Isabel is gone, but the effects are not. Many still have no power, 4 days after the storm. I have no cable, but I'm not crying since now that I live in DC, Redskins games are aired on network channels every week (a nice change from seeing Redskins games only when they played the New England Patriots). I'm just sad I had a chance to watch a game that they lost... in overtime, no less.

I did manage to get out of town Friday just after the hurricane, with no problems at the airport. I went to Chicago for a meeting. It's been a while since I made a trip out there. I used to go regularly to Chicago, but not lately. So I got to see a lot of faces of people who have disappeared off the face of the planet... or rather, the Armenian community.

I also went to the HMEM dance, featuring Paul & Karnig. It was very interesting to see the crowd that this dance brought out. There was an overwhelming number of out-of-towners. I'm starting to feel like one of them since I've seen Paul 3 times in 3 different cities this year already... let's set this straight... for OTHER purposes, coincidentally his dances fell on the same weekends as other meetings and events.

Though none of those performances compare to this one. We had the pleasure in Chicago to see Paul change his shirt on stage. Some of the guys printed t-shirts with a photo of Paul on the front, gave him one and sure enough, Paul took his shirt off and put on the other shirt right there. I couldn't make it up if I tried.

I discovered a large community of Baghdadzis at this event. My God it's true what they say. These people are crazy. Having revealed the fact that my father was born in Basra, they went NUTS. Oh, another Baghdadzi... no, Basra... BAGHDADZI!!! Crazy nuts. Gotta love 'em.

I believe they are planning to travel this weekend to either Boston for Karnig again, or DC for Adiss. Remember my "death to the barahandes" log? Yeah... still the same sentiment. Though I'm growing a fondness of Kebab nights/Tavloo Tournaments.