our living room as of about midnight on Saturday


and on Sunday morning

Whew! This weekend we managed to pack up about a dozen boxes and send them on the road with a fellow DC Burner who is driving cross-country.

Thus officially begins the logistical complexity that is Burning Man. The first step is shipping out furry costumes, inflatable furniture, bike decorations, and other essentials. Check! Early Sunday, we'll hop a plane (carrying as little as possible) and land in Sacramento, where we'll spend a day collecting other supplies like groceries, booze, and our bikes. Then on Monday we'll pick up the Mothership of Love & Justice -- aka a Cruise America RV -- and lumber our way out to Nevada. With any luck, once on the Playa we will be reunited with our gear, and the festivities can begin!

Word to your moms.

RELATED LINKS:
* Photo Friday: ringing the Virgin Bell
* Photo Friday: desert eats
* Photo Friday: beyond the mmp-tss mmp-tss mmp-tss
* Burning Man

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Registrations are rolling in! I'm so excited to report that due to the overwhelming response, we've had to move to a bigger venue. (Woot!) Meet, Plan, Go! DC will now be taking place at the very hip Policy DC, in their upstairs Liberty Lounge. I was just there for a @Sisarina tweetup last week and can confirm that this is an excellent space, with plenty of room to mix & mingle, and a plethora of $5 happy hour food & drink specials.

Policy's Liberty Lounge

Special thanks to fellow DC travel blogger Matt at LandLopers for giving me the opportunity to do a recent guest post about Meet, Plan, Go!: Get Out & Go: Make Your Travel Dreams a Reality.

Have you registered yet for this free and fabulous event? Don't wait until it sells out a second time!

Not in DC? Not to worry, MPG is happening at over a dozen locations throughout the US and Canada.

RELATED LINKS:
* Meet, Plan, Go! site
* MPG Facebook fan page
* MPG Twitter feed
* LandLopers guest post
* DC registration
* all MPG locations

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...because sometimes it's nice to have a visual reminder that all your hard work really IS paying off.

Penne Rosate in Treviso

It started innocently enough.

Penne Rosate. Four simple ingredients on a bistro menu:
salsa di pomodoro | panna | salmone affumicato | prezzemolo

Little did I know this dish would turn into Mark's Holy Grail. Ever since sampling this delectable fare at Piola in Treviso, he's been obsessed with recreating the perfect penne rosate at home. And in typical Italian style, a deceptively simple ingredient list means the dish can be articulated about a million ways.

mmmm, golden tomatoes

Renown chef Patrick O'Connell of the Inn at Little Washington says you should make a dish eight times before serving it to friends. That always seemed a bit extreme. But we're starting to understand. Each time Mark makes this dish, he writes little notes in the margin about how to tweak the recipe next time. Not too much tomato paste. Be sure to use large golden tomatoes. Let the pasta sit and soak up the sauce before serving. He's even asked me to plant extra golden tomatoes in the garden so he can continue his exploration and and near-scientific quest for the flawless formula.

stir, stir, stir

I don't think he'll ever achieve penne perfection. But, as with most things in life, it's about the journey, not the destination! I'm happy to have him keep experimenting with this dish forever.

some cream, a little smoked salmon

It just so happens that there's a Piola right here in Northern Virginia, and they do have Penne Rosate on their menu. Part of me is curious to try it, part of me doesn't want to spoil the mystique of that first perfect taste back in Treviso.

the finished product, topped with lots of fresh prezzemolo!

And at the end of the day, I just like saying "prezzemolo." Try it with me: pret-ZEH-mo-lo. It's fun! I think Robin at My Mélange should add it to her list of beautiful Italian words. Who knew that humble parsley could be so entertaining?

Hop on over to Wanderlust & Lipstick's WanderFood Wednesday for more mouth-watering travel foodie posts.

RELATED LINKS:
* Photo Friday: Treviso spritz
* My Mélange: Italian lessons
* Piola
* our other Treviso pics
* WanderFood Wednesday carnival of foodie blogs

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And thus, with this unwittingly prescient #FollowFriday tweet from @SpudHilton, was kicked off a weekend of naturist antics.

Sadly, none of the other tweeps mentioned above were present at Pine Tree on Saturday for the 2nd Annual AANR Guinness World Record™ Skinny-Dip Challenge. We managed to have a grand time nonetheless.

We'd been to this event last year, and once again invited a posse to join us for the festivities. Unfortunately Mother Nature chose Saturday to bless us with the rain she'd been withholding for the past two weeks.   ::: shakes fist at sky :::   Even with the drizzle, nearly 20 of our friends showed up, and there were close to 300 people in the pool at the time of the photo. The local tallies are sent into the AANR national office for final number-crunching. So I don't yet know if we broke any records. But that's really not the point.

I don't talk much about our nudist pursuits, because, frankly, there's not much to say. There are few things more relaxing than shedding your clothes and hanging out by the pool for an afternoon. Nudists are among the friendlist people on the planet. Shedding your outer trappings means you have to rely solely on your personality, which brings out your sociable side right quick! And once we got over the initial weirdness of pulling into a lushly-wooded parking lot and unceremoniously dropping trou, the hardest part has always been putting our clothes on at the end of the day.

In fact, we were so loathe to leave that we wound up staying an extra afternoon. We'd already planned to stay overnight (in a surprisingly luxurious cabin with air conditioning, a full kitchen, and a full bath!) but when we awoke on Sunday morning to a gorgeous sunny day, it was impossible to return home. So we spent another uber-relaxing day paddling around in the pool, catching up on some reading, and chatting with the amiable denizens of Pine Tree. Unfortunately the naturist population is aging and they seem to be having a hard time finding new recruits. As a result, we got more than our share of sales pitches. I'm not much of a joiner, and the idea of spending every weekend with the same people holds little appeal for me, so we'll probably never shell out the extra bucks to become members. But we try to get out to Pine Tree a few times a season. And we may have turned one or two friends on to the possibility of membership. So I think our work here is done.

RELATED LINKS:
* AANR Guinness World Record™ Skinny-Dip Challenge 
* Pine Tree Associates

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In honor of DC Foodies Do Good's June tweetup this evening (Macarons & Moscato, yum!) I thought I'd post a few pics from last month's event.

The group gathered in May at my favorite local wine & gourmet foods shop, Red White & Bleu, for a tasting of artisan beers and a sampling of cheese and sausage. I have to admit that I'm not normally a big beer drinker, but I am a steadfast admirer of passion and craftsmanship. And this saucy lineup of beers was something else!

Especially paired with pungent cheeses and melt-in-ya-mouth cinghale sausage. Om nom nom.

The good folks at Red White & Bleu may have made a convert out of me yet. I still have some catching up to do if I want to get to Edward's level though.

Hop on over to Wanderlust & Lipstick's WanderFood Wednesday for more mouth-watering travel foodie posts.

And be sure to visit the DC Foodies Do Good site to see what tasty treats and feel-good-do-good events are lined up!

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wildflowers blooming

The #1 question I get these days is "When's the next big trip?" Unfortunately, the way this year has turned out, it looks like we won't be doing any extended international travel. I know, it's killing me! My passport is highly offended to be sitting in the closet collecting dust. We've got some fun US trips coming up, but it's not the same.

So what's a Global Grrl to do when faced with a travel hiatus? Transfer that impulse into something more homebound, namely gardening. I took some of the lessons learned from last year's experimentation with the Special Olympics Victory Garden, and decided I was going to crank it up a notch this year. Notably:

* Move the veggies out to the front yard, where there's a whole lot more sun!

* Start seedlings inside with a proper grow light in more stable conditions.

* You can just never, ever have enough compost.

* Start early and plant late; cool weather crops like brassicas and root veggies can go out much earlier than other crops. I'm also planning to re-plant a bunch in the fall.

I got a set of cheap plastic shelves from Home Depot, hooked up some fluorescent lights on a timer, and gathered a handful of leftover pots and recycled plastic packaging. Suddenly every container that passed through the kitchen was a potential planter! I got pretty handy with the drill, too, to make sure each vessel had the appropriate drainage. Add in some free seeds from excellent sources like Wintersown and Washington Gardener Magazine's seed swap, and we were in business! After a few weeks, our basement looked as though something highly illicit was going on. I don't watch the show "Weeds," but I began to feel a strange kinship with Mary-Louise Parker, even though it really was just boring stuff like parsley and kale being grown down there.

hardening off plants by setting them out on the deck for a few hours a day

Soon enough, it was time to start moving the plants outside. I struggled once again with having to create a garden plot from scratch, and wasted some time dithering over materials. This time it wouldn't be enough to nail some boards together in an odd corner of the backyard. We were moving into front yard territory, where the stakes are higher! I spent some time ripping out scraggly evergreen bushes (backbreaking work) and layering compost and shredded newspaper in their place. And I eventually decidd to buy some pre-made raised beds from Gardener's Supply, in conjunction with some cheap border material from Home Depot. No point spending time and money building expensive permanent structures when I didn't even know if this latest experiment was going to work any better than last year!

  |  

It was pretty funny to see an area that had been covered in three feet of snow not that long ago transformed into an edible landscape. And 'twas so subversive to rip up patches of grass, that sacred symbol of The American Dream! Moo hoo ha ha haaaa.

my spanky new Grow a Row sign

I ended up with four raised beds in the front yard. There's actually a considerable amount of shade from nearby trees, but I'm hoping there's enough sun to produce lots of delicious veggies. In fact, this year I've decided to participate in the Grow a Row program, where the Capital Area Food Bank pairs gardeners with food banks and other nonprofits that feed the hungry. Mark thinks the whole concept is pretty funny. I don't think I grew an entire row of anything all season last year, and now we're going to give stuff away? We'll see. So far I've had a profusion of leafy greens, and a few radishes. I didn't get the brassicas in the ground early enough, and while the broccoli and bok choi plants got huge, some started to bolt (flower and go to seed) before I was able to harvest anything edible. But, the experiment continues!

lush purple bush beans

I decided to try a "Three Sisters" patch with corn, several types of squash, and beans. Almost all  plants were grown from seeds I got for free! Gotta love that.

tomaters a-comin'

I started a *ton* of tomato plants from seeds this year. The seeds came from a variety of places: saved from last year's few tomatoes, obtained for free, or in a few specialty cases actually purchased. These mostly-heirloom tomatoes have fun & funky names like "Razzleberry," "Black Cherry," and "Woodle." We'll see what kinds of 'maters start showing up! So far I've spotted a few flowers, which is a good sign, but most of the plants are still too small to produce anything so early in the season.

Cherokee lettuce, my new fave!

At the end of the day, no matter how many veggies get eaten in our kitchen or donated to charity, I still enjoy this pursuit. There's something zen about digging in the dirt and communing with earthworms. (They sure don't talk back or complain that your project is behind schedule or ask where your updated budget figures are!) It's a connection to my mom and grandmother, who taught me to appreciate the magic of popping a seed in some dirt and coming back to find a living plant. OK, it's not as much fun as spending a month in Italy, but if we're gonna be stuck at the homestead it's not a bad way to pass the time.

perennial wildflower mix

RELATED LINKS:
* read all garden-related blog posts
* browse all garden pics
* our upcoming travel schedule
* support the Capital Area Food Bank
* more info about Three Sisters Gardens
* Wintersown - learn to sow seeds outdoors!
* Washington Gardener Magazine

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The movie version of Eat, Pray, Love is coming out later this summer, amidst great hoopla. Fans of the book are excited. Fans of Julia Roberts are excited. Fans of chick flicks are just about beside themselves. And the travel community is psyched for an entirely different reason: yet another mainstream outlet is helping legitimize the concept of a career break.

Back in 2007 when I quit my job to travel through Central America, I didn't realize I was taking a "career break." I just knew it was time for a change! Inspired by superstars Rolf Potts and Rita Golden Gelman as much as "real" travel bloggers out there living the dream like Christine Gilbert of Almost Fearless and Sherry Ott of Ottsworld, I was able to find lots of support and inspiration among the online travel community. And I was fortunate to have been raised in a family where international travel was always highly valued. So while it wasn't all that tough for me to make the leap, it was still a pretty big leap to make. Knowing in your heart that you can do something, and convincing your rational brain that it's a good idea, are two totally different things!

Which is why I was so jazzed to hear that the folks at Briefcase to Backpack are planning an event this fall to connect future cubicle escapees with the resources and encouragement to make it happen. Meet, Plan, Go! is a nationwide event happening simultaneously in a dozen locations on the evening of September 14. Despite being common in Europe and Australia, taking a break for extended travel is still anathema to our workaholic US culture. This is a chance to make the leap from "I wish I could do that!" by MEETing with like-minded travelers so you can PLAN to make that dream trip a reality and get out there and GO! Speakers will discuss practical topics like how to financially plan for a big trip, share inspirational stories about how they made the leap, and provide helpful advice on how to capitalize on your experience when you return to the job market.

Interested in learning more? Sign up for the Meet, Plan, Go! newsletter by June 18 for a chance to win Lonely Planet's "The Big Trip," a guide to career breaks. Event registration will be up and running soon. This event is free and will be held in cities around the US and Canada, so check the site to see if it's coming to a location near you. One lucky attendee will win a trip from Gap Adventures. I'm honored to be hosting the DC event and am working on lining up speakers and sponsors. If you're interested in helping out, drop me a line.

So, let's review:

    * You get to come to a free event and learn about traveling the world
    * You get to network with other people who have traveled the world
    * You get the chance to win a free trip somewhere in the world

What are YOU waiting for???

RELATED LINKS:
* Meet, Plan, Go!
* MPG Facebook fan page
* MPG Twitter feed
* Gap Adventures
* Eat, Pray, Love [the book]
* Eat, Pray, Love [the movie]
* Rita Golden Gelman's site
* Rolf Potts's site
[for other great travel blogs, check out our blogroll at right]

Happiness is plucking a juicy, ripe, red strawberry off a plant in your own backyard, before the birds and squirrels get to it.

This one is juuuuuuuuuust about ready. It's been taunting me from out on our deck for about a week now. I can see it from my kitchen window. So close!

Ah, the yearnings of springtime.

Technically, this post is a bit of a stretch for WanderFood Wednesday, since I didn't even leave my house. But I'm pretty sure anyone who saw me on the deck this morning, in a bathrobe, meticulously photographing this strawberry, would strongly recommend a trip to the looney bin. So there you go.

Hop on over to Wanderlust & Lipstick's WanderFood Wednesday for more mouth-watering travel foodie posts.

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Tahitian Vanilla Bean, Hazelnut, and 64% Bittersweet chocolates

You can keep your raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens... Two of *my* favorite things are red wine and chocolate. And clearly I'm not the only one who feels this way, as evidenced by the near-maximum-capacity crowd at DC Foodies Do Good's April Tweetup: What a Pair! A Blind Red Wine and Chocolate Tasting at Carafe Winemakers in Alexandria.

Tanisha pours mystery wine #3

Wine educator Tanisha Townsend of The GrapeVine set the stage by explaining that we'd be served three wines in a double-blind tasting. This meant that we would need to pair the wines with both the correct varietal and the correct description on the sheets in front of us. Whew! Fortunately the DC Foodies crew was up to the task, and we diligently set about identifying the merlot, cabernet sauvignon, and grenache (which, craftily, was a fortified wine similar to a port).

handmade baked goodies

Meanwhile we were treated to chocolates by Artisan Confections and some handmade baked goods from Cakes by the Pound. Heaven! Tanisha explained the difference between “dark fruits” prominent in a cabernet sauvignon and “red fruits” that typically dominate merlot. Darker chocolates, with deep-roasted flavors, pair well with wines having dark, toasty, or chocolatey notes themselves. And the less-sweet the chocolate -- typically those with a higher cacao percentage-- the more likely it will play nice with red wine.

Jennifer, Amy, and Mark do their homework, while Fox 5's Gwen Tolbart supervises

But, let's face it, you can dutifully listen to all the wine education your little pea brain can hold and it still comes down to this: Drink What You Like. Break the rules, it's more fun that way! And I can say without hesitation: red wine & chocolate, me likey! Very erudite, eh?

more fabulous Artisan chocolates

This post is part of Wanderlust & Lipstick's WanderFood Wednesday series. Head on over there for more delicious foodie travel posts!

And if you're a DC-area foodie do-gooder, please join us for one or both of our May events:
* May 6 - Tweetup #5: Stout & Stilton, An Extraordinary Night of Beer and Cheese Pairing
* May 22 - Do-Good Event: breakfast service at Carpenter’s Shelter

RELATED LINKS:
* Carafe Winemakers (where you can blend and bottle your own wines!)
* The GrapeVine LLC | Facebook tasting club
* Artisan Confections
* DC Foodies Do Good

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Roll the car windows down, dust off those flip-flops, take whatever allergy medications allow you to go outdoors without dissolving into a sneezing-wheezing mess... it's springtime, kiddies! After a fairly brutal winter, we've skipped a few short weeks ahead and it's time to celebrate Mother Nature instead of cursing her.

Here are a few quick before & after signs of spring around my 'hood:

the pear tree in our backyard, circa mid-Feb during snOMG

same pear tree this week, white for a totally different reason!

cherry tree in our front yard, mid-snowpocalypse

same tree, much happier this week!

I have no idea what this tree is called...

...but it sports the most gorgeous blossoms this time of year

joy! the hostas I thought I killed last year have actually returned

yeah, the mint in the front planter always comes back, but it's still nice to see it

A totally different sort of wildlife comes out this time of year, too. Witness:

wild & woolly winter creature

mild springtime urban deckdwellers

BTW, with the exception of that last shot, which was taken by one of my brothers during a recent family gathering in Philly, all of these photos were captured with my iPhone. It definitely doesn't replace my trusty SLR, but I'm pretty psyched with the quality of the snaps.

The other two classic signs of springtime in Washington are, of course, the Cherry Blossoms and the WaPo Peeps Show Diorama contest. How are you celebrating spring?

For more great travel photos, be sure to visit Delicious Baby's Photo Friday.

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It's no secret that I'm both a foodie and a do-gooder, so I was really psyched to find a group that combines both of these pursuits. Started by acclaimed cookbook author Robyn Webb and fellow foodie Line Storgaard-Conley, DC Foodies Do Good gives folks a chance to sample the finer things in life *and* give back to those who have much less. Mark and I helped out at their January event serving dinner at Miriam's Kitchen, and also enjoyed a fabulous chocolate tasting in February. Good times.

DC Foodies Do Good were at Miriam's Kitchen again this week, serving breakfast, and I am so proud to show off the coverage they got on Fox's morning news! Check out my multi-talented man, who not only answers Holly Morris's questions with impressive aplomb, given the ungodly hour, but also pours and flips pancakes like a pro. Is he a keeper or what?

Congrats, Robyn & team, for a great segment! There's also a lovely writeup and link to this video on HuffPo. I hope this inspires people to get out and volunteer, either with DCFDG or another group.

DC Foodies Do Good next events:
* April 7 - red wine & chocolate tasting
* April 25 - lunch service at New Endeavors by Women

Hop on over to Wanderlust & Lipstick's WanderFood Wednesday for more fantastic foodie posts.

RELATED LINKS:
* DC Foodies Do Good
* Miriam's Kitchen
* WanderFood Wednesday: chocolates around the world
* Holly Morris: DC Foodies Do Good
* Huffington Post: DC Foodies Do Good: Social Club Gives Back, Inspired By Love Of Food

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blossomtastic

This year, I decided to celebrate my mom's birthday by volunteering at the National Cherry Blossom Festival. It was a beautiful, if slightly chilly, day to be downtown on the Mall.

The Cherry Blossom Festival lasts two weeks and tends to be one of those things Washingtonians do once or twice and then cross off the list. It marks the official start of tourist season, wherein legions of fanny-packin' clueless zombies invade the National Mall and clog up the Metro by not standing on the right side of the escalators. That being said, it's also a wonderful time to celebrate the classic beauty of our Nation's capital.

NCBF volunteers and our new Park Service friend

The focal point of the Fest is the Tidal Basin, where thousands of cherry trees frame the Jefferson Memorial. (These trees were presented in 1912 by the mayor of Tokyo, to replace the original batch, which all died of disease a few years earlier.) However, this year the organizers moved the performances, and the info booth, to the Sylvan Theatre Stage. You may remember this stage from such memorable gigs as American Giant's May 2009 show. It's at the base of the Washington Monument, which is a pretty kickass setting. There are plenty of cherry trees at this site as well, so even though the volunteers spent our time at this location we were able to see lots of blossoms.

Kyo Daiko troupe from Philly

All in all, it was a great way to commemorate my mom while doing some community service and getting some fresh air. Happy Birthday, JEZ!

RELATED LINKS:
* browse all Cherry Blossom pics
* Celebrating Joan with the first seedlings of the season
* I'm with the band
* Celebrate Joan, a site to celebrate the bright & shiny life of Joan Zamborsky
* National Cherry Blossom Festival official site | performance schedule

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kale veggie stirfry

This is the perfect time of year to wax poetic about kale.

Still with me? (You're a hardcore bunch of readers and I LOVE you for it!) Allow me to 'splain. We all know that kale is a superstar veggie, ridiculously chockfull of vitamins and minerals and sooooooo good for ya. It's one of the world's healthiest foods. But it's not all that celebrated in its raw form, most notoriously known as salad bar garnish because of the rigidity of its leaves.

nagoya kale seedlings

Well, I'm excited to be growing several kinds of kale in the garden this year. So I did a bit of research and found some fabulous recipes befitting this fabulous vegetable. One particular recipe, a sausage & kale soup I found in an organic seed company's newsletter, has become my new favorite food and I've been singing its praises every chance I get. The recipe is pretty simple -- spicy turkey sausage, fat-free chicken broth, a ton of kale & garlic, and some cannelini beans, with a dash of your favorite spices to kick it up a notch -- and is really easy to make. It freezes well too. Everytime I eat this soup, I feel like Popeye! It's been a truly awesome tool to battle the nasty colds going around in this season of transition. And the massive amounts of garlic have helped keep vampires away. :)

lacinato kale seedlings

We'll see how my two types of kale -- a purplish nagoya and an heirloom lacinato -- do in the garden. So far the seedlings seem to be pretty robust, and I've been hardening them off for a few hours outside each day, but I haven't had the chance to actually put them in the ground yet. They'll definitely go in soon, as kale (like fellow brassicas broccoli and cauliflower) flourishes in cool spring weather. I am *so* stoked about the possibility of lots and lots of fresh kale coming straight from my front yard! BTW, the pic at the top is from a kale-barley casserole recipe. It was a bit bland the first time around, so I'm going to experiment with it some more. The stirfry was just gorgeous, though.

If you have any favorite kale recipes, send 'em my way!

Hop on over to Wanderlust & Lipstick's WanderFood Wednesday for more mouth-watering pics.

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sassy, and way ahead of her time

When someone is just a few months shy of hitting 100, you pretty much expect the call to come any day. But, secretly, we thought  somehow she'd outlive all of us.

from her early nursing days

On Sunday, March 7, the Zamborsky family lost our matriarch and grande dame. Nana Z was just a few months shy of her 100th birthday. Zs will be gathering from far and wide next week to pay tribute, and there will be many stories and much homage to this strong, sassy, amazing woman. Here's my two cents. I'll try to keep it short, since she wouldn't want anyone to make a big fuss over her. 

an early Christmas with Pop-pop (check out the stash of booze!)

with Barb and Ed and a fabulous fur!

She wasn't the cookie-baking, kiss-your-boo-boos-away kinda grandma. And that's exactly what we loved about her. She was a tough lady, no doubt about it, most notorious for getting us to shine all the doorknobs in the house whenever she came to babysit. But we could ride our bikes over any time to visit, and she always had a Hershey bar ready from her stash. Perhaps even a forbidden Diet Coke. And she bailed me out of a tough spot on more than one occasion, with practical advice or a safe harbor to come vent or perhaps sometimes even a little white fib, if that's what was needed.

going to McDonalds with Nana was always a special treat

stories around the dining room table 

Nana was way ahead of her time with notions like "fish is brain food" and "get out and exercise every day!" She was a celebrated storyteller, a guardian of Zamborsky family lore, and her sense of humor was legendary. The last time we visited her, one of the nurses made a point of telling us how much he enjoyed her wit and how she cracked him up. She always cracked us up, and herself too, with her knee-slapping cackle. I sometimes find myself cackling like that too -- although I haven't gotten the knee-slapping thing down -- and can only hope that a small piece of her indomitable spirit lives on.

everyone's favorite cackle

Nana Z, role model and ultimate sassy gal, we will all miss you. I hope you're enjoying an excellent hand in that Great Bridge Game in the Sky. And I bet by now you've got 'em shining up the Pearly Gates until they can see their faces in the reflection!

November 2009... still telling stories and keeping 'em laughing

steamed small meat buns, Shanghai style

Every once in a while, it's fun to go back to an old recipe you haven't made in some time, just to see if your chops have improved. Back in the day, when we were just wee fledgeling foodies, the dish we'd bring out when we really wanted to impress someone came from the "China the Beautiful" cookbook. Steamed small meat buns, while having the added bonus of a kickass name, seemed pretty advanced to us back then. The recipe involves several steps of preparation and assembly, and requires a bit of organization to execute properly. It generally elicited a satisfying chorus of oohs and aahhs from guests, except for that one time our friend Jeannette busted us out for serving Safeway brand duck sauce. D'oh!

assembled and ready to be steamed

Well, I'm tickled to say, we made this dish again recently, and were pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to pull off! I actually made it nearly singlehandedly while Mark was preparing another dish. OK, we cheated a bit by using store-bought wonton wrappers, rather than making the dough from scratch. But the resulting dish was just as oohh-and-ahh-worthy as ever!

the finished product

Shiny and aromatic and fresh from the steamer, the biggest challenge is to wait until these little beauties are cool enough to eat without burning your fingers! This time around, Mark mixed together some soy sauce, sesame oil, and pepper flakes for a tasty dipping sauce. No Safeway duck sauce... we've learned our lesson there!

This dish is from the China the Beautiful Cookbook.

Hop on over to Wanderlust & Lipstick's WanderFood Wednesday for more mouth-watering pics.

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raw cacao pods and beans

Madecasse 63%, from Madegascar

Last night the DC Foodies Do Good group gathered at Biagio Fine Chocolate for an exquisite tasting and education in the art and science of chocolate. Can't have much more fun than that... not with your clothes on, anyway. ;)

Biagio explains the difference between cocoa butter and cocoa solids

Owner Biagio Abbatiello gave us a quick overview on the history of cacao, from the Mayans all the way through the latest renaissance of artisanal chocolates. He also walked us through the complex process of growing beans and producing chocolate, and how many potential points of failure there are along the way. Whew. Don't try this at home!

We learned some fun facts like...

* the Mayans greeted the Spaniards with prized cacao beans, who in turn completely misconstrued this revered gift as lowly almonds

* chocolate played an important role in ancient Mesoamerican culture and great rulers were said to drink up to 50 cups of it per day to increase their potency

* in Dickensian times, all sorts of additives (like brick dust, ew!) were mixed into commercial chocolate, prompting some of the first regulatory measures

* if a chocolate bar has a strong vanilla aroma, it probably means the beans were over-roasted and vanilla was added to cover this flaw

* the percentage of total cacao you see on artisanal chocolates includes cocoa butter as well as cocoa solids, so two 70% bars can have completely different flavors & textures

* there are three types of cacao beans: forastero, trinitario, and criollo; the first is the most common and used in your M&Ms and other "supermarket" chocolate, and you're more likely to see the other two listed on more expensive artisanal chocolates

* listen to your chocolate! good quality chocolate should have a nice crisp snap when you break it, and if you're lucky you and your chocolate might even engage in a conversation

guide to tasting fine chocs

And then, of course, the really fun part... the tasting! Biagio provided 8 different dark chocolate samples and one milk chocolate, ranging from 63% to 75% cacao (and 32% for the milk choc). We nibbled treats from Madagascar to Venezuela and many points in between. As with a wine tasting, there is a distinct multi-step process to allow one to truly appreciate fine artisanal chocolate with all the senses. And indeed we did. I think my favorite was the Hispaniola 70% bar from Rogue Chocolatier, with a surprising burst of burnt orange and hints of cherry. It definitely spoke to me, which was no small feat given that all the arrayed chocs were stellar in their own way.

Bolivia Cru Sauvage 68%

Divine 70% from Ghana

Hispaniola 70% from the Dominican Republic

Biagio generously provided a gift basket door prize -- as if all that free chocolate wasn't enough! -- and newcomer Amanda was the lucky winner of a sampling of delectable treats from the shop. She promises to return the favor by participating in the next DCFDG, a volunteer session at Miriam's Kitchen.

Amanda and her prize

For those in the DC area, I highly recommend a visit to Biagio Fine Chocolate. The staff is wonderfully knowledgeable, and they're committed to a mission of introducing the best chocolate the world has to offer. And if you're a DC-area foodie, come join the DC Foodies Do Good crew! The group's monthly tweet-ups alternate between educational tastings and community service projects, providing the perfect mix of gustatory comradery and do-goodery.

Michel Cluizel Concepcion 66% from Venezuela

Hop on over to Wanderlust & Lipstick's WanderFood Wednesday for more mouth-watering pics.

RECOMMENDED:
DC Foodies Do Good
organizers: @robynwebb & @storgaardconley

Biagio Fine Chocolate
1904 18th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
202.328.1506

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I've been a bad-bad monkey this week and have not posted ANY new content to the blog! I blame the complete *lack* of snow this week, forcing me to actually go to the office and get some work done. Bleh!  ::: shakes fist at Mother Nature nobody in particular :::

However, all the recent snowmageddon/snowpocalypse/snOMG craziness has me dreaming of greener pastures and new garden adventures. So, here's a little hopeful reminder that spring really is coming...

And if you want to see the rest of the pics from this recycled Photo Friday, check out the original post: Simple pleasures.

Tomorrow I'm attending Field to Fork Network's Rooting DC urban gardening event and hope to get all fired up about this year's gardening endeavors. Stay tuned for updates about my planned attack on the front lawn and other edible conquests!

For more great travel photos, be sure to visit Delicious Baby's Photo Friday.

RELATED LINKS:
* Photo Friday: simple pleasures
* Grrrrrrrrreat Success! a Special Olympics Victory Garden update
* Our (Special Olympics) Victory Garden
* Celebrating Joan with the first seedlings of the season

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Does anyone else feel completely inundated with New Year's Resolution lists and self-improvement advice? (Oh good, I thought it was just me.) I'm not a fan of resolutions, and I actually tend to do my year-in-review work around my birthday. But this brilliant little 5-minute video by @boxofcrayons really grabbed my attention. It's clearly a few years old, but was recently re-surfaced by the very wise Chris Brogan, and I felt compelled to pass it along. Take a peek:

My favorite principle is number 6... Use Your Wisdom: Start getting rid of the crap.

"Knowledge is a process of piling up facts;
wisdom lies in their simplification."
-- Rev Dr Martin Luther King, civil rights leader

Which one spoke to you the loudest?

RELATED LINKS:
* Eight Principles
* Chris Brogan's blog

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I'm excited to announce the return of Passports with Purpose, an ambitious project started last year by a handful of travel bloggers. It's essentially a fundraiser raffle with some amazing prizes. This year the funds raised will benefit American Assistance for Cambodia, an NGO that builds schools in Cambodia. As you can see in the widget to the right, PwP is off to a roaring start, and the event has only just kicked off!

Here's how to participate:

* Browse the list of prizes and enter a donation for a chance to win that prize. Each $10 donation to AAfC equals one drawing entry.

* Spread the word! Tell your friends, shout it from the rooftops, mention it at your next holiday party. 'Tis the season for generosity and goodwill, after all. If you have a blog or site, promote PwP to your readers. Tweet about it using hashtag #PwP. There's also a Facebook Fan Page.

* If you've been naughty this year and need to obtain a few extra good-karma points to avoid getting coal in your stocking, consider donating a prize or becoming a sponsor.

Don't delay! The raffle closes December 21, and winners will be announced January 5.

RELATED LINKS:
* Passports with Purpose
* American Assistance for Cambodia
* Beth Whitman's poignant account of her travels in Cambodia
* Nicholas Kristof's firsthand experience with AAfC in Cambodia

The good folks at Wanderlust and Lipstick are conducting their second annual WanderWomen Travel Writing Contest for budding and experienced female travel writers. Participants can enter original travel stories in five different categories, for a chance to win some very cool prizes. This is a women-only contest (sorry boyz!) and is meant to encourage women in both their writing AND their travels.

The Grand Prize is a 12-day "Health and Harmony" tour through Vietnam. There are also great category prizes including a daybag from Overland Adventure and a travel pillow and blanket from Cocoon. Sweet!

So, ladies, I encourage you to submit your best stuff, and please spread the word to other travel grrlies in your network. The contest ends November 30, so don't dawdle.

* WanderWomen Travel Writing Contest
* about Wanderlust and Lipstick

oktapodi is glad to be home, but not-so-glad to be sorting through a mountain of junk mail

After a lonnnnnng drive to Rome, followed by a short night's sleep and then a long flight, an irritating layover in JFK, and then another hour drive to our house, we were pretty ready to be home. We arrived back to find the usual metric ton of mail, plus the unexpected surprise of no heat! Nice. Still, it's good to be in our own bed again. We have much catching up to do after being so delinquent on blog and photo entries for most of this trip. (Gotta admit, that hard drive failure really took the wind out of my sails.) But, rest assured, we are up to the task! Expect to see many more stories and pics from our astoundingly fabulous -- and occasionally fraught-with-peril -- monthlong jaunt through central Italy. Thanks for your patience, faithful readers. And thanks, as always, for playing along at home!

Now is your chance to win a coveted "Whiney" award! (Oh, you know you want one!) The first Wine Whore Online Wine Scavenger Hunt starts today, and runs through August 28. Pour yourself a glass of your favorite grape juice, and start hunting for answers to the posted clues.

Sign up and submit your answers at the Wine Whore blog. You'll notice some very illustrious sites  among those hiding the clues. :)

Happy #winewednesday, and good luck, winos!

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OK, well, the winner is *us* for taking a month off to travel through Italy. :)

But, more to the point, we've chosen a place to stay for the bulk of our trip. And the winner is: La Tavola Marche! Located in the "calf" of the boot, in a central region near Tuscany and Umbria, La Tavola Marche is an agriturismo run by an American couple who share much of the same slow food philosophy we espouse. I ran into Ashley and Jason in the Slow Food group on LinkedIn. To take a snippet from their web site: La Tavola Marche is run by a young passionate American couple who will cook for you, take you shopping in the local markets for the night’s dinner, direct you to the best wines and cheese of the region, and if you wish, give you cooking lessons.

Do these guys sound like our people, or what?

They have several different apartments on their property. Unfortunately, by the time I contacted them with specific dates, the smallest one was already taken. But they made arrangements for us to rent a slightly larger apartment at a very reasonable rate. So we'll be spending the middle section of our trip in the middle of Italy, cooking and visiting the wineries and markets of Le Marche and just soaking in the scene for two weeks. From what we've read on Ashley & Jason's blog we're gonna fit right in.

We're still working through the details of the rest of the trip, although a good bit of it will be left to chance and our whims of the moment. We'll likely start off in Venice and Florence, then go to Le Marche, then end up in Rome. I'm also toying with the idea of visiting Torino, which is the home of the Slow Food movement, and also has an active CouchSurfing community. We'll see. We will need to rent a car to get to La Tavola Marche, but taking the train between the major cities seems the sanest way to go. The goal is to couchsurf as much as possible, with some hotels/hostels on board for backup.

As I've said before, one of the nice things about going to Italy (as opposed to, say Malaysian Borneo) is that seemingly everyone's been there and has a recommendation or ten. These we take with a big grain of salt, but it's all part of the pre-trip planning and research. Some other great resources I've been using to help plan:

* a flotilla of fabulous Italy Tweeps

* a wonderful book we stole (ehm, borrowed!) from Mark's sister, called "One Hundred & One Beautiful Small Towns of Italy"

* ViaMichelin to help estimate drive times

* Italy Beyond the Obvious and Italy Travelista for great articles and advice

Watch the calendar/maps sections of this site as additional details evolve. And of course we'll be blogging and tweeting our way through the trip... trying to find that elusive balance of sharing the juicy detes and actually enjoying our travels!

(all photos are from Ashley's Flickr photostream)

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After last weekend's hectic beach junket, followed by a Photo Friday fulla flowers, this weekend was all about chilling out with the boyz.

On Saturday night, I performed my typical roadie-groupie-photog role for Mark's band as they played their first paying gig at Bunker Sports Cafe in Leesburg. It was American Giant's chance to make a good impression on both the booking agent and the club manager, two characters who are key to any band's success. It was just an opening gig, but the headlining act, Kelly Bell Band, is supposedly a pretty big name, so it seemed like a good opportunity.

Too bad nobody showed up.

OK, well, that's not entirely true, there were about 50 people there. It was a biiiiiiig bar, so it just seemed empty. But everyone present seemed to be enjoying themselves. *And* there were chix dancing. *And* there were no big throngs showing up for the headlining act either. So we'll consider it a success!

On Sunday, we babysat our 2-year-old nephew, James. He is one funny little dude. It was the perfect chance to get silly, play with cars, and read Dr Seuss. What more could you ask for on a Sunday afternoon? And just as he started to get cranky, we gave him back. That's what *I'm* talkin about. Life is good!

Related links:
* browse all AG/James photos
* American Giant web site | Facebook fan page | My Space page

We all know we're supposed to stop and smell the roses from time to time. Well, after a hectic and overly-dramatic week, I'm taking a deep breath this Friday to appreciate the unexpected treasures, great and small, that have popped up in my yard.

I planted a few sunflower seeds in a scrabbly patch next to the garage, not even sure if anything would grow there. Much to my surprise, a few plants cropped up, looking mostly like enormous weeds. Much to my relief, they have recently sprouted a few sunflowers! The biggest one plays host to a big bumblebee who often greets me in the morning as I hop into the car. (He didn't want to pose for any pictures today, though. Guess he's camera-shy.) I can not WAIT for this beautiful, cheery flower to start producing some tasty seeds!

The dwarf zinnias I picked up at the farmers market earlier this season are thriving near the front walk. It's so nice to see bright flowers in the middle of the hottest and driest part of the summer.

Inspired by Shawna Coronado's "crazy-ass mailbox garden", I decided to plant some stuff out by our mailbox. It's not nearly as fab as Shawna's, but a few giant zinnias have popped up. I can only hope they bring a shred of joy to our mail carrier.

The sweet pea seeds I planted with the zinnias haven't yielded much in the way of flowers. So I was shocked and delighted to discover that there are actual PEA PODS coming out! Bonus! There aren't a lot of them out there, but what fun it'll be to sprinkle a few fresh peas into a salad.

The final simple pleasure photo is from the nasturtiums out on our back deck. I picked out these seeds at random, not knowing much about these marvelous flowers. In the subsequent weeks, I've been tickled to see bright orange flowers and leafy green vines spilling out over the side of the deck. I also noticed some seed pods poking out, and upon researching it a bit more I discovered that nasturtiums produce three kinds of edible treasures: the seed pods can be used much as you would use peppercorns, the flowers are edible, and the leaves are spicy and not unlike arugula. Triple-bonus!

What simple pleasures are you enjoying this summer?

Be sure to check out other great Photo Friday pics on Delicious Baby!

What a fun announcement in celebration of #winewednesday! It's official! I'm thrilled to report that I am a new member of the Wine Whore Crew.

Visit Wine Whore Crew

I know what you're thinking... how is this different from any other day? Good question. I got hooked up with Randy Watson, aka The Wine Whore, on Twitter. He published a contest inviting folks to write in about "Why It's Better to Be a Wine Whore," with the following invitation:

If you fit any of the following criteria, you may be a Wine Whore:

* Do you love wine?
* Do you find yourself looking forward to that glass of vino at the end of a long day?
* Do you enjoy sharing your passion for the grape with others?

Um, can I get a HELL YEAH? So I entered the contest. Friends and neighbors, apparently I have what it takes cuz I made the cut. Woot!

I'll be helping review wines and share my love o' the grape. I can't wait! Watch this site, and The Wine Whore blog, for my contributions. Wanna be a part of the movement? Become a member of the WW Crew! Join us at a new online wine lovers' paradise... a virtual place to hang out, meet fellow wine lovers close to home as well as around the world, and most importantly DRINK FREE WINE!

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Someone recently reminded me that we're passing the second anniversary of my "take this job and shove it" departure for 10 weeks of solo travel in Central America. Yikes! Tempus fugit. I didn't yet have the blog set up at that point, so there's nothing in the archives about the preparations for this trip or how I was feeling at the time. But I distinctly remember a weird cocktail of excitement, liberation, and terror. (Sound familiar, veteran travelers?) And it all culminated on that last day before my departure, which I spent hanging out with friends at a riverside July 4th party, trying to seem composed and chillaxed. Hah! Meanwhile a huge thunderstorm (which threatened to turn into a tornado) raged through the area. Turned out to be nothing more than a standard summer rainshower, but what an apropos metaphor.

In honor of the US holiday, I thought I'd replay a few snaps from that transitional time two years ago. There really is nothing quite like seeing the fireworks over the monuments, reflected on the Potomac river while boats drift by. It's something everyone should do at least once in their lives. This year we'll be celebrating on a roofdeck in downtown DC, enjoying the mandatory grilled beast and dreaming of our upcoming travels to Italy.

Happy Fourth of July to those who celebrate it, and happy midsummer for the rest of ya!

Browse all pics from July 4, 2007

OK, well, maybe not great success, but I will give myself a small Borat-style high-five. We're finally starting to see some veggies in the Special Olympics Victory Garden! Niiiiice, I liiiiike!

The herbs -- basil, parsley, dill, cilantro, sage, chives, thyme, oregano -- have been doing well, and I've been harvesting the thinned seedlings for salads and other recipes. However, I was skeptical that we had enough hours of sun in the backyard to produce any actual veggies. The tomato, cucumber, and pepper plants have been growing like mad. But I was beginning to think we'd have a bunch of gargantuan plants with no edibles.

Joy! This week, I noticed our first red tomato. This tiny cluster is from the Juliet plant we bought at the Falls Church Farmers Market. Woot! You can see from the picture that the birds have been trying to get at it. (Despite the menacing inflatable snake that ain't foolin' NOBODY.) It's not going to win a blue ribbon at the State Fair. No matter! After carefully photographing it, which I made Mark do because my hands were all muddy, we carefully harvested it, and it's now in the kitchen awaiting a place of honor in a salad of some sort. Hopefully there will be more where it came from. I may live to regret those words... in which case you will ALL be receiving cases of salsa for Christmas this year!

I also noticed that the cukes are starting to proliferate. These are also farmers market plants, which are clearly at home in their back corner of the garden and are threatening to overtake the beans and squash.

I continue to struggle with the southeast corner, which doesn't seem to get enough sun to support anything. Plus it's the lowest, wettest point of the entire yard. I've tried lettuce from seed packets, several times, to no avail. I got a few seedling freebies at a gardening workshop last weekend -- yes, I attend gardening workshops on weekends for fun, are you the least bit surprised at my geekitude? -- so I might put in some cilantro and dill back there to see how it does.

My other struggle is with the compost pile. We've held off buying an expensive rotating composter, and instead used an old plastic trash can. I tried to keep everything manually rotated and aerated, but I let it go for a week or so because of all the rain. And when I opened it up this week it was chock-full o' maggots. Barf! So much for that experiment. I dumped it out in a secluded spot in the backyard and let the birds have a nice lil' picnic. We'll cover it with grass clippings and still have a workable compost pile. Another lesson learned for the Victory Garden files!

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Related links:
* Our Special Olympics Victory Garden (May update)
* Celebrating Joan with the first seedlings of the season (March update)

Here are a few snaps from Mark's latest gig... The band, American Giant, has only recently formed and this was their first outing. They played at a walkathon/fundraiser event for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, which was a little bizarre and very different from the standard smoky-drunken-divebar gig. I have to admit, though, watching them play onstage at the foot of the Washington Monument was pretty kickass. The National Sylvan Theater is little more than a rickety old bandshell, but the location makes it almost majestic. Having Jerome from Jimmy's Chicken Shack there to run sound on equipment from Rams Head didn't hurt either.

Hopefully there will be more American Giant gigs (and, ahem, a web site) soon, and y'all can come out and join us next time! Bring your earplugs. :)

I've been on Twitter for several months now. While the basic mechanics are pretty straightforward, it took me a while to get the hang of it and feel like I had a useful tool on my hands. There are approximately three gazillion "Twitter How-To" articles out there, but none of them really got to the heart of it. And it finally occurred to me that everything I needed to know about Twitter, I learned in kindergarden:

The Golden Rule
Follow everyone who follows you (unless they are an obvious spambot). You can always un-follow them later if their tweets get annoying, but at least give them the benefit of the doubt up front.

Share everything
Re-tweet helpful stuff. This has the double-benefit of sharing interesting tidbits as well as promoting someone else's tweet. If you do this on a regular basis, folks will start re-tweeting your stuff too.

Nobody likes a copycat
Don't just "RT" everyone else's material. And for god's sake don't spit out an endless stream of quotations. Add your own original thoughts from time to time!

It's polite to use someone's name in conversation
Use @ handles as often as possible. This directs a question or comment to a specific person, and you're more likely to receive a response that way. Unless you have a large pool of loyal followers, posing a generic question to the masses is not going to generate many responses.

Nobody likes a braggart
Constantly promoting only your own stuff (products, website, events, etc) starts to occur as spam after a while.

Just because someone's popular doesn't mean you need to be their friend
People with tens of thousands of followers aren't always the most interesting tweeple. More often than not, they're obsessed with rote numbers of followers. Yawn. (However, I do always give 'em a chance to really wow me, per the Golden Rule above.)

Know your friends
Use a tool like TweetDeck to group the people you're following into categories. This way you can easily skim a topic and see what folks are tweeting about. I follow a pretty diverse set of people -- travelers, gardeners, techies, foodies, winos, CSRfolk -- and TweetDeck helps me keep their conversations organized.

So what have I actually gotten out of Twitter? Here's a quick list of tangible benefits:

* I got someone a job
* I got some free plants (from several different people)
* I won a free bottle of wine in a contest
* I got a timely news snippet that proved helpful in a conversation with a vendor
* I've learned about lots of great local events
* I was able to give a particularly smarty response about hashtags in a work meeting
* I connected with a CSR industry expert who gave me some great jobsearching advice

...and, most exciting of all: I got an AMAZING fare to Italy by being in the right place at the right time and following the real-time advice of a travel guru.

Might I have gotten those things even if I weren't on Twitter? It's possible. But unlikely. There's something about the immediacy of tweets that is vastly different from an email you can stash away and maybe read later. And there's something intoxicating about gaining access to people who you might otherwise only read about or see on TV. Following a person and reading their random tweets gives you more insight into their humanity. And I happen to think that's pretty frickin' cool.

Do you have any great Twitter pearls of wisdom? Please share!

"Live a balanced life; learn some and think some
and draw and paint and sing and dance
and play and work every day some."
-Robert Fulghum "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarden"

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It's official. We're going to Italy in the fall. On Tuesday night, with the help of the good folks at FareCompare I found a redonkulously low fare from DC to Rome and just couldn't resist. (As a side note, it turned out to be a mistake on the part of the airline. They left out the fuel surcharge. Oops! Hee hee.) So, we're booked: September 16 to October 16. Italy, here we come!

And now comes the fun part! I love researching for upcoming trips. And while I have been collecting information, articles, blogs, tips, and contacts for a few months now, it's time for the real work to begin. Since we've never been to Italy before -- I know! unbelievable! -- we'll probably spend a few days each in "the big three" cities of Rome, Venice, and Florence. There's a wealth of information about what to do and see and eat and drink in these places. I may try to find us some couchsurfing hosts, and I hope to hook up with a few of the amazing Italy/travel/wine folks I've been chatting with on Twitter.

That'll be fun, but this trip is really all about slow travel. A corollary of the slow food movement that began in Italy as a reaction to fast food, slow travel is a philosophy that embraces a decelerated pace, cultural immersion, and deeper exposure to the richness of "going local." Slow travel typically involves a stay of at least a week in one place, with day trips fanning out in concentric circles from your home base. After our frenetically-paced SE Asian junket last November, where we arrived home feeling exhausted and in need of a vacation from our vacation, I decided our next trip would be as slowed-down as possible. I've been drooling at pictures of small towns in Italy -- OMG, they're all GORGEOUS! I've been researching agriturismo venues where you can pick veggies from the garden and learn to cook fresh local dishes from scratch. Heaven! I've been collecting charming Italian wineries like baseball cards. After all, we will be there for the harvest season. Cin cin!

But I feel like I've hit a wall.

How do you *plan* a trip whose very essence is about not planning at all?

Is this information filed right next to the sound of one hand clapping? I haven't figured that one out either. Anyway, I'd love to hear from the slow travel mavens out there. How does one find the elusive balance that covers just enough of the basics so you don't miss out on all the good stuff, but allows the trip to unfold organically?

We also haven't decided which region to use as our home base. Any and all suggestions are being evaluated! Send your recs my way, please and thanks!

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It's simply not summer in the US until Memorial Weekend, the official inauguration of the season of grillin, chillin, and overconsumption of the vice of your choosing. This year we decided to start our summer off right with a trip to Osyrusfest 2009 in Coatesville, PA.

We'd attended this event two years ago, and it was great to see how it's grown. Started a few years back by the illustrious Preston and Paul Hoffman as a way to celebrate jam bands (and an excuse to drag millions of dollars of lighting equipment to the quarry outside their old family homestead), Osyrusfest has evolved into one of the premiere small music festivals in North America. The schedule was jam-packed full of excellent bands from all over the country. Even for someone who gets easily bored with the never-ending wiffly-wafty nature of jam music -- ehm, that would be me -- the jaw-dropping lights and striking Ofest setting kicks the whole thing up a notch or ten.

Learning from past mistakes with leaky tents, this year we decided to rent a big honkin' RV and drive up from DC. Several participants flaked out at the last minute, which just left more room in the RV of Love & Justice for me, Mark, and our friend Josh (better known in some circles as The Minister of Intoxication). We got the exact same model we'd rented last year for Burning Man, and the minute I stepped inside to load up our gear I had a huge flashback to our dusty, surreal adventures on The Playa. And, sniff, I missed Crystal and Foreward and the rest of the GBOF crew! Nevermind, we were about to create a whole set of new memories with a new cast of characters.

We finally hit the road around 8:30pm on Friday, which meant missing most of the hideous weekend traffic, but it also meant arriving just before midnight. After taking a wrong turn at Gum Tree and almost taking out their neighbor's mailbox, we rolled into the Hoffman Estates just as the Mobias Project set was ending. I wiggled the Mothership into position, and we cracked open a frosty beverage to celebrate our successful arrival. The party raged deep into the night, complete with a DJ set and a neverending supply of Fisherman's Brew beer. (Sponsorship is goooooood!)

The rest of the weekend was somewhat of a blur, albeit a totally mellow and relaxing one. Daytime consisted of parking ourselves in the shade outside the RV and interacting with our neighbors, sharing beverages and tasty treats. If we were so inclined, there were several sporting options to partake in... everything from whiffle ball to bocce. Mostly we just sat around chatting and enjoying the continuous current of music from the DJ tent, live guitar and drum circles, or our own RV sound system. It was chillaxed to the max!

The highlight of the weekend was indisputably the stellar set by Eclipse, a Pink Floyd tribute band from Nashville. They totally stole the show. Mere words can't quite convey the exhilaration of standing on the overgrown quarry floor, surrounded by lights and fog, listening to this band belt out Pink Floyd favorites like "Comfortably Numb" and "Wish You Were Here." If I closed my eyes, I coulda sworn I was actually seeing the Floyd live and in the flesh. It was truly breathtaking. The band has seven members, including one vocalist who sounds more like Roger Waters and one with more of a David Gilmour sound, plus a hot female saxophonist/keyboardist, and another hot female vocalist who can belt out "Great Gig in the Sky" like nothing I've ever heard. So they can really cover the full gamut. If you are the least bit fan of the Floyd, make it your business to see these guys in concert. They blew us all away.

And then, the icing on the cake: we got to hang out with most of Eclipse after the show. Such is the benefit of having a ginormous mothership of a vehicle... you get to host the best parties at the festival! We never quite matched the 20-person pileup of BM 2008, but we certainly did circulate a lot of folks through the RV of Love & Justice on Saturday night. And I have to say, in addition to being a phenomenally talented bunch, Eclipse are also outstanding peeps to hang out with. It was a pleasure getting to know them. The absinthe was flowing, the hookah was fired up, and the steady stream of innnnnnnnnteresting people kept the conversation lively, to say the least. Good times.

By the time Monday rolled around and it was time to roll on home, everyone was a bit rough around the edges, as you can imagine. Preston was overhead to say something to the effect of "I can *feel* how much fun I had this weekend. Even my teeth hurt!" Amen, brother. We were all using our inside voices the following week at work. No matter, it was completely worth it! Kudos to Preston and Paul for a tremendously successful Osyrusfest 2009. Oh, and on top of all the fun, we raised a bunch of money to help provide clean drinking water to Varkhadiya Village in Gujarat, India, via the fabulous folks at 1Well. Gotta love fun that benefits a great cause. Summer 2009, here we come!

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PS. All Ofest pics can be found here. Anybody who wants originals, please visit the Flickr set and help yerself! (There are a few additional photos posted there.) I didn't get everyone's email addies, so kindly help me spread the word to the rest of the 'Fest folks.

PPS. Hippie-ravers HEART oktapodi, big time! Here's a small sampling of the new friends our groovy cephalopod made at Ofest:

In celebration of Mother's Day, this seemed like a good time to check in with an update on our gardening adventures. As I've said before, my mom was the one who instilled in me a love of veggies and diggin' in the dirt. So while I'm more than a bit sad she's not around to witness my latest attempts at green-thumbery, what better way to celebrate this day?

This year we (and by "we" I mean "I") decided it was time to graduate from container plantings to a full-blown garden in the backyard. I was inspired, in part, by First Lady Michelle Obama's awesome efforts to raise the profile of organic gardening by planting a vegetable garden on the grounds of the White House. Hurray! The likes of Alice Waters and Michael Pollan have been advocating this for years, and it's just another sign of positive regime change to see the First Family involved in gardening efforts. (To his credit, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is doing some kickass things to embrace sustainable agriculture, and has planted his own garden right on Ag grounds.) There's been much talk of "Victory Gardens" this year, given the troubled state of the economy and America's higher awareness of the importance of locally-sourced food. And how much more local can you get than your own backyard? The time was right to fully embrace the gardening ethos, and take our efforts to the next level.

Just one problem: our backyard is pretty shady. We love our "secret garden" backyard for the privacy it affords. While the front yard is super-sunny and enjoys afternoon southern exposure, the back is full of tall trees and doesn't get as much sun. Hrm. While there is an interesting movement (see below) that recommends doing away with that All-American pasttime of keeping a high-maintenance, resource-draining green carpet of turf, we weren't quite ready to take the plunge and dig up our front lawn to make way for veggies. So we tried to find a suitable spot in the backyard that would get enough sun to sustain a small patch of salad fixins.

We found a spot, and opted to go with a raised bed. Supposedly raised beds are a more efficient use of space and water, and are the way to go when planting vegetables. So we plotted the dimensions of a possible raised bed, taking into account the odd shape of the yard, several drainage spouts we didn't want to disturb, and the extant foliage. We settled on a very odd shape, and set off to obtain the necessary lumber to make the frame.

The result was affectionately referred to as either the "Trapezoid Garden" (Mark) or "Special Olympics Garden" (me). Yes, the shape is weird. Yes, it's a bit larger than recommended for a raised bed garden. But ya gotta work with what ya got.

In preparation for planting all manner of herbs and vegetables, I decided to try to start a few things from seed. After purchasing a boatload of seeds (rookie gardener syndrome), as well as a few peat starter trays, I planted some tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, rosemary, and a handful of flowers for the front yard. Lacking a proper greenhouse setup, I had to be satisfied with a few sunny windows and plenty of water.

By late March, we'd mulched over the scant remaining grass using newspaper and a combination of grass clippings and compost. Having lugged five big bags of designer dirt home from the garden store, it became obvious we'd need a *lot* more soil for this puppy. Hoo boy.

Meanwhile, the cukes and tomatoes had all succumbed to mysterious malady I eventually identifed as "damping-off disease." This fungus rots the stems at the soil surface, causing them to topple over, shrivel up, and die. Boo-hoo! It's caused by overwatering and poor circulation. I've decided that the peat trays are partially to blame, as it's hard to tell if the plant is sufficiently moist or oversaturated. It was discouraging to lose a whole tray of seedlings, but fortunately the peppers were still in good shape.

At least, until the mercurial DC spring weather got the better of me. I accidentally left the seedlings outside overnight once in April. The daytime temps had been in the mid-70s, so I'd put the plants outside to "harden" a bit in preparation for eventual planting. That worked out great, but that night it plunged to the 40s. Eeeek! The abundant tray of seedlings dwindled down to a few extra-hardy specimens. I was crushed. One glimmer of hope: an errant tomato seedling from last year's crop managed to survive the winter and poke its little head up. I've since been warned that hybrid seedings are not to be trusted, but I'm still proud of this one tough little soldier that made it through the ice and snow. I eagerly await whatever fruit it decides to bear this season.

Gradually, throughout late April and early May, we transformed the bed into something that might actually support vegetative life. This involved many trips to the garden center for bag after bag of dirt, plus some attempts to turn over the existing soil and combine it with the purchased stuff. I transplanted several lettuce varietals that I'd started from seed, as well as scattering some new lettuce seeds directly into the garden. I researched "companion plants" and which veggies played nice with each other, and attempted to plot out the garden schematic. I also attended a workshop co-hosted by The DC Historical Society and Washington Gardener magazine, and geeked out to an afternoon of Q&A by Cindy Brown of Green Spring Gardens. My true geekburger nature shone through as I reveled in the research, the planning, the anecdotal stories from other local gardeners. But at the same time, I was realizing that gardening is really all about trial and error. As with most great hobbies, in gardening one must not be afraid to fail once or twice or three times, in pursuit of that one combination that really works. I don't like to fail (who does?) but when you're talking about a 99-cent pack of seeds or even a $2 plant, happily, the stakes are low. When the cucumbers I started from seeds all croaked from the damping-off fungus, I bought a bunch of seedlings from the garden store and planted those in the garden. When cutworms (or perhaps the insane amounts of rain we've been having lately) got the better of those seedlings, and all but one flopped over, I bought heartier plants at the local farmers market. Hopefully the third time's the charm. Likewise, though I can't seem to keep a tomato seedling alive no matter what I try, a friend has come through with some awesome heirloom plants. Live and learn, and take good notes to prevent the same debacle next time.

Which brings us to the present. As of this weekend, I've planted nearly everything, except the peppers, which require really warm weather to flourish. The multiple varieties of lettuce, which love the cool damp weather, are starting to mature and I've already started incorporate some into our daily salads. A sage plant from the garden center seems to be doing well, alongside a stevia plant that I just couldn't resist. (I have no idea how you make the transformation from green leafy plant to organic sugar substitute, but that's an experiment for another day.) The new cukes are in, fingers crossed. I planted a bunch of herbs from seed, including basil, cilantro, and chives. Several types of heirloom tomatoes (Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Chocolate, and Black from Tula) from our friend's garden are planted alongside some other funky-sounding tomatoes (Nebraska Wedding, Juliet, Pink Beauty, and Green Zebras) sourced from the Falls Church farmers market. The Juliets were purchased from a farmergrrl with a Jack Skellington tattoo. Now *that* is the American dream, friends and neighbors. I also planted a few different types of carrots, beets, and beans, as those were always my favorites to garden with my mom. I think she'd be proud of my efforts. Now, if I can just keep the birds and squirrels from eating everything...

PS. I have discovered that gardeners, in addition to happily sharing their knowledge, are generous with extra plants and clippings. Along with the heirloom tomatoes, in recent weeks I have been the benefactor of rosemary clippings, hostas, and day lillies. I could also have my share of free mulch if only I had a way to transport it from a friend's yard in DC. Much love to my garden peeps, you are a wise and bounteous group of folks!

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Related Links:
* Michelle Obama: How Does Your Garden Grow?
* Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House
* Michelle Obama's Garden
* For Vilsack, the Proof Is in the Planting
* Lawn Reduction and Lawn Substitutes
* Why Mow? The Case Against Lawns

I arrived at the Ambassador's residence around 9am for orientation. Stepping inside this oasis of lush style, you'd never know you're just a few steps from the Dupont Circle Metro Station. From the stunning entryway leading to a jaw-dropping wooden staircase, to the dining room with Elizabethan wainscoting, to the skylight in the Edwardian ballroom, the Thomas Gaff house is a true DC landmark. It's a few blocks from the actual Embassy of Colombia. But it was no surprise that this was the chosen site to host the Embassy's open house. The place is sa-weeeeeet!

This was Cultural Tourism DC's second year organizing Passport DC, a series of 30+ embassy open houses all occurring on the same Saturday in May. The event provided a unique opportunity to visit some of the most gorgeous properties DC has to offer. Embassies from Australia to Zambia opened their doors to the public, offering cultural programs, food tasting, and a rare glimpse inside buildings that are not often open for walk-ins by the Average Joe. I'd heard about the event from the volunteer coordinators at the Cherry Blossom Festival, and it sounded like a great opportunity to give back. I received two assignments: morning shift at the Embassy of Colombia, and afternoon shift outside the Embassy of Ukraine.

Last year's event drew over 50,000 people, and this year they expected even greater numbers. In preparation for a day of directing the masses, Denisse Yanovich, Cultural Attaché at the embassy, gathered up a group of Passport volunteers and embassy staff to dole out assignments. As any good volunteer knows, there's nothing better than knowing exactly what you're supposed to be doing, so it was a great relief to see the shifts planned out in precise detail. Denisse explained that some of us would be tasked with crowd control, making sure that nobody brushed up against the priceless Botero painting in the foyer or wandered upstairs to Ambassador Carolina Barco Isakson's private residence, and some of us would be serving treats or handing out literature in the main ballrom. I ended up at the passport stamp station. The event program guide featured a "passport" section in the middle, where visitors could collect a stamp for each embassy visited. My very important job was to offer an official stamp to those who wanted to commemorate their visit to Colombian soil. Most embassies used standard ink stamps, or stickers, but at the Embassy of Colombia we didn't mess around. I got to use an ancient metal seal to emboss page after page. After a few hours the muscles on my right side started to feel like jelly, but it was worth it for the excited reactions. "Oooooo! It's so *official*!" and "Coooooooool!" and "Wow, that's awesome!" were just a few of the standard responses. People really dug it. And as any good volunteer knows, there's nothing better than recognition of a job well done.

Last year, the Embassy saw about 2,000 visitors. I don't know what the final count was for this year, but I'm guessing we surpassed last year's benchmark by about midday. The line stretched out the door and around the block. People were almost as excited to see the exquisite artwork as they were to enter the raffle to win a free tshirt emblazoned with the "Colombia es pasión!" tagline. Visitors were also treated to videos extolling Colombia's tourist attractions, free Juan Valdez coffee, and bocadillos with guava and queso. I didn't see the Couchsurfing group who met up for the day, but did run into a random friend who was surprised to see me wielding an official Colombian seal. It was a great morning.

My shift was over around 1pm, when I was relieved by the afternoon volunteer. Denisse directed me to the kitchen in the bowels of the residence for a spot of lunch. (As any good volunteer knows, there's nothing better than a free lunch! Especially one awarded in recognition of a job well done.) I was a bit sad to leave, but my next shift awaited. I ate as quickly as I could, and caught the Route 3 shuttle bus to my next destination in Georgetown.

On the shuttle, I sat next to a woman who had just come from the Embassy of Uzbekistan, and was en route to Saudi Arabia. She and I marveled at the fact that when you've lived somewhere for a while, you tend to take for granted the goodies that are available in your backyard. When else do you get a chance to see what the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia has to offer? Legally, Embassy grounds *are* officially the soil of that particular country, so it's probably the only chance someone like me might get to "visit" Saudi Arabia. Alas, today it wasn't meant to be, as I needed to continue on to my next shift at the Embassy of Ukraine.

Long story short, I got redirected to help out at the main information booth back at Dupont Circle. I spent the rest of the afternoon directing folks to the appropriate shuttle lines, explaining that although the Embassy of Australia closed at 3pm there were still plenty of embassies open until 4, and handing out program guides until they ran out. While not nearly as organized as my time in Colombia that morning, it was nonetheless energizing. By the time my afternoon shift ended around 4:30, I was exhausted and more than ready to head for home.

It's too bad Passport DC is only once a year... so many fabulous embassies, so little time! But for those who are looking for a second chance, the European Union countries are doing their own open house events next weekend:

Shortcut to Europe
Saturday, May 9
1-4pm

Related links:
* more photos from the day's events
* video/pics from all embassies

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I'm working on some new blog posts, I swear I am. But in the meantime, I wanted to share this award-winning short by Kirsten Lepore, which came my way via nerdseyeview. I completely agree with Pam, it's a "nearly perfect travel story." Enjoy, and Happy Earth Day!

Wowie-zowie. I'd known about the evils of styrofoam -- especially after so much time spent picking it off our lawn -- but I didn't quite comprehend the magnitude of its nefariousness until this weekend.

I signed up to do a Potomac shoreline cleanup, one of Marriott's many "Spirit to Serve" activities that happen throughout the year. Saturday was a fabulous day to be outside: bright early spring sunshine, and a strong breeze to keep things cool. About two dozen folks from Marriott HQ and various local properties spent several hours on Saturday morning cleaning up Roosevelt Island. Situated in the Potomac River between DC and Virginia, the island is a 90-acre preserve with paved and wooded trails, a memorial to Teddy Roosevelt, and the remains of George Mason's house. It's a cool little spot and a nice respite from the rat race. Unfortunately, due to its location, Roosevelt Island also catches a lot of trash that gets dumped into the Potomac.

Blue trash bags and hazmat gloves in hand, we split up into smaller groups and each got assigned a specific section of the island. Our group wound up on the south tip under the Rt 50 bridge. I had visions of discovering all sorts of bizarre stuff -- discarded clothing, medical waste, maybe even a dead body! -- but it mostly came down to two things.

Styrofoam and cigarette butts. Ew.

At the start of the day, the organizers asked us to keep track of how many butts we picked up. I stopped after 50, but estimate my grand total to be somewhere around 100. They also asked us to count the number of plastic bags, and I was pleased to report that I'd only found two or three. That's a sign of something good. However, the quantity and frequency of styrofoam bits was most disheartening. Cups. Chunks of packaging. Those frickin' peanuts. Small bits. Reeeeeeally small bits. The stuff was absolutely everywhere. Yes, I know the new and improved styrofoam is CFC-free, so I guess it could be worse. But the stuff never breaks down. NEVER.

What ran through my mind, over and over again, as I stooped to pick up yet another white bit of the vile stuff, was that someday far in the future, aliens will come investigate our planet and find nothing but little pieces of styrofoam everywhere. And they'll wonder WTF we were thinking. I wonder that too.

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Yayyyyyy, little green theengs! The first seeds we started in indoor kits have sprouted. I think these might be the cukes.

What a fitting way to celebrate my mom's birthday, which, when she was around, was practically a national holiday. She was an avid gardener, and I credit both my love of veggies and my love of diggin' in the dirt to her fabulous guidance. Happy Birthday, Mom!

I've been resisting it for a long time. Twitter, the latest killer app... you've probably heard all the arguments pro and con, I'm not going to rehash them here. Personally, it boiled down to the almighty question of What's In It For Me? And I hadn't come up with a compelling enough answer to propel me into signing up for a Twitter account.

Until...

::: cue dramatic music :::

This week I went to a DC Web Women event. In addition to the usual top-notch presentation and Q&A from the group, afterwards a group of DCWWers sat around discussing the merits of Twitter for professional purposes. Somewhere amidst all that debate, I decided it was time to plug into the Twitterverse and finally see it for myself.

What do I think is In It For Me? Well, for starters, I'm looking forward to connecting with folks I might not otherwise have access to. This will be particularly useful as I continue to ramp up my job search, and try to expand my network into the new field of Corporate Social Responsibility. Also, I love the idea of getting local recommendations on the fly while we're out traveling. I doubt I'll be nearly as ambitious as the Twitchhiker, but travel and Twitter are an intoxicating match. And finally, I'm curious about using Twitter to microblog while on the road. Not that I'm giving up crafting more in-depth blog entries. But the ability to send a quick Tweet or post a single photo does open up some new possibilities. And brevity, after all, is the soul of wit. ;)

So, here I go! If you're on Twitter, feel free to follow me at http://twitter.com/pulpologist.

BTW, for anyone out there who's been living under a rock and doesn't know what Twitter's all about, here's a great video from Common Craft called "Twitter in Plain English."

You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes...
Well you might find...

You get a penmanship award!

Today is the celebration of the birthdays of three great and influential men. I'm sure most of you have heard that it's the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. This year the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth has also been getting a lot of press. But there's one slightly lesser-known birthday to celebrate today as well, as it's the [cough-mumblety-mumbleth] anniversary of the birth of our own Mark Schramm. I don't have the time or the budget to do one of those soaring video retrospectives showing highlights from his life, but I can offer you a handful of recent travel pics:

Hey wait, actually I do have a video! Here's a short clip from last fall, of Mark and our nephew James getting down with their bad selves. Clearly music appreciation runs in the family!

Happy Birthday, Abe, Chuck, and Mark!

Whew, January 2009 has definitely been a month of "best of times, worst of times." I have to admit, I'm pretty glad it's about over.

We joined the rest of the world in celebrating the Coronation of Barack Obama on January 20. (Yay, stem cell research! Yay, an intelligent person in the Oval Office! Yay, attention to climate change! Yay, End of an Error!) We hosted a couchsurfer from Indianapolis. He'd helped with the Obama campaign in his home state, and was excited about waking up at 4am, waiting in the dark for a few hours, and then standing in the freezing cold for a few more hours with the huddled masses to observe this historical moment in person. We watched it on TV from the comfort of our warm, cozy house. Still, it was a wonderful event to witness, and it'll be nice to be able to travel without having to automatically apologize for being an Amerkan. And how cool to have a Chief Executive who understands the power of Web 2.0, for a change.

The celebration was marred by the passing of Mark's dad, who had a stroke in early January and never fully regained consciousness. We spent some time in Connecticut for the funeral and helping Mark's mom get things in order. Not a fun time, needless to say, and it brought back a lot of sad memories for me. However, it was nice to see friends and family and get a chance to celebrate John Schramm's life. He had just taken a business trip to China and seemed energized by that endeavor, so I'm glad he was able to go out on a high note.

In the "not-so-monumental but still reaaaaaally fun" category, and because I can't leave you on such a morose note, we got a chance to see one of our favorite bands last night at one of our favorite DC venues. Thievery Corporation rarely plays gigs in DC anymore, but they played the first of FIVE back-to-back sold-out shows at the 9:30 Club last night. As always, the show was spectacular. If you ever get a chance to see these guys live, go for it! Their latest album, Radio Retaliation, contains the usual eclectic mix of Jamaican, Indian, African, Latin, and Middle Eastern beats and melodies. It's goooood stuff.

Oy vey, all this murky grey weather we've been having lately is seriously kicking my ass! Makes me feel like we're living in the cover of an Opeth album, and who doesn't want a dose of everyone's favorite Swedish death metal band while they're slogging through January? I know, I know, hope is just around the corner with all the Inauguration festivities, but in the meantime it's been a struggle just to get out of bed in the morning.

And just to pile it on a bit more, Mark and I have decided to reprise the juice fast/detox diet we did last spring. We both really need to purge some of the extra weight and bad habits we've fallen back into after a month of gluttony in SE Asia and then another month of gluttony for the holidays. This time around, we're doing it a bit differently. Rather than following the 21-day Martha's Vineyard diet to the letter, like we did last year, we're going to try something a bit more sustainable that incorporates some solid foods along with all the slurm. The focus will still be on fresh fruits and veggies in juice format, and lots of water and green tea, along with the occasional salad here and there. No coffee, no alcohol, no processed foods. Well, we might give ourselves a hall pass for the Inauguration celebration... it IS a historic event, after all!

Have any great raw foods recipes? I'd LOVE to see 'em! The biggest challenge last time was sheer boredom, so if we can manage to get a bit more creative this time, I think we'll have something. The plan is to do the stricter part of the program for three weeks or so, and then start incorporating other healthy foods gradually into the mix, while still focusing on a mostly-veggie diet for the long term. And hopefully this will become a sustainable blueprint for a healthy lifestyle, as opposed to a fleeting New Year's resolution that quickly crumbles into a pile of pretzel bags and empty wine bottles. So we'll see how it goes. Wish us luck!

Related posts:
* 2008 Detox results

Passports With Purpose
Didn't get that great travel gadget you were hoping for? Looking for a way to spend some of that Christmas or Hanukkah dough? Need to find a charitable cause to assuage some of that year-end Western Guilt? Whatever the reason, there's still a week left to support Passports With Purpose, the brainchild of travel writers Beth Whitman of Wanderlust and Lipstick, Pam Mandel of Nerd’s Eye View, Debbie Dubrow of DeliciousBaby, and Michelle Duffy of WanderMom. Surf on over and check out the fantastic prizes, then buy as many raffle tickets as your heart desires. The funds raised will support Heifer International, an organization dedicated to eradicating world hunger. The raffle runs till December 29.

Celebrate Joan
On Saturday, December 27, my family will be organizing our third annual Celebrate Joan 4K-ish Walk in Allentown, PA. Proceeds will benefit the Joan Zamborsky Memorial Trust Fund, which supports educational programs for the disadvantaged kids at the high school where my mom taught. I realize that very few of you will be anywhere near Allentown on Saturday. What I'm asking is that everyone get out and take a walk, wherever you happen to be that day, and send me a few pics. We love doing this event every year, and one of our favorite parts is getting photos and stories from around the world. And regardless of which holidays you celebrate this time of year, we could all use a nice brisk walk to work off some of those delicious treats!

Happy Holidays everyone, and thanks for helping to make the world a better place! Here's to a fabulous 2009.

dis*com*bob*u*lat*ed [dis-kuhm-bob-yuh-leyt-ed]
adjective
1. confused or disconcerted; upset; frustrated
2. thrown into a state of confusion; having self-possession upset
3. how you feel after coming home from a monthlong trip on the other side of the planet

So, we've been back for about a week now. On the surface, everything is back to normal (whatever that means). But as all seasoned globetrotters know, the longer you're away and the farther you go, the more your world gets thrown off-kilter once you come home. How am I discombobulated? Let me count the ways:

Sleeping patterns. OK, this one I expected. I've been to Asia before. It takes a while to get over jetlag. But this whole routine of not being able to fall asleep before about 2am, and then waking up at 4am, wide awake with no hope of getting back to sleep before the alarm goes off in a few short hours... I'm about over it. I am not a morning person, so being fully awake before the sun comes up is a disconcerting situation, to be sure.

Christmas holidays. You'd think that having been bombarded by "holiday" decorations and music the entire time we were in Southeast Asia -- which was itself pretty discombobulating... Christmas in a predominantly Buddhist or Muslim country, in the tropical heat? huh? -- would have prepared us to launch into the Christmas season upon returning home. But somehow missing Thanksgiving really threw off the rhythm for me this year. It doesn't help that all of our holiday decorations are packed up in storage in my dad's basement, so the house is devoid of all visual cues. I'm just not ready to face Christmas in two weeks!

Stuff. Everywhere. We couldn't fit a Christmas tree in the living room even if we wanted to, as we're still dealing with piles of mail, half-unpacked bags, rows of souvenir gifts en route to friends and family, and bits of trip doggerel to be stuck into journals. Oy vey. Fortunately we have folks coming over on Sunday for a dinner party, which will force us to whip the place into presentability! (Yes, Virginia, that's what closets are for.)

Big changes in 2009. 'Tis the season for New Year's resolutions, and while I have some of the usual suspects -- get more exercise, eat more veggies, do more volunteer work, etc -- I've also decided it's time to shelve the extended travel idea for a while. Even though it's something I've wanted very badly for at least the past two years, when I closely examine the facts, all signs point to Now Is Not The Time. So what does that mean? Well, an end to living life on hold, for starters. We'll reclaim our house as a home, take it completely off the market, and bring back some of the personality that was stripped away when we vanillafied it (per our realtors' advice) for the Soccer Mom demographic. I'm going to work on finding a new job that incorporates travel, so I can hit the road on a regular basis and still hang onto a steady paycheck. (More on that to come, and I will definitely be hitting some of you up for brainstorming and other support!) And a few other attitude changes that basically sum up to enjoying life in the present tense.

So, yeah, I'm pretty discombobulated this week. But somehow I've also been enjoying it, for the most part anyway. I think it has something to do with not falling completely back into the old routine. Travel, after all, is about breaking your routine and pushing beyond your comfort zone. If I can hang onto some of that while traveling through each day, and still enjoy the ride, I'd be ahead of the curve.

C'mon, I can't be the only one discombobulated during this hectic season. Misery loves company! What's got you out of sorts?

We made it through the gauntlet of flights and timezones with very little drama, albeit very little sleep. Tuesday night was a blur of election celebrations -- people, the state of Virginia went BLUE for the first time in over four decades, can you gimme hallelujiah? -- and last-minute packing and prep. We had to leave at the butt-crack of dawn for our 7am flight on Wednesday, so you can imagine how much fun that was. But we managed to make it on our flight to Chicago, connecting flight to Hong Kong, and layover to Singapore, with nary a hiccup. We even lucked out and sat behind a deadheading flight attendant who kept passing us surreptitious snacks from the depths of the plane's galley. And in a bizarre twist, seated in front of us on the airport shuttle to our hostel in Singapore was a guy named Joel from Arlington, who'd just taken the same series of flights and would be in Southeast Asia for the exact same amount of time as us. If we see him on the flight back I'll have to buy him a drink.

Got in late on Thursday night, checked into Fern Loft Backpackers on East Coast Road, and tried to get some sleep. Unfortunately we only booked one night, and they're full tonight, but David the owner is an extremely friendly and helpful guy and got us a spot at their other location downtown. We grabbed some lunch at a nearby Vietnamese place, and had a lovely conversation with manager Priscilla over a delicious claypot meal. If you're ever in Singapore, definitely seek this place out! Details below. Unfortunately we didn't take the camera with us (blame the jetlag!) so there are no pics of this delightful woman, but she was great fun to chat with. And the food was deeeeeeelish! Not just because it was our first real meal in about three days, either.

David gave us a ride over to Fern Loft River Valley, where they checked us into another nice room and booked our bus ride to Malacca tomorrow. We had some vague notion of wandering around town, but opted for a nap instead. And now, if we can rouse ourselves, it's out for some more of Singapore's legendary chow! We had a brief debate earlier about whether or not there really is any "Singapore" cuisine, but it seems as though the endless choices of Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, Vietnamese, and other Asian fare *is* the native nosh. Multiculturalism is what it's all about in this incredibly neat and orderly town. It's a nice unchallenging place to land and shake off the jetlag for a bit.

RECOMMENDED:

Fern Loft Backpacker Hostel, East Coast Road
693A East Coast Road, Singapore 459058
tel: +65 6449 9066
* near the airport and lots of restaurants
* friendly staff, especially the owner
* reasonably-priced, by Singapore standards ($40 for a private room/$14 per dorm bed)
* free internet/wifi, and there's a pub downstairs so it's a pretty social place

Claypot Cuisine
723 East Coast Road, Singapore 459071
Tel: 6444 5546
delicious Vietnamese food, extensive menu (with pictures!); and be sure to seek out Priscilla, the gregarious manager who loves to make everyone feel at home

Fern Loft River Valley
301 River Valley Road, Singapore
* walking distance to Clarke Quay and not far from Orchard Road
* same friendly staff
* a bit pricier than the other location, but roomier and sunnier

Today's photo of the day captures that "oh s**t!" moment where it seems like there's just no way all this STUFF is gonna fit into two packs and two daybags. So much for traveling light... Oh well, we'll cram it all in there somehow...

(By the way, this photo was taken with my spiffy new Nikon D40, which I spent all weekend noodling around with. Many thanks to everyone who's chipped in!)
 

Whew, it's been a busy few weeks nailing down the final trip details. And with just over one week to go, it's just about time for the last-minute freakout. Except things seem pretty well under control, at least for the moment. I did go through the reality-bites doldrums for a while last week. Does that happen to other people too, or is it just me? It's the phase in travel planning where you transition from daydreaming and inspiration to figuring out what is actually feasible. When it's time to fill in the blanks, what seemed like a good idea on paper can turn into a complete impossibility. Suddenly that straight line on the map from Point A to Point B becomes a nearly-impassable three-month slog during monsoon season. Or that CouchSurfer you'd been chatting with is no longer available to host. Or you realize that you've got an impossibly long list of places to see and there's no way you can fit all that into four weeks. It's something of a buzzkill, but it's also a test of one's planning mojo, where the women are separated from the girls.

Fortunately I'm up to the task.

I've gradually made peace with the fact that this trip will not be a leisurely slow-travel meander off the beaten path, but rather a tightly-controlled power-walk through the Top 10 Must-See Spots of Bangkok and Malaysia. Well, let me correct that: we will have lots of time in Bangkok, and I'm hoping that we'll get to sample the local flavor with Zoe and family. But the Malaysian portion of the program is getting a little crammed. And I was disappointed to learn that in order to fit everything in, we'll need to take several flights. It ups our carbon footprint significantly, and I much prefer the adventure of taking local ground transport. The good news is that low-cost carrier Air Asia has ridiculously cheap fares. And this is allowing us to visit lots of fun spots on the Peninsula as well as the states of Sabah and Sarawak on Malaysian Borneo.

The whirlwind itinerary is looking a little something like this:

- fly to Singapore - spend a day chilling out and recovering from jetlag
- take a bus to Malacca/Melaka - meet up with CouchSurfer Mr Yee Tea for a cooking lesson, and surf with him for the night
- take a bus to Kuala Lumpur, fly from KL to BKK
- spend a week in Bangkok - hang out with Zoe and her family, hook up with Bruce & Anne, celebrate Loy Krathong and see the sites in and around Bangkok
- fly back to Malaysia, spend 2-3 days in Penang with another CouchSurfing host
- take the bus to Kuala Lumpur and stay there for 2-3 days - hopefully participating in a CouchSurfing potluck/meet-up
- fly Malaysian Borneo and do 3 days of diving around Semporna (Sipadan, Mabul, etc)
- take a bus to the Sepilok area and spend 2 days at a Kinabatangan homestay, with some sort of jungle/river tour as well
- take the bus to Kota Kinabalu and crash there overnight
- fly to Kuching on the other end of Borneo, spend a few days with another CouchSurfer and visit the local longhouses (possibly also Bako National Park)
- fly from Kuching to Singapore, and then back home

I've updated the map and calendar pages, and will be posting a more detailed Google map when we get back, to show exactly where we've been. In the meantime, the rest of the pre-trip to-do list awaits!

This week we had the opportunity to attend two fun mid-week cultural events. It was a great reminder of the diversity of entertainment options right in our own backyard.

On Tuesday night, we joined some friends at a performance of Bread and Puppets Theater. We weren't entirely sure what to expect, as the site is rather vague and nobody seemed to have any real information about the show. But the price (free) was right, as it happens I'm a fan of both puppets and bread, and when you go in with almost no expectations there's nowhere to go but up. Plus, you had me at "free."

I'm pleased to report that the show was AMAZING. The troupe at this performance consisted of eight people who alternately played ragtime instruments, marched around with flags, operated giant cardboard and papier-maché puppets, and danced on stilts. The subject matter was intensely political, which makes sense given BPT's roots in activist pacifism and participatory street theater. (You can find some historical information on the "Tour Schedule" page of their site... scroll down past the dates... poor usability but it is worth the effort!) The Tuesday night show had been advertised as the more "family-friendly" of BPT's Washington performances. So when things got a little heavy towards the end with a haunting piece about the war in Iraq, leaving the audience in contemplative silence, it was a bit of a surprise to hear the announcer plug the Wednesday show as "somewhat darker," and not as suitable for kids. But hey, I'm all about people exposing their kids to controversial subject matter as food for thought. I was totally encouraged that there were some kids in the theater when we went to see Bill Maher's "Religulous" a few weeks ago. Discussion and debate are not just for grownups.

Oh, and yes they did in fact serve bread at the end of the show! With some spectacularly garlicky aioli sauce. No vampire problems that night.

Wednesday's entertainment was a bit more lighthearted. We're big fans of Cirque du Soleil, both the Vegas extravaganzas and the touring shows. When I discovered that "Journey of Man," the 1999 film featuring Cirque performances, was coming back to the IMAX theater at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum, I jumped at the chance to get tickets. I do love me some IMAX. And we don't get down to the Smithsonian complex nearly enough. As I exited the Metro at the Smithsonian stop, which drops you off in the middle of the National Mall, I enjoyed the stroll between the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building, with a lovely fall sunset as a backdrop. Somehow it never gets old to wander around among such powerful national symbols; after living in the DC area for almost two decades, I still get a bit of a rush. It's like being on a movie set.

And speaking of movie, the IMAX film was absolutely stellar. Filmed over a two-year period using Cirque performers from around the world, "Journey of Man" is a celebration of the stages of life from birth to death. The visual imagery is stellar, and the music is just as delicious. As icing on the cake it's narrated by Ian McKellan. Sitting in a darkened theatre surrounded by that Gandalf voice is always a good thing in my book. After the movie we chatted up Aba Kwawu, president of the PR firm that handles Cirque's DC runs. (She also had the fun job of handing out the door prizes while wearing a clown nose.) How cool would it be to work for the most kickass circus in the world?

We topped off the night by stopping for some pho on the way home. Unfortunately my favorite Pho 75 was closed for the night, but a block away Pho 50 was still open. (Why 75? Why 50? Why not a more creative name?) We had just enough time to gulp down a big bowl of the rich broth -- perfect eats for the increasingly chilly weather -- before they closed up shop. I used to be somewhat perplexed by the huge Vietnamese contingent in Falls Church, but now I just shut up and happily slurp my pho. Ten points to anyone who can tell me the story behind that inscrutable naming scheme, though...

A fasctinating discussion has been flourishing lately on CouchSurfing's Independent Women list, and I thought I'd fire it up here to see if y'all had any interesting comments to add.

The original question was:
"What if... you could go back in time and tell yourself something (besides the winning lottery numbers). What would you say?"

The original poster offered her own words of wisdom to herself at various ages. Lots of fabulous chix chimed in with their own thoughts, and here are mine:

I'd tell my 6-yr-old self not to take everything so seriously, and that if you're able to laugh at yourself the rest of the world is not nearly so scary.

I'd continuously tell my 13- to 18-yr-old self that geeks rule, and that not being the popular kid gives you much more strength and independence as an adult. Oh, and by the way, life is MUCH cooler after high school!

I'd urge my 20-yr-old self to take that semester or year abroad, that the comfort & safety of the familiar will be there when you get back, although perhaps you won't need it nearly so much.

I'd tell my late-20s self to go for it, dream big, take those risks, but also have a financial safety net in case things don't work out exactly as planned.

And I can't help but wonder what my 40- 50- or 60-yr-old self would tell the present me... I suspect it would have something to do with: things always work out for the best, even if it doesn't seem like it at the time; there are no easy answers and that's what keeps things interesting; and never lose the childlike sense of wonderment that comes from trying new things. To piggyback off that a bit, two things my now-98-yr-old grandmother has been telling us our whole lives: never stop learning, and keep your body as active as your mind. I think she's onto something... she made it to 98, after all.

What wisdom would you go back and tell yourself?

Ya gotta love it when a totally-unplanned-for plan comes together.

It all started when our expat friends Bruce & Anne, DC transplants living in Perth, mentioned they were going to be in Bangkok in mid-November. We'd been considering taking a short trip to SE Asia... not short by typical American vacation standards, but considerably shorter than the extended travel we'd been hoping to undertake. One month total, focusing primarily on Malaysia and possibly also Indonesia. Why those two countries? A number of reasons, but I have to admit that ever since I started researching the scuba diving off Malaysian Borneo, I've been hooked. Jacques Cousteau called Sipadan, a tiny island off the East Coast of Borneo, some of the best diving in the world. You can dive there pretty much year-round, and supposedly it's an amazing place to see large animals. There are also a plethora of dive sites on nearby islands Mabul and Kapalai. And, bottom line, how cool is it to casually say, "Oh, yeah, we'll be doing some diving in Malaysian Borneo next month"?

We'd been seriously considering a one-month trip to this area, substituting Bangkok for Indonesia, when I found out one of my co-workers was going back to Thailand to visit family in November. The exceptionally-fabulous Zoe has been living in the US for some time now, but her mom still lives in Bangkok. She's goes back to visit occasionally, and I've seen pictures of the house. Suffice it to say, I'm planning to try to get adopted by Zoe's mom when we visit. Zoe offered that we could stay with her, as it turned out she would be there at the same time as Bruce & Anne. Sweeeeet.

Add to all this the fact that Loy Krathong, one of the biggest Thai holidays of the year, is also happening within this same window, and you have the makings of an insanely good time.

So, the general plan is to fly in and out of Singapore, since that's by far the cheapest hub in the region. (In case anyone's interested, I found the best fare on Vayama. I think the airlines are running scared because ticket prices seem to have dropped across the board.) We'll leave DC on November 5, the morning after the presidential election. And I fervently hope we leave on a note of celebratory elation due to an overwhelming Obama win, as opposed to a bitter hangover from drowning our sorrows after a McCain win. But I digress... We'll spend the week of Nov 9 in Bangkok, celebrating Loy Krathong and hopefully discovering some hidden gems only locals know about. Somewhere around Nov 18 we'll head south down the peninsula, stopping to visit whatever strikes our fancy. The last week of November and first week of December we'll spend time on Borneo, diving and hanging with orangutans and dodging headhunters and the like. We return to DC on December 4. And then, unfortunately, it's back to work the following week.

Stay tuned for more details as the plans evolve. This trip will be a little weird for me, as it's somewhere between a free-wheeling backpacker jaunt and a totally scripted type-A vacation. I hope to strike a balance somewhere in there! If anyone has any suggestions for must-see stuff in southern Thailand or Malaysia, do let me know.

Some of you may have noticed the little ChipIn widget in the sidebar. Taking a page from the Book of Joan, I've decided to ask for what I want for my birthday. (Just be glad I'm not declaring it a national holiday and announcing how many shopping days are left until November 6!) I've been wanting a better camera for some time now, so I thought I'd give an opportunity for folks to contribute towards this item. Many thanks to Beth at Wanderlust and Lipstick and Crystalicious for getting the ball rolling! The sidebar widget's a bit small and some of the text gets cut off. But anyone who chips in will get a postcard from Thailand or Malaysia. I'm planning to get a Nikon d40, which is a digital SLR that is a few generations behind the latest & greatest but has gotten consistently good reviews. If I get more than I need to buy the camera, the remainder will be donated to The Women's Center, a local DC charity that has been providing services to women, families, and the community for over 30 years.

There's been some good stuff in the blogosphere in the past week or two... seems like a good time to do a roundup post:

Divine Caroline's "Love This Site!" Awards lists a ton of quality blogs/sites, not to mention some familiar faces in the travel category. Browse the list, and feel free to vote if you find something you like. Nominations will be accepted until November 30, 2008 and winners will be announced in early December.

Nomadic Matt wrote a great article about How to Vote in the U.S. Election While Overseas. Whether you'll be traveling on the big day, or are just looking to avoid the lines by voting absentee, this piece has all the information you'll need to do your civic duty.

Hey, guess what, the economy's in the crapper! Shocking, I know. There have been a plethora of articles in the travel community encouraging us to nevermind the bad news, get out there and see the world. Here are a handful of my favorites:

* Almost Fearless - The Economy is Falling Apart, Should I Travel?
* Everything Everywhere - It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine
* Wanderlust and Lipstick - Eco (nomic) Travel

I heart Ira Glass! NPR's "This American Life" has done a fantastic podcast that explains the whole economic meltdown thing in plain English. Despite the cheeky title (Another Frightening Show About the Economy) it's actually pretty enlightening. Keep in mind that it's slightly outdated, as recent events have been spinning pretty fast. But it provides a good solid foundation for understanding what the *&^%! is going on.

I got another article published on Matador. It went up on Oct 3 but I only just now realized it (duh). Faithful readers will recognize familiar content, but it's packaged in a slightly different way from the blog entries: "24 Hours at Burning Man." As always, I appreciate any comments, Stumbles, Diggs, or whatever else you can do to help promote the piece!

And, finally, because we could all use a laugh in these troubled times:

I had a thump-yourself-on-the-forehead moment last Friday night. We were out at a club with some friends, and when I got up to use the ladies' room I left my purse behind, not really thinking twice about it, figuring it would be watched after by the folks sitting in our small group. When I got back, the friends were gone, and so was the purse. I tried to stay calm as we scoured the club for our group. My logical brain attempted to drown out the panic by stating calmly and clearly that one of our peeps had grabbed it and taken it with them for safe keeping. My wallet, cell phone, car keys, house keys... all in good hands. Meanwhile my emotional brain kept drumming up worst case scenarios and shouting "Stupid! What were you thinking? You'd never do this while traveling!"

And that little voice, while a bit overwrought, is right. If I were in a foreign country or even another city, I'd never in a million years leave my valuables sitting unattended, ever. What's particularly ironic about this is that things are *not* particularly secure on the American homefront these days, especially if the hand-wringing daily news is to be believed. Regardless, there's something about being close to home that lulls me into a false sense of security. It got me thinking about other ways this happens:

* Crossing the street. Indie Travel Podcast just did a funny (and informative) episode about this. I tend to be one of those pedestrians who quickly looks both ways and then darts out into traffic, against the light or in the middle of the block or whatever suits my need to get from point A to point B. But in some countries this behavior may bring about bodily harm or a huge fine. According to ITP it can cost you 200 Euros in Austria! It's not something to be taken lightly.

* Giving out personal info. While traveling, I would never dream of giving out my hostel or hotel address to a complete stranger. Yet a few weeks ago I got a brisk slap of reality when our Craigslist rental ad got hijacked by some spammers in Nigeria. (Yes, really. How retro! How very 1996!) At first I couldn't figure out why someone would take the time to scrape my content and one picture of the outside of our house, list it at half the price, and change the email address. Then when people started showing up with further instructions about wiring money to a Lagos bank account, I finally got it. It's my own damn fault for including our address with the original post. I stupidly thought "What's the harm?" Well, there ya go, question answered. Fortunately I think I was able to get Craigslist to take down the spamalicious ad before any really stupid people got bilked out of their cash. At least I hope so.

Back to the purse-snatching incident, it did turn out that one of our friends took it along with her when she moved to a different part of the club. Why she didn't bother to wait till I got back from the bathroom to migrate, I'll probably never know. But all's well that ends well. And I think the lesson here is that it's time to kick off my comfy slippers and hit the road to slough off some of that false sense of security.

What are some ways you take things for granted in your comfort zone?

I don't have anything profound to say this week, so I thought I'd share a fun little time-waster. I found this widget on the TravelPod site some months back. It's basically a geography quiz that gets progressively harder with each level. I did OK, for a dumb Amerkan. I will warn you that it's slightly addictive!

There haven't been many new blog posts lately, as I've been trying to catch up on all the Burning Man stories. These are now fully uploaded, so go forth and read 'em, if you haven't already. Pics are also strewn throughout the stories, but if you want to see them all at once, they're here.

So what's new with the house? Nothing yet, but we've been considering posting it on a corporate housing rentals site. This is an interesting concept, as it would allow us to rent for shorter terms and more money per month. Of course it costs something to post a listing on a site like this, but for once it may actually be worth it. Where would that leave us? Well, ever since the episode with The Nice Professor Lady, we've been considering taking a shorter trip towards the end of the year. India was at the top of the list, until I realized it would be high season with Diwali coming up. Higher prices, more crowds, harder to get last-minute reservations... no thanks! Hm, what about Indonesia & Malaysia? We could fly in and out of Singapore, do some great scuba diving, groove on the cultural scene, maybe even hook up with that guy we met at SFO who has a house on Bali. And then our expat friends in Perth mentioned they'd be in Bangkok in mid-November. Ah, a plan starts to form! Where we go, and for how long, depends on how things work out with this corporate rentals site. If we find a good short-term tenant, we could conceivably take off for three months or so. If not, we may take a 3-4 week trip.

What do you think? Any recommendations?

In the meantime, I've been dipping my toe into the travel writing pool. Some of you already know about this, because I've been tooting my own horn for a few weeks now. (Write your own joke here...) But for the rest, I'm proud to report that I've had three small bits of publishing success of late:

1) a few of my pics were chosen to be a part of the online Burning Man Image Gallery

2) I became a featured correspondent on AdventureUs.com

3) another handful of photos got published in a Matador article

...and I'm in conversation with the Matador editors about doing a written piece on Burning Man. Woo-hoo! Please visit these sites if you get a chance, and support the folks who support nascent travel writers and photographers.

Interestingly enough, Rolf Potts has just published a new book. I stumbled across one of his bestsellers, the time-honored classic Vagabonding, at a formative point in my travel planning. And now when I'm considering getting more involved with travel writing, his latest book is about that very topic. Have any of you travel geeks read "Marco Polo Didn't Go There" yet? He's doing both a virtual and a real-world book tour to promote the new book, and I look foward to hearing the reviews from the travel community.

Today's Moment of Zen is brought to you by the letters U, P, and S.

So our remaining boxes that we had shipped back from Sacramento arrived today (thanks K&C for your help with that errand!) and as the UPS guy dropped them off in the front hallway, he raised one eyebrow and said, "There's some weird powder coming from these."

At which Mark & I chuckled and assured the poor guy it was just Playa dust, y'know, from Burning Man. And then we proceeded to have the "Burning What?!?" conversation until the UPS guy'd had enough and left, shaking his head.

Heh. You can take the Burners off the Playa, but you can't ever quite get the Playa (dust) off the Burners and their stuff!

PS. For those of you keeping score at home, the Nice Professor Lady fell through. So it's back to the drawing board to try to find a tenant! :(

We had a very promising meeting today with a prospective renter. She's a professor at Penn's Wharton biz school and needs a place for her family to stay while they renovate their Arlington home. Seems very responsible; she showed up exactly when she said she was going to; we had a nice conversation with her. Quite possibly the perfect tenant. The catch? (And you just knew there was one, didn't you?) They only need the house for three months, October - December. Right after Christmas they are moving back into their house, no matter what. ::: sigh :::

I don't want to jinx this, since it's not finalized yet. But if this situation comes to fruition it raises a whole slew of new questions. Should we go for it? (Answer: hells yeah, accept what the universe provides!) Where would we go for an abbreviated 3-month trip? (Answer: probably India.) Would we come back in January, or try to rent it out to someone else from remote? (Dunno the answer to that one yet.)

The very real possibility of moving out in three weeks looms large on the horizon. The good news is that we'll probably have to move even less stuff out than we'd originally planned, since our prospective tenant is OK with our storing stuff in the basement. This is one of the silver linings to having a 3-month rental term. But still, all of a sudden it seems like there's a ton to do in a short period of time! We should know within the next week whether or not it will all come together for October 1, and in the meantime we're trying to mentally prepare ourselves for some big changes. Fasten your seatbelts, friends and neighbors, I think we're about to go for a wild ride!

PS. Oh, and meanwhile I've been posting some of our Burning Man pictures. Still working on backdating some blog entries to fill in the gaps and answer the inevitable "What the...?" questions, but anyone dying for a sneak peek can take a look.

This morning, I sent three boxes of PlayaStuff out to Sacramento. I find it mildly retarded that it's more efficient to mail stuff to our destination, rather than take it on a plane, but such is the way of the world. Fortunately our dear friends Tony & Christina took a small load of stuff out with them in their RV, which they're driving cross-country as we speak: odd-shaped items like our huge umbrella, heavy things like a kryptonite lock for the bikes, and -praise the lord and pass the costumes- the Crinoline of Doom! True friends, they are. The BurningPlans are coming together nicely!

So what are our plans, exactly? We leave on Sunday and fly out of BWI to Sacramento to meet up with our RVmates Keith and Crystal. They've booked a room at a local Ramada, which will serve as our launch pad from and back into civilization. We'll stay there overnight on Sunday, our last night in a real climate-controlled bed for over a week. On Monday morning, three of us will head out to pick up the RV, and the fourth will remain back at the hotel to fill up the collapsible water bottles. It's recommended to bring about 2 gallons of water per person per day, as there is no running water out on the Playa. Burners need to bring their own drinking water, shower water, cooking water, etc, and we've got to bring it all in with us. Add in the fact that it's hot and dry out there on the desert (go figure), and we need to drink even more than usual, and you can start to see how important water is!

The next crucial item to bring out to The Burn is a bike. Keith & Crystal ordered their bikes from Wal-Mart, but I was reluctant to buy a new item that we'll only be using for a week, so I found a supplier of used bikes on Sac's Craigslist. The Craigger to the rescue once again! Not only are we saving a good bit of money, but we're re-using an existing resource. And this woman is kind enough to meet us in Sac with the bikes.

Once the RV, water, and bikes have been acquired, it's time to head to Wal-Mart to pick up the other bikes and some other supplies like baby wipes, trash bags, and sunscreen. Then it's on to a grocery store to get our vittles for the week, stuff like pasta and peanut butter and dried fruits and nuts. Basic campfood. Although we will also try to find some slightly more epicurean items like that Indian food that comes in foil packets you can quickly heat up and toss over some couscous. Generally speaking, Burning Man is not about gourmet eats. But it's good to be prepared anyway!

Having acquired all our supplies, and also a fellow CouchSurfer named Andre who is surfing our RV for a rideshare out to Black Rock City, we're off! We hope to get there before dark so we can find the other members of our impromptu camp, Great Balls of Fire. We're not an official organized Theme Camp (such as Barbie Death Camp or Spanky's Wine Bar) but about 20 of us from DC will be camping together to share resources and camraderie. Several GBOFers who are arriving at Burning Man early and will try to secure a space for us near another camp called The Philadelphia Experiment. I think we'll be fairly close to all the action, so we're definitely bringing several pairs of earplugs in the unlikely event that we'll actually want to get some sleep next week. With 55,000 people all practicing the art of Radical Self-Expression, in an environment where just about anything goes, I doubt there will be much time for sleep, but we will have to pace ourselves, for sure!

As promised, there will be tons of pics and stories to share from this experience. Unfortunately there's very little internet access on the Playa, so you won't be hearing much from us till after we return to civilization after Labor Day. So stay tuned!

It's not often you get to be a tourist close to home. For some reason, this past weekend was all about schlepping to various sites in Maryland. Besides the fact that I work there (in Bethesda), or perhaps because of that very fact, MD is not a state I tend to spend a lot of leisure time in. But this weekend provided a cornucopia of cultural crusades:

Friday night
Sylvester's Saloon
Essex, MD

We journeyed to this fascinating establishment outside Baltimore in order to check out two bands, Full Throttle and Highwire. The bassist from Mark's band, Model Citizens, is in the former, and our righteous Vegan baker friend Kirsten is the lead singer in the latter. Both bands play hard rock/heavy metal covers. The music was loud, the drinks were strong, and the people-watching was FABULOUS. What a time warp! It was quite a trip in the way-back machine, to be certain. From the wood paneling on the walls, to the dulcet tones of Judas Priest, to the big hair and tight jeans of the B'more crowd (hon), if I squinted just a little I was transported back to my days at the West End Youth Center dances in the mid-80s. After the show we crashed at our friend's place in Fells Point, to break up the long drive home.

Saturday shopping interlude
everywhere and then some

Unfortunately the next day we didn't have much time to wander around Baltimore, which was truly a shame as the weather was unusually gorgeous. It was also a perfect day for the Virgin Mobile Fest, which we've attended in years past. Apparently the Gogol Bordello set was superlative. I was just excited to see a long-lost DC fave, Shudder to Think, in the lineup. Does anybody know if they're playing anywhere else in the area in the near future? Oh, Craiggy, we miss ya!

Anyway, the rest of our somewhat-hungover Saturday was spent shopping for a small dinner party with two of our Burner mates. On the menu: some Ethiopian and North African treats. This required several stops at the various ethnic grocery stores in our neighborhood, including the Middle Eastern Halalco, Asian H-Mart, and predominantly Latino Bestway. Oh, and we stopped at plain ol' whitey-whitebread Giant too. The result was a splendid repast of Doro Wat, Misr Wat, injera, and Moroccan Carrot Salad. Mmmmmm, just like mom used to make (not so much)! Plus some great planning about how four grown people who barely know each other are going to share an RV for a week on the Playa. Sounds like it could be next season's reality TV, but I think we're all of the same low-maintenance ilk and there will be minimal drama. Stay tuned!

Saturday night
80s house party
Severna Park, MD

After dinner it was off to the next stop on our whirlwind Maryland tour: an '80s-themed house party near Annapolis. (This time the big hair and pink & black ensembles were amusing on purpose.) Gummy bracelets and legwarmers and fishnets, oh my! The hostess was even dressed like Strawberry Shortcake. We arrived late but managed to dive right into the fun, and even caught up with some friends we hadn't seen in years. Good times, good times. On the way out, I noticed a bowl of glow bracelets and grabbed a fistful, with the host's permission of course, as these will be the perfect bike decorations at the Burn.

Sunday brunch
M Cafe
Chevy Chase, MD

Sunday morning came around all too quickly, and it was time to clean up and head out to a baby shower for a co-worker. Normally this type of activity makes me want to stick a fork in my eye, but this was a cool group of ladies at a very chill restaurant, and we had an excellent time. The neighborhood, just to round out the Maryland cavalcade, was a very swanky spot featuring stores like Versace and Cartier, not to mention the corporate headquarters of The Ladies and Gentlemen of Ritz-Carlton across the street. Not my usual hangout, to be sure!

Sunday afternoon costume shopping
Unique Thrift Shop
Falls Church, VA

Last item on the to-do list before crumpling into an exhausted heap: check out the thriftalicious bargains at our neighborhood secondhand store. One never knows what one will find. It's the ultimate treasure hunt. I actually had pretty low expectations, but was pleasantly surprised to find an entire cartful of fuzzy, sparkly treasures that will make fabulous costumes at Burning Man. The find of the day, however, was undoubtedly what must be The World's Largest Crinoline. I saw it poking out of a row of spangly dresses and shrieked with glee, startling the other shoppers who were there for more legitimate reasons. This thing is HAY-YUGE! It's somewhere between Miss Havisham and full-on Scarlett O'Hara on steroids. Two layers. Several miles of white crinkly material. All for the bargain price of $20. Now if that's not The American Dream, I don't know what is. I just have to figure out how the heck we're going to get it to Sacramento, where we'll meet up with our RVmates and drive to the Playa. I may have to purchase a separate seat on the plane for it. One of my many evil friends suggested I actually *wear* it *on* the plane, which would pretty much require United to give me my own row. In first class. Oh, the possibilities... I wonder what Elliott.org would say about this one...

So, I don't mean to get all New Age Woo-Woo on you, but it's not everyday you come home from work to find that a Jeep Cherokee has magically appeared in your garage. After about a month of surviving (just barely) on a lean & mean carbon-lite diet of solely public transport, which required spending almost four hours a day getting to and from work, I was just about over my love affair with the Metro. I have to give mad props to everyone who's offered us rides, weekend loaners, and other creative short-term solutions to the problem of living in Deepest Darkest 'Burbia without a vehicle. But our friends Cat and William take the cake. After a conversation with Mark, Cat took it upon herself to prompt William to offer us one of his spare cars, knowing full well we'd never ask outright for such a huge favor. And so now we have a snazzy Jeep Wrangler on indefinite loan. I find it particularly fascinating because in the last decade or so, Jeeps have been harbingers of big changes in my life. 

:: snif, snif ::
You guys rock!

Now, can somebody just find us a frickin' tenant to rent our house, so we can get going on this trip already???

Here's some objective proof that this trip has been in the works for some time now: I pulled out my trusty "yellow card," more officially known as the International Certificate of Vaccination, and realized I got my first series of jabs in October 2006. At that time, I had no idea where or when I was going, but since most vaccinations are good for at least 5 years, and some require a series of two or three shots, it seemed like a good thing to get started. After a bit of research, I determined that it's a bit cheaper to get the shots at our local county health clinic, which proved to be its own adventure but at least I got it out of the way!

However, the clinics don't provide prescriptions, so for malaria meds and Cipro and other fun stuff, we have to go to our primary care physician. So that was today's big to-do list item. I thought we were all caught up on every possible jab necessary for travel just about anywhere -- TD, Polio, Hep A/B, Typhoid, even Rabies fer cryin' out loud -- and would just need to get an updated scrip for one of the many malaria meds. But it turns out I needed a booster for Measles-Mumps-Rubella, and Mark needed to finish up his Hep A/B series. So we did the human pincushion routine again. Good times. We also walked away with a fistful o' scrips: Larium for the skeeters, some anti-itch cream (because if there is a skeeter within a mile, it will find me no matter how much Deet-based chemicals I lather on), more Cipro, and Ambien (?). I doubt we'll have any use for that last one, as Tylenol PM tends to work just fine in a pinch, and the idea of taking even one sleeping pill gives me the creeps. But good ol' Dr Bae is a cautious chick, and I guess she wanted to make sure we got our co-pay's worth.

On a slightly different note, I wish I had some updates for you about when we'll actually be heading off to the other side of the planet. Alas, we have still not found a tenant to rent our house while we travel. That's the big determining factor right now, so please send all your best rent-a-licious vibes our way, in the hopes that we find someone to move in by September.

Also, the more astute among you will notice some cosmetic changes to the blog interface. It's still a work in progress, and we'll be doing some fine-tuning over the next few weeks as we continue to add more content to the site and start to publicize it a bit more. Feedback is always welcome!

Maybe in an alternate universe, there's an alternate version of me who is a real estate mogul, and everything she touches turns to gold. Alas, in this universe, the me who is trying to rent her house is not off to a stellar start.

Long story short: after busting our humps for the past week to get our house cleaned up and de-cluttered and ready for potential renters to come by, we got things to a presentable enough state to have an "open house" of sorts. This was recommended to me by a property manager who advised setting up a specific block of time for people to come by, so we don't get barraged with emails. Well, not only did we not get barraged, not a single person showed up. (Cue the trumpets: wah wah wah waaaaaaaaaaahhhhh.)

OK, OK, I'm trying to look on the bright side of life. Yes, the house looks fantastic. It hasn't looked this good since we had it on the market trying to sell it. Yes, we only advertised it in one place, and we do plan to cast a much wider net in the coming weeks. Yes, we had to start somewhere. And, yes, I did use the three hours on Sunday afternoon to update the "Planning" section of the site with lots of juicy tidbits. (I'm particularly proud of the Packing List in the "Gear" section.) But it still smarts a bit to give up an entire weekend, first cleaning and then waiting around for nobody to show up.

Oh well, onward and upward. The right tenant is out there, somewhere! And in the meantime, here are a few lovely pics of our lovely cleaned-up house for your viewing pleasure:

It's a little hard to believe that a year has passed. Exactly one year ago, I'd officially declared my independence from the 9-5 grind and was on a plane headed for Costa Rica to start 10 weeks of solo travel through Central America. OK, so I had a great trip, full of volcano hikes, scuba, meeting other travelers, and the usual adventures... but a year later, what's really changed? On the surface, it would seem not much. I'm back at the same job, still in the house, still cranking through the same basic daily grind. But this life-changing trip did cause a few permanent shifts, some minor, some major:

I've lost my tolerance for air conditioning.
Yes, I know, DC in the summer requires AC. It's tropical. But I've noticed myself getting really irritated at the frigid temperatures at the office, at home, on the Metro. Do we really need to expend so much energy controlling our environment? A little sweat, a bit of discomfort, it's not the end of the world! Plus I think all the moving around from hot to cold is making us sick.

I have a new appreciation for public transport.
It'll never be as cool as the Guatemalan chickenbus system, but getting around on the Metro (and more recently on New York's subway) is not a bad way to go. It takes a bit of patience, especially at the end of a long day at work. And we do still have one car in our household, so I haven't gone completely cold turkey. But I've learned to enjoy the sport and adventure involved in getting from point A to point B with nothing but my trusty SmartCard.

People are out there living the dream... more than you'd think.
Certainly being out & about among other travelers, I met many people who were breaking out of the mold and living their travel dreams. But even since I've been back, I've met lots of folks who are making big changes. Some, like my Couchsurfing cohort Dave Lee, are taking a year off to travel. Some, like Christine Gilbert of almostfearless.com, are moving overseas and making a career change to try something they've always wanted to do. Some, like my sister Laura, are opting for a change of scenery, just because they can. It's inspiring and empowering to hear their stories, and once I got tapped into the alterna-travel scene, I realized it's not as uncommon as I'd thought.

Declare it, set a date, do it.
This one's not new... it's a lesson I've been continually re-learning my entire life. It's so easy to get bogged down in the reasons not to do something, or the mind-boggling number of steps necessary to get started. Setting a date, and doing something irreversible like quitting your job or buying a plane ticket, is a sure-fire way to turn the dream into reality. I would've thought that doing it once before would make it easier to pack everything up into a backpack and leave behind the comforts of home for the adventures of travel. But I have to admit that the daily routine sucks me back into an entropic state more often than not. Keeping an eye on the prize is tough, even as we get closer to our proposed departure date! I think it may be time for something radical, like buying those tickets for the first leg of our trip to Perth, even though there's a seemingly endless To-Do List standing between us and sailing off into the sunset.

Time to shrug off the silky, seductive tendrils of routine and make a new Declaration of Independence! Freedom of the open road, here we come.

D'you think maybe the universe is trying to tell me something? Apparently this morning there was a huge water main break in the county in Maryland where my office is located. So I arrived to work to find an email memo instructing us that the water in the building might be contaminated; we were not to use any of the coffee machines or water coolers; make sure to use hand sanitizer after washing your hands in the bathroom sinks; yada yada yada. Of course I read this *after* filling up my trusty Nalgene bottle with 32 ounces of "contamination" and drinking about a third of it. Lovely. Well, I'm happy to report that I drank the whole thing -- why not live dangerously, here in Beige Cubicleville? -- and I seem to have lived to tell the tale. I've even been joking that this is good practice for traveling in parts of the world where you really *can't* drink the water. That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

On top of that, I just got a message from Mark that a big thunderstorm has knocked out power at our house. So I'll be arriving home to lots of candles, no internet, no appliances, no AC. But, hey, that just reminds me of the time that huge storm came through Guatemala and we lost power at the hostel in Livingston. It's amazing how many fun drinking games you can think up when there's no TV to watch.

I may be a bit late getting to the office tomorrow...

Thanks to Christine, of the fabulous blog almostfearless.com, for reminding me via a comment to my last post* that I need to provide an update on our crazy detox diet. I gotta say, it was tremendously unfun, and I sure did miss chewing. But between the two of us, Mark and I lost 50lbs. So it was definitely worth it! As a quick recap, the detox entailed 21 days of drinking fruit and vegetable juices and pureed soups. We did buy a few vitamin-enriched powders, but we mostly juiced stuff at home in our Juice Weasel... everything from the standard carrot-apple-ginger to some sketchier concoctions involving kale, radishes, beets, even sweet potato. I don't mind the taste of raw veggies so I actually had some fun making up new juice blends. And if you add enough fresh ginger, you can make almost anything taste good. The soups were a different matter, and there were definitely some debacles along the way. (Note to anyone who's following the book: that woman should be arrested for those recipes she included in the appendix! Gag me with a stalk of pureed broccoli!) However, I did have some successful experimentations with lemongrass, chilis, and garlic, where I could almost fool myself into thinking I'd made a Thai soup. And I have to give mad props to my co-worker Keith, who sent along some links for new recipes. This was just what I needed about mid-way through the diet, to inject a bit of creativity into the process.

Here are a few FAQs and answers:

> Weren't you hungry the whole time?
Not physically. The program instructs you to eat (drink) something every two hours, so you never really have a chance to get hungry. That's not to say I wasn't craving "real" food almost constantly. The hardest thing for me was ending a day at the office and not being able to look forward to a nice meal with a glass of wine. But it was definitely more of a mental challenge than a physical one.

> How in the world did you give up coffee for 21 days?!?
I guess I'm not as addicted to caffeine as I thought. I didn't have any headaches or other physical symptoms from giving up my daily cuppa joe (or three). Again, it was more about missing the ritual, particularly first thing in the morning. We were allowed to have some green tea, so I got an occasional blast of caffeinated goodness that way.

> Did you have enough energy without consuming protein or carbs?
I found it much easier to get up in the mornings -- and this is a huge thing for a non-morning-person like me. I wasn't bursting with energy all day long (good thing, 'cuz how annoying would *that* be??) but I did have enough to get through the day, as long as I didn't exert myself. Which brings me to the next question...

> Did you exercise?
I tried, really I did. Couldn't do anything the first week, and I got lightheaded just from walking up a few flights of stairs. I went back to Bikram Yoga the second week and almost died. By week three I was taking hourlong walks each day, and still feeling like I could barely make it up the hills, but at least I was getting out and doing something. Mark was able to continue his vigorous daily gym routine, which is probably why he lost 30lbs and I only lost 20.

> How did you stick with it for so long?
Strangely, there's some comfort and simplicity in a diet so restrictive. It takes all the guesswork out. There's no cheating... it's not like you can talk yourself into having just a bite of chocolate cake or one sip of wine. Nope, you're either in or you're out. Having someone else around for moral support was key, as well.

You're supposed to take 11 days to gradually get back to eating regular food, which didn't really work because we finished on Monday and took off for San Diego on Thursday. [Wedding details and pics will be posted this weekend.] Detox, shmetox. Now that we're back into a regular routine, the trick will be finding some sort of balance that allows us to cook and eat (and drink) delicious stuff, but keep it in check with moderation. We've also been experimenting with some new vegetarian recipes, and hopefully we'll be able to take advantage of the "organic" and "locally-grown" produce from the plants on our deck. Thankfully they didn't completely perish in the wilting heat that greeted us upon returning from the Left Coast. Ah, summers in DC!

* In order to post and view comments, you have to be a registered user of this site. So now would be a great time to subscribe using the link above! This way you also have the option of getting an email when new blog entries are posted.

It's official. We got our Burning Man tickets, and we're off to the Playa the last week of August. We've found the typical response to be a blank stare, followed by "Burning WHAT?!?" Seems not a lot of people on this coast have heard of this event, which has been around for over two decades and attracts over 50,000 participants from all over the world. So what is it? An experiment in temporary community? (whatever the heck that means) A festival of art and music and self-expression? A hippie-raver-drugfest out in the desert? Ummmmmmm, yes and no. Much like the parable of the blind men and the elephant, it's difficult to neatly encapsulate this event with a few descriptive phrases. In some ways, for me attending Burning Man is in the same category as traveling to India: it's a place of great extremes, where everybody has their own intensely personal experience, impossible to absorb it all at once, mystical and frustrating and wondrous and wretched and like nothing else you've ever seen. It's not for everyone. You'll love it and hate it and sometimes both at the same time. You can research and read up on what to expect, based on others' experiences there, but you're never truly prepared. You just have to go for yourself.

Right then. So we shall.

Mark has been there before, along with a group of friends from the DC area. This year it's finally my turn to check it out for myself. Seems a good way to kick off our next stint Off The Grid. Although it's more likely that we'll return from BM and spend a few more weeks back in reality before sailing off into the sunset. We're still figuring that part out. But you already knew I was going to say that, didn't ya?

Meanwhile back at the ranch, things are slowly falling into place for The Big Departure. And we continue to enjoy and appreciate the comforts of home as well as all the cool stuff the DC area has to offer. This weekend we'll be joining a contingent of CouchSurfers on a visit to Polyface Farms in Staunton, VA. Anyone who's read The Omnivore's Dilemma will be familiar with this family-owned, pasture-based, and highly successful farm. Should be a fun field trip. And in preparation for Eric & Dey's upcoming nuptials on the Left Coast, and the endless photographs that will be taken, we're doing a 21-day juice detox. (Yes, that's right, we're detoxing just in time to re-tox at the wedding reception!) We'll be following the "Martha's Vineyard" formula, which involves ingesting fruits and vegetables in liquid form (plus supplements) and promises a loss of 21lbs in 21 days. While I find this claim uber-gimmicky, it's an interesting concept, and I'm just hoping to slough off some of the fluorescent-lit cubeville pallor and sludge that's crept back since my return to the corporate world. Mark did this diet last summer, with grrrrrreat success. We'll see how I do. Keep ya posted!

We both breathed a huge sigh of relief last week as our freshly-renewed passports arrived in the mail. That's one big item off the to-do list! Apparently we weren't nearly interesting enough for anyone to "breach" our files... or maybe they did, and we're just not high-profile enough to set off the Breach Alert. Honestly, I don't care if Condi Rice herself sexually abused my renewal application, I was just glad to get my stuff back in a timely manner! I had been particularly nervous about sending my old passport off in the mail, into the abyss, perhaps never to be seen again due to some ridiculous bureaucratic glitch. So many fond memories in one little book... even the Dreaded Page 11... How sad would it be to never again flip to page 11 and recount tales of Salvadoran border near-disasters? Fortunately we were pleasantly surprised by the alacrity with which our old battered passports were returned, alongside a set of shiny new ones, Big Brother Chip included, just waiting to be filled with stamps and visas and stories. Whewwwwwww...

Not much else to report, I'm afraid. Here's a quick recap on the current state of affairs, for those of you who  :: ahem ::  haven't been paying close attention:

* We took the house off the market. The situation was just too depressing and we've decided that rental is the only near-term way to go.

* I'm not bartending at Caribbean Breeze anymore. Way too much hassle for not nearly enough $$$. (But feel free to stop by the house and I'll make you a mojito or caipirinha anytime.)

* We're aiming for a departure sometime in mid-September, starting in Perth and working through SE Asia. I updated the route map with the latest thoughts on which countries we might visit, although, as always, this is still very much up in the air.

There's much to do in the coming months as we get the house cleared out, try to save up as much travel cash as possible, and firm up some of our itinerary. We'll also be making updates to this site as we look around for potential sponsors to help underwrite the trip. (So if any of you have marketing connections within travel-related companies, and can hook us up a la Where the Hell is Matt, do drop me a line!) Fortunately, most of our vaccinations are up to date, as we got a bunch of jabs last year, so that's one typical travel to-do that's already crossed off. September alternately feels so far away and not nearly enough time to get everything done. One day at a time...

It's been a week of ocular shocks. (Hey, what a great name for a band! Tonight at the 9:30 Club, one night only, please welcome The Ocular Shocks! But I digress...) The first nasty shock came when I woke up on Monday morning to encounter a subconjunctival hemmorhage in my right eye. Yes, it looks as disgusting as it sounds -- my eye was completely bloodshot red where it used to be white -- although it doesn't hurt, itch, or produce any other symptoms beyond looking like you were in a bar brawl. Good for the sympathy vote, I guess. And of course it prompted much speculation in the office, necessitating a good juicy story. First place goes to the coworker who suggested I tell people it was a meth lab accident. Close second goes to another colleague who, after I mused that perhaps I should tell people I got in a big fight with a particularly surly eCommerce team member, added that I should be sure to tell everyone I plucked her bald. There's a nice visual. (Names completely omitted to protect the guilty.) I'll spare you any pictures of my nasty eyeball, tho the truly twisted among you are free to Google the term. Two different doctors have assured me that there is no treatment other than to let the eye heal itself and re-absorb the blood back into my system. Apparently it will turn some funky colors as it heals, much like a bruise. Can't wait.

Anyway, the second shock happened during a visit to the optometrist, where I was planning to go this week in the interest of updating my contact lens prescription and getting some new glasses. Now that I have some manner of health insurance again, it's time to get caught up on all things medical. Fun! The visit itself was fairly uneventful, until the end where I nearly had a heart attack when they told me I would be expected to fork over $700 for my new glasses! Whatchootalkinabout, Willis? What kind of crock is this? Fortunately my insurance covered half that cost, but STILL. Are these some kind of superhero glasses that will give me xray vision or other crime-fighting abilities? 'Cause that'll really come in handy while we're riding a songthaew in Laos. Criminy.

Ocular shocks aside, let's not forget (as if we could) that we're in the middle of a historic primary election season here in the US. Mark and I went out and voted on "Potomac Tuesday," which also happened to be his birthday, and like most people we've been closely following coverage of the race, particularly on the Democratic side. Although we both hope to send in absentee ballots for the general election, as we'll be long gone by November, we're looking forward to a new regime in 2009. There's been no shortage of political punditry, but I had to share the best candidate analysis I've seen so far:

World Hum's 2008 U.S. Presidential Candidate Travel Scorecard
What travel guide best suits John McCain? Where’s Hillary Clinton’s dream destination? Julia Ross examines how the White House contenders stack up as global travelers.

Now there's a yardstick I can identify with! Interesting to note that Obama got 4.5 (out of five) Air Force Ones, while Clinton got 4. Further proof that this is one close race, kiddies.

I know, it's been a while... but I thought I'd hold off posting until I actually had something to report. After the wedding maelstrom in the fall, things calmed down a bit. November was a very stressful month, with the one-year anniversary of my mom's death sneaking up on all of us. It did provide another opportunity to appear on TV, courtesy of our old friend Liz Keptner, reporter (and now morning anchor!) for CBS News in Philly. Liz was kind enough to do a piece on our Second Annual Celebrate Joan 4Kish Walk/Run, which was a rousing success.

Meanwhile I tackled another item on my list of "Things I Always Wanted to Try," and got a job bartending at Caribbean Breeze in Arlington. How I managed to snag this job with almost no real experience is a bit of a mystery, but I have been learning how to make some killer mojitos and caipirinhas and other fun stuff. The food's pretty good there, too, and they play cool salsa music. Stop by sometime, if you're in the neighborhood. On Wednesdays there are mojito specials all night long! Any flavor! Arrrrriba!

Hurtling towards the end of the year with no hope of selling the house at a reasonable price, it was time to suck it up and start the job search. Yuck! I'd forgotten what a soul-numbing process that is. After a few good interviews here and there, which ultimately led to nothing but a lot of waiting around because nobody is able to get anything done during the holiday season, I happened to re-connect with my former boss at Marriott, who made me an offer I couldn't refuse. (No, it did not involve snakes in a bed! They're not *that* kind of Mormons at Marriott!) I weighed all the pros and cons and wrestled with the idea that this was a step backwards, but ultimately decided that opting for "The Devil You Know" was perhaps not such a bad thing. So I'm basically back at my old job, doing pretty much the same stuff, but this time as a contractor working on a per-project basis. I have to admit, it was a nice ego boost to appear back in the office yesterday and have everyone tell me how glad they were to have me back. And, as my sagacious friend Dan likes to say, I'm not selling my soul, I'm just renting it out for a while at a good price.

So let Plan πr² begin! For those of you who haven't been following along at home, the goal is to save up as much travel fundage as possible in the next 6-9 months, rent out the house, and hit the road. We'll also update this site and post to the blog as our plans unfold, so please continue to watch this space! And kindly register, if you haven't already, so we can get some sense of who's reading this thing. You'll get a notification email when a new blog entry has been posted, that's it, I swear.

Happy New Year, everyone! Here's to a 2008 filled with adventure, prosperity, and passion!

Many thanks to those who have sent birthday wishes, emailed, called, sang, actually sent paper cards, or some combination of the above. It's not terribly sexy to have your birthday on a Tuesday, particularly when it's election day as well, and even less on an election year like this one where you're voting for exciting stuff like school board and other state-level stuff. Yawn. But I did have a lovely birthday massage (thanks M, C, and T! you guys rock!) that was reeeeeeeallllly niiiiiiiice. It was mostly your standard swedish/shiatsu/reflexology/aromatherapy type of thing. But the woman also worked in just enough deep tissue massage to make it interesting. If you've ever had deep tissue work, you know how the pummeling can sometimes make you feel like you were hit by a truck. The more it hurts, the better the massage, right? That's kinda the point. But my new best friend Vera had just the right balance of tough love, and the end result was tres fab. Anyone in the area looking for a fantastic massage, I highly recommend Massage Works.

Right, so since I haven't checked in in a while, I thought it was time to post a quick update. The housing market continues to flip us the double bird, so we've had to formulate a new plan. Plan B? This is more like Plan x=πr²√Θ. But that just keeps things interesting. Anyway, the current working plan is to put the house up for rent while we travel. Sounds reasonable, yes? The rental market is actually pretty strong right now, especially in this area where you have military families and World Bank and State Dept and other transient groups. But it does present a new set of challenges. The two biggies are (1) scrounging up the money to travel with, and (2) getting the mortgage payment at or below what we could hope to rent for. We were aided a bit on the second issue by a new, lower ARM (which I still think was a clerical error but who's complaining). And to chip away at the first issue, I've dusted out the ol' resume and have been looking for an IT contract gig. I'm also looking at a few bartending options, just because I think it'd be a fun way to pull in some extra cash. Stay tuned for updates on that!

We're aiming for a departure date sometime in early summer, ideally to coincide with Eric & Dey's wedding in San Diego on 6/7/08. We may follow the SE Asia/India itinerary, but that may need to be adjusted for weather considerations. I'm open to suggestions! The timeline can be a bit more open-ended since there aren't any other family obligations on the books. (My sister is only allowed to get married if she consults my travel schedule first!) So we may wind up traveling for more than the allotted year. We'll see. First things first. And the first item on my to-do list is finding a j-o-b. Second item is world domination, in case anyone's curious.

Whew, it is nice to be back in one place after our whirlwind tour of the Pacific Northwest!

I'll be updating this site in the coming days with tales of our adventures in Cali and Oregon. (Check out my first crack at using Google Maps on the "where" page of this site.) But I also need to spend some time updating my mom's site as we rev up the planning for the 2nd Annual Celebrate Joan Memorial 4K-ish Walk on Saturday, November 24. Mark your calendars! Even if you're not able to make it to Allentown for the event, we're encouraging everyone to find a moment to walk off that Thanksgiving turkey, and send us pics.

Those paying close attention may have noticed that I've been busy this week uploading pictures. There are so many to wade through! It's going to take a while to get everything up here. I'm about halfway through Guatemala at the moment, and I've re-arranged the pics main page to have the most recent groupings bubble to the top. Check back often to see what else has been posted! I'm also searching for a better way to display the pics in a slideshow-type format, to make it easier to view them sequentially. So if any of you other geekburgers out there have suggestions for plug-ins or simple freeware, do let me know.

Several of you have mentioned that you've been enjoying reading my adventures and misadventures, and I really appreciate that. I've thought about submitting one or two stories to some of the many travel writing contests out there, just to see what happens. So here's my request: which blog entries do you think are the best? They're not really meant to be self-contained stories, so whatever I submit might require a bit of editing. But I'd love to hear your feedback on which ones *you* liked best! Feel free to enter your vote as a comment here (remember, you have to register), or just drop me an email. Thanks for your continued support!

Well, it was nice to postpone returning to reality for a while, with all the wedding festivities. But today we had a sobering chat with our realtor. Back down to earth! Our new realtor -- this is number four in the series, and hopefully the fourth time's the charm -- is a pretty sharp guy and he gets where we're coming from. He's not trying to convince us to put tens of thousands of dollars into renovating the place. He doesn't sugar-coat his conversations. He does lots of research and networks with other "top producer" realtors in the area. But the news is pretty bleak. Citing recent reports from Moody's and predictions from Ben Bernanke and the like, our realtor basically told us that the housing market is in bad shape and is not expected to get any better in a lonnnnnng time. As in, not till 2014. Fantastic.

OK, so where does that leave us? Well, we're gonna keep plugging away and see what kind of interest our realtor can drum up. We have a spanky new brochure. And the house is listed in the MLS and on Realtor.com, and we even put something up on Craigslist (every little bit helps). Over the weekend one of my cousins suggested we should ask for help from The Lord. Hey, stop laughing! I just may give it a try. Can't hurt, can it? (Well, there is the matter of that lightning business...) Every little bit helps. Say it with me three times.

Seriously, any and all leads would be appreciated. You never know where that magic connection will come from. And despite all the dire predictions, the economy's doing pretty well and the DC job market is really strong right now. So there's gotta be *somebody* out there who thinks this house is right for them! ::: sigh :::

Coming home to a huge weekend-long party is a great way to postpone reality, lemme tell ya.

Starting on Thursday night and going strong till Sunday afternoon, the entire Zamborsky clan and assorted extras celebrated the wedding of Dave & Meghan. And proved beyond a doubt that I have the coolest family on the planet. (Well, except for a few lame cousins who couldn't be bothered. Guess there are some in every crowd.) We all love Meghan to death, and we're glad that Dave married up. ;) Her family is great, too... and who knew her Nana could throw down with the best of us? It was a fabulous weekend. I just hope my liver recovers.

We started on Thursday night with a baseball game. How American is that? It was the Washington Nationals vs the Philadelphia Phillies, which presented a bit of a dilemma for me & Mark. Technically we should be rooting for the Nats because DC is our home. But as most of you know, I'm from the Philly area and most of my family (Meghan's as well) are diehard Phils fans. Fortunately this dilemma was solved by the fact that neither Mark nor I give a crap about baseball and we were just happy to be out drinking beer with the fam. As an extra bonus, Dave & Meghan got to unfurl the countdown banner that shows how many Nats games are left before they move to the shiny new stadium. Even though only their hands actually got to be on TV, it was still very exciting. And the Phils managed to pull off a win after all.

Friday night was the rehearsal and dinner. There was a bit of a tense moment when Rev Carol didn't show up, but thanks to Josh for hooking us up with her phone number we tracked her down and determined that she was merely lost. The show must go on! We ran through the ceremony, sweating over such important details as which family members would be walking in in which order, and practicing being "stately." This is a huge challenge for my family. But I think we can handle it for a few minutes. My sister and I each get to do a really cool reading -- Laura is doing "Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog" by Taylor Mali, and I'm doing Robert Fulghum's "Union" (yes, the Kindergarden guy). And we also get to walk our dad in. So we actually have to pay attention for a bit.

Rehearsal complete, we headed to the Tabard Inn for the first of many highly-caloric meals and more drinking! Plus speeches. This is a really bittersweet weekend for the Zs... we are so thrilled for Dave & Meghan but we really miss my mom. It's hard not having her around. And it's hard to watch my dad struggle through this on his own. Fortunately I think we're managing to strike a pretty good balance of celebrating and remembering, and her presence is definitely felt among us. Especially with all the drinking and dancing!

The wedding on Saturday went off without a major hitch. Yes, it was hot and we were all sweating like warthogs. But a family that sweats together stays together. And there were some minor wardrobe malfunctions, but nothing to call the FCC about. The ceremony was sweet, Dave and Meghan were really cute up there in their fancy outfits, and by the end of it there was not a dry eye in the house. And then it was time for cocktail hour! Followed by a fabulous dinner, and lots of dancing, and maybe a few shots as well. Eric did a great job with his Best Man toast -- short and sweet and funny -- and the bridesmaids had some funny vignettes as well. And did I mention there was dancing? Damn, this family likes to shake their groove thang! Now you all know where I get it from. Special kudos to Herschel & Karen Dorney and Uncle Frank & Aunt Carol, who represented, and then some!

The hardcore among us trooped out to a bar in Georgetown after they kicked us out of Dumbarton House. Took us a while, but we found a place where they'd let the bride in without ID. C'mon, people, she's wearing a big white dress, cut the woman some slack!

Best Wedding Ever? Well, I already admitted to my brother that the number one spot goes to our friends Dave & Debbie's Elvis wedding at the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel. (Sorry, I gotta call it like I see it.) But this one definitely ranks! Great times, great people, and two great families. The Exleys -- and particularly Meghan -- can definitely hold their own with the Zs, and I hope we have some more joint family shenanigans in the near future.

Sunday brunch was a bit ragged, but nearly everyone managed to drag themselves out for some hangover snacks. And then it was time to hit a sports bar in Adams Morgan for the Eagles game. Whew. I could only make it to halftime, especially since the Birds were completely trouncing Detroit. (Hey, I actually sounded like I was paying attention for a minute there!) But it was nice to have one last bit of family bonding before everyone hit the road. Good times, good times! Let's all do it again sometime... like maybe in two weeks, in San Francisco? Oy vey.

PS. Since I already posted a slew of pics from the wedding to celebratejoan.com, there's no point in prepping and posting them here. Feel free to check out Dave & Meghan's gallery, which also includes some great photos from other family members!

I knew I was officially back in the States when I paid nearly two whole dollars for a pack of gum. Yikes!

My day started out with an early departure from Tina's Backpacker Hostel, where I was only too happy to leave behind my butthead bunkmates who insisted on drinking till all hours (which I have no problem with) and then noisily coming back to the room and flipping on all the lights and having a loud drunken conversation (which I especially have a problem with when I am scheduled to depart early the next morning). I was grumpy and groggy when I slung my pack on for the last time and trudged out to the dock. So it was a pleasant surprise when I ran into Russell, my divemaster buddy from the Blue Hole trip, who was at the end of the dock with a full dive boat awaiting a spare BCD. He offered me a lovely cup of coffee and we had a quick chat before he sailed off to face the Blue Hole and I hopped into the ferry to Belize City.

The rest of my journey was straightforward enough: nice breezy ferry trip to the BC dock, few blocks' walk to the bus station through beautiful (not!) downtown Belize City, hop a bus heading north and ask to stop near the airport, quick taxi ride the remaining 2.5 miles into the actual airport, and wait around for the American Airlines counter to open. I cashed my last traveler's check to pay the gringo fee -- ehm, excuse me, departure tax -- and my flight to Miami left on time and with no drama whatsoever.

It was a nice feeling to return to American soil... until I had to face the horror of the Miami airport. Ten weeks of turbo-chill were handily undone in less than an hour as I was fed through the ugly meat grinder of Passport Control, Baggage Claim, Customs, re-entry through Security, and a mad dash to my gate on the complete opposite side of the airport. Sweaty and exhausted, I somehow managed to make it to my final flight and crammed into a plane full of inside-the-Beltway types with their cell phones glued to their ears and Blackberries clicking away madly. I have to admit that I fit right in, as I was so excited to have my cellie working again that I promptly texted and called a whole bunch of people in the spare five minutes before the flight took off. Which actually turned into a spare hour because -- get this, I couldn't make this s**t up if I tried -- the plane had a SCREW LOOSE. How apropos.

So, I'm back, glad to be home and reconnected with my sweetie, and am looking forward to seeing friends and family in the coming weeks. This week will be a maelstrom of family shenanigans in preparation for Dave and Meghan's wedding in DC on Saturday, followed closely by Drew and Carlisle's wedding in San Francisco on Oct 6, and then a trip out to see Edward & Heidi's B&B in Oregon. No rest for the wicked! I have loads and loads of site updates to do, so watch for more juicy tidbits coming as soon as I can carve out some time. And feel free to queue up for some time on my social schedule, as I would love to catch up with everyone in person!

In the meantime, I'm enjoying some of the simple pleasures of being back in civilization, including:

* internet that doesn't cost $7 an hour!
* a clean kitchen I don't have to share with a dozen other grubby backpackers!
* fluffy towels!
* water that can be drunk right from the tap (and it's hot on demand, too!)
* school buses that actually have school children on board as passengers! and no mounds of luggage perched precariously on top, either!

I'm sure these small fascinations will wear off soon, so I'm reveling in them while I can. Life is good!

This morning was rough, as i expected it would be. Didn't get a lot of sleep and I was really nervous as Mark drove me to the airport. I hate goodbyes! But it's only 10 weeks... And I did get a few last-minute phone calls in while I waited for my flight to depart. (The Corky Buchek tune was a niiiiiiice touch!)

The flight started out very promisingly, with an exit row seat next to a cute couple, he with a bit of an Adrian Grenier thing goin' on. But major thunderstorms in Miami completely FUBAR'd up the entire airport. Many verklempt people, and delayed flights, and gate changes. Blecccch. Ultimately, it worked out fine, and I got to the San Jose airport only a bit later than expected but verrrrrrry tired. Caught the free shuttle, and checked into a ridiculously nice room at the San Jose Marriott to get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow, the journey continues as I head to Tamarindo to hook up with Jeff & Carol.