Week 1 in the District

Last week was my first full work-week in the District, though having Monday off might disqualify it as a "full work week." I went up early on Friday for concert-date with Miss Two, to see Jason Mraz and Ben Folds. I've seen Mraz 4-5 times and Folds twice--both are spectacular performers. Folds stole the show from John Mayer the first time I saw him. Its a fact--I almost left, but decided it would be better to stay for a free Mayer show.

Saturday I went on a 5-mile run down and around the Washington Monument. Later Saturday, we attended a wedding of one of her ex-coworkers. It was really nice and must have cost a fortune. The reception was in a country club; open bar--enough said. I'm 100% certain that I drank too much. No hang-over, but definitely too much alcohol consumption had occurred. One noteworthy thing about the wedding was the beautiful library just outside the restrooms. I poked my head in and browsed about some of the books. Oh, and for some reason there was a conference room just off of the library. I thought it was odd to see a conference room in a country club's dining hall. Strange IMO. The cake was good, but had a berry glaze between the layers of cake--not my favorite. All in all, I had lots and lots of fun!

It was Restaurant Week in DC, which means a set 3-course meals for $20/$35 for lunch/dinner. Since we were both off of work on Monday, we enjoyed lunch at Poste. Poste "makes its home in the original sorting room of the 1841 General Post Office." It is now a part of Hotel Monaco. We both had the excellent crispy skin wild striped bass. DELICIOUS! I won't go into detail, even though I really like food, because I'd feel like any number of the other foodies in RVA. Yuck. After lunch we ventured across the street to the National Portrait Gallery to see the presidential portraits, a fitting way to spend President's Day. Miss Two discovered that her two favorite presidents had their first ladies' portraits hanging alongside their own. They were two of only three or four first lady portraits. On our way out, we stopped in the gift-shop of the museum where I discovered a book about the photography of Frank Gohlke. It turns out there was an exhibit of his work on display on the third floor. Hes not related, at least not to my grandfather's knowledge. I loved the exhibit because it had "Gohlke" all over it, Miss Two loved it because there was lots of photographs of the mid-west, a far-away land she calls home.

Tuesday morning I hopped on the metro and set off for work. I loved commuting via public transport! Tuesday night, we were so inspired by Restaurant Week that we made a delicious dinner for ourselves. Again, I won't go into deep detail, but it involved risotto and fish.

-Wednesday night, Miss Two joined me as I took my boss out to Cafe Promenade for more Restaurant Week goodness. For comparison, I ordered fish and risotto, the same pairing as the night prior. I'd hate (OK, I'd love) to say it, my risotto was better. Go figure.

-Our final restaurant week outing was Friday at The Monocle. It was with Miss Two and three of her friends. The host remarked that I had four dates while he he struggled to ever get a single date. The food, delicious obviously. The company, even better!

-Saturday and part of Sunday was occupied by painting. We finished the second coat in her bedroom and painted the hall and half of the living room (the only half that was to be painted). Saturday night, after she had given up, I stayed up until nearly 3 AM to get the job done. I absolutely hate painting, but once I get started, it seems my perfectionism kicks in and I force myself to do a good job which actually makes me like it. I'm dreading the day I paint my house, regardless of how badly I need some color, that is, until the day I actually paint my house at which point I'll love it.

-Sunday afternoon we went to see Slumdog Millionaire per a friend's recommendation. When this friend recommends movies, I go see them--no questions about it. Later that night, Slumdog (which I thought was AWESOME, BTW) won a ton of Oscars.

For my first week "living" in the District, I loved it. I'll be back the 3rd week of March. Can't wait!

Federal Taxes, received

I got my federal tax return today, the exact day the IRS predicted. Yummy.

Birthdays, DC next week.

Happy Birthday to my friend M. I welcomed her to the quarter century club this morning as I dropper her off at the airport to go back to Wisconsin, AT 6 AM!

Another hbd! goes out to Abraham Lincoln. I'll give his monument a hbd! wave as I pass it on one of my 10k training runs in DC next week. That's right, the boss gave me the go-ahead to work from the DC office one week/month, like a trial period. I'll see how I like it for a whole week at a time decide, after a few months, if I really want to move up there.

Joaquin Poenix was either high out of his mind or just in character

You decide:

Am I on American Idol? No, Danny Gokey is.

So there's a Danny Gokey that made it to Hollywood on the latest season of American Idol. Its not me, but you can find him; be sure to check out his late wife's foundation, Sophia's Heart Foundation. I'd love to take the bait and make an Office Space reference, but I'll refrain considering he is not a "no talent ass clown," the names are actually different, and he's yet to win a Grammy. While he may or may not be an ass clown, he certainly is talented and doesn't "suck."

My last name is obviously Gohlke. If you have a hard-to-pronounce last name, you know how often it gets butchered. These are the most popular mispronunciation: Golk, Go-hike, Go-lick, Go-licky, and occasionally Gokey. The American version is pronounced "Gol-key" while the German (proper?) version is "Golk-ah." I mostly tell people to either put a 'y' on the end or say it like "gold-key" without the 'd' to remember my name.

I wish the best of luck for Danny Gokey, especially with Sophia's Heart Foundation.

10k training, house-mates, last weekend update, this weekend plans

10k training:

My 10k training is going quite well. I've logged several runs keeping my goal pace.
1/31: 2.9 mi - 25:45
2/2: 5k - 28:50
2/3: 1 mi - 9:30 / weight lifting
2/5: 5k - under 30:00
2/7: 5 mi - 47:00
2/9: weight lifting

My run on 2/7 gave me two rather large blisters on my feet. Its clearly time to buy some proper non-cotton socks and some body glide stuff. I'm pretty sure I'm going to meet my goal this year and as the event nears, I may up my goal.

house-mates:
My 2.5 new house-mates have moved in. C is in the 2nd bedroom, A is in the tiny room, and J is part-time and stays on the futon in the bonus room on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. J commutes 2 hours for school and just needs a place to call home away from home. A is from the desert; he's kinda shy, so I don't know much about him. C has migrated to the river city from a town to the east for a job at our area's finest hospital.

last weekend:
Friday. Miss Two visited, so it was obviously a fun weekend--kicked off with pasta dinner at Robin Inn. House-mate C (HM-C) had a couple friends over. Me, Miss Two, ex-housemate (xHM-S), HM-C+2 all went to what seems to be the only bar that would let us in with a 20-year old in-tow. I thought this guy was in his late 20s, but apparently not. We drank a few, celebrating the gaining of employment by two of the participants and got the boot at 11 since the kid was with us. Then, all but the kid and his friend, went to New York Deli where we continued our celebrations. xHM-S drank too much and we all stumbled home around 1 AM.

Saturday. At about 6 AM, I rolled over in bed and somehow dislocated my shoulder. If you know me at all, or at least read my post about my last dislocation, you'll know that this happens 1-2 times a year, and usually in my sleep. I moaned and groaned for a little bit until I calmed myself, grabbed the headboard, guided with other hand's thumb, and gave a good tug/push. As it slipped back in, I cried with relief. An hour and ha half later, my alarm went off--it was time to get up for 10k training. I thought I snoozed the alarm, but I actually dismissed it. Thirty-minutes later, when I was supposed to be present at the training, I woke up again, terribly confused as my wall clock still read 7:30. After I remembered it had been running slow I checked my phone. I was late. I jumped out of bed, tossed on some running-wear, grabbed my car key as riding my bike was going to take too long, chugged a red-bull, and set off. I stepped out of my house and couldn't find my car. A few moments went by before I recalled having left it at New York Deli; I was in no shape to drive. I walked the 2.5 blocks, got in, and drove the other way 3 blocks. I did quite well running (see results above) which had led me to a new theory--I perform well after a bad night of drinking or illness. This remind me of one of my dad's stories. One morning he woke up with either a really bad hang-over or some flu-like symptoms, but crawled out of bed and decided to participate in his adult-league baseball game. Long story short: he ended up hitting a homerun, or a grand-slam, can't remember. It also reminds me of the time I won an autocross (that is TOP PAX time of ALL competitors). I woke up that morning on very little sleep, hung-over, sick, or any combination thereof and didn't want to go. I gathered what little energy I had and went anyway. In the end, it was very very well worth it! Based upon these experiences, I should get hammered and stay up all night before the 10k. Maybe I'll test my new theory during a 5k first ;). Later Saturday, I headed over to ahamos' for a few hours of productive Miata work, though I cut our wrenching short as Miss Two and I had a date to VCU's basketball homecoming game. They beat the snot out of William & Mary. Afterward, we had plans to go downtown and going dancing. As the day progressed and we grew tired, the plans slowly evolved into a night in with a movie, but we arrived home to a house-load of people. HM-C had 3 friends over, and they were all getting ready for a night on the town. Miss Two and I were easily persuaded. Unfortunately, we ended up back at New York Deli, which lacks good dancing. They'd need to remove the tables near the DJ booth and maybe get a new DJ before that place will be fun enough to have good dancing.

Sunday. The day of rest was exactly that. After a lazy morning, Miss Two and I had lunch outside at Coppola's. Then it was back to the house for some sun-basking for her while I de-winterized the motorcycle. This involved charging the battery, inflating the tires, lubing the chain, cleaning a bit, and getting the bike started. My oil leak is a bad as I remembered. I've got an attack plan for it. I'm going to first re-torque all the bolts around the leak before buying new gaskets and seals. If that doesn't resolve it, replace the gaskets and seals. After I finished with that work, I joined Miss Two for book club on the porch. Then we watched Burn After Reading while eating home-made risotto. She left shortly after.

this weekend:
I'm visiting her this weekend. Friday we've got a Jason Mraz and Ben Folds show. Saturday we're attending a wedding. Monday we both have off of work. I'm hoping my boss will let me work Tues-Fri from our DC office, but that's yet to be determined.

va taxes, received!

I just received my VA tax refund directly deposited into my bank account, the fourth business day after filing them.

Super Bowl ringholder James Harrison should give up his ring!

Check out this video of that ass-hat James Harrison punching and shoving Aaron Francisco during the Super Bowl. That idiot should have been ejected from the game, and perhaps his super bowl ring forfeited and a hefty fine assessed, too. I agree with Madden, "He ought to be thrown out for that." As the above website points out, he clearly didn't learn anything from his anger management classes back in March '08 that he was required to attend for assaulting his girlfriend. 'Roid rage, I'm guessing.

On a related note, this year's super bowl was good, but I don't think it was as good as last year's! C'mon! The Giants came from a wild-card spot and beat the otherwise-undefeated Patriots! Do you remember David Tyree's 1.5-handed-catch against the helmet? In my opinion, it was superior to Santonio Holmes' end-zone catch. And last year's game wasn't plagued with yellow flags either (*nor Steelers' terrible towels for that matter).