Party’s Over

Our 5 days off from ends tomorrow when it is back to work. To prevent this no work to work letdown from occurring in the future we have purchased a couple of tickets for the PowerBall lottery for Wednesday.

I took 98 pictures in our 2 days in DC. Quite a few are junk, mostly because I hate the nearly useless flash on the camera, so I hand held a lot of the museum shots and they came out blurry (there are only so many leaning on the railing shots a man can take.) There are a few keepers as well. Ever since the digital camera came into our household there are no more prints, to show, to share, to put in albums. I think I will take the 20-24 best photos and get real prints made from them. How 20th century.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 47

Mr. & Mrs. Bogardus Go To Washington

Wednesday:
Arrive Dulles midday. Wait 1/2 hour in bitter cold, accented by bitting wind for Metrobus. Three bucks each, 3/4 hour later, arrive hotel in Rosslyn section of Arlington. Thaw briefly. Walk 1/2 mile to Iwo Jima Memorial. The regular size canteen holds 1 quart. The one on the monument holds 8 gallons. Passing the Norwegian Carillon (?), we walk 3/4 mile to Arlington National Cemetery. Walk 3/4 mile through Cemetery to Tomb of the Unknowns. Wait 1/4 hour in bitter cold, accented by bitting wind to witness changing of the guard. Walk 1/4 mile to grave site of President Kennedy. Eternal Flame does nothing to ward off bitter cold, accented by bitting wind. Walk 1 mile back to hotel. Thaw completely. In early evening walk 2 blocks to friend’s apartment. Walk 4 more blocks in bitter cold, accented by bitting wind to Red, Hot and Blue a Memphis style BBQ joint. Thaw out while eating ribs. Walk 6 blocks back to hotel. Really long hot shower. Bed.

Thursday:
Breakfast on 17th floor of Holiday Inn. Good view of the city. Good coffee. Bland buffet. Hey, its free. Walk 2 blocks to Metro station in bitter cold, accented by bitting wind. Get off at Union Station and walk to Capitol Building. Giant construction project in front so you can’t get near. Walk around giant construction project. Snap photo of Supreme Court while standing in bitter cold, accented by bitting wind. Duck into National Botanical Gardens to thaw out. Walk behind Capitol, snap picture of group of students gathered to have panoramic photo taken of them. Walk to Smithsonian Air & Space Museum to have lunch and escape the bitter cold, accented by bitting wind. Cross mall to National Gallery of Art. Wander though fabulous sculptures, not really paying attention. Paid attention to exhibit of Ed Ruscha. Walk further down the mall in the bitter cold, accented by bitting wind to the National Museum of American History. Thaw out completely viewing the The Price of Freedom: Americans at War exhibit. Head to Washington Monument. Can’t get close because giant construction project. Tiring of the bitter cold, accented by bitting wind duck into Metro station and return to hotel. After a couple hours in room thaw completely. In early evening walk 2 blocks to friend’s apartment. Walk 6 more blocks in bitter cold, accented by bitting wind to The Mediterranean Cafe. Thaw out while eating kabobs and humus. Walk 8 blocks back to hotel. Really long hot shower. Bed.

Friday:
Breakfast on 17th floor of Holiday Inn. Good view of the city. Good coffee. Bland buffet. Hey, its free. Walk 2 blocks to Metro station in bitter cold, no wind. Yeah. Take three dollar Metro bus to Dulles. Ask about shuttle to National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center at airport. Doesn’t exist. Shuttle is from museum at mall. $12 cab ride from disappointed American Dream immigrant we arrive at center. Bag inspector at the door tells Donna that she must put snacks in her purse back in car. He lets her in after she explains we came via cab. Bag inspector at the door says nothing to Brian while looking through dirty underwear in suitcase. Big Damn Place. Lots of cool stuff to look at. Lots of blurry pictures taken (need tripod next time.) $12 cab ride back to airport. Long wait in crowded, noisy terminal for plane. Gratefully arrive back in small quiet Columbia airport. Real South Carolina BBQ for dinner. Ride part way home with top down.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 47

21,000 Miles

In Kitchings Mills, SC the odometer rolled by 21,000 as we came home from the airport tonight.

The last two days in DC were the coldest week I’ve experienced since childhood. It was so cold that the mid 50s and dark of South Carolina felt balmy enough that we drove partway home with the top down…

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 46

Post Hole Ahead

Donna and I are off to Washington DC from Wednesday afternoon until Friday evening where we have some meetings with a representative of the State Department.

Sounds important, doesn’t it? Its not, it is a vacation of sorts. What it really is, is a lifelong friend of Donna’s has up and joined the U.S. State Department. Next month she is off to Kosovo for a 2-year assignment, so we thought we would fly up for a couple days and visit before she heads off into the uncharted wilds of eastern Europe.

Sally will be working during the day, so our plans are to do some sightseeing Wed afternoon, Thurs & Fri morning. In the evening on Wed & Thurs we will have dinner together. After eating we will probably hang out in some of the trendier spots of Georgetown hob-nobbing with the deal makers. Riiight…more than likely we will head back to the hotel to hang out in the room.

We are staying at the Holiday Inn in Arlington which is right across the Potomac from downtown DC. It is about a block from the Metro station at Rosslyn, so getting in and out of the city should be pretty easy. The room is on the 16th floor facing the city, so in case a terrorist decides to detonate a suitcase nuke in front of the Capitol building we should have a great view – for about a 1/10 of a second.

We were hoping for a mild heat wave, record highs for this time of year in our nation’s capital are middle 70’s, but instead we are getting 10 degrees below normal with a chance of flurries. We are packing turtlenecks instead of shorts…and the sightseeing will consist of poking around inside our nation’s attic (the Smithsonian) or maybe heading over to the White House to see if we can get to see President Bartlett.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 44

Monday Morning Mailbag

Ever vilgilant Postini stopped 78 pieces of spam on Friday, 66 on Staurday and 55 on Sunday. It also allowed 6 to sneak through. What I really liked about 4 of the 6 that made it through were the sender’s names:
Fulgenzio Merrill

Standoffish S. Porous

Zimri Ponder

Spartacus Alicea

Trouble is that their email addresses didn’t have the same sort of flair (in the same order as above):
Kajetan@jennison.com
abetter@aspecialmemoryflorist.com
Josef@jaegervineyards.com
Jamaal@futuramic.com

The subjects were the usual dreck (in the same order as above):
DUH Pharmmaaccy – Homer Simpon’s Drug Store?
Darlin how good to see you! 🙂 – The Secrets of Human Sexuality Ebook. This one snuck by the spam gaurd by including a dozen or so homilies, including my favorite: How can one better magnify the Almighty than by sniggering with him at his little jokes, particularly the poorer ones.
CHP Mediccations – Ponch & Jon’s Drug Store?
GWA Pharmaaccy – Greek Wakeboard & Kite Surf Association’s Drug Store?

Youze Ain’t Looking Hard Enough

There was 31 pounds of air in the right rear tire this morning, down a pound. After work I dropped Donna at home and headed over to the tire store. They took the car in back and I waited, marveling at the 20″ & 22″ DUBS they had in the showroom (I wondered how much one weighed, but didn’t try and lift one for fear of herniating myself.) After 20 minutes the fellow came from back and said, “Which tire?” I confirmed that I told him right and he said that they had the tire submerged and they couldn’t find any leak. I told him that I thought that I found something and had marked the tire. We walked out into the shop and they pulled the tire again and I found my mark and showed them what I saw. They pried around in the hole while drizzling it with soapy water, but couldn’t make a bubble. I went back inside and waited. Twenty minutes later he came back out and said they couldn’t find any leaks. The tech had removed the tire from the wheel and felt all around on the inside and could still find nothing. They sent me on my way, no charge, saying if it keeps leaking, bring it back.

I’ll put 30psi in tonight and keep checking it…

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 44