Séamus, 2006-2010

Roughly two weeks ago, I came home from a dinner out with Eric (at Jaleo, which was absolutely delicious), to find my pet Betta dying. I was devastated. He had been acting a bit stranger in his old age, but now it was clear he was on his way out. I was relieved when he was still alive the next day, but he died by lunchtime. As the owner of more than 50 fish over the past five and a half years, I'm well aware that the little guys don't always last so long. Bettas are hardier than most when properly taken care of, but even their time is pretty short -- a typical normal life span is about two years. Yet Seamus's loss hit me hard.

It would probably be pretty difficult for anyone who has never loved and lost a little animal like a fish to understand what is so special about a pet this tiny. After all, fish have no memories, no personality, and can't even feel pain, right? Wrong. Studies have proven all of these statements are not true. You can even train some fish to swim through hoops! And Seamus knew who I was. At times, he would swim into my hand for me to flip him out of his bowl during his water changes. Other times, he'd get mad and go sulk behind one of his favorite bamboo leaves, and only come out when he saw the net in the water. He learned that the sound of the food container shaking meant little pellets were about to drop. He would even come out from a nap curled up in the bamboo plant's roots just to watch me when I came in the kitchen to wash dishes, sometimes bobbing his head out of the water as if to say, "Well, where's my lunch?" I loved his cantankerous, spirited personality. Even as he was dying, he still made it up to the surface to peer at me when I checked on him.

Granted, as a bleeding-heart animal lover, I am probably more sensitive than most. When I worked as a bookstore cashier, a big beetle flew onto my register. Afraid that one of the people in line would see it, freak out and smash it, I quietly herded the beetle into my drawer, then carried him outside on a break. It's probably that softie nature of mine that caused me to get Seamus in the first place when I saw him at the Christiansburg Wal-Mart in summer 2006. I am not a Wal-Mart fan anyway, but it broke my heart to go in there with my friends and see all the sick, dying fish. I even sent them an angry email once about the way their stores treated the fish. (A litany of similar complaints caused them to abandon the practice not long after I bought Seamus.) When I saw Seamus, he was the lone healthy Betta for sale. I couldn't stand the thought of this gorgeous creature meeting the same fate as the others, and I took him home. Yes, I knew I was just supporting the practice with my dollars, but his zippy personality begged for a better environment, and that's what I gave him. Now, there are many theories regarding the proper care of Bettas, but I personally believe it to be a complete falsehood that they live best in tiny, shallow puddles or cramped containers. Sure, a Betta COULD live that way for a while, if he had to -- but you see those long fins? Those aren't meant to be confined. Seamus lived far longer than Bettas who have almost no room to move about, which gives them fin rot anyway. He was stunningly beautiful, and he brought me much joy.

Seamus lived a good life. Rest in peace, buddy.

Photo by Evan Valentine

Cabin Fever ... literally!

The snow stopped days ago, but my parking lot is a complete and total mess. We got the car shoveled the rest of the way out yesterday, but after seeing the number of vehicles getting stuck -- including a large pick-up truck and the garbage truck -- I said, "Forget it." We walked down Columbia Pike to the pharmacy and then to CVS for some overpriced groceries for the NEXT storm, which should hit sometime today and continue through Wednesday. When we came back, we looked for the guy to whom Eric had lent our sole good snow shovel, and of course he was gone and the shovel wasn't in the back of his truck the way it was supposed to be. So much for being a good Samaritan. I'm not surprised someone took it though -- whether it was the original dude or somebody else who saw it in the truck, who knows? (Our landlord also purchased 12 shovels to loan to residents who were too silly to go buy one ahead of time, but I'll give you one guess how many of these residents actually returned their borrowed shovel! That's right, zero!) Realizing that there weren't any shovels within easy traveling distance of us to purchase, and that with another 5 to 15 inches headed our way (depending on which weatherman is talking) we'd be hosed, we decided to try to get the car out to store in Suzi's building garage. We were certain my car would get stuck in the huge snowbanks and icy ruts all over the lot, but to our shock, Frankie prevailed where the others had failed miserably. A simple tap of the gas and he pulled right out of the space, past numerous other stuck cars and six foot high snowpiles, and out on to the road he went. (Yes, my car's name is Frankie and yes, I refer to him as a "he".) Go Sonata Go! He doesn't even have 4-wheel drive! Is it possible to be proud of an object? Hahaha.

Where others complain of cabin fever, I have a bad sinus infection instead. The headache it gave me was one of the worst I've had in my life! Bleeaugh! Thankfully, my doctor lives right downstairs and so I just marched down there and was seen right away. He is awesome.

The weather has caused a lot of people to make snarky comments about global warming. Well, this weather actually is a sign of our changing climate, which causes cooler air to wash over the Gulf Stream. It's not part of a "liberal agenda", it is science. For some reason many people seem to despise science.

I'm not eating much today because antibiotics make me feel sick. Suzi had cooked a delicious-smelling casserole at her place, but I really couldn't eat anything at the moment. I just ate some Total cereal with soy milk and a sprinkling of sweet Stevia in the Raw (made by the folks behind Sugar in the Raw), which was very delicious. Total was never one of my favorite cereals, but we always seemed to have it around when I was a kid. They do have some tasty fruit versions out now. Maybe I'll fire up some Dinty Moore beef stew later on, or walk over to Bob and Edith's. Some of their biscuits and gravy would be good for dinner. I do admit that being inside so much is finally starting to get to me, so I try to get out and get some fresh air when I can. Eric and I have been playing cards, video games, watching documentaries, and making JiffyPop on the stove, and of course I'm always curled up with a book the rest of the time. The roads looked awful this morning - many roads are reduced to one lane and you can find pedestrians walking right in the middle of the street - and I'd prefer to be off of them as much as possible.

What do you do to combat cabin fever? New poll on the right :)

Cabin Fever ... yeah, not really

I love snow! We've got something like 30 inches over here now ... and counting. I just got back from Bob and Edith's with Eric and, as with the last blizzard, there were people out and about all down Columbia Pike. Unfortunately there were also people who insisted on driving, and we saw numerous cars and, yes, 4WD vehicles getting stuck in giant snowbanks and cussing furiously as though they were shocked this was happening. Even as I type, someone is outside furiously jamming on the gas and trying to pull out of their parking space. (The picture at right shows the view of the parking lot from my balcony a few hours ago -- you can see where two people have cleared their cars. One was a fella from the Coast Guard.) For all I know, they really did have somewhere important to go, but I'm guessing there will be even more accidents tomorrow when people insist on getting out to go to Super Bowl parties. As for me, I'm perfectly happy curled up on the couch at home. When I felt a little cabin fever setting in, E. and I just dressed up and went outside for a while. My knee-high boots did a good job of keeping the snow away from my legs -- good since it went up past my knees at points -- and Eric's do-it-yourself plastic bag shoe protectors kept him dry. We tromped across the street to Bob and Edith's, where unfortunately my half-smoke was cold, and then around the neighborhood searching vainly for a copy of the latest Washington City Paper. The view of the surrounding neighborhoods was too gorgeous for words. I think Eric got some pictures. I lost my balance and fell in the snow at one point, but I didn't mind. The roof garden is closed -- too bad!

Our balcony is covered in huge snow drifts. The decorative lights Eric brought home from his work two months ago are almost entirely covered up, and they almost reach my hips! We could easily build a snowman out there -- thinking about it :)

At times, I almost feel guilty being so happy about a snowstorm when so many other people are affected negatively. At Bob and Edith's, the servers were dismayed when the news reported that the buses had stopped running. But I truly love a good snowstorm. And, since I work at home, I have a different perspective on these storms coming during the weekends. I would have to work anyway -- so it's nice to be able to enjoy the snow on a day when I don't have to do anything else (other than my laundry -- ran three loads last night and still have two hampers stuffed full of dirty clothes. Gross!).

In sadder news, my beta fish, Seamus, passed away a while back. It's always tough to raise a little creature for several years only to lose him. He was definitely a tenacious little fella. I'll have a tribute post up for him soon.

I'm kind of sick of Blogger already. Stupid things like posting pictures and getting spacing to show up the way I entered it are way more difficult than they should be. I've never been great at formatting and whatnot anyway, so maybe I should switch to another blog site. We'll see!

Mariani HoneyBars/10 Days Is Better Than None!

I'm still in the process of organizing all those travel photos, but I just wanted to plug a delicious product real quick -- and go off a little on something that has bothered me for a while. Let's start with the good stuff -- Mariani HoneyBars! I had the opportunity to sample a Trail Mix HoneyBar not long ago and I was blown away by the taste. The Trail Mix bar consists of nuts, seeds, and raisins held together by just a touch of honey -- and that's it. The sweet honey flavor dances on your tongue and complements the slightly salty -- but all natural -- tang of the other ingredients perfectly. I can't wait to try more varieties of these. Some places you can purchase include Giant, Wegmans, Safeway, Shoppers, Kroger, and Ukrops. You can read more about Mariani and their varieties of snack bars (and delicious fruit snacks) here: http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/CategoryDisplay?cgmenbr=1279011&cgrfnbr=1647230.

Now for the less-than-good stuff. One thing that bugs me about travel (other than not having enough leave to travel as much as I would like) is the "travel snob." I am finding out more and more about this phenomenon the more I travel and the more I talk about my travels with other people. People ask me all about where I've been and what I saw, but then they start to wrinkle their noses when I answer their questions. They hear that I was only in Paris for three days (because it was in the middle of another trip) and they act like that is insane. Never mind that I went there in the middle of a larger trip and found it a fun opportunity to explore a different city. They say, "Oh -- well, that's too bad" when they ask how long I was in Ireland and I say, "Oh, about a week." They act like my fabulous, but brief, road trip through Brussels, Luxembourg, and Koln (Cologne) that I took from a friend's Netherlands home was ridiculous and that I couldn't have possibly seen anything worth mentioning. (Guess again!) They go on and on about all of the good stuff I SHOULD have seen and done in Las Vegas and imply that I didn't "do it right." Gee, thanks! My response to this is usually, "Oh, how long were you there?" and their response is, with two exceptions so far, "Oh, I haven't gone there." No, not at all? 10 days in Amsterdam is much better than no days in Amsterdam! Thanks for letting me know how inferior you feel my trip was! Talk to me when you get there yourself, for what I presume will be a full month since you apparently have endless amounts of leave and cash! But seriously -- does anyone else ever encounter this? I'm curious. I've just never been inclined to inform someone their vacation wasn't long enough while they're telling me about all the great things they have seen -- I'd rather shush and listen to what I can learn!

ICE! and Christmas on the Potomac at National Harbor (tons of photos)

Happy Holiday Season! The Sunday after Thanksgiving, Eric and I decided to stop by National Harbor to see two exhibits there: ICE!, a collection of ice sculptures ($25 per adult), and Christmas on the Potomac (free, inside the Gaylord Resort atrium).


Having been to National Harbor only once before, I was excited to return and get to know more of it. It's about a fifteen minute drive in good traffic from my building in Arlington. We arrived to find the grounds full of Christmas trees, like the big one above.

When I was a child, this giant statue called The Awakening was "buried" in the ground at Hains Point in D.C. and my sister and I would go play on it fairly often. The statue was recently purchased and moved to National Harbor. Here's its arm ...

I was happy to see that there are still plenty of kids playing on The Awakening! Unfortunately, the water from the Potomac in this area is somewhat stinky, but that's life.

Time for ICE! ICE is a collection of ice sculptures inside a tent near the back end of the National Harbor grounds (across from some parking garages).

BRRR! It was pretty chilly. You will be offered one of these big blue parkas for your walk through the exhibit. I highly recommend you take one, not just for the cold, but for another reason which I'll be showing you later on ...


Polar bears frolicking on an ice "pond." There's lots of Christmas music playing in here.


I guess he's tap dancing.


This polar bear looked remarkably like my friend Brad who lived down the hall from me my freshman year of college at Ambler-Johnston Hall! Brad had a knack for refusing to get up to go to class with me and my roommate Jaime. We'd find him dozing on top of his bunk just like this when we'd drop by his room to try to make him get up. His nickname has been Polar Bear ever since.

Deer and ducks by/on the pond. These views are all from a bridge over the pond which was also made entirely out of ice.
Here's the bridge, and a polar bear ice fishing :)

Around the corner there were some sculptures of a Christmas morning scene in an ice "living room", of which we neglected to take any pictures. There was also an ice sleigh that you could sit in to pose for a picture. There were people everywhere so it was a bit difficult. I was impatient like usual and didn't want to wait to get pictures of that stuff. Instead we ran further ahead to these funky dancing penguins!

There was an igloo behind the dancers with more penguins. I was definitely glad to beat the crowds to this scene. These penguins remind me of something out of Willy Wonka (if he had penguins)!

An ethereal fiber-optic lighted tunnel leads ahead to the ice castle.

...And here it is, the fantastic ice castle. At either side are two foot tall ice slides!

The view from the top of the ice slides



Woo hoo! This is one more reason to take that parka they offer! To go really fast down the slide, lean way back and lift your feet up a little.

Wheeeee!
Following the ice castle and slides were more sculptures. This adorable stuffed tiger was randomly tucked in with some other, chillier wildlife.

This teddy bear wuvs me. (I couldn't resist)

After all of the secular-themed sculptures, more spiritual icons began to appear representing the Christmas story. Here's the angel, although you can't really see the wings too well.

Random ice column that glowed blue on and off

Ice nativity scene. This was HUGE and took up a whole room. It was pretty spectacular.

I wanted to climb up on it, but I was afraid the security guard who conveniently appeared around the corner just as I got the idea would yell at me and make a big spectacle

Stable animals keeping watch over the Baby Jesus.

The exhibit wishes you a Merry Christmas as you leave with some ice poinsettias. And that's the end of it. You turn in your parkas and then you can browse a gift shop. (Eric bought me a pretty snowflake bracelet.) You also have the opportunity to take a computer survey regarding your experience. I wrote that I had a great time but I would have appreciated taller ice slides and more sculptures for the money.

Once we left ICE!, we headed back down toward the water. Eric was just a little excited about eating some lunch.

These miniature Christmas trees line the walkway.

I can never resist an opportunity to play in a fountain!

Eric's hunger didn't distract him from a need to practice his kung fu skills.

We decided to eat at Ketchup before the Christmas on the Potomac mini-shows started that evening. Unfortunately we had to wait a long time for our food. You can read all about that in my previous blog post!

By the time we got our meals, I was so hungry I decimated my crab wrap before I realized that most of the ingredients had been left out. These are the remains of Hurricane Hungry Girl

Ketchup's main gimmick is its variety of odd ketchups. You get this sampler of six to dip your truffle fries in. The ketchups were the best part of our entire experience.

Christmas on the Potomac is a big display inside the atrium of the Gaylord Resort. Hanging in the front window is this large tree made out of "candy glass". (I don't believe you can eat it :)

One of the things we waited to see was this fountain show. While no match for the Bellagio in Las Vegas, it was fun and splashed significant numbers of surprised people, much to my amusement. ;) At some points, the fountains shot 60 feet in the air in time with the music! Each fountain show lasts about three minutes.

One of the draws of Christmas on the Potomac is a contest in which you have to find giant stuffed Peeps that are hidden around the atrium. Some of them are in really odd out of the way places, but Eric and I found most of them. Now, you don't think I'm going to give the answers away, do you? :) But here's one fella hiding in the bushes!

Looking for all those Peeps was a good way to waste time while waiting for the next "show" which was the nightly lighting of the glass Christmas tree. The show consists of several minutes of lights flashing around inside the tree while music plays. "Northern lights" also shimmer across the banners hanging around the tree.

A few minutes after the Christmas tree lighting show is over, a snowfall begins. We waited around for a while waiting for it to start before we realized it's in a very small area by the coffee shop in the middle of the atrium. You can't see it here, but the "snow" is really like foamy dish-soap bubbles wafting down. It does get stuck in your hair though :)

There were some other shows involving the fountains and singing choirs, but by this time I was tired and ready to go home and eat some dinner that didn't involve slowpoke waiters. Here's the tree down by the river all lit up at night. There's a stage right next to it where different bands play periodically. When they're not playing, parents let their kids scamper all over the stage right in front of a huge sign telling you to keep off of it. Hahaha

I had a fun time and thought it was a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Maybe they'll have bigger and better things next year. If you live in the area, try to go on a Sunday or even a weekday if you can to avoid the crowds. Make sure you drive in or take a water taxi over from Old Towne in Alexandria. Just be aware that some of the special shows may not be available on the weekdays.


ICE! and Christmas on the Potomac run through January 10th. You can find more information and purchase tickets here: http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylord-national/special-events/washington-dc-events/christmas-on-the-potomac/index.html?intcmp=gn-tsr-cotpevents.

Restaurant Review: Ketchup, National Harbor (Prince George's County, Maryland)

My boyfriend Eric took me on a date to National Harbor today to see two wonderful holiday exhibits there. (Those were Christmas on the Potomac and ICE -- more on those in a later post.) After viewing ICE, we decided to eat lunch and settled on Ketchup, owned by celebrity-backed Dolce Restaurant Group. We knew little about it at the time - I've referenced their website and menu at http://www.dolcegroup.com/ketchup/ for this review - but we were enticed by the name and the Andy Warhol-like decor we could see through the windows. We could also see a family sitting and eating through the window on our way up the hill to ICE at 2:25 and they appeared to be close to done with their meal ... and then we saw them again as we came back down a little past 3 p.m. and they were still there! It was an omen I chose to ignore for the moment. Silly me.

We went inside and were confused as to where we were supposed to go to be seated. We passed a large bar on our left and saw a couple standing by what appeared to be a hostess station at the far end. I was surprised the station wasn't closer to the main entrance. The hostess appeared and told us it would be a moment. We were finally placed at the back of the restaurant; I was in a little red booth and Eric was across from me in a chair. Our table was unusually close to the table next to it, where a large family was seated.

Our waitress took a few minutes to appear. When we finally ordered, we placed our drink and meal orders at the same time. Our Diet Cokes took several minutes to come out and then the waitress had to wait at the bar for a while after that to get the Raspberry Mojito I'd already ordered with my soda. (I could see her standing there waiting on them to finish making it.) The Mojito was tasty enough, but not really worth the $12. We then began the wait for our food ... a long, long, long wait. It was abysmally slow, but I could see that several other tables around us (seated before us) were also waiting. I don't blame our waitress for this ridiculous slowness. She appeared to be the only one handling the entire (large) section and she was pleasant despite this. I suspect the restaurant didn't plan well for this Thanksgiving weekend and probably had only one cook back there making the food.

A tall man dressed like a manager finally brought us our food with an apologetic tone, and then a third person (a lady) who was either a manager or a member of the waitstaff brought us ketchup. By this point, I think we'd been at the restaurant for at least 45 minutes.

I had ordered the Crab Salad Wrap ($13), which came in an "old bay" wrap and was supposed to have Maryland lump crabmeat (check), spinach leaves (check), hearts of palm (nope), tomatoes (nope -- but who cares, I didn't want them anyway and forgot to ask them to leave them off), and lemon herb vinaigrette (nope). I caught a taste of Old Bay seasoning here and there on the crab. By this point I was so hungry that I demolished almost the entire wrap without noticing. It wasn't until we were waiting on the check that it suddenly occurred to me that the wrap was supposed to have more than just spinach and crab! (Now WHY exactly did THAT take so long? Put the spinach in the wrap! Put the crab in the wrap! Roll that mess up and serve!) Eric ordered the Grilled Chicken Sandwich ($13) which had banana peppers, herb mayo, spinach, and tomato, and he devoured the entire thing before I had even finished one half of my wrap. He says he thinks his sandwich had all of the ingredients. The wrap and the sandwich both came with "truffle fries" sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. The fries were good enough, but the real joy was trying the ketchup. You see, what that third person brought us was a sampler of six different flavored ketchups: chipotle, raspberry, maple syrup, ranch, regular, and I forget what the sixth one was (barbecue?). It was fun to try them all and they were definitely all extremely delicious and unique -- except the regular, of course.

By the time I realized my wrap was not up to par and the check arrived, we were so close to the starting time of the next attraction that we had to haul out of there and I decided not to bother complaining about the wrap. (I'd eaten most of the food, anyway!) I'd almost like to come back here sometime and try some more of the menu, but I'm really not sure it's worth it, especially not with so many other fine restaurants right in the same development. Besides, I can probably make that crab wrap -- the way it was meant to be made -- right here at home.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing all my blog readers a wonderful Thanksgiving. I've certainly had a great one and was very lucky to spend it with my fantastic family. Of course, it's now the day after Thanksgiving over here, so perhaps I should be wishing you a Happy Black Friday instead. Are you all now getting ready to stake out the stores for all those hot deals? I've never been able to do it, myself ... I desperately love my nightly visit to the Land of Nod. Interestingly enough, however, ever since I got back from my trip to Europe a couple of weeks ago, I have been waking earlier and earlier each morning ... so maybe next year you'll find me in line too :)