I was going to go on the Cherry Blossom volkswalk today but it was raining when I got up and I was tired. Besides there are virtually no cherry blossoms since it's been so cold. I decided to take an easy day and took my time getting up and leaving the hostel. I also was scratching some insect bites. It seems to cold for mosquitos but I always get bit by something when I come east. I had one bite on my eyelid that made me look a bit lopsided.

It was quiet as I walked toward the mall since all the office workers were off today. I wandered into the Cherry Blossom Festival but it seemed a bit under the weather. It's hard to celebrate something that isn't blooming yet and the parade marchers walked under gray skies and through a light drizzle.

I stopped at the Ford Theatre and heard a good talk about how Lincoln was shot. It's still a working theatre so the stage was set up with scenery that was not period but it only made it more real since it wasn't just preserved under glass. The line wasn't too long to get in. There had been a long line the couple of times I passed before.

I had hoped to tour some buildings, especially the FBI Building and the Pentagon, but I forgot that it would be a weekend so there were no tours. It's hard to keep track of days and remember weekends when you're not working. One of these trips I'm going to get inside the White House and other government buildings. I haven't had much luck or good planning so far.

I had a relaxing day wandering through museums and went back to the hostel early. I had found a bookstore and stocked up on mysteries so I bundled up and enjoyed reading a couple mysteries. The first one was "A Streetcar Named Expire" by Mary Daheim. This one involved Judith McMonigle who, once again, gets involved in a murder. Her cousin Renie drags her on a mystery tour, which, to her distress, involves her own bed and breakfast. At the next stop, in an effort to protest to the tour leader, she wanders into a room with a dead body and becomes involved in a mystery that goes back to World War II. These are light mysteries though I always wonder how someone who can run a bed and breakfast well can be so oblivious to what's going on in other areas.

The second book was "murder@maggody.com" by Joan Hess. This was another very funny mystery set in Maggody, Arkansas. Police chief, Arly Hanks, finds trouble when the internet comes to Maggody. Through computers set up in the school the townsfolk are learning to cruise the net and look up pornography. Soon dirty pictures of local citizens start to show up and then bodies are found. Arly has her hands full solving the mystery and trying to keep from getting bogged down with clues supplied by her mother and other townspeople.