DC Abloomin'

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Pear and cherry trees in blossom. They were along the highway and at the metro stop. Places you wouldn't expect are gorgeous. I can't get over the massive beds of daffodils that adorn the highways.

See the escalator into the Medical Center Metro -it is crazy long.

I WANT IT

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DC is in bloom. The pear trees line the highways in white lace, huge beds of daffodils sway in the wind. We stalked our unit, took our second grand tour and I LOVE IT! Not only is there a Whole Foods I can walk to, there's a Maria's bakery - a famous Asian bakery with all kinds of Chinese baked goods and little tasty dishes!

M took me on a lovely drive and we found the best Thai and Vietnamese restaurant in the entire DC area and a new supermarket called Bloom.

*Oriental East w/ M, I, J and M

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M and I met up with Cousin M, I and her new fiance J for yummy dim sum.

Wrestling Toads

There's a sculpture garden in the building where we go for career services and I liked this piece as well as the sculpture of the giant cupcake.

Stats on Where You Live

B said, "What are you, 80?" This is in reference to how obsessive I am about trying to find out everything there is to know about our new place. I had placed a call with the Rockville Police Department about crime in the area and after being transferred 2,000 times, I ended up in someone's voicemail.

I googled "Rockville MD crime statistics" and found this really awesome website: www.bestplaces.net. I have been riveted by data on everything from population to economy to climate. Rockville looks like a great place except for getting a 20 (US overall had 40) for air quality. What's going on with that?

What's also really striking is comparing it to New York City. NYC has a population density of 27,000 compared to Rockville's 4,000. Percentage-wise, there are more Asian people in Rockville! I have found really good Asian restaurants in Rockville.

Now to compare Rockville to my current town. I could be doing this all morning.

*Whispering Gallery @ Grand Central Station

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This was so cool!!!!! My friend E told me that there was this place in Grand Central Station where if you stood in one corner and another person stood at the other corner and you whispered into the corner, the person on the other end could hear you. So fun!

*Oyster Bar with D Squared

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C'mon, its letters are in rainbow colors!

Welcome Baby J

SFactor: Make-up

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I am so in awe of the women in the level 5/6 classes that I do my make-ups in. I mean, firefly to split, flying body spiral to ballerina, spinning upside down, helicopter to descending angel to snake dive. But, the teacher asked me if it was my first or second level 6 and I said it was my first level 5 and she said, "wow, you move like a level 6."

Nice.

Rin with B &K

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A Possibility

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I can walk to the Whole Foods and the Metro. M has garage parking and a 14 minute drive to work. They allow dogs, are offering a leasing special and have all the amenities we want. It is a top floor, corner unit with loft that faces north and east - PERFECT! I'm putting my application in tomorrow but unfortunately, we can't see our exact unit until the second week of April. Wish us luck!

Because I'm obsessive, we are going back on Saturday and I'm going to sit outside and stalk people. Are there youths at night skateboarding in the parking lot? Where do the garbage trucks/ loading trucks come in? Does the fire station siren go off constantly? Will walking to the Metro be a game of Frogger through Rockville Pike? And where is that fancy mall?

Eaton Vance Exec Jobless After Flashing Arrest

Article published on March 24, 2009

Eaton Vance's marketing chief lost his job this month after being charged with exposing himself to female college students, and he may face a raft of related charges, the Boston Herald reports.

Stephen Barrett, 40, was arrested March 11 at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass., and charged with flashing students, according to the Herald. Two days later, he was out of work at Eaton Vance. Company officials are not commenting on the reasons for his departure.

Wellesley police tell the Herald they now suspect Barrett in at least five reported flashings on the campus dating back to September. If convicted, Barrett would be required to register as a sex offender.

Barrett had been marketing chief at Waddell & Reed and the Ivy Funds before coming to Eaton Vance less than a year ago. He has also worked at Mackenzie Investment Management, Forum Financial Group and Fidelity.

He was arraigned and released on personal recognizance. His house in Wellesley was put up for sale last week for $1.02 million, about $20,000 less than what Barrett paid for it six months ago, the Herald also reports.

By Joe Morris

(News summaries based on original reports in other publications are prepared by the Ignites staff and are not created, sponsored, approved or endorsed by the publications to which the original reports are attributed.)

• To read the Boston Herald article cited in this story, click here.

Meskerem & M

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*Joe's Noodle House & M

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A really good Chinese restaurant in Rockville, MD with all the yummies that I like - warm sweet soybean milk, fresh fried cruellers (even the ones in Chinatown NYC are old), bean curd salad, scallion pancakes, turnip cakes, and this dish that M picked out that I haven't had in a long time: ants climbing a tree. It's really ground pork and cellophane noodles but I like the colorful name of the dish.

First Day of Spring: Snow

*Quality Meats with S & C

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How Not to Conduct an Experiment

The illness that felled both my mother and then my sister finally took root in my sinuses. I had tried to fight it with daily Claritin (it's my "windex" and I stand by my panacea) and twice daily nasal and throat saline rinses. The pressure began to build up in my head so I added ibuprofen and zyrtec at night. I also bought Zicam nose gel and Robitussin DM. I felt like crap, my nose was runny and a lot of post nasal drip was taking up residence in my throat. I remembered that I had some Amoxicillin in my medicine box from a previous sinus infection. I dug it out and saw that it was for last year...but took them anyway (a quick Google search shows that I should not take old antibiotics - whoops).

So, I actually felt better today. Much less congested albeit a little fuzzy in the head and tired. I really don't know if it was the Claritin day/ Zyrtec night combo, the nasal and throat rinses, the nose gel and Robitussin, or the expired antibiotics. It could also be a calmer social schedule and more sleep at night.

I have the Flonase and V-Pack that my doctor prescribed today. While I'd like to know what did the trick, I guess I'll have to wait for the next bout of sinusitis to figure it out.

Bloomberg Building, Oh My!

For fun, I attended the Financial Industry In Transition: Positioning for 2009 seminar at the Bloomberg Headquarters.

I had never been in the building before and it does indeed deserve to be in a BusinessWeek article of architectural wonders. I walk in the stern white marble lobby and down a hall lined with these massive wood pouches. They were about my height and I wanted to jump in them. Then I checked in and the receptionist area was smooth and sleek with cameras built into the wall behind them - which actually took a really good picture of me. They gave me a pass on a silver beaded chain and I went past the guards to elevators that lit up when they opened. It was hard for me to keep scanning the elevators to see which one was available so a "ding" or some kind of noise would have been appreciated - what about the visually impaired? The news was playing in the elevator (instead of the Captivate news screens) so that's where the visually impaired get an advantage over the hearing impaired. We get up to the 6th floor and it is GORGEOUS. Bright, airy with real trees growing! Everything was brand new and fun - either interesting lights, monitors or something. There were even TV monitors built into the mirror in the ladies' room! I was sad when I had to give my badge back at the end of the day - I really liked my picture.

As for the seminar - it was interesting. They gave us a flashdrive that had all the presentations and materials on them for our future reference which was GENIUS since I hate carrying all that crap around. The keynote speaker was Professor Bruce Greenwald from Columbia Business School and he was a commanding, engaging and amazing speaker. There has been a decline in consumption but business/ investments have been high and steady. Monetary policy is not correlated to increases in net GDP so all the stuff that the Fed is doing is pretty ineffectual. Professor Greenwald saw 3 ways to fix the economy: (1) protectionism to drive the current account imbalance to 0, (2) internationalize surpluses which is basically making other countries purchasers of surplus and that would take a long time (3) stagnant global growth which would increase unemployment but we would see increases in productivity. Not good news.

Another really terrific speaker was Sheila Smith, Principal, Deloitte Advisory Service LLP who was on the "New Era of Debtor-Creditor Relations" panel. I was impressed with her experience and she had a great way of telling stories while looking totally fabulous.

Longwood & My Boys

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I originally had planned our lunch at Connelly's to celebrate St. Patrick's day. I obviously know nothing about how people party.

*Windham Mountain & Bro

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Nobody here, no lines, it's heaven. Used free Windham lift tickets.

I Can Have Real Furniture?

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I am always amazed when I go to someone's home and the furniture actually matches. The furniture in our house was either picked up from the trash or made by my father. M and I have an opportunity now to create a home together and it's been really fun and interesting. I am always amazed and impressed with what she thinks about and wants. Sometimes we don't see eye to eye but we try to work out a solution that fits both of us. The Portofino bedroom set was a quick sell because I knew what kind of bed she was looking for. However, it took nearly 2 hours to find and agree on the chair. I'm budgeting 3 days to negotiate over flatware.

Mint, Grand Central Station & W

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Guiness Cupcakes

From FoodNetwork.com

Prep Time: 15 min
Inactive Prep Time: hr min
Cook Time: 25 min
Level:
Easy
Serves:
24 cupcakes
Ingredients

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa, plus more for dusting finished cupcakes

2 cups sugar

2 cups all-purposeflour

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch fine salt

1 bottle stout beer (recommended: Guinness)

1 stick butter, melted

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 large eggs

3/4 cup sour cream

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened at room temperature

3/4 to 1 cup heavy cream

1 (1-pound) box confectioners' sugar
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt.
In another medium mixing bowl, combine the stout, melted butter, and vanilla. Beat in eggs, 1 at time.
Mix in sour cream until thoroughly combined and smooth. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the
wet mixture.
Lightly grease 24 muffin tins. Divide the batter equally between muffin tins, filling each 3/4 full. Bake
for about 12 minutes and then rotate the pans. Bake another 12 to 13 minutes until risen, nicely
domed, and set in the middle but still soft and tender. Cool before turning out.
To make the icing:
In a medium bowl with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until light and fluffy.
Gradually beat in the heavy cream. On low speed, slowly mix in the confectioners' sugar until
incorporated and smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. Icing can be
made several hours ahead and kept covered and chilled.
Top each cupcake with a heap of frosting and dust with cocoa.

Baby R is Coming with Me!

After yesterday's splash of reality, the universe granted me a HUGE gift. H landed her job and she, Z and Baby R are moving to Maryland, too!

*Pipa & J, E, C

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Chic, delicious and priced reasonably. Or is it that we are learning to not over order? The chicken and plantain croquettes were a delightful surprise.

As I learn about DC, I can't help but think, "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more." There are a lot of things that I have taken for granted working in New York City: meritocracies, the embrace of diversity and having a deep and wide network at my fingertips.

It's also really interesting to hear about our lives' paths and I am quite proud of all my dinner mates have accomplished and have no doubt that they will continue to move mountains.

Cafe Zest & A

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Quick Toffee

One of my favorite memories of G was back when we were at our old firm and back when we used to get TONS of gifts during the holidays from clients and vendors, we had gotten a pound of Enstrom's toffee and ATE IT ALL. G just sent me this recipe that is easy to make and I can't wait to try it. I can eat butter and I'll switch out the semi-sweet chocolate for dark dairy free chocolate.


40 Saltine crackers

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

12 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate bits

1 cup finely chopped almonds

Line the bottom of an 11x17 foil covered cookie sheet with saltines so they form one flat layer. Melt butter in saucepan, add brown sugar and stir. Bring to boil. Boil for 3 minutes without stirring. Remove from heat and pour over saltines. Distribute evenly. Bake for 3-5 minutes at 400 degrees. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate bits over toffee. Spread evenly using back of spoon. Sprinkle nuts on top. Refrigerate for at least 2 hrs. Remove foil and break into pieces with hands. Store in fridge.

Zippy & G

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Today was day 1 of the 2 day Career Transitions workshop. I started out feeling like I was in an AA meeting (odd, since I've never been to one). The presenters were really great and I learned some new things about networking, resume writing and one's world.

Took Zippy out for drinks and tapas before she went back to Hong Kong. Yilu pingan - May the road you travel be peaceful.

Then, met up with my dear friend G - has it really been 10 years? Congratulations on your civil union and being together with M for 20 years. 2o years!!!! Good luck on your new home!

Baby R

*Festival Restaurant & M's Birthday

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Happy Birthday, M!

*So Moon Nan Jip & Fam

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