THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Annual picture of George and a Lily Tree

I have done this for several years in a row.

This time I had George face the house instead of the street.

The reason was that the flowers on this lily tree grew mostly on the side of the tree facing the house this year (click twice on the image to see a really big version and you will notice the lily tree is about as tall as the other picture).

Other years, it was a different lily tree (near by) but they grew on the other side (see smaller picture - click twice on this).

Also, this year's picture shows the initially flowering of the crape myrtle trees. Also, on the right side are some roses in bloom.

posted by Martin Weiss # 11:22 AM

Friday, July 21, 2017

Unexpectedly Nice Lunch

I was finishing up duty at a restaurant today when I got a call from one of the caterers. The produce delivery was delayed and the regular mashgiach had to go home.

I came by the caterer and a few minutes later they placed the lunch on the preparation table. It was pieces of rack of lamb that didn't look good enough for an event they had done (also they had other things to eat, e.g. a rice and bean dish, a herb salad and taco chips). The 'rejected' pieces had too much fat for the client's specification but was very, very good (maybe a bit saltier than I would have liked).

I don't think I've ever had rack of lamb for lunch before. We ate it on plastic plates with plastic utensils while mostly standing but still, it was quite a nice surprise. The workload was light also, the only hard thing was lifting the boxes of produce (some of which were 50# or so) to the shelves in the refrigerator.

posted by Martin Weiss # 5:25 PM

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Ann has carpal tunnel surgery

On July 13, Ann had carpal tunnel surgery.

The condition that made the surgery necessary was probably brought on or aggravated by the work she is doing auditing medical coding.

The work requires a lot of mouse clicking and for years she was not using the best wrist protection devices and best input positions.

The procedure went well and she was able to do some work the day after the procedure. However, the bandages won't come off until about July 20.

UPDATE: Stitches did come out as scheduled. Things seem OK.

posted by Martin Weiss # 1:01 AM

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Bad start to trip but otherwise nice

We left the house about 10 am on July 9. We traveled north thru Baltimore with no trouble then a few miles before the Millard Tydings Bridge (which carries I-95 over the Susquehanna River) we saw an overhead sign warning that I-95 was closed at exit 93 (the first exit north of that Bridge). There wasn't much we could do but wait to be detoured onto US 40 but that took over 3 hours from the time we saw the overhead sign. That wasn't the end of our travel problems as the traffic on US 40 didn't move very well either at times.

The image is from a Fox News article on the cause of the problem which involved a fatal crash (the victim being a tow operator).

We didn't see everything we wanted but one of things we did see was the Hippo pool at the Camden Aquarium.

A separate blog on this trip is located here.

posted by Martin Weiss # 1:19 PM

Sunday, July 02, 2017

A nice downtown museum

Ann and I went to the National Building Museum today. It is in the building that once was the Pension Building completed in the 1880s.

We went partly for the current exhibit on Saint Elizabeths which is a psychiatric hospital that is the process of being demolished and replaced by the Department of Homeland Security HQ and the Coast Guard HQ.

We also went because the really fascinating parts of the building. It was designed by Montgomery Meigs, the Civil War Quartermaster of the Army.

The first image (all the images are from the internet and expand when you click on them) is of the Great Hall which comprises about 80% of the volume of the building (over 300' by 100' of floor). The central columns are 75 feet high, among the tallest indoor Corinthian columns in the world. They are brick with plaster painted to look like marble. The second floor columns are ionic and made of iron (cylinders that are hollow). The first floor columns are terracotta (I told the docent that I don't understand why terracotta was used on the first floor when it is far weaker than iron). She said that she thought that the columns don't really take that much weight since there are so many of them.

The outside of the building has, among its features, a line of friezes, showing Union soldiers, sailors, artillery and cavalry (this totals an amazing 1200' in length). That feature was inspired by the friezes on the Parthenon. In the building interior they have a few panels of short sections of this frieze.

The third image is a the friezes over the south entrance.

The outside of the building was inspired by the Palazzo Farnese, a Renaissance palace in Rome which currently houses the French Embassy to Italy (last image).

In addition to the exhibit about Saint Elizabeth, they also had an exhibit on wood buildings (interestingly, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill has designed a 40 story wood and glass building that they are looking to build somewhere as a demonstration.)

There was also an exhibit on FL Wright buildings.

The museum is about as convenient to the metrorail as any in the DC area. It is just across the street from the F street exit from the Judiciary Square station. Our ride to and from was quiet and trouble free (despite the Metrorail's reputation as the system whose motto is "Sometimes We're Not On Fire".

posted by Martin Weiss # 8:35 PM