Washington, DC

I visited the National Portrait Gallery a few weeks ago. One of the main exhibits here is the Presidential Portrait Gallery. It is the only complete collection of the U.S. Presidential Portraits besides the collection at the White House, although it does not have the portrait of the current President. I assume his will be added when his term ends and the next President takes office about a year from now. If you are still looking for something to do for President’s Day (especially if you have kids off of school), then it is well worth spending the day not just seeing the Presidential Portraits, but the many other exhibits at the National Portrait Gallery, which is in the same building as the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

For those of you who cannot get to the Presidential Portrait gallery today, then check out my slideshow below. I took a photo of all the President portraits (some have more than one, George Washington has like four or five) here. I have compiled a video slideshow of one portrait per President and have organized it to portray the time line of U.S. Presidents from 1789-2001. I thought it seemed like a good tribute to the Presidents to share on President’s Day this year.

They may not have been perfect and some made more mistakes than others, but they kept the country together (or reunited it, in the case of Lincoln) and have all at least had some sort of positive impact on the country as a whole even if their negatives seem to make it hard to see the positives.

Today I drew to determine the winner of the book The Pentagon: A History: The Untold Story of the Wartime Race to Build the Pentagon And to Restore it Sixty Years Later by Steve Vogel.

And the Winner is…Mary MacIntyre for her comment on this post.

contest, Pentagon, book

Remember that you can win an autographed copy of The Pentagon: A History: The Untold Story of the Wartime Race to Build the Pentagon And to Restore it Sixty Years Later by Steve Vogel just by commenting on posts on this blog. Below are how it works as originally announced in the post here.

To enter all you have to do is comment on any November post on this blog before the end of the month. Each comment gives you an entry into the contest. On December 1st, I will put one entry per comment into a hat and draw a winner. The winner will be notified by e-mail provided when commenting and announced on here by their comment nickname and website if they use it when commenting.

contest, Pentagon, book

Remember that you can win an autographed copy of The Pentagon: A History: The Untold Story of the Wartime Race to Build the Pentagon And to Restore it Sixty Years Later by Steve Vogel just by commenting on posts on this blog. Below are how it works as originally announced in the post here.

To enter all you have to do is comment on any November post on this blog before the end of the month. Each comment gives you an entry into the contest. On December 1st, I will put one entry per comment into a hat and draw a winner. The winner will be notified by e-mail provided when commenting and announced on here by their comment nickname and website if they use it when commenting.

contest, Pentagon, book

Remember that you can win an autographed copy of The Pentagon: A History: The Untold Story of the Wartime Race to Build the Pentagon And to Restore it Sixty Years Later by Steve Vogel just by commenting on posts on this blog. Below are how it works as originally announced in the post here.

To enter all you have to do is comment on any November post on this blog before the end of the month. Each comment gives you an entry into the contest. On December 1st, I will put one entry per comment into a hat and draw a winner. The winner will be notified by e-mail provided when commenting and announced on here by their comment nickname and website if they use it when commenting.

contest, Pentagon, book

Remember that you can win an autographed copy of The Pentagon: A History: The Untold Story of the Wartime Race to Build the Pentagon And to Restore it Sixty Years Later by Steve Vogel just by commenting on posts on this blog. Below are how it works as originally announced in the post here.

To enter all you have to do is comment on any November post on this blog before the end of the month. Each comment gives you an entry into the contest. On December 1st, I will put one entry per comment into a hat and draw a winner. The winner will be notified by e-mail provided when commenting and announced on here by their comment nickname and website if they use it when commenting.

contest, Pentagon, book

Remember that you can win an autographed copy of The Pentagon: A History: The Untold Story of the Wartime Race to Build the Pentagon And to Restore it Sixty Years Later by Steve Vogel just by commenting on posts on this blog. Below are how it works as originally announced in the post here.

To enter all you have to do is comment on any November post on this blog before the end of the month. Each comment gives you an entry into the contest. On December 1st, I will put one entry per comment into a hat and draw a winner. The winner will be notified by e-mail provided when commenting and announced on here by their comment nickname and website if they use it when commenting.

contest, Pentagon, book

I have decided to run a contest this month. The prize will be an autographed copy of the Book of the Week being featured on November 7th. To enter all you have to do is comment on any November post on this blog before the end of the month. Each comment gives you an entry into the contest. On December 1st, I will put one entry per comment into a hat and draw a winner. The winner will be notified by e-mail provided when commenting and announced on her by their comment nickname and website if they use it when commenting.

comments, contest, book

Next week I will begin posting using daily categories that repeat every week. Reader input is accepted for all the different categories and see the descriptions of the different ones to better understand how to give suggestions for them.

Mondays: D.C. Sports Recap and Coming Up

Every Monday this post will give a results recap from the previous week from major sports teams in D.C. It will also give the dates and times for teams playing in D.C. in the coming week. Teams to be included will be D.C. United (MLS, soccer), Washington Capitals (NHL, hockey), Washington Mystics (WNBA, basketball), Washington Nationals (MLB, baseball), Washington Redskins (NFL, football), and Washington Wizards (NBA, basketball). Reader input accepted for this post is mostly limited to photos. If you go to a game of one of these teams and submit a photo, then I will feature it in the Monday post or the Photo of the Day for Monday along with your name and a link to your website if you want.

Tuesdays: Special Topic

Each Tuesday I will post about a different topic related to D.C. Most often it will probably be about a place to visit in the area, but it is open to anything D.C. related that does not fit into the other categories so feel free to suggest pretty much anything that you would like to see on the blog that relates to D.C. for this topic.

Wednesdays: Book of the Week

I will post every Wednesday about a D.C. related book. I will try to vary the type of book featured from week to week, such as try not to have two of the same genre in two consecutive weeks, however I will do it if they both happen to be suggestions submitted. To go along with that feel free to submit suggestions for D.C. related books of any genre.

Thursdays: This Weekend in D.C.

This will continue to be the same as I have been doing. If you know any Weekend events going on in the D.C. area, then please let me know and I can feature it the Thursday before in this post. Also, remember to leave comments on the post if you know of some event going on that weekend that I did not feature or you just heard about.

Fridays: Restaurant of the Week

This weekly post will feature a restaurant in the D.C. area. Like the book of the week I will try to vary the type of restaurants featured from week to week. Your suggestions for this topic would really be appreciated, so let me know your favorite D.C. restaurants or your latest great find.

All suggestions of what you want to see me write about can be e-mailed to me at kjersti.wasiak@451press.net Please try to use the category your suggestion relates to int he subject line of your e-mail. Photo of the Day submissions do not have to relate to any category, as the categories will only occasionally apply to the day’s Photo of the Day.

There will also still be posts unrelated to the categories in addition to the category posts, such as news, new exhibits opening at museums, and my visits to festivals.

blog, D.C., books, restaurants, sports, weekend

The topic for next week’s main posts will be Video Games with at least some levels set in D.C. I currently only have 3 ideas for this topic, but I am going ahead with it as it is my last weekly topic on my list. Sure I could come up with more weekly topics if I wanted to, but instead of announcing the next week’s theme next Friday I will be announcing the new way I am going to organize my blog postings. Because of this change away from weekly topics, I am not taking suggestions of topics you want to see at this time. Don’t worry though after I announce the new method to my postings I will again be ready for suggestions in several new ways. I guarantee that your suggestions as long as they relate to D.C. and I feel competent at doing will have a place in the new organization. The new organization will also give the blog some more variety during the week by not being so focused on the one weekly topic. (more…)

My topic for my main posts next week is movies based in the D.C. area. Posts will be about different movies that have featured at least some of their scenes in D.C. such as Independence Day, Legally Blonde 2, and the upcoming movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

If there is a weekly topic you would like me to blog about, then please leave a comment on this post to make your suggestion. Even if your suggestion might not make a whole week topic, I may be able to find a way to incorporate it as an entry in a larger weekly theme.

d.c., theme, movies

My topic for my main posts next week is tv shows based in D.C. Posts will be about current shows such a Cory in the House as well as past shows such as West Wing.

If there is a weekly topic you would like me to blog about, then please leave a comment on this post to make your suggestion. Even if your suggestion might not make a whole week topic, I may be able to find a way to incorporate it as an entry in a larger weekly theme.

d.c., theme, movies

My topic for my main posts next week is Visiting Government Buildings. Post topics to include Capital, White House, Library of Congress, and Supreme Court.

If there is a weekly topic you would like me to blog about, then please leave a comment on this post to make your suggestion. Even if your suggestion might not make a whole week topic, I may be able to find a way to incorporate it as an entry in a larger weekly theme.

d.c., theme

My topic for my main posts next week is Union Station. Posts will be about some of the things Union Station has to offer from being a transit center to being a place to eat to being a place to shop.

If there is a weekly topic you would like me to blog about, then please leave a comment on this post to make your suggestion. Even if your suggestion might not make a whole week topic, I may be able to find a way to incorporate it as an entry in a larger weekly theme.

d.c., theme

My topic for my main posts next week is Eating at the Smithsonian. Each day I will post about the places to eat at a particular Smithsonian Museum in D.C.

If there is a weekly topic you would like me to blog about, then please leave a comment on this post to make your suggestion. Even if your suggestion might not make a whole week topic, I may be able to find a way to incorporate it as an entry in a larger weekly theme.

D.C., Smithsonian, art, weekly topic