Time for an update from the right side of the country, no not the correct side, the...nevermind...

How are y'all doing today? I'm doing pretty well, thanks for asking. Just finished visiting with Papa Miguel, briefly, and walked back across the city to J's apartment, that I might write this blog post, and inform you all of the fun and exciting things I've been doing.

Spent the day and an evening in Seattle prior to flying across the nation, and had a good time behaving like I was younger than I actually am. What did I do in whilst in the city? Well, I drank some really fine coffee, and I checked out the Seattle Public Library, which is an interesting building, which seems massively non-functional.

While I was there it rained more vigorously than I've ever seen in that part of the world; maybe it wasn't actually as heavy as it seemed, but it was fairly horizontal at any rate.

That evening I went out to a went to a show with a couple of guys I met at the hostel. It was a fun time. There was a German college student, and a Canadian vacationer, and several bands one of which at least, was awesome. There was poor-quality domestic beer, and of course there were uncountable hipsters. The hipsters seemed less antagonistic than usual, though, and seemed to actually be enjoying themselves rather than the irony of the situation, which was odd, but refreshing.

I've been in DC for a week now, and have gotten to do many of the things I love to do, in this city. I've been to my favorite museums, some more than once. It really is fantastic to be able to pop into the Smithsonian American Art museum, or the protrait gallery, and check out an exhibition in the ten or twenty minutes you have to spare while downtown. None of the possibility of art fatigue you can sometimes get when you're trying to fit too many museum visits into one day.

Some scenes from around the city, including my some shots from the mall:

The Natural History Museum:
Carousel:

These guys, outside the Hirshorn, are favorites of mine. They make me think of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:

This piece of Korean pottery is in the Freer, my favorite museum, and is an image of turtle a representative of the dragon king of the sea, who Maggie and I are all too familiar with:

What else have I been up to? I know this will come as a shock to many of you, but I've been pickling things, and sprouting things, and baking bread, although I couldn't bring my starters with me from Washington, so have been restricted to baking with commercial yeast. Curtido and flax seed bread, anyone?:

Produce from the farmer's market:
Spent a lovely evening with Sarah, eating dinner and having several of J's cocktails at Rasika. My favorite was the nutty rickey, but the gingersnap was pretty delicious as well. He really knows what he's doing, as I'm sure many of you know. If you haven't had a chance to check it out, make the time if you're ever in town. Have eaten some other pretty fantastic meals while here, including going out for Ethiopian food for lunch one day, which apparently means that It has become the ethnic food I eat most often...seriously; once a month for the past three months.

The walls and statuary in DC often have words of wisdom to share with us:

I get into Atlanta on the eleventh, and have a show to go to that evening, cause that's just how these things work, but other than that I'm really excited to see you all, and get to spend some quality time with you(without the stress of an impending wedding).

Well, family and friends, I leave you with this image, which sums up how I'm feeling pretty well at this time: