wildlife

Today Dean and I noticed a lot of wildlife on our various comings and goings. Dean saw possum in the morning and we saw another in the evening. We also saw a gaggle of geese, a rafter of wild turkeys, and a fox. Cool, eh?

Fake news

No wonder I hate reading newspapers. This article claims that the Supreme Court is actually more liberal than before, because they theorize about how the court is going to decide future cases. Worse, if the court actually votes to restore habeas corpus, that is somehow supposed to be a sign that the court is “liberal”! (instead of just not insanely evil). The article doesn't report on a single actual ruling of the court -- only what might happen, maybe.

If that isn't an example of biased, fake news, I don't know what is.

'Conservative' court actually may be more liberal

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA093007.05A.scotus0930.3078116.html

Lawrence Public Library Book Sale

This morning, Dean and I went to the Lawrence Public Library Fall Book Sale. Lots of books ranging from 30c to $2 were there. It's set up under a big tent next to the library, with another basement-type area with overflow books.

We got several Agatha Christie Poirot books, and I got a couple of good religious books: a good devotional for Lent and an anthology of Thomas Merton's writings.

It takes a certain effort to make it through all the trash, and there was a surprising high number of good quality books that I already had (and now wish I hadn't paid full price for!). There was a huge number of good classics too, especially Dostoyevski.

After a while, the number of people made it a bit claustrophobic, so we left, having purchased 11 books for about $7. After we finish reading them, I imagine a lot of these will go back to the library to be sold again!

Friday Night Frights

Friday night Dean and I went to see the new Resident Evil: Extinction movie. It was quite good. Not too scary (Dean loves scary movies, but I'm a wimp). The idea of the movie is that a corporation's virus gets loose and decimates the world population, turning them into zombies. 5 years later there are only a few survivors, with the corporate bigwigs holed up in massive secure underground cities trying to come up with a semi-cure--one that would tame the zombies, but still allow them to be their slaves. Milla Jovovich plays the main character, Alice, who apparently was genetically mutated clone created by the corporation to be immune to the virus. But she's unhappy with the way she's been manipulated by them, so she's both running away from them, and seeking opportunities for revenge.

The one thing that struck me as funny is how all the characters, especially Jovovich, always had absolutely perfect makeup. It seems to me that in a world where food, gas and water are scarce, it seems rather unlikely that everyone would still have plenty of makeup (and the desire to put it on).

We never saw the first two movies, so Dean is going to add it to our NetFlicks list.

Vespers

On Thursday, Dean and I hosted vespers at our home. That day coincided with the Jewish celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles (aka Sukkot), the time when they remember their wandering in the desert, living in tents, eating manna and drinking water miraculously pouring from rocks. By coincidence, Dean and I designed an altar space for our vespersr with the theme "water in the desert," and the accompanying New Testament reading was from Jesus' attendance at the Feast of Tabernacles.

Anyway, we all had a nice time. We had beef stew and cornbread for dinner and Dean made a delicious french apple pie. Marion's back is still hurting her, but she was able to make it and had a good time. Elva is missing her hearing aid. Marcia mentioned her dad's back was hurting him (I think it was her dad). Bertha had injured her leg and was trying to keep it elevated. We're all a bunch of unhealthy wrecks sometimes. Bodies can be so uncooperative.

Phony Soldiers

A military man's response to Rush Limbaugh's "phony soldier" remark. It's a must read, if for no other reason so that you can you meet Chevy.

http://armyofdude.blogspot.com/2007/09/real-deal.html

Lieberman-Kyl Amendment

I've been slow in tracking this, but the Lieberman-Kyl Amendment that just passed blows my mind. It is a "Sense of the Senate" amendment that opens a backdoor to start bombing Iran.

It passed by a whopping 76-22 vote. Incredible! Of course Roberts and Brownback voted for it. But astonishingly, so did Clinton! Obama and McCain did not vote. Dodd voted No.

By the way, after having watched a lot of the Democratic posturing this season, I have to say that if I voted today, I would probably vote for Dodd. He is on the right side of nearly every position including Iraq, gay marriage, immigration, health care, etc. He's also the only one really championing the restoration of habeas corpus. In case you missed it, here is Dodd on Iraq:

"Rather than picking up votes, by removing the deadline to get our troops out of Iraq you have lost this Democrat's vote. Despite the fact that this has been the bloodiest summer of the war and report after report says that there has been little to no political progress, the White House continues to argue that their strategy is working. It is clear that half measures are not going to stop this President or end this war. I cannot and will not support any measure that does not have a firm and enforceable deadline to complete the redeployment of combat troops from Iraq. Only then will Congress be able to send a clear message to the President that we are changing course in Iraq, and a message to the Iraqis that they need to get their political house in order."

Net Neutrality

An example of why Net Neutrality legislation is important:

Verizon blocks pro-choice text messages

The article mentions several instances in which Internet and wireless service providers have blocked use of their services because they don't like the customer's content. In another example, AT&T blocked a live webcast of a Pearl Jam concert because of their criticism of Bush. This sort of thing will continue to flourish if Net Neutrality legislation doesn't pass.

September Day

Did you manage to get out today? I did, for just a little bit in the afternoon. Wonderfully blue, cool with a nice breeze and still a bit damp from the rains.

Thomas Merton writes about it better than I do:
"Everything that a September day should be--brilliant blue sky, kind sun, cool wind in the pines. But I have to wear white gloves because I cannot go near the woods without getting more poison ivy. I seem to have become extraordinarily sensitive, and if I am within 15 or 20 feet of it, I seem to get more....tiny, delicate fishbones of clouds in the sky. Harps of sound in the sweet trees. Long shadows on the grass. The distant bottomland flat and level and brown, ploughed and harrowed. The hills."
-- Thomas Merton's Journal September 10, 1964

The painting is called, One September Day in Kansas, by Debra Clemente and is on display at the Phoenix Gallery in Topeka.

workaholic

There is a really dumb article on CNN about workaholism. The full article is here.

A few of the dumb things this article says:

"working more than 40 hours per week can be an indication of workaholism"
--well, for most people I know, working 40 hours per week is the bare minimum allowed to keep your job! Working a few more than 40 hours is probably true for 90+% of full-time employees.

"Workaholism is unrelated to how people feel about their jobs. It's about their behavior...[a] major indication of workaholic behavior [is] spending time thinking of ways to do one's job better."
-- First workaholism is not about feelings, but about behavior. Next, it's all about thinking? Then he confuses thinking as a behavior (it's not). Working until midnight is a behavior. Thinking about work at midnight is a thought. Feeling anxious about work at midnight is a feeling. And you know, if I had feelings about work all the time, I just might be a workaholic, n'est-ce pas? Oh, and thinking of ways to do one's job better is bad?!? Give me a break.

"We always talk about continuous improvement, but no one is really required to spend time thinking about that."
--If it is legitimate to talk about 'continuous improvement' (as every major corporation does), how would one actually do that without thinking about it? (He doesn't talk about thinking about it continuously, just spending any time at all thinking about it is apparently bad).

Finally, here are a few gems that are supposed to be indicators of workaholism:

1. Are there times when you can charge through your work and other times when you can't?
-- Isn't that called normal life?

2. Do you take complete responsibility for the outcome of your work efforts?
-- Shouldn't everyone? Exactly who else should take responsibility for my own efforts?

3. Do you do things energetically and competitively including play?
-- Wouldn't that be a good and healthy thing (at least energetically if not 'competitively')?

Mind you, I think workaholism is an important problem, and I think Americans probably work more hours than any other industrialized nation in the world with less time off, but this article is awful.

Souljourners, etc.

This weekend I was at Mount St. Scholastica monastery in Atchison for Souljourners. The topic this month was "Contemplative shift," that is, the movement from external, enlightenment, scientific/rational/mind based (a.k.a. modern) spirituality to internal, mystical, intuitive based (a.k.a. postmodern) spirituality. The text for the class was Integral Spirituality by Ken Wilber, a buddhist philosopher. I found the book very challenging, both because it was quite complex, and because I never really "bought into"some of his philosophy, especially concerning nondualism (I think that Christianity, unlike Buddhism, has some non-negotiable dualisms, not least the idea that there is a strong distinction between the Creator and the Created).

The class was also challenging because, it seemed to me, the instructor was sometimes advocating that the modern means of spirituality was old and found wanting and that we all need to move into the postmodern/contemplative spirituality, or that spiritual growth happens primarily in the contemplative.

I do not see them as an either/or, but as a both/and. I find that there needs to be a synthesis of modern and postmodern. If "modern" can be basically be described as "external/rational" and "postmodern" can be described as "internal/intuitive", then I think a synthesis is needed because human beings are both. Ken Wilber does seem to make this point (that we are both), but I still get the sense that Wilber thinks that external/rational is a "lower-level" than the "internal/intuitive". It's hard to explain without really getting into it (which I don't want to do).

Probably the most helpful thing I received was a "map" of suggested spiritual practices that combine the external and the internal, the individual and the society. It looked something like this:

UL (individual/internal) tai chi, yoga, mental therapy, meditation, prayer, reading, journaling, study, visualization, etc.	UR (individual/external) diet, vitamins, fasts, exercise, medications, sleep, massage, etc.
LL (collective/internal) relationships with family, friends, animals, community service, local ecological action	LR collective/external [institutions] exercising civic duties, participation in teaching/educational systems, promoting healthy ecological systems, participation in healthy religious systems, etc.

After I got back from Souljourners, I immediately caught a cold, and spent most of the day Sunday sleeping in bed (like from 11:30 to 5:00pm!).

The photo above is one that Dean sent me and is of real flowers grown in Netherlands. They are called "tie-dye" roses. The color is injecting into the plants by syringes during the growth cycle. They are real, and certainly not "natural," but still pretty cool to look at.

MIT Student Arrested for Wearing Circuit Fashion

First the Aqua Teen Hunger Force LED light signs and now this:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9782860-7.html?tag=nefd.blgs

Can somebody PLEASE explain to me why anybody thinks that bombs come with LED lights in fashionable colors?

Seriously.

Oh my stars...they said THAT?! My heart's all atwitter

This TIMES article has it spot on:

"Goodness gracious. oh, my paws and whiskers. Some of the meanest, most ornery hombres around are suddenly feeling faint. Notorious tough guys are swooning with the vapors.

"It's that ad from MoveOn.org — the one that calls General David Petraeus, the head of U.S. forces in Iraq, general betray us. All across the radio spectrum, right-wing shock jocks are themselves shocked. How could anybody say such a thing? It's horrifying. It's outrageous. It's disgraceful. It's just beyond the pale ... It's ... oh, my heavens ... say, is it a bit stuffy in here? ... I think I'm going to ... Could I have a glass of ... oh, dear [thud].


"It's all phony, of course. The war's backers are obviously delighted to have this ad from which they can make an issue. They wouldn't trade it for a week in Anbar province (a formerly troubled area of Iraq that is now, thanks to us, an Eden of peace and tranquility where barely a car bomb disturbs the perfumed silence — or so they say). These days, mock outrage is used by every side of every dispute. It's fair enough to criticize something your opponent said while secretly thanking your lucky stars that he said it. The fuss over this MoveOn.org ad is something else: it is the result of a desperate scavenging for umbrage material. When so many people are clamoring for a chance to swoon that they each have to take a number and when the landscape is so littered with folks lying prostrate and pretending to be dead that it starts to look like the end of a Civil War battle re-enactment, this isn't spontaneous mass outrage. This is choreography."

Whole article is here.

Simplifying & Letting Go

The last few days I've been on a quest to simplify my life by letting go of some of my things. Yesterday I got rid of about 30 books that were taking up space in the basement. Today I sold 33 CDs from my collection to Half-Price Books.

While I was going through the CDs, I realized that part of the reason I was keeping them was as a reminder of the past, and in particular a reminder of past hurts. I remember, for example, the CDs I was listening to when G. betrayed my trust. I remember CDs that I used to listen to when I was part of a conservative group pretending to be like them. Some of them are Christian CDs that reflect a theology I no longer believe in. I never listen to these CDs any more, and I realized that part of the reason was because I didn't want to be reminded of the events and feelings I had attached to them. But neither was I willing to let them go, and I detected a kind of resentment at the idea of letting them go. But today I did, and it was good.

Values Voters Debate

Remember the "Values Voters Debate" from a couple nights ago run by conservative wingnuts like AFA's Don Wildmon and anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafley? The one that all the big Republican nominees skipped? Well, after the debate they had a straw poll, which included all the Republican nominees. Only 1 candidate got 0 votes. Guess who it was? Yup, Mitt Romney. Hell, even John Cox (who is that?) got more votes.

Here's the lesson: The value that value voters value most is not being Mormon.

And the winner? Mike Huckabee.

P.S. Speaking of Jon Cox, I just found his picture online. If this guy isn't gay, then my gay-dar is broken (note: my gay-dar has been broken for years). And, other than that he's apparently a Chicago accountant, who has failed in every run for office he's ever tried, I still don't know who he is. How much of an anti-Mormon bigot do you have to be to give this guy more votes than Governor Romney?


P.P.S. If this was 2004, can you imagine the big Republican nominees skipping this debate? It would have been impossible. Interesting was 4 years of nuttery can do.

Sentences on Hope

"We can either love God because we hope for something from God, or we can hope in God knowing that he loves us. Sometimes we begin with the first kind of hope and grow into the second.

Hope is proportionate to detachment. It brings our souls into the state of the most perfect detachment. In doing so, it restores all values by setting them in their right order. Hope empties our hands in order that we may work with them.

Hope casts us into the arms of God's mercy and of God's providence. If we hope in God, we will not only come to know that God is merciful but we will experience God's mercy in our own lives."

-- Thomas Merton, Sentences on Hope, No Man Is an Island

Dog Saves House from Fire

And now for a moment of good news:

Republicans filibuster & democracy broken

Well the Republicans filibustered Webb's legislation that would have mandated the soldiers get at least as much time home as they serve in Iraq. That isn't surprising. Anybody who thought that September would be "different" were fooled again. Of course, now that September is almost over, we see that in fact nothing is different. Indeed, it's worse because Republican John Warner, at the last minute, withdrew his support of the bill, which he supported in July. Another Republican went onto the floor and said it was "demeaning" to soldiers for them to have so much leave time. Ridiculous to the point of lunacy.

In a sense it seems that Democracy is broken. The president has so much power that we can't do anything without at least 67 votes, and there is no way to get 67 votes on anything any more. Coupled with special interests and the way we elect our officials, really our legislators have only 1 goal: get re-elected. Everything else is propaganda. There are way too few people who are actually trying to do something good. There is simply no incentive to do so. And with senators having 6 year terms, folks like Lieberman just have to -sound- good to people during election year and then do whatever the hell they want after that.

The Dems will cave again when the next round of funding comes along. And don't expect 2008 to be any different. Even if there is a Democratic President (and I don't think there will be), I expect that we will still be in Iraq in 2012, and possibly 2016.

I remember when we first invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, asking two friends how long they thought we'd be at war. I remember saying 3 years. One friend said 6 months at the most, because the American people won't allow more than that. Another said no more than 5 years. Who knew we'd be at this for 6 years and counting.

It's pretty depressing.

Interview with Juan Cole

Juan Cole is professor of middle east studies at Michigan and an important expert that more people ought to be listening to. Here's a great 5 min. interview about his view of what is really going on and what we need to be doing.

Juan also makes the important point that, contra Biden and Brownback, you can't simply break up the country along ethnic lines because the ethnic lines aren't that simple to draw, and alliances dynamically flow between them. I think I have discounted this too much in the past, but he's almost certainly right.

The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007

This is surely the best thing the Democrats have accomplished all year. From Adam B @ Daily Kos:

The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 is numbered "S. 1" in the books -- it was the first bill introduced in the Senate under Majority Leader Reid, marking Democrats' clear intent to clean up the Republican culture of corruption in Washington.

Yesterday, after all the hullabaloo and fooferaw, it was signed into law. Here's some highlights:

• Senators will no longer be able to take gifts or junkets from lobbyists.
• Lobbyists will be required to report their activities quarterly to the House clerk and Senate secretary. (Now, just semi-annually.) And these reports must be filed electronically (including lobbying by representatives of foreign governments) -- which make them easier for us to search and analyze.
• Senate spouses will be banned from the lobbying business, unless they were lobbyists before their spouse’s most recent election or before they married a senator.
• Senators and their top aides will have to notify the Ethics Committee within three days when they begin negotiating new jobs.
• The K Street Project is dead:

Whoever, being a Senator or Representative in, or a Delegate or Resident Commissioner to, the Congress or an employee of either House of Congress, with the intent to influence, solely on the basis of partisan political affiliation, an employment decision or employment practice of any private entity--
(1) takes or withholds, or offers or threatens to take or withhold, an official act, or
(2) influences, or offers or threatens to influence, the official act of another,

shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than 15 years, or both, and may be disqualified from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.

• Earmark sponsors must be listed in appropriations committee reports. And Senators will be able to attack earmarks on the floor with a point of order triggering an hour of debate, and it will take a three-fifths majority vote to retain the provision.
• "Dead of night" provisions can also be challenged with a point of order, and unless a three-fifths majority wants to keep such a provision, the offending language will be removed.
• New restrictions on free travel would ban many trips but allow senators to enjoy one-day journeys at others’ expense. (Also still legal: trips financed by nonprofits and universities.)
• Say goodbye to infinite, anonymous holds. Senators will still be able to anonymously block a request for unanimous consent, but only for six days. After that, the senator’s name would be disclosed unless the objection was withdrawn.
• Slow down the revolving door -- after Dec. 31, senators, top aides and top administration officials would have to wait two years after leaving office before lobbying Congress.
• When former members of the House or Senate begin to lobby, they will lose their access to their former chamber’s floor and gym.
• The FEC will be drafting new regulations requiring campaign committees to report bundled contributions from lobbyists and their political committees that total at least $15,000 during any six-month period. (The next step: disclosure by all bundlers.)
• If a lobbyist (or a lobbyist's client) is throwing a big soirée at your party's convention ... you can't go, unless you're the nominee.

Full text is here. We said we were going to clean up Capitol Hill. We did.

Home!

It's good to be home! The dog is good and tired, the cats are needy, and Dean and I have tons of laundry to do. Glad we decided to come home a couple days before we have to go back to work.

Went and saw Balls of Fury with Christopher Walken this evening. There were some cute moments, but overall so-so.

D.C. - Day 10 - U.S. Botanical Gardens

Today we planned to go to the Sackler gallery, Ripley International Gallery Center, and the U.S. Botanical garden, all on the Mall. The Ripley International Gallery had a special exhibit of Mexican artifacts, and the Sackler gallery had exhibits of asian art. They were both very disappointing. Most of the artifacts were contemporary art pieces (1990s+) with very little cohesive theme. The largest part of the mexican museum was a series of 5"x7" b&w photos that were hard to see and had no discernable theme. We didn't see very much of the asian art, but the few pieces we did see were also contemporary (2000s+) and rather boring.

So we jetted out of there and took a long walk down Independence Avenue towards the U.S. Botanical garden. The walk itself was long, but it has been a gorgeous day -- about 80 degrees with a good breeze. Perfect walking weather.

The U.S. Botanical Garden is a pretty small garden, as they go, but still very excellent. Outdoors was a water feature with places to sit and relax, rose garden, butterfly garden, various grasses, non-flowering plants, a very small aquatic garden and state-themed gardens (displaying plants from other state's botanical gardens). Indoors was a very large Conservatory. The conservatory was 3 floors in height and had carefully controlled climate zones so that in the "world deserts" garden it is hot and dry, while in the orchids section it is humid and shady. There was a "primeval" garden displaying plants that have survived for 150 million years, a jungle tropical rainforest, and a hawaiian habitat section. The east gallery displayed container plants and exhibits of various kinds of seeds. The west gallery displayed container plants and exhibits of how plants have been used in cooking and medicine. The orchid section contained 200 different species.

After we finished with the garden, we hopped onto the Metro and rode to Crystal City. It's been expanded since I last lived there some 15 years ago, and about 2/3 of the shops are new. But the mexican restaurant that I used to go to was still there and we had lunch there. I had a chimichanga and Dean had tamales. Very yummy. After lunch, we walked all around Crystal City peering into various specialty shops (there was an intriguing puppet shop with marionettes, hand puppets and finger puppets). After we walked the whole way and our feet were hurting, we walked back to the Metro and came back to the hotel to look at our pictures.

Now we're resting and we'll plan what we're going to do for dinner later. Today is our last full day here in D.C. Tomorrow morning is our flight home. It's been fun!

D.C. - Day 9 - Colonial Williamsburg Part Deux

Last night we stayed at the Governor's Inn (one of the official hotels of Colonial Williamsburg), then in the morning went into town to visit the shops. Tons and tons of shops. I really wasn't feeling good today. I woke up with a headache and a stomach ache, so I really wasn't very good company for Dean whilst shopping. We got just a few little trinkets - magnet, photo book, bookmark, some 18th-century style playing cards and some Virginia extra-large peanuts (peanut soup apparently was a delicacy of the 18th century and still today Virginia is known for its peanuts...I can't handle the idea of peanut soup, but I can eat roasted peanuts till I puke from salt poisoning).

After a couple of hours, we had lunch at Huzzah's![tm]. Service was slow at the beginning, but the food was pretty good. After lunch I was just too beat and worn down to do anything else. We did miss seeing some things -- we didn't go to any of the museums, the capitol, or watch any of today's open air performances nor stayed for any evening ticketed performances. Dean could have stayed, but I had my fill, especially since I wasn't feeling good.

A long 2.5 hour drive later we've arrived at the hotel in Falls Church and I'm ready to collapse. No pictures to post today. Too tired. Maybe tomorrow.

D.C. - Day 8 - Colonial Williamsburg

We woke up early this morning because we needed to do laundry. Dean was out of socks and I was almost out of shirts. After breakfast, we walked to a local laundromat and did a load of laundry whilst listening to our iPods. The laundromat was horrible--stinky, dirty, with loiterers and no attendant. But we got through it unscathed. The timing was right because our plan for the day was to drive 2.5 hours south to Colonial Williamsburg. We wanted to skip all the rush hour traffic, and so doing laundry was perfect.

The previous day I had run out of Claritin for my allergies, so this morning I took some Singulair. Bad move! It made me really drowsy. About 1.5 hours into the drive, I could barely see the road. Dean was hungry, so we pulled off for an early lunch, and Dean agreed to drive for about a half hour while I snoozed. The nap really helped, and when I woke up, we switched again for the rest of the drive.

We arrived at Colonial Williamsburg, checked into our hotel and then went to the visitor center. Basically Colonial Williamsburg consists of a long street (about a mile long) filled with buildings restored back to Colonial days and staffed by employees in period dress. We toured the governor's mansion and english gardens (there were 9 governors of VA during this period), then went walking down the lane. The employees were not merely pretending to be something they weren't (though some were). While some ran souvenir-type shops, there was a silversmith that fashioned real period-style silver cutlery and jewelry, there was a blacksmith that makes nails that are really used in the town, a wig maker, a tailor, a bakery, a gunsmith, a printing press, and more. There was a restored courthouse, apothecary, several taverns, a (closed) armory/magazine and several taverns. Most of the employees dispensed with fake english accents, which was nice.

In addition to the shops, they also have re-enactments of various events throughout the day. We watched 2: one was an argument between a slaveholder and a former slaveholder, who, after winning the debate, introduced the first free black preacher of Virginia. The black preacher preached (of course), to a chorus of amens, and talked about the need to expand the visibility of the blacks in Virginia. The second was a speech by Henry Lee who became governor of Virginia.
He gave a hilarious speech about the inadequacies of the Constitution as it was being debated in the Continental Congress. He talked about how wrong it was to elect a vice-president in the Executive branch whose only named duty was to be in charge of the Senate, the legislative branch. He talked about how wrong it was for just one house to approve of the President's cabinet, because any president could pay off or elect enough senators to rubber stamp his choices and thus create a tyranny. Anyway, it went on like that with faintly veiled allusions to the current administration. I thought it was really funny, although only a few people laughed.

After the speech was over, it was time for dinner. We ate at the fanciest restaurant in town -- a period tavern that originally catered to the Virginia elite. We ate by candlelight on period tables and chairs with period cutlery and china. All the food was directly inspired by 18th century dishes, and it was all delicious. Our first course was a condiment dish consisting of a corn relish and smoked chopped ham salad served with crusty toast bits. Our second course was a soft bread that was very light and mellow. Our third course was a salad. I had a salad consisting of field greens wrapped in a long slice of cucumber, drizzled in balsamic vinagraette and topped with pine nuts. Dean skipped salad. Our 4th course was our entrees. I had a grilled mix consisting of a beef tenderloin with madeira sauce, grilled butter shrimp, and duck sausage with mashed potatoes and garlic green beans. Dean had talapia in a tomato-based sauce served with green beans and red potatoes. Our 5th course was a traditional colonial dessert called syllabub. It was a combination of white wine, whipped cream, and lemon zest topped with a strawberry, mint leaves and a lemon slice. During the entree course our waitress very casually said, "now be careful, the tomatoes are poisonous." For some reason, I took her very seriously, until she revealed that she was joking. I was totally snookered. Apparently though, in the 18th century, they really did think that tomatoes were poisonous and that cucumbers made you crazy.

During dinner, a troubadour serenaded us with a few songs from his spanish guitar. At one point he also did a song by just blowing into his hands. He was quite good. Although an expensive dinner, it has been a real high point of this vacation.

Tomorrow we're going back into town focusing on the amazing gift shops in the west end of town.

D.C. - Day 7 - National Cathedral & Luray Caverns

This morning we attended Sunday services at the National Cathedral. What a gorgeous place! And the sounds of the choir and the congregation are wonderful as they reverberate throughout the nave. It's huge, includes 4 chapels, a school, a bookstore, a crypt, and more. Traditional gothic style with stained glass of various religious and non-religious themes (including various events local to Washington) throughout.

After services, we went to the bookstore and I bought a small prayer book and Dean got a book about the stained glass. We tried to get to the high altar, but the next service was already about to start, so there was just no chance.

After services, we drove to Luray Caverns, a 2-hour drive in the western part of Virginia. Virginia actually has 3 caverns in the state, with Luray being the best. Dean and I both agree that these caverns were the best ones we've ever been to. It had, by far, the most formations of any cave system. In addition to stalagmites that look like totem poles, stalactites that look like fangs, columns that look like conch shells and princesses, there was also a "Dream Lake", a shallow lake that perfectly mirrors the stalactites above it. Also, there was a working organ installed, with stalactites used as the pipes! As one presses a key on the organ, a signal is sent to a rubber mallet that strikes the stalactite and causes a bell-like sound at the right pitch. Finding stalactites that respond to the right pitch was difficult of course, so the musical instrument covers a distance of 3.5 acres, the largest instrument in the world.

After the tour, we had lunch, visited the gift shop, and then drove home, arriving back at about 6:30pm. We had a late dinner at the chinese restaurant we ate at before. Dean had lemon chicken and I had mishi pork, which I had never had before. Delicious!

D.C. - Day 6 - Gallery of Art, Mus. of American Indian, Memorials

What an exhausting day! Starting from 9am when we got on the Metro, to 10:30pm when we finally got home, we still did not get to everything we had planned.

First, we went to the National Gallery of Art (west bldg). This featured some of the most famous Byzantine, Italian renaissance, Dutch masters and French impressionists in existence.

Both Dean and I liked the Italian renaissance the most. There is just something about that style of painting that is just amazing. What interested me was how vivid the colors were. I often think of the renaissance period as being mostly muted colors, but that was just not true based on some of these pieces. I also did not know that this period featured some hyper-realistic painters. There was one picture , especially, of a vase of flowers, that was so realistic, I thought I could reach into the painting and pluck a flower. Here is that picture, and a detailed shot of one of the tulips.

After that, we went to the National Museum of the American Indian to have lunch. They had some really exotic food there--most of it I could not pronounce. I really wasn't in the mood for anything really exotic, so I settled for the most un-exotic thing I could find: a buffalo burger. Dean ate a shredded buffalo bbq sandwich.

After lunch, we toured the museum. I have to say that this museum is the most aesthetically pleasing museum I have ever been in. Most museums of American Indian art I have been too are just rows of baskets, pottery and kachina dolls in glass cases. Most art museums force you to read little plaques on every little thing to get the story of what is going on. This museum is nothing like that. Designed in an open-air style, the museum is designed in 3 large sections: universe/beliefs, people/history, lives/contemporary life. Curved 3/4 walls in meandering, non-linear form, reminds one of meandering journeys and rivers. Rather than displaying individual pieces of art with little plaques, pieces are grouped into themes and displayed in a highly artistic fashion. Single plaques and video clips tell the story in greater detail. One such example is the collection of gold and the story that gold had in the coming of the conquistadors and the conquering of the Aztec, Mayans and others, the stealing of their gold, and the mass shipment of that gold to Spain that uplifted their economy. Once we were done with the American Indian museum, it was already 3:00pm, so we decided to call it quits for the afternoon and go back to the hotel for a quick rest before our night Memorials After Dark tour. So, after a brief rest, we went back to D.C. and ate dinner at the Old Post Office (where we also picked up our tour bus). We then toured all the major memorials: Korean, WWII, Iwo Jima, Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, FDR, Vietnam, plus the Capitol and the White House. Most of the memorials were dramatically lit for night viewing.
One of the most striking was a field of soldiers on night patrol through the jungles of Korea. Dramatically lit, it was very emotional, and clearly designed for night viewing.

Probably the most brightly lit memorials were the Washington monument and the Lincoln memorial. The least lit was the Vietnam memorial (which I have never really liked).

At one point it was possible to see the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and Capitol building all lit and in a row. Twas very cool. Our 3 hour tour was supplemented by bottles of cold water to help cool one down from the walking and the fantastic commentary from our tour guide. After the tour ended at 10pm, we hopped onto the Metro, rode home and immediately fell into bed.

D.C. - Day 5 - Holocaust Museum & Washington Memorial

Today was supposed to be "memorial" day, where we visited the holocaust museum and all the memorials. Fat chance! We started out right. First we went to the U.S. Holocaust museum and stood in line for tickets. While I waited in that line, Dean went to the Washington Memorial and stood in line for those tickets. Tickets obtained by 10:30am, we were ready to go, starting with the Holocaust museum.

The museum is designed from top-to-bottom to take you away from Washington D.C. and immerse you into the experience of Jews during the holocaust. Starting with the architecture (which we attended a lecture about), there is an outer facade that makes the museum look very inviting and hospital from the outside. But as soon as you walk past the facade, it all changes. Now it is all grey concrete, industrial galvanized metal, and heavy brick. The angles of the building and positions of the windows produce uncomfortably gloomy shadows. The arched entrances invoke the memory of the arched entryways of the camps and even the arched openings of the cremation ovens. The steel girders, the stairway leading up, the appearance of rust in spots, all remind one of the trains and railroads pulling into a death camp or the factories of the forced labor camps. There are almost no signs anywhere. This deliberate choice invokes confusion. Patrons don't know where to go -- they are forced to ask, or more often, to follow the crowd like cattle. There are security guards everywhere, several even have guard dogs.

The whole experience is visceral, impacting at a subconscious level too deep even for easily identifiable emotions.

To enter the permanent exhibit (no picture taking permitted), you take an ID Card. This passport-like ID card identifies you with a real person who survived the holocaust and provides a picture and background of the person. Mine was a boy named Joseph. He was a pre-teen gypsy who was separated from his parents. While at school, Nazis forcibly pulled him out of class telling the teacher that he needed an emergency appendicitis. Actually, he was forcibly sterilized by nazi doctors (because gypsies were considered an inferior race, they were not permitted to breed...). After escaping from a concentration camp, he hid in a barn for 5 months until the end of the war.

The exhibit contained hundreds of video clips, thousands of pictures, a room filled with shoes taken from the victims, 20lb. packages of human hair that were shaved from the victims, sold, and turned stuffing for mattresses and pillows and other useful things. In addition to all the exhibits, they also had the visitors walking on the actual cobblestones from one of the ghettos, and one of the wood bridges that Jews were forced to use because they were not permitted to be on the street. And there was a large model of a gas chamber, and inside that, surrounded by concrete half-walls to prevent accidental viewing, were tv monitors showing some of the worst videos one could see, literally too horrible to describe.

One thing I learned that I didn't know was about the pink triangle. I thought the pink triangle was a symbol that GLBT chose for themselves like the rainbow. I did not know that the pink triangle was chosen by Hitler to identify homosexuals like yellow stars of David identified Jews, purple triangles identified gypsies and black triangles identified Jehovah witnesses. Given that history, I wonder why GLBT choose to use the pink triangle at all.

One particular set of pictures struck me: a picture of a naked boy and another of a naked girl, both mentally disabled, taken just before they were killed. I can't even begin to explain how monstrous it all is.

I was frequently at war with myself. Part of me approved of the museum and desired that this story be told, laid out for everyone to see and remember. Another part of me wanted to destroy the building and throw everything into a live volcano like the One Ring in the Lord of the Rings -- because it is so evil, such an abomination (I cannot think of a better word), that it cannot be permitted to stay, it MUST be expunged from the earth.

In addition to the permanent exhibit, there were smaller special exhibits, one designed for children, another about genocide in Rwanda and Darfur (wherein the question is asked, "We said, 'never forget', but what about Rwanda? What about Darfur?"). Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we could not visit these exhibits at all. After our tour, we left.

Next we had to hoof it over to the Washington monument for our scheduled visit at 1:30pm. On the way, we wolfed down a hot dog and a coke at a nearby vendor. I was a little surprised that there is so little inside the monument besides the elevator. There really isn't that much you can do. Once at the top, it was a lot like the St. Louis arch. 8 windows along all sides of the obelisk give you a 360 degree view of up to 30 miles. A bit crowded, but not as bad as the St.Louis Arch was. After taking a few pictures, we took the elevator back down. Here's a picture of the White House that I took from one of the windows:


After we were done with the Washington monument at nearly 3pm, we came to the conclusion that the memorials were just too far apart, requiring too much walking to be able to see them all today. We decided instead to call it an early day, go home, and then plan on going to Crystal City in the evening for dinner (Crystal City is the area I lived in for 2 years, and consists of a collection of hotels, shops, and restaurants in an expensive part of VA).

Once we got back to the hotel, we decided to book a night tour as the best way for us to actually see the memorials. So after some online research, I booked a night tour for tomorrow night that goes from 7pm to 10pm that hits all the major memorials plus the capitol and the white house. The memorials are supposed to be great at night because they are beautifully lit and make for great pictures. So I'm looking forward to that.

By the time I got that done, we looked up when Crystal City closes. I didn't count on the fact that it closed at 7pm (I thought it closed at 9pm). As soon as we found that out, we tried to get there by leaving the hotel for the Metro at 5pm, but we immediately got stuck in traffic at 7 Corners (this is the same intersection I wrote about before where 4 different highways converge and form 7 different streets in one intersection). After waiting for about 15-20 minutes at that intersection, we realized that if we made it to Crystal City at all, it would probably be just a few minutes before closing. So we abandoned that idea and turned into the first restaurant we saw, which happened to be Bennigan's (sort of like an Irish Applebee's). Dean had a pretty good salmon and rice, whilst I had a pasta and chicken dish that sounded much better on the menu than it looked or tasted in real life.

Now we're back at the hotel, and I'm blogging and getting ready to upload pictures. Stay tuned for when I have the pictures up. Okay, here they are:
http://community.webshots.com/album/560599684hsPeVa
http://travel.webshots.com/album/560598003ERSohm

D.C. - Day 4 - Library of Congress, Old Post Office Pavilion, Hillwood Museum

Today has been so exhausting!! I can hardly type. While each of our stops were not very long, taken together, with all the walking we did, it made for some very tiring, but very satisfying, sightseeing. We started the morning by taking the hotel shuttle to the Metro and then riding the Metro to the Capitol South stop. From there we walked to the Library of Congress building. What an incredible building!! Designed in the Roman style, it was all marble, mosaics, stained glass, statuary and gold filigree. Truly an amazing sight. One of the more interesting facts is that part of the ceiling was covered in aluminum leaf, because at the time, aluminum leaf was more precious than even platinum! There are statues of Minerva, goddess of wisdom, throughout the building, as well as various mosaics of people who the founding generation thought best represented wisdom in their area (for example, Oliver Wendell Holmes was chosen to represent poetry). The whole theme of the building is the celebration of wisdom, knowledge and education (and interestingly not for its own sake, but for productive work).

Since we did not have a library card, we were not permitted to go into any of the 22 reading rooms. But any adult with ID can get a library card, and use the old-fashioned vacuum tube system (like at a Bank teller) to request books from the library. In addition to the millions of volumes in 3 buildings, they also have 13 warehouses in other states containing volumes that can be requested and received in 1 day.

After the tour we went to a special exhibit at the ground floor celebrating Bob Hope and the era of vaudeville. After Hope died, he bequeathed all his vaudeville memorabilia (including scripts, monologues, etc.) to the Library, and they set up a special display.

After the Library of Congress, we hopped back on the Metro to the Federal Triangle (an oddly shaped area with the IRS, EPA, etc.) and visited the Old Post Office Pavilion. There we had lunch (we went to a deli and got sandwiches), then went shopping. There was also a man playing guitar and singing on a stage in the food court area. He was actually quite good, although he was harassed by teenage girls who would go onto the stage and have their friends take pictures of them with him in the middle of one of his numbers. After that we went up to the top of the building (which is supposed to be the tallest building in the area other than the Washington monument), and got a great look of the land.

Having satisfied our hunger, in the early afternoon, we decided to go visit the Hillwood Estate, Museum, and Gardens. This is a private estate of the late Marjorie Post, heiress to the Post/General Foods company. She gathered a huge collection of French, English, and Russian art and renovated her mansion to best display her collection to the public once she died.

The estate is tucked away about a half-mile from one of the Metro stops, and is definitely one of those oft-overlooked gems of D.C. On the map it didn't look like it would be a hard walk, but we were wrong! It seemed to take forever in the hot sun, and our feet hurt like hell by the time we got to there, and we hadn't even toured the place yet! After a brief rest at the visitor center, we toured the mansion. Sadly, pictures were not permitted. We were even forced to turn over our cameras and bags before we were allowed in.

The home is one of the best mansions we have ever seen, totally outstripping Mount Vernon in terms of opulence. Decorated in a combination of 18th century French furniture (like commodes with amazing parquetry, marble buffets, striking card tables, wall tapestries, sitting chairs and elegant dining tables) and 18th century Russian art, it was really first class. In addition to a huge variety of expensive china dishes, large Russian, French, and English vases, there were also 2 Faberge eggs on display, several 18th century Russian icons, an Orthodox liturgical room with 18th century Orthodox vestments, icons, and an amazing gold and gem-studded eucharist chalice commissioned by one of the Russian czars. One of the Faberge eggs was enameled in blue and studded with diamonds and platinum. The other was enameled in pink with ivory cameo pictures and I think studded with pearls (I can't remember). Some of the necklaces on display had rubies, emeralds, and pearls so huge that the pieces looked fake. In many ways, this private collection has rivaled the best museum exhibits we've ever seen anywhere.

Once we got done with the mansion, we simply didn't have the energy to go onto the grounds and tour the large gardens (there is a rose garden, four-season garden, putting green, sculpture garden, japanese garden, cutting garden, and more). Nor did we have the energy to walk back to the Metro. So we called a cab and took a moderately expensive taxi ride the half-mile to the Metro and rode back home.

After a brief nap, we just got back from dinner. We didn't have the energy to go anywhere fancy for dinner, so we just went across the street to Popeye's chicken for dinner. Now it's time to just collapse and recover from the day.

D.C. - Day 3 - Mount Vernon

Originally our plan was to go back to the Smithsonian today to look at the museums that we didn't get a chance to get to yesterday. But neither Dean nor I were in the mood when we got up this morning. So instead we drove down to Mount Vernon to see Washington's mansion.

The grounds are huge, starting with the "Ford Orientation Center" building, a complex of buildings housing museum/shops/Inn/Restaurant, Donald Reynolds Education Center, and then the mansion estate proper which included several buildings: the mansion, slave quarters, greenhouse, salt house, gardener's house, servant's hall, kitchen, smokehouse, laundry building and stable. There was also a wharf (Mount Vernon overlooks the Potomac river), 3 outdoor "necessaries," Washington family tomb, slave burial ground, and an upper and lower garden.

When we arrived at the Ford Orientation Center, we watched a 5-minute orientation video narrated by Pat Sajak, and then a 20-minute action film documenting Washington's life. The film, like the rest of Mount Vernon, portrayed a very idealistic, practically mythological person. Indeed, a person who was never afraid and never aged, looking the same at age 20 as at age 60, with hardly a wrinkle anywhere.

After the movie, we toured the gardens, which were very impressive, very formal English style (designed by Washington despite having never seen an English garden). Then we took a guided tour of the mansion. We weren't allowed to take any pictures in the mansion, which disappointed me. Most of the things in the mansion are originals, including things like their table china and the first presidential chair (which looked like a crappy common office chair). The decor was opulent for the time -- fine china, mahogany, and bright paint (apparently bright colors were very aristocratic because the paint was expensive). Some of the rooms were painted bright forest green, another a bright cornflower blue, another a bright yellow. Chic for the period, but positively ugly now. All the rooms except for the large dining room were roped off so that you could not enter them. We were forced to peer in through doorways from the halls, which limited the appeal for me. Despite being 9,000 square feet, the mansion seemed to be actually quite small. Perhaps that's because of the limited space we were allowed to go in or perhaps the layout of the space (lots of small rooms instead of fewer large rooms).

On the grounds they had gardeners and caretakers taking care of live animals like cows, goats and rams, and they had a few people in period dress "acting" (no acting slaves though...).

After the tour we went onto the grounds and went through several of the buildings. Afterwards, we had lunch in the food court. After lunch we toured the museum -- again, no pictures permitted. Quite a variety of original paintings of Washington, a few busts, original documents, clothing, ornamental swords, and a variety of personal effects. After that we went to the shops. Of course there was everything there from china to books, dvds, silver spoons, ornaments, etc. Nothing really caught our eye, so we bought nothing except our usual magnet.

After driving home, we took a brief nap and then had dinner at a wonderful Chinese restaurant called Gourmet Chinese Restaurant (ha!). Quite tasty. Dean had sesame shrimp and I had "four delight" -- shrimp, scallops, beef and chicken with celery, shitake mushrooms and bamboo shoots in a rich thick brown sauce. Delightful! And good service too. We're definitely going back.

On the way back from dinner, Dean wanted to stop at the Target across the street from the hotel to buy some new shoes. That didn't take long, but once we got out of the Target, it was the middle of rush hour, and owing to the traffic, one-way street design, and the convergence of 3 highways at the intersection, it took at least 20 minutes or longer to manage to get across the street back home. It was very exasperating. We waited for 3 changes of light without any cars being able to move at all. Now we're home and Dean is loving his new shoes and I'm getting ready to watch some t.v.

The mansion

The stained glass above is from the Ford Orientation Center.

D.C. - Day 2 - Smithsonian

Peacock room at Freer Gallery

Today Dean and I went to the Smithsonian. We began by driving to a park-and-ride. We got the very last parking spot, and Dean had to get out of the car and help me get into the very tight space. I think it took like 15 minutes. Then we rode the Metro from East Falls Church to the Smithsonian, during the middle of rush-hour (about 8:00am). It was horrible! We had to stand the whole time and be constantly squeezed by the mass of people.

Once we got to the Smithsonian, we visited the Castle. We purchased a membership, which gives us a year subscription to the magazine and discounts on all the shops, eateries, imax, etc. After a short bite to eat at the Castle Cafe, and a tour of the Castle, we laid out our plan of attack and went out. We started at the Freer Gallery, which had a Chinese/Japanese exhibit. Extraordinary! The picture above is from that building. The story goes that Whistler designed the peacock as a metaphor about the dispute he was having with his patron, Leyland, over payment, whilst Leyland was traveling out of country.

Then we went to the National Museum of Natural History. We saw dinosaur bones (Dean liked those best), fossils, geology/gems, and a special Korea exhibit. In the gem section we saw the Hope diamond, and a 42,000 carat yellow topaz that was the size of my head! We then ate a delicious lunch at the Atrium Cafe, consisting of bbq beef sandwich, yukon potatoes, broccoli, and mac/cheese. Yummers! Afterwards we saw a 3-D Imax movie about lions in Africa. Twas cool!

After we got home, we rested for a while, then drove to downtown Arlington to have dinner at Chevy's (TexMex), then strolled the Ballston mall that the Chevy's was attached to. After that we came home, and now we're nursing sore back, hurt knees, sore feet, sore hip, etc. I hope to have pictures up on webshots later this evening. Stay tuned. So, after 2 hours of uploading, I finally have pics up at webshots: here.

Chinese vessels made of glass about 3,500 years old!

D.C. - Day 1 - National Zoo

Today Dean & I went to the National Zoo, part of the Smithsonian. It took some creative driving in D.C. to get there (including a brief trip down a one-way street going the wrong way). The zoo is situated on a hill, so there is a LOT of walking up and down hills. And the map was confusing, so a couple of times we went the wrong way (usually my fault). The zoo itself is free, but they still manage to make plenty of money: the map costs $2, parking $16, and the food...well the food was pretty expensive too. The cheapest thing we got was our traditional magnet, a mere $2.

We got to see the rainforest, indoor and outdoor bird sanctuaries, sea lions, pandas, beavers, giant octopus, and lots of others. We went to the pandas last. The pandas were so still, and positioned so strangely, that initially I thought they were just diaromas, and I didn't know why anybody thought they were interesting. Dean had to pull me back and convince me that they were real. There is a live "panda cam" here.

The zookeeper said that we were really lucky to see the beavers because they usually come out at night.

There were tons of trees and lots and lots of shade, which made walking in the zoo much easier. The only thing I didn't like is that sometimes there was only 1 route to get to a certain thing. For example, there was a "lemure" island, and directly south of it was the Amazonia rainforest. But you couldn't go directly south, you had to take a long circuitous route around lemur island, north to the "valley trail", then back down south to the Amazonia rainforest. It would have been much easier if we could have just walked the few feet south that it was located.

After the zoo, we went back to the hotel and took a nap (we were beat!) and then ate dinner at the Outback Steakhouse a couple miles from the hotel. Dean had the filet mignot and I had the pork chops.

D.C. - Day 0 - Dean and I ride the bus??

So, as everyone knows, one doesn't want to drive in D.C. because of the traffic. So we decided to get on the metro, get our feet wet, purchase passes, etc. The first metro stop is about a mile away from hotel #1 (see previous entry), and there's a bus stop near the hotel. The hotel staff said that the park-and-ride at the Metro was going to be full, and the bus comes every half hour, so we decided to go down and wait for the bus.

Whilst waiting, we were approached by a very drunk young blatino woman. This woman was so drunk she could barely stand and she could barely think. Every few minutes she would ask us for something: cigarettes, a lighter, 25c, 20c, 10c. In between these requests she would scream loudly, "where is fucking damn bus?!?" What is really funny, is that every time we said, "no," she would dig into her plastic bag, take a large swig from her 44oz budweiser, and then pull out the very thing she had asked us for. After waiting a half hour, we decided that we really didn't want to ride the bus, we didn't feel all that safe, and we didn't know when it was going to come.

So we decided to risk driving to the Metro park-and-ride. I'm glad we did! Of course, the bus happened to come as we were driving away (ha!), but the park-and-ride had plenty of parking spaces, and since it was Sunday, it was free! A very friendly Metro worker explained all the options for riding the Metro and getting passes, and we purchased some, and then rode the Metro to Union Station (where the Amtrak operates). We browsed the shops (most were closed because it was Sunday after 6pm), and then came home. Overall a pleasant experience.

D.C. - Day 0 - Hotel Woes

Sunday we began our D.C. vacation, and I'm blogging from the hotel (#2). The flight itself went well, it took off exactly on time and arrived exactly on time. Dean got a bit airsick, but otherwise we were fine. The car rental went okay, and I'm thankful that we decided to bring our GPS/Garmin, because the built-in "NeverLost" that the car has would certainly get us lost! It's just too hard to use. For one thing, it kept telling us "approaching turn" and displaying a graphic of making the turn, even though we were actually 1 mile away from the turn! So I turned wrong twice.

But getting around has been the easy part. The picture above is a picture of the dump of a hotel we got. It looked MUCH better online. It's hard to explain everything that went wrong, but here's a start. The t.v. didn't work, the internet didn't work, the bathroom door didnt shut, the room was tiny, the bathroom was so tiny you couldn't turn around without hitting 2 walls, the pool was closed, and the hotel "management" barely spoke english. It was truly awful.

When we tried to fix the t.v., we noticed that the coaxial cable was broken and the bare wire was just stuck into the t.v. No wonder it wasn't working! Here's how the conversation with the front-desk went:

FRONT-DESK: Hello, front desk

ME: Hi, we're in Room 118, and our t.v. doesn't work.

FRONT-DESK: Uh huh.

ME: Yes, it looks like the cable is broken and the wire is just stuck into the t.v.

FRONT-DESK: uh huh.

ME: Yes, well, can some body come fix it?

FRONT-DESK: you have really bad reception?

ME: Yes! It's terrible reception, and the channels keep randomly changing. It just doesn't work.

FRONT-DESK: Uh huh.

ME: So can you come fix it?

FRONT-DESK: Well, you see, I'm here by myself. The manager isn't here, and I can't leave front-desk.

ME: Okay, when is the manager supposed to come back?

FRONT-DESK: I don't know.

ME: Today? Tomorrow? The day after that?

FRONT-DESK: Um, probably not tomorrow. Maybe today. I don't know. And if it's complicated, we'll have to call a service person to come tomorrow.

ME: It looks like the cable just needs to be replaced, do you have a spare cable?

FRONT-DESK: Um, I don't know.

ME: Okay, fine.

[hangup]

So this is how everything went. Every time we asked about something, we were just told that the manager wasn't there. Finally, at about 8:00pm, I decided that I had had enough and I started looking for a new hotel. The phone book was useless, and I couldn't use the internet, but the Garmin came in handy. We found another hotel, The Comfort Inn, that is actually a hotel, for about $99/day. That's more expensive, but still affordable. A lot more affordable than the $300/day hotel down the street. We got settled into the second hotel at about 10:00pm, and we were just exhausted.

I tried to get my money back when I checked out of the first hotel, but the guy said that I had to deal with expedia.com (actually, he kept saying hotels.com, but that isn't who I worked with). Actually, the guy didn't say that, he called his manager, and the manager said that to him. So I called expedia.com, and they tried to deal with this guy, only to be told the same thing. So now, later today, I have to call expedia.com again in order to try to get my money back. We'll see how it goes.

A lot more happened yesterday, but that will need to wait.