Katie and I visited the G40 art summit - mainly because it was right across the street from us. The exhibit took up 5 floor in a office building. There was definintely some interesting art. A couple of my favorites are in the slideshow below.
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I finally decided to check out the mid-atlantic ski scene. It’s not great, but it was better than I expected. I went out to Whitetail Mountain in Pennsylvania (about 1.5 hours away from DC) with a few friends for a full day of skiing. I spent most of the day on the black diamond trails (although the mid-atlantic black is more like a Colorado blue). There was, however, a long and steep mogul trail that kicked my ass.
Today – President’s Day – we decided to visit Mount Vernon. We decided on today because it is the one day all year that admission is free. We got there right at opening time to be sure to beat most of the crowds (and be able to get a good parking spot). Despite this it was still busy, but less so than a summer day I imagine. Both Katie and I have been to Mount Vernon, but it had been a while for both of us. All I remember of the grounds was the large lawn in front of the house (currently buried under 2 feet of snow). As it was George Washington’s birthday he was present for the event. Apparently there was a “surprise” birthday party for him taking place at 1:30pm which we didn’t bother staying around for. I did get a word in to him – I said, “Hey George, you’re looking good for your age!” He gave me a glare and responded, “Not even my wife calls me George.” Doh!
Yesterday Katie recieved a letter from Delta Airlines with an Atlanta return address. Inside the envelope was Katie’s driver’s license. Katie didn’t even know she had lost her license. It has been three weeks since she was in Atlanta. That’s just Katie being Katie.
Many years ago, before there was dirt, my family and I lived in upstate New York. While there we had some neighbors who became good friends of the family. We soon started a tradition of exchanging Christmas gifts with each other. Despite all odds, the gift exchange has endured. I must give props to both our neighbors and my parents for this because we moved away from upstate NY in 1985. I probably would have given up on the gifts around 1986. However, I am truly happy for the gifts they give. Often they include something homemade. Our wedding gifts were handmade teddy bears wearing the exact style dress and tuxedo we wore at our wedding. That was pretty good, but their Christmas gift topped even that. Feast your eyes on my new lion pillow cases. Hell yeah! I immediately replaced my crappy Bed, Bath & Beyond pillow cases. That’s right, Ryan “Like a Lion” finally has a pillow case worthy of his kingly head. Katie was a bit reluctant to have them on the bed at all – much less on my side – but once I gave her the lion-like pose you see in this picture, she relented. I also received a small lion figurine. It stands guard over my cubicle entrance at work. So, thank you for the Christmas gifts, thank you very much.
This morning I learned from the Washington Post that zombies are real. This insightful information came from the Washington Post’s (book) bestseller list – specifically the non-fiction section. Webster’s dictionary defines fiction as, “something invented by the imagination or feigned; specifically: an invented story.” Non-fiction would be the opposite of fiction, or something REAL. You can imagine that I was quite surprised to find “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” sitting at #4 of the non-fiction list. Jane Austen’s original novel would, I’m sure, be categorized as fiction. It is fiction because none of its abysmally boring love motifs actually happened. With the addition of zombies we finally have an accurate historical record of Austen’s 19th century events – hence the categorization of the updated novel as “non-fiction.” For those of you who find the thought of zombies discomforting or even frightening, I direct your attention to the 7th bestselling non-fiction book, “The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead.” I’m sure this guide provides many handy techniques for dealing with those pesky zombies you didn’t even know existed until now. Happy zombie hunting!
