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!