play date

I've finalized my work come 1 June 2006. Unless I win the lottery I'll be at work on Monday, 5 June at a company in Vienna, VA. All that work stuff is rather boring discussion beyond the fact that I really enjoy the folks that work there, the office is nice, the work is what I've done for years, and I'm happy to finally move on to something else.

I sat the redeye into Dulles last Friday night and arrived well before the rest of the country was awake: 5:00AM (!) arrival in the Nation's Capital amidst the night cleaners who hadn't yet finished their work. Picked up my bags and headed east to Arlington and a short week of vacation.

What happened? Well, there was plenty of cooking: a zucchini pasta I'd been dying to try, a Sunday roast with a fantastic bread pudding for dessert, some drooling gnocchi, lovely crepes (that I quickly learned from Christine), stuffed french toast, lots of fruit, lots of veg, many variations of coffee (instant, press, cappi'), a mistaken lunch at Starbucks (not the lunch...the Starbucks), and some serious devouring of leftovers. Endless trundles through the kitchen make life worth living, it's the gravity of life. Sunday's roast was particularly enthralling as it reached apogee during Corey's impression of Johnny Depp channeling James Brown while character-acting during Pirates of the Carribbean. You had to be there; type can't do it justice. I think Kt was horribly embarrassed, and rightly so, but who are we to judge? Between Corey and I (manly competition?) there will be endless piles of food to eat throughout the week, particularly on weekends. Wander by if you need a nibble. (p.s. he's a much better cook...)

On Monday we metro'd to D.C. and caught the Cezanne and Frans van Mieris the Elder exhibits at the National Gallery. X and I (as Roman numerals we'll be know as Eleven...) agreed that Cezanne is on and off with his arty stuff. I particularly enjoyed his watercolors but the endless scribbles of the house in the south of France were a little boring. Anyone who knows me would bet that van Mieris would make me giddy (hmm, a 17th century Dutch painter? what?...) and about half his stuff was quite impressive; all so detailed and such lovely play on light. You'll be hard-pressed to undo my Dutch thing.

Christine was assigned the task of observing Federal Court over Spring break (along with the writing of a brief and applying for Moot Court) so we decided it would be easy enough to stroll down Alexandria-way for a day with the Federal District Court for Eastern Virginia. As we soon discovered, the place was locked down since Moussaoui is being tried on the 7th floor (can't get in there! see a definition of festival seating). We headed up to the 9th floor for five hours of the first case dealing with all the False Claims against the U.S. Government that ballooned in late 2003 after the war in Iraq ended. The company in the brig was Custer Battles LLC who had 'allegedly' (read: raped) overbilled the U.S. Government and the Coalition Provisional Authority for something like $20 million. These guys (Custer and Battles) are the worst kind of people...absolute whores. What I learned was how the system functions (I've always been suspicious), and had the realization of just how horribly you have to eff up before the bell finally tolls for your soul. I can't swear, but now I suspect, that you've got to be pure evil to find yourself before Judge Ellis III in Federal District Court. By default, if you don't find yourself there then it's a good bet you aren't what they claim. These two guys (Custer and Battles) were former Army Rangers who popped up in Iraq, winked the Army conversation line, flashed Academy rings...and promptly took CPA money that could have been used to buy bulletproof vests, armored vehicles, helmets, and anything else that could protect soldiers; soldiers that may have been their company mates, brigade friends, or battalion leaders. They were asses...to say the least, and I was quite happy to watch them burn. There's a whole other entry on their 'defense' attorney's closing argument; that'll come soon. This 'attorney' was the worst (within a my experienced group of one) representative for a client that I could imagine. As off the road as it seems, the Eleven will forever laugh about just how inept the defense attorney was...horrible; it's a verb now, "you've been Douglass'd!" As the wonderful New Yorker so concisely put forth; That dog won't run. This just in: Custer Battles was found guilty of fraud against the U.S. Government and sentenced to pay $10 million against the initial $3 million dollar contract. Justice served...

Podcasting as usual. Jay Farrar is on Paste's Culture Club and I'm loving the music.

I've got a house for sale...anyone looking?

love to all

T