We've been Warholized...

Wild

I love it when things like this happen. Last week I happened to read a blurb in the paper about a forthcoming show by a group called The Wilders, who I'd never heard of. Something about it caught my attention (a song cycle based on a real murder trial), so I went onto iTunes and listened to some snippets from their latest album and was intrigued enough to download the whole thing. Now I can't stop listening to it. Literally. I'm not always much of a country music listener (although I do sometimes like me some bluegrass), but this isn't anything like the crap you hear on the radio, and a lot of it just plain kicks some serious butt. Probably not for everyone, but if you have any interest at all in old-time, honky-tonk country music with excellent musicianship, it's worth giving a listen. That's my two cents for the evening...

(Regrettably, their show--which I'm guessing would be excellent--is actually tonight at a small club near our house, but it just wasn't feasible to go...especially since that would have entailed missing my yoga class. It's all about choices.)

How others see us

When I was in London a couple of weeks ago, I was out for an early dinner and asked the people seated next to me what the going rate for tips was (as it turns out, it was already included in the check). Upon hearing my American accent, they quite naturally wanted to talk about the U.S. presidential election (as if I really know who's going to win, especially since I don't even know who's going to win the Democratic nomination, but I digress). When I mentioned that I thought there was at least a fairly decent chance that it might be Obama, the woman seated next to me said, in all seriousness, "but surely someone will kill him if he's elected, won't they?" Granted, one person's opinion doesn't represent a nation's or continent's collective view, but I can't help but think that this is not an uncommon view: that surely the U.S. would never elect a black man (not necessarily an unreasonable opinion based on history), and if we did, surely there are bad people who simply wouldn't stand for it and would take matters into their own hands. I was honestly a bit flabbergasted and tried to explain that I really thought that we had come along since the 1960s (which I do believe, even if I know there are a lot of people who aren't ready for a black president). But when I mentioned that, if anything, there was probably a greater risk of something happening because of the abject hatred that some people have for Hillary (and I don't mean just those who dislike her or would never vote for her, of which there are many--I'm talking about the lunatic fringe that absolutely and passionately detests the Clintons with every fiber of their being), she and her tablemates were equally flabbergasted because they had no idea that such a phenomenon existed. Two countries divided by a common language, I suppose...

Great moments in parenting

Somewhat surprisingly since we're usually pretty good about keeping medicine out of reach, the other day Mädchen somehow grabbed ahold of her bottle of infant ibuprofen (she seems to have a rougher time with teething than some kids, and since she seems to be perpetually teething, we go through the stuff pretty quickly). We saw her walking away with it but didn't immediately lunge after her because of course it has a child-proof cap--when all of a sudden she looked at us and started laughing with pride because she had somehow figured how to get the cap off. Thankfully we saw the whole thing unfolding and got it away before she tried to swallow any of it, but this doesn't necessarily bode well...it's hard enough keeping things out of her reach now that she's getting so much taller, but we're at a real loss if she can actually figure out how to open supposedly childproof bottles...

Best friends

How do little girls spend a morning at the park? They look for ducks together...



...they chase each other...



...they tickle each other...



...and they slide together!

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

Two things that caught me by surprise in London:

(1) Although I know that the Brits use an expression for cigarettes that many here might consider to be a derogatory expression referring to one's sexual orientation, I still wasn't quite prepared to see the second item listed on this sign:



(2) I remember seeing a sign for "Humped Zebra Crossing" near Paddington Station, which made me laugh although I could at least figure out that it was probably called that because it was striped. But a "Humped Pelican Crossing"? Whatever it is, it evidently humps for 40 yards...

Images

I actually spent most of my time in London working (no great surprise there--it's what I was being paid to do, after all--but it's always nice to think you're going to have more free time than you actually get), so I didn't see and do very much. But I did manage to get out for a walk from my hotel to try to shake off jet lag the day I arrived, and couldn't resist taking a photo at Horse Guards:



One of my goals was to have some good Indian food, so despite having an upset stomach for much of the time there, I threw caution to the wind and had a yummy meal at Masala Zone in Soho. This pretty much captures that evening: aloo tikki chaat, chicken tikka masala with rice, a cold beer, naan (just out of the picture)...and, sadly, work reading:



Since the weather was quite nice--a bit cool, but sunny--I managed to take a quick break from my meetings to snap a quick shot of the Tower Bridge over the Thames, which was right next to where we were meeting.

Same as it ever was

It doesn't matter how long it has been--whenever you come to London, I'd say there's at least a 75% chance that at least one tabloid headline greeting you at the airport newsstands will feature Princess Diana. Sure enough, today didn't disappoint...

March Badness

Blogging from the lounge at Dulles Airport this evening...

Never mind that it's already early April--in the college basketball world, it's still March Madness. Things are so much busier with Mädchen, not to mention with life in general, that I've watched a lot less of the tournament this year than in the past. Not that I'm complaining, of course--it beats the ZERO amount of the tournament that I got to watch when we were in Switzerland, so everything is relative. Tonight is the final game and I realized that I'm going to miss it, so I thought I'd jot down a few thoughts while waiting to board my flight to London.

Anyway, most years I have the same hopes for the tourney, and this year is no different. In no particular order:

(1) I want Duke to do well (I know everyone hates them, but after spending a couple of years there I'm loyal);

(2) I want North Carolina to do poorly (sort of the converse of (1) above);

(3) I want UCLA to do well (same reason as (1) above);

(4) It's nice to see small schools do well, especially where I have some sort of connection; and

(5) Despite always doing terribly, I'd like to do well in my bracket pools.

So how'd this year go?

(1) Duke underachieved again, bowing out to lower-seeded West Virginia in the second round;

(2) UNC made it to the Final Four (argh!), but at least they lost to Kansas and didn't make it to the championship game (phew!);

(3) UCLA made it to the Final Four (phew!), but lost once they got there to Memphis (argh!);

(4) How about the University of San Diego (not my alma mater, but a hometown school nonetheless, and an underdog to boot) pulling off a big upset of UConn? Davidson was a nice story, too; and

(5) I entered two pools this year. In the bigger one, I picked Kansas to win it all. I'm still alive in that sense, although I still don't think I have enough points built up to finish in the money (not that bracket pools are a form of gambling). In the smaller pool, I picked UCLA to win, but despite them being out I'm still somehow in the lead. If Kansas wins tonight, someone else will pass me, but if Memphis wins, I take the grand prize, which has never happened before and almost assuredly will never happen again. So I guess I have to pull for Memphis, even if the winnings will be small (not that bracket pools are a form of gambling). Of course, my saying that just guaranteed victory for Kansas.

Brownie points

Nothing makes your wife happier than when you tell her your boss has asked you to go to a conference in London in his place, and of course bringing her and Mädchen along isn't an option because: (a) flights are expensive; (b) the dollar has about as much value as Monopoly money these days, so we'd have to take out a mortgage on our house to afford even the cheapest hotel; and (c) who really wants to take a 21-month-old on an intercontinental flight? Oh, and Mädchen seems to be getting sick, which she'll now have to deal with by herself. Something tells me I either need to do some very thoughtful shopping during my free time (subject to the constraints of (b) above) or be prepared to do some serious groveling (and babysitting) when I get back...

Barbara

Barbara is our next door neighbor. Madchen (I suppose I can stop calling her Baby, but I refuse to add the umlaut) loves Barbara. Barbara is retired so she's home during the day. Thankfully, Barbara spends lots of time gardening and walking her dogs so we see her often. Sometime, while she's working in the front yard, Barbara will give Madchen a flower.



Even when Barbara's not outside, Madchen likes spending time at (or near) her house. She likes to walk her baby (in her baby stroller) up and down Barbara's long driveway (we don't really have a driveway, so the alternative is the sidewalk, as pictured here).



Just recently, Madchen has added a new activity to her list of favorite things to do outside (along with rake and sweep). She likes to sit on Barbara's front step and read a book. Is she cute or what?

What a trip

Don't you hate it when you're walking across a parking lot, and all of a sudden a speed bump appears out of nowhere and trips you? I mean, don't you always see people tripping and flailing across parking lots? Yeah, me too...

Speaking of tourist hordes...

One of the things you can't help but notice when you're out and about around the Mall (the big park with all the monuments and memorials, not a shopping center) in DC is the popularity of squirrels among tourists. Several years ago I helped host a meeting in DC, and a colleague from Luxembourg mentioned that he had done a hop-on, hop-off bus tour of the main sites around town. When I asked him what he liked best, he thought for a minute, then perked up and said "zee leettle aneemals wis zee beeg, booshy tails!" Come to think of it, when I was a kid we took a family road trip vacation around the West, and I remember taking countless pictures of squirrels on the grounds of the California state capitol in Sacramento (I guess we had a lot more rabbits and rattlesnakes than squirrels where I grew up).

How things change...now that we have a house with a garden, squirrels are nothing more to us than destructive little rodents who dig up our yard and eat our plants. The thought that anyone would actually get a kick out of seeing these little monsters just boggles the mind. But then again, when we visit Wisconsin I get excited every time we see a deer, which lots of folks there think are way more destructive to gardens than squirrels. And I can't imagine what Venetians think of the tourists who willingly choose to be mobbed by pigeons in Piazza San Marco. So I guess most places have their animals that they take for granted but that others think are the greatest thing since sliced bread. (For us in Basel it was probably storks, or maybe hedgehogs.)

But still...squirrels?

It's that time of year

When you live and work in the DC area, sometimes at this time of year you have to tell yourself that:

...I don't care that I'm absolutely swamped at work...

...I don't care that I'm wearing new, not-yet-broken-in work shoes...

...I don't care that there are mobs of slow-walking tourists out and about...

...I NEED TO SEE ME SOME CHERRY BLOSSOMS!!!

Wednesday was one of those days for me. There are plenty of signs of spring here, but it doesn't truly feel like spring until the cherry blossoms are in full bloom along the Tidal Basin.



Trying to see them on the weekend is genuinely insane because of the crowds, and although we haven't tried it, I'm guessing that taking a two-year-old who doesn't want to stay in her stroller is also insane, not only because of the crowds, but also because despite our litigious, safety-conscious culture, there are no guardrails to stop people from plummeting into the Tidal Basin. (It's truly a wonder that more people don't accidentally get knocked in.)



One of the nice things about being here is that I can leave my office, walk around at least a part of the Tidal Basin, walk back to my office past the Lincoln Memorial and through the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (where the 50,000+ names etched in black granite are still moving no matter how many times I see them...as I was walking through the other day, I overheard a young girl turn to her family and ask, "so all these people DIED?"), and still be back in less than an hour.

I remember Gretchen once saying that if she ever sees the U.S. Capitol and feels indifferent to it, she'll know she's been here too long. I guess that's also how I feel about the cherry blossoms...

Rocky road

In recognition of our being back for a year, I figured at some point I'd do a big post about all the things I miss about life in Switzerland, all the things I'm happy about here, etc. Well, someday I still might get around to that, but for now I just want to comment on one of the differences between here and there that surprised me somewhat and that I'm constantly reminded of: the quality of the roads.

I knew the roads were generally in great shape in Switzerland (which is good, because they're also constantly under construction). But I wasn't really prepared for just how bad they were here. I sort of expected that in DC, which has never exactly been known for the efficiency of its public services, but our city is generally on the ball. But I have to say, I really don't notice a difference--the roads in both places are equally potholed and crumbling. The other day I hit a pothole near our house so hard that I was absolutely certain I had blown my tire or at least lost the hubcap...thankfully that wasn't the case.

In a lot of places nearby, it looks like the roads got torn up when new buildings went in, but instead of actually repaving the road, someone just came in and poured a little bit of uneven asphalt into the remaining cracks and holes. But it's bad even in areas where there hasn't been new construction. Sometimes I just want to scream that I've driven in several cities in Mexico--you know, our poorer neighbor to the south--and our roads really aren't that much better than theirs. That's not exactly a flattering comparison.

C'mon, people--how can one of the richest countries in the world have such a crumbling infrastructure? Can we at least get a rebate on our car taxes to help pay for the new shock absorbers and tires that we'll need twice as quickly as we would have in Switzerland?

Prodigy

Like most proud parents, we think that everything Mädchen does is clearly a sign of her abundant intelligence (which she must have inherited from at least one of us, right?). For example, even though she's not yet 2 years old, she can count to 10 and beyond--she's brilliant!

Of course, the way she counts to 10 is like this: "two...two...two...two...two...two...two...two...two...two." (Heck, she could probably count to 100, but I would get carpal tunnel typing it all out.) That's close enough, isn't it?