I tried SO HARD to get a picture of their little tongues drinking, but their poofy chin fur did not allow it. Ultimately the plate was great for a temporary solution, but not a good permanent plan. Almost immediately some bedding was floating in the water, and lots spilled. But it was fun for a little while. And if you want to watch something cute, check out this video I took of them drinking. You can see in the video that they are not so smart about not tipping the plate over.

I was especially excited to have Leslie come visit because she is an adventurous eater. There are lots of restaurants in DC that I want to try, but I can have a difficult time getting people to go with me. But Leslie was a good sport, so off we went!

First stop was Kushi, which is a Japanese restaurant that has gotten great reviews. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera, so there are no pictures of the lobster-and-asparagus rolls, skewered pork belly, California rolls, duck sausage, or pork belly sushi. Be assured, however, that it was delicious! Kushi was really loud inside, which I did not like, but the service was good and the food came very fast.

The next day we had lunch at Ted’s Bulletin on Capital Hill. I have eaten there once before, and I was excited to bring Leslie. Ted’s Bulletin is done in a kind of old-timey style:

They have a movie projector that plays black-and-white movies while you eat:

Of course, when you eat at Ted’s Bulletin, you must try the house-made pop-tarts. They make them constantly throughout the day, and they have many flavors. In the picture below, you can see strawberry (multi-color sprinkles), blueberry (blue sprinkles), raspberry (I think – pink sprinkles), brown-sugar cinnamon (green/yellow/orange sprinkles), and peanut-butter bacon. Yes, that’s right, a peanut-butter bacon pop-tart!

We did not try the peanut-butter bacon pop-tart. We had a strawberry and a brown-sugar cinnamon.

When I ate here last time, they were out of all but strawberry, which I didn’t like much (I don’t like jelly at all, actually), so I was excited to try a different flavor. I wasn’t disappointed – the brown-sugar cinnamon was SO GOOD! I really loved it!

Now for why we didn’t try the peanut-butter bacon pop-tart – Leslie got a peanut-butter bacon burger for lunch!

I have heard great reviews about peanut-butter bacon burgers, most notably from Runner’s World Magazine, which is not where I’d expect to read about such a bizarre food. Leslie was not as gushy, pronouncing it merely “pretty good.”

We later ate dinner at Eggspectation’s in Silver Spring, which had a decor that I liked. It’s got lots of stuff to look out, without feeling as busy or corporatized as TGI Friday’s does.

I got a delicious bacon and cheese omelette, and Leslie got a bagel sandwich.

Our meals were really yummy, but I was most pleasantly surprised at how good the potatoes were. They were tender and well-seasoned, and really tasty. Usually brunch-style potatoes are just “meh,” but these were actually really good!

Sunday morning we got up early (like at 10) to go to Teaism in Penn Quarter. We got some waffles that, of course, had some weird butter. I really hate it when places give you weird, flavored butter without telling you, and without offering you a choice of plain butter. I have never once liked the weird butter, and so it kind of ruins the meal for me.

Actually, I’ve never liked anything I’ve ordered to eat at Teaism (Leslie’s . Why do I keep coming back? For the koi, of course! Downstairs at Teaism there is a large dining room with a pond full of giant koi fish. I love it!

It’s so peaceful to sit and watch the fish swim around.

After church I took Leslie to Point Chaud, since she’d been looking forward to trying the crepes there. I got my usual, and she got a nutella-and-banana crepe. It looked good, although I’m not a fan of bananas, and she really enjoyed it.

Before Leslie had to leave on Sunday night, I took her to the White House so we could have a photo op. We got an amazing parking spot on the street – woo hoo! I also got one of the only pictures of Leslie that she let me take during the whole trip, and it turned out pretty great!

Overall the trip was really wonderful, and I’m already bugging Leslie to come back! I’ve told her to bring her boyfriend, who kept asking “Where are you eating next? What did you order? Was the food good?” so that he can experience the restaurants for himself!

        
        I had a chocolate crepe, and a mushroom and spinach crepe, and they were DELICIOUS.

        Check out the chocolate crepe:

        It was FILLED with chocolate. SO good! And the spinach and mushroom:

        It was a little garlicky, but still delicious. I enjoyed the crepes so much that I dragged some friends there and and ate the same crepes again. My friend Sarah got a fruit crepe of some kind that looked good, but I think I’ll stick with my spinach and mushroom and chocolate.

        Actually, writing this post has made me really crave these crepes! I may need to go there tomorrow!

Point Chaud
1736 14th St NW
202-588-8877
www.pointchaudcafe.com

The one on the right is Celeste, and the one on the left is Sophie. They were so small when I got them – look at how they compare to Charlie, who’s about four years older:

(They were a little scared of Charlie). The pigs are wonderful. They each have their own personalities. Sophie is much more adventurous, and Celeste is still pretty timid. Celeste eats a lot more than Sophie does, but Sophie gets more excited about hay than Celeste. They both love to sleep (in my lap):

Sophie is a PRO at sleeping adorably:

They both love to hang out in their hut:

They are very happy pigs, and Sophie at least runs laps around the cage with happiness at least once a day. It’s been really nice to have young pigs again – it’s been years since I’ve had a pig popcorn (where they get so happy they jump straight in the air and kind of twist), since they outgrow it pretty young. Check out this video of my pigs running around.

So, you can see why I’ve been busy, what with the jobs and the move and the pigs to snuggle. But things are going pretty good right now!

Anyway, at Fro-zen-Yo, there are a bunch of machines with different flavors of frozen yogurt, and you pile as much as you like into a bowl.

Then you move to the toppings bar and load up on sprinkles, fruit, candy – whatever you like!

Then you take the delicious dessert to the cashier, and you pay for the yogurt by weight. After paying, you dig in, and become happy! As we all know, it’s been proven (probably) that ice cream creates happiness. Just look at my pals!

You may have heard about how about five inches of snow brought our nation’s capitol to its knees. You may have heard about how our city’s transportation authorities (along with MD and VA) were totally unprepared for the snow. You may have heard about the resulting traffic nightmare in which almost everyone’s commute took hours longer than usual, and some people were stuck at a standstill for 13 hours. Fortunately, my commute took about five minutes longer than usual, and I was in my room well before the snow started in earnest. Hooray AU for letting us off work early!

Anyway, this post is not about the horrors of DC commuting. It’s about the adorable snowman I made in our parking lot! Check it out:

Here’s a pic from the snowman’s POV of my window. I like being able to look out at it, although by now it’s pretty melted.

Earlier today, this article popped up in my Google Reader. The title is “The Arab World’s Horrific New Trend: Self-immolation.” Apparently, this new trend is men self-immolating in protest of their governments. Six men have lit themselves on fire in recent weeks. This is news-worthy! It’s something important that should be commented on! This is new!

Unfortunately, it’s not. In Afghanistan alone, over 100 women self-immolated in 2010.  Several times the number of results appear when googling “self-immolation Arab” than when googling “self-immolation Arab women.” Even when adding “women” to the search, the first few results are about the “new” trend of men self-immolating. Because these are just women, right? Who cares about them! They’re just hysterical laydeez overreacting to some tiny problems, like women always do. No, until men are doing it, it’s not important!

This issue clearly illustrates that sexism still exists in the media. Self-immolation by women in Arab countries has been a known and studied problem for years, something committed by hundreds of women in response to abuse and a lack of control over their own lives, and yet the media still reports a series of six self-immolations by men as a horrific, serious, new, trend that we should be concerned about.

Just another example of women’s lives and experiences being invisible.

Of course, they’re not outside any more, since it’s too cold, but I thought a look back to warmer weather would be nice.

The line was much longer than the line at the Bethesda location, but it moved pretty quickly.

An employee came by to pass out menus during our wait, which was thoughtful.

Once we got inside, the ordering went pretty quickly (thanks no doubt to having had time to peruse the menu while in line).

I got three cupcakes – caramel apple, chocolate2, and teal velvet (red velvet dyed teal for cancer awareness). They looked lovely, as always.

Cupcakes acquired, we headed to dinner at TGI Friday’s. After eating we tried our cupcakes.

Overall, we loved them! The cupcakes were pronounced delicious by all. Here are the more detailed reviews I gathered from my pals:

Chocolate Ganache Cupcake – “Bitter yet sweet treat – completely chocolate, completely delicious.” -Michelle

Banana Honey – “Like a sweet, creamy banana bread that just melts in your mouth and makes your glands water.” -Shadaye

Caramel Apple – Authentic caramel apple taste, like the caramel in the center; tastes like an apple muffin with caramelly frosting; “Good, sweet but not too sweet, not too strong.” -Maria

Cinnamon – “Fantastic!” -Anna

Toffee Crunch – “Yummy in my tummy, I love you Lauren” – Sarah (quoted verbatim as requested!)

Chocolate Mint – preferred to toffee crunch by Sarah – “Perfect ration of mint to chocolate”