Bowie Restaurant Project: (12) Burger King

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a collection of all the Bowie Restaurant Project entries, look here.

Burger King, 6980 Laurel Bowie Road
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 7/27/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 1
Pre-Foursquare Visits: No
Rating: 1 1/2 out of 5 stars

It's a Burger King. On our way to pre-settlement inspection of our house, I was running late, hungry and driving right by here, so it made the perfect opportunity to try this place for review. I have made it my habit to order the chicken at Burger King, but since this was a review and, you know, the place was called Burger King, I got a Whopper.


In awarding stars, I really only had one question. I have referred to Wendy's as "a cut above McDonald's" and awarded it two stars. Is Burger King in that category (main argument: hey, onion rings), or is a notch below that and deserving of only 1 1/2 stars?


This has caused me to implement a new test -- is it the type of place you can imagine someone swearing off? McDonald's is the prime example of this -- Christina and I have essentially sworn the place off -- I can name each of the times I've been there in the past 4 or 5 years. (Generally emergency sustenance or bathroom use.) Taco Bell is another place people swear off. Wendy's -- not so much. I can imagine someone swearing off fast food in general and including Wendy's, but not a "I'll go to McDonalds or Burger King, but not Wendy's." (I'm sure there are always exceptions, but it would seem odd to me.)


Well, this meal reminded me of why I always get the chicken at Burger King. I won't give you details of my body's reaction to the burger, but it re-affirmed my swearing off of Burger King burgers. That's good enough to knock BK down to 1 1/2 stars. It is saved from 1 star by being the only Burger King in Bowie, and saved from below 1 star by offering a standard-order Burger King experience. Anything below my fairly low set of expectations (e.g., rude or incompetent service) would push things into that territory.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (11) Beijing Cafe

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.


For a collection of all the Bowie Restaurant Project entries, look here.

Beijing, 1324 Crain Highway
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 7/22/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins:1
Pre-Foursquare Visits: Apparently, since I had a menu from there in my office.
Rating: 1 1/2 out of 5 stars

This is one of about 10 Chinese restaurants in Bowie. It qualifies as a restaurant because it has a few tables, but it seems to do mostly take-out business.

Aside from being the southernmost Chinese restaurant in Bowie, this restaurant is completely inessential. I don't trust a restaurant that serves Chinese food and subs; it seems like it's trying to be too many things at once. I think I started doing takeout from a different place on Route 301 once I realized I didn't have to drive that far; my recent meal reminds me why. Not particularly tasty.

At least it's not a chain. At least it's one of the few restaurants this far south in Bowie. That's about all I can say positive, and why it gets 1 1/2 stars.

I have posted this restaurant as a waymark here.

In Bowie restaurant news, Bowie Living reports that the "Bang Bang Mongolian Grill" will be opening this fall in the Free State Shopping Center. I probably won't review it until it makes it into the 2012 restaurant guide, but I will definitely review it, assuming the opening goes as planned. It'll be the first "Mongolian Grill" in Bowie, but the area is thick with Chinese restaurants -- two restaurants and a takeout place are within a stone's throw, another is just up the road at Hilltop Plaza, and a couple of others are within 10 minutes. It'll be interesting to see how it does.

Lost and Found

Ben's parents recently experienced a fire at their house. Luckily, nobody was injured, and though the house will need to be extensively renovated, it will not need to be completely torn down.

When emptying out the house for the renovations, they came across a box of games I had left there in 1994. I tell the story here, on the BoardGameGeek web site.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (10) Five Guys

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.


For a collection of all the Bowie Restaurant Project entries, look here.

Five Guys, 3851 Town Center Boulevard
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 2/7/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 2
Pre-Foursquare Visits: No
Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5 stars

It's a Five Guys. It's a burger chain that started out locally (in Arlington) and has expanded across the country. The menu is very limited, but the burgers and fries are a notch above what you find in a fast-food restaurant. Your food is cooked to order, but all of the burgers come out well-done. So it's not a gourmet experience, and it's not a unique experience (I find myself at the one in Gambrills more often, and there are at least 3 others in a 10 mile radius).

As with many of Bowie's other chains, I can distinguish it from other franchises mostly by talking about the parking. Because it's in the mall, you can't pull up right outside and park like you can at my other Five Guys. If you're having one of their burgers, the walk will probably do you good, though.

I set the bar at 2 stars with my review of Wendy's for a decent fast-food place where there's only one in Bowie. Since Five Guys is a bit above fast food, I'll bump it up to 2 1/2.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (9) Subway (Pointer Ridge Plaza)

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.


For a collection of all the Bowie Restaurant Project entries, look here.

Subway, 1334 Crain Highway

Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 6/10/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 1
Pre-Foursquare Visits: No
Rating: 1 1/2 out of 5 stars

It's another Subway. From what I read, it's a relatively new one. I stopped there on my way to see a house in the area -- one we ultimately decided against -- and had a fairly standard-issue Subway experience. The location of that house was a major factor in not buying, and while restaurant selection was not at the top of our list, I think the lack of choices in the area is pretty telling. Bowie is about 8 or 9 miles north to south, but in the southernmost 3 miles, you only have 5 restaurants -- this Subway, two Chinese places, a Pizza Hut, and a Domino's I recently decided doesn't count.

So given these facts: it's a standard Subway restaurant in a bleak part of Bowie for restaurants, how should it rate? Should it get extra credit for being one of the few choices "down south"? Or should it be penalized for contributing to the boringness of the choices? Let's say both, and give it the same 1 1/2 stars as the previously reviewed Subway.

2 Subways down, 5 to go. While this was perfectly adequate, given that it is the farthest Subway from our new house (and tied for the farthest restaurant), I don't see myself making a return trip.

As a parent of twins, I don't have a lot of time for hobbies. In the interests of efficiency, I decided to combine my restaurant reviewing hobby with my waymarking hobby by submitting this Subway as a waymark. I don't find the "Subway restaurants" to be the most exciting category, but it's pretty straightforward, especially now that I've enabled geotagging on my phone. Since I am taking these pictures anyway, I get the coordinates and the requisite picture.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (8) Grace's Fortune

Grace's Fortune is now closed.

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a collection of all the Bowie Restaurant Project entries, look here.

Grace's Fortune, 15500 Annapolis Rd
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 4/18/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 1
Pre-Foursquare Visits: A Number
Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

In some ways, Grace's Fortune was the inspiration for the Bowie Restaurant Project. Years ago, we had a series of potential consultants coming into the office for interviews; we would always take them out to lunch as part of the process. The restaurant had to satisfy a few criteria: good food, nice decor, not a chain, (good) wait service. Since these were professors, I was looking for the sort of place you might take a visiting speaker after a colloquium. The only place in Bowie that I could think of was Grace's Fortune. One time, we had two visitors on consecutive days, and I got stressed because I didn't want to go there twice in a row, have someone mention it, and expose the fact that we really don't have other decent restaurants in Bowie. (I sometimes worry about things I don't need to worry about.) We ended up lucking out, having some extra time in the schedule for the second visitor, and went to Annapolis for Indian food.

I actually now have some other ideas for where to take an interviewee (to be revealed in upcoming reviews), but that incident was one of the things I think about when I think, "Bowie doesn't have a decent selection of restaurants." (Another, back in the 1990s, was when an unremarkable restaurant opened on Crain Highway -- I think it was Tia's, and I found it absolutely swamped on a Friday night. Clearly, people were desperate for more dining options. I think the quantity of sit-down restaurants has improved in the past 15 years; now I'm more worried about the quality.)

So what can you expect at Grace's Fortune? First of all, good Chinese food in a variety of price ranges -- the lunch specials, while not super-cheap, are a good deal. Second, you'll get good service. I think it would be awful to deal with poor service during a business lunch, and I've never had to at Grace's. The decor is nice, and although Grace has opened two other restaurants in Maryland, it definitely has a locally-owned feel.

What keeps it from being a five-star restaurant? First, it's a Chinese restaurant, and Bowie has a ton of them. I haven't visited them all yet, so I can't say for sure it's the best, but even if it is, it's still a less crucial part of Bowie's food landscape than if it were, say, a Burmese restaurant. Second, it's good Chinese food, but not great Chinese food. I can imagine driving from Bowie to Wheaton or Chinatown for better Chinese food, but not vice versa. I'd dock it half a star for each of these, but its status as a go-to "interview lunch" destination keeps me from dropping it below 4 1/2 stars.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (7) Glory Days Grill

Glory Days is now closed.

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a collection of all the Bowie Restaurant Project entries, look here.

Glory Days Grill, 15505 Annapolis Rd
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 3/26/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 2
Pre-Foursquare Visits: No
Rating: 1 1/2 out of 5 stars

Glory Days is located in the rather sad "Marketplace" shopping center, across the street from the Free State Mall. While the Free State Mall has had some success in remaking itself, The Marketplace hasn't turned the corner yet. A 2008 article talks about a potential demolition of the shopping center, but that never happened. With all the fits and starts towards redeveloping the place over the past decade, it's no wonder that Glory Days is one of only two restaurants in the center.

From their web site, I learn that Glory Days is a regional chain with twenty-two locations across Virginia (mostly), Maryland and West Virginia. I guess it's intended to be sports-themed, but honestly it feels like an off-brand Applebee's. I can't give specific criticisms of the food, because a few months later, I can't quite remember any of the dishes.

Looking at their menu, they offer new "shrimp zingers", along with "smothered chicken", burgers and so on. Yeah, it's that sort of place.

We went there a couple of times after house-hunting because it's somewhat conveniently located and they have high chairs. We stopped going there because the service was inconsistent, and none of the meals were inspiring.

Ordinarily, I would favor a local chain over a national one, but there's not enough local feel to favor this place over TGI Friday's, Applebee's or Chili's -- where at least you get the consistency of a national brand.

In the end, I'm going to go with 1 1/2 stars, mostly because it's so unambitious and unexciting that you may find yourself rooting for a demolition -- at least that would give the area a chance to start over.

Waymarking Update: If You Are Here, I Am Your Leader

I thought I'd take a break from the Bowie Restaurant Project to give a little update on waymarking. As you'll recall, waymarking is a hobby built around logging the coordinates of particular types of things ("sushi restaurants" and "Maryland historical markers" being two examples), and to a lesser extent, visiting those waymarks. (I wish it were to a greater extent, but that's another story.)

For reasons I myself don't entirely understand, one of my favorite categories is "You Are Here" Maps. So I went ahead and joined the "group" for that category. As far as I can tell, joining a group doesn't actually do anything, except maybe if someone sends an e-mail to the group, you'll get it. The actual functionality lies in the group officers, who approve or disapprove of waymarks as meeting the category guidelines. (For example, using image editing software to add the words "You Are Here" is kind of a no-no.)

After a while, without notifying me, someone promoted me to a group officer for the "You Are Here" maps. I guess they needed more people to review waymarks. So when someone submits a new one, I get an e-mail notification. Since it's not my sole responsibility, I don't feel bad deleting them if I'm busy, but if I'm bored, I'll go ahead and check them out and approve or (very rarely) disapprove.

A few weeks ago, the group leader decided he had enough other things going on, so he asked for someone to take his place. I have enough other things going on myself, but I couldn't figure out any actual additional responsibility I'd have to take on, so I stepped up to the plate.

So now I'm the group leader. I still haven't figure out any additional responsibility, and the title is cool. Except...the poorly-worded requirements for posting a waymark in that category had always bothered me.

YOU MUST POST PHOTO OF THE WORDS "YOU ARE HERE". Additionally this must be the default photo for submission. ( If you do not have this your waymark will not be approved ) Please list the coordinates and have a photo of the Map ( it needs to say "you are here" or the equivalent in an other language to qualify ) and another Photo of the area.

To me, this wording was ambiguous in at least two different ways. First, it wasn't clear if the default photo had to be a close-up of the words "You are here", or just a photo that had the words somewhere in it. Second, the photo of the area sounds like it might be a request, rather than a requirement. A lot of waymarks got submitted without the area photo. I didn't want to approve them, but I didn't want to be a jerk and disapprove them. So I generally left them for other people to approve.

So using my new standing (if not power) as group leader, I initiated a discussion on re-writing the category requirements. After consultation with my fellow waymarkers, I came up with

YOU MUST POST A PHOTO OF THE WORDS "YOU ARE HERE" (or the equivalent in the language of the sign) as the default photo for the waymark.

• You must have a minimum of three photos -- a closeup of the words, one of the map, one of the area -- in order for the waymark to be approved.
• The closeup of the words can be from the same snap as the one of the map, just cropped differently.
• The area photo can show the map in the location, but it doesn't have to -- take the best picture you can to show people where you are when "You Are Here".
• If the map does not have "You Are Here" written directly on it, but instead has a symbol and a map legend explaining that symbol, please provide close-ups of both the symbol on the map and the legend.

Things have gone fairly smoothly since the update. We've had a few waymarks submitted that did not meet the new criteria, but they were re-submitted after rejection. And I've reminded myself that while I like power without responsibility, I also like responsibility enough to create work for myself.

Bowie Restaurant Project: What's a Restaurant?

When I went to the Bowie Town Center food court to review The White Tiger, I took a few pictures of other restaurants for future reviews. Afterwards, I kept thinking about Auntie Anne's. My thoughts shifted from, "When am I going to get around to reviewing it?" to "Wait, is that really a restaurant?"

The answer is "no". If you look at the definition of "restaurant", it's

an establishment where meals are served to customers

The key word here is "meals". A pretzel is tasty, a pretzel is a snack, but a pretzel is not a meal. Even if you put pepperoni on it. On the basis that they do not serve "meals", I am disqualifying the following six listings from the Bowie Restaurant Guide:

• Auntie Anne's
• Best Pie Company
• Cakery
• Cold Stone Creamery
• Rita's Italian Ice
• Simple Pleasures Ice Cafe

While I was discussing this with Christina, she suggested that a place would need to have seating to qualify as a restaurant. While I initially objected -- there is nothing explicitly in the definition requiring seating -- I was persuaded by two things. First, practically everyone on Facebook and Google+ who answered this question agreed with her. Second, Christina pointed out that if you don't require seating, the deli counter at Giant would qualify as a restaurant. On that basis, I am disqualifying the following four takeout establishments:

• China Chef
• Crescent Food Market
• Domino's Pizza
• Papa John's

I am not totally certain on the Crescent Food Market, but it appears to be a convenience store with a deli counter. Since we're going to be living right around the corner from it, I will find out more and reserve the right to re-qualify it.

After taking into account the two vacant/closed establishments, that brings the total number of restaurants in Bowie down to 79. There are a few more that may end up being disqualified. In particular, the Muffin Man Caribbean Cafe has yet to open, and walking by it, I'm not sure if it ever will.  But -- I figure if it opens before I review all the other restaurants in Bowie, I'll give it a chance.

On another note, I have decided to release all of the photographs from this project under a Creative Commons license. Basically, that means that other people are allowed to use the photos; all they have to do is to give me credit. I'm not sure if anyone will want to, but it's part of a general effort I'm making to have my web efforts be of as much use as possible. You can find an album of the photos below; I'll be copying more in the future. (And you can find out some of the upcoming reviews based on the photos.)

Bowie Restaurant Photos

Bowie Restaurant Project: (6) Popeye's

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.


For a collection of all the Bowie Restaurant Project entries, look here.

Popeye's, 15480 Annapolis Rd
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 10/19/2010
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 1
Pre-Foursquare Visits: Several
Rating: 1 1/2 out of 5 stars

It's a Popeye's. In other words, like KFC, but spicier, and with more interesting side dishes.

This is in the same outbuilding of the Free State Mall as the Subway I reviewed last week. That means it has the same parking issues. While I neglected to penalize Subway for the inadequate parking, I think it's a bigger problem with a place like Popeye's. Typically, you'd expect to find a drive-through -- like at the one ten minutes away in Crofton/Gambrills, so having to navigate an annoying parking situation is perhaps more than you want to endure to get your greasy chicken.


I have to admit I find their chicken tasty enough to tempt me, but I may be getting too old to digest it smoothly. It gets some credit for being the only Popeye's in Bowie, but not much.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (5) The White Tiger

The White Tiger is Now Closed.

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a collection of all the Bowie Restaurant Project entries, look here.

The White Tiger, 3872 Town Center Boulevard
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 7/19/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 2
Pre-Foursquare Visits: At Least One
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Here are some types of restaurants that Bowie lacks:

• Thai
• tapas
• Vietnamese
• Greek
• bagel
• diner

The White Tiger is the only thing keeping "Indian" off that list -- and it's a pretty thin exception. The main White Tiger restaurant is a sit-down establishment in DC. The Bowie version is located in the Bowie Town Center food court. (By the way, 7 of Bowie's claimed 91 restaurants are in the food court, while 14 others are elsewhere in the mall.)

I wanted to like this restaurant, given that it fills a void in Bowie's restaurant diversity.  But eating here is like...eating at a restaurant in a food court. I think the best description I can give is that the food tastes like the frozen Indian dinners I get at MOM's Organic Market. Now, I eat those, but I don't generally like to travel farther than my freezer to get them. Likewise, I suppose if you're already at the food court, you should consider The White Tiger along with your 6 other options. But if you actually have to get into your car, make the drive to Greenbelt, Annapolis, or especially Langley Park.

I'm reluctantly giving this 2 stars, but only because of the fact that it technically allows Bowie to claim slight diversity in its ethnic dining.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (4) Subway (Free State Mall)

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.


For a collection of all the Bowie Restaurant Project entries, look here.

Subway, 15480 Annapolis Rd
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 5/14/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 4
Pre-Foursquare Visits: Several
Rating: 1 1/2 out of 5 stars

It's a Subway. One of 7 in Bowie. This particular specimen of the breed is located in an building in the parking lot of the Free State "Mall". Although it was an actual mall when I was growing up in Crofton in the 70s and 80s, now it's essentially a collection of buildings awkwardly placed around some parking spaces. There's a really nice Giant Food there, a good cleaners, and a few other places of note.

But enough about the mall, I hear you say, what distinguishes this Subway from the 6 others in Bowie? Well, I'd have to say the parking. In particular, it's terrible -- there aren't enough spaces on the Subway side of the building to serve the Subway, the liquor store, the Popeye's, and whatever else is there. So you're better off parking on the other side of the building and walking around. Other than that, it's your basic, generic Subway restaurant.

I would give this place 2 stars (the parking's not worth a deduction) like the Wendy's -- it's a reasonable example of a decent chain restaurant. Subway gives you the opportunity to have a relatively healthy meal. But as one of seven Subways in Bowie, it just doesn't merit that kind of respect, so I'll drop it to 1 1/2.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (3) Chesapeake Grille & Deli

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.


For a collection of all the Bowie Restaurant Project entries, look here.

Chesapeake Grille & Deli, 6786 Race Track Rd
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 7/7/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins:7
Pre-Foursquare Visits: No
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Christina has a rule about restaurants -- don't eat anywhere that spells "grill" with an "e" -- that's what you find on a car, not in a kitchen. The Chesapeake Grille is good enough to make us break that rule.

Salem enjoys their sweet potato fries.

As someone whose mom brought me to Hilltop Plaza for shopping in the 1970s, it's kind of amazing that it's turned into such a great little shopping center. But we find ourselves coming here all the time. As someone who can't stand Whole Foods, MOM's Organic Market is the perfect place to shop for tasty foods without a lot of weird ingredients. And the Kid's First Swim School is a great place for "Mommy & Me" swim classes (or as we parents of twins call it, "Mommy & Daddy & Him & Me".)

After swim class, we invariably find ourselves heading over to the Chesapeake Grille. Everyone is always great to the boys, but their "no tipping" policy always leaves me a bit uncomfortable as they turn our table into a minor disaster area.

But no matter, because it's off to the counter to order our meal. Most items have been hits, including the tuna melt (made with real slices of tuna), the turkey melt, and the fries (both the Old Bay-laden ones and the sweet potato ones). They bring it to the table, and are usually good at identifying places to put down the food that the boys won't disrupt.

The Chesapeake Grille has only been open in Bowie since late May, but it already has attracted quite a following. We run into the same "regulars" on different visits, and if we are there during peak meal hours, most tables are filled. They've already got 235 fans on Facebook, and it took me 6 visits to grab the mayorship on Foursquare -- both signs they have devoted customers on-line and off.

So why don't I give it five stars? Well, I'll knock off half of a star because not every item on the menu has been a home run. I don't think I'll get the hamburger again, and Christina wasn't thrilled when she ordered a hot dog. (On the other hand, on our last trip, I got the crab cake sandwich and she got the Chesapeake Salad with salmon, and we were both delighted.) I'll deduct another half a star because it doesn't really enhance the variety of Bowie's restaurant landscape.  Nearly every dish they serve I could imagine being served at some other place -- the only real theme is the extensive use of Old Bay. But what they do, they do well. If any place can become a neighborhood institution in a month and a half, the Chesapeake Grille has accomplished it. I'm sure we'll be going back again and again.

World Heritage Update: Belfries!

I was combing the list of World Heritage Sites in the hopes I had overlooked one I had already visited. Lo and behold, I found "Belfries of Belgium and France". Going back over ten years in this blog, I find an "Images of Brugge" entry that contains a couple of pictures I took from "the Belfort" -- Brugge's (Bruges') belfry, one of the ones on the list. My father actually framed prints of those two pictures, so I've had evidence of this visit hanging in our house for more than a decade.

My total is now at 49. Twenty-five sites were inscribed last month, so the total is 936, and my percentage has actually dipped (due to rounding) to 5.2%. Could have been worse -- without this finding, I would have been down to 5.1%.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (2) Wendy's

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.


For a collection of all the Bowie Restaurant Project entries, look here.

Wendy's,  16400 Harbour Way
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 7/6/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 5
Pre-Foursquare Visits: Many
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

It's a Wendy's. I figure if I waited until the end to review all of the chain restaurants, I'd quit halfway through. So I'll try to intersperse some of Bowie's less exciting dining destinations along the way.


I'd also like to clarify a few things. I'm not planning to release a new review every day -- it's just at the start of this project, I have a lot of pent-up opinions. Also, I'm not necessarily going to visit every restaurant just before reviewing it. In this case, though, I was out running errands, and it seemed like a good chance to get a picture to go with the review.


I can only find one thing that distinguishes this Wendy's from other establishments in the chain (see below). In general, that's a good thing. The Wendy's on Kenilworth Avenue has the distinction of "only Wendy's I've been panhandled at the drive-thru" and "only Wendy's I couldn't visit one time because it had just been robbed." So if I had to choose between the two, I like this one better. The only specific negative thing I can say is that it has a poorly-designed layout for the parking lot. When the drive-thru gets busy, it wraps around the parking lot, which makes it hard to leave parking spots and can cause the line to back up into the shared driveway with the nearby gas station. Minor enough that it doesn't lose any points, but I thought I'd mention it.


So where does that leave us? It's a chain. On the other hand, I think of Wendy's as a cut above McDonalds -- slightly tastier burgers, slightly more interesting menu. And it is Bowie's only Wendy's. A city of this size should probably have at least one, so I'll give it a not-terrribly-enthusiastic 2 stars out of 5.

Bowie Restaurant Project: (1) California Tortilla

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.


For a collection of all the Bowie Restaurant Project entries, look here.

California Tortilla, 3941 Evergreen Parkway
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 7/5/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 92
Pre-Foursquare Visits: Countless
Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

From the moment I decided to review all of Bowie's restaurants, I knew I had to start with California Tortilla. Not only have I eaten there more than any other Bowie restaurant, I've probably eaten there more than all other Bowie restaurants combined.

What do I love about California Tortilla? First of all, it's fairly nutritious. You can use their on-line nutritional calculator to count calories. Getting their burritos in a bowl (as I always do) is a great way to trim calories from your meal. Skipping the chips and queso is another good way, but I never seem to be able to manage that.

Which brings me to the second thing I like about "Caltort" -- the food is quite tasty. I don't love everything on their menu (the "California Screamin" burrito doesn't do it for me, especially in bowl form), but they have enough consistent hits (the Havana burrito and Sunset Bowl are two of the better lower-calorie options, and the Blackened Chicken Caesar is a nice indulgence). The fish tacos are pretty good -- not quite San Diego authentic, but a worthy substitute. And when I just don't feel like having a burrito bowl, the quesadillas are a nice change of pace.

The third thing that brings me back are the specials. They range from the prosaic (the "Burrito Elito" card's rewards turn into an effective 10% discount) to the wacky (the annual Free Pop Tart day is a must-visit event).

OK, so it is a chain. It is, however, a local chain, headquartered in Rockville and numbering 36 locations in Maryland, DC, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Based on the few I've visited, the Bowie location appears to be one of the better-run franchises.

Since I'm considering effect on the Bowie restaurant landscape, I have to dock California Tortilla a star simply for being part of a chain. If it didn't have a Bowie restaurant, you could still go to College Park or Laurel or wherever. But it gets half a star back for the new Coke Freestyle machine. Want to try a Raspberry Coke Zero or a Vanilla Sprite? Not a problem with this machine that mixes your soda on the fly and is worth a visit for its own sake.

Bowie Restaurant Project: Introduction

When we started to talk about moving to Bowie, one of the things that worried us was the lack of quality restaurants. When I discovered that the City of Bowie had posted a restaurant guide, I hoped that it would help me get a handle on the local dining options. At first glance, the choices did not look promising. Among the guide's 91 options were 2 McDonald's, 2 Pizza Huts, 3 Starbucks, 1 Starbucks/Pizza Hut and 7 Subways.

And yet, I knew there were some decent restaurants in Bowie. Grace's Fortune, for example, is always an excellent choice for taking someone out to lunch who is visiting our office.

Soon I got the idea that I would visit all of the restaurants in Bowie and review them on my blog, to ferret out the gems in between the fast-food sameness. I call this my "Bowie Restaurant Project".

Some explanations/ground rules.

1. I am using foursquare to track my visits to these restaurants. (As of this writing, it looks like I've been to 21 of them.) In some cases, I visited restaurants before I started using foursquare in January 2010. I will try to revisit those to have a more recent experience, but I don't promise to.

2. In fact, I reserve the right to modify the project as it goes along, based on my whims and tastes. In particular, I may not visit all 7 Subways, and even if I do, I probably will not be able to tell them apart.

3. To start, I am going to knock the total of 91 restaurants down to 89. First, Bowie counts "Vacant" at "13015 9th Street" as one of the 91. Although that location appears to be served by "Mama Cocoa's Delights" now, since it isn't listed in the guide, it doesn't qualify. (Maybe when the 2012 guide comes out I'll be able to determine whether a candy shop counts as a restaurant.) Second, another of the 91 is Seattle's Best, which was located in Border's, which is now closed.

4. I am going to rate the restaurants on a 5-star scale. Rather than rating solely on quality and value, I am also going to judge how much the restaurant contributes to the Bowie restaurant landscape.  A mediocre Chinese restaurant might get 2 or 2 1/2 stars, because Bowie already has 10 Chinese restaurants. But a hypothetical mediocre Thai restaurant might get 3 or even 3 1/2 stars, simply because Bowie currently has no options for Thai food.

5. You can view all of the reviews collected here.

6. Update (7/23/11): I have disqualified 10 more "restaurants" for either not serving meals or being takeout-only.

Nebula Update: Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin

Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Powers won the 2008 Nebula for Best Novel, so I read it as part of my project to read all of the Nebula novels. That puts me at 32 out of 46, including all of the ones 1992-2009. Earlier this year, the novels Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis won the 2010 award. I started reading Blackout last year, but my increasingly hectic life got in the way of finishing it before it was due back to the library. I'm going to try the Kindle route with George RR Martin's new Song of Ice and Fire book later this month; if that goes well, maybe I'll do the same for the Willis books.

But back to Powers. It's the third book in the Annals of the Western Shore trilogy. I really enjoyed the first two (I don't believe in taking shortcuts into series). Powers is in many ways classic Le Guin -- deep themes (the role of women in society, the need to fight against injustice) set in a science fiction, or (in this case) fantasy setting. The fantasy, however, in this book is pretty weak stew, however. The protagonist's "powers" are more something he runs from than anything else (in contrast to the first two books, where the magic looms larger). Mainly what makes this feel like fantasy is the non-Earth, vaguely medieval setting. I liked this as a book, but I'm disappointed it won the Nebula, since it doesn't really feel like fantasy. (I felt similarly about "The City & The City", which was nominated for, but did not win, the 2009 award.) So it ends up getting 4/5 stars. A heavier fantasy element would probably have pushed it to 5.

Once again, I find the county insistence on shelving these books in "Young Adult" to be puzzling. The book contains references to rape and child murder. These themes are treated with the appropriate gravity, and perhaps high school is a good time to learn how awful the world can be, but I think it's a weird label to place on very sophisticated books (that I would still recommend to a bright teenager).

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World Heritage Update: Rideau Canal

This week, I had the opportunity to visit the Rideau Canal in Ottawa. It is one of the best-preserved 19th-century North American canals, built partially as a defense should the US block the St. Lawrence Seaway.

This is my 48th World Heritage Site visited, so I'm up to 5.3% briefly before more are inscribed later this month. Since I've visited none of the candidates, that will drop my percentage back down again.

I was in Ottawa 15 years ago, but I don't remember making it to the canal. If I come across the pictures that prove otherwise, I'll update my World Heritage page to reflect the visit.

Where's Jon? Estonia Edition

It's time for the latest in a continuing series of posts where I examine the pictures conference organizers post and try to find myself in them. This time, it's last month's conference in Estonia, where the game was somewhat tricky.

See me in that picture? It's not easy, but I'm there in the upper left.

Geocaching and Waymarking Estonia

Can you spot the geocache in this picture? (Answer at end of post.) Ordinarily, I'm not a big fan of urban geocaching, but I wanted to add "Estonia" to my list of countries geocached. I think that makes 10.

There aren't a ton of waymarks in Tallinn, but on my recent trip, I decided to hit a few of them and add a couple more. I started out with adding a "You Are Here" ("Asud Siin") sign just outside my hotel.

I think my favorite part is the other "You Are Here" sign right behind it. (No, I didn't mark that one; I don't have time to be a completist.)

Next, we come to what was probably my favorite waymark, "Moment After the Kiss". Near the hotel, just outside Old Tallinn, is a park with a hill known as "Kissing Hill". The government (no idea whether local or national) commissioned this sculpture a few years ago. I think I just like the fact that a government was able to install something other than a bland, literal statue of two people kissing. Props to the Estonians for their taste in art.

Hmm. According to the sculptor's web site, there was also a "Moment Before the Kiss" sculpture that I missed. Oh, well. Maybe next time.

I visited a couple more waymarks of minimal interest, and created one more. I had been to the World Heritage site of Old Tallinn almost exactly four years ago. Although I had just started waymarking, I didn't create the waymarking in the "World Heritage Sites" category. I rectified that this time.

OK, well what about that geocache? It was under the post box.

Sorry for the odd angle on the picture, but it was actually harder to take the picture without attracting notice than it was to retrieve the geocache. To retrieve it, I just sat on the ground and pretended to fiddle with my phone (OK, I actually was fiddling with my phone, trying to get WiFi) until nobody was looking too closely. Sadly, neither geocoin I had with me fit in the box, but I did accomplish my goal of finding an Estonian cache.

Department of e-mails you're slightly happier to get from a TA...

Jon: Good news.  I found your name on a fax from Frithjof.  (It was not with the other names, which is why I didn't get it when I was recording grades--sorry about that.)  In any case, I'll have the "I" removed.  Your paper grade was "A" so that should figure toward an "A" or A minus for the course.  Sorry for the confusion. --Jeff

This e-mail (received 20 years ago today) is a follow up to the one from four days ago. I figured it was better off not asking why anyone would fax a list of names with one of them in a different place than all the others.

The paper? I think this is a draft of it. Intriguingly, it seems to only contain the first part, "Law and Punishments"; the intriguing second part, "Existentialism and Mathematics" appears to be lost to history except for this first page.

Written on an airplane earlier this week...

Spending 8 hours crammed into a plane seat in coach is not generally my idea of a good time (oh, how I miss those upgrades). One advantage, though, is that it gives me time to let my mind wander -- time that has been in short supply lately. I don't have to think about diaper changing, or work, or groceries...

Of course, many of the thoughts are still about the kids. Listening to a podcast which mentions "The Right Stuff" makes me think about how it would be fun to show the kids that movie some day -- maybe when they're 13 or so. And then the thought pops into my head -- what if one of  them wants to be a pilot? While that would be cool, I think it would be very stressful to have the same kid who right now can't feed himself in charge of making a hunk of metal hurl through the air.

In order to slow down the mental percolation enough to  get some sleep, I switched from my podcasts to a playlist of my favorite songs. (The measure of success I've had can be seen by the fact I'm composing this blog entry five hours into the flight.) As my fickle fingers skipped some songs
and lingered on others, I pondered what constituted a really enjoyable song for me.

I feel like it's easy to make a decent song out of common themes -- love (requited or no), growing up, etc. Some of the songs on my favorites list come from this source -- "Take Me, I'm Yours",
"In My Life" and "Scenes from An Italian Restaurant," to name three examples.

But what I find really cool are when an artist can take a song about a theme few others would think to sing about -- and then make it work.

Some examples I've listened to tonight:

·       Elvis Costello's "Veronica" -- a song about a woman with Alzhemier's. It brings tears to my eyes most times I hear it. (But not tonight for some reason -- maybe it's the dry airplane air.)

·       The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" -- about the end of the Civil War -- not a usual topic for top 40. Also, I always take a moment to enjoy the fact that the good guys won that one.

·       Ben Folds' "Levi Johnston's Blues" (with Nick Hornby) -- Not just a song about Bristol Palin's baby daddy -- not just a song from the viewpoint of Levi Johnston -- but a song that incorporates Levi Johnston's own words from his Myspace page and makes them sound melodious. (For the record: "I'm a fuckin' redneck, I live to hang out with the boys, play
some hockey, do some fishing and kill some moose. I like to shoot the shit and do some chillin' I guess. You fuck with me, and I'll kick your ass.") I guess this is technically about love and growing up, but it comes at it from such a different angle.

Sometimes this leads me a bit in the direction of the novelty song -- I don't think anyone's going to confuse Manfred Mann's "The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)" with a work of genius. These are the songs that earn a look from Christina that says, "Really?"
when they come on the iPod shuffle. In some cases, they earn a quick fast-forward -- say, Jump 'n' the Saddle's "The Curly Shuffle", or most of the"Weird Al" oeuvre -- unless she's feeling particularly indulgent.

I like to think that these are the types of songs I'd  write if I wrote songs. I don't think the world would be any poorer without another song of love lost or regrets of youth. But wouldn't it be a nicer place to live if there were good songs about pseudoprimes or meeples or identical
twins or one of the other things that race through my head on a transatlantic  flight.

You might think, "Jon, I can imagine what those songs would sound like if you wrote them, and I'm glad you don't write songs." Ah, but that's what makes songs like that so wonderful. "The Cask of Amontillado" is a great American short story; I'd have no idea how to turn it into a song -- but Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson did. "Right Here, Right Now" was probably not the most brilliant song of twenty years ago, but the end of the Cold War was a pretty big deal, and I find it odd that this was its only musical commemoration.

I should try to get some sleep now.

Maybe the "E" doesn't stand for "Estonia"

When I visited Estonia in 2007, I made fun of the "Old Estonia" restaurant for spelling their name with a superfluous "E" in tacky "Ye Olde Shoppe" style. On my return this week, I was gratified to see lots of signs for "Old Estonia". I figured they had come to their senses.

Examination of my old photo, on the other hand, shows that they had already rubbed out the extra "E" in the metal sign, with only the awning emphasizing "Olde". The new awning does as well, although it is not captured in my new picture below. Their web site confirms that the correct name is, in fact, "Old Estonia," so my new theory is just that there's a signmaker in Tallinn who doesn't know how to spell.

A nice memory...

OK, the picture is closer to forty years ago than twenty years ago, but here is an e-mail from May 18, 1991:

I played Spite 'n' Malice w/ Oma today...she seemed tickled to death when I suggested it, although she said "You're only doing this to be nice".  There are worse reasons to do things, and besides it was fun.
I won $0.05, too.

(Not posted: various grumpy e-mails about how she always managed to wake me up a few minutes before my alarm went off, even when I tried to anticipate her and set my alarm for a few minutes earlier.)

Department of e-mails you don't want to receive from a TA...

Twenty years ago today, I got this note:

Jon: When Frithjof faxed the grades for the final papers, yours was not on the list.  I'm going to double check everything just to be sure, but I'm quite certain your grade isn't there.  Assuming that there was nothing unusual about the way you turned the paper in (putting it in a box, sliding it under a door, etc.--if any of that happened, let me know because it may still be sitting somewhere), the best thing to do,if possible, is to get another copy to me via the Dept. office (i.e. give it to the secretary).  If there's a problem with this, let me know. Sorry about the confusion.  --Jeff

I find two things remarkably modern about this: that the bad news was delivered via e-mail, and that I was just able to grab another copy off my hard drive. Not bad for 1991! On the other hand, two things seem quite ancient -- that copy was to be printed off and mailed, and the grades were faxed in.

The Joys of Waymark Posting

On my waymarking profile, I have the following defense of visiting waymarks, which I think I originally posted years ago in the waymarking forums. (Many waymarkers only create their own waymarks, but never visit others'.)

56 reasons why visiting is better than posting.

1. It's easier. You don't have to spend a bunch of time looking up information on when the sculpture was created, or the web site of the library...
   
   
2. It's deeper. After your visit, the waymark page will have more than one perspective on it, possibly including pictures from different seasons, or as the site changes.
   
   
3. It connects you with someone else. You get to see the site through the eyes of the person who posted the waymark.
   
   
4. It connects someone else with you. The person who visits the waymark will (probably) be happy that someone else has enjoyed it.
   
   
5. It acts as a double-check. While in San Diego recently, I found a couple of waymarks where the coordinates were off by about a mile. I pointed that out in my log, so the owner apologized and corrected.
   
   
6. You don't have to wait for approval to post a visit.

I haven't posted a waymark since August, but lately I've been considering the other side of the equation -- namely, what do I get out of my posted waymarks? Well, for one thing, I get notifications every time someone visits my waymark. In particular, it's fun to think that some German guy posted the above photo to verify that he had been at the waymark. Of course, for this waymark (Roman ruins in Cologne), he had taken the picture to log a virtual geocache. Because of the geocache, it's probably my most-visited waymark, but consider my Tim Horton's waymark in Ontario.

This guy undoubtedly took this goofy picture not as a souvenir of nabbing some delicious Canadian donuts, but rather to post to my waymark. Awesome. It makes me want to post more waymarks. Of course, this only works if other people buy into the idea of visiting them. So I'll try to do both on my upcoming trip.

Math Reviews

I have a post up at my mathematics blog about my first review to appear in Mathematics Reviews.

First Bike Ride of Spring

On Saturday, while the kids were napping, I went for my first bike ride of the spring. I tried to do some geocaching at the College Park Airport, but I could not find the geocache.

Since time was short (and the kids were probably going to wake up), I tried to cut through Riverdale. Unfortunately, there was a train stopped on the tracks.

Not knowing how long this would last -- there have been a couple of human-train collisions in the area recently -- I headed through Hyattsville. When I got to the train bridge underpass over the Northeast Branch, I saw the train moving at about 10 mph. So it probably would have been faster to wait. And my legs would have thanked me. But this was a nice ride, and a good workout (about 10.5 miles).

First Ride of Spring at EveryTrail

Because I didn't have a blog in 1991...

20 years ago today,

The donut sale that we were supposed to have today got cancelled because the student government told us the wrong day & the Korean Christian Fellowship was actually the group scheduled for today. For a while, we were stuck with 360 donuts, but the marching band, which is having a sale elsewhere today, bought most of them & the student government bought the rest since they messed up & we don't have any money.

 I believe the "we" is the Undergraduate Math Club.

The "Stay at Home Bowl": Dubious Achievement Update

In 2003, I gave a list of all of the teams to defeat both Super Bowl participants. Teams that can sit at home and say, "We can beat either of these guys." At the time, I was rooting for a Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl, since the (5-11) Redskins had beaten both teams and would have tied the 1981 Browns for the worst team to have this "dubious achievement" had the Seahawks not exited the playoffs before the Big Game. I was reminded of this post recently when I heard Bob Ryan on Tony Kornheiser's radio show talk about how great the 2010 Patriots were because they had beaten both Super Bowl entrants. So which teams in the past 8 years get added to the list?

• 2010 New England Patriots (14-2)
• 2008 Philadelphia Eagles (9-6-1)
• 2008 New York Giants (12-4)
• 2005 Jacksonville Jaguars (12-4)
• 2004 Pittsburgh Steelers (15-1) 

The Patriots are second only to the 2004 Steelers for the team with the best record to hold this distinction. Let's ask the following question, though.  Of the 15 previous winners of the "Stay at Home Bowl", how did each team fare the following season?

• Won Super Bowl: 2005 Steelers
• Lost Super Bowl: 1979 Rams
• Lost in Conference Championship: 1980 Chargers*, 1981 Chargers, 2008 Eagles
• Lost in Divisional Round: 1994 Dolphins
• Lost in Wild Card Round: 1982 Browns, 1987 Seahawks
• Missed Playoffs: 1986 Dolphins, 1997 Cowboys, 2001 Titans, 2001 Redskins, 2006 Jaguars, 2009 Giants

So these teams have a 60% success rate making the playoffs next year, well above the normal rate (which has been between 35 and 43 percent, except for the 1982 strike year). Perhaps more impressive, these teams have a 33% rate of making the conference championship game, well above the 12-15% rate when you consider all teams.

Book Review: Voices

Voices by Ursula K. Le Guin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Voices is the second book in Le Guin's Tales of the Western Shore trilogy. I read it because the third book, Powers, won the 2008 Nebula. I'm also reading it because Le Guin is a fantastic writer. If I counted correctly, Le Guin has won the most Nebulas for Best Novel with 4 -- nobody else has won more than 2. Even more impressively, her wins were in four different decades. I wouldn't put it past her to add a 5th in the coming years. She's also won a National Book Award and a Newberry Medal.

I had been avoiding reading fiction recently, except on travel, because, you know, babies. But I find it important to read a little before bed to unwind. I figure that since I can renew books twice, nine weeks is more than enough time to finish a novel. What I didn't count on is the compelling nature of Le Guin's writing. I planned on reading a chapter at a time, but sometimes I got so absorbed that I went through 2 or 3 chapters, robbing me of precious sleep. (Of course, sometimes my eyes drooped after a few pages, and I couldn't get through the chapter.)

Voices is less of a sequel to Gifts than a companion, set about twenty years later in the same general setting. The two main characters from Gifts appear in important, but not leading, roles. It tells the tale of a young woman in land under foreign occupation. She is from a prominent family, but a branch of it who have ended up as servants. Nobody in this land is doing particularly well due to the occupation (she is in fact the daughter of a soldier who raped her now-deceased mother). The book chronicles the awakening of her somewhat-vague magical powers and the struggle of her people to free themselves.

It was interesting reading this book while, in the real world, protests shook the Egyptian dictatorship. I don't want to be too glib in drawing parallels -- in particular, Egypt is not under foreign occupation. But there was a certain resonance that made Voices more exciting to read in this context.

My county library continues their practice of shelving much science fiction in the "young adult" section. It used to bother me more to have to go there to retrieve what I consider quite-sophisticated fiction. Perhaps parenthood has softened my perspective, though -- if it means that well-written books with mature themes are more accessible to kids, maybe it isn't so bad.

In the end, I gave Voices 4/5 stars rather than 5/5 because I found it compelling, but not gripping. Maybe I'm splitting hairs, but while it was very enjoyable and thought-provoking at the time of reading, I don't see this as a book I'll be mulling over in the months or years to come.



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Geocoin Update: Free State Generic #3

I haven't had the chance to find any geocaches since the two in November (winter is always a slow season, even when you don't have twins to juggle).  But the geocoin I dropped off then has been getting some updates.

Three days after I dropped it off, someone picked it up.  They dropped it off New Year's Eve in a cache in Delaware.    Yesterday, someone picked it up with the note that it was their "first geocoin". That makes me a little nervous, since it seems more likely that they won't know what to do with it or that they will give up geocaching shortly.  Then again, I've been holding on to a trackable for two-and-a-half months, so I'm one to talk.

Sadly, since my last update, the other geocoins have been MIA.  I marked them as such, and have pretty much written them off.

Foursquare, reconsidered

A year ago today, I wrote a post about this new site called "Foursquare" I had started using. At the time, none of my friends were using it, so that dampened my enthusiasm.  Well, a year later, I'm still using and enjoying it.  Here are my reflections after a year:

• Being mayor is cool, but a majority of places I'm mayor of, I have a very tenuous hold on -- someone visiting two days in a row could knock me out.  
• I like saying I'm the mayor of a park or a good restaurant, but less so a grocery store or a gas station.  As the parent of twin infants, I find my opportunity to visit places frequently to be fairly diminished.  That should pick up again as they get more mobile.
• Nobody cares about Foursquare points.  They need to revamp them or get rid of them.
• By April, five of my friends had started using Foursquare, and when Christina started in May, it became a lot more interesting.  Sometimes, seeing where people check in interests me more than a Facebook status update.
• I still haven't used it for a spontaneous meeting with a friend.  I think it promises a lot of, "Hey, so-and-so is at the bar down the street, let's meet up," but at my age and place in life that isn't going to happen.  As I said last year, "I could see this being pretty neat 15 years ago in grad school."
• The badges are awesome.  I think they're my favorite part -- I especially enjoy generating badge envy.  Some badges I'm envious of: Just Desserts, Historian, and for some reason most of all, I'm on a Boat!
• They've addressed the cheating pretty well, especially with the recent requirement to use a location-aware phone for check-in.  It would have prevented me from getting any mayorships and badges from last January to April on my old Palm Treo, but I guess the world moves on.
• It would really help if the game got more developed.  For now, as long as they release more badges, I'll be pretty happy, but the whole real world meets digital gaming nexus probably needs more dimensions to take off.

Nebula Update: A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg

A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book won the 1971 Nebula award for Best Novel, so I read it as part of my project to read all such award winners. I vaguely recalled starting to read it before and never being able to make it through.

Well, I got to the end, and then remembered reading the whole thing. Can't remember when -- 5 years ago or 20?

The middle is very nice -- pure Silverberg world-building in the style of Lord Valentine's Castle (aside: this book won the Nebula, and none of the Majipoor books was nominated??!). The beginning and end are weaker, dealing with two peculiarities of the work -- the world's insistence that individuals hide their individuality (the word "I" is considered an obscenity), and the narrator's attempt to overcome that through the use of drugs.

At times, these themes seem very dated -- rooted in the 1960s/1970s. Silverberg handles them well, though, showing the downfall of the narrator in fairly subtle terms. On the one hand, since he's fighting for individuality, we're inclined to root for him. On the other hand, his insistence that he's got this wonderful drug with no side effects (despite all evidence to the contrary) seems a little familiar and turns him into a pathetic figure.

I'm now up to having read 31 of 45 Nebula winners. This one was harder to find, so I bought it used off Amazon. That worked pretty well, since I was under no pressure to return in to the library. I could read it a few chapters at a time, as parenting permitted. As it turned out, I finished the second half on a fairly empty flight back from New Orleans, as we were able to spread out and both kids slept most of the flight.



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The Decline and Fall of the Android's Dungeon

Here's a graph of the number of posts to this blog by year.  As I commented in one of my (rare) posts last year, over time, there's been more non-blog outlets for my random thoughts.  21 is pretty low, though, even given the significant life disruptions of 2010.  I'll try to do better this year, even if it means including goofy, "meta" posts like this one.

Thanks to the Department of Education for helping me create this graph.  Your tax dollars at work!