Goatburger!

Here's a few older pictures that I meant to post during the shutdown but didn't. This one's for Erin:

Mmmm. Goatburger with homemade bun, farmers market tomatoes, homemade pickles, and butter lettuce.

 The ground goat meat came from Painted Hill Farm. They did add quite a bit of fat but that made it really good! It had better be for $12/lb. I don't buy meat much so when I do I want it to be worthwhile. Her goats are Boer/Nubian/Cashmere crosses. The Boer for size, the Nubian for nice udders, and the Cashmere for good warm coats so they stay happy through the Pennsylvania winters.

Here's the goat lady.

Actually this one's for Erin too. Cello players at the Bloomingdale Farmers' market on Sunday.

Shutdown protesters on October 10. They are just south of the Capitol.

My new apartment, version 1

It's version 1 because this is very much the "piles of stuff" edition.

New living room. What's missing? A bed! That's right, I now have an entirely separate bedroom.

The old place looks kind of lonely though. 

Goodbye treehouse balcony. You were a great place to sit and read.

The gorgeous sunset last week. This is from the old place but the new one has almost the same view.

Don't worry, my new apartment has a balcony too. It's doesn't have as many tree branches right outside (more open air vibe than treehouse) but it's got plenty of space for the lounge chair and a great view.

PS. What am I supposed to call a co-op unit in a multistory building? House doesn't work because I think of that as a single-family house with it's own roof. Home is fine but not very informative. It's not technically a condo because the co-op is a different ownership form, but I think people are familiar with condo for a walls-in type of ownership. Anyway I bought a co-op unit in the highrise building at River Park and now I'm going to live here.

I'm a homeowner!

I closed on the new place this afternoon. Will try to post pictures soon...

Scenes from the Shutdown

I biked around the Mall this afternoon and here's some of what I saw.

The Museum of the American Indian is closed.

Some TV news show was filming on the lawn east of the Capitol.

The Supreme Court facade is almost done getting fixed.

The Navy Memorial fountain is turned off.

But the DC taxation sign never quits.

The White House Visitor Center has been closed for a while for renovation, but it is also closed for the shutdown, in case you were wondering. 

This is how you close a monument when you are short of fencing I guess. That's the First Division Monument southwest of the White House.

Tourists as usual north of the White House.

Some Capitol protesters.

And one by the White House.

The Washington Monument was already closed for repairs.

They were serious about closing off the World War II Memorial.

Yup. Closed.

The Vietnam Memorial is open (good thing because there was a whole veteran's tour group in yellow shirts).

But you can only visit Lincoln from a distance.

It was a really beautiful afternoon. Here's some scenes from the middle of the Arlington Memorial Bridge. Arlington Cemetery is open but the parts operated by the Park Service are closed. 

Looking east toward Lincoln.

North up the Potomac River. The Kennedy Center is in the middle right, the National Cathedral on the skyline.

Rosslyn to the northwest in Virginia.

We're shut down so I'll find more apples

It's going to be interesting to have a front row seat to this whole event. I put in my 4 hours this morning to complete an orderly shutdown and that's it. I will not be checking my work email or anything else until we are called back to work.

What do you do for a shutdown? So far I stopped at the farmers market and got some more delicious apples from Twin Springs Fruit Farm. This one is a Suncrisp.

 It has a great tangy flavor and nice yellow flesh. I consider this a teaser for my favorite Goldrush apples.

Next I'm going to go for a bike ride and see what else I see around town. The Smithsonian museums are all closed of course. Arlington Cemetery is open because it is run by the military. If this lasts a while I will go watch the opening of the Supreme Court on October 7. After that I have no excuse to put off house cleaning any longer. I hope it doesn't last long enough to sort all my boxes--that could take a while because I put it off a lot.