Things I Learned Today

Today had been full of learning experiences.  Below, I list a few of the most salient.

• Microsoft SharePoint 2007 is a tricksome witch, and sometimes it's better just to use Paint.
• Metro + headache + hunger + (being overdressed + poor ventilation) = the worst sensation ever.
• Pentagon is a really busy Metro stop.
• Pentagon City Mall is much less crowded right before rush hour on a Monday than it is on a Sunday afternoon.
• Optometrists can be hot too...
• ...but the optometrist back in Wisconsin who gave me my current prescription (who was not hot) clearly didn't know what he was doing.  Obviously, hot optometrists are better at what they do.
• First impressions can be misleading.
• If you are nice to people even though you have a dull ache behind one eye that makes you want to bite things, they will be nice to you.  So long as you don't bite them, presumably.
• 7-10 business days for new lenses feels like an eternity when your glasses give you daily headaches.
• Rush hour on Metro sucks.
• I need to drink more.

 The End

Watch the Space...

...for lots of pictures from the National Air and Space Museum, artisanal cheese from Wisconsin in an upscale boutique in Penn Quarter, Moorish architecture on K St., and other products of an exciting - and tiring - day.  I say "watch this space" because right now I need food and shoes off.  And possibly a beer.  I'll write later.

What a Difference Two Hours Makes

You will be pleased to know that, after missing out on the two hour delay last week, I got one this morning - and slept until 9 until 6:30, as usual.  Gawd, was it ever glorious.  I then walked to work and was late, but it didn't matter because I was one of five people in the office - everyone else decided to telework.  I also walked home - I'm feeling healthy! - and thought a bit about the blog as I passed through the Smithsonian complex for the fourth time this week. 

I realized that I haven't actually been to any of the Smithsonian facilities on the Mall (I have been to the National Portrait Gallery, as you'll recall), which means I'm missing out on ten museums, according to Smithsonian's website.  This is an unforgivable sin on my part and I feel culturally impoverished just thinking about it, but it also offers me a great opportunity for this blog.  You see, church reviews are drawing to their natural end, because I've visited most of the Catholic churches within easy reach.  Yes, there are one or two others in the "DC core" that I'll go to eventually, and I haven't been to the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception yet, but the days of a new church review each week are over.  But there are plenty of other things to review, which is what I realized as I walked across the Mall.  This is a city full of museums of monuments, and although I've given some attention to the major monuments, I've said precious little about any of Washington's many museums.  I've also intended since this fall to do a bit on minor monuments - the ones hardly anyone knows about (you'd be surprised how many I've been able to run over without even trying).  Add some more concerted efforts to find new and unique retailers (I already have one in mind), and I've got all sorts of things to write about.  Since this blog is not intended as an exercise in navel-gazing, this is excellent news.  This also means that I can finally start making us of the "DC Guide" tab which I had (and now have) such grand plans for.

Of course, I'm always happy to take requests.  In fact, I might even relish to challenge.  Want me to find something within the borders of the District?  Leave it in the comments, and I'll see what I can do.  And bring photographic evidence back as proof, of course.

Let It...Glop

Today, as though to make up my missing out on a perfectly good two hour delay last week, Mother Nature has served up a hefty helping of winter weather which panicked OPM into letting everyone out two hours early.  I chuckled when I found out, because although it was cold outside I couldn't imagine there being any great problems, but looking outside now (only marginally more than two hours after I left work), I begin to see the wisdom of the decision.  There can only be one word for what's going on outside, and that word is glop.  Not falling from the sky, but the result on the ground is distinctly, gloppy.

I walked home from work this afternoon, because I hadn't walked this morning and am trying to lose five pounds of Christmas-weight, and everything seemed fine.  Once I reached the Mall, however, a cold spray of rain began falling, and the wind gradually picked up.  By the time I got home, the spray had become (tentatively) drops, and after I installed myself at my desk, the rain began to take on a distinctly solid sound against the window.  Just before it got dark (it's happening as I write), I took a picture or two of what's going on outside.

As it turns out, it's rather difficult to photograph driving snow, and this probably doesn't look that bad to those of you from the North (like me), but I should point out that this is not fluffy department-store snow.  This is glop.  Look at what's collected on my balcony rail:

It's icky stuff.  It's wet, heavy, and clumpy, and it's probably going to freeze, since we're supposed to go down to the mid-20s tonight (again, not cold for a Northerner, but enough to freeze glop).  I pity the people trying to drive home (as does DCist) - between this weather and the remnants of the flood on Monday it's going to be awful.  Apparently there are a couple of potential names for this sort of weather, all of which prefix "thunder" to the various types of typical winter weather (hail, sleet, and snow), which makes sense only because this all began as rain.  Thundersnow, eh?

So what does this mean?  It means I'm checking OPM's website tomorrow morning before I get in the shower.  Because if this stuff freezes/sticks around we might have another two-hour delay - and this time I'm not going to miss it!

Today I Learned...

...that the abbreviation "OBE," which in my mind has always meant "Order of the British Empire," has a far less sexy meaning at work.

O.B.E.  Overtaken By Events.  That is, redundant, out-of-date, and no longer relevant given the present situation.

I think I'll try to start using it.

Sunday Digest

I have been remiss this week, but I hope to make up for it!  I'm sitting down this afternoon to do my final catching up while the laundry is in, with one eye on the Packers-Bears game.  At the moment we're leading 14-0, with a shot at the Superbowl hanging in the balance.  I needn't clarify who "we" is, right?

I went up to Sagrado Corazon this morning for Mass and must report that it's due for a downgrade.  I finally got their pastor (as opposed to the various guest preachers I've seen at prior Masses) and the sad fact is that this roly-poly Salvadoran dumpling man, who is undoubtedly jolly and friendly and all manner of things, is a mediocre (at best) homilist.  And this before he attempted to shove a "respect for life" message into his sermon (tomorrow is the March for Life, after all, so avoid the Mall, those of you who support people having access abortion, even if you never want one yourself).  I won't rant too much on it, but I'm mystified as to how "the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light" somehow translates into a demand for obedience.  Really?  Points off, sir.  (For those of you keeping score, I'm knocking three points off the Liturgy score, down to two, for a recalculated average of 3.75.  Not so impressive now.)

OK, enough of that.  You want to know what I've written up that you've been waiting for for a week now, don't you?  Well, just look below.

New Posts
Jan. 12: The Battle of Gettysburg
Jan. 13: Raging Kitsch
Jan. 18: [Have an] Ice Day
Jan. 22: Lembas?

EDIT (8:00pm): HA!  Superbowl for the Packers - the first in more than a decade!  I am pumped!  But who will we be playing?  I don't know, but what I do know is that I need a Packers flag to fly from my balcony.  Photos to come, should I be able to find one!