Soaking up DC

Just four weeks left until we settle in Davis. August will be fun and hectic, with a trip to California for Sibley and Nina's wedding, a trip to Minnesota to visit my family, and a trip to Maine for a Sheep retreat. Happily, I've been doing a good job of soaking up DC the past few weeks. Some highlights:

I finally went to Twins Jazz on U St. There are loads of places to enjoy live jazz along U St, but I'd been meaning to visit Twins specifically ever since my friend Paul recommended it to me years ago, as one of the best. I had a guest in town, so it was the perfect excuse to show her a cool niche of the city. Tuesday is Afro/Brazilian/Cuban night, and it was fantastic. Kicking myself for not checking it out earlier... but better late than never.

Similarly, I finally got around to getting lunch from The Well-Dressed Burrito. It has a fantastic reputation, despite its lowly location - a sketchy looking door in an alley opens into a space that looks more like a community center kitchen than a ravely-reviewed restaurant. Perhaps the best part is that it's only a block away from the secret garden, so you can get your lunch from an inauspicious hole in the wall and eat it in secluded beauty.

We got to watch a trio of Venezuelan breakdancers perform on the corner of 11th and U, right outside the Bohemian Caverns. Their tour is sponsored by the State Department, but the show felt anything but official. It was casual, friendly, spontaneous. They had incredible yoga-on-crack balances. Cirque du Soleil meets hiphop. They're amazing artists, but generously shared the linoleum with anyone else who wanted in. I love DC for the fact that this kind of thing is special, but not wholly unexpected. It's easy to stumble across free, world-class entertainment (like Joshua Bell playing in a Metro station).

For our weekly training session last week, my frisbee team needed a good flight of stairs, and most convenient location just happened to be the Jefferson Memorial. It's one of the prettiest - it's modeled after the Pantheon in Rome and sits overlooking the tidal basin. We piled our bags in a place that wouldn't upset tourists' photos, and spent a sunset hour sprinting and hopping up the stairs. I'm going to miss having such easy, casual access to places like this.



Lately it's been hot and humid. Just about any bike ride gets you sweaty. It's 97*F out right now, and the humidity is predicted to rise from the current 34% to 64% tonight. Somehow, I love it. It feels like summer, when you're supposed to be all messy. You just resign yourself to being damp all the time, either from being outside or from taking a shower and never quite drying off. I love DC in the summer. (I love MN in the summer too... maybe I just love summer.)

Cucumber Soup

Right around this time last year, Scott and I made a batch of cucumber soup (read about it here), and lately we've been dreaming of making it again. It's easy and tasty and would have been the perfect thing last night, when we both got home from our respective Ultimate practices sweaty, hungry and tired.

This morning I hunted through my e-mail and found the recipe that we used last year! It's one that Lynne Rossetto Kasper published in her weekly "Splendid Table" e-mail. Without further ado, I present "Cool Cucumber Soup with a Cucumber-Herb Relish." Bon appetit!

July 12, 2006

Dear Friends,

We who dream up recipes for a living can fantasize all we want about America waiting breathlessly for yet another summer gem from our kitchens. Real world right now is, "Once I get home I want to stick my head in the refrigerator, then take an ice bath, then order in pizza, and hope no one will complain."

This soup might change some of that anticipation. You could have it waiting in the refrigerator, along with cheeses, crackers, watermelon and lemonade. No stove, no work, and if you serve on paper plates, no clean up. Then take the ice bath.

Cool Cucumber Soup with a Cucumber-Herb Relish

Excerpted from Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen. © 2006 by Deborah Madison. Used with permission of Broadway Books, New York. All rights reserved.

Makes 3 to 4 cups

This herb-green froth of a soup can be whipped together in a blender in moments, then chilled until serving. Served in glasses, it makes a refreshing way to begin a summer dinner, and it's a great convenience to have on hand in the refrigerator for a quick lunch or an afternoon bite.

A cucumber soup can be led in many directions. You can allow dill to predominate and garnish it with dill flowers, use a mixture of herbs as is done here, or use chives with a leaf or two of lovage, the perfect cucumber herb in my opinion. If you want the snap of chile, add minced jalapeño and lime.

The Soup:

* 2 pounds cucumbers
* 1 cup buttermilk, whole-milk yogurt, sour cream, or a mixture
* 1/2 cup coarsely chopped herbs, including basil, dill, cilantro, and lovage
* Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
* Zest and juice of 2 lemons, or to taste

The Cucumber Relish:

* 2 tablespoons minced chives or scallions
* 1 tablespoon minced dill
* 2 tablespoons each finely chopped basil and cilantro
* 1 lovage leaf, finely slivered
* 2 teaspoons olive oil

1. Peel and seed the cucumber. Use one to make a cup of small dice and set it aside, then coarsely chop the rest. Puree in a blender or food processor with the buttermilk, chopped herbs, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the zest and juice from 1 lemon. Chill.

2. Just before serving, toss the reserved diced cucumber with the herbs, a few pinches of salt, the olive oil, and the remaining lemon juice and zest.

3. Taste the soup for salt, pepper, and acidity, adding more lemon juice if needed, then serve in chilled bowls with the cucumber-herb relish.

LYNNE'S TIPS

* Lovage has a flavor similar to celery, but bolder and spicier.
* Go for especially sweet cucumbers for this dish. The season is high, and stubby pickling cucumbers and the unfortunately named "burpless," or classier sounding "English" cukes can be treats. Don't wash produce before storing. If you seal whole cukes in bags, pressing out all the air, they will hold in the refrigerator a week.
* Even if it hasn't been possible in the past, it is time to buy organic directly from local farmers. If it's abundant and local, organic prices should be lower than at any other time of the year.

This has been one of the nicest weekends in DC I've had in a while - lots of quality time with Scott, lots of soaking up what DC has to offer, lots of productivity around the house, and of course some Ultimate.

On Friday night, Scott and I went to the Tabbard Inn for dinner - we've been meaning to go since his birthday, since his parents gave him a gift certificate. We sat out on the patio, and it was a perfect evening. Clear light, ideal temperature, no wind. I ate my first raw oyster ever, as well as my first soft shell crab and conch, and I'm eager to have all three again. We ate at a leisurely pace but weren't quite ready to go home when we finally paid the bill, so so walked to Dupont Circle, sat on a bench and people-watched for a while. The brass band was playing on the other side of the circle, and their jazz wafted our way. Couples, dogs, chess players, frisbee players, drunk people, hurried people. What a night to be out.

We headed downtown again on Saturday morning to check out an exhibit at the Sackler called Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th and 17th Centuries. From the website: "The Portuguese voyages of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries led to the first real interaction among almost all the world's peoples. An unprecedented exchange of knowledge, techniques, imagery and ideas inspired the creation of highly original works of art." The exhibit contained sections on Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, China and Japan. Lots of cool, scrambled things - like an Italian Madonna and Child in a setting with Chinese decorations. I got to visit Portugal for a week while I lived in Italy, and it was fascinating. I'd love to go back and spend more time there sometime.

Scott had to spend the afternoon at the office, and I spent it doing useful things around the house. Like cleaning mold off the underside of the mat in the shower. Gross, but satisfying. Scott and I met at the Carter Baron Amphitheater, a few blocks from our house, for a picnic dinner and a free outdoor performance of the National Symphony Orchestra. Again, a perfect evening to be outside. The NSO performed a neat collection of works by American composers. Bernstein's Overture to Candide was terrific. Grofé's Sunset from the Grand Canyon Suite was wonderful. And the encore was Copland's Hoedown from Rodeo - irresistible fun.

Today we spent lots of time in the garage, pulling out furniture that needs to be given away or trashed, and in the basement, packing boxes to ship to Davis. Today's "moldy shower mat" was a box of kitchen supplies that I had stored in the garage. A mouse had gnawed into it and made a nest of the potholders... and had left droppings amongst the silverware. I soaked it in bleach and washed it well, and then threw away the sponge and washed my hands well. Scott is as good as packing as I am bad at it. This entire process would probably drag on for weeks if he weren't here giving orders. Today, he's entirely responsible for my sanity.

At 3:30, I left the nice, cool basement and headed north to Pi practice. We worked hard and sweat a lot, and it was a long bike ride home, but it was good. Now I'm home, showered, fed, hydrated, happily ready for bed.

Day 8

We woke up and got moving earlier than usual, since we were on a tight schedule. We ate cereal rather than our usual full meal, loaded up the rafts, headed downriver 15 more miles, to mile 240. A speedboat was waiting for us there, so we loaded our luggage, said good-bye to our guides and cruised for 2 hours to get to Lake Mead. Our guides would spend about 7 hours making the same trip on the rafts. Flat water, low dirty yellow walls... an anticlimactic finale. At Lake Mead, our bus was waiting for us, and we rode 2 hours back to Las Vegas. Scott and I taxied straight to the airport, where we changed out of our river clothes into something cleaner. We got to Baltimore after midnight, caught a SuperShuttle home, showered and got to bed by 3 am, in a completely different world than the one we had woken up in.

A fantastic trip. I hope the Grand Canyon is preserved and not dammed up in years to come so I can go back again.

Day 7

Today was our last full day on the river - certainly bittersweet. I love the pace here, the rhythm dictated by the light and the water level rather than by work. But my body is ready to get back to more shade and less hot, dry wind. The river is much warmer now than when we began - its temperature rises 1°F every 20 miles, so today's water was around 58°F, rather than the 48° of Day 1. I'd been doing fine with the water the whole trip - sitting at the front of the raft, no rain gear, getting wet, shivering for a minute and then drying off and warming up. But it finally got to me. I was a little chilly, wearing a wet long-sleeved cotton shirt to keep the sun off, and I was worn out, so I got cold and cranky. Happily, people took care of me - got me situated in a warmer, drier place on the raft, so the day was not lost.

We didn't go on any hikes today, because we had to cover a lot of ground. Our only stop was at Pumpkin Spring, named for the bright orange arsenic and selenium deposits. It was right at the river's edge, and the river was wide and safe enough that we could climb up onto some high rocks and jump off into the river. It's pretty crazy to be shivering when the air temperature is 115°F, but Scott and I both were. It stayed hot for a long time once we got to camp. We sat with our feet in the water and wore wet clothing to try to stay cool.

We had a very good dinner of rib eye steaks, and then sat around together for closing remarks - good-byes, thank-yous, promises to exchange e-mail addresses and photos. All week our guides have been telling us what a great group we are, and we've been telling them what great guides they are, but it was nice to do it one last time, altogether, under a starry sky.

When we had said what we wanted to say, we went scorpion hunting. Ani had a black light along, so about seven of us followed her back along a path, peering under bushes and behind rocks. And we found some! They really do glow in the dark! Bright neon yellow. We even found one hunting - we watched it sting an insect with its tail, grab it in its left claw and eat it. It's a scary insect but beauiful, and amazing to watch. Very graceful.

The moon was late to rise, so I feel asleep under a black sky full of stars. The constellation Scorpio was hanging right over the canyon wall.

Day 6

We emerged from the bedrock, the hard schist, and returned to sedimentary layers - a pity, as the schist was really pretty.

We were all tired this morning. We've been out for long enough that we're starting to feel worn down. For the first time, I felt ready for the trip to be over. I was tired, heat-rashed and a little bored.

We went on a really neat hike along the upper rim of a slot canyon called Deer Creek Canyon. It involved some slightly frightening shimmying along a narrow ledge before the whole canyon opened up into a beautiful creek and waterfall. There were lots of big trees, which you don't see very often here. The hike had gorgeous views down into the slot canyon - lots of graceful, striated curves - and out across the Colorado River and the whole Grand Canyon.

We camped at Fern Glen Canyon, at mile 168, and after we set up camp and did our afternoon reading, we hiked back into the canyon. It involved some rock climbing to get back to the big, rounded out amphitheater, which was of course filled with ferns. The route back there made me nervous - I'm always afraid of falling off rocks - but I'm getting braver about following Scott's lead, and it's almost always worth it, both for the sights and for the feeling of accomplishment. We took our time back in the canyon, exploring different parts of it, and were happy for our evening baths when we got back to camp. The after dinner entertainment was trading jokes. Good times.

Day 5

I woke up last night and saw the stars. The big dipper had fallen out of sight behind the canyon wall, but Cassiopia and Signus had risen. The moon was shining too brightly to see much else. Sunset, moonrise and nighttime are my favorite times here - the first two for their effect on the walls. It's amazing to watch the slow creep of sunlight and moonlight and their respective shadows on these rock surfaces.

Today was another day of big rapids, which was great. I rode all the way at the front of the raft for a few of them, which is definitely more exciting (and drenching) than being farther back. Even better than the rapids were the hikes - we got to hike to two different waterfalls. At the first one, you could swim around behind the falling water, and then get pushed out through all the turbulence. The second was even better, because you could swim around behind, climb up through a tangle of dark rocks, emerge at the top of the waterfall, and jump down into the pool below. Both were absolutely beautiful.


(Here's Anne jumping down. Norm took the photo, not me.)

We put in a long day on the river and made it to mile 140 or so.

Day 4

Here's Scott waking up on Day 4. Even though we took baths every night, it was still hard to get our hair clean. The result, in his case, was an awesome mohawk.



Today was our first day of really big water. The rapids in the Grand Canyon are rated on a 1-10 scale (whereas the rest of the world uses a 1-6 scale). Today we ran some 10s and, I kid you not, some 11s. Straight out of Spinal Tap. They were definitely fun, and not as scary as I expected. The reason for all the rapids is that we dropped into a harder layer of rock. We went from nice soft shales to much harder schist. Less erosion = narrower, deeper, more violent water. The big waves are fun, but my favorite part of the rapids is right on top - the water is as smooth as glass as it's getting pulled, hard, down into the chute. You can see all the turbulence ahead, but for a moment it's very smooth and peaceful.

It's beautiful rock. Seeing this canyon, along with reading John McPhee's Annals of a Former World has given me a whole new appreciation of how beautiful rocks can be. Just a little bit of understanding about how they came to be, combined with seeing them all laid out on such a large scale, goes a long way.

Our only hike this morning was a short, flat one to Phantom Ranch, which is only accessible by boat and by mule. There are cabins and campsites and, nicest of all, a canteen where we bought ice-cold lemonade and mailed postcards to our nearest and dearest.

We arrived at our campsite around 3 pm, right along a thundering rapids. Our noisiest campsite yet, but in the best possible way. We got set up under the blazing sun, and then Scott and I hastily retreated to a shady spot to read and nap until the sun got a little lower. After dinner, Norm got out his guitar, and we all sang songs together.

Day 3

We had another short day mileage-wise. So far we've been averaging about 20 miles per day, even though we have to cover about 240 total. The logic is that it's cooler at this end of the canyon, so it's better to spend more time here, and then more more quickly through the hottest parts.

In the morning, we hiked up into Saddle Canyon, which glows red and orange, to gorgeous waterfall. The light on the walls was almost entirely reflected light, so it enhances the colors of the walls. At one point, I felt like I was breathing red air. Incredible.

We set up camp early, right across the river from where the Little Colorado River joins the Colorado. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing and relaxing in the Little Colorado. It was as turquoise-blue as Saddle Canyon was red-orange. We felt like we were suddenly in the Caribbean. The water temperature was luxuriously warm compared to the big river, so we spent lots of time just idly paddling around. Following our guides lead, we flipped our life jackets upside-down and wore them like diapers in order to slide down the shallow, gentle rapids. Before we could get bored with that, our guides hiked us a few hundred yards upstream to where we could jump off a big rock. It was fantastic to see the 50-year-olds as enthusiastic about it as the 15-year-old.

We headed back to our campsite when the sun had dipped below the canyon walls and shrouded our beach in shadow. As we were getting ready for dinner, our guides spotted some humpback chubs in the water - a special sight, as there are very few remaining native fish in the Colorado. They nibbled on scraps getting rinsed out of bean cans, as well as on Scott's finger.

After dinner, we got to watch the rising moon slowly light up the canyon walls around us - sort of a reverse of the shadow shrouding that had happened earlier. Just as we were going to sleep, the moon itself rose above the walls.



This is a poorly-focused picture of one of the rocks common on this campsite. It formed around coral, when this area was underwater, and then the coral dissolved away leaving this imprinted rock.

Day 2

We started to settle into the routine that would structure our lives for the next seven days:

• Wake up as it gets light out, around 5:30. Often accompanied by Travis, one of our guides, letting off a long, Tarzan-esque "cofffff-eeeee!"
• Pack up your sheets, sleeping pads and tarps.
• Wash your hands, rinse off a plate, eat breakfast and drink coffee. Make a sandwich for lunch.
• Wash your plate, brush your teeth, pack up your stuff and bring your bags down to the beach.
• Form a fire line and pass bags from the beach to the rafts. Spend a few minutes journaling (me), reading (Scott), or hanging out while the guides pack up the portable toilet.
• Hop onto the rafts and enjoy the adventures in store for us that day.
• Towards the end of the afternoon, pull into a campsite. Leap off the raft, explore the lay of the land, and stake out a good spot to sleep, preferably near the river, since the canyon walls have been soaking up heat from the sun all day long and radiate it well after you're ready to go to sleep. Leave your life jacket to claim your territory.
• Form a fire line to unload everyone's bags and all of the kitchen items and to pass buckets of dish water up to the kitchen.
• Hors d'oeuvres, alcohol, chatting, reading, bathing.
• Dinner, which was consistently excellent. We ate only local, organic meat and dairy products, which would have been good even if we weren't hungry from a day in the sun and water.
• More chatting, maybe some singing (with any of the 3 guitars that were along on the trip).
• Fall asleep under the stars and the rising moon.

It was a wonderful routine. I loved waking up naturally, as it got light out, and falling asleep under the stars.


Enough about routine though. Here's what was special about Day 2:
We started the day with a hike up the canyon where we were camped. It ended at a beautiful little pool. Then we hopped on the rafts and started our day on the river with the Roaring Twenties -- miles 20 through 30 on the Colorado are interspersed with whitewater every half mile. There were some big rapids, mostly little ones, but everyone got a good dousing.

We ate lunch under this big beautiful natural band shell that covered the beach. Scott and Travis practiced climbing up the wall, and I tossed a Frisbee around with some of the college students who were on the trip. Saw some neat lizard and bird and insect tracks.

We took another hike in the afternoon, and saw some Hopi artifacts: the stone foundations of a shelter and some petroglyphs. There was also a huge rock with tons of beautiful marine fossils.

Farther on down the river, we passed a group that was stopped on a beach eating lunch, and there was a full string quartet serenading them. Erica, our leader, said they were professionals who get to go on the trip for free in exchange for providing entertainment to high-paying customers. I can't imagine bringing my violin down the river and exposing it to such extreme heat... but they seemed to be doing pretty well! They sounded great. What a neat summer job.

Day 1

We woke up at 4:30 and piled onto a coach bus at 5:30. Destination: Grand Canyon. We wanted to nap, but a Grand Canyon documentary was playing, and it was just loud enough and just interesting enough to keep us marginally attentive. We learned all about General John Wesley Powell, the first man to navigate the entire Grand Canyon... at least the first man we know about. Five hours later, we were at Lake Powell, packing our personal items into dry bags and using a flush toilet one last time. After a brief orientation from Erica, our lead guide, we were off: 24 travelers, 4 guides, 2 big blue rafts.

We started seeing beautiful canyon walls immediately. The walls at the beginning and the end of the canyon are lower than they are in the middle, where the earth has been pushed up higher. We also started getting wet immediately. There weren't any big rapids, but enough "riffles" and splashing to wake us up. The water was a chilly 48°F, and Scott and I were definitely shivering by the end of the day. We were happy to find our campsite and change into dry clothes. We had an excellent salmon dinner, read for a few minutes, and fell asleep,exhausted, as night fell. It was probably around 8:30.

We chose to sleep out under the stars rather than in a tent. It meant that more sand blew in your face, but it was also much cooler. I'd forgotten what it's like to be in a place where you can see all the stars in the sky and just how dense they are. The milky was was glowing. Absolutely incredible.

The only downside of the day was Scott's ant bite. He was walking around barefoot and got stung on the toe. He spent the rest of the evening sitting next to the river, numbing the pain, and ended up sleeping on the beach with his foot in the water as well. Pretty powerful ant.

In and around Las Vegas...

I ended up having a really nice time in and around Las Vegas. On Saturday evening, we walked all the way from the Econo Lodge where we were staying to the Bellagio, where Cirque du Soleil was performing. A long, hot walk, but a good educational look at the Las Vegas scene.

The show, "O", was incredible, both artistically and athletically. And it was clever - clever arrangement of bodies, clever wordless humor, clever engineering. The entire stage could be raised and lowered, in different sections, to create solid ground or pools of water deep enough for the artists to do high dives into. The backstage tour would be fascinating.

We had a nice Italian dinner after the show, and then had leftover pizza for breakfast on Sunday morning before heading off to Death Valley.

Death Valley is insane. We went to Badwater, which is the lowest place in the western hemisphere. The temperature was close to 120°F, and there were equally hot blasts of 60 mph wind. It's truly incredible that plants are able to survive there. We checked out Artists Drive, which loops through hills with very pretty sedimentary layers - years of mineral deposits have turned them green, violet, burgundy... barren, but neat. And it was really hot. Our poor car was overheating, so we drove around with the heath blasting and the windows wide open. Before any spontaneous combustion occured, we headed back to Nevada, which was hot but felt *so* much more bearable. We stopped at a gas station for dinner food - bread, peanut butter, bananas, and wine - and then found our campsite on the top of Mt. Charleston, which was thankfully cool and breezy. We slept well.

We spent Monday back at Red Rock Canyon, which was great. We found some neat hikes and were even more wistful that we had our climbing gear. We got back to Vegas in the afternoon, showered and napped, and then met Scott's parents, their friends, and my friend Seth for dinner. The food was terrific, as was the company. I haven't seen Seth since high school, so it was great to catch up with him.


The rocks at Red Rock Canyon
(Photo credit)

On Tuesday morning, we left for the Grand Canyon! But right now, I'm ready for bed, so I'll save those details for another post. I'll just say that my weekend in Vegas was terrific, but it was nothing compared to my week in the canyon.

Safe and sound in Vegas!

Scott and I arrived safe and sound in Vegas last night. Exhausted, bewildered by the casino-airport, but happily reunited.

We spent today at Red Rock Canyon, which is just 10 miles outside of the city limits, but which feels completely removed from the ridiculous commercialism of the city. It is absolutely gorgeous. We hiked around and only did as much bouldering as my nerves would allow. We decided not to bring out climbing gear this trip, but I'm definitely excited about coming back here (in a cooler season, perhaps) for a climbing-centric trip.



(Photo credit)

Tonight we're off to see Cirque du Soleil. Tomorrow, Death Valley! It's pretty hot here in the city... I can't imagine what it will be like there.

Dream recipe

Even though I had a snack before bed, I still woke up hungry at 4 am. I figured that was a little too early, even for me, to get up, so I went back to bed and dreamt about a peanut butter and jelly salad. It was basically broccoli with Thai peanut sauce and a raspberry vinaigrette. I don't know what it would taste like, but I definitely have to try making it. Maybe I'll impose it on Jack & co. at our dinner party tomorrow...

I think the best part of the dream was the vivid green, "food porn"-esque close-up shots of the broccoli. Very TV.

Quiet Saturday Evening.

I just got home from helping Rob move into his new place, which is absolutely gorgeous. It was a fun afternoon, with lots of friends all pitching in. It gave me a little lump in my throat - it reminded me that I'll be moving in 2 months and that I'm going to miss my friends here a lot. But overall, a terrific day. I'm so happy (we all are) for Rob and Michelle!

I had a pretty bike ride home, I'm listening to a good Father's Day edition of Prairie Home Companion, and I'm looking forward to an evening to myself.



This was on my friend Paul's blog a while back, and I'd thought I'd share/pass it along.

Four Things About Me --

A. Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Server (and official cartoonist for the daily specials) - Bennett's on the Lake.
2. Library conservationist - Wellesley College.
3. Geometry and Algebra II teacher - St. Stephen's School in Rome
4. Functionary - Electric Sheep Company. Yay!

B. Four Movies I can watch over and over:
1. The Blues Brothers
2. Run Lola Run
3. The Red Violin
4. Uh... just those three I think.

C. Four Places I have lived:
1. Duluth, MN
2. Wellesley, MA
3. Rome, Italy
4. Washington, DC

D. Four TV Shows I like to watch:
1. Does The New Yorker count?
2. I like watching Top Chef when I'm with friends.
3. And it was really fun watching The X-Files in the basement TV room in college, with lots of friends heckling.
4. NOT Battlestar Gallactica... sorry Scott!

E. Four places I have been on vacation:
1. Duluth, MN
2. Rimini, Italy
3. Seattle, WA
4. Savannah, GA

F. Four of my favorite foods:
1. My mom's rhubarb crunch
2. Pizza (on a thin, crispy crust with fresh basil and mozzarella)
3. Saturday morning pancakes with Scott
4. Dairy Queen banana chocolate blizzards

G. Four Places I would like to be right now:
1. In Nevada with Scott
2. In Duluth with my siblings and Alissa
3. At the cabin with my parents
4. In Duluth with Scott and my family and Alissa

Another thunderstorm!

My commute last night was as dramatic as Tuesdays, but nearly as well-timed! I was dry between Cafe Citron and Dupont Circle, but then the rain started. It was only spitting at first, so I didn't bother to put on the raincoat in my bag. By the time I got to 16th and Harvard, I was drenched. And what was the point of putting on a raincoat then? So I continued to Aaron and Jess's, arrived completely bedraggled... but it was fun. Sort of outrageous to be out in weather like that. Such a DC summer thing.

The best part, though, was being welcomed at the end of the ride with a clean towel and dry clothes that Jess let me borrow. A delightful evening ensued.

Venice, Lightning, Cooking

Many thanks to Bucci for supplying me with these pictures!


I had a dramatic run home from work yesterday. I was running down 16th Street toward the Rock Creek Parkway bridge, and the clouds were dark gray, and the trees were dark green underneath, and a bright bolt of lighting lit up in the distance. I got home just as the rain started, and enjoyed the remainder of the storm, from the comfort of my couch.

Tonight I'm off to Aaron and Jess's for the season premier of Top Chef, but even better, we also get to enjoy a nice dinner together beforehand.

Just for fun...

Sunday, odds and ends

Last night I slept in my own room again, for the first time since February. It was wonderful. I had forgotten what a great bedroom it is. Rather than 2 big glass doors plus 2 windows, its got one small window that faces the neighbor's house. It's a little depressing during the day, but at night it's dark (no streetlights, no headlights), quiet (no sirens from Georgia Ave., no housemates, no creaky floors) and cool. It's dirty - partly because Scott's and my stuff is in bags and piles all over the floor, and partly because the rest of the basement is still under construction, so there's lots of dust and dirt getting tracked all over - but it's good to get settled in again.

Even though Scott left for Guatemala in the morning, it was still a good day overall. A productive morning and an athletic afternoon. I went through most of my clothes and separated them into (1) will wear this summer, (2) won't wear until the winter, and (3) won't wear ever again... the first stages of packing for California. I'm not looking forward to leaving DC, but I am excited about moving to Davis.

At 3, I left for frisbee - my first tryout for the women's team Pi. I've been feeling less than enthusiastic about Ultimate lately. I'm hoping that's just because I haven't latched on to a team yet. Pi seems like a great group of women, and I had a good time playing with them, so I hope it turns out to be a good season.

3 weekends, 3 ceremonies

I was chided last weekend for neglecting this blog. Mea culpa. But I've been busy!

Two weeks ago, Memorial Day weekend, was Nate and Jess's wedding at Estes Park, CO. An absolutely fantastic weekend. There was a whole slew of ultimate players from DC who flew out, as well as a bunch of Scott and Nate's friends and their parents from Amherst, so there was no lack of fun people to party with. We arrived late Friday night, spent Saturday hiking, napping (altitude adjustment!), playing ultimate, barbequing, and engaging in a squirt gun battle. Sunday entailed, disc golf, more hiking, mini golf, and - oh yeah - the wedding. An absolutely beautiful outdoor ceremony with views of the Rocky Mountains. Nate and Jess wrote beautiful, personal, humorous, meaningful vows to each other. Scott gave a terrific toast at dinner, and it wrapped up with a *great* dance party. (Sasha was there - if you know him, I need not say more. If you don't, know that he can spark any party into high gear. A great gift.) Monday was a series of long good-byes over breakfast, and a long trip home. Pretty much everyone would have to preferred to stay in the mountains longer.

Here's Scott and I at the wedding. Many thanks to Becky for her patience in taking pictures of us!



A busy week ensued, but we had time to take in the annual free outdoor Shakespeare performance - this year it was Love's Labors Lost, done up in a 60's Beatles style. Delightful. And such a nice night to be out. I'm glad it's summer.

The next weekend was Scott's dad's retirement gala, so Scott and I jetted up to Amherst on Saturday morning. We spent the afternoon mingling with friends and neighbors at their open house, and then got dressed up for the evening gala. There were six teachers in all retiring from the elementary school, and they each got honored/roasted in a series of skits put on by the rest of the teachers. Great fun, even for someone (me) who didn't know the community. It was neat to see Sandy through a new lens, and it was neat to recognize bits and pieces that he's passed down to Scott.

We had a lazy Sunday in Amherst that included brunch at a vegan cafe (where a handful of musicians playing Irish music resolved me to finding people to play with in Davis...), shopping for gear for our upcoming rafting trip, and a rousing game of poker. Many thanks to Michael for his patience teaching me! Thirty hours after our arrival in Amherst, Scott and I had to return to DC. Still, the trip was definitely worth it.

Yet another busy week, which included a daytrip to New York for a meeting. It went well, and I'm happy it's over. We worked hard to prepare for it, so Thursday and Friday felt more relaxed. It popped up in my dreams on Thursday night though... Scott said I was talking in my sleep about how I had figured out a better way to present it.


Today I went to a memorial service for Da, my Uncle Mel's father. (My grandfather-in-law?) No flights this time, just metro ride out to Maryland. It was a beautiful service, held at their little country Presbyterian church. Aunt Flury spoke beautifully about Da. My favorite memories of him are from the weekends and holidays I got to spend with him. Always charming, eternally cheerful, never at a loss for stories and jokes. He loved to talk about Lincoln, England, where he grew up, and about his years workign in the foundry there. I was always happy to listen, and he was always happy to talk. He lived to be 91, and I'm so glad he was part of my life.


A wedding, a retirement, a memorial. Three rites of passage in three weekends. It reminds me of the importance of ceremony and ritual. Good, important things may be said. But in the end, I remember the community coming together to share an individual's passage from one chapter of his or life to the next. I feel lucky to be part of these communities.

Plumbing adventures, and other stuff this week.

A good week overall.
On Monday, Scott got home safe and sound and smoky-smelling from his Colorado adventure.

On Tuesday, I ran home from work, only to discover that the plumber had turned off the water and I couldn't shower.

On Wednesday, Scott and I joined Nick and Johanna at a Dan Bern and Todd Snider concert at the Birchmere. Fun people to spend time with, and really fun musicians to hear. Dan Bern sang "Tiger Woods", which is the only song of his that I knew before the concert. Definitely fun to hear that one, and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the concert as well.

On Thursday, we had Aaron and Jess and Ann over for dinner. We barbecued for the first time this year! Jess made tasty burgers, Ann brought gazpacho, Joe provided fancy beer, and Scott assembled fancy little vegetable kebabs. And there was more plumbing excitement on Thursday! Neither shower was working, and the washing machine was filling so slowly that each load took at least two hours. Thank goodness the toilets and the kitchen sink are in good repair.

On Friday, Aunt Flury called to let me know that Da (her father-in-law) died that morning. He was born in Lincoln, England and never lost his accent, even after living with my aunt and uncle for years in the US. He was charming to the end, known as the ladies' man at the assisted living home he had been moved to. He had been declining for several years and finally succumbed to pneumonia. A wonderful man. Sad to see him gone. I trust he's in a much better place now.

Today, I spent three hours on the polo fields at round two of tryouts for a women's team. Terrific weather... just a tad windy. I was flattered and surprised to have been asked back, and tried to just have fun and run hard (and not get nervous). Met Scott for a snack afterwards, and then we both got our hair cut. My first haircut in... a year? I honestly can't remember the last time, but it feels good. And I got a scalp massage! If anyone's looking for a good, cheap place, Eurospa gets two thumbs up from me. I laid on the grass in Dupont and read for a little while before heading home.
I'm home now, and happy to report that our showers, both of them, are fully functioning.

Aging Pipes

My house is having a stroke. I just checked out the basement construction. The walls are sealed and the drainage tile installed, so no more rainwater will leak in. But the pipes are the next challenge. The plumber replaced one, in the closet ceiling, which had been dripping for a year or so. But doing so meant replacing a pipe that had been narrowed by rust with a nice clear new one. And that meant more water pressure for the pipes down the line. So now the whole chain of pipes in the bedroom ceiling are leaking and will need to be replaced. Salvador showed me the pipe that had been taken out - it looked like a diseased artery, filled with plaque. Its capacity must have been less than half that of the new pipe. The plumber thinks that just about every horizontal pipe in the house is in a similar situation. This might mean that just about every horizontal pipe in the house will need to get replaced. We shall see.

In the meantime, the house is having a stroke. The water pressure on the first floor is fine, but it's slowed to a trickle in the second floor bathroom. The plumber thinks that a chunk rusty gunk got forced loose and is causing a clog somewhere. Our poor house! It's like a frail old lady these days!

Aging Alumnae

I had a fantastic time in Boston over the weekend. I got to play in a small, Wellesley-hosted tournament on Saturday, with a handful of other alums - some of whom I played with when I was in school, some who came after me. We may have been older and more out of shape than the whipper snappers around us, especially when they had an abundance of subs and we were playing nearly savage, but experience and good throws go a long ways. We beat one of the Wellesley teams and one of the club teams (15-14) and lost in the finals (11-8 or so...). We were mostly happy to be done playing, to move on to pizza and beer and to rest up for Sunday's game.

Sunday was the annual alum versus student game. The students graciously played all 20 of their players equally, giving the first-years just as much playing time as the seniors. The alums won, but they made us work for it! (Which is as it should be.)

All in all, it was wonderful to hang out with my old teammates and remember how great it was to be a Whiptail, and it was wonderful to meet the new team and see the same Whiptail character and spirit carrying through. (For those of you who know the esteemed George Cooke, he has a similar write-up on his blog. Click here.)

I've been out of college for a full four years now, so even though I was never classmates with any of the current students, it's nice to still feel connected through the frisbee team. It's nice that a few people know who I am when I go on campus.

We found a home in Davis!

I’m heading back east after a successful apartment-hunting trip to Davis. Scott and I met in Sacramento on Tuesday night, and we spent all day Wednesday and Thursday checking out locations. By 4pm on Thursday, we had it narrowed down to two options. (1) A really great duplex in North Davis, a 20-minute bike ride away from campus, with a kitchen that opened onto a spacious living room with a fireplace, and lots of huge windows looking out onto a fantastic garden and hot tub in the back yard. (2) An apartment in a complex in South Davis, a 5-minute bike ride from campus.

The apartment won out, but I had a hard time giving up the house. I was really excited about the prospect of working in that living room, listening to the stream trickling, smelling a wood fire in the winter, watching the birds and butterflies outside. But one piece advice we’ve heard from over and over and over from just about every student we talked to is the tremendous value of living close to campus. And when I think of how much value we’ll get from that southern location, I’m really excited to be moving there. For example:
- I’ll be able to zip up to coffee shops to work.
- Scott will be able to come home throughout the day.
- We’re 3 blocks from a cute, friendly climbing gym, as well as a running trail through the UC Davis arboretum, both of which I intend to frequent.
- The apartment complex has a pretty decent gym and a pool and a hot tub and parking spaces and a pool table.
- Also, we have plenty of room for visitors and will happily host anyone who cares to come out and see us!

The only thing missing is the vista. The two bedrooms (one of which will be a study) look out onto a parking lot, and the living room opens onto a little concrete patio. We’ll have to get creative on the study window. My first thought is to copy Damon’s office window and line it with a neat collection of class bottles. It creates privacy without hanging curtains. I’m really excited about transforming the patio into an oasis. Lots of potted plants and flowers and herbs, maybe a little fountain. We can park our bikes elsewhere.

We'll have the floor plan on the right:



It was a successful trip, but it made me think about the ways that I’m going to miss DC. Davis is small. We’ll be able to visit every restaurant within a year. There are no Smithsonians. No club Ultimate. No one I know, except Scott and the handful of students I met last night. I was hoping I’d fall in love with the city when I saw it, and I didn’t. I don’t dislike it. It just doesn’t compare to DC… which it’s not trying to. It’s clean, sunny, and tree- and bicycle-filled, and the people I met were friendly. I think it will grow on me.


I’m getting into Boston late tonight, and I get to play at Wellesley’s tournament this weekend. Sounds like the alum team will be savage, so I’ll get a good workout! It will be good to get home on Sunday.

Saturday morning.

Not too much to report, but I'll report it anyways. I made pretty good progress yesterday on nailing down apartments to visit when Scott and I are in Davis next week. I've got a color-coded map, a spreadsheet with time, locations and contact info... Now we just need to actually find an apartment to live in.

I'm learning how to be a producer for the Electric Sheep now. It involves working much longer hours, but despite that I'm liking it a lot. Getting to do more interesting and challenging work is definitely rewarding.

Today, I'm off to a full day of ultimate. From 11-2 I'm going to tryouts for the top women's team in the area. I don't expect to make the cut, but it should be 3 hours of high-quality ultimate. After that, I've got two back-to-back league games scheduled.

Scott's doing well in Guatemala. Lots of work, as always, but it sounds like things are coming along and that they're learning a lot. One of his friends down there is in culinary school, so today he gets to go to a demonstration of cooking styles from all over the country!

That's it. Aside from missing my traditional Saturday morning Scrabble game, I'm happy.

NBA Launch Day!

We opened the NBA Headquarters in Second Life this morning, and there's been a good response. I've been working on this project a little bit recently, so it's more fun than usual to see a Sheep project being written up in the media. Here's a good blog post, by Mitch Wagner, to start with.

May Day

Scott left for Guatemala early this morning. He'll only be gone a week, but it's still sad to see him go. I ate a solitary breakfast, brushed my teeth alone and headed out the door without a good-bye kiss. It was a gorgeous early morning ride to work though - no traffic, rising sunlight, and a freshly paved New Hampshire Avenue.

Clearwater Beach, Florida

I spent all of last week in Clearwater Beach, Florida, which happens to be the worldwide Scientology headquarters, as well as the location we picked for the quarterly Electric Sheep Company retreat. Lots of work to get everyone (55 people!) down there and to get them organized, fed, etc once they were there. But it was our most successful retreat to date. Lovely to be on the beach.

The belated Italy recap!

I started the trip in Rimini, a beach town on the Adriatic coast. Paganello was sadly underwhelming this time around, but I still can't complain about getting to play Ultimate for 4 days in perfect weather on a gorgeous beach. We ended up winning our game on Monday morning, which won us 19th place out of 22 women's teams. Then we watched the 3 finals games (women's, mixed, open) and had one last evening of hanging out together.

Tuesday morning I split for Venice and arrived within 30 minutes of Scott, who was coming down from a long weekend spent in Vienna. A few hours later, we met up with the rest of Team Italy: Paul, Amy and Jay who were hilariously loopy from being awake for 24+ hours. We wandered through the big sights and ended up in the ghetto (the first Jewish ghetto in the world) where we had a beautiful Italian dinner. We all slept very well that night.

We spent all day Wednesday in Venice (toured the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Basilica) and then took an evening train to Florence. We checked into our hotel there, and then went out for gelato - the best in Italy.

(The basilica in Florence.)

We spent all day Thursday in Florence (saw Michelangelo's David) and then took an evening train to Rome. Yay Rome! It felt good to be "home." We walked from the train station to the downtown apartment where we were staying, and were greeted by Laura and Valerio (the tournament directors) a dozen other Ultimate players. Bread, cheese, beer and a few tournament details rounded out the night.

(Fishing a frisbee out of the river.)

A quick note about the Rome tournament - there were only 20 or so players, divided into 4 teams. We played throughout the city, wherever Laura and Valerio deemed there to be enough space for a small field. Friday's games were in the northwestern part of the city. We tossed at the Pantheon, but the police told us to move on, so we made our way to Piazza Navona, where we managed a 30 minute game of 7 on 7. Lots of tourists stopped to watch, and only a few wandered blindly through the middle of the game. From there, we went to the banks of the Tevere River, and then on to St. Peter's. We got in a few points of Flutterguts before the Vatican City police told us the area was "only for praying." On to Castel Sant'Angelo, where the old moat offered a relatively spacious, peaceful area for our last games of the day. We went home, showered, and spent the afternoon touring the Roman forum. I've been there a few times before, but it's always incredible. Afterwards, we made our way along Via Aventina, where I used to teach, and had cheap champagne at the bar I used to frequent. The bartender still recognized me! We crossed the river and made our way to the Trastevere restaurant for the tournament dinner - pizza and beer. Fantastic. A pretty walk home, and a deep sleep.

(St. Peter's Basilica)

Scott and Amy and I got up early on Saturday in order to see St. Peter's basilica before the games started. We were in the church by 7:15, gaped a bunch, and then climbed to the top of Michelangelo's dome for amazing views of Rome as well as the inside of the basilica. We hustled down to Piazza Venezia for the first games of the day, on "fields" filled with trees, trash cans and gnarled roots. We happily moved on the Colosseum for a quick, cramped game, before heading through the Forum for a game under the basilica of Constantine. Incredibly, no park police kicked us out. We finished with a nice big game in the Circus Maximus.

We had a busy Saturday afternoon - the Pasta Museum, the Cappucin Crypt (decorated with the bones of hundreds and hundreds of monks) and the National Museum. We met up with the rest of the tournament players for dinner at a nearby restaurant and ate all kinds of good salami and pasta.

Sunday's games were in the northeastern part of the city. A few minutes at Piazza del Spagna, before a pair of undercover cops kicked us out, a nice long game overlooking Piazza del Popolo, and finally a grand finale game on a pebble field right behind the Villa Borghese. We hustled back to the apartment, grabbed our stuff, and hopped on a train heading north.

We arrived in Vernazza, one of the Cinque Terre towns, around 9. Our landlady met us on main street and showed us to our apartment. Lovely seafood dinner, a walk through the narrow winding streets which culminated in a stunning sea-and-stars vista.

We spent all day Monday hiking between the 5 towns. I hadn't visited Cinque Terre when I was living in Italy, so it was exciting to see a new place, especially one so beautiful. The five towns are stretched out along seven miles of the coastline. They sit right on the water, clinging to the rocks, and separated by terraced lemon and olive groves. The trails between them offer stunning views. We stopped halfway through the second trail and clambered down to a little pebble beach, where we swam and sunned for an hour or so. We continued to Corniglia and had a leisurely picnic. We arrived in the last town, Montarossa, around 5 - just enough time to get gelato and hop on the ferry back to Vernazza. We had a relaxed evening writing postcards and sipping cocktails by the harbor before an enormous pizza dinner.

(The Cinque Terre coastline)

(Documenting the coastline)

(Sunset at the Vernazza harbor)

Scott and Jay and I took the earliest train out on Tuesday morning in order to get to the Vatican Museums at a decent hour. I called my friend Lucas when I got there - we used to go salsa dancing when I lived in Rome, and he works for the Museums. Fun to reconnect with him. We spent hours in the Museums and Sistine Chapel and were among the last to leave. (I ran into another old friend while I was there - Rich, who used to work at St. Stephen's with me, and who works as a tour guide. Pretty funny.)

Finished with the Vatican, we turned our attention to shopping. Limoncello, lingerie, fine cheese, all the Italian essentials. We ran into Paul and Amy, who had taken a later train to Rome, and stopped into a fantastic pastry shop just as an enormous hail storm started. Our only instance of bad weather the entire trip, and we were trapped in a pastry shop! Delightful. We continued walking/shopping through the city, checked into the apartment we were renting for the night, and went out for one last good Italian meal.

Wednesday began with a 5 am taxi to the airport and was a long, long day of travel involving canceled and delayed flights. Happily, everyone made it home safe and sound at the end of the day. A successful trip.

Italy was great

Sorry for such a long hiatus in posting. I got back from Italy on Wednesday night, did lots of laundry and work, and then I left for Florida for a Sheep retreat on Saturday morning. I promise to post pictures and a summary soon! In the meantime, enjoy this video about how Italians are different from other Europeans.

Another Paga update

A quick Paga update.

We lost both of our games on Saturday, by pretty wide margins. Arrgh. The theme of that night's party was Hollywood, and our team decided to go as red carpets. Not a very obvious costume (lots of red lingerie) but easy. Some of the other teams had *amazing* costumes - Ghostbusters, Star Wars, Clockwork Orange, film crews, the Hollywood sign... great stuff. I went to bed "early" (2 am) and woke up "early" as well (9 am).

We lost our first two games today, and then won the third. It felt good, but it was another 13-2 win over the same team we beat that way on Friday... so not very exciting. I wandered past the massage tent and was amazed to find that there was no line, so I got a terrific free massage from a very friendly masseur. I told him my neck hurt from last night, and he demanded to know the name of the guy who did it to me. I explained that I had been alone, that I'd just slept on it funny, and he asked me my room number. Very good natured, not creepy, oh-so Italian. It was a great massage - all kinds of neck and spine cracks, and right on the sideline of the Arena, so we could take in the semifinal men's game at the same time.

We'll play 1 game tomorrow and then watch finals and drink beer. I'm off to Venice to meet up with the rest of Team Italy on Tuesday morning.

All in all, I'm happy and healthy and excited to be here!

In Rimini!

A very quick post to say that I arrived safe and sound in Rimini on Thursday afternoon and am thoroughly enjoying myself. My team, The Lotus Eaters, went 2&2 on Friday and held seed. I haven't sunburned or lost my voice yet. I've had a good Italian pizza e vino dinner, and some fun dancing under the Paga circus tent. Gorgeous weather - sunny, not too hot, not too windy. Couldn't ask for better! Fun teammates, plenty of friends from other teams. Ultimate is such a small community in the end, even at an international tournament with 1000+ players.

Ciao amici!

Paga contact info

By the way, you can send me e-mail while I'm at Paganello! If you send it to beach@paganello.com and put my name in the subject line, they'll print it out and give it to me at the beach! This is the best organized tournament I've ever been to.

Can you blame me for being so excited?

Prometheus Bound, Fools Fest, Flashdance

This morning's thunderstorm woke me up around 3:30, and I was too excited to get back to sleep, so I'm in the kitchen enjoying the storm and feeling glad that I got to see the cherry blossoms last night; this rain will knock all the petals off the trees. My flight to Italy leaves at 5:50 this evening!

New York was fantastic. Besides seeing lots of Sheep and getting energized about our work, I got to hang out with Lisa and then with Kate - she and Scott and I went to see Scott's sister Julie in Prometheus Bound. The play is difficult, but Julie and the rest of the cast are superb. Julie even got a positive review in The New Yorker!

I got back to DC on Thursday night and left for Fools Fest on Friday morning - the first tournament of the season. I played on a women's team, SARS, that didn't do very well (to be specific, we came in seeded 12th out of 12 on Sunday morning), but it was a great group, and it felt good to play women's rather than coed. I played a few games with Scott's coed team, which was definitely fun and also reinforced my preference for women's Ultimate.

We all got back to DC on Sunday afternoon. Scott and I played Scrabble.

On Monday, I watched Flashdance for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it. I felt like I was catching up on a big piece of cultural literacy.

On Tuesday, I did a running/plyos/jumping/core workout with about 6 other Ultimate players. Gorgeous weather, glimpses of cherry blossoms.

My flight for Italy leaves in 12 hours!

Tame Adventures in the Big Apple

I'm in New York! i took the train up last night and crashed with my cousin who's on a temporary assignment here and gets to stay in a sweet Manhattan apartment. I haven't seen her since Fred's graduation, so it was wonderful to catch up with her.

I'm spending today and tomorrow at the Virtual Worlds 2007 conference, which is targeting "Fortune 500 businesses seeking to understand and maximize marketing and business strategies within virtual worlds." Good stuff. So far, the best part is meeting recently hired Sheep and seeing Sheep I haven't seen since January. Definitely looking forward to our company retreat in April and getting the whole Flock all together.

March hunks

This is Mr. March from the Chippendale's calendar hanging on the fridge in our kitchen. (We needed a calendar to record chore time, and this was the best available option at the time. Still is, in fact!)

And since we have our very own caution tape in the house now (warning us against the dangers of descending the basement staircase whose landing has been removed to reveal a gaping hole and a leaky wall), Scott and Jay decided to pose for their own sexy picture.



Not bad, eh?

Unwitting guest of honor...

I got to go to this neat New Moon event on Wednesday, and apparently I was a guest of honor! It was neat to see the current editors, and it was really neat to hear the journalists speak - Dana Priest in particular had some good stories.

Most bicycle friendly town in the world!

That's the motto of Davis, California. Scott and I will almost certainly be moving there in the fall so that he can start earning his PhD. It's exciting, and a little scary, but mostly it hasn't entirely sunk in yet. It's going to be hard to leave DC.

I need to start making a list of things to do in the next 6 months! I still haven't been to the Holocaust Memorial Museum, for example, and there are some Smithsonians I haven't visited since I was here with my family in 8th grade. But I need some smaller things on the list too. I've been meaning to visit Domku, the Scandinavian restaurant in my neighborhood, for a while now. All of you DC residents (past and present), send me items for my list!

Fun Ways to Live Longer

Found this list on my birthday, seems like a good set of things to keep in mind over the coming year. I think I'm already doing most of them though...

1) Drink Red Wine
Red wine is packed with resveratrol, an antioxidant. These work to protect your body against the effects of aging. One or 2 glasses of red wine a day can help keep your body young.
I don't drink wine that often, but I'm happy to accomodate.

2) Eat Dark Chocolate
Dark chocolate is a wonderful food that contains a large amount of antioxidants that protect your body from aging. Find good quality dark chocolate, learn to appreciate it, and have a bit of it each day. Eating chocolate may lower your blood pressure and cholesterol while providing an energy boost.
Same as wine.



3) Smile
Smiling is a great way to change your attitude, connect with people and give benefit to your body. Like relaxation, smiling can work to counteract the effects of stress. By forcing ourselves to smile, we "trick" our body into believing that everything is good, thereby reducing stress. Like a switch, smiling can actually change your mood. So put a smile on, even if you don't feel like it, and pretty soon you'll be smiling for real.
Yay! I like smiling! I don't think emoticons count though. I'm actively trying to use fewer of them in my e-mails.

4) Have More Sex
Sex and touching are thought to be essential parts of health. Sex releases an assortment of beneficial chemicals in the body. Sex and touching help us bond with others, strengthens relationships, and increases our own self-worth. Frequent sex may even extend your life by years.
None of your business!

5) Relax
Relaxation is the opposite of stress. While stress brings harmful health effects, relaxation helps our bodies to rest, heal and function better. By practicing daily relaxation techniques, you can train yourself to turn off your stress and replace it with calm energy. This will improve your blood pressure, heart rate and ability to cope with life's challenges.
I think my What Would a Unicorn Do? spinner will help a lot in this category.

6) Make Exercise Play
Physical games and sports are a great way to keep both your body and mind healthy. Simple exercise routines are great for maintaining balance, flexibility, endurance and strength. Group games and sports can give your mind a workout as well, as you anticipate other people's actions and how to work together. Find a game and activity that suits your level of physical ability and play often.
My first frisbee tournament is 10 days away!

7) Sleep
Sleep is an essential body function. Most Americans do not get enough sleep. Medications, stress, illness and poor sleep habits all can prevent you from getting between 7 and 9 hours a night. The health benefits of sleep include more energy, better immune function, and more.
I'm good at this, despite all the dreams.

8) Spend Time With Loved Ones
Relationships are an important part of health. Not only do strong bonds with other people mean you will have help when you need it, being connected also means protection from loneliness, depression, and mental illness. Spend time cultivating your relationships with friends and family to improve your health and your life.
I'm truly fortunate to be surrounded by loved ones.

9) Solve Puzzles and Play Brain Games
Mind games are a great way to stay involved and engaged in the world. Games can exercise different parts of your mind and entice your curiosity. If possible, choose social games like chess or bridge that exercise your brain while keeping you connected with others.
Three cheers for Scrabble at 7 am on Saturday mornings!

10) Be Positive
Having a positive attitude about aging can add more than seven years to your life, according to researchers. Avoid the cultural push to glorify youth and regret each passing year. Find ways to to pleasure in your increasing age and enjoy greater learning, experience, and control in your life.
I do my best.

Entering my late 20s, still feeling like a kid.

I am the proud owner of a delux 2-pocket folder with THIS on the front!



I had a really happy birthday. Damon took me out for coffee in the morning, and we had a great conversation. I got nice e-mails all day long, and then Scott took me out to dinner. We walked up to Cake Love, where I claimed my free birthday cupcake and we drank fru-fru (sp?) tea. Then we went home and I got to open my cards and presents: a bright red "I want to be a pirate, ARGGG!" t-shirt from my sis, some good books from the 'rents (The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida, and one about the mysterious Bourbaki mathematicians) and a LapDawg laptop stand from Scott, which is very practical and which I'm very excited about. Even better, he gave the semi-practical yet very exciting unicorn folder pictured above, as well as two tins of grog-flavored pirate mints.

I dreamt about being in Italy last night, but it was an anxiety dream - I was there without a passport or hotel reservations. I was most upset about the fact that I had forgotten my guide to saints' portrayals in artwork though!

Girls weightlifting in Florida

Just found this article in the NYT about high school girls' weightlifting in Florida. Very cool. Here's a link to a related video.

Things to do on a rainy Friday

Recent tame adventures...

On Thursday night, I got to host five members of the current Wellesley Ultimate team who are driving down to a whole slew of tournaments in various southern states. They arrived at 1 am, so I didn't get to chat with them until Friday morning, when we stood around in the kitchen eating scrambled eggs. It was great to hear that the team is doing so well - it's the first year they've had numbers to field a B team since 2003, and they've got their eye on Nationals this year! I'm so glad that George Cooke is still coaching them. My senhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifior year was his first year, which makes this his fifth year with the Whiptails. It's great that he's so committed. Hearing these women talk about playing and learning and wanting to improve was surprisingly inspirational. Made me want to jump in the RV with my housemate Abby who was driving down to Atlanta for a tournament on Friday. But Fools Fest is two weeks away... so I'm pretty sure I can wait until then. I'm more excited than ever for the reunion Millyfest tournament at Wellesley this year.

Friday was really really rainy, so our basement flooded. As usual. Despite the construction that's been done down there so far this year, it still flooded. There was a puddle an inch deep in the bathroom that was flowing across the hallway into the furnace room. Ugh. Fortunately, our landlord came over to get an eyeful of it himself, so hopefully an effective solution is on the horizon.

I spent the evening at Temperance Hall, a neat bar down on Georgia Ave. Despite the chilly, sleety weather, a bunch of friends joined me. I was grateful, and I had a great time. I got to hang out with Sumana and Jen, two of my friends from Wellesley who I haven't seen in years! Way cool.

No Scrabble this morning, since Scott is out of town. I worked a bunch of last Sunday's crossword puzzle, but it's not quite the same.

Last thing:

Concert sauvage dans le métro !
Uploaded by lapapsprod

This reminds me of riding the T in Boston, singing camp songs with Abby and Morgan and Kate and Alissa. I'm not sure we were received quite as happily as the group in the video...

Beautiful/Depressing

Here's the website of Chris Jordan. Beautiful images, until you realize what they represent, and then they're slightly sickening.


Depicts 1.14 million brown paper supermarket bags, the number used in the US every hour.

I try not to write about the weather too much, but days like yesterday are so exciting!

I had an absolutely gorgeous workout yesterday! My teammate JJ and I ran down to the Lincoln Memorial and did a workout on the staircase that leads down to the river. Light breeze, pretty afternoon light, good company. Couldn't believe more of my teammates didn't join us... the Fools Fest tournament is only 15 days away now!

Sadly, it looks like the weather is taking a turn for the worse tonight, and the city issued a flood warning for tomorrow. Gross. I just want the rain to hold off until after I get home tonight. (I'm going to a members-only tour of the Modernism exhibit opening at the Corcoran tonight!)

I'm strongly considering attending this elephant parade on Monday. It's not all that close to work, but I think it sounds like fun.

π Day

3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381964428810975665933446128475648233786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941511609...

I'm having p(ad tha)i for lunch. Not sure if I'll get any pie today though...

Here are some tidbits from the Wikipedia page on pi.

• The value of π has been known in some form since antiquity. As early as the 19th century BC, Babylonian mathematicians were using π = 25⁄8, which is within 0.5% of the true value.
  
  
• The Indian mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata in the 5th century gave the approximation π = 62832⁄20000 = 3.1416, correct when rounded off to four decimal places. He also acknowledged the fact that this was an approximation, which is quite advanced for the time period.
  
  
• The Chinese mathematician and astronomer Zu Chongzhi computed π to be between 3.1415926 and 3.1415927 and gave two approximations of π, 355⁄113 and 22⁄7, in the 5th century.
  
  
• Even long before computers have calculated π, memorizing a record number of digits became an obsession for some people. The current world record is 100,000 decimal places, set on October 3, 2006 by Akira Haraguchi. [3] The previous record (83,431) was set by the same person on July 2, 2005 [4], and the record previous to that (43,000) was held by Krishan Chahal.
  
  
• There are many ways to memorize π, including the use of piems, which are poems that represent π in a way such that the length of each word (in letters) represents a digit. Here is an example of a piem: How I need a drink, alcoholic in nature (or: of course), after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics. Notice how the first word has 3 letters, the second word has 1, the third has 4, the fourth has 1, the fifth has 5, and so on. The Cadaeic Cadenza contains the first 3834 digits of π in this manner.
  
  
• Swedish jazz musician Karl Sjölin once wrote, recorded and performed a song based on and called Pi. The song followed the decimals of Pi, with every number representing a certain note. For example 1=C, 2=D, 3=E etc. The song was then performed as a jazz song, thus making the harmony more liberal.
  
  
• On July 22, Pi Approximation Day is celebrated (22/7 - in European date format - is a popular approximation of π).
  
  
• It's also Albert Einstein's birthday!

Happy π Day everyone! Do something to make yourself a well-rounded human being today.

Pearly Whites Day

I'm happy to announce that I have a clean bill of dental health. Flossing does a mouth good!

I'm always so impressed by my dentist's office - it seems like they make good use of the available technology. All of my records are stored electronicly, displayed on a flat screen monitor hanging just in front of my chair and flipped through by my hygienist wielding a wireless gyroscope mouse. I got digital x-rays taken, which were also instantly displayed for me. Cool!

I think today was the first time I've had a male hygienist, a really nice guy who noticed my Nantucket t-shirt and spent the rest of the appointment talking about shellfish, even though he doesn't like to eat it.

I learned that Brita filters do not take the fluoride out of the water (a concern that was raised over dim sum on Sunday), that Minnesota and Michigan both put LOTS of fluoride in the water (did you know it all started in Grand Rapids, MN?) and that DC doesn't put much in at all, so a little nighttime fluoride treatment every now and then wouldn't hurt. It works by stimulating your teeth to repair the enamel from the inside out.

Other news: Scott was accepted, and offered funding, by the University of Maryland's Agricultural Econ program. Go Scott!

Saturday's details.

Alas, Marshall lost to Hermantown 4-1 today. Better luck next year, guys.

I had a productive day. Whole grain pancakes with Scott, a Scrabble game in which I drew way too many vowels, and then a trip to the National Gallery of Art to meet up with a group of Wellesley alums to tour the Jasper Johns show. An excellent field trip! First of all, I like Johns' work a lot and have been looking forward to seeing this exhibit. It met my expectations, AND I discovered that ANOTHER Jasper Johns exhibit is opening tomorrow, so I need to make sure I go back to check it out.

Among the Wellesley women there, I ran into two acquaintances, which was definitely fun. One was a coworker from my days at the conservation lab in the library. She went on to get her Masters in library conservation science and is in DC interviewing for internships. Great to talk about her about her work - she's so passionate about it, and it brought back lots of great memories from my work at the library. Still one of my favorite jobs, I think. She said that she learned how to make her own bone folders (an integral tool of the trade). A guy came in from Idaho to teach a workshop and brought moose bones for them to use. I'm a little jealous. Funny that I dreamt about making a book last night; I woke up with a great idea for an image to put on the back cover. No idea what the rest of the book looked like though...

The other woman who was fun to talk to was a member of my house council the year I was president of my dorm. She said that one of my R.A.s has moved back to DC and is living right up the street from the zoo, which is funny because whenever I go by the zoo, I think of this particular R.A. and remember how much she said she loved that place the first time I met her.

After the Johns show, I headed down to the basement of the East Building. I remember really liking the "Stations of the Cross" paintings, and they're just as wonderful as I remember - simple, elegant, engaging variations on an extremely simple theme: black verticals on a white background.

It was such a nice day out, and I hadn't been down to the Mall in such a long time, that I decided to wander around down there for a little longer, and made my way over to the Botanic Garden - one of the Smithsonians that I hadn't visited before. It was great - so full of life - plants and flowers and lots of families. Almost made me want to live on the Hill so I could visit more easily more often.

I biked home leisurely. It was warm enough to ditch my jacket and just wear short sleeves - such a treat. Picked up some terrific roast chicken at Sweet Mango Cafe for Scott's and my lunch. Spent an hour working on throws with Scott in the schoolyard down the street. I feel pretty rusty after a winter of not too much Ultimate, but Scott is a terrific coach, and I feel like I improved a little bit. It was so great to be outside. Sunny and 60. Couldn't ask for a nicer spring afternoon!

Back at the ranch, I nailed down our hotel reservations for Italy. Yay! One night in Venice, one in Florence, three in Rome, two in Cinque Terra, and then one more in Rome.

Now I'm off to Aaron's birthday party, which reminds me. What should I do for my birthday this year? I'm turning 26, so an alphabet theme seems appropriate. But I've been meaning to have a math party... maybe combine it with a Pi Day celebration?

Update from Margo, who spent her lunch break today watching high school hockey semi-finals in Minneapolis:

Marshall won 3-2 in over time, tomorrow they're playing for the championship!

Hooray for Marshall! I'll wear my sweatshirt tomorrow to wish them luck. I'm not sure the team was ever this good when I was in high school... I only remember going to one game.

Another high school note - my old friend Bridget was in town this week and crashed at Delafield, so I got to reminisce about ballet and classmates and Camp Widji. Fun!


The other night I dreamt that someone sliced off my arm. I put it back on again, and it sort of stayed, so I was trying to decide whether or not go play ultimate. I was worried someone might knock it off again... so I decided to wait for my dad to come home from the symphony so that he could take me to the ER where they'd properly reattach it. I was very relieved to wake up and find my limbs all completely in tact.


The Delafielders went to see Breach on Wednesday night, which is a movie about a double agent in the FBI and based on a true story. I thought it was good, and I really liked that it took place in DC. Seeing the metrobuses was like seeing someone you know cast as an extra.

Junk mail be gone!

Go to this site to opt out of credit card offers. Filling out the online form gets you off the lists for 5 years. Mailing in the form gets you off of them permanently. (Thanks to Scott for passing it along!)

Sightseeing, driving, select flooding

We're home in DC after a highly succesful trip to Philadelphia. The surgery went really well, and Scott was discharged on Wednesday night. He's walking relatively well and hasn't needed much of his pain medication. No awful grimaces when he tries to sit down!

But since this is MY blog... the trip was notable for me in two respects. First, because even though Philadelphia is a terrific city less than three hours from me, I had only been there once before, in 1998 on a college tour with my dad. This time I only got to see bits of pieces of it - from thoroughfares as we were driving in, on a walk to a coffee shop on South Street, and on the campus of U Penn where we spent Tuesday night. Fun to be in a place that feels so different from DC and NYC. I'll have to head back for a pure tourism weekend sometime.

The second striking thing about this trip was my realization that I'm terrible at navigating a car. I'm an okay driver - nervous because I don't drive much outside of Duluth, but competent overall. But when it comes to figuring out where to turn, I'm atrocious. Finding entrance ramps for freeways is my particular debility. I think I improved over the course of the trip. If nothing else, I at least got better at (a) noticing signs, (b) reading them and (c) realizing that I just passed the turn I should have taken. Thank goodness for Scott's métier in getting us back on track.

A healing trip for Scott, an educational one for me. A trip that I believe will serve us well in the months to come.



Now that we're back in DC, Scott and I are praying for the heavy rainfall that is predicted to come tonight. The construction in the basement can't be completed until we get a nice, big storm to test out the new drainage system they installed. Until then, we'll continue to camp out on the 2nd floor. It's warmer up there and more congenial, but my stuff is in disarray and I'm anxious to get settled in again down there. So cross your fingers that tonight's flood warnings come true on the streets and NOT in the basement!