Vous ou tu?

Oh la la, the French!

Anything to declare?

My customs declaration was for $150. When asked what I was bringing back, I responded books. That's pretty much what all of it is.

The books I bought on my trip to the mid-Atlantic states were:

Vendetta by Michael Dibdin

Figures of Speech: 60 Ways to Turn a Phrase by Arthur Quinn

Design it yourself by Ellen Lupton (Ed.)

Calder by Jacob Baal-Teshuva (a Taschen book on Alexander Calder)

Mutts: The Comic Art of Patrick McDonnell

Good stuff all.

Home tomorrow

Back at my cousins in Phoenixville, PA today. Have had a great time visiting folks in the Mid-Atlantic states. In DC, I went to the Hirshhorn Gallery, which has 20th century to contemporary art and is part of the Smithsonian Institute, as well as the Library of Congress, which is a fabulous building and has some very interesting exhibits going on right now, and the Supreme Court, which is an amazing buiding also.

Those aren't the three sites someone would likely have as their top three to see in DC, but they were all very good to visit. I sort of chose them at random - just wandered upon them and then lingered therein.

I also went to Tilghman Island on Maryland's eastern shore where Kenny has a place with his brother that is right on the water looking onto Chesepeake Bay. It was cool to visit out there.

And then I spent last night visiting Ann and Lee up in Wilmington, DE where they're living with their great little girl Kayley, who's two but as precocious and full of energy as they come.

Back to the big house tomorrow, and get back at it. Whatever it happens to be.

In the Capital of the Free World

Drove up to DC today from Charlottesville, VA, where I was visiting with my PhD advisor who's at UVa now. It's nice little town, and it was really good to visit with Jerry.

I also went to two Presidential homes. Monticello - the former home of Thomas Jefferson, which is right near C-ville, and today on the way to DC I stopped at Montpelier (pronounced /mont-peel-yur/, btw, not /mount-pell-yay/ as it would be in French), former home of James Madison.

Montpelier is undergoing major renovation to take it back to the state that it was in when Madison lived there. I thought that would be a drag, but it's actually really interesting, because it's all gutted now, pretty much.

Thus, you can see and hear about what they have found during the gutting process. And the discussion of his life and stuff is the same regardless, so all in all it was a good time to go.

Maybe I'll go visit the current President's house while I'm up here.