Posted by barb on Jun 4, 2006 in
Biking,
Pictures 
Sure, we’ve biked to Alexandria before, but never like this! Previously we had Metroed to Rossyln, and biked from there – about a 12 mile ride. This time we left from our house on the bikes, found our way to the W&OD trail in Vienna, followed it to Four Mile Run Trail, to Mount Vernon Trail, and into Alexandria. The good news is that most of the trip was on a slight down-grade, so even though it was over 20 miles without much of a break, we managed just fine. Though, I must admit that by the time we reached the streets of Alexandria, I was exhausted, and had a bit of a…um…inner leg pain. Yup, that’s fun on a bike.
Total miles: 23.2
Weekend miles: 23.2
Season miles: 110.0 (w00t! yay us — over 100 miles this season already!)
Tags: bike
Posted by barb on May 29, 2006 in
Biking,
Pictures Our weekend was so busy that we weren’t able to get out on the bikes Saturday or Sunday, so we thought we’d make up for it today. We got going around 9:30AM – a bit later than intended, but dammit, I had to finish Jimmy Neutron.
We decided to ride along the W&OD from Vienna to the end/beginning of the trail in Arlington and back, a ride we’d done once last year.
Just after getting up the “big hill” we spied a painter across the road. I snapped a quick picture, but didn’t want to disturb her. She was gone by the time we returned a couple hours later – perhaps the light had changed too much, or it may have been getting too hot.
One of the main reasons I wanted to do this ride again, besides pushing us back up to our longest ride, was to see the little swamp area we stopped at last year. This wetlands has frogs and turtles living among the many, many lilipads, and it’s a lot of fun to take a short break and try to see them despite their great camoflage. I snapped a few pictures – click on them to get to a larger version where you might actually pick out the frogs or turtles.
The end of the trail had been spiffied-up since we were there last year. Last year there was a pathetic little rusted sign and a bunch of chain-link fencing. Now, there is a little garden and water fountain.
As usual, I stopped along the way to snap pictures of the wildflowers that populate the trail. I even caught a couple of bumble bees in action.
It got fairly hot on our way back. The last few weeks have been unseasonably cool in the area, so we were spoiled on our last few rides. We’re going to have to start getting out of the house earlier if the warmer weather holds up.
Total miles: 23.0
Weekend miles: 23.0
Season miles: 86.8
Tags: bike
Posted by barb on May 28, 2006 in
Crafty Me,
Pictures Laurie and I scrapped until we couldn’t scrap any more yesterday. I headed up to her place in the morning, and we promptly headed off to Great Scraps, since any proper scrapping day starts with a trip to the scrapbook store. After lunch, we headed back to her place and scrapped until about 4:30. I finished my Naples/Herculaneum intro page spread, and Laurie did an awesome page from her trip to Myrtle Beach last year with some friends of theirs.
Then, we packed up our scrapping supplies, and headed off to Recollections in Columbia for their midnight crop. We were both a little nervous about what to expect from a group crop. I mostly scrap alone, and when I’m not alone, I’m with Laurie and/or Sandy. That’s it. We all think our pages and methods are great, but what if the cropping group was catty or snotty?
Turns out our fears were unfounded. The ladies there were a lot of fun. They already had their little cliques, but we felt that if we showed up a few more times, we would easily fall into one of the cliques. Plus, just because the ladies there had their groups, they were more than willing to talk with us and show off their work (and even share their tools, if we’d wanted). I think we’re going to try and make these group crops a regular thing – not every time we get together to scrap, but maybe once every couple of months.
Tags: scrapping
Posted by barb on May 24, 2006 in
Cute Pets,
Pictures 
The weather was finally nice enough after work that I could sit out at our new deck table with Ares. Ares and Artemis used to go out on the balcony at my apartment all the time. I had taught them that it wasn’t okay to put their paws up on the railing (yup, cats *can* be taught) and they needed to stay away from the edge. (Plus, we were only on the second floor, so I was pretty sure they would be okay if they did happen to jump down.) It got to a point where I would just leave the balcony door open, and just let them come in an out as they pleased.
Since we moved to the house, though, I haven’t felt like I could bring the cats out, because we don’t really trust Duncan – though, I think it might be time to try and teach him like I did with Ares and Artemis. Today I decided to just let Ares out, since I was pretty sure I could trust him, though I do need to teach him a bit about what he can do and what he can’t (i.e. he can jump up on the built-in bench, but he can’t jump up on the flower box). He had a great time rolling around in the random detritus on the deck, exploring the sad planters filled with weeds, and rubbing his cheeks against the rake we have out there.
The picture with this post is Ares attacking the sad, weed-filled planter. What a little guy.
Tags: pets
Posted by barb on May 22, 2006 in
Cute Pets,
Pictures 
Tags: pets
Posted by barb on May 22, 2006 in
Random Thoughts Believe it or not, there’s only a touch of sarcasm in that title.
About 4 years ago, I moved from one side of the Beltway to the other, but my job stayed on the other side of the Beltway. I had good reasons for this move – namely to be with my honey – but it increased my commute from less than 10 miles to more than 30. Perhaps in a rural area this might not be a huge deal, but in Washington DC, this is a gigantic deal. My commute that had been about 20 minutes, on a bad day, was now an hour on a good day.
To mitigate the commute, I talked to my employer about telecommuting two days per week. I wanted these days to be the same every week so that my managers would always know where to find me (though, one of my “customers” couldn’t seem to figure out the schedule, no matter how often I told him). I decided to telecommute on Mondays and Tuesdays for a few reasons including many of my meetings being on Thursdays and Fridays and wanting two days in a row at home so I could get and keep my momentum. This seemed like a good idea for a long time, except that I ended up commuting Fridays, often at 5 PM (because of a late meeting that couldn’t be moved to any other time). Fridays. On the Beltway. Add an accident or some rain, and my commute would balloon to two hours or more.
In the last couple months, though, my Friday meetings have migrated, and they are now on Mondays. I’ve switched my telecommuting days from Monday and Tuesday to Tuesday and Friday.
Why, oh why, didn’t I push for this sooner?
I left work at 3:30 this afternoon and got home at 4:10. Forty minutes. After 3:30. That’s how long it takes without any traffice. Yay!
I can tell you that I’ll fight any change that requires me to commute Fridays again. I love this, and don’t mind Mondays so much anymore.
Tags: work
Posted by barb on May 20, 2006 in
Biking,
Pictures 
We’ve actually biked to Reston Town Center a couple of times, but those times we’ve carted the bikes up to the W&OD trail on the car. Today? We didn’t load the bikes on the car. Instead, we biked the 3 miles to the W&OD trail, and then up to Reston. No gas. Yay us.
Our destination was the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival in Reston Town Center. We stumbled upon this art show last year, when we rode to Reston for a movie, but we enjoyed it so much that we kept this year’s on our calendar. We didn’t actually buy anything this year (beyond the cinnamon pecans and almonds). However, we hope “someday” to have buy some art for our house – likely when we move to a new place we’ll hire a decorator to help us with our eclectic tastes. We found some candidates, though I still need to go through the cards we picked up to remember everything.
Today was a great day for biking. When we got up, the sky was gray, but that didn’t last long. The sun came out, but it wasn’t too hot. The W&OD trail was filled with wildflowers, and I took a few good pictures. Here are a couple of them:
Total miles: 20.0
Season miles: 63.8
Tags: bike
Posted by barb on May 19, 2006 in
Random Thoughts Imagine a box of tampons costing half of your monthly income.
Sound ludicrous? That’s the situation in Zimbabwe.
Feed your family? Pay rent? Or buy sanitary products?
From this article in the UK Sunday Times:
SHE has been arrested 22 times, tortured so badly that her front teeth were knocked into her nose and had an AK-47 thrust up her vagina until she bled. Thabitha Khumalo’s crime: to campaign against a critical shortage of tampons and sanitary towels in Zimbabwe, one of the least talked about and most severe side-effects for women of the country’s economic crisis.
[…]
So desperate is the situation that women are being forced to use rolled-up pieces of newspaper. Zimbabwe already has the world’s lowest life expectancy for women — 34 — and Khumalo believes these unhygienic practices could make it drop to as low as 20 because infections will make them more vulnerable to HIV. “It’s a time bomb,” she said. The shortage is forcing schoolgirls to stay at home when they start menstruating.
[…]
When an MP raised the issue in parliament, government ministers fell about laughing and dismissed the matter.
Read the whole article.
Head over to here to see what you can do to help.
[Via Feministe]
Tags: rant
Posted by barb on May 13, 2006 in
Biking,
Pictures We took just a short ride this morning. The weather this weekend is a bit uncertain (high probability of rain), so we didn’t want to commit to a long ride. Instead, we took off from the house and rode the streets nearby looking for yard sales (always on the look-out for books to give out at Halloween).
This route didn’t have any wild flowers, but I did spy a bluebird perched on a sign. I’ve tried to get pictures of birds on other trips, but either I’ve passed the bird before I can stop to get out my camera, or I scare the bird away by my approach. Today I managed to snap a couple of the bluebird on the sign, but I didn’t get close enough that you can see the bird much. Oh well. I’ll keep trying.
&npsp; 
Total miles: 8.05
Weekend miles: 8.05
Season miles: 43.8
Tags: bike
Posted by barb on May 9, 2006 in
Cute Pets,
Pictures 
Tags: pets