Dinner for One

Some people can't be alone, but as an only child, I sometimes crave being by myself every once in awhile (don't tell Chris!) The best reason to have the house to yourself every now and then is to cook whatever you want. Recently, I ate dinner with mushrooms and I realized why I love them so much. I hadn't had mushrooms in a long time because Chris doesn't like them. Lesson learnerd: kick Chris out more often. Just kidding.

As you might have guessed, I have the house to myself right now while Chris is in Missouri and I took advantage of it. First, I made breakfast for dinner, which I think most people would be so excited about but not Chris. No--he likes a "light breakfast." Phooey. Why even eat if you are just going to have a spoon of yogurt and granola. You're just going to be hungry in about 10 minutes. And he doesn't really like eggs. I know--it's crazy.

So, I made a boiled egg salad sandwich. I discovered it at Cowgirl Creamery a couple of weeks ago. It knocked my socks off and it sounds weird, but it is very lovely especially in the morning when you have to go to work. It has a softish boiled egg with homemade mayo, green onions and buffalo mozzarella on a small ciabatta roll. The homemade mayo is the key. It tastes much better than store bought mayo and it imparts an intriguing flavor that I can't place, but know it is just good.

I am waiting for the arrival of my instant yeast, so I didn't bake my own bread. Yes, I did feel guilty. Instead I bought some Firehook French white bread, made some homemade mayo (I am a master at emulsifying) did an ok job with soft boiling an egg (if only I had a sous vide) cut some mozz and spring onions and viola! Dinner is served. Oh...I added some ham for good luck. It was delicious.

Holiday Party 2010

It is funny that we hardly blog about our holiday party although it is one of our biggest events of the year. I think it is mostly because we are both exhausted after both and then we have to focus on other Christmas errands, etc and we just never get around to it.

Our first year I had hot food, but didn't like how the food doesn't keep well all through the night. Meat gets dried out, etc. So, the second year I decided we would just have desserts and the rest is history. Every year I try to keep the good standbys and add new and interesting things to our holiday party. It's always a learning experience although I've done this six times now. I keep thinking next year it will be a breeze. I guess I will stop doing the party once I have "perfected" it.

This year had a few new goals for our annual holiday party:

1. Slightly less quantity for higher (hopefully) quality
2. Have time to put on make up before people come over
3. Sleep at least 4-5 hrs the night before

After a lot of planning and baking I can say that I accomplished those goals, but unfortunately I had to sacrifice the pièce de résistance I had planned, the croquembouche (cream puff Christmas tree)--so my victory was a bit hollow. I had the cream puffs made but didn't have time to stick them on a foam cone that I had before people started arriving. Although I was disappointed inside the entire night that my big fancy centerpiece was missing, no one noticed but me. (It was going to go in the picture on the left where the flowers are)

only exciting for someone in DC

A couple fun things happened at work last week. One night my office had its annual holiday dinner. We rented a room at a restaurant near the hill and had a good meal. Several hours, and bottles of wine, into the night, someone realized we were one of only two groups left in the restaurant, and the other was a group of two senators (names withheld to protect the innocent). A co-worker invited them into our room and we had a few more drinks and listened to their stories, which was pretty interesting as one had been a longtime senator who had run for President, is retiring this year, and had given his farewell address to the Senate that day.

Also last week, our office was moving to a larger space, and we spent most of last week packing. One of my favorite episodes of the TV show the West Wing is at the end when Alan Alda's character returns to his Senate office as a retiring member after losing the presidential election, and he has to pack away everything. It just so happened that last week, the boss and I met with Alan Alda, and when he come into the office he commented about how our office looked like the set of show at the very end.

You probably think I am a dork, but for a lot of people like me in DC, these are pretty neat events.

zihuatanejo

We spent the last week with my mom, dad, and brother in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. They stopped there on a cruise last year and wanted to go back. For Lelaine and me, it was our first time.

The town sits on a bay and is surrounded by hills. Our place was on a hill overlooking the south end of La Ropa beach, which is the biggest beach in town.

Sunday morning we lounged around the condo most of the day, listening to the Chiefs-Cardinals game on the radio and the NFL games that were broadcast in Mexico. All of us but Mom went down to another of the beach bars, where a group of Canadians were watching Canadian football. It was 20 degrees and snowing in Saskatoon or wherever the game was being played, a good 70 degrees less than the temperature in Zihua.

On Monday Lelaine and I spent all day on the beach at the Tides, a big fancy hotel on Playa la Ropa. While it wasn't the cheapest place to spend the day - beers and food were more expensive there than almost any other place in town - it was very relaxing. My dad had to leave that day to work in Texas for a couple days, and that night the four of us ventured into town to eat at an Italian restaurant.

On Tuesday we went to Ixtapa, but didn't do a whole lot there other than my mom doing some shopping. The towns are pretty close to one another, and if we ever go back I would definitely stay in Zihuatanejo. Once again we went into town for dinner and Lelaine and I split beef molcajetes, which was a stew type dish served in a molcajetes that was one of my favorite foods of the trip. They also made salsa tableside, which was pretty tasty.

One of my favorite things for breakfast is chilaquiles, which is tortillas soaked in salsa with chicken and eggs. Wednesday morning we went to this dive that I had read about that had a good version and I was pretty pleased. Matt seemed to enjoy them as well. Later in the morning Lelaine and I went into town and took a water taxi to Las Gatas beach, which is a smaller beach on the other side of the bay. The water there was really clear and Lelaine snorkeled and I kayaked. We also each had a huge pina colada served in a hollowed out pineapple.

Thursday my brother, dad, and I went out on the Picante, a big catamaran. Lelaine was going to go but she was afraid that even with an anti-motion sickness patch, she might get sick (like last year when we snorkeled with Maya and Tyson in Cabo and I thought she was going to die). It was a great day. We sailed out of the bay and down the coast, did some snorkeling, sailing, drank a few cervazas, and swam. That night we found a hotel that had a Thanksgiving buffet, which was pretty good. The pie was awful, but the rest of the food was pretty good considering no one at the place seemed to be too familiar with gringo holiday food (Mom claims, but Matt disputes, that someone called the ham "cow").

We spent most of Friday, our last full day, on the beach. Lelaine and I went into town to eat tacos al pastor, which we had been eying and a guy on the catamaran the previous day recommended. After eating about eight of them (they were small) and a chile relleno we headed back to the beach. Being the kind son that I am, I even took a few back for Dad and Matt, who were back at the beach and being solicited by guys asking if they needed senoritas for the evening. I tried a michelada - lime juice and beer - which was maybe the worst drink I have ever had. That night we went to a restaurant we had read about as being pretty authentic, and it was really good. I had chicken enchiladas with green mole, a tamale, and a couple margaritas. I thought they may have been the best margaritas of the trip (I sampled a good number), but Mom, a margarita connoisseur, claimed otherwise.

Saturday we woke up, sat outside for a bit, had one last order of chilaquiles, and then went to the airport. When I woke up Sunday morning back in DC I was sad that we couldn't sit out on the patio and look out to the beach.

Here are our photos.

big weekend

Between a visit from Lelaine's friend Jennifer, the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, Halloween, Howard's homecoming (a big deal in our neighborhood), and 40,000 runners doing the Marine Corps Marathon and 10k, it was a big weekend in DC.

Jenn and Lelaine, who had been working in LA, got into town Thursday night. On Saturday they went to the rally, which was pretty big - more than 200,000 people on the mall. That night was the annual bookclub halloween party at Stoney's. The theme was Greek gods. Lelaine was Selene, the goddess of the moon, and I sported a Brooks Laich t-shirt jersey with helmet and gloves (the Greek god of the Caps second line).

Sunday morning I woke up early and went down to the mall for the Marine Corps 10k. When I signed up I decided my goal would be under an hour, which is a 9:40 per mile page. Sadly, I thought the only way to do that would be to stop drinking, so for the last six weeks I have been (mostly) abstaining from booze. Fortunately it paid off, and I ended up finishing in 59:16. The result was in doubt, but I ran the fifth mile in 8:52 to ensure that I could do it. To celebrate my accomplishment I planted my butt on the couch and ate some chocolate croissants Lelaine bought for me, some bbq she picked up, and drank some beer while watching the Chiefs pull out a squeaker against the Bills.

All in all, a pretty good weekend.

race

I did the biathlon today. Thank you to everyone who donated - they raised more than $28,000.

It was a little harder than I expected. For whatever reason I didn't think the kayaking portion would be difficult. While my previous times paddling have been fairly easy, it has always just been for fun. About five minutes into the race, which was upriver, my arms were sore and I was ready to have someone pull me. Thankfully we only paddled a mile, so it wasn't too bad.

Another thing I wasn't expecting was to get drenched. A little wet sure, but at the start everyone was paddling/splashing around, and my shoes got soaked, which led to a fun run. I think my total time was just over 52 minutes. Not great, but not too embarrassing. I would definitely do it again.

baseball

Last week Doug and I went to see an advance screening of "The Tenth Inning," a continuation of Ken Burns's Baseball documentary. While in the lobby of the auditorium waiting for Doug, I happened to run into PBS's government affairs director who I know from work. It was a few minutes before the start of the show, and he was nice enough to take me backstage to meet Ken Burns and his co-producer Lynn Novich. I only had a chance to talk to them for a few minutes, but it was pretty neat. He talked about Buck O'Neill, his national park series, and some of work-related things on public television funding.

After the screening Burns and Novich came out and answered questions, and throughout that they talked about Buck O'Neill a lot, which I certainly liked. Anyhow, the purpose of the post (probably would have been better had I bothered to post this before it first aired) is to recommend that you watch the new episodes - the excerpts we saw were great.

shameless plug

On October 3 I am doing a kayak-running biathlon. The race is a fundraiser to to help soldiers and veterans wounded in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. If you would like to make a donation (my goal is only $200, so even something really small would be very helpful), you can do so here.

fingers crossed for a return to the 90s

For the past three years, and the bulk of the last ten, football Sundays have been...kind of depressing due to the dismal play of the Chiefs (there have been some exceptions). I know it was only one game, but hopefully Monday night's win against the Chargers is a sign of things to come. It has been a long time since we started the season looking this good. They need to keep it up against Cleveland tomorrow.

outer banks

The day before Labor Day, Doug, Lelaine, and I drove down to Kill Devil Hills, NC for a week at the beach. It was our third time going down to the Outer Banks - it is Lelaine's favorite beach within reasonable driving distance.

We rented a condo across the street from the beach and lucked into good weather every day but one (there was no hurricane damage from Earl, which had passed through a few days before we arrived). My favorite part of the house was that it was well stocked with beach chairs, boogie boards, and even a beach buggy thing to haul everything.

There was a lot of beach time, but we stayed pretty busy. We drove the 70 or so miles down the coast to Hatteras where we went to the graveyard of the Atlantic/pirate museum, twice went to the fairly desolate Coquina Beach with big sand dunes, kayaked around Roanoke Island (no sightings of John Smith or the lost colony) in Manteo, and went north to Duck and Corolla, including driving on the beach.

It was a very relaxing trip, but the week went by fairly quickly. We were hoping to paddle surf one day, but it ended up not working out - I guess that will have to wait for out trip to Mexico with my family in November.

Here are more pics.

Book It! for Adults

I am trying to challenge myself to read as much as I can this August/September recess because I never have time when Congress is in session. It is a challenge worthy of the Book It program from my early days where you would get the free Pizza Hut pan pizza if you read so many books. So far I've read Pillars of the Earth, The Girl Who Played with Fire and Club Dead. Right now I am in the middle of The Forever War. I went a little crazy with checking out books and buying books (see picture on the left) for our week beach vacation, but I think its something I was born with.

In elementary school, one of my favorite times of year was when the book fair came. We got a flyer a few weeks ahead of time and I would go through every title and mark every book I was interested in. I would then tell my mom how much money I needed to buy these books at the book fair. She would always let me buy what I wanted and I remembered being upset if a book that was in the flyer wasn't at the fair for some reason. I do remember one year my mom pushing back a little at the amount of books I wanted--I think I asked for $40, which does seem like a lot of money to give a kid in elementary school, but it was for one of the nerdiest things of all--to buy books.

Still a nerd, my goal is 3 books this week (what else can I do when I laying out on the beach?) The trouble is figuring out which ones to bring. I can get a bit finicky, so I need lots of choice. I'll admit, I'll probably pick up the Charlaine Harris book since you can read those so fast. An easy one. Have a recommendations among these choices? After these three, am I worthy of a pan pizza or at least a gold star?

My First Canning Adventure

Last weekend, I took up the age-old tradition of canning and curing. I found a book recently published called Homemade Living: Canning and Preserving on the Design Sponge site I now frequent and thought why not?

So I set off for Leesburg for a farmers market that I knew carried a lot of organic produce and hoped for slightly cheaper prices than the city. I was in luck! Prices were noticeably cheaper, which is important because when you are buying 8 pounds of peaches and tomatoes, it adds up! Based on what was available I decided I'd make blues and bay, tomato basil sauce, peach lavender butter, and cherry lemon thyme marmalade.

As for curing, I found a recipe in The River Family Cottage Cookbook for curing your own bacon and it was actually easy! Basically rubbing a cure mix on pork belly for four days and then eating and enjoying! I had a little sample last night and besides it being a tad salty, it was so good! You can cut it really thick and it is luxuriously decadent.

Here's what I learned:

Unitaskers are your friend in canning: Earlier in the week I bought some supplies to can including a canning rack, funnel, lid lifter and jar scraper. Little did I know, I forgot one other key supply--a jar lifter! Seemingly superfluous, it actually services a very important anti-boiling water burning skin function.

Canning is more relaxing than cooking: It is a step by step process that by nature takes time, so you're not furiously chopping to get ingredients in after the onions have caramelized or trying to cook an entree and two sides so everything comes out hot.

I hope to get a pressure canner soon so I can try canning low-acid foods (clementine cointreau curd), but I think I'll have to sell Chris on the first set of canned products before we add anything else to our kitchen.

I haven't opened any up yet, but while we are on vacation next week I am sure we'll be trying the goods. I have more photos on our flickr site too!

earl

We are supposed to head to the Outer Banks on Sunday, where right now everyone is evacuating due to Hurricane Earl. Hopefully when it touches North Carolina it doesn't cause much damage and everything, including the house we are staying in, is ok.

Haute or Haunted?

Chris and I drove to Leesburg, VA on Saturday for one of my favorite past times-- experiencing small town America. It's only an hour away and you get to see hills, farms, wine country and (drum roll please) antiques! What more can I ask for?

We went to a farmers market (more on that in a later post) and Old Lucketts Store, which I have been dying to visit for nearly a year. Admittedly, the stuff in this store is more Bleecker (or Rue Claudel) than Olive, but one always needs inspiration!

Chris doesn't really like this stuff. He thinks all of it looks like it comes from a haunted house. To his credit I did snap one freaky picture of a dismembered doll and old picture of a clergyman. I guess getting him to like Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams was my one gift from the decorating gods this year.

We bought a silver bon bon tray and a new light switch plate for our bathroom. I also fell in love with a window pane that would look lovely repainted above our bed, but I need a few months to work on Chris to pull that off. I think another visit will be very soon. More pics on our flickr page.

good nights at the ballpark

This weekend the Nats were home against the Cardinals, and with several Cardinals friends in town I went to two games. Somehow they are over .500 at home (their road winning percentage is a dismal .333), and the two games I attended were great.

Thursday was Allen's birthday so a bunch of us went and sat at tables in the restaurant in left-center. The weather was merciful - it was neither humid nor overly hot - and the Nats played fairly well. They were up two going into the top of the ninth and managed to give up four, but came back in the bottom of the ninth with a two run home run to send it into extra innings. In the bottom of the 13th they got an infield hit for the win, and even Lelaine thought it was pretty exciting.

san francisco part 2

Saturday we woke up at what would have been shortly after the crack of dawn had it not been for the fog to hit Triple D stop #2 on the trip - Dotty's True Blue Cafe. We had to wait about 45 minutes for a table, but it was worth it. I had blueberry cornmeal pancakes and Lelaine had corned beef hash. The place, particularly the kitchen, is tiny, and we sat at the counter and got to see the cook impressively make a lot of food in very close quarters.

Later that morning we walked from our hotel in the financial district to the weekend farmers market at the Ferry Building. It was packed and we had a couple small slices of meat from Boccalane, whose slogan is "Tasty Salted Pig Parts." Even though a lot of the food looked great, we planned on eating lunch a little later in another neighborhood. But right before we were set to leave we saw a food truck with a massive line and decided to see what all the fuss was about. When Lelaine saw a sign mentioning pork belly rolled in pork loin, we decided to throw our plans out and get in line. The bites of crispy pork were really good, although since it was just after 1pm and we had already had breakfast and a snack, neither of us could finish our lunch.

san francisco part 1

Tonight we got back from a weekend trip to San Francisco. Lelaine went for work and I tagged along.

We arrived Thursday afternoon and were picked up by Lelaine's cousin Maya, who took us to their new place in Burlingame. When her husband Tyson (FYI-Maya and Tyson are the ones who got married in Cabo last year) came home from work we headed into the city for dinner. We ended up at Tacolicious, which was my favorite meal of the trip. We tried the carnitas, chicken, beef, filet mignon, and chorizo tacos. The chicken was the winner, although all were worthy of the name of the restaurant.

Another interesting part of the dinner was eating outside. Although the weather was sunny and warm in Burlingame, it was cool and foggy and in the city. The cool temps pleased me, although Lelaine was pretty chilly even though the restaurant had heaters and blankets. Tyson had a softball game after dinner, and I felt sorry for whoever was playing in the outfield because the fog was so thick I don't know how you could follow the ball off the bat and into the thick, wet fog.

old age

Today is my 32nd birthday. Despite that fact that my 73 year old boss told me, "you're getting old," the birthday doesn't make me feel any different. But what really does make me feel old is the recent realization that as of tomorrow, Allen and I will have known each other for 14 years.

Our friend Sam turned 30 last weekend and at his very enjoyable rooftop party we were talking about a joint activity for Sam, Allen, and me since we have birthdays within a couple weeks of each other. Allen and I then started talking about how long ago it was that we went to college - we were randomly assigned to be roommates our freshman year at Mizzou. It just so happens that I left for Columbia the day after my 18th birthday, which means that as of tomorrow, Allen and I will have known each other for 14 years. That is scary.

When my mom used to make fun of me and say I was getting old, I used to tell her that at least when I was born there were 50 stars on the flag. But the fact that I met Allen 14 years ago makes me feel like a fossil. I would add a picture of the two of us from freshman year, but I don't think cameras had been invented then.

Sneak Peek

While work is in the progress, I thought I'd share the snapshot of the new rug. It is at the store (Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams), so don't mind the dining room table. Alas, we didn't gain another room in our condo.

Our next big project is cutting and framing 12 vintage travel posters. Any cheap ideas? Chris has also promised to "take care of" staining our TV stand. And I'm on the lookout for good throw pillows.

We are also not just taking in, we are throwing out! We've gotten rid of a few things that we realize we don't use. Example: $15 fondue pot bought at Target that hasn't been used in 5 years.

All in all, we are moving fast towards a sophisticated home. Yay!

The Color Scheme

After a lot of "I think we might have found the right color scheme" comments we've finally found colors that we both like. What's even better it works with a lot of the things we already have so we can make some minor changes and soon we will have an adult looking apartment.

I picked up this brochure at Home Depot from the paint department after we found out that Roman Shades are priced for Caesars, not Bigelows. So, there was silver lining after all.

How will we use this color scheme?

We've nixed the map idea for vintage travel posters to take up the big space on our wall. We will be buying frames and painting them the first color on the left. The chocolate color is very similar to our couch and some of the rest of the furniture, so we don't have to bring that in. And the walls we have are like the white in the picture. Finally, the fushia/purple color we will bring in with a rug and accent pillows.

One of our biggest problems is the fact we've bought all of our furniture at different points and it hasn't all quite come together. But in general, we like certain aspects of our current place. For instance, we are both anti-big entertainment centers. Yes, our TV sits on something, but it isn't an entertainment center with books, figurines and so forth. So, we like the furniture, but the color doesn't match ANYTHING. Kind of frustrating. So, that may get a new coat of paint--color yet to be determined.

It is so great to finally have a color scheme so we can move forward. And so I must give a shout out to Behr paints for making the brochure to give us the inspiration.

Honey Pig

Here are few fun pics from our Korean BBQ night at Honey Pig.

Can Bleecker and Olive Live Together?

It's a slowly, but surely moving process of redesigning our living room. However, if you know Chris, I am moving at lightening speed. He bought shoes yesterday that he said, "he's been

contemplating for a couple of years."

I really would like to redo our place with both of our styles, but it's been hard. If Chris had his way everything would be white. He thinks hospitals decorate just right. While, I love bold colors and patterns. That being said, I've seen Chris take a fancy to--uh--fancier things and I can tone down a bit.

I found this great DIY website that describes certain styles. I am a mix of Bleecker Street and Rue Claudel. Chris is Olive Road or Timber Ridge. Well, that make it easy because unless we are getting a cabin I don't know about, we can axe Timber Ridge. And I think Chris likes throwing out Rue Claudel. So now the big question is can Bleecker Street and Olive Road find harmony?

Charleston Trip

I left Chris to fend from himself for five days and went to Charleston with my best friend from college Jenn. We had a great adventure going to Colonial Williamsburg, riding a ferry to Scotland and visiting South of the Border--all of that before we even got to Charleston. It was a great trip filled with good food for two people who became friends over many meals in college.
Click here to look at my photos.

An unexpected design change

After several years and some spilled coffee, we decided to get a new computer-- I mean a new Mac. It has set back a few weeks, the "redecorating conversations," but it has been a great new addition to our place.

matt's visit

Last weekend Matt came out for a visit. When we booked the ticket it was in hopes of him being here for a Caps game in the Stanley Cup, which would have been awesome...had the Caps not gotten eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. Fortunately we still had a good weekend.

On Friday, after Lelaine and Jen got back from their roadtrip to South Carolina, we went out to dinner at Jaleo with Doug, Allen, and Heather for Spanish tapas. The next morning, after polishing off some pancakes, the fire alarm in our building went off and we played outside for a bit. After getting the ok to head back inside, Lelaine seized on Matt's like of goat cheese as an excuse to head downtown to Cowgirl Creamery to try a variety of fromage. We also got a cupcake from Red Velvet, a cupcake place that Lelaine likes but isn't near the top of my list. It was pretty hot outside, but we walked around a bit and then took Jen to grab a train to take to the airport.

Next was a stop at the Library of Congress. It is across the street from where we work but I have only been inside the Jefferson Building - by far the nicest of the three - once or twice. The inside was really neat; probably the best looking building in DC. It will definitely be added to the list of places to take visitors from now on.

Although we had been snacking all day, we hadn't had a meal since breakfast, so Lelaine decided to stop off at Whole Foods for a snack before we went out that night. This was a good opportunity for my brother to experience one of Lelaine's "snacks," which consisted of cheese, crackers, soppressata, and steak sandwiches. In her defense, that night we weren't going to eat a full meal, but still, that is quite the snack.

Then came the highlight of the weekend: Savor, aka beer prom. This was the third annual Savor, an event in which the Brewers Association picks 70 craft brewers to bring two of their best beers to DC for a night when you get to pair all kinds of amazing beer with food. Doug, Lelaine, and two friends from work joined Matt and I, and Doug hit the nail on the head when he compared it to Christmas morning when you are a kid. It is pretty much every beer lovers dream. The picture is of Matt and I eating oysters. After Savor we thought it would be best to soak up some of the beer with a jumbo slice in Adams Morgan.

Sunday morning was a little rough, but we eventually made it outside for a little food and drove around to show Matt part of the district. While in Georgetown we stopped at Baked and Wired, my favorite cupcake place. Somehow Matt claimed Red Velvet to be better - he must have just wanted to be nice to Lelaine right before we dropped him off at the airport. Hopefully it isn't 3+ years until his next visit.

#14

Saw Pearl Jam Thursday night. Below is a video - apparently our camera picks up decent sound - from Just Breathe.

As always it was a good show. Went with Doug and we were in the 17th row on Mike's side. Apparently Eddie went to the 9:30 Club the night before. Pretty neat that he was hanging out on my block.

What do you think?

First piece of inspiration for our living room wall! Check out the design sponge link.

I think it would be great if we could get old maps to places we've been or would like to go and arrange them in a nice way.

Maybe a center shadow box with a compass and other vintage mapmaking tools?

three random things

A couple of weeks ago a few of us in my office ran the Cherry Blossom 10 mile race. Good news is that we finished in the top ten...bad news is that there were eleven teams (well over 10,000 runners, just not a lot of House teams in the division). In my team's defense, everyone else was a lot faster than me. It is my last race for a while. Less than one mile in I got a pretty bad cramp that almost made me stop running/quit. I ended up continuing and met my goal - faster than the Army 10 miler last year (beat it by two minutes) and no walking - but my knees haven't been doing great since, which is why it is my last race for a while. Elliptical, here I come.


Friday night Justin from the office and I went to a bar to watch the Caps game. I started a tab, and when I went for my second drink and gave the bartender my last name he asked "which Bigelow are you?" I assumed he was joking, but at the end of the night I shouted my last name to the bartender to close out my tab. A lady next to me stared at me and yelled "really!" Turns out the bartender was right - there was a second Bigelow in the bar that evening. She was from North Carolina and said that the Bigelows in her family were African American, so we figured we probably aren't related.


Today is Lelaine's birthday. We were going to have a bbq for her up on the roof deck. However, all week long the forecast for today called for thurnderstorms, so on Friday we sent out an email saying the party would be postponed until next weekend. Guess what: it didn't rain today. Hopefully it won't next weekend.

Neighborhood Restaurant Update

A mystery person (seriously, I don't know who wrote this) has compiled a list of updates to our neighborhood restaurant scene. Team purple house is pretty excited at the prospects of the new places and in a new turn of events, hopeful that it means great things for our property values.

Anyway, the info might be useful to our fellow neighbors, so I decided to post.

1905 - A new roof deck for dining is slated for a late spring early summer summer.

Du Vin Osteria - Opening in mid-July, Du Vin Osteria will offer French cuisine, specializing in small plates. They’ll be enough space for nearly 200 inside, and patio seating for 28. (1401 Florida Avenue, NW)

Cork & Fork - Anna and Dominique Landragin will open a third outpost of their popular Cork & Fork wine shop - and their first in DC -this spring. Dominique is an internationally recognized award-winning wine maker, viticulturist, vigneron (grape grower) and wine consultant. Anna has become an experienced chef and as part of her management and operation responsibilities at Cork & Fork, she provides advice on wine and food pairings and preparation through demonstrations, as well as how to plan wine-tasting parties at home. The shop will stock hard-to-find small-production wines from across the globe, as well as those from local vineyards. (14th & Church Streets, NW; Washington, DC)

Diamond District Seafood Company - Chef and sustainability advocate Barton Seaver hopes to open his newest venture - a combination restaurant and seafood market in Logan Circle. Occupying the space that previously housed retailer 100% Mexico, Diamond District Seafood Company will offer seating for 125, along with the potential for a small patio. The second floor will provide a venue for private dining. D.C. architecture and design company Core is creating the restaurant’s look. On the menu look for an extensive raw bar selection, as well as a variety of mussel offerings and sustainable fish species. The market will sell many of the same fish species served in the restaurant. Other gourmet items will be available as well. Seaver wants to honor food stamps and offer several species at prices ranging from $3 to $4 a pound so that more people can afford the market. (1608 14th Street, NW) Awaiting new opening date information.

Omar Minskinyar (Policy) & Aman Youbi (Local 16) will open a new steak house/burger joint on the corner of 14th & U Streets inMay (unlikely). Perfect for spring in DC, there will be a 1,000 squarefoot rooftop patio. No name yet… (2001 14th Street, NW)

The Brixton - The owners of Marvin and Gibson have their eyes on a new spot. And, this time they’re thinking gastropub. The Brixton will be located 901 U Street, NW. The space is in pretty rough shape right now, so renovations will take a bit of time. There will be a significant food component, similar to Restaurant Marvin, but with an English theme – think fish `n chips, burgers, etc with an affordable price point. The name Brixton comes from a neighborhood in East London, England, very similar to the neighborhood around 9th and U. They also plan to have a roof deck – and patio seating. (901 U Street NW)

The Jack Rose - Local restaurateur Bill Thomas (Bourbon, Breadsoda) hopes to open The Jack Rose – a new restaurant and lounge - in spring of 2010. The space has housed, over the years, several gyms. It’s a 5,893-square-foot, two-story building with room for 300, has a very unique feature for the Adam’s Morgan neighborhood – its substantial size. Disappointed that the opening is still 6 months away? Your reward for patience – plans for a summer garden that will seat 150. (2007 18th Street, NW, opposite Duplex)

Estadio - Mark Kuller, the man behind the wine-themed Proof has signed a lease for a second restaurant on 14th Street. Estadio will be a Spanish restaurant and is taking the space of the Garden District store. The restaurant is expected to open by late spring/early summer 2010 and will feature dishes from Northern Spain. Executive chef at Proof, Haidar Karoum will run the kitchen. Two other familiar faces from Proof, Sebastian Zutant and Adam Bernbach, will be overseeing the beverage program which will include a wine list that will be 80 percent Spanish. (1520 14th Street, NW)

Table 14 - This joint venture from Aman Ayoubi (restaurateur & owner of Local 16), Eric Gronning (Gronning Architects) and Doug Whipple (Whipple Farms), is scheduled to open this year (moving very slowly). This location will offer three distinct experiences on each of its floors. The main level is conceived as a farm-to-table restaurant serving modern American cuisine with an Italian influence. This level spans 2,000 square feet with plans for 60 table seats, 15 bar seats, 12 cocktail/counter seats and 16 outdoor seats. Features will include a two-story atrium space and an open kitchen. The second floor will feature a large yakitori grill and bar. It will be designed as a light-filled space overlooking a green roof and garden space. The third floor will be a flexible special events space offering views of 14th Street and a small roof deck. Much of the produce will come from Whipple’s Farm in Rixeyville, Va., and a network of other farmers. Whipple Farms, a 160-acre, biodynamic farm nestled in the Virginia Piedmont region, is not only partnering in the new restaurant venture, but also supplies Local 16 and other area restaurants with locally and biodynamically grown heirloom vegetables. Local 16 has been providing financial support to expand the farm’s operations. In addition to his current role at Local 16, Executive Chef Eric McKamey will oversee the menu and kitchen operations at Table 14. (1832 14th Street, NW)

What's Going On

Much to Chris's dismay, I have a mind to redo our place so that it looks like young professionals live there as opposed to recent graduates. I also hope it will better reflect our tastes and style (mine more than Chris's) and not our budget! A tall order, for sure, but I am hoping after some free HGTV shows I can find some economical ways to create a nice-looking home for us.

I think this will also be great way to beef up our blog posts as well. To be honest, while in essence our blog posts have waned because of lack of time; the reason why we have no time is because all we do is work. Nothing interesting goes on there--well that we want to blog about anyway.

Our first step is an appointment with Next Day Blinds on Saturday. They are coming to our home so we can figure out the pricing on getting reversible shades instead of blinds. We almost never open our blinds being on the first floor and don't get a lot of natural lights, so we thought if we had shades that start the bottom and go down instead of up we can still have privacy while letting the light in. Several other people in our building have this in the units, so I hope that means it is common, i.e., not expensive. We only have two sets of windows, so how bad could it be? (Famous last words I am sure.)

In other news, I've posted the best of New Orleans and Cruise photos on Flickr. Enjoy!

New Orleans-Mexico cruise: days 5-7

The last full day of the cruise was another day at sea. When we booked the trip I wasn't wild about the same number of days at sea as days in port, but I must say it was nice to have the last full day be pretty laid back. Once again we were blessed with great weather - at this point the weather had been nice all trip - and we spent all day out on the lido deck.

Saturday morning we made our way up the Mississippi and docked back in New Orleans. Luckily for us the vacation wasn't quite over as we were staying for a night before we were going back to DC. After disembarking we saw a bunch of runners chugging through a 10k. Naturally, this made us hungry (although I am running in a ten mile race this weekend, so all the food I ate on the trip is going to come back to haunt me pretty soon). After breakfast we went to the aquarium and saw all kinds of fish, turtles, sharks, rays, frogs, birds, and even a white alligator. Lelaine loves aquariums and wanted to go the last time we were in NOLA, so she was a happy camper.

It was then lunchtime, so we went to the Acme Oyster bar. Since there aren't too many good cajun/creole places in DC, we decided to each order samplers or small orders of many different things and share them. I tried the bivalves for the first time and really enjoyed them. I guess when you grill (not brave enough to go for the raw ones) something drenched in garlic and cheese, it is going to be pretty tasty. The other items on the list included andouille and sausage gumbo, andouille and sausage jambalaya, seafood gumbo, red beans and rice, more sausage, what might have been the best roast beef po boy I have had, and an excellent pecan cobbler.

By the time we finished the feast it had started to rain, so we walked over to our hotel. Lelaine found a great deal at the W that was about the same price of some dumpy places, so we were living large for the day. After lunch we stayed in because it continued to rain. Lelaine read a book and I went to the gym - had to work off some of that food - and watched the Butler-Michigan State game.

For dinner that night we went to Emeril's. I am not a big fan of his TV show, but the restaurant was outstanding. I had a pork belly salad - my kind of salad - and then the largest pork chop I have ever seen (so big I barely ate half of it). Lelaine went for braised rabbit and redfish. We were ready to waive the white flag when the waiter asked about dessert, but felt obligated to get something, so we shared a slice of banana cream pie that we couldn't finish. We slept well that night, as I had consumed enough food that day to feed a person for two weeks.

If anyone is still reading - Lelaine tells me my posts are always way too long - you may know that I have turned into an old person in the last couple of years. In my advanced age I now wake up every morning a little after 7am. Lelaine, being the young vibrant wife she is, doesn't have this problem so as she slept I played on my iPhone and decided to read some reviews of the last meal of our trip - brunch at Mr. B's. Yelpers raved about the bbq shrimp, so when we got to the restaurant, I decided I would go for it. I have tried shrimp many times and have never really enjoyed them, but figured if there were ever a time I would like it, this was it. Mr. B's is a pretty nice place, particularly on Easter morning with a lot of guys in seersucker suits and women in their giant hats, which made it a little embarrassing when the waiter tied a bib around my neck right before delivering my meal. While the shrimp were...well shrimp (i.e. not too great), the sauce they swam in was out of this world. It was more like a few shrimp in an glorious soup, and fortunately they gave me a whole loaf of french bread to soak up the sauce that is heavy on butter on Worcestershire. Good thing I had the bib, because the shrimp came with the full shell, head, and tails still intact, so you have to do a lot of work and it gets messy.

After lunch we strolled around the French Quarter. Lelaine found several huge chandeliers in an antique store, but they might overwhelm our 650 square foot palace (not to mention that they probably cost five times as much as our entire trip); we watched several fancy people dressed to the nines ride in convertibles down Royal St; and we listened to a couple bands play on the street. It was a great way to spend Easter morning and early afternoon, but sadly we had to leave to go to the airport to come back to reality.

New Orleans-Mexico cruise: days 3-4

On day three we woke up early and watched the sun rise as we pulled into Progreso, Mexico. Progreso is a pretty small place and there isn't much to do, so we got on a bus and went to Uxmal to see some Mayan ruins. Most cruisers choose to go to a bigger site called Chichen Itza, but it is a longer bus ride and you can't climb up anything there like you can in Uxmal, so Uxmal it was. Tour guide Saul was really nice and also very sincere about learning about the history of the country and how visitors should buy books (which he just so happened to be selling) and not tequila and sombreros. After doing our best Laura Croft impression wondering around the ruins we had lunch at a little restaurant - Lelaine had pork Yucitan and I had empanadas and a Mexican beer I had never heard of - and got back on the bus and then back on the ship. I don't know if it was the empanadas or what, but something didn't agree with my stomach. I will spare you the details, but instead of the TP packaging on the ship reading "it feels heavenly" a more accurate descriptions would have read "it feels like sandpaper."

Having checked off the culture box for the trip, we spent the next day at a beach in Cozumel. We picked a location that had a good reef for snorkeling. We brought our own gear and had a nice time - there were a ton of fish as soon as you got into the water. Also enjoyable was the palapa for shade (helped to contain the sunburn) and the waiter delivering a stream of Dos Equis and chips and salsa. Despite several screaming kids it was a very relaxing day, which is just what the doctor ordered.

Speaking of which, one of the reasons why we are so interested in traveling in the last couple years is because we will presumably have a rugrat in the not so distant future so we don't have a huge window to travel before we have other priorities. With that in mind, it is pretty amusing to see how families act on vacation. While lounging on the beach, surrounded by families, we overheard some pretty amusing conversations. Highlights included one woman recounting what her husband laughingly said the day before in Progreso, right after they found their toddler granddaughter who was missing for what sounded like 15-20 minutes: "this is about as fun as a concentration camp." To our right, there was one family with a couple teenage boys who fought most of the time and led to the mom losing it and proclaiming, somewhat seriously, "What is wrong with you - I don't even know why we bring you on vacation!" Pretty funny stuff, although we may not be so amused once we have a kid in tow.

New Orleans-Mexico cruise: days 1-2

Last month when we were drowning in work we decided we needed to take a break while Congress was in recess for Easter. At first we couldn't find anything in our price range, but just as I had given up hope Lelaine sweet-talked Air Tran into letting us use vouchers during a blackout date and found a great deal on a five night cruise from New Orleans to Mexico.

Last Monday morning we set the alarm for 3am and drove to BWI for an early flight to New Orleans. When we arrived we had several hours to kill before getting on the ship so we did what Team Purple House does best: eat. First up was Cafe du Monde for beignets. We walked around the French Quarter for a bit and then hit Mother's, which claims to have the world's greatest ham. Lelaine tried it on a po boy while I went for jambalaya. A good meal, but the ham claim is erroneous, although they do get bonus points for letting us put our luggage up front with someone watching it so we didn't have to lug it around to our table.

In the early afternoon we headed to the port to get on the ship, which was newer, and much nicer, than the ship we were on two years ago for a three night cruise to the Bahamas. It took over an hour to actually get on board and we noticed an interesting crowd waiting in line, ranging from the family of 36 in front of us to a lot of college kids on spring break.

The second day was spent at sea and I did what I do best in the sun: got a sunburn. I was smart enough to put on sunscreen but not smart enough to rub it all over, so I ended up being pale with bright red splotches. Before we left Lelaine told me to bring aloe, since a sunburn was inevitable, but I told her no need. As with most things I should have listened; just over 24 hours after we boarded, I had already made one trip to the gift shop for a $12 bottle of aloe.

missing

At the beginning of the year we planned on blogging more. That hasn't turned out to be the case, but hopefully it will change soon. Work has been extremely busy - today is the first day I haven't worked in more than a month, and I think in a six week span since we got back from Florida, I worked every day but one (in which I went skiing, and meant to write about, but never got around to doing). Lelaine's schedule has been the same. Hasn't left for much time for teampurplehouse.

It turned out that of the three biggest things of the year for my office, two of them happened at the same time. Fortunately those are now dispensed with (not to get too ideological, but to see how health care will benefit people in KC, look at this) and life should get back to normal...but before that happens we are headed on a cruise. We leave for New Orleans on Monday morning, will get on the ship that day, visit Progresso/Merida and Cozumel with a couple days at seas mixed in, and then arrive back in New Orleans. We are going to spend an extra night there to eat, although it can't be too much because I have a ten mile race the following weekend.

When we get back, we promise to not neglect the blog.