A few weekends ago I decided to take the lifeless kitchen walls into my own hands and add some color. Luckily, there’s a paint store just a few blocks from our house, and just enough room in Matt’s bike basket for two cans of paint. We went with Overt Green for the rear kitchen wall, hoping to pick up some of the light greenish tints in our table and chairs, and Portabello brown for the downstairs bathroom (still yet to be tackled.) The exciting thing about paint is you never know what you’re going to get. Sure, we held up the little swatches in the store, but the fancy light tester where you can view your swatch under different conditions was broken. Maybe it’s best that it was, because we probably saved ourselves another 10 minutes of color discourse. I then asked the mixer guy if he liked my color choices, only to get a confused look and another question as my answer. “Well do YOU like them?”

So yeah, the 2×2 swatch of green just doesn’t help show what it’ll actually look like on a whole wall… which makes me wonder why paint gets a bad rap for being boring to watch dry. I actually enjoyed seeing it go on and dry into its actual color. All in all, we were pretty happy with how it looks and now the kitchen is much prettier. Next kitchen task – curtains. Ooooh the excitement!

A few weekends ago we stopped in to try Sushi Go Round at Gallery Place in Chinatown. The concept is pretty simple – you sit at a counter and sushi goes traveling right under your nose on a conveyor belt. You can grab whatever looks delicious or interesting to you, and you pay at the end based on a color-coded system for which plates you chose. You are also free to order off the regular menu. Genius! It’s like the conveyor belt joints on TV — hot dog eating champ, Takeru Kobayashi, uses them as part of his strict competitive eating regiment. If the champ does it, you know it has to be good.

The sushi was sufficient (not the best I’ve ever had, but certainly not the worst either), but it especially works if you’re in a hurry as we were, about to go see Avatar in 3D. I guess the best part is that it allows you to be a little adventurous with picking something based on the sight of it, whereas if you read it on a normal menu you might not be tempted to order it. This was okay for us, but if you are more of a “I like to know what sort of raw animal I’m going to ingest” sort of person you can just order from the menu. That really negates the whole point of eating sushi from a conveyor belt, though. As we were newbies to the Sushi-Go-Round experience, we did not pick the optimal spot at the bar to get first picks on the freshly prepared pieces. We would watch the chefs place new plates on the belt, then carefully keep track of our new plate as it made its way around the horseshoe belt, all the while giving the “stink eye” to any of the other diners who appeared to be interested in our coveted plate. If you go, take note of the direction the sushi belt is moving and get the seat closest to the chefs. It is all about strategy at Sushi-Go-Round.

Last week, I was lucky enough to go on an after-hours building tour of the Smithsonian American Art and National Portrait Gallery. The building is located at 8th and F St, just west of the Verizon Center. It houses the collections of two separate museums, but together is known as the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. Our group got to hear the details of the renovation of the building, which was closed in 2001 when repairs got underway, and reopened in July 2006. All major mechanical systems were updated and replaced, and the interior courtyard was enclosed, as seen above, with a wavy steel and glass ceiling. At 28,000 square feet of open space, theKogod Courtyard truly is an interesting space to take in. There was initially much debate about the ethics of putting a ceiling on an outdoor space, but I think, as I’m sure many others do, that this is one of the defining parts of experiencing this museum. Every other time I’ve stepped inside, it was during the daytime, but it was quite elegant to see at night with the lights shining on the 864 panes of glass (each one uniquely shaped… thanks computers!) Other interesting tidbits — only the lower 1/3 of this space is climate controlled, so the trees (2 ficus and 12 black olive), which reach into the middle and upper areas, had to be carefully considered for their ability to adapt to the light and temperature.

The photo above is an interior shot of Union Station, looking up at some diners on the second level. I’m meeting later this morning with the event coordinator to get some more information about getting married there! The first official bit of wedding planning business. After that, I finally get to pickup my resized ring from the jewelers… Great start to the weekend! Happy Friday to everyone.

Here’s a peek inside the laundromat on 14th Street. Certainly not the most glamorous of photos or topics we’ve ever posted about, but there is a interesting utilitarian element to it nonetheless. I’ve been lucky enough to only have to use the laundromat once or twice in my life, during college. It was quite a hassle and very time-consuming, and, more importantly, I don’t like lugging my dirty clothes around in public. So, I always feel for the people that have to use them week-in and week-out.