Snow Day?

I hope so. We shall see. It's been snowing since about 5:30 p.m. here and we are supposed to get 4-7 inches by morning. This is so exciting!

Tonight we went to see The Rivalry at Ford's Theatre. It's a play about the Lincoln-Douglas debates that was written to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Lincoln's assassination. Four thumbs way up; it was excellent! The actor who played Lincoln looked just like him. There was this neat part at the end where the Lincoln actor said his lines (from one of Lincoln's speeches) offstage and they lit up the box where Lincoln was sitting when he was shot--very powerful. I am so glad we got to go.

Sometimes I forget that Lincoln was a very humble person. I usually picture him as this larger-than-life politician and union-preserver, but in reality--and this was demonstrated very well in the play--he lacked formal education and social status; he was really just a farm boy from Illinois. Much of the play also focused on the issue of slavery, which made me think about how far our country has come since the mid-nineteenth century. Sometimes it seems like our country is divided now, but back then it was really split. That was pretty encouraging; if we can get through something as wrenching and divisive as slavery, we can certainly overcome our petty differences now.

I can't find my favorite picture of the half-finished capitol dome, so this one will have to suffice.In my studies of how to give capitol tours, I learned that the new dome was placed during the Civil War. Lincoln insisted that the work continue to show that the United States would continue. This picture is actually from Lincoln's first inaugural address.

There, I am done musing about Abraham Lincoln.

Hopefully it will keep snowing!

We love the space heater

...because it keeps our apartment nice and warm. How have we lived so long without thee?

Today was a good day for us, although Jason felt a little bit ill at work. He's sleeping now, so hopefully he won't get sick. We had tasty leftovers for dinner and will probably read scriptures and have family home evening when he wakes up. Highlights from today:

1. Our Friday newspaper arrived. We thought someone stole it, but it doesn't appear to be read. Interesting.

2. I only had to do half of my mail room shift today because I ran out of things to do.

3. Our kindly neighbors brought us brownies.

4. We are going to Connecticut in less than two weeks!

5. Tomorrow is Groundhog Day. We own the film, but can't watch it because it is in Utah. Also because...

6. ...We are going to see The Rivalry tomorrow at Ford's Theatre. Yes, the Ford's Theatre. The play is about the Lincoln-Douglas debates and is supposed to be excellent. It better be, if it is replacing our yearly Groundhog Day party. I don't think we'll even make a Groundhog Day cake because there is no way we could eat a whole cake.

Church+Botanical Garden

First things first. We didn't have church today, but the bishop gave us permission to have our own little service. It was a neat experience.

After church we had some lunch, then headed to the National Botanical Garden. The outside gardens were closed because it's 27 degrees out, but the conservatory was open.
I took this daffodil picture for Roni. We forgot to plant bulbs again this year! When will we ever learn?

This is a nopal (I think). Jason says they eat them in Mexico. Yum. I also made sure to get a picture of a cactus so Mariel could remember her spiny friends!

The conservatory is divided into zones (i.e. Hawaii, Deserts of the World, Herbs, etc.), the coolest of which was the jungle zone. There are two levels; this picture is taken from the upper deck, approximately 30 feet off the ground. The glorious thing about the conservatory is that it was approximately 80 degrees inside. It was kind of funny to be so warm and surrounded by thriving plants and then look out the window and see snow.

Jason took this photo of a little pretty flower.
When we entered the jungle zone, I immediately noticed the distinctive sound of frogs and was really excited to see them. We looked all around and couldn't find any. When we got to the upper deck, the frog noise grew louder and louder and LOUDER until...

we discovered that it was a recording.

I was sorely disappointed.

Here I am pointing to the offending speaker.
Looking up from the ground floor of the conservatory.
Jason in the jungle room.
Bear-shaped topiary. Very neat.
We had a fun afternoon. Now we are just waiting for our chicken and rice to finish baking (only 1.4 more hours...) so we can have dinner.

It's snowing!

Right now. Out our window. Hurray!

I only wish the snow had come two days earlier so we could have skipped work. What a missed opportunity.

Last night we had our neighbors, Brittany and John Holbein, over for pesto and alfredo calzones and then we watched a West Wing. They have added the first season to their Netflix queue, so I feel like we've done our duty in converting them.

We went to the GW gym this morning with the Holbeins. It is much nicer than the RB and Smith Fieldhouse. It is three or four stories and has giant windows. I ran around on the short track because all the treadmills were full (15 laps for a mile!) and Jason lifted weights. We played basketball all together afterward. On the way home, we stopped at the Watergate Safeway and picked up some groceries. Then we had lunch.

Someone stole our newspaper this morning right out of its bag and left only the real estate and advertisements. We left a little note down by the mailboxes and when we got back from the gym, the rest of the paper had been returned. Hurray!

The ward member who was planning on taking us to the temple today decided not to go and we weren't able to get a ride with anyone else. We were pretty disappointed; we've been looking forward to going to the DC temple for a while. The missionary couple at the Barlow Center go every Saturday, so hopefully we can catch a ride with them soon.

Guess what! Church is cancelled tomorrow! This is so weird.

Frigid Friday

I don't normally recommend reading The Daily Universe--except for recreation, of course--but here's the story about the Payson temple. Pay particular attention to a fantastic quote in paragraph 2.

Click here to read it!

Anyway, enough of that.

Our Friday began with a briefing by John Sampler, a fellow at the Cato Institute who specializes in campaign finance. He was very interesting and brought up some interesting points about why total regulation is problematic. His lecture was followed by one from Marianne Viray, who is on the other end of the spectrum politically. I found her presentation a little less compelling, potentially because she spent a lot of time unnecessarily defending her positions; I am pretty sure 90% of the Washington Seminar participants already agreed with her. Both talked about the recent Supreme Court ruling about political funding.

We had some tacos for lunch, then went to class and heard from one more speaker: the Jamaican Ambassador to the US. He was by far the most dynamic speaker of today. The first part of his address was a little confusing, but he had a good sense of humor and talked about some interesting things. Someone asked him what he would like to change about Jamaica and he responded that he wishes the country had stronger families. Of all the things he could have identified, I think it is interesting that he chose families; they really are so important.

The weather this week was nice, but it has gotten pretty cold. Our apartment heater still doesn't work, but the missionary couple hooked us up with a little space heater. It seems to be doing the trick for now and the part the heater needs will supposedly be here on Monday. I'll believe it when I see it. The temperature in our apartment is balmy now, though.

We secured our free Dave Matthews Band tickets today; hopefully 1) the band won't cancel for the third year in a row and 2) we'll actually be in Utah for the concert. If not, we'll be looking to give away some tickets if anyone is interested... :)

We don't really know what we're going to do tonight, but I think we are going to eat some delicious pesto pizza.

Mariel: Thanks for the picture of the temple site. It looks pretty barren/cold.

Thursday=Friday

It's the weekend again! Today was a wonderful work day. I got so much done: composed three constituent letters, finished a report on the Data Quality Act, mailed a flag to Knoxville, answered a lot of phones, checked the mail...all sorts of fun stuff. I'm learning a lot.

Jason is at his Guarani class right now, but should be home in fifteen minutes or so, at which point we will eat tacos. Tomorrow we have three briefings and a class and should be done around 3:00 p.m. I'm not sure what we'll do tomorrow afternoon.

Next weekend we are going to Philadelphia and Valley Forge with the Washington Seminar group.

In other news, many of Jason's grad school applications are in. Now we just have to wait to see where we end up. I wish the selection committee would decide a little faster...

When I was walking to the metro tonight, the capitol looked just beautiful. There was a full moon and the sky faded from light to deep blue behind the dome. I should take my camera with me more often; I always see things I want to take pictures of.

Well, that's all for now!

We missed a day!

Today (and yesterday) were good days. Jason went to his first Guarani class yesterday and enjoyed it very much. I started some new/interesting projects at work and answered a lot of phone calls from unhappy Utahns.

We just finished watching the State of the Union address. Four thumbs up! Now we're listening to the BYU game. Go cougars!

I swear I had things to write about yesterday, but now can't remember what they were. Oh! I saw/kind of met Greta van Sustren (a news anchoress) when she came to interview the boss for Fox News. Jason got to take a trip to the government printing office, which was an adventure. We're really enjoying our internships and are excited to see the Frosts in two weeks!

I remember something from yesterday: the Thai restaurant next to us had a sign out front advertising the day's special: "1 1/2 priced appetizers!" I was amused.