Welcome Erin

Erin arrived on Thursday. We went to Arlington Cemetery; volunteers had placed wreaths out on the graves. It is a visual reminder of sacrifice. We also saw the Second Shepherd's Play at the Folger's Theater that evening. An entertaining and nontraditional Christmas show.

Happy Holidays!

Every city looks festive this time of year, but DC has some unique visuals. Anne took this photo with our cell phone one night around 11 pm. For a town with so much traffic during the day, the downtown traffic is pretty minimal at 11 pm. For this Madisonian, there is too little snowfall and too much green on the ground to give this time of year that magical mystic of sleds and reindeer.

A Visit to Long Island

I (Ack) went back to Long Island this week, including a ferry ride to Shelter Island (hence the picture). This being the holiday season I reminisced on a couple of odd random memories. I remembered how careful my Dad was about wrapping gifts for my Mom. He'd do that in the garage and if the wrapping paper had a geometric patter it was hard to find the seems. I remember Mike and I going to midnight mass. Walking to St. Luke's with our hair wet, then it would freeze and we'd comb snow out of our hair when we got to church. I remember after my first course in meteorology going home during winter break and shopping with Margaret. Earlier in the day I had seen cirrus clouds with sundogs. She was impressed that I knew what caused them. When we went out shopping, the cirrus was replaced by altostratus, with a 'watery sun', so not very thick. When came out of the Smithaven Mall after about an hour, the altostratus had thickened and it was cold. I suggested we leave to go home in order to beat the snow/sleet. She gave me a look as to say 'Yea, right'. She probably thought I was getting rid of her, but by the time we got home it was sleeting. She was very impressed.

Lots of Great Music

I've been enjoying all the opportunities for great free music in DC. (Well, not ALL of them - there's too many.) The Homegrown concerts at the Library of Congress put on by the American Folklife Center feature excellent local performers from different states. November 15, folklorist Andrea Graham brought Dallas Chief Eagle, of the Rosebud Sioux tribe, and Jasmine Pickner, of the Crow Creek Sioux tribe, from South Dakota to perform hoop dances. AMAZING! Take a look at the video of their performance at the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage later that night. A highlight for me -- I joined the volunteers on stage to learn a simple version of a hoop dance. It was challenging and loads of fun!

Yesterday, West Virginia had its turn with Gandydancer, an impressive old time string band. Beautiful harmonies, excellent instrumentation, and an interesting mix of styles of songs and tunes. After their noon concert at AFC, they were whisked away to play at Senator Robert Byrd's surprise 90th birthday party. That night they played at the Kennedy Center. Watch that December 12 performance.

(Photos are from the Kennedy Center website.)

First Snow...

Madison WI got 6" of snow on Dec 1 along with sleet and freezing rain. Emails abound about how best to clear the sidewalk and one-stage versus 2-stage snow blowers. The storm caused the cancellation of the AOS Solstice party - which made national news. An Alberta clipper went through on Dec 4 and dropped another 4" and everyone seemed to still make it to work, while the threat of 1" in DC results in school delays and closures along with traffic jams.

This photo is off the porch in Steve/Betty's house around noon on Dec 5. With these condition, Anne still headed to Baltimore for a conference while I decided to stay at the house and work to avoid commuting frustrations. It'll be embarrassing if I'm the only one at NOAA who decided to stay at home....

Words for Rice

What's another word for bagatelle? What does 'atavistic' mean? Want to figure out how to use 'demimonde' in your next conversation? Go to this fun, well-designed website and find out. While you're testing your vocabulary, you'll be donating rice to people who need it. Click on image or go to www.freerice.com.

Dona Nobis Pacem

Finally joined a protest against the war. On Sunday night, Anne gathered with a small group from an interfaith peace coalition affiliated with Christian Peace Witness for Iraq. We sang, prayed, then placed stones along the fence around the White House. The idea is that "even the stones will cry out for justice."

I Love a Parade!

Well, Anne loves a parade. Ack marched in too many in high school, playing the French horn with its way-too-small mouth piece. But he went anyway to Baltimore to see the Thanksgiving parade. Lots of high school marching bands with lots of high energy dancing (lucky them, no French horns). And who could not like Fifi, the giant Pink Poodle put together by the Visionary Art Museum. Afterwards we had a warming cup of spicy crab soup in Big Kahuna Cantina, a restaurant overlooking the harbor.

A Weather Guy

Even when he's in DC, Ack makes headlines in Wisconsin. See this cover story on him and fellow Weather Guy Jon Martin in the Nov 14 issue of Wisconsin Week. (Photo by Jeff Miller - used without permission. Sorry, UW.)

Memorial to those lost at sea...

On a walk along the Potomic River on Nov 10, we came across this memorial - a memorial to all those who had died at sea. Seemed appropriate as Nov 10 is the day the Edmund Fitzgerald sank on Lake Superior.

Best Of

Three recent highlights that deserve a "Best" ranking...

Best Coffee - Minh's in Arlington
This inexpensive (for DC) and good Vietnamese restaurant has great coffee. It's served with the hot water still dripping through the compressed grinds in a small aluminum container that's sitting on top of your coffee cup. Hidden at the bottom of the cup is a thick serving of sweetened condensed milk. Our helpful waiter instructed us to use the lid of the coffee maker as a base when it was time to take the contraption off the cup and set it on the table (protect the tablecloth). Stir it all up to create a smooth sweet flavorful blend, pour it over ice, and have a terrific glass of iced coffee.

Best Political Writing -- Dana Milbank in The Washington Post
I was among the millions of Americans disgusted with President Bush's veto of reauthorizing SCHIP, the program that provides health care for low-income children, and the House's failure to overturn that veto. Dana Milbank, a celebrated columnist for the Washington Post, offered a window into related deliberations In an October 24 column, "Children's Health Yields to the Senators From Pork," It opens this way:

The United States Senate yesterday was confronted with a stark choice: health care for children, or pet projects for lawmakers' home states.

The final tally?

Pet Projects 68. Kids 26.

Milbank's writing is snarky and smart. Proof? In this piece he labels senators not with their state, but with their pet project. Egs, "I assume this comes as no surprise that I oppose the amendment," declared Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Figge Art Museum)," or "A spokesman for Sen. George Voinovich (R-First Ladies Library)..."

Read it and enjoy some great wry writing.

Best Hike & Fall Colors - Sugarloaf Mountain
Much later than what we're used to in Wisconsin, the height of the fall color change is now in DC. Thanks to a tip from DC folklorist Leslie Prosterman, Ack and I went hiking at Sugarloaf Mountain near Comus, Maryland. This is a beautiful set of trails in a privately owned park that is open to, and enjoyed by, a teeming public. Crowded, yes, but that just means more people are out with their families, friends and church groups on a gorgeous Sunday to challenge themselves with a strenuous hike to the 1,282' peak with the reward of beautiful vistas of the surrounding farms and woods. Sugarloaf is a monadnock (a mountain that remains after the erosion of the surrounding land) so it offers great views from all sides. We took the very vertical green trail up to the summit, and the long and more leisurely 5 mile blue trail back. The trails wind through continuously varied landscapes, with their beauty enhanced from the brilliant fall colors. It was a lovely afternoon.

Ack here, we had read complaints of the trails not being well marked, but I did not find that to be the case. With the map and 'tree markings' it was easy to stay on the trail.

We're Back!

When I told friend Sue E. that Ack and I had started a blog, she wondered how long we would keep it up. It wasn't very long, obviously--only six weeks. In our own defense, the stumbling block was an inability to find an English version of the pane I'm writing in now. We were in Amsterdam and I couldn't maneuver through the Dutch version of blogspot in order to post. But of course, that was about a month ago.

Try, try again.

Ack also attended a meeting in Lille, France at the end of October. The picture is of one of the train station entrances in Lille. The mural filled the area with a surrealistic urban landscape and walkways went in and out of the painting doorways. The floor was black and had a small amount of water to make it look infinite.

Back in Madison in Sept

Back in Madison..

We came back to Madison for a few days on Sept 14th. We needed to clean the house, and check the water level in the dock. You can see the Lake Mendota (mouth of the Yahara River) high water level pictures Anne took back in August.

Ack and Anne also had to catch up on some work related items and meetings. All fun. We enjoyed being back here and noticed that there are fewer people than in DC. What an observation!

But mostly, we came back as Anne was helping to organize our first community fundraiser to establish "Margaret's Fund: A Northside Scholarship." This is named after Margaret Ackerman Sparks, Ack's sister.

Alyssa Kenney (the executive director of a Northside Madison community center) and Anne have been working to establish this fund for the past year. They've had good community support (over $6,000 raised so far towards a goal of $10,000). While it's still developing, the scholarship fund will give a minimum of one $500 scholarship to an applicant chosen by a committee. After it's well established, we will give out more. The scholarship will go to someone who is either a graduating HS senior, someone already in college, or an adult going to college later in life (like Margaret did). The person will have lived on Madison's Northside for 4 years previous and have overcome significant hardship (language, health, financial, etc). A committee of Northside business and community leaders will choose the recipient.

We are now off to Amsterdam for a meeting and a little touring.

The Neighborhood

We live in a wonderful two-story house at the junction of two Arlington neighborhoods, Cherrydale and Maywood. Both have a real sense of community and identity. Cherrydale is going to have a Neighborhood Parade on September 22, which we'll miss unfortunately. Maywood had its annual block party last Saturday, a feast of fun for dozens of little kids. Along with a potluck and desserts for a Bake-off, the featured food was kabobs from the neighborhood favorite, Tarbouch Mediterranean Grill. The kabobs were lamb or chicken with four different excellent sauces.

Cherrydale is a historic district listed with the National Register of Historic Places, filled with 19th and 20th century revivals. Historic markers dot the streets. It has a wonderful assortment of services to walk to. Closest to us is Safeway, just one block away. We're enjoying its terrific wine selection, decent assortment of organics, and a machine where you can rent a DVD overnight for $1.49. One block west is Cherrydale Hardware, an old-time hardware shop where a useful staff person asks to help you as soon as you enter. Upstairs is the Cherrydale Masonic Lodge; we're not joining. Next door is the Sun and Moon Yoga Studio where Ack now go on Wednesday morning. We roll out of bed and five minutes later we're at the studio for a 7 am class. Ask to see our pigeon pose! Next in line is a Thai restaurant we haven't tried yet, mainly because they've had the same whiteboard sign in their front window at least since we arrived: "Special Today! Soft shell crab!" No, thanks. Next is Hair Vogue Salon where I got the longest haircut I've ever had (long in time duration, not in hair length). As usual, Ack couldn't tell I'd gotten it cut but then neither could Paddy. Around the corner is Portabello's, an excellent little restaurant. I had a delicious Parmesan crusted cod dinner on Tuesday and Ack enjoyed his sauteed shrimp Provencal.

Those are the delights to the immediate west. My favorite destination to the east is three blocks away, the entrance to the Martha Custis Trail. This is a winding off-road trail that parallels major roads and highways for miles before connecting with still more paved off-road trails. Last week Ack and I biked from the house east along the trail down to the Potomac where we connected with the Mt Vernon Trail. Dodging many Saturday morning joggers, we rode south along the river, past National Airport to Washington Sailing Marina. Today I headed west on the trail, winding through parks and along a creek on a circuitous route to the public library. Some of the trails are former rail beds with consistent elevations; not the Custis Trail. The grade on some of its hills is so steep that one biker described it as "a real roller coaster." The same can be said for the streets in the neighborhood; lots of hills, some amazingly steep to walk up and down.

A treasure that I discovered while biking to the north of us one day is the Potomac Overlook Regional Park, a place that is very well funded by the look of the infrastructure and programming they offer. To the south are the nearest Metro stops, shopping areas, post office, and heaviest traffic-not my favorite part of Arlington so far.

Weather

Weather for the first two weeks of September can only be categorized as "Two shower days". If you are working outside on a weekend, then make that three. Highs have been in the upper 80s and low 90s with, what I would call, high humidity. Lows are higher than the Madison high temperatures. The area is in a drought which is bad for vegetation but better for us commuters. Anne watered some of the outside plants over the weekend as they looked wilted. I look forward to fall.

The area finally got some rain on Sept 10/11, so the weather has finally cooled down a bit and humidity is much lower.

Day 7

We took the Metro to Dupont Circle so Anne could attend Friends Meeting and then meet Ack for the Phillips Collection. At the top of the escalator, while looking for Connecticut Ave, we instead found a fabulous farmer's market. Two blocks long, it was filled with great looking produce, fish, breads, flowers and cheeses. We were delighted to learn that it runs all year round.

Because we weren't prepared to carry produce around for our day of touring, we bought only a loaf of bread. The line for this vendor, Bonaparte Breads, was dozens deep and for good reason. The "bruschetta" loaf was like "country" bread, hand-shaped, a light brown roughly textured crust, creamy off-white interior with a texture that bounced back to the touch. It tasted great at dinner.

The Friends Meeting was in a wonderful space on Florida Ave, with the simple meeting room large and airy. About 80 people were present; both the silence and the shared inspirations were meaningful.

Walking the three blocks from the meeting house to the gallery, we discovered a neighborhood filled with embassies, museums, amazing 19th century mansions, and art, such as a statue honoring Mahatmas Gandhi outside the Indian Embassy. The Phillips Collection is a block-long series of buildings with an impressive collection of modern paintings. Some pieces that I really enjoyed were Paul Klee's "Arab Song" on burlap, Jacob Lawrence's "Migration of the Negro" panels, most things by Maurice Prendergast because of the bold colors, and Childe Hassam's "Mt. Beacon at Newburgh" which was painted on the back of a cigar box and had such luminous light. The premier piece in the collection is Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party."

After several hours of soaking in the visuals and rambling the Phillips' halls, we left and headed to the National Mall for a visit to the Black Family Reunion, an event I'd heard about for years and never thought I'd get to visit. There were lots of informational booths, music and dance by local performers, food and free give aways. We left with fans from the FBI, towels from Freddie Mac, and shuttle pins from NASA. We ran into folklorist Jim Deutsch, who will be curating the NASA program at the 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. (The photo is an example of what won't be in the Smithsonian's NASA program.)

We ended the day with watching "Volver," an odd but charming film starring Penelope Cruz, and enjoying a glass of Ferreira 10 year-old tawny porto.

Day 5 - A commute

Being new to the Washington DC area, I used the DC Metro trip planner to make my way to work. The plan was simple. Leave home at 8:02 to catch the 3B Bus at 8:08. Take the bus approximately 2.5 miles to arrive at the Rosslyn Metro station at 8:18 am. This would give me 8 minutes to catch the Blue Line so I could arrive at L'Enfant Plaza at 8:37. From there, I'd catch the Green line at 8:44 and arrive at Branch Ave at 9:03. One hour door to door. Well, the 3B never showed up, but the 15L did at 8:18. But since the 3B was apparently not running, the 15L was very crowded. Each stop brought on a new batch of passengers with driver requests to those already on-board to "move back", which drew responses of "We're all the way back!" By 8:35, the time I should be finishing my first train ride, the bus was stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, occasionally pulling over in attempt to take on more passengers.

At about 8:45 I gave up on the bus, got off at a stop and proceeded to walk the last 1/2 mile to the train station at a pace faster than the bus. I arrived before the bus, cleared the turnstiles and could see from the rider board that the next Blue train would arrive in 5 minutes. I boarded the Blue to get to L'Enfant Plaza to change trains to the Green line towards Branch Ave. The next train was a Yellow due to arrive in 1 minute, followed by a Green in 7 minutes, followed by a Green in 9 minutes, and yet another Green in 9 minutes. While an inexperienced rider, I suspected that three Greens in a row with two at the same time could not be good. A loud speaker voiced, in a sound that echoed in the tunnels making it difficult to hear, but distinct enough to know that there were delays along the Green line. At 9:25, 22 minutes after I thought I'd be leaving a train, I boarded the Green line. By the time I was sitting on the green line, a fellow passenger commented "Running a bit slow today."

I arrived at 10:11.

Days 3 & 4

Ack went to his first day of work. Took the bus to the metro, total door to door time was about 70 minutes. The office NOAA originally had for me was changed; the new one is more private and a nice south-east view. Unfortunately, that meant no computer and no phone. At night we went to another restaurant within walking distance. Pasha Cafe on Lee Highway, a Persian cafe that was very good. We both had eggplant, since we had a bad eggplant year in our Wisconsin garden. Ack's eggplant was covered with a ground lamb sauce and Anne's was in a delicious moussaka layered with zucchini.

Wednesday Sept 5: Ack worked at home in the morning - catching up on emails - and then went to Silver Spring to meet with a NOAA group working on the Satellite Capitalization plan. We ate dinner at Cassatt's - A Kiwi Cafe, a recommendation of friend Paddy Bowman's and a very short drive from the house up Lee Highway. Ack had a nice house salad, the dressing was tasty but I could not tell you want it was! The lamb as in general good, although a piece or two of the kabob were a bit dry. The kiwi and mango sauce that went with the lamb was very tasty. The potatoes were good and vegetable delicious. The cafe was decorated with art work from local artists in the Arlington Artists Alliance, which were varied, nice and for sale.

Days 1 & 2

We arrived in Arlington on 9/2. An affable Tony the Cat greeted us. We settled in quickly and spent the next day, Labor Day, relaxing with daughter Alana who's been living in DC for almost a year.

A highlight on Monday was shopping at the huge Unique Thrift Store in Falls Church where Ack got ties and handkerchiefs, Anne got fabric for her quilt, and Alana found two great coats. Back at the house, Alana pulled out the DVD "Big Trouble in Little Chinatown," a movie that started out serious then joined the rest of us in laughing at itself. Two of several memorable lines: "We really shook the pillars of heaven" and "I was born ready."

After dropping Alana and her new treasures at her home off 16th Street, Ack and Anne enjoyed a great meal at Zed's, an Ethiopian restaurant on 28th Street in Georgetown. (DC is a major locale for Ethiopians in the US.) Ack had the Spinach and Rice with Chicken Infillay and Anne had the vegetarian sampler, which included 1) Cauliflower, string beans and carrots in stewed tomatoes, 2) a DELICIOUS puree of yellow split peas mixed with onions, green peppers and garlic, 3) Red Lentil Miser Watt with a spicy red pepper sauce, 4) chopped sauteed collard greens mixed with onion and garlic, and 5) cabbage with carrots in a nice sauce. We shared a bottle of Hakim stout, a dark sweet Ethiopian beer. If you're familiar with Ethiopian food, you'll know that we ate the entrees with injera, a spongy round flat bread, slightly sour due to the fermenting of the teff flour used in making it. We appreciated the hand-wipes our waitress brought us at the end of the meal! Sitting outside on the clear warm night, we enjoyed watching the busyness of M Street at dusk.