Drunken Noodles and Pomegranates

The Titanic sunk. The noodles were drunk. And pomegranate juice is everywhere. Disaster X3.

But Thai Tanic, the restaurant, was not a disaster. It was delightful.

Tonight we enjoyed Thai cuisine at the original Thai Tanic location at Logan Circle. The service was prompt, the ambiance very pleasant, and the food very good.

I enjoyed Drunken Noodles, one of my favorite Thai dishes, and Thai Tanic's version (which included some lightly grilled tomato wedges on top of the noodles) was delicious. The portion was large and if I wasn't heading off to the west coast tomorrow morning, I would have taken the remaining 1/2 portion with me. As it was, I was happily satisfied. My dining companions enjoyed shrimp, asparagus and mushrooms in a light red chile sauce, and pad thai (which he proclaimed the best in the DC area of the restaurants where he's sampled Pad Thai).

But as wonderful as the food and ambiance might have been, the best part of the evening was the company. Dining with friends is pretty close to heaven - oddly, a topic of our dinner conversation (but that's another blog entry).

Adedayo Thomas, the pied piper of liberty in Africa (as I like to call him), joined me and my Atlas colleague, Pechwaz Faizulla, for dinner on the at Thai Tanic. Two amazing and brilliant gentlemen, and me. How lucky am I?

Peshwaz is the editor of Chiraiazadi.org, the Kurdish website and the managing editor of Cheragheazadi.org, the Persian website. Prior to beginning this work, he was managing editor of Hawlati, the highest circulation newspaper in northern Iraq, and on the editorial board of the independent news agency, Voices of Iraq. He received his BA in English from Suliemany University, and his MS in Journalism from Columbia University in New York. Little did I know that Peshwaz is also a YouTube cooking instructor, specializing in opening a pomegranate in this video! Although, I shouldn't be surprised, he is a chef in his own right (I have sampled his cooking and he could open his very own restaurant if he wasn't so dedicated to liberty!)

Adedayo is an affiliate of AfricanLiberty.org as well as its publisher. Adedayo is affiliated with the Free Africa Foundation and IMANI Center for Policy and Education based in Ghana. Through the activities of Africanliberty.org, Adedayo promotes libertarian ideas in the core Islamic institutions of northern Nigerian states. I met Adedayo 2 years ago at the Atlas TTMBA training in Virginia. He was as amazing then as now. This morning he was our guest speaker for Atlas's Liberty Cafe and shared the experiences of being a troubadour for liberty throughout the African continent. What an amazing leader of liberty he is.

And then there's me. A redheaded grandma ;).  Like I said. How lucky am I? Very lucky.

Try Thai Tanic, I think you will be very pleased with what you find, but I can't guarantee your dinner companions to be as entertaining as mine. I'll leave that to you.

Bon appetit. (And good luck with your next pomegranate!)

One Day More

One more day.... that's all I have until the movers arrive and I am transported to DC and my role at Atlas Economic Research Foundation. Working for freedom and liberty.

One day more.... I can hear Valjean and Cosette singing those words in Les Miserables. And Marius and Eponine. And everyone.

One more day.... will we ever meet again?
One day more... another day, another destiny.

One more day.... tomorrow I'll be world's away.

At the barricades of freedom, when our ranks begin to form, will you take your place with me?

The time is now, the day is here.

One day to a new beginning.

Raise the flag of freedom high.

One more dawn.

One more day.

One day more.

License Plate Blues

It's official. I'm headed East. The Atlas Team has invited me to join them (again) and I am both ecstatic and grateful! Honestly, I couldn't be much more excited.

In fact, right now there is only one thing that might be more exciting, and it's suddenly become unattainable to me. That's right, an impossible goal, the Don Quixote moment that will never come.

All I have wanted (beyond the job of my dreams, which I now have!), was a DC license plate. You know, the one that says in big bold letters "Taxation Without Representation". I love that plate...and not for display in DC, but to make a statement wherever I drive because the statement rings true in all 50 states, not just the obvious District of Columbia (where residents do not have a vote).

But is the Holy Grail of pre-pressed license plate messaging to be mine?!? NO!

Why, you ask? Why can’t I have the license plate of my dreams?

Because I will be living in Arlington, Virginia. In Courthouse, Arlington, Virginia to be exact. Where the license plate is framed in autumn leaves (or some other ridiculously gaudy non-messaging design).

And almost worse, I won't have time to get the fabulous and newly designed New Mexico centennial plates (2012), with turquoise background, yellow lettering and a red-centered Zia proudly displayed in the middle. I’m moving to VA so I can’t have this one either.

So, I'm dancing in the halls about my job, but there will be no bouncing in the driver’s seat of my still Utah-licensed car.

I'm moving to DC Virginia, and I've got the License Plate Blue-uues.

Ohhhh yeahhhh.