Washington DC

Lovely room
View from the seventh flloor
Bath

I am in Washington, DC for the week. My office always comes up in October for our annual Labor and Employment Law Conference. I am staying a couple of extra days to work with my counterparts in our office up here. This year's conference has the highest number of participants, about 125. We have judges from both MSPB and EEOC to speak and take questions. That is like a dream come true, when you get to question the judge. The food is even being catered. It is all good.

I am staying this week in the Mandarin Oriental. I can walk to our office from here. Believe it or not, they have rooms at government per diem. Actually, it is $2 below per diem. I love my job. How many times in my life would I get to stay in a 5 star hotel? There is also a 5 star restaurant called City Zen. I will pass on the restaurant. I hear you have to have reservations months in advance. I walked down the street to Pot Belly's and had a sandwich and malt. The sandwich was just OK but the malt was wonderful. We always have one nice meal out while we are here. This year we are eatting at Ruth Chris. In all the years I lived in New Orleans, I never ate there. I am very excited about it.

I posted some photos I took with my camera phone of the room. The bathroom is bigger than my kitchen at home. It has a giant deep soaking tub and a separate shower. There have a scale that is set to tell your weight in metric. I love to weigh in metric. I feel so light. But I want to know who weighs when they are on vacation. I brought my laptop but alas, there is no free internet at the Mandarin. But, I love being connected while I am away from home, so I am paying for using their internet. There is something that I have not taken a picture of and I don't know if I can do it without seeming like the country mouse has come to the big city. There is this giant painting of the Empress. She is all dressed in typical Chinese garb and she is swinging on a vine swing. The bizarro part of the painting is the monkeys. There are those little old man face monkeys leaping all over as she swings. It is truly out there. I would love to discretely take a picture. I will watch for the opportunity.

One last thing, then I will go. There are lots of families with little grade school age boys all down my hall. I don't know why they aren't in school. Then when I went to get my sandwich this afternoon, there was a girl in a crown, very tall heels and sash ( but without monkeys) standing in the lobby greeting some group that was having a formal event. I guess the Mandarin is for all groups. Oh, just in case you are in Geneva or Boston, they have just opened hotels there!