When I was a kid (shh I'm not still a kid) my parents used to take me to D.C. to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, where I would promptly head to the gift shop and ask for "spacemanicecream." I do still refer to it by the same name today, but that is a different story.

The point of my rambling introduction of my childhood is to say that I think I've always liked D.C. It's quite possibly the only place I can see myself living other than Raleigh. I like D.C. because of the architecture, how clean the capitol area looks and just the overall feeling of the area. The whole worse-than-NC winter thing bothers me, as does the higher cost of living, but other than that I'm quite at home up here. I've never been much of a huge city type of guy though, I much prefer a smaller city with the bigger city amenities - I guess that's why I like Raleigh so much.

The drive up to D.C. wasn't too bad; the state troopers were out in full force in VA. I saw no less than 10 people get pulled over and even more eager troopers waiting for their prey. I kept it to under 10 over to be safe :)

Vinney and I spent most of yesterday sleeping, since we were both up at around 5AM to take our respective methods of transportation to get to D.C. before noon. We had dinner at Maggiano's (our first time), and I was quite happy with my 4 cheese ravioli. I've been on a ravioli kick ever since I had some amazing ravioli during my trip to Dresden at the beginning of last year. I think Maggiano's is the first place since Dresden that I've really enjoyed ravioli at, so it gets my recommendation.

Bhangra Blowout is tonight but now we're going to head out and grab a small lunch before wandering about the area. I'm getting the feeling that working on my ASIC project will have to wait until I get back to Raleigh :)

Have a wonderful Saturday guys 'n gals. Take care.