Monday, July 18, 2005


July 4th weekend, my crazy friend Eleanor flew back to the east coast for a friend's wedding. We spend the festive weekend tromping around DC. Neither of us had ever seen the Library of Congress, so we went to see it. They had a really nice Walt Whitman exhibit inside. Here we are on the steps (she's not really that tall).

The outside of the main building. There are two other buildings, mostly used for storage of the library items. They're all located on the block east of the Capitol.


Inside. Claimed to be one of America's most beautiful buildings. It had been restored in the late 1990's.

Looking up!

The main reading room.

The Supreme Court Building was next door. I can't remember seeing it previously. Dangerous territory, these days.

The doors were pretty neat.

Working it in style at the sexy Hotel Rouge.

Dressed up for a night out with the DC boys. Hello!

The National Arboretum has an extensive Bonsai collection. Other cool highlights were the herb garden and this collection of pillars on a hill (from the old capitol or whitehouse or something).

Eleanor and her favorite tree.

Gussied up for the wedding.

The bride (obviously).

More Oman stuff.

A hand-made fishing boat at the Oman exhibit as part of the Folklife Festival on The Mall.

Hot, crowded, and still waiting.

My friend Bronwyn met us for the show. She doesn't like the angle of this pic, but I think it's cool. Festive outfit, no?

The fireworks! We sat near the Capitol to hear the concert. I didn't take many firework pics, but have a nice 15 second video of them.

Don't fireworks pics always turn out blurry? Plus, I hate feeling compelled to photograph events like this--I feel like you miss out on some of it because you're focused on taking some nice pics.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

A Virginia Rant.

As much as I might say I hate living in a rinky-dink town (population 11,000), I do love this area's scenic rolling hills, picturesque small towns, and Civil War history. Having grown up in coldish Western New York, I relish the long summer, early spring, and late fall VA allows. I even enjoy playing tennis in the summer's heat and sun.

Then there's the humidity.

My shower curtains quickly get moldy. My bath towels take all day to dry. The bed sheets always feel damp. Walking from my car to the house makes me feel like I've just run five miles. And it doesn't often cool off at night.

Add to this my environmental leanings that rarely allow me to turn on the air conditioning in either car or home. Summer here is GROSS. Well, ok, I have a convertible and prefer to have the top down unless it's *really* hot and sunny, so I can't complain about that. But my house only has two little A/C window units that are not sufficient to efficiently cool the place down. One real problem is that I cannot sleep with a window unit on, so I rarely use the A/C.

This causes a nightly dance of opening different windows and moving fans to circulate air through the house. Unless a thunderstorm passes through in the evening, this can only be done on the hottest days after 9 pm when the temperature finally goes below 85, though by that time the humidity is likely 85% +. The thunderstorms here are fun because they occur often, several times per week as a result of the humidity that builds during the day; are quite violent; and cool the air down quickly. But then you're left with terrible humidity from the evaporation.

See the dilemma that is a summertime Virginia? Needless to say, I have not been getting quality sleep.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005


Tom and I headed up to NYC at the end of June for Gay Pride weekend. Was the ESB really lit in lavender, like he says? Seeing "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" with Kathleen Turner was definitely the big highlight of the trip.

From the corner near our hotel.

We stayed at the funky--and affordable--Gershwin Hotel near 28th and 5th.

Tom and I spent the afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is always fun. I had never been to the rooftop patio, where this shot was taken. It probably has one of the best views in Manhattan.

Hot and sunny, but worth it up here.

Alice and friends. Hi, Mom.

Remote controlled boats in the park.

Tom and I having coffee and breakfast in the park before the parade.

Craziness at the Pride parade on Christopher Street. Fun, but also very hot! One of the things I loved most was seeing all the queer youth (16 year old-ish) out, especially young people of color. It gives me hope for the future of our world.

A nice parade shot. We watched much of it from Bryant (?) Park on the right, which was nice and shady on a hot day.

Vroom.

Dykes on bikes opened the parade. There were ALOT of them.

She had it going on.