Cherry Blossom Festival

weekend in the district

Oh xkcd, I do love you. And I miss Square One.
One of my favorite relatives came through DC this weekend. Good times had by all. Except for when the motorized pump on the air mattress didn't work. We went to the American History museum. I hadn't been since I've moved here (always distracted by Art, Natural History, and Air and Space). It was pretty interesting. They remodeled recently, so it looked really nice. It wasn't too crowded, except for the huuuuge line outside the First Ladies dresses exhibit.
Anyway, I had to abandon said relative to go to the lab. On my way to meet relative and other relative for dinner, I went to the National Portrait Gallery. I got to the restaurant about30 minutes early, so I walked the 2 blocks to the Portrait Gallery. For just about 20 minutes. And it was awesome. And free. There was a folk art exhibit where I spent most of my time. I think I can get used to going to the Smithsonian in between appointments.

Post-Spring Break Awesomeness

I've gotten pretty darn good at whatever syndicated crossword the UMD paper publishes. Aren't you proud? Now, I know exactly what/when I'm doing this summer. Hooray. Cape Cod in late June/early July and Denmark in August, here the rest of the time. Research stuff is going well. I'm reading about 100-150 papers/week between class and research. Tomorrow I have to give a brief (8 minute) presentation, so I am clearly avoiding putting finishing touches on the power point. The yoga class I'm taing started tonight. That was fun. It's the kind that you do in a hot room, so that's new.
That's about all I've got.


Peace.

What I did today

For those of you who care: I changed the battery in my car. 

Why you should be impressed: Car was parallel parked along my DC street. 

Hooray! House!

I have a place to live in the fall. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera.

Maryland is really pretty, if humid. So, there's trees everywhere, and hills too. Big trees. This is quite lovely. Except for the roads. These roads, you see, don't run north-south and east-west. The direction you start out is probably not the direction you'll be going in about 5 minutes. These roads definitely don't intersect at right angles. And don't even think about missing your turn, going another mile, and looping back around to where you should be. That might land you in Pennsylvania. Now in the OK, you can see where you're going for a good way off. You know: Oh, there's the gas station over yonder a piece (or: I can see the gas station; it's in the distance). And by seeing destination, you can usually get there. Now in Maryland, you probably aren't going to see your target, for all the trees. But if you do, the road you think leads in that direction does not. This is really my way of saying that I got lost a lot for the first 2 or 3 days.

Also, I really like being able to get the Washington Post. This makes me quite cheerful

Peace.