Fly a kite...

We spent most of Sunday morning and early afternoon walking around the Tidal Basin enjoying the beauty of the blossoming cherry trees. We also took a paddle-boat tour of the Tidal Basin. The trees are beautiful, and as you walk around they seem to get even more colorful. It does get crowded with people so going early was good thing to do.
While Anne was enjoying the food of New Orleans, Ack visited his folks for a day. He also went to the Mall on Saturday where kite-day was being celebrated. The Mall was crowded with people on the ground and kites in the sky. The families were as varied as the kite types.

The Big Easy

Somehow when I was leaving for the National Art Education Association conference, I forgot to pack my camera, so this entry will not have any photos from the visually amazing New Orleans. I would have taken photos of the fine details of beautiful houses on St. Charles, Echo and Sonny's amazing patchwork quilt beneath which I napped, the beaded fence of the house across the street, the roiling Mississippi Paddy, Charlie and I viewed from atop a levee, or Nancy's smiling face as she drank in Emeril's restaurant's beautiful interior. It was a GREAT food trip (grilled oysters at the Bon Ton Cafe, baked oysters bienville and amazing roasted lamb at Tommy's, the breakfast special at Mother's, gingered bread pudding at Emeril's).

And the conference was good too. Nancy and I presented on our quilt curriculum and pitched it to Crystal Publications, which is now interested in carrying it. I attended several insightful sessions and gathered ideas that will definitely relate to the Teaching Artist training I'm in the process of developing. I made several new connections with colleagues, and Paddy and I planned a session for next year's conference with folklorists/art ed professors Kristin Congdon and Doug Blandy.

It was hard to return to temps in the 30s after the balmy high-70s of NO, but the beauty of the cherry blossoms Ack and I toured on Sunday helped.

Happy Easter!

Alana came over on Saturday to hang out. We had lamb (with red curry and rosemary) for dinner. On Easter morning Ack and Anne went for a walk around the East Potomac Park (by the Jefferson Memorial) to see what was in bloom and to capture a portrait of our shadow. The dogwoods are blooming and the cherry trees are just starting to bloom. Anne went to church at Shiloh Baptist Church (9th and P) - an historic church in the neighborhood that promotes civil rights. Then it was off to the National Zoo to enjoy another walk on a sunny Sunday.

Leaving Rye

Anne spent five days in Rye, NY helping to pack up the beautiful old house my family has lived in since 1965. My parents are moving to a condo in Rye Brook at the end of March. It's a tough time, lots of feelings of loss but hopefully they will be balanced by wonderful times and adventures in the new place.

One very fun highlight of the visit was a reunion dinner with a dozen classmates from Resurrection Academy. Barbara Arndt was the main organizer; she got us all to a restaurant in Rye for a wonderful evening of reconnecting. Who was there (clockwise, starting with those kneeling): Mary Jean Spedeliere, Marie Brady, me, Linda Carchietta, Kathy Iasillo, Mary Fleming, Aileen Ryan, Maggie Gurtler, Barbara Arndt, Laura Sorbera, Joanne Summa, Marie Marciano. (Click on the image to enlarge it if you want to see faces.) There were even more of us who connected via email through this organizing effort; it was great to reunite with this amazing group of women.

Weather...

As Madison weather is causing yet some more snow shoveling, the weather here in DC has been wonderful. Spring flowers are in bloom, the picture is from the small front yard of our DC house. Anne has been up at her folks helping to pack up the house and make arrangements to ship some furniture to our Madison house. Ack's been going to work with a little break to the NGA for a gallery talk on a new exhibit in the East Wing on photographing and painting in the forest of Fontainebleau. The place is 25 miles SW of Paris and was the first national forest.

Back in DC

Post-Paris means unpacking, doing laundry, organizing photos, returning guide books to the library, and trying to convince your body to sleep according to this time zone and not one that's six hours away.

We started Sunday with breakfast at the Saints Paradise Cafeteria, the restaurant beneath the United House of Prayer for All Peoples on M & 6th in our neighborhood. Not heart healthy, we nevertheless enjoyed the long thick bacon and the fat juicy sausage, good basic pancakes and the sweet smiling service. Best of all - their "main ingredient is love."

We ended the day with dinner with Wisconsin colleagues, Peter Blewett of the Milwaukee School Board and Chris Pfund of UW-Madison. Circle Bistro was delicious. The restaurant is in the One Washington Circle Hotel near George Washington University and the Kennedy Center. We all got their three-course pre-theater special for $37: green salad or carrot soup, trout or hangar steak, mango crumble or pistachio puffs.

Anne's looking forward to Mimi's fabulous corned beef and cabbage tonight for St. Patrick's Day dinner up in Rye. I'm heading there to help pack for my parent's impending move.

Guess Where We Are

Yes,we are in Paris for about a week. We've seen two of the major museums, walked a lot and eaten wonderful food. Ack is at a CALIPSO meeting for most of the week while Anne does some touring and working in the evening.

If you want to see a slideshow of selected images of the city, see our Paris slide show on Picasa.

Food to Go

Wanna buy a cart?

Yesterday, Alana and I (Anne) again went to visit her food cart in the storage facility in Shaw, trying to decide whether to ship it or sell it. She decided: it's for sale. Has she got a deal for you!

I remember the first time we went to the place in the fall. I thought the neighborhood looked really unsafe and the storage place smelled really bad. Well, the stink is still there, but we knew better this time to wear long pants; no voracious mosquitos attacking our legs in the dank dark space this time. And now that I live just a 10-minute walk away from the site, I'm thinking, "This neighborhood isn't so bad..."

Sign of the Season

Biking on R Street on Wednesday, I whizzed past this blooming cherry tree but came to a quick halt to admire it.  It's precocious, the first of the season I've seen. Instead of waiting to bloom more in time with its brethren, predicted to be at peak from March 27-April 3, this one is more in time with the crocus, which are really starting to bloom in earnest now.  For updates, see National Cherry Blossom Festival. 

Andy and Marianne Visit

Andy and Marianne visited us on their way down to Andrew's graduation ceremony. They arrived on Sunday afternoon. After a quick snack we headed down to the Botanic Gardens, walking through the Building Museum on our way there. There seemed to be many more orchids in the gardens than when we first went there. We meet up with Alana and had a drink at Clydes and then a tasty dinner cooked from the "400 Three & Four Ingredients Recipes" (a Christmas gift to Anne from Ack).

Monday we took a bus to the Postal Museum and then over to the Natural History Museum to see the gems and butterfly exhibits. This was a day of 'something new' - riding a city bus for Andy and Marianne and eating raw oysters for Ack and Anne. We also saw the gems at the Natural History Museum. When shined with UV light, the Hope diamond, will appear red. Scientists have found this is the case with blue diamonds, and may be used to 'finger print' the diamonds.

Crocus!

On Saturday March 1, I was walking over to Giant to get some food and stock up for Andy and Marianne's visit. It was about 8 am. The daffodils have popped out of the ground about two weeks ago. March 1 marked the first time I saw a flower - two yellow crocus were in a neighbor's yard. I bet one can hardly see the ground in Madison.