Guus Bosman

Friday night we went to the grand opening of Love, a new night club in DC. The building was a nightclub before, Dreams, but we had never been there.

We had tickets for the grand opening Friday and we had a very enjoyable evening. Entering the club was an impressive experience with at least 20 security guys in black suits at the door.

The place is very stylish: carpet, wooden walls, beautiful furniture -- very classy, like a very good hotel, just with music. I especially liked the 3rd floor, with the lounge seats, almost in a beach club style.

Thursday evening Rosa came for dinner.

We made mie. It's the first time that I cooked that here, and it took me a while to find the ingredients in the supermarkt. It came out quite nice, with spicy chicken, and a side dish of snow beans with mushrooms and nuts.

Rosa had brought deserts: brownie cookies and a mousse cake, delicious. We saw pictures of Sasha's vacation, and spent a nice evening on the balcony.

After our visit to the Natural History Museum two weeks ago, we went Cosi's to have lunch. Around the Mall there are not a lot of places to go for lunch in the weekend. Most restaurants are only open during the week, it's a business district. We had salads, sandwiches and coffee, and we took a picture of us together using the self-timer option.

After we had lunch we visited the National Archive. I have been there two years ago, but then I only saw the main documents. Saturday I found out that there is also a large museum in the building with many historical materials such as TV bulletins, papers and sounds recordings. I enjoyed it a lot and we'll certainly visit it again.

In the evening I cooked for the five of us. I made Chinese, and it was really fun to cook for a large group of people.

Jaap and Mieke left yesterday morning from Dulles airport.

Obviously, we arrived there very early and the check-in line was short. Everything went well except that the airline clerk almost forgot to take out my parent's I-94 papers. That would have been inconvenient. Jaap and Mieke were flying with KLM/North West, and when we arrived at Dulles we saw that some of the maintenance personel of Nortwest was on strike. There were other people working instead of the strikers, so the airline could keep on flying.

We had coffee together, and after an hour or so I took the bus back to Rosslyn. It was sad to say goodbye, we had had a couple of very nice weeks together.

Today, Sunday, was a very happy day: I went to Dulles airport again to pick up Sasha. She's been with her parents the last few weeks and her plane arrived around 2 o'clock from Milan, Italy. It's wonderful to be together again.

Yesterday evening we went out for dinner for work with a guest from Puerto Rico. We went to see the Capitol, and when I was there I remembered that my parents were planning to watch the concert that was being held there. I couldn't find them in the audience though -- would have been nice to surprise them there. Later they told me that they had changed there plans and went somewhere else.

We went for dinner in Georgetown, in Cafe Milano, a very nice Italian restaurant. I had the La Scala pizza, with arugula, an nice and interesting ingredient for a pizza. It was a fun evening. At a table behind us was Mr. Greenspan, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Friday evening when I came home from work I was welcomed by a lot of people on our balcony: Jerry and Marjolein arrived, They made a trip through the U.S., which they started in Arlington a few weeks ago. It's great to see them.

We went for an American dinner, hamburgers with fries. Of course we tried the spicy chicken wings, the pictures that we took in the restaurant got lost, unfortunately. Later we went for drinks to Four Courts, an Irish bar. We got a table, and enjoyed Guiness and Amber beer. A band was playing, and we joined the sing-along and stayed till very late.

Jaap has a birthday today -- congratulations!

He is celebrating his 56th birthday here in Arlington, and it's very nice to spend that together.

There were presents in the morning, and cake with whip cream for breakfast. Sasha and I gave Jaap a headset for Skype, and Mieke a book on American history.

Today is Gerben's birthday -- congratulations!

Yesterday after work we went to Four Courts, an Irish pub in Court House. It was a nice group, we were with some 25 people and it was fun.

Afterwards me and my parents went for dinner in the Silver Diner, where they tried a real American hamburger and a Budweiser. Jaap and Mieke liked the restaurant, with the small jukeboxes on each table.

This afternoon my parents arrived in Washington! I went to pick them up in the late afternoon from Union Station; they had taken the train from New York.

I couldn't find them right away, and thought that they were (already) lost, but it turned out that the train had a delay. Jaap & Mieke spent a few days first in New York, the first time for both of them there. Chrysler building, Staten Island, Brooklyn, a dinner with Jonathan & Irena... a lot of stories and a lot of pictures.

It's very nice to have them here. We had dinner together at home and went for a walk in the neighbourhood.

Sunday I drunk my first Grimbergen Tripel in a long, long time. I had almost forgot how nice it tastes! It's both sweet and a little bit bitter, with a wonderful aftertaste, definitely my favorite beer.

The Triples have new bottles, no longer the small, sturdy bottles but more regular shaped. I am not sure if that's a real improvement, but oh -- the taste...

Incidentally, I found that our Wholefoods was selling Westmalle Tripel as well. Because these are usually only temporary in stock I bought two large bottles. Three weeks ago I bought quite some Grolsch, and we still had some beers from Williamsburg. So now, just two days before my parents arrive, there is an impressive amount of alcohol in the fridge.