I am back now!

I just had to share the google robot translation of Ritsu's blog entry (which is Japanese to begin with) ..

Peter is back. - 2010/11/01 21:18

This blog was not written, Peter Washington, DC from October 24, I was going to play, I came back safe! He first takes you to Julius (this week for the rest of schools Juli) I had to say and I said "Can not nightlife you together with Julie, and will not be able to think of shopping, one If you do me in? "I decided to send this. As for me, the past six years, who came to take care of at-home dad Juri as primarily "rewards" even though I had intended. Julie went on a trip to keep it with me, he had none so far. While working, housework and childcare in the handle very well, but, somehow came to the hospital even when Peter was in January, the first and now I can drive a car! Hence, We had no problems.

Well, why Washington? I think many people think, the idea of going to Washington, he heard that from a political event open on October 30 that the U.S. comedian Jon Stewart, in Dasou . Do you go from Italy to join it bother? You might think, but it was actually quite participants from around the world, the sum is even talk of 20 million people participated. Of course, in addition to this event, Peter, and meet old friends, or attend a Halloween party, shopping and of course, I'd have enjoyed a lot.

Peter is leaving Washington the day, "Honestly, I want a little longer? Or, go back to Turin, already?" I asked, he replied, "I want to come here with you Julie!" Was. Certainly the United States to be able to communicate in English, I think in many ways ... from Italy to live. But life as full of Italian food and wine will not ... I wonder. Do you mean ... the pros and cons everywhere.

Peter said: "We Tsukurubeki more opportunities to travel alone with each other this way!" I have said again and again and, as my short time spent with Julie's most business trips daily, rather than to travel alone The Hey want to be with Julie, but I would think. This time, I was coming back from work at 4:30 every day, was happy to spend much time with Julie. He came to learn so many words in a school recently, I know ... sometimes I do not know even a word. Since the sudden and very difficult to use the word, will be surprised. This past week, really enjoyed chatting with Julie. I realized that, while not Dad, Julie and I did not really basically a good girl. Somewhere, "I do not firmly," I was like I wonder?

Christine's Birthday

Since it is Christine's birthday, what else could we do than having lobster roll, attending a really hilarious rally other than finishing off the day with friends for dinner ..



Let's see if I recall all the names: Liz, Karl, Rich, Audrey, Allan, John, Christine, me and Ming.

The food was Thai at ThaiPhoon (gotta love the puns with Thai places here ... another restaurant is called 'Thai Tanic') and it was overall very tasty, but not memorable .. I had red duck curry, but I find that dish as a noodle soup thing at Republic in Manhattan better.

But overall the service was very nice and the prices were very reasonable.

(Thaiphoon reviews on TripAdvisor)

Rally to restore sanity

Too tired to write much now ... but here is my edited video



And my pics:



I will add some youtube videos from other sources here and maybe some links to good news articles ...

Jon Stewart opens the rally

Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) and Ozzy Osborne's musical duel

While Colbert and Stewart were arguing that they want to not board either the Peace Train nor the Crazy train, they finally settled that they would both agree on the Love Train (song by the O-Jays)

I like this fish eye wide lense video ... gives a nice impression of how crowded it was. And this one was mainly shot close to where we were (we also could see the sign 'my feet hurt' close by)

Some mixed highlights from CBS.

Actually, the whole thing is on C-SPAN.org ... it is pretty low res and only 4:3 (even the jumbotrons on site were 16:9), but around the 2 hour mark there is a fun ditty .. there is a nice audience recording (poor viewing angle) on youtube.

More basic info on wikipedia

This HuffPo article has the transcript of the final speech Jon Stewart gave, which was a bit more on the serious note.

And here a collection of 100 signs at the rally ... most of the signs were quite funny (see my pics above)

Red Hook Lobster Truck

What a fun late breakfast / early dinner ...

I have heard about this wild combination of popular, location changing food trucks and the only way to know where they will be next is following them on twitter.

One of them that sounded really interesting after reading the Washington Post review is the Red Hook Lobster Truck. And here is another article in the WP.

We knew where it would be, but we also knew that it would be very crowded in that area ... so we feared the worst ... But we got very lucky ... when we lined up there were only about 10 people in front of us and they have not even started taking orders yet ...

So, we had a fairly short wait and were rewarded with some very tasty and generous portions of de-shelled lobster on a buttered roll for 15$ per person.



I wish I could go again tomorrow and try their shrimp roll ... but alas, I am flying back to Italy and they do not return until Monday.

But you people in the area, you can follow them on twitter.

Hallowe'en Party

Thanks to my friend Christine, I got to experience a local Hallowe'en house party ... and it was a lot of fun ... although I was dead tired.

One thing I love about being in the US ... people a very open to strangers ... although I did not know anyone at the party but Christine, I ended up chatting with people left and right ... a lot of it might have been superficial blah blah ... but it was fun, drinks were free, there was candy ... overall a great time.

Chicken wings and video chat

One of my big cravings whenever I get back to the US is having spicy chicken wings ... and I know some people will roll eyes .. but so far, the best I can get with a certain consistency in quality, is at Hooters.

And while having lunch alone, what could make the experience even better? Yes, free wifi and a fun chance to say goodnight to J, while the charming Hooters ladies watch at what is going on and we had Julius putting on his Hallowe'en mask again .. initially the wait staff though that was some video playing .. took them a while to realize that there was a little boy 4000 miles away talking to his dad ...



The food was great as usual, as was the friendly service ... no weird feelings for coming in and have lunch all by myself .. plus the added costume bonus ..

Things that have changed ....

This is going to be an open collection of observations ... It has been many years since I last lived in the US .. and since then I have been coming back for 3 trips and 1 layover ... and this time I noticed:

- No more free plastic bags. They actually ask you if you need a plastic bag at the supermarket and if you say yes, it will cost you 5c per bag .. in terms of plastic trash and carbon footprint I welcome this step ... too well I recall the days of free 'double bagging'

- Getting carded. 10 years ago I was highly amused when a cashier lady somewhere in the heartland asked to see my ID .. on this trip .. I have to show my ID all the time .. no matter how old I look.

- No smoking. Seems that people have given up on that. Cigarettes are 7.50$ and you hardly see anyone smoke in the streets ... I wonder WHERE they smoke .. can't smoke in bars / restaurants anymore .. even close to the entrance is often forbidden ..

- Free wi-fi. I find it incredible to see how many restaurants have a big 'free wi-fi' sign in the window ... and you can see that a bazillion people in there have their laptops open on the table ... it is like 'if I cannot be online here, I do not eat here' .. it seems friends go to cafes together with their laptops, sitting across from each other .. and instead of talking verbally, maybe they text-chat .. who knows. It is similar with mobile phones / texting .. half the people you pass seem to be talking to themselves (no, they have a bluetooth earplug) or they are manically typing a message.

- Hooters is still awesome .. more on that later