The biggest surprise of yesterday was when I checked out the hotel gym. It's massive - by far the best hotel gym I've ever seen. So I spent a good part of the afternoon there. I'm very motivated at the moment, since I've been feeling so strong recently, so I worked out my chest, back and triceps, and then ran for 35 minutes on the treadmill. There was nobody in the gym except me and the two friendly black women at the desk, so I finished off with fifteen minutes in the steam room. I felt so good after all this - pleasantly tired, and dying of hunger.

As the sun was slanting low, illuminating the pretty brick and stone houses, I finally left the hotel for the first time, and drove over to Dupont Circle to a decent restaurant I know fairly well, called Afterwords. They have the best chicken caesar salad, made with spinach leaf. I stuffed down a double helping, with strong black coffee, while reading the Sunday New York Times, and observing the other customers.

What I like most about D.C. is that it's cosmopolitan. A lot of people think otherwise, I know. I think a lot of people see D.C. as being populated by white conservative types in the center, and African-Americans all around the edges. But I find that you hear accents from all over the world in every cafe and restaurant. My waiter was Carribean, and people at the next table over sounded like they were from West Africa. The rest ... well, okay, quite a few were clean-cut white people; but there were some older white folk too, with funky hats and spectacles, looking like they'd just finished a rehearsal at a community theater or something.

There was a gay couple at the next table that kept making eyes at me, and I was tempted to strike up a conversation. But shyness won out, and I headed out the door to take in the sunset hour from the center of Dupont Circle. It was atmospheric; the air was cold but perfectly still, and the fading blue sky overhead descended to a smooth pink behind the naked trees at the edge of the square.

I'd planned on going to the movies. It's been a lousy year for movies, but in the last couple of weeks, a bunch of good ones have come out, and I wanted to catch up with them. But my darned neck and shoulders had seized up again, and I decided to try and find (although I knew the odds were against it) a massage therapist. Now I can count the number of times I've had a professional massage on the thumbs of one hand, but, hey, it's Christmas, and I felt like treating myself. I searched through the City Paper, and the Washington Blade, and called a few numbers. But nobody was picking up. By the time I got back to the hotel, nobody had returned my pages either, and I felt a little deflated. What to do.

The hotel, I thought! Maybe they have one. Get real, Keith - it's 6.00 on Christmas Eve. There was one last resort, though, and I hesitate to mention it, because you're bound to jump to conclusions. Anyway, to cut a long story a little shorter, I went online on the D.C. chatroom at gay.com, because almost every other time I'd been on there in the dim and distant past, I'd noticed that some people offer free massages. And I lucked out. So a lovely guy, about my age with a football- player's heavy build, came over and give me an oil rub-down from head-to-toe. The funny thing is that, although he's from Alaska, his mother is from Newcastle, England! So he knew all about soccer, my home team Newcastle United, and the Geordie accent I grew up speaking.

After he'd departed, I felt so darned relaxed. I fell asleep while watching "Galaxy Quest" on HBO. It's a hilarious, affectionate parody of Star Trek, really, and the perfect movie for a sleepy Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning, and another beautiful, cloudless sky. I worked out again in the hotel gym, this time doing my abs, shoulders and biceps. Today I had company in the gym - just a couple of very old asian men, one of whom amazed me with his stamina on the decline abdominal bench. Later, I had lunch at one of the few open restaurants I could find, a Thai place near Dupont Circle, and then spent the afternoon taking photos. It was coooooooooold - temperature in the twenties, but with a stiff breeze taking the wind-chill even further down! So I didn't stay outside long. I tried to take a tour of the Capitol, thinking that today, of all days, surely there'd be no lines to get in. But it was closed, despite what my guide book says.

Outside the gate of the White House

The Capitol, and the Reflecting Pool (very reflective today since it was iced over), and me in my wooly hat. Doesn't the Capitol look like an ice sculpture today?

The evil Supreme Court

Closer to the Capitol. Man, that building is impressive. It's hard to believe it was constructed so early in the history of the Republic - long before the U.S. became a world power. They must have had some dream for the future!