i will ask a requequestion, wha you working on now? >> does that sound planted? it wasn't. i just finished a monster of a book it's a huge book, set in japan and covers the earth from 1939 and 1966 about 2 brothers and the title is a street of a thousand blossoms. if you haven't noticed we are talking about themes that run through my book. one of the things i like a lot is exploring subcultures. the lepercy. the silk working women. i like to write about groups of people who persevere and make a life on their own aside from what the general culture is doing. i find that i don't consciously sit down and do that but it happens. in this particular book something that has fascinated me is sumo and sumo wrestlers and how they get so big and what it's like in their culture. one of the brothers becomes an sumo and that's why it's a big book! [laughter]. >> do you think that -- being a woman who is in women have been oppressed -- i don't know if they are now or not, dou think that has stimulated you in your writing coming out of that? you specifically and in general, do you feel lik

although the requequestion of t commission we selected a design firm. this competitive and streamlined process seeks so select the most qualified designers to support federal design commissions. we seek to contract with the nation's most talented architects, landscape architects and engineers to design projects with outstanding quality and value. as part of this process, gsa utilizes the expertise of private sector peers to assist in the evaluation of proposals and design firms ensuring we benefit from the knowledge of a wide variety of individuals. at their request, gsa worked with the commission to develop a highly qualified ae evaluation board of 11 members from the commission, gsa, the eisenhower family as well as private sector peers in a variety of design and architectural areas. the board used three-stage process to make its selection. this included evaluating the past work of firms submitting proposals, then developing a short list of firms to be invited for interviews and finally reviewing proposals of detailed design visions. in august 2008 gs