In the hotel

I'm at the Hilton Arlington, and settled into my room. I got here really late, thanks to the delays with my bags, but all's well that ends well.

via flickr

The hotel is your basic Hilton, not much to write home about. I've always had mixed feelings about Northern Virginia-- as someone who grew up in Richmond, I was taught to look upon Nova as a foreign country filled with obnoxious preppies and assume they saw us as a bunch of rubes (the John Hughes Weltanschauung blown up to gigantic proportions)-- but I have to say: this place is really easy to get to. Two Metro stops from West Falls Church (the line that connects to Dulles), and it's literally on top of the Metro station. And I could not be closer to the NSF. In fact, I may look out my window into its windows.

So it lacks something in exotica, but it's damned convenient.

I went to an IHOP across the street, and it was a bit of a letdown. Mainly because I'm on a low-carb diet, and so I passed on the pancakes in favor of steak. Going to an IHOP is just not the same if you don't have pancakes.

via flickr

Tomorrow morning I'm taking the Metro in to the National Academies, and will spend a little time there; then it's back here, and to the scientific visualization workshop, which really looks terrific.

[To the tune of Miles Davis, "It's About That Time," from the album "The Complete In A Silent Way Sessions [Disc 2]".]

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