Prescience

I had a dream last night, one element of which was the smoke detector.

I decided to make pancakes this morning.

Fortunately, the smoke cleared quickly enough for the smoke detector not to wake up all my neighbors.

Now, how do I go about dreaming up winning lottery tickets?

Ray's Hell Burgers

One of the better known restaurants in Rosslyn is Ray's the Steaks. It is said to be very good, but it is also nearly impossible to get a reservation at. Nor do I really have much reason to be in Rosslyn at dinner time.

A more casual option, Ray's Hell-Burger opened fairly recently (July-ish). I had to be in Rosslyn for an early afternoon meeting so asked a colleague if she wanted to get together for lunch beforehand. She suggested Ray's and I'm glad she did. Another colleague came along at the last minute.

I am not really much of a meat eater, but this was truly excellent. I went for simplicity with the grilled burger, medium-rare, with grilled onions and mushrooms (plus lettuce and tomato, which are automatic). The meat was juicy and tasty and cooked to exactly the right doneness to bring out the flavor. The mushrooms were especially tasty. The bun was tasty, but couldn't really stand up to the meat.

I was less impressed with the cole slaw, which was insufficiently vinegary for my taste. (That is true of almost all cole slaw in this region, by the way. I have to go to New York to get it made properly.) The lemonade, which was made from lemons and not powder, was delicious.

At about $10 for the meal, it's also good value for the quality. No wonder it was completely packed, with a line out the door before noon.

For Space Geeks Only

Here's the highlight video of the recent Falcon 1 launch.

I found the choice of music, um, interesting.