting exhibit. I really need to take an art survey or appreciation course one of these days so I'll know what the hell I'm talking about.

Given the rare dose of sunshine, I couldn't spend the whole day cooped up in an art gallery though, so after taking in the exhibit I headed to the small park at the center of Dupont Circle and sat in the sun near the fountain to read for a while. After about an hour I got a little hot, so I popped into a Starbucks nearby to get an iced coffee and sat there and read for another hour or so.

It was a glorious afternoon and to make matters even better, when I got home I discovered that the Nikon D90 I ordered had been delivered! I had been thinking about replacing my DSLR for the past 4-5 months and earlier this week I finally decided to do so. I've only had my D80 for about 15 months and I got a lot of good use out of it, but its performance in low light and mixed lighting environments was really frustrating. I had originally been leaning toward getting a D300 until I read an on-line review that said the D90's performance was just about as good, but it cost several hundred dollars less and featured newer technology. So after checking with Marie to get her firsthand account of using one, I switched my sights to the D90.

Now I'm just waiting for the battery pack to charge up so I can start playing with my new toy.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 211/365 - F$&# the Flowers!

Look, I like flowers as much as the next guy and I know they need water to survive, but this continuous rain nonsense needs to stop. We're at what now, day 10 of dreary downpours? I want my sunshine back, dammit!

This shot was taken inside the Conservatory of the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, DC -- where the flowers don't even need rain anyhow.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 210/365 - Crosswalk Symplegades

Today was the first day in a while that I've been able to go for a walk on the Mall during lunch. Nine straight days of rain can certainly put a crimp in your style. The cab and the car and the pedestrians in between in this shot make me think of the story of Jason and the Argonauts. On their way to pilfer the Golden Fleece, the Argonauts had to pass between a pair of clashing rocks called the Symplegades. The rocks stood at either side of a narrow passage and would slam together whenever a ship passed between them, thereby crushing all interlopers.

Jason and the boys got around that by sending a bird through first and then, before the rocks had a chance to fully reset after slamming shut, they rowed like hell and made it through. I loved reading books about Greek mythology when I was a kid. Little heathen that I was, I found them far more entertaining than Sunday school stories. The parable of the prodigal son doesn't have quite the same pizzazz as tales of minotaurs, gorgons, and krakens -- although I would pay to see Samson and Hercules in an arm wrestling match.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 209/365 - Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Happy Cinco de Mayo a mis amigos. I spent mine eating queso, drinking Corona, and watching "The Mexican" on dvd. Perhaps not the most authentic way to celebrate Mexico's victory over the French imperialists at the Battle of Puebla, but it was fun anyhow. "The Mexican" is an odd little movie, but I like it. Great cast (Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Gene Hackman) and quirky humor. If you haven't seen it, rent it. There's quite a bit of bloodshed, though, so be advised.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 208/365 - Today's Shot

When all else fails, resort to being literal.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Edward Hopper Window

This week's bonus photo from my archives is a shot I took on my weekend trip to NYC last week. This view from the window of my hotel reminded me of the sort of scene you'd see in an Edward Hopper painting.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 207/365 - Rainy Day Self Portrait

This week's self-portrait is me out in the rain on my way home from a late breakfast. It's been raining all morning and the forecast is for it to keep raining all day. Not hard, but steady. As a result, my team's kickball game was cancelled and we'll have to make it up as a doubleheader later in the season. They almost won the game I missed last week due to my trip up to NYC. They only lost 2-3. That's a big improvement over the results of our prior two games.

I don't really mind rainy days. They're perfect for staying inside and reading and watching tv or going to a museum or the movies. Plus you get to stomp in puddles! That's the best. It's like Mother Nature's equivalent of popping bubble wrap. After years of study into the subject, I've discovered that the trick is to do it with one foot while you draw the other one up out of the way. That way you burst the puddle but don't get much water on yourself. The worst approach is to jump in with both feet. Then the water shoots up between your legs and soaks your pants.

And definitely avoid muddy puddles. It's okay when you're a kid and your mom gets stuck having to clean up the mess afterward, but it pretty much sucks as an adult.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 206/365 - Double Feature on 14th Street

Caught two musical revue shows by the In Series company at the Source Theatre on 14th Street today, one a matinee and the other an evening show. The first, "From U Street to the Cotton Club," was a Jazz Age revue recounting the life and career of a fictional songstress who started out in the clubs along U Street, the famous Black Broadway of Washington, DC, before moving on to the Cotton Club and Savoy Ballroom in New York. The revue featured two male and two female singers, a piano man, a drummer, a saxophonist, and an actress/dancer playing the parts of both the songstress, Sassy, and her granddaughter as she recited monologues and reminiscences from her grandmother's journal.

The revue incorporated 20 songs of the period, with DC native and jazz legend Duke Ellington getting the lion's share of the billing, along with a few Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, gospel, and blues tunes thrown in for good measure. The musicians were top notch. One of the female singers was excellent. The remainder were good in some songs, not as good in others. The actress/dancer was very good in both capacities and did an outstanding job in making the fictional Sassy seem a real, flesh and blood woman. The writing of the show was also very good, with some of the reminiscences and observations verging on the poetic. The staging was very minimal, but effective and the costumes were adequate.

The second show, "Berliner Kabarett," recreated the dissolute and jaded cabaret scene of Weimar Republic era Berlin during the period between the two world wars. Set in a seedy, rundown cabaret/bordello in the wee hours of the morning, the revue featured a pair of drunken soldiers, a hostess, and two waitresses/performers/prostitutes, all of whom sang during the show. They were accompanied by a pianist/accordionist as they performed 20 songs by Kurt Weill and Berthold Brecht.

Each of the singers was excellent, as was the musical accompanist. The set design and costuming were very good at recreating the "resigned to circumstances," "enjoy yourself now because things will only get worse," feel of that time and place. It was like being inside a Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich movie. While there was not much in the way of dialogue in this revue, there were recitations of bits of poetry and essays from the period that blended well with the music and broadened the sweep and scope of the show.

The In Series company appears to specialize in revues of this sort and given how much I enjoyed these two pieces, I'm now looking forward to catching their next show.

P.S. - the photo is of the sign on the side of the Ellington apartment building on U Street a few blocks from the theater. Given the first revue's emphasis on the Duke's repertoire, it seemed a good choice of subject.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 205/365 - Birthday Bowling Bash

In honor of Adriana's quarter century of life on this Earth, she, Desiree, MJ, Chris, and I journeyed to far Bethesda to celebrate with two games of bowling, two rounds of shots, two pitchers of beer, two rounds of appetizers, and entirely too much fun. From there, it was on to the Tastee Diner for some late night gnoshing and then a quick stop at the revolving Skydome bar in Crystal City for a good night view of the city.

Feliz cumpleanos, Adri!

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 204/365 - Fogo de Chao(down)

These are the funky light fixtures from the place I ate lunch today. I missed my friend Chris' birthday camping trip at the beach last weekend because of my trip to NYC, so today I made it up to him by taking him for lunch at his favorite restaurant -- Fodo de Chao. Fogo is a Brazilian steakhouse that offers all the meat you can eat. Servers walk by with various cuts of meat on skewers and saw hunks off and drop them on your plate.

Chris and I were there for an hour and between the two of us I think we ate approximately half a cow. We both had a serious case of meat bloat/food coma afterward. I don't think I'll need to eat any more meat for a week. Right after we got back from Fogo, Chris had to go straight to a meeting with a couple of businessmen from India. Good thing he didn't tell them what he'd just done for lunch. That might not have gone over too well.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 203/365 - Post-It Note Impression No. 5

Time for another Post-It Note impression!

Quick, who am I this time?

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)