It's been quite a busy weekend. There was something I wanted to finish at work, which took me quite some time yesterday and a few hours today as well.

I like it that Sasha came with me to the office, she was also working and it was much nicer to be together. Tonight we treated ourselves to a very nice meal; we had dinner af Cafe Asia. As an appetizer we had the best dumplings I have ever eaten since our trip to China -- very fresh and with a fabulous soy sauce. I've had lunch there a few times, and the food has always been great.

Tonight is also the evening of the Super Bowl, a big American football match. Most bars have the match on TV screens, but it wasn't as busy as I expected; it was nothing compared to the soccer championships in the Netherlands. (comments?)

Douwe Egberts coffee at Burger King, the third-largest hamburger chain in the United States.

Douwe Egberts is an old Dutch brand of coffee producers, that was bought by Sara Lee a couple of years ago.

Last April we visited the Douwe Egberts museum with my grandmother. (Read More... | 2 comments)

It hasn't been snowing anymore the last few days, and today will actually be a sunny day.

The snowman that was all of a sudden there, in front of our apartment building last Sunday is disappearing. (Read More... | comments?)

Sunday evening we visited Bella, who was hosting a Bulgarian dinner party.

Bella lives in an apartment near Pentagon City, about 15 minutes by car from our place.

It was nice to meet Bella's friends and it was a very cosy evening. The food was great: there was banichka, two (excellent) types of surmi and shopska salad with real Bulgarian imported feta cheese. Saturday evening we prepared our first mlechna in the U.S. and everybody liked it. There were home-made brownies for desert.

After dinner we stayed for real Bulgarian tea. We really enjoyed closing the weekend like this. (comments?)

Yesterday evening we went to do some shopping, and when we opened the door we were surprised by snow.

It's a very gentle snow -- not so strong as a last week but it covered the world in a nice white layer.

It's been a very productive weekend for both of us. Yesterday I arranged a lot things that I wanted to do for quite some time, such as getting my photo ID, getting a haircut and wrapping up some paperwork. I've also set up a new backup system for my website. All the same it's a very relaxing weekend; a great combination.

This afternoon I went to the office to arrange some things for about two hours. When I left I took some pictures of the "snow world" around our apartment building (see below). (Read More... | 2 comments | Score: 5)

My father started a photo project a few weeks ago, and since then he placed a new picture every day.

Many of the pictures are pictures about Middenmeer and other places I know, which makes it even more nice to see the daily addition to the site.

Visit Jaap's photo project, and for the Dutch visitors: be sure to also read the accompanying blog. (3 comments | Score: 5)

On the road from Court House to Rosslyn, Clarendon Boulevard, there is an old bar. The place is run down and seems to be no longer in use.

The commercials and outside decorations are still there, and an eye catcher is a car that's standing with its front in the air. The car a curious sight, and it's a strange idea to see a closed nightclub: people had a lot of fun there, and now everything's gone.

However, when I looked on internet for "Dr. Dremo's", the name of the place, I found out that the bar is not closed at all. Only the patio is undergoing "winterizing". The day after I read this, I went to look at the bar and indeed, what I had seen so far was only the backside: in front there was another part that was fully lighted and in full use.

It said in the Washington Post that they have an extensive beer collection with a lot of beers on tap. So, it might actually be a nice place to visit once, but probably only in the summer, when it won't look so terribly desolated anymore. (Read More... | comments? | Score: 4)

Since a few days Starbucks has a new coffee on display: Aged Sumatra. Every now and then they have packages of special coffee beans for sale, and I was really curious about this one.

The beans of this coffee have been aged five years, which gives a taste. It is supposed to have been discovered when the Dutch V.O.C. ships transported coffee beans from Indonesia to Europe, which took many months.

I asked if there was a way to try the coffee, without having to buy a package, and when I came in in the afternoon when it wasn't very busy they custom made me a cup of coffee from these beans. They used a French press for it (which I believe is known in Holland as a Turkish' coffee machine).

I liked to coffee a lot, it has a very special taste: a more mellow and smoother flavor than regular Sumatra, and far less acidity. It was nice, but I don't think I'll get a package of this for at home. I prefer the regular blend in the mornings. (3 comments | Score: 5)

The snow from yesterday has covered the whole city in white. The bright sunshine makes that it's very shiny outside, and it's almost time for sunglasses. The major roads and footpaths are cleared of snow, but it's still slippery because of the melted snow and ice.

I worked again today; in the morning from home and in the afternoon I went to the office. It's not to bad to work on Sunday, because the work is really fun. We've made good progress this weekend.

I received my new ATM card today, so it really took only one week. However, when I tried to activate the card in the ATM the machine said I was using a wrong PIN number. I'll have to visit the bank tomorrow to find out what's going on because I'm pretty sure I used the correct one. (Read More... | 3 comments)

This weekend is a working weekend for me and my team. Today I was in the office. Originally we all planned to come in, but due to the weather my colleagues stayed at home and worked from there.

It's been snowing all day, and that's big news in all the media. There's an official "winter storm", and a "sever weather warning" is active. When they announced that on the news last week I thought it would really storm, and snowing 50cm per day, but it turns out to be a moderate snow, nothing as dramatic as been shown in the news. We just saw more than 5 different news channels, and they all had specials on the "severe" weather.

But even though it's not as bad as all the warnings would have you believe, the snow has a big impact on people's lives here. Traffic is going very slow because the snow is falling so quickly that it's hard to keep the roads clean. Many shops and buildings are closed too, even the Kinko's near our apartment building that's usually open 24 hours is closed untill tomorrow morning.

Yesterday evening Sasha and I went out for dinner together, which was great. Later we briefly went to a birthday party in a bar at Adam's Morgan. On the way back the driver of our cab was a lady from Romania, who had rather interesting views of the world. (Read More... | 1 comment | Score: 5)

What do Dutch people bring when travelling from and to the US?

Read about in in a nice discussion on AllesAmerika.com.

On the list to the U.S. are pindakaas (peanut butter) and borrelnootjes (coated nuts). Favorites to bring to Holland from the U.S. are clothes and BBQ sauce. No one mentioned volkorenbrood yet. (comments?)

Today was Inauguration Day, the day of the installation of President Bush. It was more quiet than usual on the streets when I walked to work; all federal buildings were closed.

Yesterday it was snowing, and today I wore the special winter boots that I bought before going to Bulgaria last year. The road to work was still covered with snow and ice and pretty slippery. The winter shoes are wonderful: nice, warm and with a solid grip so you don't slip.

At work there's a lot to do, and a deadline is approaching, so it's quite busy now.

A lot of colleagues came in later today because the metros were so crowded due to the festivities downtown. We watched the official celebrations on TV in the evening. After the swearing-in ceremony there were many balls and parties in the city; President Bush visited nine of them in one day. (Read More... | comments? | Score: 2)

Today it was snowing for the first time since I've been here. It's been pretty cold the last few days, and in the morning it started snowing.

Both Sasha and I are over our colds; it took us about a week.

Tomorrow it's Inauguration Day. President Bush will get officially installed, and it's a holiday in the U.S. for federal employees. Sasha's office is closed tomorrow but I'll go to work. (comments?)

Today was Marten Luther King Day. It's a federal holiday, so Sasha had a day off. Many companies in the private sector don't have a free day though, and it was a working day for me.

It's very cold outside, now it's -8 degrees Celcius. I still enjoyed walking to and from work -- I was well prepared this time. (comments?)

I really love to start the weekend this way. Sleeping in, having breakfast together, and slowly drinking coffee all morning.

We're still using the package with coffee that I brought from the airport more than two months ago. During the week there is fresh coffee from the apartment downstairs so we never make our own coffee. The coffee from the package ("breakfast blend") still tastes great.

I've been arranging some paperwork this morning. It feels like there are two sets of paperwork that need attention: the American one and the Dutch one. Jaap and Mieke help us a lot with the Dutch paperwork, which is wonderful.

Yesterday I went to my bank in the lunchbreak, to see what's going on with my debit/credit card. Currently I have a card that I can only use to get cash money from the ATM, but when I opened my account five weeks ago the lady said I would receive my real card within two weeks.

The bank representative found out yesterday that the lady forgot to request this card for me, so I'll get one within two weeks from now. I think it was one of the first times that this lady opened a new account for a customer. No big deal of course, but to have a real credit card would be very convenient. I still have a Dutch credit card also, but I prefer not to use it. (Read More... | comments?)