mystery booms, cooking, keeping up

Like many others, we're in the deep freeze. I'm looking forward to Tuesday, where we're forecast to be in the balmy 30's again.

This past week was rather busy as the college is getting ready for students to return for spring semester. I was supposed to work on Saturday, but the snow shut that down. I wasn't disappointed. Campus is also closed tomorrow for the same reason. Classes were off for the holiday anyway, so, again, not disappointed.

• One night last week, there were these mystery booms that woke us up around 2:30am. They weren't particularly loud. To me, they sounded eerily like someone was gently tapping on our sliding glass door *tap-tap-tap (pause) tap-tap-tap...* 

Magnum jumped up after hearing them. He thought it was our water pipes about to burst, so went to put all the faucets on drip. Funny how two people can interpret the same weird noise.

Anyway, it was neither of those things. Later, our Ring® notifications were full of people talking about the strange noise - gunshots? fireworks? - heard for miles around. They remain a mystery.

• Recently, I bought a cute 6-inch cast iron skillet for whipping up quick, healthy snacks and meals after coming home from work (2nd lunch?)

I like cooking with cast iron anyway, and it works nicely with our induction stove we purchased last year. Plus, maybe I'm rather partial to cartoon weaponry? 

Anyway, Magnum noticed the merits of the mini skillet. But alas, one of its virtues is that it serves as both cooking vessel AND serving dish. As such, I was monopolizing the cookware whenever I used it, which is often.

So we went wild and bought a second one.

I mention this only because of our neighbors across the street. They're a friendly couple - late 30's, I'd guess. Both professionals. No kids. 

A couple of years ago, Wife bought a Tesla Model Y. This week, she bought another one, and Husband got the hand-me-down. Now they've got his 'n' hers Teslas.

The skillets are our way of keeping up with the Jones's.

Totally the same thing.

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.

*******************************************************

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!