I Do Stuff…

sculpture hallways at the National Gallery of Art

Photo Gallery

Monday was a federal holiday so both Nancy and I had off. With all the snow still on the ground we wanted to get out of the house for a while and decided to take a trip to DC. Last semester Nancy had an art appreciation class, for extra credit she could visit any art museum and write a one page report.  The class is long over, but we finally decided to visit the National Gallery of Art.

When we arrived in the DC it was pretty desolate with the federal government closed and the city declaring a snow emergency. Finding a garage near the National Gallery of Art was actually real easy. When we surfaced from the depths of the building we had a choice to make, see “old” art or the “new” art. I have been once before to the old art gallery and I was impressed. The marble architecture of the building is amazing. Outside the building looks like any other museum on the Mall. When you walk in from the Mall entrance you are greeted with a huge rotunda and a fountain. There are giant black pillars of marble that ring the space and go all the way to the ceiling.

random sculpture

From this main hall you can go two ways, left or right.  (Map: ground, main)  Down each hallway you will find various exhibits ranging in style, country and period. Starting from the 13th century and going to the 19th century spanning most every country in Europe. The collection of art includes paintings by such notables as Rembrandt, Monet, Van Gogh, da Vinci, Picasso and many others. Not being familiar with art I was able to point out many famous works myself. Those paintings when you see them you say “I know that piece,” you might not know who painted it, but you know they are world famous works of art.

If you have time I would suggest bringing a book to read while you are there. I know it sounds weird, but there are two garden courts that are just beautiful and so peaceful. Being an art museum there is not a lot of talking, just low murmurs from patrons. In fact the museum has a policy that cell phones are not to be used in the exhibit areas. If I worked in DC I would take my lunch breaks at the two garden courts to relax and decompress. Or sit in front of some of the pieces of art, many of the master works have couches you can sit in while contemplating the meaning of life or what ever the artist intended.

I have always had a great respect for artists; painters and photographers in particular. They have this vision in there head and they somehow transfer that to canvas or cellulose. I might not be able to appreciate all the finer details, but I can still appreciate the work.

The House of Parliament, Sunset by Claude Monet

After leaving the museum we were hungry so we found a sports bar to grab a drink and lunch. I was hoping to have more options, but most places where closed. We found the Penn Quarter Sports Tavern to enjoy a nice cold beer and some sandwiches. As we ate our lunch the snow really started to come down. The ground was to warm for any accumulations, but at least it was snowing. By the time we left it was almost a full blizzard and I was loving it. Nancy couldn’t wait to get back to the Jeep and into the warmth. On the short walk back to the Jeep Nancy magically transformed herself into the squirrel whisperer.  There where a ton of squirrels inhabiting a small park with some trees.  Living in the city they are use to humans and probably get a lot of hand outs.  Well Nancy starts squeaking and one decided to be brave and check it out. Fortunately it didn’t get to close, but I got some good closeups.

Driving out of the city with the snow proved to be a bit of a nightmare.  It was not a full blown rush hour, but traffic was heavy and slow.  We finally arrived back at her apartment around 5, almost time for me to leave for class.  It was great spending the afternoon in the city as it was almost empty.  The snow kept most people away so the streets and museum were pretty quite.  I still want to hit the modern art museum next door, might have to do that when spring arrives so I can take advantage of the color the season brings with it.

Photo Gallery

Another blizzard and another weekend spent at home.  This time the snow started to fall about 10am on Friday but for approximately 6 hours it never accumulated on the ground.  The ground was just to warm and melted what ever fell on it.  Not until late in the afternoon, with the temperature rapidly dropping, did it start to stick.  This is about the time the snow kicked into over drive.

the snow blanketed everything

Through the overnight hours it snowed and snowed, adding to what was already on the ground from Tuesday which was about 4-6″.  All morning and well into the afternoon it snowed at my house.  I spend most of the day working on the computer and getting some organizing done.  In fact with the exception of shoveling my sidewalk/truck and watching Terminator: Salvation, I didn’t leave my man cave.  I got my finances in order and worked on a travel map that I have been meaning to finish for years.  I am missing a few pins, but it shows every city I have seen a concert in.  Eventually I will get the total number of shows seen in a city corresponding to each pin.  Most cities I been to only once. A few cities, like Washington DC and Baltimore, I have been to 8 and 7 different venues with several times that number of concerts in each of those cities.

I love to travel and see concerts

I also got a lot of coding done on taping.org.  Mostly PHP to calculate totals and such.  Like always, most of the changes I made are on the back end and don’t add much visually.  Let me tell you, it was a lot of fun figuring how to get PHP to read a line in a db results query and keep a running total of the values.  I can do this in Java pretty easily, but PHP is a whole new beast.  Thankfully the basic concept of how to accomplish this is the same in both languages.  The rest of my time was spent entering and updating information already in my db to take advantage of the calculations I coded earlier in the day.  Now that 90% of the site has the basic functions I wanted to implement, I find myself spending more time enter and updating information in the database.  I will continue to split my time with data entry and writing code to analyze all the data into useful information.

I might not have left my house all weekend, but it was great spending the time at home just getting stuff done.  Saturday when the snow was still falling I would often stop my coding and just look out the window, it was very peaceful.  I almost turned my desk around to face out the window and soak up nature.

Photo Gallery

hang on little buddy, spring is coming

Another Saturday and another giant snow storm.  Fortunately this time around the accumulation was not 22″, but a much more manageable 6-7″.  Just like before it snowed all day on Saturday so I was stuck in my house trying to keep myself busy.  On Sunday the snow was easy to remove thanks to my new shovel, no more bucket for me!  After a lazy morning I decided to go for a hike at Prince William Forest while the snow was still hanging in the trees and the ground was not to disturbed.  I also thought it would be a great opportunity to take some pictures.  I have been to the park in spring, summer and fall of course, but never after a winter snow fall.

Compare the same bridge as seen during Spring and Winter.

When I arrived I found the park was indeed open but the visitor center was closed and the gate leading into the park interior was closed.  It made sense, who knows what the roads looked like inside the park, near the entrance they where at least plowed.  My bright idea of visiting the park was shared by many others that day as the lots had over a dozen cars.  I expected some people to be there, just not this many.  While hiking I ran into several people on the trail, most of them on cross country skies.  We don’t get much good snow fall in the area so they where taking every opportunity to get some skiing in.  Getting a relatively late start, the skiers and other hikers packed the snow pretty well so I didn’t have to hike through 6″ of virgin snow.  I was actually hoping to find a little that I could hike through, but as far as I went into the park someone had always been there before me.

great shot of the river, trail, trees and sky

For a couple of hours I walked several miles through the park.  I was amazed at just how quite the park was, very tranquil and serene.  There was no noise form other people, or cars and most of the animals were hunkered down for the day because of the snow.  Actually it was kinda fun at times I would see loops of animal tracks in the snow, but for the most part there was no sign of life.  The trails I took eventually dumped me off at the main road.  I thought taking the road back to my truck would be easier and shorter than walking back through the forest.  When I was able to look at a map it was the furthest from the truth.  I should have just backtracked on the trail.  It would have been much better scenery and I could have avoided all the cars that started to flood into the park when the main gate was opened.  Most of these genius didn’t take the time to drive slowly on the icy roads.

Having hiked in the snow only once before, this was definitely a lot of fun.  The last time there was only a dusting on the top of Robertson Mountain.  Sunday in Prince William Forest was 6″ of wonderful snow and a heck of a lot closers to my house.

Paradise Springs Winery

It was Nancy’s birthday the other day and we had a busy day planned to celebrate it.  The party started at a brand new winery in Fairfax, the first in the county in fact.  Paradise Springs Winery had their grand opening the same day as her birthday and what a perfect way to kick off a full day of celebrations.  Nancy and I arrived just after noon with few people there.  Because the place was hard to find and in the middle of no where, I thought the crowds would be pretty small.  Parking was easy and getting a tasting took only a few minutes.  However as the day progressed, more and more people showed up, literally bus loads at times.  By this time reinforcements arrived with food, my Dad and Pat.

We spent hours around this wine barrel we commandeered for the afternoon.  It allowed us a place to put all the food my Dad brought with him.  Fortunately Nancy, Tracy, Rob and myself arrived early enough we were able to get a tasting in before the hordes came.  It was to late for them to get a tasting because of the lines.  They trusted our judgment and got a bottle of Chardonnay and a Norton we all agreed was drinkable.  To be honest none of us were to thrilled with the offerings.  The wine was simply, ok.  Nothing spectacular and certainly nothing that blew our minds.  A pretty decent view more than made up for the mediocre wine.

Alto Plaza Centreville, VA

Late in the afternoon after killing several soldiers we parted ways, Nancy and I continued our adventure in birthday fun and everyone else went home.  We headed back to her apartment with Doug who arrived supper late to the winery for about an hour before dinner at Alto Plaza.  This allowed us to change into appropriate attire for dinner, but more importantly, get some football in.  Doug and I couldn’t see the whole game, but we saw enough to know New Orleans was going to win against the Cardinals.

Around 6 we finally left for the short drive to Alto Plaza where we had reservations.  We arrived right on time, but like usually we where the first to arrive.  When we got to the third floor they had a large table setup for us right next to a large bay window looking towards the mountains.  If the sun was setting it would have been a great view.  Being the first to arrive we decided to belly up to the bar in the lounge for a quick drink and to relax before things got crazy.  By about 7pm everyone else arrived; Jeremy, Nichole and Jeffrey with Rob coming from the winery like we did.  Dinner was fantastic.  The food was great and the service was impeccable.  The only issue we had was when we tried to pay the bill.  I had $225 in gift cards that I wanted to use, this would cut the total bill in half for everyone else.  Unfortunately the waitress said the gift cards where for the old restaurant and they wouldn’t’ accept it.  I was pissed.  Thankfully, she went to bat for us and they used all the gift cards.  If they wanted to get our business again this was what they needed to do.

Lulu Cafe (karaoke) Centreville, VA

After a wonderful meal our group again parted ways with some of our dinner guest headed over to Lulu Cafe for some karaoke.  Here we meet backup with Tracy and Bobby, Matt showed up as well for a loooooong night of singing.  We got there just before 10pm and snagged a private room in the back.  The guy showed us how to use the equipment and it was on after that.  The machine was in constant use till well after 2am when we finally left.  Everyone, including Matt, sang songs for hours.  By about midnight I wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep.  In fact several times I almost passed out in the back corner which was amazing considering how loud the music was.

Close to 3am is when we finally got Nancy back to her house.  It felt so good to finally go to sleep in a comfortable bed.  The whole day was great and a lot of fun, even if it did go to the wee hours of the morning.  Not only did Nancy say she had a great time, I could also tell because all day Sunday she was hung over and didn’t want to leave the house.  I was grateful to everyone that made it out for all or part of the day, it really made Nancy feel special having so many people show up.  Next years is a milestone year for her, she has kicked around a few ideas on how to celebrate it already.  It certainly a good idea to start planning 12 months in advance for some of these.