Here beginneth...

the tale of Hamster's trip to Washington (no, the other Washington). The successful global despot should always take an interest in his foreign service, so I decided to pop in on the embassy for an inspection, and take in a few sights, of course. In my previous post, I mentioned I picked up some brilliant summer reading at the Library of Congress. As some may know, armed forces from a certain nation which shall go unnamed torched the place in the early 19th century. This, of course, required building all new:
This building, the first of what are now three, is right across from the capitol (which aforementioned forces also turned to toast a while back).
The interior has been recently restored, and it is delicious:
Many lovely details,

(yes, that's mosaic in the arch, not painting)

the wall paintings are Pompeian 2nd and 3rd style (Kel or Duncan, correct me if I'm wrong),
even though the architectural inspiration looks rather Hadrianic,and the main reading room looks positively Hagia Sophia:
I swear this is where Harry Weese, the architect for Metro, got the inspiration for the design of the underground stations:
And you can never tell what kind of DC power brokers might be hanging around, researching or trying to find a good read for the train...

Literary Matters

Why I never send in to those "What are you
reading now?" columns in the newspaper.

Hey, at least I bought it at the
Library of Congress shop last week!

A Fairy Tale for Our Times

"Trips to Grandma's are a lot more fun
since they put up that Burger King."

For those of you under the weather out there...

For Kel...

IT'S SUMMERTIME!
Yippee!!! Camp will be starting in just a couple weeks!!!

Modern Air Travel

Is it any wonder Penguins don't fly???

Never a dull moment with the Tookers!

What do these critters have in common?

Apparently, not much. {Tee-hee-hee!}

For the man who has everything...

Hey, look at the cool new throne the Jordanians just gave me! It's even got a built-in iPod connection.

I got nothin'...

Been busy all week, workin' away. Nothing much to report. So I'll just sit here and look cute, and get ready watch the Derby...

Battle of the Bulge

Sometimes, it's better to go on a diet first, THEN start exercising.

No Easter would be complete without...

Veteran HamsterFans knew that His Holiness was going to show up somewhere in this series. One of the great things about being Pope at Easter is that you get to show off your neat throne collection. Observe:Of course, by custom, the Pope goes to Castelgandolfo to rest the week after Easter.Sitting on thrones all week can, apparently, take a lot outta ya! It's true. The Hamster knows this.

Post-Easter Musings #2

Apparently an ancient folk custom in Romania. But if you ask me, its just plain creepy! "Hi boys and girls, and welcome to Stephen King's Easter Egg Hunt!"

Post-Easter Musings #1

For some reason, with Easter this year, I began to notice some really quite odd happenings that take place in connection with the event. So, being Wicked and all, I thought I'd run a little series on the peculiarities I came across.

Let's start with a curious picture of some folk from one of the penitents' societies common in Hispanic culture:Hey, whatever floats your boat and all. But what is the purpose of taking a picture of people you can't even recognise? "That's aunt Mildred, second from left, under the sheet; and that's little Bobby on the right, under the sheet, isn't he cute and he's grown so much over the past year! And that's..." I mean, really, what's the point?

HAPPY EASTER!!!!

Domestic Agenda

Darn! I've really got to get that leak in the roof fixed one of these days..."

Many Happy Returns!

We give Our most sincere best wishes to Our right-trusty rodentine infant, Baby Squirrel! ❤ ❤ ❤

Squirrel Trek

What with the volcano and all, We have been carefully monitoring Squirrel's journey to Anchorage at Our Global Monitoring Station via satellite. We want to make sure he gets home for Baby Squirrel's big day! We have put forces on alert in case it becomes necessary to send in a team to extract him.

10,000 YEARS TO THE WOODCHUCKS!!!

The start of 17 (or is it 18?) years of unspeakable bliss!

An Odd Situation

For those of you who perhaps haven't been following the mightiest spectacle in all of sport -- I refer, of course, to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament -- I thought I would remark on the peculiar situation the Fates have dealt me this time. In the next round, the East Regional Semi-Finals, my undergraduate alma mater, Villanova, will be playing my graduate alma mater, Duke. That's never happened to me before. I will end up rooting for Duke, because that's the institution from which I have the higher degree, and... well... I'm a snob. But either way, I win. I like that kind of situation.

Diplomatic Gaffe!

No one told the First Lady of Cameroon about the rule that you don't wear a fancier hat than the Pope. A shocking breach of etiquette!