I just finished watching the 2-hour Line of Fire movie on ABC. For those of you unfamiliar with it, LOF was a mid-season replacement that filled NYPD Blue's timeslot for a couple of weeks. I watched all of the episodes during its short run for a couple of reasons: (a) it's a fast-paced crime drama which follows, in great detail, the workings of both the FBI's organized crime unit and the crime syndicate being targeted -- including the justices and injustices on both sides, and the varying allegiance characters have to each of their respective sides; (b) it's set in Richmond, VA -- something very new for any television drama as far as I can remember; (c) it stars Leslie Hope (Terri Bauer from the first season of "24") as "Lisa Cohen," the FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Richmond organized crime division. Which is cool because -- how often do you see a woman portrayed as in charge at the FBI, much less a Jewish one? (d) it also stars David Paymer as "Jonah Malloy," the crime boss -- and he's one of the best character actors I've seen spanning TV and film. In any case, the series was cancelled early, but they tied up the loose ends in a 2-hour movie. I don't know who out there caught it, but they did a remarkable job. It was a great exercise in juxtaposition -- how does each side take care of its own when a family member is put in the hospital? To what extent does emotion cloud the "just business" side of things? This was a good series; I'm sorry it was put to pasture so early. Apparently America is more enthralled by the wit and wisdom of "According to Jim..."

I usually don't remember my dreams past the first two minutes after I wake up. But this one has stayed with me since Thursday morning: I was on a business trip to, of all places, Paris. I recall flying first class and landing in DeGualle airport and seeing yellow caution tape near the area that had collapsed earlier in the week. I also determined that my management had flown some of us out there to tour the new AOL facility in France next week, but also because they were short a violinist for the upcoming concert. And although I've never touched a violin in my life, I volunteered -- my logic being "how hard can it be?" I found myself in a club the first evening, all by myself, walking around with a very tight, white, short-sleeved button-down silk shirt, only buttoned in the middle. Suddenly, the song "Long Haired Guys from England" comes on -- and I overhear an argument between some friendly Americans who are trying to determine who sang that song. (It's by "Too Much Joy," for those of you keeping score.) They invite me to sit down with them for drinks, and BOOM. I'm awake. Even before I could get my first drink down...

I replaced a hard drive last night -- CompUSA had a sale and I took advantage of it. I could have kicked myself for not wiping it clean before uninstalling it from the machine! Now, if I want to sell it or give it away, I'm going to need to re-install it and make sure all my data is wiped clean by DOD Standards (okay -- by Symantec standards). But I was able to re-install Windows XP from scratch, and I have a partition ready and ripe for LINUX to call it home...

Av has now learned to say "thank you." He's even learned it in sign language. And he pretty much knows when to say it! What good are kids, some people may ask? Three words: Neat party tricks.

It was beautiful out yesterday -- a great day for a walk in our neighborhood. Today it was quite overcast. So we did some mall walking -- starting out in the sketchy mall near us to look at washer/dryers. (If only we could afford that dryer that lets you hang up clothes inside it -- that would be sweet!) The mall was practically empty -- which may have been rather odd, except for the fact that it's the sketchy mall that most people steer clear of nowadays.

So - where else could we go to get some good walking time out of it? Downtown DC would be too difficult during Memorial Day Weekend. So we decided to go to "Crystal City," which is a shade less than a mile away from Washington's National Airport. (Yup. Call me stubborn, but I refuse to name it by the ex-president whose name adorns it.)

Crystal City was developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s by a real estate mogul named Charles E. Smith -- a guy who bought up a lot of luxury property in the DC area and became a multi-millionaire. He was also a great philanthropist; the school i went to from K-12 is named after the guy. Crystal City was an experiment for him -- he envisioned a DC area "underground" city connecting residences, supermarkets, restaurants, shops and the like. And it was a great novelty for a while. Other cities have this type of system in place (Toronto's "PATH" comes to mind), but growing up, this was the "city of the future."

Walking around that underground "city of the future" today was an experience. Everything looks in pristine condition underground, but it still pulsates with that 70s neo-futuristic vibe. It felt like those sterile corridors in the film Logan's Run (see photo at right). Even more eerie was the fact that, on a Sunday afternoon of a long weekend, this underground mall was all but deserted. Most stores were closed as well. It kind of gave us that post-apocalyptic solitude feeling that we certainly weren't looking for...

The other interesting thing about Crystal City is what they're doing to it now. It's undergoing an urban renewal project to (a) make the one way streets on the grid all two way streets, and (b) bring stores and restaurants to the surface so people can frequent them from above ground. It's amazing -- the entire draw of this "town" was the underground in the 1970s and '80s -- and now they're counter-developing it to bring everything back to the surface. I've seen malls and shopping centers come and go -- is this the next cyclical trend? I'm guessing that, in another 40 years, someone will come up with the idea to go back underground in Crystal City -- and people will embrace that idea with open arms...