At lunch on Tuesday, we hit Best Buy and La Madeline. I love the food at La Madeline. They had portobello crepes and mmm...lemme tell ya, that was good eating. :)

I went a little nuts at Best Buy, picking up the new Linkin Park album (it's great), and a few movies: (get this...) Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Jackass and the Wedding Planner. I'm a man of many tastes. What can I say? :) I also picked up another $30 to add to my cell phone. I'm really digging having a cell phone that doesn't suck. It's really nice to have it nearby and count on it working when you want it to.

The rest of the day went well. I got lots done at work, and instead of grabbing dinner with Tiago, I raced home to change. I was invited to attend the Eagle Scout ceremony for Rajiv Shenoy, one of the young men in Troop 55 responsible for its continued success. Rajiv was a hell of a Senior Patrol Leader, and really has a knack for leadership. I remembered last year as an assistant Scoutmaster that Rajiv was really a stand-up guy. So I was flattered that he invited me.

I threw on one of my favorite ties and drove out to St. Francis church, where the event was to be held. I was 5 minutes late, but in Scout time that meant I was right on schedule. Sure enough, I took my seat and the color guard began walking to start the ceremony. Heh. Experience paid off.

My inactivity with the troop has gotten me stricken from the invite list I suppose, which is a shame. I think more scouts would be inspired to stick with the troop if there were more than a few Eagle Scouts in the audience when they ask Eagle visitors to stand. I'm sure I would have been impressed as a young scout. There's nothing quite like watching a man you consider to be successful affirm that he started in the same way that you're doing. That's inspiring beyond words.

I thought this before, and Rajiv confirmed it for me when he was given a chance to speak after his presentation. The first person he thanked was his old cub scout Den Leader, who brought him over to his dusty old album of Boy Scout memorabilia. He showed Rajiv the patches and merit badges and told stories from back in the day when he was an Eagle Scout at scout camp and hiking on high adventure trips. Rajiv said he was hooked from that day, and that motivated him from the age of 11 to strive for the Eagle rank.

The ceremony was really nicely done. Senator Howell was there as a guest speaker which I thought was pretty cool. Turns out she used to be in the National Capitol Area Counsel (the head honchos of this area's scouting program). Rajiv's uncle spoke to the parents of kids in the troop. he had an interesting point. So many parents worry about the generations to come. But it's the quality of Scouts with values like Rajiv that make parents hopeful for the future. He had a really interesting perspective, since he came to America from India with next to nothing. He shared with us that his dream was to settle in, get work, raise a family and have children who could live to do anything they wanted to do. (The American dream, I suppose). I'd never heard it told to me so simply. Or maybe I'd never listened. This really hit me and again I became grateful for what I had.

After the ceremony, we went into a reception hall for some refreshments. Chick-Fil-A catered the event, along with a tray of Indian food from a local restaurant. Oh man. I had some damned good Indian food. Samosas is what they're called according to Rajiv. They're like dumplings, with potatos and spices, with the cilantro and spicy green sauce over them.. mmm.... good eats.

I didn't eat too much, since I had to do some running. I shook a lot of hands with the adults I worked with last year and some I hadn't seen since I was a scout myself. It was nice catching up. I hardly ever get out to talk to humans in my job, so it was a nice change to mingle a bit.

Running last night in the cool summer-like evening was one of those defining moments in my life. I drove over to the gas station near my neighborhood and parked next to a police car. He was speed-trapping people coming onto Baron Cameron. I got out, non-chalantly locked up the car, set up my iPod to John Mayer (gotta learn those lyrics 100% for the camping trip) and pulled on the reflective belt. Safety first! : ) Since I wasn't going to be able to hear cars coming up on me, I figured I'd give them a chance to see me coming, with this really cool bright yellow reflector material around my waist.

Anyhow, I started jogging on the route I laid-out with the car's odometer yesterday. (good thing I was non-chalant around the cop. Since I mentally was preparing for an in-neighborhood run, I didn't even think to grab my wallet. So I was driving without a license.)

The 65-degree air and the occasional breezes really made the run awesome. The neighborhood is far enough from Tysons that you can see the stars, and since it was so clear last night, it really was a great night for a run. I came up on some inclines and jogged right through them. Street lights and lamp posts in the neighborhood were casting my bouncing shadow onto the sidewalk as I ran.

I went into a few cul-de-sacs before I realized that I was still running. I told myself to push a bit more... "go to the next mailbox" and then I'd get there "okay, now go to the next mailbox" and I'd get a little further. Before I knew it, I'd covered 2.5 miles running. (of course, I thought it was 3.1 at the time, so I got very excited. It wasn't until this evening that I re-drove through the course to learn that it was only 2.5 miles)

I got home, stretched a bit, watched Jackass and called it a night. By 3:30am I was in bed and finally managed to get the damned TV off. Of course, I felt that this morning when trying to get up at the regular time. And of course, it made me late to work, so of course, I stayed later this evening than I would have cared to.

Happy birthday to Mike Korte! :) It's the big 2-3 for him today. He's on Spring Break, celebrating in the library for a 22-page paper that's due at the end of the break. yee haw. :( Hope you still had a good day, Mike!

For lunch today, we went to WrapWorks and ate at the Reston Town Center in front of the fountain. The chairs had been taken for rennovation to the trees, so we sat on the concrete surrounding the fountain. What a beautiful day it was today! Storm clouds were on the horizon though.

It stormed a bit when we got back to the office. I continued working on the magazine and got most of everything ready for the week.

Tonight begins my 4-day weekend. Woo hoo! I'm printing out maps and things for Mike and Adam's D.C. visit. Looks like we'll start out pretty stinking early tomorrow. Let's hope I can get my laundry done and get packed before midnight, eh?

Nah.