ghost bike, pensive pets, alcohol fail

I was thinking I might go for a quick bicycle jaunt to the library, but it's sunny and 97 degrees, so i said "nah". I realize 97 doesn't sound so bad to many, but here, it's a whine worthy temperature. I opted to stay here in my dark house, measuring 77 degrees. No need to turn on the AC just yet.

We did get out for a coffee walk earlier, so I haven't been totally holed up like a cavewoman. 

SOURCE

• Speaking of bicycle jaunts, [a woman bicyclist was killed] last week in a local traffic mishap. I've been following the story as it happened at an intersection undergoing a construction project. I had biked through the area about an hour before the tragic accident.

So far, from everything I've heard about it, the woman did everything right. She dismounted her bicycle, she was led through the intersection by one of the construction workers. Still, she was hit by one of the trucks involved in the project. So strange.

There's an ongoing investigation. Bottom line, she's gone.

• I happened to be in that area because I was feeding Wolfgang's cat again last week. Wolfgang and Meego traveled to California to visit my in-laws. Chaco was there too as he had come out for a little over two weeks and had a preplanned trip to visit his CA friends.

Ella on a walk,
prior to the dreaded BOOMs

Meanwhile, we were the pet sitters. Chaco's dog, Ella, stayed with us. She does NOT like fireworks.

Fireworks are illegal here, especially in lieu of half the state currently being on fire. But that never stops the criminals.

So it was nice to spend some time with Chaco. A lot of his time was spent working at his local office and visiting friends, but we got quality time in as well.

• The five of us did make it up to Helms Deep - our property in the hills. Helms Deep is what we call it, so that's it's real name as well as it's blog name, so be it.

It was nice having the extra muscle to do some trail bustin'. We haven't been up since because... well... whining about the heat again.

• Lastly, Magnum and I have proven, once again, that we are failures at alcoholism. We had somehow amassed a collection of undrunk beers - bottles and cans. We just don't drink the stuff at home. Some of it was leftover from potlucks that ended up at our house. Others, we'd bought thinking we'd drink it. Pffft.

I pondered if there was a way to donate it, but food pantries don't accept alcoholic beverages. I mentioned it at work yesterday, wondering if maybe the college food pantry would take it. But we're pretty sure they wouldn't. Then Party Girl mentioned her drinking running group had an upcoming camping trip and would gladly take the cans. Problem solved!

We also had a few bottles of Modelo in stash. I checked the expiry date - November of freaking 2024?!

Down the hatch drain.

That's the end of the two years beers.

 

clocks and poultry

I think I'm still adjusting to daylight savings time. I'm not sleepy when I should be and morning comes too early. Hardships.

It's spring break all around here - the university, community college, and school district. No tutoring for me this week, so I told Boss in testing I was available if needed. To that, he said, "Yeah? Maybe I'll take Monday off, do something with my mom"

So I worked in place of Boss yesterday. The do-something-with-Mom turned out to be locating her tax documents. His mom is not young, and tends to forget things, but still lives on her own. 

While visiting the in-laws in California, much of the conversations were about effects of aging. Stepmother-in-law told us that one of the tests for dementia is to have the patient draw an analog clock.

SOURCE

She was talking about a friend of theirs who failed his clock-drawing test. Later, I was curious as to the result of FIL's drawing. I'm not sure about dementia, but his memory does have noticeable gaps. FIL is an accomplished architect, so I'm sure there was a time he would've drawn an impeccably creative clock.

I mentioned this conversation yesterday to Party Girl, who concurred. "Oh yeah. My dad's clock was all over the place".

Now I feel like drawing clocks... just to make sure I'm still with us.

In other updates, we encountered the resident wild turkeys while on a coffee walk again. Only three were hanging out this time. Two males, strutting their stuff, and one seemingly totally uninterested female.

This guy couldn't get enough of himself. He was all, "look at how majestic I am!". Never mind that the nearby female was fully ignoring him. He begged me to snap a photo.

Once I complied, he raked me in again, "No no, make sure you get my good side as well!"

Fine.

snow, sun, and an Armenian brain

We're back from our sunny getaway. It was nice to visit the in-laws, Father-in-law and step-Mother-in-law are 91- and 81-years-old respectively. FIL is pretty frail these days, but SMIL is a dynamo who will probably outlive us all.

We flew out of Denver last Friday. That happened to be the day of a messy snowstorm that canceled or delayed over 1300 flights out of Denver. Our flight was canceled, we got put on a different flight. All in all, not terrible. We landed 4 hours later than originally scheduled, so could've been worse. It marked the first time I've ever experienced de-icing.

It was Murphy's law at its finest (worst?). Denver hadn't had an appreciable amount of snow for all of February, then they got over 8 inches the day of our trip. I say the city of Denver should thank us for bringing the water. 

Once we got to California, it was warm and sunny. Hot, actually, and I'm not complaining. SMIL had arranged for a ride to and from the airport which was super convenient. Our driver was George, a friendly olderish Armenian man, for both trips.

Upon picking us up for our return flight, he announced with his Armenian accent, "There's a traffic accident on the freeway". Then added, "I'm going to choose a good route with my brain".

So I figured, welp, guess I gotta trust George's brain.

Turned out George's brain did good.

So a quick trip, but nice to see the in-laws and nice to just get a change of scenery - alien-to-us trees and birds. We visited Huntington Botanical Gardens, and Santa Monica beach. I'd been to that beach before, it's great for people watching, and I'd never been to The Huntington.

I took zero photos, social media rebel that I am. Magnum took one, though. We had gate checked our carryon bags to "help make boarding go faster". And this was the thanks I got.

See that bag lying in a puddle of slush? Yep. That's mine. Of course. It sat there for at least a half an hour while we looked on, expecting one of the wandering baggage handlers (they were right there!) to pick it up. So my PJs were wet, but no lasting damage. Magnum was sure to capture the indifferent airline name.

Wanna get away?

runneth over

 Welcome to daylight savings time Sunday - or as my step-MIL calls it, "my least favorite day of the year"

We are on a little getaway, visiting my Father-in-law and said step-MIL. As such, we've had one hour shaved from our getaway. But still, a nice time. 

The past week was quite busy with that PEO saga. Everything worked out as people stepped up to do the  required tasks, and I was relieved of presidential duties after two years, as originally planned.

In addition, they adorned me with this lovely flower arrangement. Now, I'm not particularly a flower arrangement person due to pets that will want to trash such things and my own allergies, but it's the thought that counts. So this was lovely as one of our members is an accomplished florist while her husband is a renowned glass blower - he made the vase. So I sneeze with gratitude.

With that load off my shoulders, I'll still be busy with PEO things, but it will no longer be my name as the one to contact for seemingly EVERYTHING. My email inbox is thankful.

layered up

 "How many layers of bottoms do you have? I've got on three. I'm going to start unzipping now"
~ heard while standing in line for the ladies room last weekend.

We went away for an arctic adventure weekend, rented a cabin in Estes Park with Meego and Wolfgang. We'd planned it about a month ago. Little did we know last weekend would be one of the coldest in a long while. 

So we bundled up and headed to the mountains. It so happened to coincide with a [skijoring event].
I'd heard of skijoring, but had never seen it live. What a rush!

Skijoring is a lot like water skiing, except the water is snow and the boat is a horse. 

SOURCE

It looks really really fun... if you know what you're doing... whether driving the "boat" or skiing. For people like me, it's a guaranteed trip to the ER or worse. 

We layered up good since it was snowing and the temperatures were in single digits. Like my bathroom line companions, I also had three layers of bottoms (not counting the bottom bottom) - leggings, pants, snow pants. Thankfully, all my layers had elastic waist, no unzipping necessary.

The cabin we rented was on the grounds of a large YMCA camp, so there were other activities at our disposal. Since it was so blustery and cold, we did mostly indoor things - shoodoops at the basketball gym, play card games, cook, eat...

So a fun filled getaway for a couple of days. Then it was hit the ground running back home. The spring semester has begun, and my tutor schedule is filling.

On to February.

not a shrimp

Happy Boxing Day.

I went out this morning for a pleasant little jog-around. We have had a very mild December, really only one decent snowstorm among many warm, sunny days. I'm enjoying the nice weather, but at the same time fretting about the lack of moisture (and revenue for the ski resorts).

As I was out and about, I realize I've always appreciated the day AFTER Christmas, even as a kid.  Yes, I did also make a big deal about presents on Christmas morning as a kid, the big countdown to the day, having trouble sleeping the night before... but the day after feels a little like a calm after the storm, a day of appreciation. Now more pronounced in my old lady days.

There were others out this morning, walking together, walking pooches, running. I sensed maybe some new dog harnesses, new outwear, new fitness trackers. And I remembered that's the hopeful fun of Christmas gifts - appreciated things rather than unwanted, wasteful things - not the [deadweight loss of Christmas]. 

Ours was low-key, as per usual, and enjoyable. Meego and Wolfgang came over. We ate, we walked the dogs, we played some cards, we talked with Chaco on speaker phone, we passed the phone around with calls to my in-laws. No big exchange of things, but enjoyment of company.

One of my goals for this past year was to read more books as opposed to doom scrolling the internet. I'm happy with how I did with that and plan to continue. Now, a new goal is to get back into routine sketching. I fell off that habit a while back, and I've got sketchbooks, pens, pencils collecting dust. 

So I figured I'd start today with a warm-up to break up my inner rust and cobwebs. Some everyday mundane item to get the ball rolling.

But then I said, nah. 

[King Prawn Pepe] it is.

work it

I've made it through this first week of winter break. There's more free time on my hands and I'm trying to use it wisely. A little recap

• I had "The" talk with Boss. I've mentioned contemplating staying or going from the testing center. Pros and cons are pretty balanced, and every end-of-semester, I contemplate some more. Boss makes our work schedules a semester at a time, so it was time for another fresh calendar.

This semester, he's facing a few scheduling challenges from all us part-timers. As per usual, he asked for our availability for spring, and also to let him know our maximum and minimum number of preferred hours. 

I listed my minimum preferred hours as "zero", which prompted a one-on-one. I explained that he should feel free to "take me off the schedule" if it's too much of a hassle for him to work around my tutoring schedule. The word "quit" was never uttered by either of us.

He said he didn't want me to q-word, but he's hiring a new person to fill some gaps, and wants to be able to offer a decent number of hours to the newb. He was actually quite relieved that I was happy to reduce my already meager hours.

So, bottom line, I'm scheduled for a whopping ONE shift per week plus the Saturday rotation in testing for spring semester. The best of both worlds, I feel. I'd originally thought I would need to work at least two shifts or nothing. More available hours for tutoring while still keeping my foot in the testing door, and I'm happy with that outcome. 

• We got together with Wolfgang and Meego yesterday for our monthly breakfast outing. There was a short wait list, so I gave the host my name and party of five. Duh, we're a party of four. I was either Freudian slipping missing Chaco, or my brain is mushy from the downtime. 

• Speaking of menopause brain *ahem*, coworker Party Girl was complaining about trying to find pants that fit.

"If they fit my waist, they're too big in the butt. If they fit my butt, they're too tight in the waist. It's this &%#!  menopause body!"

We were working with Blossom and Kitty. I told her to stop scaring the young ones.

Merry Christmas.

 

food, fundraising, ferris wheel

I was originally scheduled to work today, but at the last minute, just before I left work yesterday, Blosssom asked Kitty (my scheduled coworker for today) and me if one of us would switch with her - today for next Saturday. 

Kitty had another obligation next Saturday, I had nothing, so the switcheroo was made. So I found myself with an open Saturday. I managed to arrange for a breakfast meetup this morning with Meego and Wolfgang, something we do about once a month. 

After catching up with the guys and loading up on the eats, Magnum and I - well, I dragged Magnum along with me - headed a few miles east to Windsor, CO. A locally owned gift shop is doing a fundraiser for my PEO chapter on Monday, but would honor purchases made today and Tuesday for those of us who can't do the Monday shindig.

As chapter prez, it's customary for me to present gifts to the other offficers at the end of the PEO year (March), so I figured I'd kill both those birds - contributing to the fundraiser and getting officer gifts.

It's a cute shop right downtown, and I found lots of good gift ideas. But fundraiser or no, it's too pricey considering I'm buying for seven. So I did the next best thing, I shopped for ME. I mean, I didn't want to walk outta there empty handed. It's a fundraisher!

This travel journal/ sketchbook spoke to me. 

I think it's genuine leather. Either way, it's very supple. Certian to boost my daily productivity, right? Right??

After the quaint little gift shop, we did a 180 and headed to SCHEELS sporting goods. Magnum "needed" some things, and we were in the neighborhood.

This was our third visit to SCHEELS. It's huge, and crowded. Seemingly no one goes to indoor malls anymore, but SCHEELS is always well populated.

So, consumptive day, all for good cause. Now to be productive.

Laundry, anyone?

whazzup?

The weeks continue to seemingly fly by. We are already nearing the end of October. I'm looking out my window thinking that I need to get on with the leaf raking. I haven't gotten beyond the thinking.

• Got together with Meego and Wolfgang for breakfast yesterday morning. We do this about once a month. There are plenty of good breakfast places in Fort Collins, and we've yet to go to one I wouldn't recommend.

Today's destination was recommended by coworker, Blossom. She's lived here her whole life (whopping 25 years) and is always ready with a food recommend.

• At the start of the year, I'd made a resolution to read more. Fiction and non-fiction both. I think I've done all right by that, but recently hit a slump. I was slogging through two books I'd checked out based solely on the fact that a couple of friends on Goodreads liked them. 

I was halfway through both of them when I realized I wasn't enjoying either and should just take the losses. One of the books was Luster which seemed pretty pointless and just, *ICK*.

The other was The Bee Sting, which was just stressing me out, and I don't need stress from a novel. There's enough of that in the real world.

Anybody read either of those? They weren't for me, but plenty of others like them. 

Now, I'm rereading James Herriot  books. I enjoyed them over 25 years ago, so decided to revisit. Nice thing about that is that I'd forgotten a lot of the stories, so it's like reading them for the first time. Reading is, once again, enjoyable.

• This week in "tales from testing", we had someone leave their cell phone on when they stashed it in the locker. We always ask people to turn their phones all the way off, but there's always those who think, "bah, mine won't make any noise" and ignore us. 

The guy's cell phone started to emit an unending alarm. After tracking down whose it was, we interrupted his test and had him come out and turn it off. 

At that point, he was very apologetic and opened the locker to turn off the phone. While turning off the alarm, he said, "sheesh, that's annoying", to which Siri immediately replied, 

"I don't mean to be"

She sounded so remorseful, I *almost* felt bad for her.

 

climbing and floating into fall

Happy Sunday, y'all. One week into September, it's time for a wrap up.

• Magnum was away for Labor Day weekend - went out to California to visit his dad and stepmom with his siblings. I typically have Mondays off anyway, or at least a light load on Mondays, so it felt a pretty normal week to me.
  
  
• I did meet up with Wolfgang and Meego for breakfast one day. Meego had just gotten back from a bachelor party weekend for a good friend who's got an upcoming wedding. He shared with us his adventures, including climbing the [Colorado Via Ferrata] - not for the acrophobics! (me!).

• Speaking of mountains, Wolfgang was off to pick up a new mountain bike. His previous one was stolen - STOLEN! - a few weeks ago from the secure storage at his apartment building. The thief or thieves clearly knew their bike specs and targeted Wolfgang's specifically with their brazen act. It's a common problem with high-end bicycles around here. 

But, his renter's insurance came through like a champ, and now we've got a grandbike in the house while Wolfgang works out a way to store it inside his apartment. 

• And speaking of bikes, recall the local [Tour de Fat] I mentioned a couple of weekends ago? Wolfgang shared that he made the photo gallery in the local news.

The event theme for the parade was "Come as You Are", so pretty much no theme. Wolfgang's group decided their theme would be "dress for the wrong party", hence the beachwear and unicorn floatie.

• Speaking of floaties, we just finished the third week of classes at the college. These first few weeks feature various "welcome" events, and this week advertised hot air balloon rides "up to 50 feet with beautiful views of the city".

The balloon would be tethered, go up 50 feet, come back down to take another batch of riders. I went to check it out with Boss, and this is what we saw.

Yes, there was a hot air balloon. Yes, there were people waiting to go up. No, it was definitely not 50 feet. But, they did say, "up to", so not a lie. The beautiful views of the city, replaced with beautiful views of the parking lot. 

In the ballooner's defense, it was already pretty warm by 9-ish AM - low to mid 70's. It takes a lot of propane to get a hot air balloon off of hot asphalt in those conditions. 

•  I think we might finally be done with welcome events, the semester is well underway at this point. As such, my tutor schedule is chock full of anxious students. Math nerd delight.

grumpy cat, trashy green, pros and cons

First of all, I will elaborate a bit on Party Girl's dress that I mentioned in my last post.As she explained, the dress required neither bra nor underpants, so it was desirable to wear on a hot day when she had various errands to run.

The image in my mind was not a favorable one, but she explained that the dress had built-in underthings. Like a tennis dress, yes? 

I have some shorts and also a skirt with built-in liners. Hers was a complete dress.

So she wasn't just flapping in the wind, so to speak. *ahem*

Anyhoo, Chaco's in town, visiting from Virginia. So it's nice to have him here. Not a full vacation as he's working from his Colorado office. And he's brought his dog, Ella.

Ella is good friends with our dogs. Not so much with the cat. So the dogs are happy while the cat is holed up and grumbling in my office/the cat room when the dogs are inside.

Wednesday was bike-to-work day around the country. I've mentioned in previous years that it's a well attended event here.

SOURCE

So happens, Magnum was out of town for work this past week, but Chaco attended with me and picked up some food and loot. It was a nice day for it, and as is typical, people were out in droves.

There are some very generous vendors at bike-to-work. One tent was offering up SO much stuff. I got to the end of the table, and the woman working the tent said,

"How did you get this far down the line and not take anything yet!?"

"I'm just agog at what all you're offering up, I'm partially paralyzed", I replied

Well, that, and I honestly don't "need" much of the giveaways - water bottles, little accessory bags, individual first aid kits, reflective bands - being a minimalist and all. I was also not hungry at that point as we'd loaded up on burritos, coffee, and trail mix at an earlier stop. 

I mainly enjoy watching the spectacle of it all.

As I was in observation mode, I realized that, ironically, bike-to-work day isn't all that environmentally friendly. A lot of the freebies are pre-packaged items in individual plastic containers and such. To be honest, a lot of trash is generated on bike-to-work day. 

But hey, at least we attended via bicycles!

Speaking of work, I'm still contemplating my future in the testing center - weighing the pluses and minuses of staying there vs. fully switching over to JUST tutoring. 

Work at the testing center is administrative/ customer service with a teeny bit of IT thrown in once in a while. It provides a needed service, but it's not very creative from an employee point of view. I'm down to just a handful of hours there each week, with no real wiggle room in my schedule, because I fill my other available hours with tutoring.

But I enjoy my coworkers for the most part. Heck, that's half the reason I keep working. Gets me out of the house. Ever time a semester ends and a new one begins, I contemplate staying or going. It's hard to decide, so I've ended up staying. 

Decisions.

nerds, netflix

School's out. Monday was the last day of spring semester. I had a final meeting with a tutee, because nothing like a last minute cram sesh. 

So, after a whirlwind of tuting and testing - the two areas where I work - the tuting's come to an abrupt halt. Not gonna lie, I feel a bit rutterless. At least testing is still hopping. We typically get a wave of testers at semester's end. Newly pinned EMT's getting their certifications, educators getting their licenses, etc.

On Tuesday...

Magnum: No more tutoring?

Me: *SIGH*, not until summer session starts... but in the meantime... (gesturing to the whiteboard, because, yes, we have a whiteboard).

I'd put up a thought provoking math problem, to keep our brains exercised, nerd that I am. Nerd that he is, he couldn't wait to try to solve it.

Since that, there've been more brain teasers appearing on the whiteboard. Some from me, some from him. I had to get more markers, we'd expended the others.

So this is what happens when nerds collide, get hitched. This, and that offspring who liked to do experiments and once blew stuff up and melted a poop bucket - but at least it was outside the house - and that's another story.

Meanwhile, we finished the Netflix series Four Seasons since it was getting a lot of hype. 

It was... all right. It's about a group of friends, 3 married couples, who take regular vacations together. One of the husbands asks for and gets a divorce, then takes up with a much younger "girlfriend", thus changing the vacation group dynamic. It's based on the 1981 movie, which I've never seen.

It was entertaining enough. I didn't always relate to the characters as I found them too neurotic in general. But it did remind me of a couple I met years ago. 

J and A were good friends with Magnum's dad and stepmom. The four of them went on vacations together, etc. Then it turned out that husband J was having an affair on wife A with a younger woman. 

J and A got divorced, and J eventually married the other woman. I remember FIL telling us they'd received an invitation to J's wedding.

"I threw it in the trash!", he said with a chuckle.

I didn't know my FIL that well yet at the time, and I remember him moving up a few rungs on the moral ladder in my mind with that remark. 

But really, I think I may have gotten more into that other viral Netflix series - Tiger King. 

This concerns me a little. 

moms

Happy Mother's Day😊 I'm not a "Hallmark Holiday" person, so I don't like or want a big to-do on the day. BUT, I do definitely appreciate my own loving mom.

I have this photo from the ancient times that, presumably, my dad or older brother took on the spur of the moment.

Me in the coziness of Mom's lap, my brother "Guano" (appropriately attired in a batman cape), the three of us sitting way too close and engrossed in something on the black-and-white Motorola TV. Loooong before google, so there are printed materials strewn about.

Nothing scripted, no prepping. I imagine Guano having food stains on his face... So happy good moms appreciation day!

Speaking of appreciation, I showed up to meet with a tutee one day last week, and she appeared, saying, "I want to give you something". She reached into her tote bag and pulled out this lovely pot o' succulents!

Is that so sweet or what?

She found out earlier in the week that she's been awarded a transfer scholarship to the university's engineering program.

This is "the mom" I've mentioned here before - juggling strenuous coursework while raising two young daughters.

She says she wants to get her degree before she turns 40. I think she just might make it.

I brought the plants home and put them on a shelf in Magnum's work-from-home office which happens to be of the most sunshiney rooms in the house. There are shelves in there that are the home of the only houseplants we have, because anywhere else is not safe from attack from the cat.

The cat doesn't necessarily want to eat the plants, he's just a jerk.

...but I bet his mom was nice.

nature, Mexican beers, and a cult

Happy May, y'all! Spring continues to spring.

Last weekend, we got together with Meego and Wolfgang for a little hike-about in nearby Lyons, CO. Lyons is a small town - population of about 2,000. The main industries appear to be weed dispensing and catering to outdoor recreators, not necessarily mutally exclusive. Beautiful day for it.

We stopped at a favorite Mexican restaurant post-hike, where we FINALLY learned that Sundays are "men's day". I say we finally learned this because every other time we'd gone had also been on Sundays. The guys would each order a beer and get two instead of one for reasons unbeknownst to us. Turns out, it's a "men's day thing".  Who knew?

We didn't learn this until after ordering, however, so once again, we had double beers at the table.

Switching gears now... Okay, I have this friend, we'll call her Rosemary. She moved to another state about a year ago or so. We're friends on f4cebook, and she's starting to post things that clearly indicate she's joined a cult MLM.

I'm not sure which MLM she's involved with, as she's being vague - as is tradition, it seems. But signs are that she's selling (trying to sell) ridiculously expensive water filters.

Now, I've had other friends get roped in - usually other moms I know - and I just ignore their pitches, and eventually, they see the light. Confession: I myself got roped into an MLM in the early 2000's before I knew anything about them. But I soon experienced the creepy / cult-like atmosphere and got the heck out before losing money and becoming a weirdo... well, an MLM weirdo anyway.

And now, Rosemary. She's early- to mid-thirties, no kids, no college degree. A ripe target. I'm seeing these type things from her on the regular -->

...and I cringe inwardly.

So I contemplate. Should I DM her like she prompts in order to

(1) try to talk her out of it - to which she probably wouldn't listen?

(2) pretend to be interested, infiltrate the cult, and then try to talk her out of it?

or do what I'll probably do in the end,

(3) ignore it, and watch painfully from afar.

Hopefully, she'll learn sooner rather than later.

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.

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.

fork yeah!

Another busy week down. I feel I've neglected the blog and blog reading (as well as housework, but that's allowed) this past week. BUT the semester is now finished. Onto the next thing.

I had a PEO thing yesterday. Fun, but yet another obligation. I look forward to a relatively obligation-less week ahead. 

As such, I was over at the site where I do my other tutoring. There's a questionnaire for setting preferences and such, and I noticed some strange wording:

Forks yes, I have access to a car? I have no car, but use forks as a substitute? I'm interested in online tutoring... with forks?

So I sent a non-urgent message to the helpdesk informing them of the forks. Right after clicking "send", I thought, "hmmmm, what if the problem is at my end? Some weird glitch in the cache?". So I cleared my cache, then logged in again.

Yep, the "Forks" have been replaced with "Yes".  Aw, Fork.
Now, the helpdesk is going to see my weird issue and roll their eyes. Thankfully, I included the screenshot shown up there. I swear I wasn't hallucinating. 

So happy December. On a recent night, I awoke around 2am, realizing it was December already. And I thought, "*GASP*, Oma's gonna send her annual box of diabetes!"

Every holiday season since forever, my step-mother-in-law has sent us a boatload of cookies, candies, etc. They're store bought, nice quality, but SO much. Especially in recent years, even after offloading much of it to our now adult kids, most of it goes to the landfill. 

I decided to head her off at the pass, emailed acknowledging her thoughtfulness, but pleeeeeez, no more box of diabetes. She responded promptly, thanking me for my "honest feedback".

I was, however, not able also to ask her not to send me another desk calendar, which she has traditionally sent and which goes straight to the thrift store donation - while the year is just beginning. 

Baby steps.

a gathering, a bovine, a chill dude, a flush for Friday

I went out for a brisk little run in the crisp black Friday morning air today. Apparently there was a goose convention going on at one of the local high school practice fields.

Either that or they're groundskeepers doing a fertilizer application while the kids are on break.

Christmas decorations have been making their appearance in the neighborhood. 

I came across this jolly... bull? buffalo? Maybe he's a steer considering how friendly he looks?

It was a bright sunny morning, but a frosty 20F, so coming upon a guy at the park, shooting hoops in shorts and short sleeves was a bit mysterious.

I didn't take a pic of him, but used my masterful digital imaging skills to dramatically recreate the scene.


How was he not freezing?

That's pretty much it for my Black Friday adventures. The guys had a nice time with extended family yesterday, and brought back much leftover beers - as they were in charge of supplying beer. Clearly, they brought more than necessary.

None of us are big beer drinkers. Unfortunately, unlike leftover Halloween candy, I can't just bring it to work and dole it out. Magnum says we might have to up our intake to more than the typical half a beer every couple weeks. 

Honestly, though, I get the "Asian Flush" from alcohol, and don't really like the feeling. Mainly my cheeks. If I'm buzzed, I can bet I look like I'm wearing clown makeup. 

I'm a bad boozer. Suggestions for the leftovers?