Tuesday

Sunday night, we all ate a marvelous dinner at highly regarded downtown Mediterranean fusion restaurant Zaytinya* where we nibbled a spectacular array of tapas-sized dishes until reeling under the culinary weight of it all. Highlights included grape leaf-wrapped goat cheese, yellow tomato soup, fennel cooked shrimp, and Turkish pide. After the meal we noticed the Metro system was moving rather oddly. In addition to scheduled light service owing to Orange Line improvements in northern Virginia, many Blue Line stops south of Rosslyn weren't operating. We still managed to get home okay. Mom left DC Monday after a nice Thai lunch and I spent my afternoon uploading new photos to Flickr and switching files to my new computer. Today I headed up to Maryland for the Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972).* When we all decided to see roller derby on Saturday, it supposedly preempted seeing the Godfather that night. But today, when I arrived at AFI's Silver Theater,* I discovered that all showings of the Godfather, scheduled as part of a program honoring Al Pacino (the recipient of this year's lifetime achievement award) are cancelled. The prints have been recalled in an effort to bolster interest in a restored nationwide re-release next year. While I won't get to see this movie (or its sequel) on the big screen, you very well may. There were other movies to see, though, and I read the newspaper over coffee while I was waiting. Apparently, power surges caused several Green Line metro stations to close on Sunday and Monday, due to smoke. At the same time, power fade on the Blue Line left something like seven trains without power. Nobody knows just what's happening. When I was looking for a story to link* tonight, I discovered that fires have also been breaking out. [Cavin]