Arthur's Birthday Gift

When I arrived home from my teahouse adventure, Arthur was waiting for me with a very thoughtful, unique gift - two Himalayan salt lamps.

Each consisted of a small wooden basket that contained a tiny light bulb. Arthur carefully added the salt crystals to the baskets and then plugged the lamps in. The orange-red crystals glowed and exuded a sense of peace. Very zen! Thank you, dear grandson!

Birthday Lunch #4

What an oasis of tranquility! Marie, Barbara, and I went to Ching Ching Cha, a Chinese teahouse, for lunch today. The ambience, the food, the tea, and the company were magnificent! It was a very restful, peaceful experience.

The lovely cloth menu in Chinese red 

The first important decision in this teahouse is choice of tea. I chose Peach Blossom. A peach blossom was dropped into my glass tea cup and immersed in boiling hot water. Gradually, magically it expanded and gave a fragrant taste to the water, a marvelous artisan tea.

 I chose the Vegetable Dumplings for my food course. They contained mushrooms, carrot, cabbage, vermicelli, and dried bean curd. Absolutely marvelous! I had eight!

I was delighted to discovered Japanese mochi on the menu. These were mochi (rice cakes) filled with green tea ice cream. Excellent!

Marie chose for her dessert black sesame mousse and cream. She declared it very delicious.

Barbara's choice was a coconut tart. It was a very tasty pastry. 

Marie and Christine with a backdrop of tea cups and tea canisters on the shelves

Thank you, Marie and Barbara, for a perfect birthday day outing!

Birthday Lunch #3

A wonderful time with my "Roman" friend of several decades 

What a great tradition! My birthday lunch at Carrol's Creek in Annapolis!

A salad with a melt-in-your-mouth grilled portobello mushroom - divine! 

Dona liked it but to me it had a very unappetizing, fishy look about it!

An extraordinary Key Lime Souffle with a little problem - it was frozen solid! 

Dona gave me a perfect gift, Hillary Clinton's book What Happened. I had the audiobook but was very glad to receive a print copy. I am a great admirer of Clinton, and I was devastated when she lost (well, she really won) the 2016 presidential election. She got a very raw deal and would have made an incredible president.

So much to talk about - too bad we aren't next-door neighbors!

Thank you, Dona!

Birthday Lunch #2

A wonderful tradition - Mary takes me to Busboys and Poets in Shirlington for my birthday! We enjoyed ourselves this year, as usual. A fun two-hour lunch!

 Mary and Chris

Instead of birthday cake, deliciously cool and tart Key Lime Pie!

Thank you, Mary! See you next year - same time, same place. (But I will see you many times in between!)

A Concert with Soothing Nordic Jazz

Nordic Jazz at the Finnish Embassy in Washington, DC

 Norwegian saxophonist Trygve Seim and Finnish percussionist

Recognize any of the invited guests?

Here you can see the whole trio, the Finnish pianist, the Norwegian  saxophonist, and the Finnish percussionist

Note the glass wall through which you can see Rock Creek Park. A magical experience!

My guest John O at the exhibit 

                          Two of the paintings in the Finnish Illusion exhibit

A Quirky Coffeehouse

Janet and I went to Cervantes, a rather quirky coffeehouse. Here is how its website describes the place: Cozy cafe with espresso drinks & light bites at a roasting facility for thoughtfully sourced beans.

It is located at 7644 Fullerton Rd #1, Springfield, VA 22153

We both had coffee but I also had a scrumptious almond croissant.

Look at this tantalizing menu! We saw it as we were leaving unfortunately. Otherwise, I may have ordered the Lavender Latte.

The Wife

Statue of Kristin Lavransdatter, the protagonist of Sigrid Undset's wonderful trilogy

Our SON Reading Circle discussed the second book of the trilogy, The Wife, at the home of member Bonnie. Here are two photos of our great group.

John, Bonnie, Marie, Christine, Tim, Lynn, and David

(photo taken by Linda)

John, Bonnie, Marie, Christine, Tim, Lynn, and David

(photo taken by Linda)

Greek Brunch

My dear friends from Salt Lake City are in town and we enjoyed brunch together at Eleni's this morning. It is always a joy to see and spend time with old friends. It doesn't happen often enough!

 Chris and Jill

John

Inspiring Museum Outing

What an interesting museum outing John O and I experienced today! John suggested that we go to the Smithsonian American Portrait Gallery-American Art Museum to see two specific exhibits.


"Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now"

We were informed that "silhouettes—cut paper profiles—were a hugely popular and democratic form of portraiture in the 19th century, offering virtually instantaneous likenesses of everyone from presidents to those who were enslaved."

The purpose of this exhibition is to explore "this relatively unstudied art form by examining its rich historical roots and considering its forceful contemporary presence. The show features works from the Portrait Gallery’s extensive collection of silhouettes, such as those by Auguste Edouart, who captured the likenesses of such notable figures as John Quincy Adams and Lydia Maria Child, and at the same time, the exhibition reveals how contemporary artists are reimagining silhouettes in bold and unforgettable ways."

My favorite work was the children dancing around a maypole. This installation occupied the entire room. The figures did not look like one-dimensional silhouette figures but were full of life and having lots of fun.

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  a detail of the maypole installation

  
  Here are two other examples of silhouettes.
  

  
  

  
  

             
• There were also several amazing adaptations of the silhouette technique.  The artists used minimal pieces of paper, shined a light on them, and suddenly an image appeared like the woman sitting on the chair below and the profile appeared when the light bounced off the letters and numbers, and the multiple profiles appeared when one fountain of light hit each one of the fourteen pieces of paper. Amazing! Magic!
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• "Diane Arbus: A Box of Ten Photographs"                                                                             Arbus was the artist responsible for convincing the art world that photography was an art.

We also quickly walked through "The Sweat of Their Face: Portraying American Workers," an exhibit that displayed a variety of types of American workers in various media including sculpture and painting. 

Huge Sports Celebration in DC!

The Washington Capitals Hockey Team brought home the Stanley Cup. The city went wild with joy!

Marcello and Christian went to see the Caps Victory Parade march down Constitution Avenue and to the Rally on the National Mall afterwards.

            Christian in a front-row position on the parade route

The bagpipers marching by

They watch as the Stanley Cup goes by on the last bus. The White House is in the background. Fortunately, its resident was out of town (and out of the country).

Christian stands on the Mall with the Speakers Platform visible in the background to the right of the dome of the Capitol.

Marcello returns from the Parade with signs, towels, necklaces, red beads, etc. Arthur joins the excitement.

Thank you, Marcello and Christian, for sharing the excitement of the Caps Victory with the Stay-at-Homes!

Birthday Lunch #1 with the Birthday Bunch

We met again for the Virginia Richards Birthday Celebration.

Those present were Pam, Indra, Virginia's daughter Eleanor, and Christine. This tradition started many years ago when Christine and Virginia discovered that they had the same birthdays, June 28, and so they decided to celebrate together every year by going out to lunch.

For a few years they were joined by Susan F whose birthday was close to theirs. Then Indra joined Christine and Virginia. After Virginia died, Eleanor took her mother's place and Pam joined our group after we discovered that she was also a June baby.

It is a wonderful tradition. We remember our dear friend Virginia and are very happy that Eleanor joins us. The four of us are a great group!

Japanese lunch

My Italian friend Antonella and I met for lunch at Ichiban Sushi & Ramen in Shirlington Village. We enjoyed our food and especially our conversation, in Italian, of course!

I forgot to take photos. This is unfortunately becoming a bad habit. I did bring home a doggie bag for dinner and photographed it. My lunch and dinner consisted of delicious avocado sushi and a seaweed salad.

Everyone should really read less!

The 2018 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction, Andrew Sean Greer, drew a huge and very enthusiastic crowd at Washington's premier bookstore, Politics and Prose, last night. (It was standing room only and a lot of people were standing!) He was interviewed by Ron Charles, Editor of the Washington Post's Book World. Andy's responses to Charles and the many members of the audience were brilliant and usually hilarious. It was an extremely joyous event  The place rocked.

Ron Charles (left) and Andrew Sean Greer (right)

Andy's proud father snapped a photo of me greeting his illustrious son. 

He very kindly gave me a copy of the Italian translation of Less, which I am extremely eager to read. I hope it does justice to the original. Then I will read the French translation. The French, however, have dropped the ball. They haven't even translated Less yet! I will leave it up to Bill to read the German and the Norwegian versions and report back to me.  

I am very interested in the art of translation. One of the very best books I have ever read is Umberto Eco's fascinating book on the subject, Dire quasi la stessa cosa. Esperienze di traduzione.

I enjoyed meeting up with Norbert, Richard, and Yuki at the event. Unfortunately, I missed my dear friend Ginny.

Children Introduce Norway