I watched the movie “Funny People” last week during the epic Northern Virginia/Washington DC snowstorm. We had LOTS of time on our hands. Of course, I should have finished up all of those lingering projects, but I didn’t. Mainly just watched movies and enjoyed the family.

If you would have asked me last fall about winters in Washington, DC, I would have told you that they really aren’t bad.  My theory, while not scientific (or even accurate) is that the Blue Ridge Mountains seem to break up whatever is coming at us.  Heavy snows seem to go to our North.  Then, I would mention that I bought a snow blower about five years ago and never used it the first three years.  This year, all hell broke loose.

Carole and I are planners.  So we started planning our Christmas party in February 2009.  For any number of years, we had a party every year.  Then, about ten years back, we went to every other year.  In February 2009, we hadn’t had a party in five years and to my surprise, Carole wanted to have another party.  We sat down and made a list of what needed to be done each month.    For example, outdoor lights needed to go up in October.  All indoor decorations had to be completed by November so that Carole could start cooking in December.  Cooking is a major project.  I actually had the tree up and decorated before Thanksgiving.

The party is always the Saturday before Christmas.  So, December 19th was the day.  We invited over 100 people.  We are like the airlines, we overbook.  But through the years, we have acquired so many dear friends that it is hard to know where to stop.  There’s military friends and Carole’s crew of volunteers from the Fort Myer Thrift Shop.  There’s the neighbors and the Arent Foxers.  And, of course, my golf buddies.  We figured somewhere between 60 and 70 would come.  To our surprise, about 85 RSVP’d that they were coming.  I began moving furniture around so that there would be room for three more bodies here and four over there.  On Thursday night, I grilled five marinated flank steaks.  That morning, we picked up a 12 pound Honey Baked ham.

On Friday night, the snow started falling and by noon on Saturday, we had about 14 inches.  The entire area was paralyzed.  For your information, DC can’t handle two inches of snow.  Schools are shut down when there is a hint of snow in the forecast.  I told Carole that at least the storm didn’t leave us in doubt.  Our daughter, Missy, flew in on Friday for the party and Christmas.  That gave us something to be thankful for.  So, did we have a party?  You bet.  We had those invited neighbors who could walk come over.  There were about 15 of us and we had plenty to eat and drink and eat and drink.

We didn’t have room in the refrigerator for all the left overs.  But, with the cold weather, we filled up the garage.  Did I mention the 22 pound turkey we were thawing out for Christmas eve?  Even though we had food everywhere, Carole decided to fix the bird for us and Missy’s family (Terry and the two kids, Tyler and Kristin, came in on Tuesday).  It was probably the right decision because what were the two of us going to do with a 22 pound bird?  Also, Carole likes left over turkey.

Well, the marinated flank steaks were to die for and we ate them every other day (the other days we had ham).  Christmas is especially good with family around.

Late in January, we flew to San Diego for a two week cruise through the Panama Canal.  I will tell you about the cruise another day.  We were to arrive at Fort Lauderdale on Friday, February 5th.  Our return flights took us through Charlotte and into Dulles International arriving at 9:00 PM.

During the cruise, the CNN picked up by the ship was the international version.  This was really great if you wanted to know the weather in Helsinki or who won the latest cricket match.  So it wasn’t until we arrived at Fort Lauderdale and CNN transitioned to the US version that we found out that DC was getting ready for another snow of the decade.  How depressing.  Neither of us even wanted to eat breakfast.  While we were unaware, our flight had been canceled the night before.  United notified us on our home phone.

Well, we scooted out to the airport and checked out our options.  Our first good omen came when we noticed that our overweight bags couldn’t be weighed because the scale at our counter was broken.  There were two earlier flights to DC.  There was one leaving very shortly to Charlotte and then to Dulles arriving at 3:00 PM.  The other was a direct flight  to Reagan that would get us in at 2:00 PM   Our car was at a Fairfield Inn out by Dulles, but we weren’t willing to roll the dice in Charlotte.  We opted for the direct flight to Reagan and were actually on the ground at 2:00 PM.  Home at 2:30 and had picked up our dog, Nikki, from the kennel by 4:30.  Then, we hunkered down for 20 more inches.

We didn’t see a snow plow until late Monday afternoon.  But, with two good size snow blowers and a lot of good neighbor spirit, we cleared driveways and the street on Sunday.  Then, on Monday, my neighbor, Jim Vancini and I drove out to Dulles and dug out my other car.  That’s right, no garage.  Jim found some jumper cables and we were in business.  The battery in my new Infiniti could not believe I had left it out in the snow for two and a half weeks.  I guess they don’t go camping over in Japan.  I was thinking, if I had purchased a Lexus, it might have taken off by itself. 

So, we got the cars tucked away and here comes the three-pete blizzard of this winter.  Tuesday and Wednesday, we had white-out conditions with snow and wind whipping around at 35 mph.  So, so much for the Blue Ridge Mountain theory.  The weatherman was explaining some sort of circular motion up in the air between land and sea that was causing us to be wiped out.  I have decided that global warming is a bunch of crap.  Hey, Al Gore, go home and turn out some lights and leave the rest of us alone.

• Washington, DC: 36 Artists in 36 Hours – Art in America

This is a picture of one of my kittens, Beanie. She is cute, lovable and needs your help. She was found in a bush on a busy street here on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, flea bitten and underfed. She is now a healthy cat but is being terrorized by my other cat, Binkley. SAVE BEANIE!

No, not really. Beanie can take care of herself. But I bring this up in response to a recent article about how we as readers psychologically respond to compelling social issues bombarding us every day.

New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof wrote an interesting piece in Outside Online that was published this month. His “Advice for Saving the World” makes the argument that people concerned with humanitarian problems are more likely to respond to compelling stories about individuals, not to larger problems. From a writer’s perspective, this is a particularly interesting insight given that I have always been baffled by readership interest and response to various posts I have published here at Global Investment Watch.

Kristof notes that in the context of altruistic responses to humanitarian problems, we are psychologically tuned to respond where we see a direct impact on our efforts. “Recent research in social psychology offers a couple of central lessons. The first is a bit surprising: We intervene not because of stories of desperate circumstances but when we can be cheered up with positive stories of success and transformation. For example, one experiment found that people are quite willing to pay for a water-treatment facility to save 4,500 lives in a refugee camp with 11,000 people in it, but they are much less willing to pay for the same facility to save 4,500 lives when the refugee camp is said to have 250,000 inhabitants. In effect, what matters is saving a high proportion of people, not just a large number of lives. Paul Slovic, a psychology professor at the University of Oregon who has pioneered this field of research, notes that saving a large proportion of a group is very satisfying, while saving a small proportion seems like a failure—even if it’s a high number.”

From my perspective, it’s interesting to note which of our pieces seem to resonate most with our readers. A piece by one of my colleagues about conservative pitt bull Michelle Bachman has been the most popular article at Global Investment Watch. Similarly, an article about Turkish factory workers and U.S. retail giants, received similar reader attention.

Coming back to my kitten Beanie. Would you care more if Beanie were part of the larger homeless kitten problem in America or are you more concerned about her particular problems with her older and bigger sibling?

December 2009 will be a festive month in the nation’s capital. Many of the best holiday sights are free.

Chris posted photos from our June North Carolina trip this week on our flickr page, and it takes me back to that incredibly relaxing time. We took the three kids plus Chewie plus Spencer (friend of the kids that quickly became a part of our family), rented a house in North Carolina and proceeding to generally do…..nothing.

Have you ever seen a magician make an object disappear only to have it reappear seconds later at a different location. Inconceivable as it is, although every fiber in your body is telling you its fake, you allow yourself, even if for a moment, to actually believe its true, because “it must be true, I saw it disappear with my own two eyes.”

Upon entering Kenny’s BBQ in Northeast Washington, our expectations jumped through the roof. While we try to maintain an unbiased opinion until we clean our plates and asses our meal, everything just seemed right.

Sign # 1: It smelled like a BBQ joint.

Sign #2: Classic BBQ Joint Appearance – simple interior and exterior. Small seating area to the left, cash register, soda machine and ordering counter to the right. A display counter where all of the sides and deserts were stored straight ahead. An old fashioned menu hung overhead.

Sign #3: Over a half-dozen of Washington’s finest were enjoying meal. It has been our experience that when it comes to BBQ and donuts, go to where the cops go.

Sign #4: No fancy plates and not catchy slogans, just a half rack of ribs in a plastic container.

Sign #5: The ribs looked absolutely amazing. Good color and meaty.

Sign #6: Affordable price – $16 for a half-rack platter – - six bones and two sides.

All in all, we were ready to eat. We should have stopped there… Just like magician’s quick wit and sly use of his hands, we learned, the hard way, that BBQ looks can be very deceiving…

At Kenny’s simplicity is obviously the mantra. They left the membrane on the ribs, didn’t trim the fat off of the bones and if there was a rub on the meat, we didn’t taste it. Overall, the ribs were very smokey, and, if you have the patience to weed through the fat, the meat was tender enough to eat and maintained its consistency while you chewed. Taste however, well, there wasn’t much to it. Sauce is not only recommended, but definitely needed.

We tried two separate sauces, medium and mild. They were both very similar. Vinegar based and sweet. The only difference between the two, the medium sauce had a little extra pepper added, which gave it a nice, but not overwhelming kick.

The sides – we ordered mac and cheese, potato salad and cornbread – could have stayed in the display counter.

Overall, what could have been great ended up as a disappointment. So much so, the next day, we felt obligated to go to a tried and true BBQ restaurant to pick up our busted swine spirits.

Recommendation: If you are in the area and have a limited amount of time and must have BBQ then stop by, otherwise keep on going.

Kenny’s BBQ Smokehouse
732 Maryland Ave. N.E.
Washington, DC 20002