Washington, District of Columbia

My Madre, sister, and brother-in-law at the Nationals baseball game. Awesome game, but a bad score as the Cubs won 3-1. Go Nationals!

Senator Bennett in his office (he's the tallest one in the picture). Those other people were just extras I hired to make the office scene look busy.

R-U-F-U-S! He is under 90 days old and more enjoyable than a milkshake and a bath at the same time. I would know because I have seen Rufus and I have eaten a milkshake in the bathtub at the same time.

My sister wed last month, and immediately incurred a beagle puppy named Rufus. She and her hubby moved to D.C. at about the same time that Airtran started some killer $39 fares from Boston to Baltimore (happenstance, or the persuasion of yours truly? Remember I have connections with people in the airline industry, like Mitt Romney). Knowing the puppy was there, and having nothing to do but weed (pulling, not smoking), I set out to visit dear Rufus before he grew into his ears, which are glabrous and elephantine sized.
Lucky for me, my great-uncle is a Senator with a townhouse in Rosslyn, a region of Virginia. In my three day voyage I went to Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. The locals call that area DMV, which I usually associate with the Department of Motor Vehicles, a far more abhorrent acronym that should only be used in times of winter- when ear muffs are readily available.

Thursday night we figured since we were in America's capital, it would make the most sense to go out to an Afghan restaurant, which we did. We give them freedom, they give us strange eggplant and pumpkin dishes with meat sauce. Friday morning I went with The Parental Unit to the Mall, by way of sweat and human locomotion. Witnessed we did, Lincoln's memorial and two of his speeches inscribed by his side like Moses with the tablets. I discussed my favorite Lincoln Memorial moment, which by a landslide was Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech." I mostly discussed this with myself because everyone else was too busy reading the inscribed words. While there was some debate over which was better, MLK's speech or the scene at the reflection pool from "Get Smart," my better half came off conquerer and MLK won out. (The turning point in the argument came with the fact that he was a real person.) That afternoon I ate with my dear friend and saw her office, after which it was Rufus time. Rufus deserves his own post, but hopefully the pictures can help you understand what type of beast we are dealing with. After Rufus time we drove through town as the crow flies to the D.C. United stadium, in order to take a shuttle to the Nationals baseball stadium. We attended a game, and I am now a Nationals fan. I have always been a national, but now I am a National.

The last day in D.C. included a personal tour of the US Capitol by Senator Bennett (R-UT). He took us to the front of the line everywhere we went (all except the drinking fountain- for some reason the seven year old I asked to step aside just wouldn't, even after we showed him Uncle Bob's ID. He acted like he didn't even know who we were! The nerve!). We went to the caverns of the Capitol, including the hideaway offices and the private subway connecting the Senate office buildings to Starbucks. Then, we went home.