Saturday

I had a great day Thursday. First, I got up early to make it all the way to Silver Spring for the Maltese Falcon, after which I ate a nice Lebanese lunch consisting of a falafel sandwich with tahini and a bowl of vinegary shorba addas. Then I took the metro most of the way home, stopping short in Rosslyn, the first Virginia station westbound from DC. I had time to kill before meeting Sunshine and a group of coworkers for a "happy hour" of socializing. It was pretty hot, but in a dry way reminding me more of spring in northern México than summer here. I discovered Freedom Park, an interesting not-quite-green space built along a narrow overhead ramp connecting the old Newseum building with the Spectrum Theater and the Dome in Rosslyn (where the Bodies Exhibition* is currently living). Along this park there are permanent exhibits, more jingoistic in collection than in tone, dedicated to the overthrow of communism. Not my usual thing, but the plaques of iron curtain photo collage surrounding actual sections of the Berlin wall were pretty damn cool. So was the large steel-supported colored glass curl memorializing reporters killed in the line of duty. Eventually it was time to make my way up the hill to Café Asia,* a tony and overbearing District Area eatery ostensibly aimed at cuisines pan-Asian, but falling short of any convincing destination. There were many friends in our crowd, making it difficult to get away after just one hour. Fine: we dined there as well, securing a semi-secluded but no less crashingly loud table across the restaurant two happy hours into the evening. I ate passable sushi, but others fared less well in supposedly Thai and Chinese traditions. The company more than made up for the meal. [Cavin]