National Book Festival

There was a lot going on in DC this last weekend. Fall in DC is almost as enjoyable as Spring in DC, but without all the flowers. I tried to fit in as many festivals as possible, on Saturday I went to the Barracks Row Festival, DC State Fair, and 17th Street Festival. Sunday I decided to check out the National Book Festival, even though all the authors I wanted to see were there on Saturday.

I listened to two authors, Susan Richards Shreve and Justin Torres,  in the Fiction tent and will definitely check their books out.

on the mall

people in line for book signings

Susan Richards Shreve

PBS stars!

After leaving the mall I ran into some sort of Latin festival. Lots of food and music.

Inca Kola!

Montana didn't want to say goodbye

On Saturday it was time to go home. My flight was scheduled for 6:30 am so we got up a little before 5 and Matt dropped me off at the airport around 5:30. I was to the gate by 5:50, perfect.

Then we had a slight delay due to fueling, but they had us on board by 6:30. Then we sat during "paperwork" and finally took off at 7am. I promptly fell asleep. I woke up about a half hour later only to still see mountains very clearly out the window and realized something was off. Soon after they announced that we were beginning our descent back in to Bozeman. Oh great.

gorgeous sunrise & defective airplane

We were back in the terminal by 8 am and told just to sit near the gate and wait for further instruction. After about two hours they started rebooking people, very slowly. I watched the line for a half hour and only one person was helped.

gorgeous mountains at 8am

Around 11:45 they finally booked me on a new flight to DC. Only I had to now go through San Francisco instead of Chicago and I was flying into Dulles instead of National and I'd be arriving after midnight instead of a little after 1 pm.

not excited to see the noon day sun in Bozeman

Luckily the flight to San Francisco was uneventful. As I walked from my arrival gate to my departure gate I passed a cool exhibit from some museum about sewing, pattern making, and style over the years.

sewing machines!

I'd like to thank the San Francisco Airport for my only real meal of the day. Shrimp Fajitas. Delicious. And I apologize for screaming for a fork, but my patience has finally worn thin.

The airport also had this cool water bottle refilling station. So much easier than a water fountain. So cool.

men with sleeves also care about the environment

My flight from San Fran to Dulles was also smooth and I was lucky enough to have a window seat. I got tons of reading done and a little sleeping. I also lucked out that I had a friend with a car flying in to Dulles Saturday night too and got a ride home. That was key.

So to recap I travelled for 19 hours and didn't even leave the US. Yea United!

Pride Parade

Saturday afternoon I was getting ready to go for a run and I heard cheering coming from outside. After a moment of confusion I remembered that the Pride Parade was Saturday and was probably going through my neighborhood. So I headed outside to watch for awhile (I happened to be wearing a rainbow striped tank top and fit right in).

I was impressed by the length (over 2.5 hours), quality (lots of elaborate floats), and community involvement (lots of politicians and churches).

drag at the judges table

golden men

confetti!

Air Force Memorial

I happened by the Air Force Memorial the other day just as a storm was passing in the distance. Made for some cool pictures.

Engine Company Number 4

Weekend part one

After a morning football game and three miles around the track (fastest 5K ever) I finally made it to Taylor Gourmet. I almost didn't go in when I saw someone wearing a KU shirt chowing down, but I figured we should break bread together now that we are in different conferences.

The menu was quite long, but organized by meat type, which I found quite handy.

I went for a Turkey Race Street on wheat. The menu said it had prosciutto in it, but I couldn't see or taste any :(. Overall it was decent. The bread was thicker and tougher than what you usually get at a sub shop.

I did love the lighting! Buckets on the ceiling!

Sandwich

As I continued on my walk home I came across the DC Craft Mafia show. There were a lot of vendors with items I hadn't seen before and well made things. However I didn't make any purchases.

Pillows & Chocolate

Weekend part two was a lot muddier....

Dupont Dance Party

Sunday: Day for breaking it down in Dupont

25 Photos of Christmas {December 2}

Down the street from my office is the fabulous Smithsonian Portrait Gallery and Center for American Art. I highly recommend the art and for the next few weeks there is a Christmas Market on south side of the building. There was a lot of jewelry for sale along with t-shirts, art, food (I had empanadas for lunch), Inca wears, and Fiat was there with my future car (I didn't get a chance to sign up for the free one so I'll have to go back). To top things off there was live music and these guys:

Nutty & Treetop

It wasn't quite Bryant Park, but definitely worth checking out to get you in the holiday mood.

the great white way for the white house

I've been a bit blog silent lately.  It isn't because I've been boring and lazy and had nothing to post about.  It is because I've decided to trade this:

Midtown Manhattan from LIC

in for this:

the Whitehouse

 The opportunity came a bit out of nowhere, but it felt right so I took the chance.  Ever since I said yes I've been spending all my time filling out paperwork and planning the move.  So new city, new job, new exploring, new touch football team (hopefully) and a new apartment (not yet found apartment) to decorate.  Wish me luck!

Under the High Line

Last Wednesday I had a softball game scheduled, but there was rain in the forecast.  As game time approached I kept checking back on the website to find that the game was still on.  During my trip to the field the rain started coming down and right as we started the game the skies opened up and it began to POUR.  We were playing on turf and there wasn't any lighting so we kept playing.  I had to wring my hair out about 20 times, a bat slipped from one guys hands and flew about 50 ft, the umpire used an umbrella, and one girl on my team was wearing a full rain suit.... it was a lot of fun!  We ended up winning big and headed a few blocks up to the The Lot under the High Line.  The Lot is a temporary plaza with beer on tap and food trucks (oh and a rollerskating rink... but that was closed).  I had some delicious Brooklyn High Line Elevated Wheat Beer and tried Kimchi Tacos.  I got one pork and two beef tacos.  They were good, but a little spicy for complete enjoyment.

last bite

tables and trucks

Tuesday

Does anyone else think of Berger every time you see a playing card on the sidewalk?

You know a la-

Berger: I collect found playing cards. They're all over the city.
Carrie: I never noticed.
Berger: You will now, that's the thing..... I'm hoping to get a full deck. Insert the obvious joke here.

Spotted Tuesday

Midtown was all about transformation this week.  Tuesday I took a walk to get my lunch and found sand volleyball in Times Square.

Thanks Jose Cuervo

Why are the ladies always wearing so much less clothing?

I continued walking over to Bryant Park and spied EA sports people turning the lawn into a football field, complete with yard marks and painted end zones.  Apparently to celebrate the release of the next Madden video game they had celebrities and famous retired NFL players play flag football there today.  Sadly I wasn't invited to play and had to work during the festivities.

They even brought in bleachers!

Then Tuesday night I headed up to Riverbank state park for a softball game.  The skies were clear when I boarded the 1 train in times square, but when I arrived at the park I saw this:

What is Jersey sending us?

Pair that with some lightening and needless to say our game was cancelled.  We barely made it to the subway when the skies opened up.

Digging for Union Gold

My dad recently bought a new piece of land with an exciting history.  The road we live on has been a road forever (like the native americans used it (wasn't paved then)).  So the story goes that during the civil war the union payroll was traveling through the area when word of an attack reached the soldiers.  To protect the payroll they buried it, but never returned to retrieve the gold.  Over the past 6 months we've been plotting the retrieval of gold.  Some stories mentioned an orchard so we started near the house.

We rented a metal detector for the day and had all the right tools (including the back hoe).

digging around the house

the backhoe at work

We did make some finds, but no gold.  What did we find?

Enamel bowl (most likely part of a union soldier's mess kit)

Pieces of two large enamel bowls

bottom of a kettle

square nails

branding iron with initials "MP" (military police??? haha)

some of our more fascinating finds

"MP"

Never know who you'll run in to

I was on my way to Paragon to buy cycling shoes (which I didn't purchase) when I saw this shiny man shopping in the area.

The Andy Monument- Andy Warhol in chrome by Rob Pruitt

Bike Tricks

While working in Times Square can be annoying, sometimes you pop out for lunch and run into something really cool.  Like guys hurling down ramps on a bicycle and flipping through the air.  Sweet.

Rain - Run - Renegade Craft Fair - Randomness

It has been a week of crazy weather. It made it to the high 90s then there was severe thunder storms and now today it is chilly (60s) and after overcastness (credit me when Webster adds it to the Dictionary) and a few hours of misting it began to rain all out.. now its back to an overcast sky.

I went for a run this morning to prepare myself for the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge next week.  I signed up for Facebook to automatically post my split times, so I want to make sure they aren't embarrassing.  I usually run a 10 minute mile and the Challenge is 3.5 miles so I set out to run for 35 minutes.  I've mapped a nice course through my neighborhood that runs me past several great landmarks (one of these days I'll post about some of them), but I tend to switch it up a bit.  Well I got back to my apartment and mapped my run... guess what?  Exactly 3.5 miles, exactly 10 minute miles.  I'm going to try to speed it up for the race, but it will be difficult with the millions of other runners.  

By the time I cleaned up and headed out the door the mist had begun.  Luckily I planned for it and had my rain jacket.  I had great timing and the bus to Brooklyn pulled up right as I got the bus stop.  I don't ride the bus as much now that I live in Queens, but I love riding it when I can. A few stops later I got out at McCarren Park in Greenpoint/Williamsburg for the Renegade Craft Fair.  If you are on the market for handmade jewelry, prints, t-shirts, kid's toys, and bags you should definitely head over.  Some of it got repetitive, I mean how many different things can you put a mustache on? or a bicycle? and I wish everything wasn't so brooklyn and manhattan centric... I would of bought a map print of queens.  I bought a necklace and a hamburger.  I almost purchased a purse and a print of the Midwest, but the purse was $110 and the print had the star for Jefferson City in the wrong place.

After the craft fair I continued walking down Bedford Ave into Williamsburg.  The street was blocked off for "Williamsburg Walks" unfortunately the rain was keeping people away and activities off the street.  I walked down and stopped in a few shops and got a non-fat latte at a nice little shop.

But then the mist started to turn to rain and walking in rain isn't as fun as mist. I headed to find the bus, which was detoured because of the street fair and ran into this guy:

The Renegade Craft Fair is going on again tomorrow from 11 to 7 (hopefully with less rain) and the Williamsburg Walks is going on again next Saturday.

Bryant Park reading room

Beautiful weather has returned... well on and off, but its getting better.  Today after exchanging my cell phone at the Sprint store (hopefully it no longer randomly turns off) I grabbed a quick salad and headed to my favorite lunch spot in Bryant Park, the reading room. 

Today was part of their book club series and Matthew Gallaway and Seth Colter were there discussing David Foster Wallace's The Pale King.  I just walked up and had a seat and to my amusement The Pale King is about an accountant.  An accountant that works for the IRS.  Now those who know me know "I am not an accountant" but I work in an accountants world and a lot of the passages they read really hit me.  Two of the most enjoyable concepts (paraphrased from memory):

accountants are cowboys of data

and

tedious work is heroic

David Foster Wallace died before finishing this book.  However everyone who had read the book seemed satisfied.  I think I might give it a shot.

writers discussing the book

books for sale

yummy salad for lunch