Forever

I'm done with the board meetings at the Mandarin Oriental in Washington, DC, but I've got the room for one more night.  George and I are headed to CityZen to try out Eric Ziebold's award-winning cuisine.  We don't have a reservation but I'm hoping it won't be a problem.  The hotel and restaurant are really not in a convenient part of the city.  I'm surprised they set up shop there.  For me, it's back to the normal work day. I love these huge facing mirrors on the way to the conference rooms.  I don't normally post photos this large, but I didn't want to diptych this one into obscurity. hotel self-portrait at the Mandarin Oriental, Washington, DC

Weekend Getaway, Day Three

After our big events on Saturday, Sunday was a very chill day as we headed back home.  We grabbed our complimentary coffee from the bizarre espresso-dispensing machine at the Aloft (because I am a *gold* preferred guest - I could play it off like I'm better than you, but I'm pretty sure I earned that status as part of a promotion) and drove off into morning headed for apple orchards! After a bit of backtracking, we came upon Hartland Orchards.  Apparently our super-hot summer was not easy on the apples and so there was no u-picking to be done.  Nevertheless, we loaded up on a half-peck of apples, cider and local honey.  YUM. It was a very nice trip and lovely to be away for just a little bit.  I think I will take more mini vacations.  They cost slightly less than regular vacations and the trip home is easy-peasy. hartland apple orchard virginia hartland apple orchard virginia hartland apple orchard virginia hartland apple orchard virginia

Tuesday on the Web

I know that the photo below is a bit creepy.  Sure, I should have stayed and done something pretty with the beautiful orange light that was falling on my face as the afternoon got on towards sunset.  But I was rushing out the door to come home and just snapped a few in the cool mirror at the Mandarin Oriental.  It's the latest in my series of hotel self-portraits.

On the Web

Each Tuesday, I post a roundup of the best stuff I saw on the internet that week.  Enjoy! How to turn black and white photos into color photos Photojojo is an absolute must for photo-enthusiasts. Not every project they present is worth the effort (to me) and sometimes they just write to say that they have a new gizmo in their online shop, but mostly they write amazing, comprehensive tutorials on how to do fantastic, otherworldly things with photography gear you probably already have. Here is an example. XKCD: Tech Support I used to tease my husband and friends about reading this cartoon... until I started reading it myself, and now I realize how brilliant it is. "Find Big Mail" - Gmail sorter This program sorts your inbox by attachment/file size.  Good for people like me who are always sending or receiving photo attachments... Eating at the wrong time might make you fat They're looking at patterns of mice, so take this with a huge grain of salt, but a new study shows that when a mammal eats can have a big effect on how much.  Mice that were forced to sleep with "relatively dim" light gained a lot more weight than mice that slept in the dark - it messed them up as to when day and night were and thus their eating patterns got thrown off.  Interesting! Proposed credit card settlement could mean lower product prices American Express lost an important lawsuit recently that in effect allows merchants to charge multiple prices for the same goods, depending on how you pay. It has the potential to really shake up the credit card market, as "premium" (that is, cash-back, mileage, etc.) cards are a lot more costly for the retailer to process. Which Halloween candy is "healthier"? Another incredibly irritating "magazine" formatted post (that is, you'll have to click 14 times to get all the info), but a good one, explaining which Halloween candies are going to make you fatter than others.  Cuz it's not like we're not all going to get fatter during Halloween.