...nice to spend time together in our nation's capital

Just had an awesome weekend visiting Candi and some of her friends in the D.C. / Baltimore area.

But first, let me say, I HATE NEW JERSEY. I realize I've said it before, but this drive was just rediculous. 7 and a half hours to make a 5 hours drive. 45 minutes to get through a toll booth. An hour and a half to go 7 miles due to an accident. And "warning" signs that were totally inaccurate. OK, that's enough, just had to get it off my chest.

Started the weekend off right by hitting a bar with a 2,000 beer menu. Granted, about 5 we wanted to try weren't available, but I did enjoy my Isle of Skye Wee Beast... 7% 16oz. bottle. Quite tasty, highly recommend it.

Spent most of the day Saturday riding bikes around D.C. with Candi and her friend from AmeriCorp, Debbie. Hit the Einstein statue, Lincoln, Korean War, WWII, and FDR memorials. I'd not seen the Korean War, WWII, and FDR memorials before, and the FDR memorial was increadible. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's set up in 4 sections, representing his 4 terms in office. Fabulous and thought-provoking quotes, and some amazing water falls.

We then rode out to Hains Point, and the amazing sculpture "The Awakening". Got some great pictures of us climbing about. If you'd care to see them, let me know... or perhaps I'll set up a webshots gallery and link it here.

After a nice dinner in Chinatown, we hit a party that ended up having 7 or 8 CMU alumns, nice keg of Yuengling, and a visit from the D.C. police... Amazing, over 21 and we still get visits...

Sunday we had a nice time at a farmer's market at which Debbie works. we hit the road for Baltimore, and had a very nice lunch at the Inner Harbour with Jen King and her father.

As a point of measure, the drive home back from Baltimore only took 4 and a half hours... Friggin' Jersey...


Peace

Fall = Time for Changes

Well, it's been awhile since I've written anything. It's not from a lack of things going on, but rather too many things going on to really talk about. Pretty much spent the Summer partying with my co-workers. A couple awesome house parties, some great drunken nights at the bars, and generally acting like we were all still in college.

But it's Fall now, and time for a change. I started working out again, saving some money, cut down the drinking, cut out some other stuff that wasn't good for me either. In the last week alone, I've finished four books, and have a new author to add to my favorites list. I put down Brave New World Revisited (awesome non-fiction), The Sun Also Rises (my first Hemingway, so tragic, so real), and 2 Vonnegut books (realize I'm late to the party, but better late than never right?). Slaughterhouse-five was incredible, and made me want to pick up more, so yesterday I read Cat's Cradle, and it had the same effect on me, couldn't put it down from start to finish. I've got another to read (Breakfast of Champions), and a Herman Hesse novel, The Glass Bead Game, or something like that... it looked really good at Borders.

I also bought a replacement camera body for mine, which has been broken since February. It's Fall again in New England, so the leaves have once again captured my photographic attention. If anything good comes out, I'll put one up here. Maybe I'll run up to Vermont or New Hampshire this weekend...

Well, seeing as how I'm at work, I should probably cut out this personal stuff, huh? If anyone wants to come visit New York/New England, there's a futon with your name on it.

Peace