Monday, October 4, 2010

Pictures!

Obligatory Times Square tourist photo, after seeing Next to Normal. It's too bad you can't see how HOT we look!

It was really rainy. So rainy that I, an Oregonian, bought not one, but TWO umbrellas.


The Folio!



This, right here, is my holy book.



Haylie got in trouble for taking this picture of me. Sorry, Haylie! I was too overexcited to think that this is the kind of place where they generally don't want you taking pictures of 400-year-old papers and things.


Peacock room at the Freer Gallery at the Smithsonian. It's a crazy story--this guy (we'll call him Fred) gave the keys to his house to his artist friend (we'll call him Larry) before he went on vacation to Europe for two months and told him to go crazy. So Larry designed this "beautiful" dining room in blues and golds and very gaudy peacocks. Fred came home and was appalled, so he told Larry to fix it and went back to Europe for another couple of months.
But Larry was so proud of his work that he refused to change a thing. In fact, he started throwing dinner parties at Fred's house and inviting all his friends over so he could advertise what he was capable of creating. Fred came home again, and got reeeally mad.

I don't understand (or maybe Rachael said, and I forgot) why Fred didn't just hire somebody else to come in and fix it, but he didn't. Eventually, the room was auctioned off (yes, they auctioned a room), and this Freer guy bought it (apparently he was a fan of Larry's, and Larry's daughter asked him to buy it), and then it ended up at the Smithsonian.

Oh, and this burger was incredible. Bacon, BBQ sauce, onion rings...it's everything I ever asked my burgers to aspire to be.

New recipe coming soon!

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Friends!

I'm currently in the Amtrak lounge at Chicago Union Station, en route home (finally!) from a whirlwind tour of New York, DC, and Baltimore with my BFF and other lovely ladies. I spent a week doing things I can't do in good ol' FoGro, like eating fresh croissants while staring at the Washington Monument, or seeing a Broadway show, or making a pilgrimage to my Mecca to see my holy book (i.e. a copy of the First Folio at the Folger Shakespeare Library).

I've spent some time with some wonderful ladies (Tiffanie, Haylie, Sara, and Rachael), eaten some excellent food (croissants, muffins, cupcakes, duck fat fries, an incredible burger, a breakfast to die for), and seen some truly amazing sights (aside from the Washington Monument, a Broadway show, and the Folio, we also saw the Capitol building and got a backstage tour of the Smithsonian--complete with a jaunt through the tunnels).

Pictures and a new recipe are forthcoming; I just need to get home first. It'll be another couple days (I love the train, but it's been more than a week since I last saw my husband, and that's completely unacceptable), but the end is in sight. Oregon, here I come!