Beautiful Day

The weather in DC has been beautiful for the last few days - it's been sunny and in the 70s and 80s (and a bit of the 90s). The cherry blossoms are mostly gone already, but there are lots of other flowers blooming all over the city. Here are a few shots I snapped while walking to work and class. (That duck was in a tiny courtyard in front of one of the office buildings. I also saw a bunny the other day in front of the Brookings building, but I didn't get a picture.)

Of course, good things can't last forever. Tonight there was a big thunderstorm, and it's supposed to be much cooler tomorrow - in the high 50's. But we enjoyed the weather while we could - Last night Jeff, Stephanie, and I had dinner on the sidewalk patio at Frontpage (which has an amazing burger - the "boss.") And today, Jeff and I had lunch with Jeff's mom out on the sidewalk patio at Levante's. We also had happy hour at Alero (with Kris, Emma, and Beth), where we sat inside, which turned out to be a good thing, because rain started pouring down while we were there. We'll be back into the 70's by Sunday, so maybe I'll have a chance to grab an ice coffee outside before leaving for Colorado!

3D TV Commercial

I just saw the first commercial I've ever seen for a 3D TV. I read that they were being developed (actually, I think we even wrote about it in The Space Report 2010), but I've never actually seen a commercial for it. The kids and parents in the commercial still had to wear goofy glasses, though, which seems less than ideal.

I guess technologies marching forward - I wonder if 3D TV will be something that catches on and eventually everyone has, or if it will be one of those fads that kind of dies away. My guess is the technology needs to get quite a bit better before everyone gets it. Right now, I think 3D is often more distracting than it is cool. And the glasses definitely get old fast. (Plus, if you have kids, like in the commercial, what are the chances those glasses are going to last more than a week without getting lost and/or broken?)

(Also, it occurs to me that I may not have seen a commercial for 3D TV because I almost never watch commercials anymore - with the DVR, I always just skip right past them. Lost is the one exception - the show is constantly revealing more and more about what's happening as it gets closer to the finale, and I hate the idea of not knowing everything there is to know as soon as the info is available, so I watch it in real time.)

Cheering for Goliath

Jeff is a huge Duke fan - and I've been watching Duke games for the last six years, but this is the first time I've seen Duke play in the NCAA championships.

Duke was playing Butler in the championship game. Duke has won the NCAA title three times in the past, and they're consistently ranked as one of the top teams in college basketball. Butler, on the other hand, has never won a championship. They were rated highly this season, and they're a division one team, but they still seemed like the underdogs. Even NPR did a story comparing the game to a David-and-Goliath style match up, or a real-life Hoosiers.

So, Jeff and I decided to head out to our go-to sports bar, Momo's, to watch the game. And we cheered for Goliath.

And they won!

It was actually an amazing game - both teams played really well - there were a whole bunch of lead changes, and the largest lead of the game was only six points - it was within one or two points much of the time. It definitely had Jeff on the edge of his seat - or jumping out of it - multiple times, right until the last few seconds.

Doctor Who is Back!

After a two-year hiatus, Doctor Who is starting a weekly run again – with a new doctor!

Yes, this deserves its own post.

Happy Easter!

On Easter, Katie, Jeff, Tom, and I went for brunch at Urbana. The food was really great, and we had these incredible passion fruit mimosas.

After brunch, we made a quick stop at Hello, Cupcake, so that Tom could try it out, and by 1pm, Katie and Tom were on a bus back to NYC!

Cherry Blossom Festival

Last weekend Katie and Tom came to DC. Though we spent a fair amount of the weekend just hanging out at our apartment doing work, we did manage to find some time in the afternoon to walk down to the tidal basin and see the Cherry Blossom Festival.

It gave me a chance to wear some of the new clothes I got at H&M while I was in New York - the dress, scarf, and sunglasses are new. We got lots of fun pictures!

Passover

On Monday, Jeff, Katie, and I headed into Mamaroneck after lunch for passover dinner at Jeff's aunt and uncle's house. (Tom joined us a bit later when he finished work.)

Passover lunch was really nice, as it is every year. We got to see Jeff's grandma and grandpa, aunt and uncle and cousins, his parents and brother, and other, more distant, relatives. We all follow along with the traditional songs, stories, and prayers in the packet that Jeff's uncle had put together. I think I'm actually starting to learn things, now that I've been going for a few years in a row.

After dinner (which was very good - the salmon was amazing!), Jeff and I hung out with his brother. Dave brought a bunch of google stuff for everyone - a jacket for his dad, t-shirts for everyone, and a phone for me! Awesome! So now I have a really cool google phone!

It was really nice to see everyone, and to have Katie and Tom be there for passover, too. Also, even though Jeff and I have been dating for six and a half years, this is the first time that anyone in my family (other than me) has met his brother - crazy! Now Katie and Tom can confirm that Dave exists. :)