observations from suburbia
The New York Times reports today that Alexandr Solzhenitsyn died at 89 of heart conditions.
I read his book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich when I was in high school at my debate coach’s recommendation.
It truly was a fascinating account of the horrors of the Soviet prison system under Stalin.
Today we have lost a freedom fighter as well as a very strong writer.
somehow this just doesn’t make sense, but I like it
I happened to have a vague reason to visit our Sterling, VA facility on Wednesday. Well, it was a feild trip. I’m sure Joe really needed the extra hands to slide in 2 four port gigE cards into those chassis… At any rate, we found ourselves in NOVA around lunch. Being only a few miles from the best Southwestern Restaurant in the DC area, I suggested we hit the Tortilla Factory in Herndon. Fantastic stuff.
In a former life, when I lived in Reston, I would go to the Tortilla Factory at least once a week. Damn, I miss that place. Great food, I mean GREAT FOOD. I got the old standby, a Machaca Burrito. They now offer it in a chicken variety, but I stuck with the tried and true beef. Divine.
They’ve been in Herndon since 1972. I was so tempted to buy a T-shirt, but I did not succumb. Maybe next time.
After dropping Greyson off at daycare today, I rolled over to Safeway to get some milk since we were out and all. All I got was on half gallon carton of milk, organic, lowfat. I didn’t even get a cart or a basket cause I knew I was only getting one half gallon of milk. So I head to the express line and miraculously, it was indeed express. The woman who was ringing me up, instinctively put the single half gallon of milk into one of those damn plastic bags. I said, probably a little gruffly (it was 8:30 and I’d only had half a cup of java), “I don’t need a bag, thanks.”
You’d have thought I’d defecated on a member of her family’s grave. She gave me a look that was all too telling, pretty much it said, “This is the way I do my job.. I put things in bags and take money. Don’t ask me to do it differently. Its only ONE bag.” But she did pull the single carton of milk which I’d carried all the way from the back of the store to the front with no basket, cart or bag in one hand, out of the plastic bag and set it on the counter. Then she made change for a 5. Well, a machine made the actual change, she just had to get out a single dollar bill.
I should have asked for a gold dollar instead.
Another memborable commercial from the 80s in Baltimore.
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