BlackFive

First, Cassandra and Grim rock!   Thanks to the both of them for helping out around here.  I'm sure that, if you haven't been exposed to their writing before, you will be checking their sites multiple times per day.  They are soooo damn good, that my traffic increased by about 1,000 readers per day.

Next, the trip to the East Coast was very successful.

It was great seeing Eric again and meeting his beautiful wife.  And, pal, while I was impressed by her feats of craziness, I was definitely very jealous about her New Zealand bridge jump.

Friday night in DC, Eric and I tried a bottle of Caol Ila 18 - a scotch that neither Eric nor I had enjoyed before.  Surprisingly, it was some of the best single malt that I've ever had.  Some friends took Eric and I to a benefit to build schools (actually, Girls Schools) and libraries in India, Bangladesh and surrounding countries.  Sponsored by some friends and a certain character from Redmond, it was very interesting.  Eric had some great ideas and some major-league connections to help the project.  We then went to Sequoia, and then Indeblue where we killed a bottle of most excellent scotch (Lagavulin 16)...and some Belvedere.

Saturday, the Cub's game was rain delayed until ten which happens to be when they have to stop serving alcohol at Nats games.  Cub's lost, but...I tell you...this is the year...I can feel it!  We decided to hit Georgetown, Eric and I helped to stop a fight (that probably should have occurred), and we introduced Eric to the Irish Car Bomb.

The rest of the trip was all business but two thing stood out. 

In NYC, I had a great feast at Sette Mezzo Sunday night...it was reeeallly good.

And I took some time to visit the Holocaust Museum in DC.  It was an amazing and difficult experience (and I've been to Buchenwald, Dachau, etc.).  It is a must see.

I had some trouble dealing with part of the new exhibit about the Nazi medical experiments and eugenics ("Deadly Medicine").

There was a room -sterile, tiled, clean - where there were photos of children on a wall.  The room was a recreation of the hospital room where Mengele had experimented on the them.  It took me a minute to realize that I was standing at the entrance to the room.  I didn't want to step forward.  I had to force myself to enter the room.  Emotions.  Anger.  Lots of Anger.  Overwhelming sadness welling up.  Thoughts of my Dash and my little girl.  Realizing that my fists were clenched and my eyes were wet.  And remembering that there are some people who believe that the Holocaust never happened...

The museum tells many stories - many tragic and many inspiring (lots of information and thank yous to rescuers) - that should never be forgotten.