Update May 11, 2009

It has been a couple of weeks since I have been here so I thought I should update everyone as to what I have been up to.

First of all let's go back a couple of weeks ago when I went to Arlington, VA again. On this trip everything went smoothly and I arrived a few minutes ahead of schedule. Saturday was pretty uneventful since it rained almost all day and Sunday was pretty much the same.

On Monday since my appointment got canceled we decided to go to the American History Museum at the Smithsonian. Back when I lived there a couple of years ago this museum was closed for renovations I always wanted to visit it because I thought it might be the best of all the Smithosians. Well I was right it was every bit as good as the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum. There was plenty of old junk in there from Dorothy's ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz, Jerry Seinfeld's puffy shirt for the Puffy Shirt episode of Seinfeld, and the most intriguing of all items (so I thought) Abe Lincoln's top hat from when he was President.

There was an old house that had been reassembled that was originally built in the late 1700's. Lots of other displays from engines, Presidential wing, First Lady's wing, Jazz, and my favorite wing the General Motors Transportation Wing. The transportation wing was the history of transportation in the U.S. Everything from old trains, street cars, motorcycles, and of course the automobile.

We ate lunch in the Smithsonian cafeteria which features food from all over the United States. It has pizza, hotdogs, hamburgers, and my favorite barbecue. For a cafeteria the food wasn't too bad.

After lunch we took a simulator ride into the Bermuda Triangle. It was pretty cool from the moment they drop you off from the side of the boat, yes you do hit the water pretty hard, to the time you pop back out of the water and the ride is over. Once we dove down into the water we ran into a turtle on our way down to the ocean floor. A funny thing happened once we got down there we got sucked into a water swirl, now I know how it feels to get flushed down a toilet, and we ended up down in the Bermuda Triangle (funny since that is the name of the ride). Here we saw all the planes and boats that have been reported lost over the last few decades.

After the Smithsonian it was time to fly back home and once again there were no problems. In fact I landed in Milwaukee 30 minutes early so I knew Sarah was no where near the Milwaukee airport.

The last couple of weeks have been filled with a lot of rain so the bike riding has really slowed down. I am hoping this week will be filled with sunshine so I can get some miles in. So far today it is looking real good.

On the cooking front not much has been happening either. I am still looking for the winning recipe for the vegetarian throwdown. Everything I have tried so far just doesn't cut it. I've got a couple of more ideas but I need to get busy and try them.

The one thing I did accomplish this weekend is I did manage to can some barbecue sauce. I think it is real good on chicken but I am not so thrilled with it on ribs. I have a couple of more ideas to try on ribs and hopefully by the end of summer I will have a good bbq sauce for ribs too. Whoever wants to try the bbq sauce let me know and I will bring enough home for you to try.

As you can see really not much happening right now and hopefully that will change here within the next month or so.