granny and square

I was stressed out in kindergarten. 

I still feel the anxiety from it, 55 years after the fact. The cause? I didn't know how to tie my shoes. 

I knew that learning to tie shoes was on the kindergarten syllabus. However, I didn't realize that a lot of my classmates would already know how to accomplish this feat. This was in the ancient times - before velcro shoes. 

So there I was. Behind the curve. 

We were each provided a flat cardboard "shoe" - adorned with our name - with actual laces so as to learn by doing. Once we accomplished the task successfully, our shoes were pinned to the bulletin board of fame.

I watched in apprehension as a good number of classmates made their neat little bows, and their honorific shoes were pinned. Meanwhile, I struggled. Eventually, I tied an ugly but functional bow, and my shoe made the bulletin board at last.

Just recently, only about a month ago, I learned I've been doing it wrong this whole time. Who knew?!

"Square knot" is the correct way, and I've been doing "Granny knot" this whole time. 

In short, if your first knot is right over left, your "bunny ears" knot should be left over right or vice versa. The knots should be opposite direction, never right - right or left - left. 

This link provides a quick demo:

https://youtube.com/shorts/sCEaXpOLFlo?si=Dsf8i1dg0JuItOJV

All these years, I'd been a right-righter. But no more! And no more having to double tie! So freeing.

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This week was grey and cold here, but we can't complain while watching what's going on in LA.  My Father-in-law and his wife evacuated from their home in Pasadena to stay with Step-mother-in-law's daughter, not that far away. Apparently, they've been cleared to return home.

And today is sunny and clear here. I went out for a pleasant escapist run this morning - shoes expertly tied. 

We get an average of 300 days of sunshine per year here, so we're spoiled and get whiney on overcast days. I was so enjoying the sun, I stopped to get a pic of this horse's ass.

stricken

I've never been a nailbiter. I know it's a thing, but I'd not given it much thought. Ever wonder where the bitten nails go?

It was back to reality this week after our DC trip. I worked Thursday and Friday in testing, and thankfully, Boss had turned off scheduling for some tests so we could ramp back up rather than have to hit the ground running. 

He and I were closing up yesterday and decided to do some decent cleaning since the place was pretty quiet. He washed chairs, I vacuumed. 

I vacuumed a fair amount of discarded fingernails. *GAG*

Some chew pencils, some muss with their hair, some rock back and forth, some chew and spit out fingernails...

I was honestly thinking along similar lines when we were out with the throngs at the various DC attractions. Here's a rundown of all the places we visited.

Outdoors:

• Washington Monument
• Lincoln Memorial
• Jefferson Memorial
• Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
  
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial
• National Christmas Tree

Indoors:

• Capitol building
• Archives (Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights)
• Library of Congress
• Air and Space Museum, DC
• National Gallery of Art, East and West buildings
• National Museum of US Army
• Natural History Museum
• Air and Space Museum, Virginia

Looking back, we covered a lot of ground. While at the various attractions, I noticed all the glass, upon which people scrunch up to get a good look at things, kids plant hands and faces. 

"Dang, someone's gotta clean all this glass", I realized. I appreciate the glass cleaners. 

...and the floor cleaners, the bathroom cleaners, etc.. So many people, so much mess.

In general, every attraction was pretty darn immaculate. Oh, and I noticed this painting in the National Gallery right away. Featured recently by Fresca, I was pleased to see it in the flesh!

The Jolly Flatboatmen

I learned that the Washington Monument and the Capitol building were both struck by lightning on New Year's eve. An omen?

When seeing the Capitol for the first time, I was rather agog by the "badass" statue atop the dome. 

I wanted to learn more about The Statue of Freedom, my current favorite statue

So it was struck by lightning, and I imagine it wasn't the first time. 

But she's tough, I'm sure.

Personally, I made it to the rooftop of the National Gallery for this impressive cock.

So, a memorable and worthwhile trip.

And now... back to the nailbiters.

saw your picture today

I was never a journaler, or a "dear diary"-er. Before blogging became a thing, I didn't really record anything, really. These days, I appreciate blogging because I can go back and look at stuff and/or retrieve dates of things. I mean, well, I sometimes go into a room and then wonder what I'd gone there for, so... I appreciate records.

With that, I visited blog posts of 2024, as we do, to summarize the year in pictures. I'll say it again, though. I'm not a big picture taker, so I'm sure other mundane things happened, but I'm lazy. 

January: I almost froze

February: I winter biked-to-work.. and almost froze

March: we got a Buc-ee's

April: I finally visited that cute little art supply store

May: we watched the resident corpse flower try to have sex

June: biked-to-work on my day off again

July: celebrated FIL's 90th 

August: celebrated another year of wifey-ness

September: bought a truck and started a facebook marketplace frenzy selling Mom's car

October: completed construction of the pot smoking screen porch

November: spent a lot of days cat sitting while Wolfgang made his 2024 highlight reel.

December: graced the nation's capitol with my presence

Here we go, 2025. Bring it.

Happy New Year!

finding fathers

Yes, we were in Washington D.C. for Christmas this year. Chaco moved to the area for work a little over a year ago, and this was Magnum's and my first visit since then. 

Wolfgang and Meego had been out there in the spring, and they joined us this round as well. So all 5 of us were together for Christmas, and they were able to help Chaco with the tour-guidin'.

I'd never been to D.C. before, and I 10/10 recommend it as a destination! Maybe not during the holidays since holiday travel can be a hassle with crowds and potential weather delays. The weather gods shone upon us, though, with mild weather for the duration. D.C. was quite crowded, however. Chaco said he'd never seen it so, even last Christmas from what he remembered. 

But we couldn't complain, since we ourselves were part of that fray, so we moved about with the masses. 

SO much to see and do there - Museums! Memorials! Statues! People! People! Lotsa People!

I can't choose a favorite attraction, everything had much to offer. And thank gosh for the Metro!

I didn't take many photos, as is typical for me I suppose. Enjoying the moment and then later thinking, "hmm, maybe I shoulda taken some pics"

Christmas Day was our first full day there, and we saw the national Menorah Lighting from a distance. Meanwhile, we wandered over to the National Christmas Tree display on the Ellipse and quickly located the Colorado tree

Meego agreed to pose

Even though D.C. is not necessarily a typical winter destination, the holiday flair was a bonus. 

So Happy New Year to all! I like how blogging allows us to look back on our day-to-days, including things we might've forgotten. This trip would certainly make my 2024 highlight reel. 

Get ur walking shoes and go!

headed out

 

Greetings on this side of Christmas '24!

We are on a little getaway, and I'm spending a cozy bit of morning with the "granddog" Ella at Chaco's. 

I hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas season however it's done. This is the first time in  several years that I've traveled during the holidays, and the weather's been, thankfully mild.

I'm catching up on my blog readng. Meantime... here's me and a big thing.

spies and lame ducks

Happy Winter Solstice, y'all. We're "celebrating" by watering our trees? Really, we're so hardup for precipitation around here, had to fire up the hose.

I worked my last day of the year in the testing center yesterday. We're closed now until Jan. 2nd. We had an unfortunate turn of events this week in that we're pretty sure we got busted by a secret shopper.

These companies we administer professional tests for will occasionally send secret shoppers posing as test candidates to make sure we're doing all the security things properly. Someone got into the testing room with a cell phone.  Oooh, that's baaaaad.

I wasn't there, just heard about it after the fact. At least my coworkers noticed the cell phone at the testing workstation during the test, but by then, the damage was done. 

It's just really awkward to ask some stranger why the metal detector is going off near their crotch, and then, to investigate further! Apparently, this is what happened, and it was explained away with, "Oh, must be my belt buckle", and that was that. 

I recall a time I was scanning a woman candidate. She was a rather "stout" woman, and my detector went off at her mid back. I let it go without question because I assumed she had on a hefty bra with some serious hardware holding it shut, and I didn't want to go there.

I mean, if she was gonna hide something, she wouldn't hide it in her back bra strap, right? Right?? 

From now on, I'll just ask. And yes, take off the belt, let's do it again. 

On a happier note, I also had my last tutor session with my one high schooler. I mainly just tutor the college students now, but "D" is a holdover from about a year and a half ago when her mom contacted me because I'd tutored D's older sister. 

D is now a senior, and when we gathered online this week, she started the session with a sheepish, "So... some exciting news...". Really, she said it so shyly, I wasn't sure if she'd actually said anything at all. 

But then she continued, "I got early acceptance into my first choice university this week". Oh, goody!

I'm very happy for her, such a nice kid and hard worker. Her big challenge now is to make it through her lame duck semester of high school.

highest in the room

 Magnum tyically works from home, but yesterday he was onsite. I figured I'd check the Ring® notifications while I was at work.

As expected, nothing exciting - just my own comings and goings. 

I looked a little closer at the scene as I locked the door before heading out. 

Do you see what I see?

Yes! Miniature Batman! On my roof! Stealthfully watching my every move!

Gosh, I thought he only worked nights.

Honestly, though, I have no idea how Neighbor Cat got up there. And how long's he been doing that?

Speaking of high cats... Boss handed out gift bags yesterday for us underlings. He's a very thoughtful person, and each of our gift bags included treats for our pets as well. So, in addition to my little box of See's candies and my Barnes and Noble gift card, I brought home two peanut butter infused dog treats and a little catnip mouse.

I set the gift bag on the shelf after I got home, and went on to other things. 

This morning, I heard rustling rummaging noises. I thought it was pooch Merlin slurping at his feet as he's known to do, but no. Merlin was lazing on the couch. 

I peeked around the corner to find Napolion the cat, frantically nosing around in my little gift bag like a crackhead needing a fix.

I retrieved his catnip toy for him, and he was on it like the crackhead I didn't realize he was.

At first, he was like a lion on the Serengeti attacking a little wildebeast. This went on for a few minutes, accompanied by much flopping and rubbing. Then he turned back to my gift bag, still apparently wafting the sweet song of the catnip. He began tearing at the dog treats, which were thankfully individually wrapped so as to not take on much damage before I risked losing my fingers in rescuing them from Napolion's grip.

Then he flopped on this cushion and remained motionless with his mouse in this position for several minutes. 

As far as I know, this is Napolion's first catnip trip. We gave some to our earlier cat, Cookie, and he couldn't care less about the stuff - almost seemed insulted. So I never got into the habit of providing it.

He's acting his normal self now - maybe a little rowdier than usual. What a stoner.