Fancy-pants Restaurant

This week was Restaurant Week in DC. Fancy-pants restaurants all over this city set a fixed price on their lunch and dinner menus - $20.09 and $35.09, respectively. Seems like a lot, but at these places, that's a deal.

So after work on Thursday, my co-worker friends and I went to our second happy hour in a row (crazy, I know) and made reservations at a restaurant called Vidalia. Described by its website as "original American with a subtle Southern influence", a more apt description for me was "over-your-head foodie ingredients with a few farm animals thrown in as guideposts for the uninformed like me". But before I get into the food, I'll describe the decor.

Vidalia is subterranean. The front door immediately leads to plush carpeted stairs that wind down to the nether-regions of an office building. It's a good thing there isn't a Vidalia in Houghton or Minneapolis - they would need steam cleaning for their carpets daily during slushy winter months. But Houghton it is decidedly not. The greeter, excuse me, maitre d', graciously asked us if he could take our coats (he did) and asked if we had reservations. Well, he asked if we had reservations first, I guess it wouldn't make sense if he just took our coats, no prior questions necessary. As he, or rather the coat-taker person, took our coats (3 on 1 hanger - they're good like that) I noticed that below the podium glass, there were trays of knickknacks. The usual toothpicks, business cards, and other accoutrement were there, but the thing that got me was a small white tray of reading glasses. I know for sure Applebee's doesn't have this option. But I'm not sure why Vidalia has it, either. It's not like the menus had very tiny font - and you would think the patrons would either be of good sight, good taste, or equipped with bifocals of their own that they wouldn't need complementary reading glasses, but what do I know?

As we walked to our table (prime location, I might add), I noticed that most diners were 1. a lot older than us (think mid-30s at the youngest) and 2. a lot richer. Oh well, I had on my best-looking work clothes, so maybe I didn't stick out too much. I checked out the bathroom (too much beer at happy hour) right away and thought it splendid that the stall had its own sink. The thought that some may forgo this option for the other sinks crossed my mind as I undid the latch of the stall, but oh well, bacteria is good for you sometimes. The waiter had a very strong accent, and it was very loud, so I did a lot of smiling and nodding to his suave suggestions. Usually a good tactic.

The menus, as I alluded to earlier, were full of foreign sounding ingredients coupled with farm animal names (i.e. suckling pig galantine). I got the pig for the first course and the goat for the second. They were really good - except for the fact that I coudld've eaten all of the food served to me in about 2 minutes at home. I guess the adage - quality not quantity - is somewhat of a set-in-stone law at these places. You're supposed to taste the food, not inhale it. Well, I'm an inhaler. But I nursed my goat for all it was worth and it was really good.

The nicest thing that happened to me that night was that my co-workers took pity on me for being a poor intern and bought my dinner. I owe them so much - and they made sure to remind me of that! But I am really grateful to them for letting me see into the world I may someday (hopefully never) inhabit. I'll take good bar food over fancy-pants food any day.

CU Boulder

I got a call today from a professor at the University of Colorado Law School. He wanted to know if I had any questions and told me a bit about Boulder, the collegial atmosphere, and the environmental law program. He said I had great letters of recommendation (thanks Linda, Kathy, and Kurt) and that he hoped I would attend. Hmm, that adds yet another dimension to the decision I'm supposed to be making in early April. It might depend on how much $$ they give me, if any. I hope they give me some - he mentioned that they only call a few of the admitted students, which I take as a good sign - as that would make the decision somewhat easier. I'm visiting Lewis and Clark in Portland in mid-March for their admitted students weekend. They gave me some money to cover some of the expenses, which will help out a lot. We'll have to see how the visit goes. Still waiting to hear from: UCLA, University of Virginia, University of Washington, University of Oregon, and University of Texas. I wish they'd hurry.

New York City

I've never been to New York City. So I've never been to Times Square, caught a Broadway show, or soaked up the culture in the rich enclaves throughout the city. So I've never had friends or family who moved there so I can visit them in their den of culture. So what?

In fifth grade, my parents and I made a choice that might have prevented that trip to NYC in my youth. After completing fourth grade at Ridgeview, a Bloomington public school, we decided it would be best to enroll in a private school. Not that the public schools were deficient in any way, I just wanted to be in a smaller school for my education. Understood at that crossroads was that our vacations, especially my cherished visits to Florida to visit my grandparents, would be scaled back. It was true that from then through high school, these grander vacations faded from my life. I spent awesome summers playing baseball tournaments in and around the cities, camping in Canada, and visiting state parks all around the state. I loved it and would have it no other way.

My parents sacrificed a lot to put my sister and I through school, a sacrifice in which a very minor drawback was that we couldn't afford to take lavish vacations to Europe, the West Coast, or New York City. A very minor drawback compared to the experiences I had and the friends I made. A very minor drawback considering the education I got and where I am now. I'll go to New York City one day and I'm sure I'll enjoy it. I'll go knowing that the sacrifices my parents made when I was growing up and who still make today will make that visit all the sweeter.

The Road

I finished Cormac McCarthy's novel "The Road" yesterday. I couldn't put it down and read it in about 24 hours. I'm not going to go into a deep, thought-out essay about it, but I want to say a few things. It's one of those books that lingers after you finish reading the last page. It's about a man and his young son in a post-apocalyptic world, following a road to the coast and, they hope, salvation. It's a dark, ash covered world where fires melt the tar on the road, roving bands of cannibals terrorize the countryside, and nothing lives or grows. The only thing that keeps them alive is their deep bond, which fosters an indomitable will to persevere. Unlike other books of this nature, the point is not on what caused the world to die - there are no detailed recollections of the last days, weeks, or months of the many who perish - it is irrelevant. What matters is how the survivors react. Some turn to cannibalism and pure evil. The little boy is only the true "good guy" for even his father commits sins to survive. Unlike the other McCarthy book I've read, "Blood Meridian", there are signs of hopefulness throughout the novel, although they are outweighed by the bleak. Any other author would take this subject matter and make it unreal and melodramatic. McCarthy's gift, among others, is to strip the superfluous away and elevate the prose to truly Biblical stature. It was one of the best books I've read in a long time and I'll have to revisit it sometime to truly unlock more of its treasures.

I hear it's been made into a movie coming out this year. Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall, and Charlie Theron star in it - should be interesting. I'll reserve judgment.

Three day weekend!

National Press Club & Senate Hearing

After an interesting biomass forum yesterday, today was another exciting chapter to my DC life. At 9 I went to the National Press Club, which is located near the White House on the 13th floor in a pretty ornate building. After pocketing a few napkins with the official emblem, I listened to a panel discussing wind energy in a forum hosted by the Farm Foundation. An energy researcher, a farmer/wind turbine owner, a county commissioner from Montana, and a higher up trade association member were the panelists. They were obviously supportive of the wind industry as well as the upcoming RES legislation which would mandate renewable energy, but with a healthy skepticism and pragmatism I found refreshing.

I did manage to get cornered before the meeting began by an energy economist from the Treasury Department. He was short, maybe 5'5", wore a $100 bill tie, and obviously took pleasure in being an asshole. Oh well, this city's full of them - renewable energy-bashing, $100 bill tie-wearing, 5'5" assholes! Until that guy, I'd never heard of the argument that renewable energy is blase because people used to use sailing ships and abandoned them in favor of steam-powered ships. Not the same argument. But oh well, he's in the minority.

After that forum, I headed out to the Dirksen Senate Building for a hearing on the federal renewable electricity standard (RES) called by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. I came in a bit late since I was at the wind forum when it began, but I got to see about 45 minutes of it. The room was like you would expect a Senate hearing room to be. Dark wood trimmings, a semi-circular desk where the Senators sat, plush leather chairs for the audience, and a rectangular desk for the people testifying. Since I got in late, the only place for me to sit was at the press table. Everyone had their laptops out, chronicling the event for their publications. One perk to sitting with the press - small dishes of green M&Ms. Who knew?

All in all, a pretty interesting day - only possible here in DC (and did I mention it was in the 60's too). My feet really hurt since I walked halfway across town in uncomfortable dress shoes, but it was a small price to pay. Here's to more interesting days in the future.

Senate RES draft (Bingaman)
House RES bill (Markey-Platts)
Senate hearing webcast

Biomass forum

I'm blogging live from the Pinchot Institute's forum entitled, "Ensuring Forest Sustainability in the Development of Wood Biofuels and Bioenergy: Implications for Federal and State Policies". It's a mouthful, but it's basically a meeting of foresters, academics, and industry people associated with bio energy who are coming together today to discuss the future market of biofuels, specifically forest-based biofuels, under current and upcoming renewable energy legislation.

As with any environmental legislation, interest groups are fighting tooth and nail to either "strengthen" or "weaken" the proposed legislation. Today, the most forceful pushback against an RPS, or renewable portfolio standard, has come from a representative of a large paper company. Many in that industry fear the eroding of their market resulting from the brand new biomass market that would be created by legislation. It is interesting how they frame it, however. Instead of stressing the economic effect of an RPS, they cite the detrimental effects on forest health resulting from the large scale harvesting of wood for biomass as a reason for at least creating an "exit strategy" in the event the legislation overestimated it's potential supply. Bioenergy advocates, those in the heat or electricity industry, argue for a wide definition of biomass to ensure a large and sustainable supply.

On the other side, environmental groups are afraid, echoing strangely the paper companies' argument, that a new biomass market would create such a demand that any benefit to growing renewable energy is negated by the effects of land use conversion, fossil fuel-based transportation requirements, and the ecological loss of healthy forests for single-species plantations. At the Union of Concerned Scientists, we work with many stakeholders - environmental groups, landowners, foresters, government agencies - to craft, or attempt to craft, legislation that meets somewhere in the middle. I'm quickly realizing that there may be no middle ground in this case - there are too many sides and too many arguments for this to be realistically achieved. I do believe there may be a chance to craft a least common denominator-agreement that makes the least number of people angry, but that will take patience and a pragmatic and open-minded approach by all at the table.

I'm also starting to realize, if I hadn't already, that this is not a problem endemic to the biomass sector, or even the environmental one. Effective policy on any level on any topic is never the "perfect" solution, it can only be the best "worst-case" solution.

Law School Update

Still undecided, but I've gotten into:

Boston College
Lewis & Clark (with a 2/3 scholarship!)
University of Colorado
UC - Davis

I plant to visit Lewis & Clark and Boston soon, but still don't know which one to pick. But, as the engineer I am and, for better or worse will always be, I did make a decision matrix...