Today was the first day in DC that my brother had to go to work and I didn't have anything to do. (yesterday was Columbus Day). So I let Brian take his time getting to work by offering to walk his dog, Maria.

Maria is a mix of Welsh Corgie and Aussie Shepherd. It's hard to believe she was in a shelter. She's so adorable. But that's where my brother found her. He adopted Maria from the Washington Animal Rescue League.

Now, Maria is something of a babe magnet. In fact, she has this incredible ability to make almost anyone who sees her smile. She's got these yoda-like ears that are so expressive and moves around with an incredible amount of infectious energy.

I didn't really have a plan when I left the house. It was a nice day so we just started walking. It was about 10:15 so there weren't many people around. We wandered down one of the many streets around Du Pont Circle that are littered with embassaies and economic missions. We went past Argentina, and Montenegro and Slovenia. It's amazing how much is going on here. Especially having just come from a place where very little is happening.

We headed downtown past dozens of restaurants that would make my former Peace Corps colleagues salivate. I stopped for a smoothie and Maria was so good despite not really enjoying being tied up alone. (It was a brief stop).

We continued on past Lafayette Park where Maria went after the squirrels (must be a threat to national security or something) and then to the White House where dozens of tourists were taking pics of the president's house. All the usual wackjobs were about. People protesting. People asleep in the park. People jogging. People waiting for the White House tour. Secret service agents.

I steered Maria on through the crowd, past the White House and down to the mall where we found a park bench bewteen the Capitol and the Washington Monument. I took some pictures and people watched until the rain started to fall.

I'm not a very patriotic person, compared, for example say, to a militia member from Montana. But it's hard to sit on a bench facing the Capitol and not feel some amount of pride in the USA. I've been to a number of capitol cities around the world and very few compare to Washington, D.C. for sheer magnificence. And this is just the Mall.

On the way back down the path towards the Washington Monument, Maria took a crap on the grass. I thoght she was all done because she had gone twice earlier up in Du Pont. I guess she was saving a little bit as a meesage to the folks in the DC. I think what she was trying to say was that she was apprehensive about out current foreign policy vis a vis Iraq and was concerned that while there didn't appear to be an exit strategy we already edging forward to take our "progressive" war to Iraq's uppity neighbors. On the other hand, she's very against the mullahs in Iran as they represent an anathema to women's rights. It was a very eloquent message.

When the rain started to come down steadily, we made for home as quickly as possible. Maria doesn't do well in the wet. So now she's passed out and I'm watching game 5 of the Yankees-Red Sox ALCS.