Marriott Georgetown University Conference Center Washington DC

... that has been in business for 50 years! I had a burger, fries, and a bowl of chili...YUM! Left there and caught a train to The Museum of American History (more like TV artifacts, but my Mom was exicited)...it was fun to see how excited my Mom got upon seeing Dorthy's (from the Wizard of Oz) shoes.

We then took the trolley around for a while....saw another kid rolling up windows...what ...

... they had lots of touchscreens, audio clips etc that you could use to find out more information. I particuarly liked the collections of letters to the President that had been collected over the years, including one from a WW2 soldier who wrote to Roosevelt to ask him to be Godfather to his son and a funny one from some factory girls begging the President not to give Elvis a GI haircut!

Today the three of us decided to head to ...

The safest place in the world. DC on the fourth of July. As helicopters buzz overhead police officers scan the crowds for irregular behaviour. I suppose this is a difficult task during the national holiday. Enthusiasts from Alabama greet parading marines. Puerto Ricans cheer for the trumpet band - latino style. Everyone proudly hails the streams of veterans, driven ...

... to a lead construction company from outside the US. So not only are we setting new ground on "who" is working this project, but VBL's "how" is also creating history. The folks at the state department are very, very happy to hear of our company and the exciting technology and process we are adding to their new building. "The possibilities moving forward are numerous and should be even more exciting," I was told by one of their project ...

... 1 cent. like, who needs it? aussie don't and we cope quite well. it's stupid and a waste of space in my wallet. and whats with having dollar notes and dollar coins. chose one and stick to it. i say coins cos when u look in your wallet and see heaps of notes, u think your rich. turns out you only have $8. maccas: everywhere. NEXT! tollways: how much money do these people wanna make from us using their roads? and they're everywhere. all the time. dumb. ok, i think we ...

... Raced back to the airlines check-in - she had already issued our tickets, and alerted baggage handling that there more bags for the Chicago flight; and had printed our baggage tags. She was great!!! We actually had plenty of time - it was just that she was going off-duty, and apparently there was no one that could have done all that for us - she was just waiting to help us and ...

... adjustment. He said he would make it happen, and for some reason, I believed him. A couple of months later I went and spoke to our HR person to find out the status of my so-called promotion and wage adjustment - apparently nothing had been done. I made a quiet threat that if it was not done well and soon, I would quietly walk out the door. There would be no negotiating, no ********, no threats to leave followed by counter offers. There was one chance to do it right and ...

... s an experience that you must be present for to fully understand, if ya know what I mean. The bus ride itself was also as expected and I was able to get a few hours sleep.

DC has been the walking fest that it has always been during my past trips and I love it. The cherry blossoms are all about a week past prime, but I really could not have asked for better weather. I'll upload pics sometime later (I have free ...

... of Rights, all of which are on display in the beautiful Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom. Having had a look at these we came back out and found that the temperature had suddenly rocketed by what felt like at least 10 degrees while we had been inside! It felt like someone had just flicked a switch and turned a heater on and was also very humid. (it was apparently 76F with 90% humidity!) We went on to the National ...