Day 248/365 - At Artomatic

Tonight was "Meet the Artists" night at the Artomatic exhibition in Washington, DC and since I hadn't been yet to check out the show, I figured I'd go. Several of my Flickr contacts had works on display and I wanted to see their walls. Going also gave me a chance to finally meet Stacey (who brought delish pasteles), Ramune (who brought yummy chocolate peanut butter crispy squares), Kerrin (who brought zesty tomato and mozzarella skewers), and Lindsay (who brought Kevin -- who, given that he's a Kevin, is naturally a treat in and of himself). It was great to meet all of them and to meet up again with some of the Flickr folks I hadn't seen in a while.

The show itself was quite enjoyable. It occupies eight floors of an unfinished office building and is essentially an artistic free-for-all. There's something of everything there, and something for everyone. Rather more nakedness than I was anticipating, though. Apparently it's fairly easy to get women to pose nude for you. Based on Artomatic, it seems that all you need do is buy a nice camera, tell a woman the photos are for artistic purposes, and then 'bang!' -- her clothes fall off. Too bad I shoot mostly buildings, places, and objects. Just my luck.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 247/365 - At the Eye Doctor

"Which is better, 1 or 2? 3 or 4?"

Had my annual visit to the eye doctor today. Thankfully my eyes haven't gotten any worse. Last year was the first time she had to up my prescription in the 9 years I've been going to her to get checked out. I sorta wish she'd get some new eye charts, though. At this point even if I couldn't see it I'd know that the smallest line read "E V O T Z." Guess lying about that would kind of defeat the point though.

I was curious so I asked her once what she did with people who were illiterate and she said she has charts with pictures of objects on them instead of letters for people who can't read, recent immigrants from places that don't use the Phoenician Alphabet, and kids who don't know their ABCs yet. Another of life's imponderable mysteries solved.

I want to get some new glasses this year, so any recommendations for Metro-accessible places with cool frames in the DC area would be much appreciated. Thanks!

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 246/365 - No Beer Goggles Needed

The Nats actually won! It had been so long since that happened that I had forgotten what it was like to be happy at the end of a game. And there wasn't even a rain delay. Go figure.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 245/365 - Intern Happy Hour

Tonight a bunch of us from work went to Bullfeathers on Capitol Hill for a happy hour with this year's crop of summer legal interns. They seem like a good bunch. The two interns for my division are from my alma mater, so they better be good. We've had some, shall we say 'entertaining,' interns in the past. There was one who liked to call Westlaw and have them do case law searches for her and email her the results. There was one who quit after a week because he didn't realize that he couldn't afford to have a summer job that didn't pay anything. There was the one who wore basically the same clothes every day and slept at his desk. And then there was the one who wound up dating the Deputy General Counsel after the summer ended. None of us saw that coming. She was young and hot and he was a bald, nerdy guy who looked like the eggheaded little bird in the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons. Who knew that was what it took to be irresistable?

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 244/365 - Little Lump of Love

My friends Des and Chris recently adopted a little sister for their miniature Australian shepherd Chewie. Her name is Wicket, after the ewok from Return of the Jedi, and this is her resting in my arms (thanks to Adri for an assist with the photo). She's a warm, soft, little bundle of fluffy fur and needle teeth and so far sleeping seems to be her favorite pasttime. She's much more mellow than Chewie, although she does have a sense of adventure. While I was holding her tonight she climbed up my shoulder and onto the top of my head and then moved from there to walk across the back of the armchair like a cat walking a fence. I thought Des was going to have a panic attack when Wicket pulled that stunt for fear that she'd fall to the hardwood floor. Only eight weeks old and she's already a daredevil tomboy.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 243/365 - Scruffy Looking Nerfherder

This week's self-portrait is a shot of me sporting a week's worth of vacation stubble. I haven't shaved since last Tuesday morning before my cruise ship docked in Juneau. My face hasn't been this hairy since I shaved my beard off about three years ago. If I'd given it any thought beforehand, I wouldn't even have packed my razor and just gone the whole cruise without shaving. After all, if you can't be scruffy in Alaska then where can you be scruffy?

BTW - The title is a geeky Star Wars reference.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Back to My Own Bed

This week's bonus photo from my archives is a shot of my bed. After being gone for nine days, it was nice to get back to it.

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 242/365 - All Ashore That's Going Ashore

My Alaskan cruise came to an end today when we returned to port in Seattle. It turned out to be as amazing as everyone says. The scenery routinely sliding past the ship was phenomenal. The ship was very nice, although I like Carnival better than Norwegian Cruise Lines. Carnival has better food, bigger staterooms, better quality service, and much much better onboard entertainment. Two-thirds of the performers onboard the Pearl (both in the theater and in the lounges) were godawful.

It was still well worth the trip, however. I saw glaciers, mountains, eagles, seals, whales (briefly), and porpoises, hiked through temperate rainforests, rode an old train, had beer for breakfast, flew in a floatplane, won $44 playing roulette, went undefeated at Scrabble, and got clobbered at shuffleboard. Never did get around to climbing that rock wall.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 241/365 - In Victoria, British Columbia

Our weather good fortune finally broke. Today it was cloudy and foggy and cool all day. Still, given that we had six days of unbelievably perfect weather I can't really complain. We made our last port visit today, to Victoria, British Columbia in Canada. I went on an Orca watching boat tour. It involved lots of wind, cold, and watching, but no orcas. We did see two harbor porpoises off in the distance and got a quick glimpse of the back and dorsal fin of a minke whale, but other than that all we saw was water, kelp, logs, and other whale watching boats. It's sounding like I should've gone for the tour of the city gardens instead. Everyone that came back from that tour was raving about how gorgeous they were. Oh well, three out of four ain't bad.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 240/365 - In Ketchikan, Alaska

Today we had the next-to-last port visit on our Alaskan cruise -- Ketchikan, Alaska. I went on a crab and beer feast/mountaintop flightseeing excurstion. The crab and beer feast part sounded much better until you realized it was at 7:15 in the morning. Still, it was pretty damn tasty. If you're drinking beer for breakfast then you're either on vacation or an alcoholic. Or both. After stuffing ourselves with dungeness crab, Alaska Amber ale, and blueberry cheesecake, we boarded a DeHavilland Beaver floatplane for our sightseeing flight over the mountains and waterways of Ketchikan. It was awesome. The views were excellent and the flight was a lot smoother than I expected, although landing on water is a bit bumpier than on land.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 239/365 - Cruising Glacier Bay

This was our second day at sea, and what a day at sea it was. We visited Glacier Bay and the scenery was jaw-droppingly gorgeous. The mountains and the water and the clear blue sky were phenomenal, and then there were the glaciers. We stopped by three of them -- Reid, Margerie, and another one whose name I can't remember. Sheesh, not only am I bad with people's names, I'm also bad with glacier's names. The glaciers are miles-long, hundreds of feet thick tongues of blue ice that run from the end of narrow inlets up to the mountains. The ones we saw are called calving glaciers because chunks keep falling off of them into the sea, kinda like cows giving birth to calves.

Margerie was the best of the glaciers we saw. I saw a couple little landslide type calving incidents with it and then got to see one good-sized chunk splinter off and topple into the water with a boom. Glacier Bay is a U.S. National Park and we had a group of National Park Service rangers board our ship and narrate our tour of the park over the ship's public address system. It was like watching an Imax movie, but in person. The weather is still picture perfect. The ship's crew and everyone we talk to in the ports tells us that it normally isn't nearly this nice. Most of the time up here it's cloudy and cool and rainy, but it's been sunny and in the low 80s/high 70s for our whole cruise. And not only has it not rained, we haven't even seen hardly any clouds. So far we've hit the weather lottery. Here's hoping it holds for the rest of the cruise.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 238/365 - In Skagway, Alaska

Second stop of the cruise today -- Skagway, Alaska. It's a pretty cool little town. It's pimped out for tourists, of course, but it's still nice. Much better than Juneau, which was just sort of drab as cities go. I rode the historic White Pass & Yukon Route train up to Denver Pass and then went for a hike through the Sawtooth rainforest. This hike was shorter than yesterday's, only about three miles. I lollygagged it along the trail this time, too. The bulk of the excursion party charged on ahead, but I hung back with one of the other guides and a woman who had gone for a bike ride that morning and so wasn't in the mood for a power hike. I hiked a bit faster than she was going, so I was able to spend most of the hike on my own on the trail. It was great to enjoy the peace and quiet and calm in the woods. After the hike, we waited back down at the Denver Pass stop to catch our train for the return trip to town. The guides broke out the cooler and we sat there in the sun and drank beer until the train came to get us. It was running late, but I didn't mind that at all.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 237/365 - Moonrise over Alaska

We hit the first port on our Alaskan cruise today, the capital city of Juneau. I went for a six mile hike on a mountain alongside the Mendenhall glacier. The trail started out pretty easy and then got really steep. The views were great though and it was nice to be out in the woods. The weather was amazing. It's beginning to look like I packed the wrong sorts of clothes. I packed longsleeved shirts and turtleneck sweaters and jeans and I might have been better off packing shorts and t-shirts. It was sunny and in the 80s. Not what I expected from Alaska. I'm not complaining though. It was much better than hiking in the rain and the clear skies make for much better photos. This shot was of the moon rising over the mountains ringing the Inside Passage after we left Juneau to head further north to Skagway. The sun didn't set until 10 p.m. tonight. Now that is what I expected from Alaska.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 236/365 - Self Portrait at Sea

We are currently steaming our way toward Juneau, Alaska. We’re going to be at sea this entire day. I spent the first part of the day sitting near various windows in sundry parts of the ship looking out at the passing scenery, listening to old radio programs on my iPod, and reading (as you can see in this week’s self-portrait). It was deeeelicious. Then this afternoon, my brother and I went bowling (there are four bowling lanes in one of the bars onboard the ship) and played a game of Scrabble whilst seated at the stern as the mountains rolled past on either side. We have port calls the next two days and then another full day at sea, followed by two more port calls before debarking in Seattle. I think my brother and I will try out the rock climbing wall on our next day at sea. Gotta do something to burn off the steady stream of desserts.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Twice on Sunday Bonus Photo - Seattle Cityscape

This week's extra photo from my archives is another shot I took of Seattle from the top of the Space Needle today. Can't believe how great the weather was. The visibility from up there was amazing.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 235/365 - Getting Underway

We couldn’t board our cruise ship until noon, so this morning I walked over to the Space Needle. Even though I’ve only seen two of the most touristy parts of Seattle (Pike Place Market and Seattle Center), it seems like a cool city. I’m going to have to come back here when I have more time to spend. The nerd boy in me really wanted to check out the Science Fiction Museum, but I ran short on time. The view from the Space Needle was pretty spectacular. I could even see my ship tied up to the pier.

Once we got aboard, I spent about an hour just wandering around and taking photos of every nook and cranny. My cabin is pretty cramped and there are four of us in it. I’d like to have gotten a balcony room on my own, but it was easier for my brother to afford the trip if we packed four people into one room, so that’s what we did. There are two regular beds, a roll-away bed, and a bunk that pulls down from the wall. I claimed the folding bunk. It’s my own little penthouse.

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 234/365 - In Seattle

After a 2.5 hour flight, a 2 hour layover, and a 3.5 hour flight, I finally arrived in Seattle this afternoon. Once I got checked into the hotel, I met up with my brother and the rest of our small herd (there are 8 of us all together – me, my brother, my sister-in-law, some of their friends and some of her relatives) and we headed down to the Pike Place Market (that’s it pictured above) to get a bite to eat and wander about for a bit. It was a rather touristy spot, but still kinda cool. Some of the street performers were interesting. There was one guy who kept four hula hoops spinning while playing the guitar, balancing a second guitar on his chin (and occasionally reaching up to strum it), and blowing on a harmonica. I had to tip him after that. I figured he earned it. Who says guys can’t multi-task?

(Taken with my Nikon D90)

Day 233/365 - Post-It Note Impression No. 6

I was long overdue for another installment in my occasional series of Post-It Note impressions, so here it is!

Quick, who am I this time?

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 232/365 - Ready to Ship Out

Saturday morning I'm catching a flight to Seattle so that the next day I can board the Norwegian Pearl and get underway on a 7-day Alaskan cruise. I am 'redtago" (ready to go). Well, mentally ready to go anyhow. Still haven't started packing yet. I think I've picked out the shore excursions I want to do, though. In Juneau there's the Mendenhall Glacier hike, in Skagway there's the vintage railway scenic tour/Sawtooth Mountain rainforest hike combo, in Ketchikan I'm leaning toward the floatplane mountaintop sightseeing and crab feast outing, and in Victoria it will be the killer whale watching boat trip.

The excursions sound cool, but I'm still not sure how much I'm going to like this cruise. I've been on two Caribbean cruises before (not counting the half-dozen times I deployed there in the Navy on various ops) and my favorite part of those cruises were the days at sea where I could just lay in the sun on the Lido deck and read and listen to my iPod. Don't think there will be much working on my tan on this cruise given that the temperature is supposed to be in the mid-50s. Guess I can just sit by a window and read and listen to old radio programs, though. I've got one mystery series I recently loaded onto my iPod called "Passage of the Tangmar" about a group of heirs onboard a ship steaming from Australia to Jamaica to inherit a millionaire's estate and who are slowly getting bumped off one by one before they can reach their destination. It should be cool to listen to on my cruise. Plus I have a few books set on ships or at sea that should make for good reading.

This cruise was my brother's idea. I sent my parents on an Alaskan one last year and they raved about it, so my brother decided he wanted to go on one as well and he invited me to come along. This wasn't my first choice of vacations, but he and I usually have a lot of fun when we take trips together so I figured 'what the heck.' If nothing else, it's a week away from work and an excuse to take lots of photos. As if I really needed an excuse for that.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 231/365 - Legacy of Light

Tonight I went to see the new play "Legacy of Light" at Arena Stage's substitute venue in Crystal City. This piece was specially commissioned by Arena from local playwright Karen Zacarias and is having its debut a half-block from my apartment. It's always exciting to see a brand new work, although about half the time the play turns out to be disappointing. Most new plays are more along the lines of rough drafts when they premiere and still need a fair amount of shaping and polishing.

That's not the case with "Legacy of Light." It's an absolutely brilliant, fully-realized play. The story takes place between and betwixt two sets of characters in two different centuries, Enlightenment Era France and modern New Jersey. In each setting there are four primary characters, two men and two women. The Enlightenment cast consists of historical figures such as Voltaire and pioneering female physicist Emilie du Chatelet, her daughter, and her young and impetuous lover, while the modern cast is composed of a female astrophysicist, her schoolteacher husband, and a struggling young woman and her brother.

The characters move around each other in various orbits and while initially they are confined to their own eras, as the play progresses the Enlightenment characters also appear in the modern setting. Whether these time travelers are ghosts, hallucinations, or something else is never fully addressed and surprisingly it doesn't really seem to matter. Their simultaneous existence in both the 18th and 21st centuries further reinforces two principles of physics discussed in the play: first, that energy is not destroyed but persists (an idea first put forth by Emilie herself) and second, that time is not constant but varies as energy increases (an idea which Einstein derived from Emilie's work).

The plot of the play focuses chiefly on women scientists who are simultaneously on the verge of important discoveries and the verge of motherhood, but it is not about just that any more than the dictionary is just about words beginning with the letter A. The writing is razor sharp and the play is dazzlingly smart, consciousness expanding, and utterly original. If you have a brain and a heart you'll enjoy it a great deal. If you're deficient on either count you probably won't care for it much, and more's the pity for you.

The set design is facilitative and unobtrusive and the costumes are, in the words of one of the characters, amazingly amazing. Many of the actors play two roles, one in each of the play's eras, and the peformances range from excellent to merely adequate. Interestingly, some of the dual performers are excellent in one part and merely adequate in the other. Standouts among the cast include the actresses playing Emilie and Olivia, the astrophysicist. The performers portraying the modern sister-brother pair are also quite good.

As if you couldn't tell by now, I enjoyed this play immensely and it's something I can't recommend highly enough. Beg, borrow, buy, or steal a ticket but by all means go. GO!

(Taken with my Nikon D90)