October showers bring...

...cockroaches? Well, one cockroach to be exact. But that was quite enough to freak me out this morning. There it was, just sitting there near the shower. Now this was unusual for two reasons: 1) our place is CLEAN and crumb free (especially the bathroom!) and 2) I don't think I've EVER seen a cockroach in this apartment building, period - and we've been living here since 2001.

I won't take it personally. I think the reason for this is the weather. The insects thought, wow, we have it made, because of the lack of rain lately. Then yesterday, it poured. Mad little scramble indoors.

The offending insect is now dead, thank you.

Restaurant Reviews: 2 neighborhood places

I have a hobby. It involves food. This weekend, while my dear Jeff was camping in Death Valley, I was at home trying to make myself study for an exam, do research for a paper on postpartum psychosis, finish a piece for our writing group, clean the apartment, work out and organize our finances. The apartment is cleaner, I’m worked out, the laundry is clean and folded, my credit card is paid, the short story is posted, and by end of weekend, I have a good start on the whole exam thing with Monday to cement it.

But back to my hobby. I figured I needed some fun. Fun in my terms involves trying new restaurants, trying new foods, getting a feel for the character of the place. I’m fortunate that my neighborhood is chock-full of restaurants, some of which are brand new. And, figured I could do some recon for when Jeff gets back, maybe find our new favorite place. I tried two places; here are the results.
Saturday night, I tried Restaurant Three, which is located where Mama Kwan’s Tiki Bar (lasted a summer, never went there) existed before. 3 is an upscale, medium-priced (for this area) restaurant with soothing, eye-easy lighting and sophisticated seating inside and out. The group of three in front of me were told there was a half-hour wait to be seated, which seemed odd since I could see empty tables. I thought uh-oh, pretension, but I asked anyway and was pleasantly surprised when the gal said I could eat at the “VIP” bar (the smaller one) instead of waiting for a table. And the whole place is non-smoking. Jackpot! – that worked perfectly – and I was seated immediately.*

I ordered the field greens salad and then the grouper filet over risotto, with prawn, scallops and artichokes. The salad was pretty and tasty with a decent vinaigrette and diced veggie accents, but… not wow. You must understand, I’m the queen of salads. And my vinaigrettes tend to be spicy, which seems to be an odd concept in the mainstream [perspective, folks]. The grouper dish was very tasty, fresh and substantial, but why do all these upscale places have to over-salt their food? I had the same experience at Liberty Tavern, with an otherwise delicious gnocchi dish. Also, except for the sautéed grape tomatoes, the dish looked kind of beige – could have used some delicate asparagus spears for color. The bartender/waiter was attentive yet not overbearing and the manager came out to introduce himself and applaud my tolerance of a Polish businessman who had been bending my ear. It was altogether a pleasant evening and I’d certainly be willing to go there again with Jeff and try some new stuff.

The other night, I tried Me Jana, a new Lebanese place in the spot where the very bland Sala Thai used to be (I didn’t expect that S/T would last as it had direct competition from a number of non-bland Thai places within a block). Anyhoo, was very interested in trying the place & I think I found our new favorite place, just a block away! Me Jana has a wonderful menu of reasonably-priced hot and cold mezzes as well as some higher-priced main courses. For the money though, I think anyone would be very happy ordering a few of the small plates. I had the fettoush and zucchini fritters for dinner. The fettoush was what I would consider a perfect salad with a tangy vinaigrette, tomatoes, Italian parsley, radishes and cucumbers – and not over-salted. The “fritters,” more like little patties, had mint and were served with a delightful, garlicky sauce. Again, not over-salted. I then tried one of the desserts, I think called Halewat, which was some sort of soft cheese with a sort of syrup and pistachios – very nice and different. The dish looked small and delicate, but I definitely could have shared it – very dense and maybe due to my slight lactose intolerance, made me very full. All the flavors were very distinct and bright, as were the presentations. The service was very attentive and I didn’t have to wait for “my” waiter to accommodate, the wait-staff seemed to be tag-teaming. And I gathered that the place was non-smoking! I REALLY want to go back with Jeff and try a bunch of new things. This place was a stand-out and would be a great place for a book club meeting (hint, hint) or for any casual and relaxing evening among friends.

*Very few restaurants are worth a half-hour wait. Anything more than that is ridiculous – there are so many good restaurants that would value your patronage. As a matter of fact, if I hadn’t been seated so quickly, I would have marched down to our favorite sushi place – and I know they would be happy to see me!

A nasty frame of mind

I'm sitting here in the coffee/gourmet shop on the ground floor of my apartment building, trying to finish a piece for my writing group. Two different groups around me are having VERY LOUD and EMOTIVE conversations in spanish.

What comes to mind besides "shut up" and/or "speak English" is "ya'll are invading my country and my government is doing less than nothing about it. In fact, they're aiding and abetting it. Unbelievable!" I'm thinking some other things, but they're not really printable.

Nice to think that my country will become the same cesspool as so many latin american countries if this is allowed to continue. I really need to start finding the time to write letters to those who "represent" me - before it's too late.

Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, tells the story of two Afghan women whose lives intersect forcibly through their marriage to the same abusive man. It reveals, through their lives and experiences, the turbulent, harsh and often chaotic history of Afghanistan.

What is immediately apparent is that Hosseini is a wonderful story-telller. You start reading, then suddenly realize you're half-way through the book. He pulls you in right away and makes you care about his characters; they provoke some sort of response right off the bat. What I appreciated, though, was that Hosseini's characters were rather nuanced, not easy stereotypes. Even the “villains” have their soft spots, which you can at least acknowledge, yet still revile them.

A Thousand Splendid Suns was a thoroughly enjoyable read. I didn’t compare the book to Hosseini’s first story, The Kite Runner, because I haven’t read it yet. Folks who have read both, however, say this is even better than Kite Runner. Hmmm…I’ll have to find that out for myself. In closing I’ll say that unlike some stories I've read which are set in Afghanistan, this leaves the reader with a sense of optimism.

Random Bamboo

This last Saturday, we went hiking at Great Falls with a friend of ours. It was the perfect day for a hike - not too hot, not too cool - and we saw many cool things on the trail - the falls, deer, interesting fungi, other hikers and their dogs, runners and cyclists (all observing “trail etiquette,” I must say). One of the coolest things, though, was this random wall of bamboo at a random place along the trail. It was so neat and unexpected. I wondered why we don’t see more bamboo since it basically grows anywhere, provides very effective shade and cover, and probably is good for preventing soil erosion. All that, and you can make stuff with it.

Book Review: Memoirs of a Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden, tells the enchanting and bittersweet tale of a girl sold into a slavery that ultimately gives her a sense of purpose, her own beauty and strength. It’s also about a culture that is all but extinct in its native country; through this poignant fiction the reader gets a sense of that history through the author‘s obviously extensive research. Mostly, though, Memoirs is just such a beautifully written story and Golden does an uncanny job of portraying the sensibilities of the young apprentice as she navigates the treacherous and demanding, yet exquisite life of a geisha.

Book Review: Invasion

In Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores, Michelle Malkin gives us a sobering and quite frankly, anxiety-provoking look at how our government has abdicated one of its most basic and critical charges, that of national security. She backs up her assertions with lots of solid research and concrete examples of failures from whatever source - incompetence, inattention, bureaucratic inertia, political posturing, you name it - and shows that there are many who have and are presently taking advantage of those substantial chinks in the armor. It got my blood boiling, especially in light of the fact that I’m financially supporting - as are all taxpayers in this country - a system that reinforces its own mistakes and poor judgment, and puts all of us in increasing peril. The take-away is this: we as Americans, cannot afford to be lulled by vague promises; rather, we must hold our government accountable for the job we hired it to do.

Treo "premium" hard case

A month and a half ago, I ordered a metallic red hard case cover for my Treo 680 to protect it from the "ravages" of my purse/satchel. Initially, the cover looked sharp, seemed secure and was very reasonably priced ($4.95 plus shipping); however, after using it under normal conditions (not extreme, didn't drop it or throw it around) for a month and a half, the case is crumbling at the connect points, making it useless. Not only that, but the red coating has been chipping off around the edges and at the stylus insertion site for a while. I contacted the vendor, Accessory Export, and they said they have a 30-day return/exchange policy and but that they have no control over normal wear and tear. After this unacceptable response and a shoddy product that lasted 1.5 months, I will not buy anything more from this vendor & will certainly not replace this case with another of the same product. Caveat emptor!

It's for the chiiiildddren!

This SCHIP business burns me up. As a matter of fact, the only part I like is that the proposed expansion would be funded with cigarette taxes. Trust me, there are enough die-hard (heh) smokers still around to fund a program.

But back to the story. Advocates of this program reference all the uninsured CHILDREN who desperately need coverage. Now, this involves all those NOT covered by Medicaid. So, we're talking about children from MIDDLE CLASS families.

First, it's politically expedient (especially on the left) to verbally isolate CHILDREN as if they just popped up on their own, defenseless, and need to be taken care of. This rhetoric disregards and relieves of the responsibility, the duties and obligations of the PARENTS. Now, I believe that anyone who cannot provide ALL the basic requirements for children - healthcare definitely included - should not have the children in the first place. But what still endures from the hippie days is that freedom (e.g., sexual freedom and "reproductive freedom" and in this case) means doing anything you want regardless of the consequences and sloughing off the responsibility of those consequences to someone else.

Second, this program is to cover those children whose parents make too much to be eligible for Medicaid. So, we're increasing the level of the nanny state for those who are middle class. There's a lot of talk about those parents who work hard and yet have no healthcare coverage. Why not? If you had kids, wouldn't you target jobs that offered healthcare coverage as part of the compensation package? I mean, when I was working at GWU Medical Center, everyone who was a full-time, permanent employee - regardless of pay-grade - had access to a selection of HMOs & PPOs, partially subsidized by GWU.

Third, proponents claim that illegals are excluded from this program. And because the federal government has done such a terrific job of keeping them out of the country, I really believe they can keep them from taking advantage of this program too. Sarcasm. You got that?

So, what this expansion of an EXISTING program means bigger nanny state, less personal responsibility expected of the parents and people in general, and you can take advantage of this even if you're middle class and probably even if you're illegal. BAD.

Here's a recent article about President Bush's veto of the current version of this bill, fyi.

Treo 680 learning curve...

...getting shallower! I recently loaded "Documents to Go," cut-down, PDA friendly versions of Word, Excel & Acrobat that came with the Treo, onto my desk-top.

As you know, I have a sucky class schedule, especially on Tuesdays, that involves my shuttling and metro-ing back and forth between apt and school, essentially wasting a lot of time. Well, in my unending quest to make this time somewhat productive, I started using the Word application on my Treo and guess what? I did most of a critical review on my tiny superphone! Wahoo! Then when I got home, all I had to do to transfer the file to my desk-top was synchronize the Treo (which is a good idea to do regularly anyway, to back up your calendar and contact updates).

Oh, did I mention that you can attach photos to your contact list entries? That's a cool feature. But not as cool as using some otherwise deadtime to actually produce do homework...or craft blog entries...or...

Enough already, I must sleep!