Burritos & Bill Murray

Time, once again, to blog about a local DC eatery (sorry, out-of-towners, but if you read on, I'll try to make it worth your while).

Today's lunch came from The Well Dressed Burrito. Like the Greek Deli, this is another landmark in the "Golden Triangle" district, particularly throughout the blogosphere. Or more accurately, exclusively in the blogosphere. That's because The Well Dressed Burrito is anything but a landmark... it is accessed through an unmarked door, through a narrow gate, up a couple of stairs, in an alley off 19th street. Adding to its hidden mystique, the entire block where it's located (between 20th & 21st) is currently fronted by a massive construction crane, lots of scaffolding, and temporary fences. They take pride in their location, printing "somewhere in an alley..." on their menus and website - a phrase probably taken from a critique.

Now on to the food. I should mention that I take my burritos seriously. And they make a seriously good burrito. I had the sauteed vegetable burrito today, along with a bag of chips (a sandwich bag, hand-packed with store-bought tortilla chips). I sprung for fresh spinach, an extra $0.50 - and they give you your money's worth. To my pleasant surprise, the veggie assortment included onions, more than one type of squash, cauliflower, carrot, and possibly some mushroom. Quite tasty. I'll have to go back and try one of their salmon offerings - available in quesadilla, fajita, and burrito forms.

I'm reminded of a scene from the movie Scrooged. Bill Murray's character, having just been kissed by one of the sultry actresses in his Christmas production:
"Boy, that was very good. But you know what? It wasn't great. There's only been one 'great'."

That sums up how I feel about burritos. The one great? OK, technically it was two: Big Burrito & Burrito Max, sister-restaurants which at one time flanked the campus of Boston University. Sadly, both are now gone. But I've yet to find an equal. They made their own chips, their burritos were HUGE, and they're still the only burrito place I've patronized that used yellow rice. The zenith of my burrito experience, life to date, was their BBQ Tofu burrito. Homemade BBQ sauce, tofu with perfect consistency, yellow rice, cheese, pico de gallo... It didn't attempt to be authentic Mex or Tex-Mex, but it was outstanding.

Honestly, nothing else has even come close. I'm still a fan of Moe's and Baja Fresh (and to a lesser extent, Chipotle). The Well Dressed Burrito might even fall into my top tier, but it doesn't take down California Tortilla - my favorite burrito in the DC area.

Why do boring messages have to be boring?

Miami.com, a website of the Miami Herald, decided to have a little fun with their "page not found" message: (click for full-size)

Awareness Test

Take this Awareness Test. (Much better with audio, although not required, strictly speaking)

Ode to Oatmeal

Some people like their oatmeal thick. Some like it more watery.

As for me? The consistency of my oatmeal varies, since there's no consistency to how much hot water I add.

Blogging without blogging

I've setup the following tools to use with my blog.

1. Automatic email posting
I can send an email to a top-secret email address, and it automatically becomes a new post on my blog.

2. RSS reader
I read my new blog entries in an RSS Reader (I use Google Reader), along with lots of other feeds that are of interest to me. (I know, it's a little goofy to read my own blog in a feed reader, since I'm the only one who updates it... but it's a good way to make sure new blog entries submitted via #1 above are posted correctly.)

3. Email notification of comments
Any time someone comments on my blog, I automatically get an email with the content of the comment

As a result of all this great (and not particularly new) technology, I can keep up with my blog without ever really visiting my blog. Hopefully, now that I'm using all these efficient tools, I will be more frequent with the blog updates. Time will tell...

The cost of war

I try to avoid blogging about politics here, but this has been running through my mind for the last couple of days. I'm sharing it to see if it's a valid idea, not to evangelize my beliefs.

The Iraq War has been going on for five years. During that time, it has cost the United States $500 Billion, and the lives of 4,000 Americans.

Imagine for a moment that instead of invading Iraq five years ago, the government had launched an initiative that put just 10% of that total - $50 Billion - into advanced research projects in alternative energy sources. And in addition, put another $5 Billion (one percent) into homeland security initiatives to prevent another attack on American soil.

Realistically, would we...

• be any closer to energy independence than we are now?
• have a fundamentally different attitude in our foreign policy, with little or no need to "play nice" with OPEC nations?
• have a more stable economy? (less fluctuation, or less relevance, of fossil fuel prices; perhaps higher employment)
• feel more (or less?) secure from extremist terrorism than we do now?

Thoughts?

All that and a bag of chips

Ever since I started my current job, a friend* has been nagging me to try The Greek Deli (that's the name, not a description) just up the block.

Today, after two months, I finally tried it out.

Here's what I knew before going in. First of all, there is always a line out the door at lunchtime. Second, they have 3 tables on the sidewalk, but most people get take-out, so it's perfect for grabbing a quick bite and returning to the office - literally across the street. Third, almost every mention of The Greek Deli that you might find on the internet contains high praise for the food, which includes some vegetarian options.

Having experienced it myself, here's my review:
Although it seems a little Soup Nazi ish to onlookers, the line moves fairly quickly and the staff are very polite (interrogative: "and for you, my friend?"). Fortunately, the line is always deep enough that there's time to look over the menu and check out the day's specials before you're called upon to order, which can happen when you're still 5 people deep from the counter. If you like licorice, be sure to grab a free ouzo candy from the bowl while in line and save it for later.
I was thinking about being adventuresome with my order today, but the menu's characterization of their tuna pita as "famous" won me over. When I got back to my office and tried it, the food did the same. Delicious tuna salad, with perfect consistency, atop very fresh lettuce, dill, tomatoes, and feta cheese, wrapped in a warm, soft pita.

My only regret today was grabbing a bag of Utz chips to go with my pita, instead of a side of homemade vegetarian soup or dolmas.

It will be hard to resist hitting up the Greek Deli at least once a week. At $6.70 for a tuna pita ($8.20 with a bag of chips plus tax), it's completely reasonable by DC standards but not cheap.

My list of things to try next is almost long enough to rotate something different each week until my office relocates across town this summer:
Tuna Gyro
Falafel
Spanokopita
Veggie Pita
Soups
Salads
Occasional Salmon specials
Veggie platter

For my DC readers, you really must try it for yourself. 19th Street, between L&M.

Stealth Fighter being retired

This news item seems to have fallen to the back pages.

I have a few reactions to this:

1. Am I that old??? The F-117 debuted when I was in Middle School. And it's already being retired?

2. No, I'm not that old. The F-14, made irretrievably cool by Top Gun, was in service for 32 years from 1974 to 2006. The Stealth Fighter served less than 20.

3. I'm sure that the retirement of the F-117 is being downplayed to avoid the harsh spotlight of fiscally concerned taxpayers. Although there are no official figures, there's little doubt that this was one of the most expensive military aircraft to design & develop in history, and one of the largest Skunk Works projects. Seems pretty inefficient to have the outcome of a 15-year development project in service for only 20 years.

4. The Stealth Fighter played a unique role in American folklore. Many of the claimed UFO sightings around the infamous Area 51 in the Nevada desert during the 1970s and 80s were probably caused by prototypes of the F-117. When most well-known jet aircraft looked something like this (below), it's not unreasonable for people to think something that looked like the picture above must have had extra-terrestrial origins.

Where've I been?

I've heard that question from several of my readers.

There are several answers. Or at least, several excuses. Here they are:

1. Work
As I noted previously, I started a new job in January. Although it started off a little slowly as I ramped up to speed (that's the reason you got two new blog posts in my first couple of weeks of work), it's now keeping me pretty busy. I'm very happy with it. There's a moderate amount of travel required, but the primary impact on the blog stems from my reluctance to blog while at work. Did I mention that I share an office with my boss? (He's on vacation this week; ergo, the current update.)

2. Classes
Not my classes, mind you... the wife's. She decided that teaching full-time and raising a toddler wasn't keeping her busy enough ;-) and subsequently enrolled in two online courses through Penn State University. After this semester, she'll have completed 40% of a certificate program in Family Literacy. Although she enjoys the classes, it's keeping her overwhelmingly busy. I've been trying to help out around the house by cooking and cleaning more often. Impact on the blog: Because she's doing classwork at the computer almost every night, I rarely have time to veg in front of the screen. Possible solution: Blog from my Crackberry (deserving of its own post), if my thumbs can handle it.

3. $%!(# Facebook
Facebook is an internet phenomenon, but that's old news. I signed up a few weeks back -- for work, incidentally, but that's a long story -- and I can now confirm several things. First and foremost, Facebook nourishes itself by feeding on its members' free time. It's ravenous in this regard. Second, all that "big brother" stuff? It's true. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out that Facebook is actually a DARPA project so the government can easily keep tabs on citizens. The data contained therein is priceless: who you affiliate with, what groups you join and interests you express, etc. So why am I still using Facebook? It might be the greatest example to date of the transformative nature of the internet in social terms. The internet has minimized so many barriers, not the least of which are geographic and demographic. It's like being constantly in touch with all of the people you care about (well, the ones who use Facebook), regardless of where they live or how long it's been since you've seen each other. Impact on the blog: I'm trying hard not to let it become a replacement!

So in short, I'll try to overcome these hurdles and blog more. I miss you!

What's your sign?

If you asked Seth that question, he'd tell you it's this:
It all started when his Mommy began pointing out the Exit sign above the door on the way out of his day care center each day. Now, he finds them everywhere we go. And he knows what they are. If you ask him, "Do you see an exit sign?" he'll start looking around the walls and ceiling for it. Lately, he's even saying "Exit Sign!" when he sees one.

At the Museum of Natural History, he even found one at his eye level, mounted low on the wall. He wouldn't leave it alone. Got so excited, in fact, that he peed his pants. (OK, he does that all the time.)

Maybe he's got a future as a fire marshall?

Weather & Roads

Why is it that storms so frequently adhere to the boundaries provided by highways? Think about it - happens all the time. Here are a few examples, paraphrased from weather reports I've heard both in the DC Metro and Boston:

"A line of thunderstorms along I-95"
"Areas North and West of I-95 can expect some snow accumulation"
"South of the Mass Pike and 128 will get a dusting to an inch, while the Northern side will see as much as six inches"


I just grabbed this image from Weather.com's very cool interactive maps this morning, showing a storm that has so far remained obediently to the East of I-95, all the way from Richmond up into Delaware. Not to worry - later in the day, they predict that only areas West of I-95 will get any substantial accumulation of snow.

Is there something scientific going on? Do cars on highways produce enough turbulent air to actually cordon off an advancing storm? Or are storms just very well-trained to look both ways before crossing?

updates

Today, we joined Costco. We've visited once or twice before - particularly to evaluate the selection of food items, but today we bit the bullet. $50 membership, which included a free gift bag with a few product samples.

The samples in the gift bag are the only items in the store that come in anything less than feed-an-army size. Among the items we bought were 1400 baby wipes, a box containing approximately 12,000 granola bars, and a container of chopped garlic, which, in my estimation, includes the entire garlic crop of the United States for one week.

On the bright side, their products tend to be good quality, the prices are such that the membership fee will quickly pay for itself, [in part because] there's a store close to home, and the deals on electronics might just be good enough to one day justify the purchase of a flat-screen TV.

On the downside, I'm pretty sure that the rise of warehouse stores has some connection to the rate of obesity in the United States. When your options are: buying a loaf of bread at the grocery store for $2.99, or buying 3 loaves of bread in a single package for $3.99 at Costco, your personal consumption is likely to increase.

In other news, I start work tomorrow. Wish me luck. Gotta remember what that whole experience is like - it's been a while. Tomorrow also marks the first time that I'll take public transportation to my job.