Neilies lost

Yesterday I ventured out into DC's new cold weather to go to a club to see Super Diamond. Unfortunately this Neil Diamond cover band was not as exciting as I had hoped. I spent a lot of the time scoping out a couple in the audience getting their groove on in a "you shouldn't do that in front of children" manner. They were actually very funny - the guy looked like an accountant and the woman looked like a school teacher. This concert was by far the whitest concert I have ever been to - in the words of my companion, it was vanilla. The band played Neil a little too hard and didn't interact with the audience the way Neil does. Sad times.

I'm going to make a concerted effort to unpack my closet tomorrow - too many clothes! I should just give them away.

Stack: The Blog

Just a random thought - I think there should be a blog devoted entirely to Robert Stack. It would be a hit.

And maybe one to Bea Arthur. Or a six degrees of Bea Arthur. Now that would be interesting.

Chocolate, history, and Amish country

Neuhaus has always had chocolate made from various cocoa origins, and they have recently decided to really push this line of extra dark chocolate. We currently have a window display with a map of the world pinpointing where all the cocoa comes from. Unfortunately (esp. for me) there have already been people coming in complaining about the poor conditions of cocoa farms in Africa. Customers ask if Neuhaus is aware of the practices they equivocate to slavery happening on the other side of the world - usually it's while they stare at you accusingly like you're standing out in the middle of a cocoa field in West Africa directing these folks.

I have no idea what farms Neuhaus gets their cocoa from. If people want to complain about something Belgian, how about creating racial tension in Rwanda that led to the genocide.

Speaking of good chocolate, I had the best canolli at Vacarro's bakery the other day. I highly recommend it - lower level, Union Station.

Two weeks ago I got a fairly thorough tour of Arlington National Cemetary by my aunt (if you're reading, word up). I had no idea the original cemetary was created out of spite for revenge on Robert Lee for being a confederate. Crazy fun facts like that make history all the more enjoyable.

Last May I was planning to take a trip to Amish country in October to experience the local delights and maybe buy a couple $30 dollar quilts to sell on eBay. I'd also like to talk to some Amish kids on Rumspringa about the prevalence of drugs on their time off. This trip got postponed to next Spring due to scheduling difficulties - and what a relief. Tooling around Dutch Pennsylvania with the media frenzy going on right now would not have been fun. Go Rumspringa!