Sept. 11- Seven Years Later

Everyone has their "where we you?" anecdote about 9/11. Here's mine:

At 8:30 that morning, I was up and getting ready to go to the library at my school, the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice, and do my twice-weekly stint helping out. Contemplating a morning no more demanding than shelving books, working on a library-sponsored website and maybe some other light paperwork, I was only halfway listening to the TV when it came in.

News of a plane crash at the World Trade Center.

I thought it was pretty damned odd that someone would hit one of the Twin Towers. It was crystal clear outside, beautiful weather and perfect visibility. Had the pilot had a heart attack? I had no idea, but got ready to leave and went to the library.

Wasn't long before someone came in and said, "The other tower was hit."

Okay, one might be an accident, two is... terrible.

We--that is, the two or three other people in the library and I-- hurried upstairs from the third to the fifth floor, where we would have a view of Lower Manhattan and the WTC. Sure enough, the buildings were nearly invisible inside the biggest puffball of smoke I could have imagined. They had not yet collapsed, btw, but then, collapse was inconceivable.

We went back to the library.

Wasn't long before someone came in and said, "One of the towers fell."

And the day spiraled down from there. I went back upstairs but there wasn't much to see. So, needing information, I headed to my dorm for my tiny portable TV (not thinking that the biggest TV antenna around had just fallen). I found Kat about a block away, heading toward my school building--I like to think she was trying to find me--and we got my TV but found the school was already being evacuated and the students dismissed.

Among the other students, we talked about what it could mean and how it might have happened, and milled in the courtyard in front of our building. Kat and I headed to my dorm room with her friend, then watched TV for a couple of hours trying to absorb what had happened. I called my mom and she called her dad, then I escorted her to where her dad waited to take her home. (It was my first meeting with the man I now call Pop and the first time Kat ever talked to my mom.) We'd only been going out for less than two weeks but sharing that awful afternoon somehow cemented a bond between us.

The rest of the day passed in a haze of grabbing lunch at the nearby deli (which miraculously had not closed or run out of food), searching for a place to donate blood, and hearing that our gym (the Golden Dome) would be a temporary relief station and staging area for rescue operations in New York City.

The weather that day, and for days after, could not have been better. It was astounding, as if Nature wanted to console us with all its beauty and give the rescue workers the best chance they could have.

By that afternoon, we knew we'd been attacked. I felt this murderous rage that was slow to disperse; even to this day, I want revenge against the people who did this to my country. I wish we had gotten it.

9/11 has a powerful place in our nation's history. My only hope now is that something will eventually come out of the madness and panic of the past seven years that is better than what we've endured-- that this dark age has not been endured in vain. We'll see if history validates me or not.

Pleasant Valley Sunday (and Monday)

Hey folks,
Had a truly wonderful weekend. Kat and I celebrated a little anniversary of ours on Saturday with dinner at 1789, went to see Dave Attell at the Improv on Sunday (got an autographed DVD too), and on Monday... pretty much did nothing. At least, I didn't do anything; Kat went to Alexandria and knocked around awhile, enjoying some truly beautiful end-of-the-season weather.
Only aggravation: Metro chose this weekend to literally close a stretch of railway, meaning we had to ride a shuttle bus from Braddock Road to Reagan National and back again. The shuttles ran quickly and the inconvenience was about as minimal as they could make it... but what gang of idiots does major reconstruction on a gigantic holiday weekend?
=sigh=
Rant over.
Back on the positive side, it couldn't have been a prettier weekend. We capped it off by enjoying our condo's pool on its last day of operation till Memorial Day (argh), sitting in the hot tub as the sun coasted behind the neighboring buildings.
Pretty sweet way to say goodbye to Summer 2008.
Hope you all had a great Labor Day Weekend too!

PS, Kat is at about 14 weeks-plus now and doing great

News of Significance!

We're having a baby.

Okay, here's the news.
Check the images.

Kat is approximately 11-12 weeks now (at the cusp of the second trimester) and overall doing fairly well. No morning sickness, at least!

No idea whether it's a boy or girl (and yes, we want to know). The next sonogram is October 13.

Coming March 1. A Kat-and-Drew Production.

Butterfly Exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History

Kat and I were in the mood to have lunch together yesterday. She's going to be moving offices soon and we won't have this opportunity again for some months, so we went to the National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden to meet for lunch. The Sculpture Garden, for those non-DC-locals reading this, is one of the best places to sit, relax and people-watch on the Mall. The centerpiece is a huge fountain (which becomes a skating rink in the winter), where ducks and sparrows bum bread crumbs from picnickers. Really, it's a great place to go, plus they have jazz concerts on Friday evenings during the summer. Check it out!

Anyway, we decided to walk around and our wandering took us near the National Museum of Natural History. Kat said the butterfly exhibit was free on Tuesdays, so why not check it out? We went in, headed upstairs, found the ticket booth, and then stood in line. Didn't take long before we were in a metal 'pavillion' in which about thirty species of butterfly wing back and forth amid giant eruptions of flora. It's kept very hot and humid inside (apparently butterflies like it hot) and we were cautioned not to touch any of the butterflies, even if they land on you (and they do).


I have a few pictures on my cellphone camera, and if I can transfer them, I'll post them here. The sight is really spectacular and I suggest that you make it a point to visit if you're in town.


Later today: my comic book reading list for the week.

Blogging the London Trip- photos!

Kat added our photos to her Facebook page, so let me share some links.
There are seven sets of photos:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Take a look, enjoy and comment away! (BTW, a couple of them are misidentified; see if you can find them before I fix the mistakes! It's a game the whole world can play!)

Blogging the London Trip- Day 2

A quick count reveals that Kat and I took about 900 pictures while in London. Clearly, this blog is NOT the place to view all of them. I will try to add in pictures this weekend (sorry, got home way too late last night to do much blog-enhancing), so apologies if you're keen to see what we saw.

Anyway, day 2...

We got up early (being still on East Coast time) and got downstairs for the continental breakfast. Didn't take us long to tear through cereal, fruit and cold cuts, believe me. The coffee was singularly bad.

Our tour activity of the day was a half-day trip through Westminster. This is what most folks think of when the words "West End" are thrown around, but it was originally a separate city from London and the home of the royal family. Greater London (as the sprawling metropolis is called, if you want to be technically accurate) swallowed up Westminster and various tributary villages and towns a long time ago. Nowadays Westminster is where you'll find:

• Buckingham Palace
• The Houses of Parliament
• Westminster Abbey (name sort of says it all, doesn't it?)
• Big Ben
• 10 Downing Street
• Hyde Park
• and lots and lots more

The great benefit of taking tours is learning a bit of a place's history. Our guide for the day, Rosemary, offered something on nearly every street corner we passed. Kat kept busy snapping pictures and noting key locations (among them, Barclays, which charged us no ATM fees).

We saw part of the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, rode past the cavalry barracks and stables (which have their own changing ceremony), got out at the Abbey and wandered a little, then rode back through Knightsbridge and got off near Harrods. We had a disagreement over what to do with the afternoon-- our choice consisted mostly of going on the afternoon tour of the City of London (which includes the Tower of London) or going our own way. Kat didn't care about seeing the Tower, so we ended up wandering in the West End.

We grabbed lunch at Sainsbury's, a local grocery chain, buying sandwiches and chocolate "pastilles" (buttons) and eating at Harrods. After that, we wandered through Harrods for awhile and Kat got to see where I bought her the first present I gave her (a black scarf).

We then headed for Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Kat figured we might be able to have tea in the Orangery of Kensington Palace. Walking through Hyde Park, we had some of our sandwiches left over, so we thought we would toss crumbs to the pigeons, ducks and geese nearby.

Foolish mistake.

Once they knew food was being distributed freely, the geese came up... closer and closer... until we were virtually mugged. Kat and I discarded what we had left and made--not quite a run for it but a brisk walk, leaving the geese honking and waddling along behind us.

We joked that we could have been the first American tourists murdered by geese in "yet another tragic bird-feeding related incident." The BBC headline really writes itself.

Moving along, we crossed into Kensington Gardens, the vast lawns encircling the palace where Princess Diana made her home. It was a royal dwelling until Buckingham Palace was complete (and Queen Victoria became the first monarch to live there); since then, it's housed members of the royal family and currently features an exhibit of Diana's signature fashions, as well as a circular fountain-and-watercourse dedicated to "the people's princess" and a commemorative walking path.

Our goal was the Peter Pan statue that I didn't find back in 2001. Sure enough, we found it on the easternmost edge of the gardens, overlooking the Serpentine (a twisting lake that forms the border between Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens). It's quite impressive. We watched visitors feed the squirrels (who were uncommonly bold, even for us who are used to Washington squirrels); a fellow there fed birds and squirrels from his hand.

I'll have to ask Kat where we had dinner that night. Still, Monday was quite a busy day for our visit to London. Expect this post to be revised (significantly) once I lock down or remember some key details...

And We're Back!

Kat and I got home from London around 1:45am Sunday morning, exhausted but very happy to see our kittens (who seemed disoriented at being woken up so early in the morning). They've hardly left us alone since then.

In brief: London was incredible. I'll be posting a day-by-day of our trip, now that Kat is working on uploading the many, many pictures we took, so stay tuned for that. However, in the meantime, here's a short run down of the coolest things we did or saw while there:

1) Stratford-upon-Avon. My #1, definitely, was seeing Shakespeare's birthplace. It has a kind of mythic resonance to it and was a must-see for Kat even more than me... but it was my favorite stop on the trip. (BTW, "avon" means river so "upon Avon" translates as "upon the river"... which happens to be named Avon.)
2) British Library. Their "treasures" room is absolutely not to be missed, for its manuscripts and its music. A Gutenberg Bible, one of two first-ever print copies of Beowulf, pages from Leonardo daVinci's notebooks, hand-written lyrics to classic Beatles tunes by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and--oh yeah--one of four surviving copies of the Magna Carta. Mindblowing.
3) Hanging out with Mike Carey. One of the nicest guys we know, Mike was exceptionally gracious about our 45-minute lateness and made our first day in London unforgettable, just by sitting to chat in a favorite pub.
4) Notting Hill and Portobello Market. We did a walking tour on our last day (Saturday) and absolutely loved it. We saw a bunch of sights featured in "the movie" (as our guide Richard called it), including the travel book shop owned by Hugh Grant's character. We also learned where a lot of the scenes were shot, most of which were not in Notting Hill at all. And you really can find just about anything in Portobello Road...

More later, plus pictures!

Offline this week

Hey folks,
Just to let you know, Kat and I leave for London tonight. It'll be our long-delayed honeymoon (we'll spend our third anniversary in Bath/Stonehenge), so that's very exciting.
Take care and we'll be back a week from tomorrow!
Drew

Kat's Comin' Home

Kat gets home from a California trip tonight at about 9 o'clock. She'll be a little jet-laggy the next couple days... and we leave for London Saturday night.

Can't wait to see my honey.

Asia Nine and CoCo Sala: Two Great Tastes

Friday night, four of us met to celebrate Kat's birthday (a couple days after the fact) and hit a couple new places downtown.

Our first stop was Asia Nine, which opened rather recently at 915 E Street, opposite the J. Edgar Hoover Building (aka FBI HQ). The menu is pan-Asian, with elements from various cuisines and cool decor (we liked the black ceiling and dark walls). The prices were very reasonable and we found plenty of great dishes to keep us talking (and eating) for quite awhile.

Our second stop was CoCo Sala (note: the web site appears to be a placeholder), at 929 F Street. It only opened about a week ago (I think). We liked the variety of chocolate dishes; we each chose something from the five-course menu, and two of us tried a chocolate cocktail that was excellent. Coming on the heels of Asia Nine, we were all very stuffed when we left CoCo Sala, but it was a good stuffed.

If you have the time, check them out--both places have a lot to offer, great atmosphere and great food.

While the Kat's away...

She's in California until Thursday night (late).
I'm home with the kittens and the DC rain (which they say will let up but they're always wrong).
Ah well.
Gonna be a lonely few days.

Off to London in May

Kat and I are heading to London from May 17-24. We cannot wait.
This is our much-delayed honeymoon-- and to say HOW delayed, we'll be celebrating our third anniversary there.
Kat is researching things to do and see, and friends have already given us recommendations, so it is shaping up to be a very busy trip. The tour includes a visit to Bath, Stonehenge, and Stratford-on-Avon (Kat's especially excited about seeing Shakespeare's home), plus plenty of free time.
We're getting a couple spare chips for the digital camera-- I know Kat will be a shutterbug the whole time-- and are thinking what else we'll need to take.
Can't say how thrilled we are at making this trip.
More soon!

Philadelphia weekend

Hey folks!
Sorry about not blogging for a week-plus-- had a real busy weekend in Philadelphia with Kat and her cousins. It was a 23rd birthday party and much celebrating was done.
Philly is a pretty cool place to wander around. We were a few blocks from the Art Institute (aka the Rocky steps), across from a really terrific fountain. If I can find out how to download all the shots in my cell phone, you'll see what I mean.
One big plus: the Franklin Institute is having a huge STAR WARS show, with costumes, models, props, and a load of audio-visual supplementary material. It costs $20 for an adult to get in (not including an extra $5 to go into the Millennium Falcon recreation), but after 5pm, that drops to $10. So go late!!
Anyway, terrific weekend and I hope to put up some pics soon.
BTW, loads of great new stuff in this month's SFRevu, including an interview with three Wild Cards writers, an interview with David Cornish (writer of Monster-Blood Tattoo) and plenty of reviews.
Hope you're all great out there!
Drew

A Busy Week Indeed

Well, it's Friday and I'm thankful, be it to God, the Greco-Roman pantheon, what have you.
Tuesday was the hardest day-- getting the kittens to the vet to get spayed, getting myself to DC to undergo "shockwave" therapy for that miserable kidney super-stone, then voting in the primary and home. Kat took off from work to make sure I got back to the condo, for which she has my boundless gratitude.
Wednesday wasn't so bad, catching up at work and all, but Thursday-- well, yesterday was rough. I'd left my painkillers at home and sure enough, Valentine's Day afternoon found me with a flareup of kidney stone-like discomfort, escalating toward real pain.
Kat emailed that she was leaving work at 3:20, so it was easier for me to decide it was time to head home.
Left work at 4pm and went to Alexandria, only to find Kat was still in DC. Miscommunications abounded, leaving me to go to the condo and pick up our paperwork for the kittens, after which I walked about a mile to the vets to pick them up.
Kat and I could not believe how wonderful it was having them home, and the kittens seemed to agree--they never left our sides last night, purring and head-butting and showing us in every way how glad they were to be back. We have to take them in a week or so to get the stitches removed, which is probably about the time I'll need to go back for a follow-up with my doctor. (BTW, Dr. Shin, my urologist, absolutely rocks. Probably the coolest doctor I've ever had.)
Anyway, been a tough week for me and the kittens-- and not that great for Kat either. But this week we have friends coming to visit Saturday and Sunday, plus a day off Monday, so that isn't so bad.
Hope you have a great weekend too!

Updates!

Hey everyone!
Seems like I've been offline awhile but I've been plenty busy... and there are posts to come explaning all of it, believe me.
First, a short update: I'm fine. The kidney stone issue appears to have been resolved (for now), though I'd like my doctor to confirm that. I'm drinking more water and trying to cut down on caffeine and dairy, both of which are not good for that particular affliction.
Second, had a fantastic time seeing my aunt and uncle out in Colorado last Thursday. We don't get to visit nearly often enough, and I even learned a good deal about my dad's early years-- stuff I'd never heard before. Gonna have to post about that.
Third, the kittens have gotten BIG! Kat and I need to post new pictures. Chrissy is still skinny, Janet is still a tank, but they're full-sized now and I probably shouldn't call them kittens any more.
Last, still working on my novel. Sherin and I are committed to a six-month program to get our first novels done, which is eminently doable. We just need to stick to it.
Hope all's great! So comment and let me hear how you're doing!

Weekend of Purgatory

Bad weekend, folks, health-wise that is.
I had some pain in my lower left back, right around my kidney, last Wednesday. Thought it might be a kidney stone, since I've had them twice before, but Thursday it was okay--then Friday night it resurged with a vengeance.
Agony.
The kind that leaves you sweating, nauseous and unable to rest comfortably in any position, vertical or horizontal.
Couldn't sleep, naturally.
Saturday morning, I thought about dropping out of an editorial meeting for SFRevu but figured I could make it on Advil. Wasn't fun but I was functional.
Sunday was better. Kat and I went into DC and Pentagon City, had a nice day (more in a later post) and came home... and the twinge flared up again. Not nearly as bad as Friday but I still made a doctor's appointment.
So why am I going on about this?
Because:
- I'm a 43-year old man who's seriously overweight and might have health issues I don't suspect;
- My father toughed out feeling bad for a long stretch, only to learn (too late) that he had cancer;
- I'm newly married and don't want to take chances on the years (decades?) I plan to spend with my wife and future children.
So it's better for me to find out now if I have some serious health problems.
I'm getting older and don't take my health for granted the way I used to.

Kat's Updated!

Kat's blog, Stealth Shopper DC, is updated with all kinds of new stuff for this weekend. Check it out!

Happy New Year!

Hey folks! Seems like it's been forever since I last blogged. I know, I thought I would be able to post a bit over the holidays but it just didn't happen (obviously). Between being away from home and getting over "holiday-lag," that vacation hangover that won't go away when you've been gone a week... well, you know the story.

On the good side, 2008 is off to a good start. My review of INSIDE STRAIGHT is up at SFRevu, as is Kat's and my interview with George R.R. Martin and Melinda Snodgrass, plus a number of other reviews that made my December very lively. Now I'm kicking back with Mike Carey's latest Felix Castor novel, DEAD MEN'S BOOTS, and enjoying it greatly. Mike is a great guy, a good friend and a terrific writer--so read his stuff!

Anything else? Oh yeah, we're going to put some long-delayed pix of our now-bygone Christmas tree on the blog tonight (cross those fingers), and maybe a few odds and ends.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
best from me and Kat,
Drew

O Tannenbaum! part 2

When we left off on Wednesday, I was walking through a drizzly dark night to Home Depot to buy a tree. Kat was still in DC, working, so it was my job.
yay. (imagine the tiny flags waving in MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL)
At Home Depot, finding the trees isn't hard-- they're at the far side of the parking lot, in the garden area. Finding a worker is the hard part. They are scarce on the ground, not to be found. Finally one lady took pity on me (I was standing in the store, holding a tree and looking kind of lost, I guess); she came over, confirmed what kind of tree I was holding (lucky me, the $26 kind!), and got me on my way, even giving me the number of a local cab company.
Paying up, I got outside and waited about five minutes for the cab. Not bad. They sent a van and the driver and I wrangled the tree into the back; he said he didn't know what to charge, so I only had to pay for a regular fare (so I tipped a little extra).
That left struggling to get a 6-foot-plus tree inside the condo and then inside our unit.
By myself.
yay.
More on this later today, including our kittens' fascination with indoor shrubbery.

O Tannenbaum! part 1

Kat called me while I was coming home from work Monday night. "Are you tired?" she asked. Not a good sign.

"No, I'm okay. Why?"

"Can you get a Christmas tree?"

Kat's been feeling out of sorts and out of the Christmas spirit this year--no reason given why, she just is. So I said yeah, with about as much enthusiasm as I could muster for trudging alone through the night to Home Depot and wrangling a tree back to our condo.

Oh the adventure.

More on this tomorrow.