Olympics / John Mayer

Have to catch up with a few events, over the past weeks. DC battled huge drifts of snow - a record snow-fall (even going back to the late 1800's), with over 2 feet of snow. In addition to all the snow (which we are not used to in this region), the temperatures stayed cold. Thus, huge snow and ice piles were around town for weeks. I was supposed to move to my new apartment - and had to delay the move for 2 weekends, until the sun came out! Fortunately, we did have a sunny weekend in late February and some friends and I were able to move all my boxes and stuff to 1500 Mass. Ave., NW.

The Vancouver Winter Olympics were also a lot of fun to watch. American athletes did surprisingly well in Alpine and Nordic events - beyond the usual figure skating, short-track, and snow-boarding (which they basically invented). Friendly Canadian hosts - and it was great to see Canadian athletes do well also. Their lusty renditions of "O Canada" really brought a lump to my throat! Kim Yu-Na was also achingly beautiful, with her figure-skating - which was almost balletic in its style. Lots of new young figure-skaters, good to give the US and Russia a challenge in that area!

Also, saw a John Mayer concert. Brings to mind the phrase "I see what all the fuss is about." He is a talented singer, guitarist and all-around performer, who is in his prime. His music is beautiful to listen to, even if you're not familiar with the songs. I mostly went to the concert because Michael Franti & Spearhead was the warm-up act: Franti is a funky, hip-hopper out of San Francisco. A big supporter of Iraq Veterans against the War, who were at the concert - got a couple of "shout-outs" from M.F. Good set overall - but I do think his barefoot style is a bit weird (especially in winter). But he gives an energetic performance that really involves the audience: at the end about 50 fans were up on stage with the band!