Tea in McLean

One of the very nice things that happened last week was meeting the soon-to-retire EA when I was interviewing for her soon-to-be old job. I wasn't too excited about the job, but I really liked Isabel. She came to visit me a couple of times at my office to share secrets of getting along at Booz Allen. What a classy lady. Isabel is from Bolivia and will soon be a grandmother to her first grandchild. Both of those things give us a lot to talk about when we aren't talking about Booz Allen. (I haven't drunk any koolaid yet, so I can only do that topic so long.)

Isabel invited me to her good-bye tea at the Ritz Carlton in McLean. She wanted me to meet some of her friends who would help me with my life at Booz, since she would soon be leaving. Isn't that amazing? So gracious. All that and good food. The people at the Ritz Carlton love Isabel, too. She would go there for tea often, sometimes with friends, sometimes alone. They took good care of her and, thankfully, all of us who were with her. They gave us a package with lots of all the pastries when we left. Eric was in heaven.

HIGH TEA SELECTIONS

Afternoon Tea Selection of Tea Sandwiches

Procuitto, Butter, Cream Cheese, Asparagus,Chive, Cream Cheese Star White Bread

Poached Pear, Walnut Cream Cheese,Chive Stick, Walnut 1/4, Wheat Bread

Classic English Cucumber,Chive Cream Cheese, Chervil Sprig White Bread

Smoked Salmon Rosette, Salmon Cream Cheese, Capers,American Caviar, Dill Sprig, pumpernickel Bread.

Selection of Sweets

Orange Scented Scones

Opera Torte

Raspberry Tart

Palmier

Pistachio Pain de Gene

Shortbread Cookie

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry

Chocolate Madeleine

Éclair

Innocence Abroad

When Mark Twain was 32 years old he went on a cruise to Europe and the Middle East. He had not written any of the books that he became famous for. He had traveled across much of the US, spending time in Nevada and California, where he wrote the short article, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. And then he took his narrow view of the world to Europe.

It was 1867, 141 years ago. This may have been one of the first cruises on record. He mentions that other people who do similar travel had to go from boat to boat, packing constantly. This group stayed on the same ship. They would leave it for long periods of time, packing just what they needed for the visit. He kept a journal and wrote articles for a newspaper. Two years later, he wrote The Innocents Abroad. And weren't they innocent. Or ignorant. They couldn't be berated for thinking that the United States was the center of the world, it was the center of their existence. And Mark Twain left school early, so he probably didn't have a lot of history or art appreciation under his belt. He makes both things clear.

This is, none-the-less, a great book to read if you love to travel. Many things in the countries he visited have not changed. Some have changed drastically. Do you know that Italy wasn't a united country at that time? Twain laments that he had to keep going through customs as he went to different regions in Italy. It takes a moment to realize why. He can't understand why nobody understands their Americanized French or Italian. And, of course, in those days not many in these countries spoke English. Thank heavens that has changed.

Two things struck me as worth mentioning. First, he compares Lake Como and the Sea of Galilee to Lake Tahoe. Very unfavorably. He had just returned from California before this trip. He must have been gobsmacked when he first saw Tahoe. There is nothing like that where he grew up. He marveled at its clarity and the beautiful surroundings. Poor Lake Como. I've been there. It is quite beautiful. In fact, I took pretty much the same tour as Twain. I don't know why he felt compelled to compare it to Tahoe. A bit of Jingoism?

Secondly, he wrote about how travel has changed for the better now that there is telegraph and trains. While much about the countries he writes about has not changed, technology has once again made things so much easier. Trains go more places and are more comfortable. You don't have to ride donkeys or camels to get around in the Middle East. And you can always be in contact with cell phones and the Internet. You may debate if that is really better. It is if you are not addicted to being in constant communication. But it is easier to be informed and prepared for the differences in the world around as you travel through it. Twain applauds how technology had made his travel easier at that point. And I am always happy that it has gone further.

So, this was a longish book. I had to read inbetween sections. First I read this little Lee Child book, Running Blind. Not a well conceived book. It seems preposterous how he gets involved in this FBI case. But Jack Reacher is always a compelling figure. His abilities are mythic. Can a person really be that all powerful. He's like an infallible secret weapon. He is always several steps ahead of the smartest people around him. How does he manage to be so perfect? Lee Child said in an interview that he put everything into Reacher that he wanted to be himself. Well, he wants to be a lot of things. Now if he can just work on developing better plots, I'd be happy.

The first Reacher book I read had a great plot. So I'll probably keep reading them, waiting to find another good one. As for Running Blind, run in the other direction, unless you've already been sucked into buying it.

I went to the bookstore with Eric and Cindy. Actually, Cindy and I went to pry Eric out of the bookstore after we had bought out Williams Sonoma. I saw a stack of books written by Stephenie Meyer. The last book of the Twilight series had come out. Pretty covers. But I didn't know anything about them.

Then Carina walks in with the book she is currently reading. It is the third book in the series. She likes them and I'm always interested in trying something new. Vampires. Now that is a different genre. Well, actually, Twilight is about vampires and a teen-age girl. I was a little surprised when Audible announced at the beginning of the book that it was from their AudibleKids section. What? This is Young Adult fiction. Who knew?

Once I got over that (I did love the Golden Compass books and they too are part of the AudibleKids selections) and started listening, I enjoyed the book. It is a romance, lots of lusting after an incredibly beautiful young man. Now, this guy has Reacher beat as far as special abilities. He's fast and he can read minds. And when he tells you that you smell fantastic - be afraid. Unless you're Bella. My only real objection to this book is that it was overpriced. It takes two Audible credits to get one book. As much as I liked it, I'm going to wait for the cost to go down before I read the other books in the series.

They are making a movie of the first book. The guy who plays Edward, the vampire who makes your heart stop before he touches you, is the same person who played Cedric Diggery in the Harry Potter movies. Okay, I guess I do like kid-lit. The actor is okay, but I like the image in my head much better. Isn't that always the way?

There is a Boy

Cindy's daughter, Carina, came to stay a week with us. She brought her son, Cael with her. You see him above with a huge tomato from the garden. Cindy waited until he got here to pick that thing. They got here on Saturday, so I had some time to play before I went back for my second week at work.

The frog swimming pool is very cute. When you plug the hose into the back, you get a little shower of water in the front. Cael is still a little young to fully appreciate the shower effect. But he obviously has a love for frogs. To see more of Cael with the frogs, click on the link. He was singing a happy frog song, but wouldn't repeat it for the camera. Too bad. It was pretty cute.

Eric bought a huge fish tank with plans of Cael enjoying the fish. But the huge fish tank is up the stairs in Eric's office. Cael couldn't really go up there without accompaniment. So Eric moved his old smaller tank downstairs and included the special fish that he and Cael had picked up. This is Goldie. I told Cael I wanted a picture of him with Goldie. This is his pose.

We had a good time with our two visitors. One was exceptionally loud. He's just two and a half and loves to screech at all hours. The other visitor rode in to work with me a few days. She is lovely and a joy to travel with. I'm getting to know Caitlin pretty well. It was very good to spend one-on-one time with Carina.

I went for my interview on Wednesday. It was supposed to be tomorrow. I was supposed to buy a suit and have my hair done and look all East-Coast-Professional. But the VP wanted to interview earlier. I am his second choice at this point. He likes the woman he interviewed who is working on her MBA. I wonder how long she would stay. I'm okay with this. I have a prospect of a four week temp job in a nearby town. That sounds perfect to me. I hope I'm not second choice again, but you never know. The best thing about the interview was that I met the woman who currently holds that position. She is leaving to care for a soon-to-be grandchild. We have become friendly, she visited me twice in my office in McLean, bringing all kinds of information to further acquaint me with Booz Allen. I'm going to her going away tea next Thursday if I don't have a job by then. I'm going to go shopping for a suit on Monday and Tuesday. I found one that I really liked at Nordstrom's, but didn't buy it. The pant legs were long enough for Cindy. And the interview was the next day. I could get it now and it would be ready for the tea.

Settling in. At last.

Sister's Keeper

Karen had read a book by Jodi Picoult while on a boat in Alaska. I've seen this name before and, really, who could miss it when it is three times the size of the book title. She is always on the best-sellers list. Why. Karen wasn't too sold on the book she read, but she said it was engrossing enough for her to want to finish it. So, I got this book, My Sister's Keeper, based on my sister's shaky recommendation.

The story is about a girl whose life has been devoted to supplying various body parts and fluids used to keep her sister alive. Her sister has some very severe form of leukemia. I'm not sure what this story is like if you read it yourself. I loved the listening experience of this book. It is told from several people's point of view: The mother, the father, each of the sisters, a brother, and a few other key characters. There was a different reader for each character. The readers did a good job of telling their character's point of view. One Amazon review said all of Picoult's characters speak with the same "voice". I suppose their different voices and speech patterns hid that from me.

I was reading this in bed. Don't do that if you really want to know what's going on. I kept falling asleep. That just meant that I had to rewind and listen all over again the next day. One of those sleeping through periods landed me almost at the end of the book. And I didn't like that end. It was waaay too contrived. I was so disappointed. But I went back to find out what happened between. It was better. Now it's only contrived and a bit trite. Maybe predictable if you don't fall asleep while listening. It is still worth reading, but get it from a library or borrow it from a friend. It isn't worth paying for.

Going to the Dogs

Yes, my life is going totally to the dogs. These lounging ladies are the bane of my walking existence. Look at them lying across a doorway into the television room. They also lay in front of the door from my room and the door into the dining room, the entrance to the house once you pass the door from my room. They appear to be everywhere.

One of the joys of my life in Arlington is the weekly farmer's market at the courthouse. See the line on the far right? It continues around the van to unknown depths, since my picture is poor. But look at the sign I captured while trying to get a picture of Cindy in line - no dogs allowed during the farmer's market. Coooooool.

Today I went there and bought multicolored mini-tomatoes, mini sweet peppers, gooseberries, corn fresh off the stock, chanterelles, baby crimini mushrooms, mango peaches, an heirloom tomato, a boneless pork roast from a properly raised pig, a whole truely free range chicken and legs from properly fed and raised chickens. Cindy bought berries and peaches at the long line place and bread. The line was very short today. Hurray! The food was amazing at dinner tonight. Thanks to farmer's market, it is pretty easy to eat well here.

You may think that I have it rough with the dogs that block all my doorways. But look at what I saw this morning as I looked up the stairs to Eric and Cindy's room. These damn dogs are determined to kill someone. Don't they know that if something happens to us, they will be shown to the nearest dog "shelter" ASAP? That is, if I am the one who survives.

Peggy's Got a Job!

Yes, a job. For now I am doing temp work. I went in last Wednesday to see the Kelly Services woman at Booz Allen Hamilton about just doing temp work. I took a computer test the same day and scored very high - go figure. I would have had to seek asylum someplace if I had done poorly. Then I got a call the following Tuesday to start work the next day. Seems the temp who was in that job had a horrible toothache and was not often there. Tsk. First rule is to be there or decline the job. My rule, that is. I think that's the only rule.

I am working as an Executive Assistant. Read secretary. My first job is with a Senior Vice President at Booz Allen. This is the company where my sister-in-law works. I called my friends who do this kind of work to get advice and they both seemed to think I'd be okay. I'm okay. It gets to be a little boring at times because I'm only temping for the guy. This is interspersed with moments of horror when he asks me about stuff that I do not have A clue about. My favorite was when he asked for reservations at "Don Dominico's" in 10 minutes. No idea. I did my favorite thing, Googled. It is really Da Domenicos. I had called them in two minutes. Mind you, I don't know ANYthing in this area. What would I have done without the Internet? Without my best friend, Google?

I have an interview in a couple of weeks to work for a VP in the same firm. That might be more interesting. At least I won't have to pull out my Ipod to keep me awake.

And what have I been listening to? I read Modern Times by Paul Johnson. This is a very long book, so I read a couple of mysteries inbetween sections. This book was split into 6 sections by Audible. That means that it is very, very long. And why not? The subtitle is something like the history of the world from 1920 to 1990. That's a lot to cover. He does have a bias. This time we are leaning to the right. That's not the usual for me, but don't you think you need to be balanced in what you read?

I found it to be very interesting. In fact, it was sometimes difficult to switch to a mystery when a section ended. But I know my mind will drift if I listen to the same book for 37 hours. One very good thing is that he writes about non-European countries. I'd forgotten what was happening in India and Pakistan in the 70's. It's fascinating to hear that, now that India has started to do so well. It may be that I had a totally wrong impression of Indira Gandhi. Johnson did not care for her one bit. All this means is that I have to read more on the topic. Maybe I'll find a good book that tells about India's history for the last 60 years. Maybe something with a different perspective. Lean to the left, lean to the right.

All in all, I would recommend this book as a good starting place, or a place to give a broad overview/refresher of modern world history. One review I read on Amazon was very amusing. I guess a high school student had an assignment to read a section of this book. He found it very tough going because it was filled with French. The poor student was about to miss his deadline because the book was too much for him. But not for my friends.

One of the books I read in the middle of Modern Times was The Spies of Warsaw. This does it. No more Alan Furst. His story is an interesting little slice of life in the run up to WWII. Not a mystery, not a thriller, just a story. That goes nowhere. The last book I read by Furst was read inside out, I'd started on the second half of the book by mistake. It made no difference. I'm sure that would have been the same for this book. What kind of story is he telling that can be read in any direction? One the you would not want to waste your money on.

The Best Defense is yet another courtroom story by Kate Wilhelm. I did enjoy this one. I always like her stories, which are set in Eugene, Oregon. I think this one was on sale by Audible. It's one of her earlier stories, so the protagonist, Barbara Holloway, is moving in with her father at the end of the book and I could have sworn she was already there. This book starts out with a murderer who is impossible to defend. Can anyone tell how this will turn out? Even if it would be pointless for Barbara to lose, how she gets to the end is interesting.

So much to do before my interview on 8/25. Do you know that people don't wear jeans to the office here? The women wear suits! Culture shock all over the place. I swear I will try to hold on my Southern California roots. Maybe I'll have a pink streak put in my hair.

Gipsy Kings

Have you ever heard of Wolf Trap in the Washington, DC area? I have and it seemed like a magical place. All kinds of performers work there, sort of like the Hollywood Bowl or Greek Theater in LA. One of the nice feature of it is a huge lawn area where people who can get up after sitting down on the lawn can watch the show at a reduced rate. That is not me or my brother. In the picture above you can see the masses of people on the lawn. We were in the amphitheater seating area with the roof over it. There are no box seats that take up a lot of room (like the Bowl.) At the Hollywood Bowl they have boxes and benches. At Wolf Trap, they have real theater type seats. Nice

Cindy got us tickets to the Gipsy Kings. I love them. I'd sometimes play the CD at work and sing along. I sing horribly. And I knew none of the words. None. But their amazing Rumba Flamenco rhythms would get me bouncing in my seat. How patient were those guys who worked with me? Do you think they would have told me to shut up if I wasn't their boss? (Actually one did ask me to talk more softly. Fat chance.)

The Gipsy Kings were great. They sang a few of my favorites and a lot I'd never heard before, but it was all good. Eric said they were mariachi. I said that would be difficult because they are from Spain. Both of us were wrong. I learned that night when we got home that they are from Arles, France! Who knew? Their parent fled Franco's Spain before WWII. These guys grew up in the Camargue, the region that we took the canal boat through a couple of years ago. So interesting. Knowing all this does not make their music any better or worse. It just means that I don't know the words to the songs in a different language. I still believe that they speak Spanish, because the song titles seem to be pretty Spanish to me.

Whatever. Great music, great night. Thanks for getting me out to Wolf Trap, Cindy

Lower Gas Prices

Why didn't I think of this sooner? I started my traveling mid-March, when my nephew was married in

San Francisco. Gas prices were a little higher, but not enough to get all paranoid about. How bad could it get? My brother arrived at the end of May and I didn't stop driving until the end of July.

Karen and I have been laughing about the coincidence, but really. It is just too obvious. If I leave my car parked on the street for a week, how low will crude prices fall? We still have a long way to go. I haven't had to put gas in the car for a couple of weeks, but I'm at half a tank.

What do you think? Should I fill it up while the prices are down? Do you think that will mean crude prices will go up. No, I haven't gotten paranoid, but it's like wearing the same socks until your team's hitting streak has ended. I'm not naming names, but it was pretty obvious, guys.

the Shadow Catcher

Reading a really good book is like dipping your hand into warm chocolate. You want the experience to last for a long time; you want to lick carefully so that you don't miss a spot. That is how I felt with this book. I can't believe that it did not win The Times' Book Prize for fiction this year. How good must that winning book be?


This is a fictional account of an author's life after completing a biography of Edward Curtis (seen to the left.) He is a famous photographer who took pictures of American Indians during the time when they were being moved to reservations; he felt they were moving toward extinction.

Remember the analogy about chocolate? This is a chocolate with many layers. Can you imagine the joy of licking away a layer and finding a layer that tastes even better. And it continues to do that until your hand is completely clean and the book is done. That's this book.

Here's a little layer for you; a personal reference, of course. The book starts in Los Angeles and has references to traffic and people in Los Angeles that were extremely amusing to me. Do you have to experience these things to get the joke? Let me know, once you've read this. Then it moves to Minnesota. That is becoming a trend in my reading, isn't it? Montana is involved at one point. Just briefly, but Wiggins captures the vastness of that space better than I've read before. Then we move to Washington. Give me a break! Did she have my itinerary? I've said it before, travel makes reading more interesting.

One of the moving forces in this book is how different elements connect. A nurse calls about the author's dead father being in a hospital, near death. You can't imagine where that plot goes. And if an intriguing plot is not enough, the language is beautiful. Ms. Wiggins can write. Forget everything I've ever said about the University of Southern California, where she is a professor. I guess they have good professors. At least one.

Finally, this book is on DEEP discount through Amazon. Don't ask me why. You should really pay extra for it because it has pictures in it that actually move the story along. But by all means, read the book.

20th Century Classic and Intrigue

You could say that Main Street is a classic. Written in 1920 it was the book noted when Sinclair Lewis won the Nobel Prize. He also won the Pulitzer Price at a later date. Main Street is about life in a little Minnesota town, based on Lewis' home town of Sauk City. Karen and I visited his boyhood home and the Sinclair Lewis Interprative Center when we were in Minnesota.

What I've learned from reading about him since is that he had an unhappy childhood, adult hood and later life. He took out his displeasure in life on the people of Sauk City. At least, that's what's always said. It's true that the people in Lewis' imaginary town of Gopher Prairie have very narrow minds and limited lives. When the heroine comes to town she wants to move the people from these narrow views, open them up and enlighten them. Two things struck me about this.

First, it reminded me a lot of a series I read some time ago about Miss Mapp and Lucia. Lucia moves to a small English village and wants to raise the cultural level of all around her. Carol Kennicott of Gopher Prairie doesn't hold a candle to dear Lucia in pretentiousness. What's interesting is that both Main Street and Queen Lucia (the first in the series) were written at the same time. Maybe this dissatisfaction with parochialism was beginning to fester after the first world war.

The second thing is Mrs. Kennicott moves to Washington, D.C. for a time and learns that the behaviors she doesn't like in Gopher Prairie are to be found everywhere. Not that the world isn't a much more exciting place in D.C., but people is people wherever you go. I will keep that in mind as I take time to experience D.C. up close.

I have also read The Defection of A.J. Lewinter. I read Robert Littell's book, Legends, and like very much how he writes. This book is pretty amusing. A scientist defects to Russia during the cold war. Littell writes about the Russians who have received this unexpected "gift" and the Americans who are trying to figure out if they have lost a great deal when Lewinter left the country. It is interesting in showing both sides pondering what the other side may be thinking, how they are analyzing the other's reaction.

It is also good in showing life in Moscow and Washington at that time. I like the Russian's attempt to explain the facts of life in this communist city to a person who hasn't done the proper research before making this leap. I liked Legends better, but this is a good book.