Rod is Excellent!

I'm sorry that I haven't been good about updating. It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks. Last week, Rod was awarded the Solicitor's Excellence Award in D.C. It was for the work that he did on the All American Canal Case. I am so proud of him! We also got a free trip to D.C. Even though we were just there for a couple of days, we managed to catch up with some friends.

We spent a very wild night with Marilee, Mark, and Alison, from law school, and Jenny, who I actually met in the Galapagos Islands. We started with dinner at Urbana, then migrated to Front Page for drinks. After our waitress effectively kicked us out, we went to Lucky Bar for the after party. By the time we finished, it was too late to catch the Metro. It has probably been since law school since I've stayed out so late on a school night. :) It was so fun to see all of our friends! It was funny too, that of all the people we hung out with, none of them were from when we lived in D.C.

The next day was Rod's award ceremony. It was great to finally meet Bob and Barbara, who Rod works for, whom I have never met. It was a very exciting day at the Department of the Interior. Rod got his award, the polar bears were listed (we sneaked into Kempthorne's press conference), and, at the end of the day, we learned that the court had finally allowed the Department to use Internet (they have been without it since 2001!). After the awards reception, we went to dinner at the very excellent Cafe Atlantico with Kathy, a girl who clerked with me at the Utah Supreme Court. The duck confit was seriously to die for. I actually started sucking the bones clean. It was shameless, but too good to stop. Then we met John, Rod's former roommate, and his new girlfriend, Kristy, at RFD. We barely made the last train to Alexandria.