Washington D.C., Sweet Washington D.C.

I thought this was sort of an odd sign as I entered the security check at the Minneapolis Airport. Just so you know. . . The Bendare Ngurah Rai International Airport is not secure! Thanks T.S.A.!

Anyway, I'm in D.C. thanks to my lovely church which sent me here to attend a colloquium on Sunday-Tuesday. I'm really excited about the colloquium, but am equally excited just to be in D.C.

Yesterday, I visited Dan at the new and acclaimed "Cardinal's Nest" right behind his house in Brookland. The area is really blooming - they now have 2 coffee shops, several bars, and organic food store, and much more. It will be itneresting to see what happens to the area over the next 25 years.

Anyway, it was good to catch up with Dan. I then went to eat dinner in Adams Morgan at the Amesterdam Fellafel House, a marijuana themed (strangly enough) establishment that makes amazing fallafel (how's that spelling?). I picked some up and went to Niko's apartment, which is where I'm staying for the weekend. It was great catching up with him too, and talking about liturgical translation. :-)

This morning I traveled to CUA to visit a few people. I caught up with one of my italian teachers, Deanne at summer opera (sounds like they really have it going on!) and Rachel in the music library. The music library always receives donations of music, much of which they already have, thus sell for budget money. They had a huge collection of hymnals. I bought myself Hymnal 1982, Hymnal 1940, and the 1980s version of Lutheran Book of Worship.
I'm excited.

What's next? After I leave the coffee shop, I will head off to get my hair cut by David. David how i've missed thee! I'm already spending too much money and I haven't been here 24 hours. Ouch!

Floppera

Thanksgiving in Iowa Too

Eikon and I traveled to my homeland on Thanksgiving Day. It was an uneventful drive, about 5 1/2 hours, and as soon as we arrived my mother began cooking the meal. It was all together quiet and uneventful. We had a lovely time.

On Friday we spent a goodly chunk of the day helping my parents to put up Christmas decorations. Every year, my parents bring out a 100ft (that's a guess) long fake evergreen garland and drape it from the pillars (yes there are pillars, but they aren't fancy, so don't get any ideas). I wish I had pictures, it's really quite attractive.

Anyway, after that, we went downtown. Eikon did a little picture taking as he is want to do. Here are a few:

We visited the Goats - Johnny and Pepper, that I trained in high school. They're now in retirement at local farmstead. They've gotten older and fatter, and well hey, so have I. No biggie. If you don't know about the goats, check out the GOAT U website.

We were especially impressed by our friends' effort to remodel their house. They re-sided the building with REAL SIDING, and put on a beautiful porch. I hope to lounge on it next time around.

We also made a pilgrimage to St. Mary's Church - the church that I grew up in as a church musician. It's been recently renovated and the church, which was pretty darn ordinary when I was there, is now blue and stenciled and gold, and dare I say it - - gaudy! Ah yes - gaudy, just how we like things.

So anyway. Here are some pictures. Judge for yourself. :-)















While in G.C. we also paid homage to one of the oldest buildings, the Cottage Motel. This building is owned by the city and needs a new roof. What next? Well, what else! Pave the way for progress, de-asbestos it and rip the thing down. The sad part is that I didn't get a sense that anyone back home really gave a damn. It's an old building, rip it down. I suppose that goes along with midwestern sensibility. There really should be something in place to protect buildings like the Motel, but I guess there aren't - that is there isn't anything that I, an outsider who doesn't own the building or live in Iowa can do. Oh well. It's just history right? Anyway, here's a picture. May the building have a happy afterlife.

grotto

iowa

It's been a very busy week. Last monday Fred flew into town, so we spent a lot of time showing him around (and eating good food!). On Thursday we drove down to Iowa to get ready for my mom's birthday. On the way, we picked up my sister Maria and her baby Maia. They were a surprise and I think mom really enjoyed it. On Friday, Jason and I spent most of the day in the kitchen making big pans of lasagne and all the fixings. It was fun. Here are pictures, selected by Eikon.
Here's a picture of the kitchen/dining room. I'm not sure why Jason took it. It's not very good. The two ladies are mom's sisters. They look annoyed.

This picture is of a tractor pulling corn on the way home. We thought it might amuse you east-coasters.
Here is my lovely mother in her red hat.

Here are her old fart sandals.
Here's my mom with Maia.

Maia liked Eli a lot.


Maia's first piano lesson
Boy does she love it.
Mom gave jason this dutch oven as a thank you for dinner. It's huge!
Here are the big kids enjoying the birthday dinner.
Grandma, Maia, and Eli - trio in crime.
We found a sculpture of a dog with his leg lifted when we were in Des Moines. I thought we would reinact is with our puppy. The Photographer didn't do a good job.

Here's a cute picture of Eli. Eikon was too lazy to flip it so just turn your head.
Love Flopper

Woodcutters and on the Needles and out of Work

So we went to Woodcutters ever so briefly with Elias who seemed to really enjoy kawashaway. We had lovely conversation with Kiva and to a little walk along the temperance where we promptly lost our gentle leader dog leash. I decided to come home with Flopper rather than have him drive the 2 hours to Duluth to get me on Monday and because I had work on Monday. Getting home and checking my messages I found that I no longer have work on Moday as they have decided to let me go. I kept forgetting (twice) to initial for eyedrops and foot cream and apparantly company policy is strict about these things. So back to the job hunt. It seems I have a comission for a hat and Flopper's sister in law Terri has informed me e of a craft show that she holds and suggested I might do eggs. I could probably put together a few dozen ormnament quality eggs before then but haven't decided whether it would be cost effective. 40 hours of labour with 30 percent of the take being given to the house and maybe 50 dollars of supplies. I could make maybe 300 . Oh well it is something to ponder. I am currently working on a baby blamket, a scarf, and two pairs of socks.

~eikon