Family and Friends Plan

Thought it would be cool to send some shouts out to some people that just visited me in town. Grant was here two weekends ago and I got to hang out with him. It's been awhile and was very cool to see him, discuss religion and theology, and play pool.

LAST weekend my parents came into town and I got to spend a lot of time with them. It's always wonderful to see your parents, but is especially great to see them when something dramatic like a motorcycle accident has made you appreciate things more.

My sister came out with my parents but doesn't go back until this Sunday so I get to hang out with her the rest of the weekend!

So thank you so much to Grant, my parents and my sister for all coming out to see DC and spend some time hanging out with me. Let me know if you want to come hang out some time, although from here on out after July is probably better. If you come after July I'll have a spare bed room to offer you :)

Love you all and please keep in touch.

Mike

How to for the Day

How to Be Invited to Art Gallery/Exhibit Openings in NYC.

Read. Laugh. Enjoy. Go to the nearest gallery and just enjoy the art. Repeat.
---This "How To..." was brought to you by "WikiHow"

Mmmmmm

I’ve spent more money in DC on eating than I ever did anywhere else I’ve lived. In defense of that, DC is also the first place I’ve ever lived and had a full time job. So take that with a grain of salt. Having said that, I’ve also eaten some really good, really cheap food as well; the falafel at Amsterdam Falafel House is worth the pain of having to sit outside on the steps eating it. Actually, I guess that’s sort of the charm.

I like eating good food and I’ve realized why so many nice restaurants have smaller servings. When you have a nice meal, it isn’t always about getting a huge serving of one entrée, but about getting lots of smaller servings of various flavors that are all coordinated together.

The following are some of the restaurants I’ve enjoyed most, recently…

Jackies (Silver Spring):

Dinner for 2: 1 drink, 1 appetizer, 2 entrees, 1 desert, about $95.00 with tax and tip.
We left satisfied, and with good tastes lingering in our mouth.

I took Amon to Jackies for sort of a last hurrah as we get set for the upcoming wedding expenses. It was one of (was it THE) first restaurants I went to with Amon. We started off with mini burgers, called Elvis Burgers, that had a pimento cheese topping. I loved them, Amon took the cheese off and thought they were all right. I stuck with water, alas, but Amon had a cocktail called Jackies something or other, that was a raspberry flavored concoction with a frothy raspberry finish.

For our meal, I had rockfish that was seared and served with potato puree and spinach. Amon had a pork chop that came with sweet potato puree and apple sauce, I think there was something else on her plate. Amon was very pleased with the pork chop, though I preferred the flavor of the fish. It seemed odd to me that the pork chop should have a more subtle flavor than a white fish. For desert we had gingerbread cheese cake ice cream that was really tasty.

Matchbox (Gallery Place):
Dinner for 3: 3 drinks, 9 mini burgers, large pizza, about $60.00 with tax and tip.
We left stuffed, carrying leftover pizza home, and with a few neat matchboxes (one with cute matches in it and one with a notepad in it).

After Church Saturday Amon, Malcolm, and I went to one of our favorite pizza bars. Matchbox is a neat little brick oven pizza place sandwiched in one of those narrow little store fronts in Gallery Place. They have recently expanded and are open on Sunday, but they still have between a 30minute and 1 hour wait depending on when you show up.

They still hand us the menus but we never really look at them. The waiter (or more likely waitress) goes through the specials while we politely listen at which point we order the mini burgers and pepperoni pizza.

When you order the mini burgers make sure you are clear that you want them well done, unless you are ok with having pink ground beef in the middle of your burgers. Otherwise, the mini burgers are just this side of perfection. The buns are just crisp enough on the outside without being crunchy (for a bun that small I think that’s impressive). The meat is flavored very well, and the fact that you can eat the whole thing in 2 or 3 bites (come on, we’re trying to be polite here!) is fun. The mini burgers come with a heaping mound of fried onion strings that you can eat separately or put on your burgers.

The pizza is excellent. Good flat crust (traditional brick oven pizza), great sauce, magnificent pepperoni. It is spicy enough that I enjoy it, but not so much that Amon minds. As far as I can tell it’s her favorite pizza in DC.

Open Mic Night and Wireless

So the coolest part about tonight was that while I was running sound at open mic night, I was able to cruise the web because I brought my laptop. That is all :)

Mike

Again, and One More Time

It's been a long time with no significant updates, so here we go, over and over, again and one more time.

Marriage:
Plans continue to progress in a start and stop manner. We'll have several good days where decisions are made, registries are developed, and things are great. Then we'll have bad days where we realize something is going to require more money than we had planned. It's the same thing anyone who's gotten married has gone through, but that doesn't really help when it's you.

For anyone that hasn't gotten the update, we're going with the a tourmobile model. The actual ceremony and first reception will be in DC, then we'll have a reception in Michigan and a reception in Missouri. That means that hopefully some people who won't be able to travel to DC will still be able to celebrate with us at one of the closer receptions.

Work:
Things are certainly interesting. The project I'm on continues to be the topic of the town as lawmakers discuss the delays that keep coming up on the project. My favorite quote is from the below article where one critic states, “It's like they're playing with Monopoly money.” In standard government operating procedures the responsibilities for one task are delegated to many committees that seem to have no other purpose than to question the other committees. The direct impact on me comes when, for instance, the Department of Defense wants to switch spaces with the Speaker's office. No big deal right? Well the space that they WERE each planning for had very specific needs, desk outlets for voice and data, floor boxes that are cast into the concrete when the floor is poured, and audiovisual infrastructure specific to their needs (ceiling speakers, projectors and projection screens, wall outlets, etc.). When they decide to switch places, before the center even opens, it means that we have to trench up the floor slab (read: taking a jack hammer and gouging out large amounts of the floor slab), cut open walls and add conduit, and relocate thousands of feet of cabling in ceilings.

And people ask why the opening has been delayed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/08/AR2007030802235.html

Family:
My Dad was in a pretty bad motorcycle accident recently. It was bad enough that the doctors said he was “lucky” to only have a broken ankle, broken collar bone, slight bleeding in his head, and scrapes and bruises distributed over his body. If that's lucky, it must have been pretty bad. He is back at home now though, and through God's grace and the marvels of modern drugs he's doing things like sitting outside reading and I've gotten to talk to him on the phone many times. My Mom seems to be taking it all well as is my sister. Thanks for all the prayers for those that prayed for us.

Things:
Yup actually about THINGS. I've placed my dream to have a digital SLR on the back burner. I had an episode where I was close to throwing my iPod across the mall at the Apple store because I was so frustrated with it being broken and so upset with Apple customer service. This was shortly after I had gone back on a promise to myself NOT to by a digital SLR when the first mention of a used Nikon D70 came up. I came to my senses before spending the money but the fact that my desire for someTHING material like that was so strong combined with how easily I lost it over my iPod difficulties was a real eye opener.