Trip to D.C., Part 2

A few more pictures from our collective phones.

Someone caught this cool shot coming into the city.

 

We noticed our Kota in this painting.

 

Trevor was thrilled by this street sign.

And as we walked along the mall in the drizzle, we came upon this car.  It's at least kind of funny. But kind of awful too!

 

Good luck with that, buddy. Hope you're planning to stay the day!

Trip to DC

Trevor and I drove to pick up Holly and then made our way into DC.  We've only been there a few brief times, but I love going in, and I want to take advantage of both the extra daylight hours in the evening (for the drive home) and Holly's proximity before she's out for the summer.

I'd scoped out parking locations/prices ahead of time and knew that I could easily park for almost 1/3 less than what taking the Metro would cost us.  (Much cheaper on weekends, yay!) We'd save a lot of time that way, and we would be just a block from the National Gallery of Art, our chosen destination.

 Nice feature of Trevor's new phone

We were picky about where we spent our time.  In general, Holly and Trevor preferred the sculptures, bas relief, and older things (13th century or so, at this museum).

 One of a half dozen or more period sculpture galleries

It was particularly sweet for me to listen to them commenting on the different depictions of skin color, facial features, etc., depending on the time period and location of the artist, along with the differences in the portrayals of Greek and Roman gods, expressions, physical strength, and more.

We also really liked seeing the artists we've learned about in the past and reliving our old favorite The Impressionist Art Game!

Holly's favorite face (lol)

I wanted to see the Chagall mosaic, which was outside in the Sculpture Garden. We wandered over in the rain, but the piece was off to the side, not on a path, and I wasn't going to wade through the puddles in the muddy grass to get a look.

We also walked down the Mall for a few blocks.  I felt bad for some of the tourists, who are stuck here in the rain--but on the other hand, I personally felt that a rainy day on the Mall was better than not going at all, so maybe they felt the same!

 Looks like my kids, but it's not!

It was a very misty, fine rain, okay to walk in. Trevor's clothes were pretty wet (no umbrella), and even my (and Holly's, I'm sure) clothes and purse were covered in mist. We got back in the car, and as we headed out, noticed the long lines of people out in the rain, waiting to get into both the Natural History and American History Museums.  I would have *gladly* stayed in the Art museum for a few more hours instead!

It began raining harder on the way back to school. We grabbed McDonald's for Holly on the way, parked in the parking garage near the JC, and Trevor and I ate Indian food on her meal plan, and she and Trevor shared cake.  Trevor, carrying Holly's umbrella:  "I don't care that I have a purple umbrella. I'm comfortable in my masculinity."  ::snort::

We drove around and picked up Starbucks (thank you, Bill!), and hung out in her room for a bit before leaving.

We hit several pockets of rain on the way home, enough to slow us down 25 minutes or so. Trevor slept half of the way.  I couldn't believe how much light we had, even after 7:00.  It was a SUPER fun time. I am anxious to get back up and do things in DC, taking advantage of the daylight, while Holly's there before the end of the semester.

Yep, a rainy day on the Mall is definitely better than not going at all.  At least it wasn't cold!!

Glimpse of spring!

Robert called me outside last night to admire the sunset.  It was damp outside but not chilly, just nicely damp.  Ahhhh!  Spring may just show up yet. I continue to be hopeful . . .

Drawing by Trevor

A favorite Manga character.

Afternoon out with Trevor

Today was my day off, and Trevor and I went out to lunch at the Hibachi Grill Buffet. Robert doesn't care for the greasy buffet food, but Trevor and I enjoy tasting the different foods, and we adore the sushi bar.

Trevor took this with his new iPhone.  It has an incredible camera.

For the last year plus, he's been using Holly's hand me down, four year old phone, that has texting-only capabilities.  He was going to get a new phone for Christmas but opted for his computer parts instead. He bought this phone with the money he's making from his new job. We also got him a great plan from Virgin Mobile, $30 a month, unlimited data and text, and 300 minutes of talk.  If I talked for only 300 minutes a month, I'd switch in a heartbeat!  Anyway, he's having a load of phun with his new phone.

After lunch, we had time to kill and stopped at Best Buy and checked out ipads and other stuff for fun.  And then we went to the movies and saw God's Not Dead.  It was very good, and we both liked it.  Great afternoon, fun time out with my kid.

My sweet son

Trevor's always considered himself lucky to have a cell phone, any cell phone.  Back when we ditched our landline over two years ago, we got him a super cheap phone just in case he was ever home alone.  A year later, he got Holly's hand me down phone.  Oh, it was a step up, but it was three years old, a dinosaur really.

Last week, he used his own money to buy himself an iPhone.  We've never had iPhones here, but he did all of the research himself. After all of the work he did researching his computer components, I'm pretty comfortable asking a few questions and letting him make the final decision.

He texted me at work from his old phone when the new one arrived, and then he went to work at setting it up.  I texted him later in the afternoon on the old phone, and this was his response:

"Texting my beloved beelly . . ." Texting my beloved Billie.  How he referred to his sister.

I love what a true friendship they share.  Priceless.

Trevor's sweet new job

Trevor was recently certified as a soccer official through the U.S. Soccer Federation.  He side reffed his first game last week at a nearby middle school.  He was a little nervous beforehand, wanting to do a good job and not knowing what to expect, but of course, he ended up having a blast!  And he gets paid very well for it too.

Robert and I went to hang out and offer support on the drive.  Robert walked into the game with the refs.  I tried to walk in a few minutes later and was stopped at the gate.  They wanted to change me $4 to get in!  Haha.  I went back to the car and parked it where I could watch--through the chain link fence! That's Trev there, closest to the camera, in the yellow ref shirt.

Back to school Tuesday

We left early Tuesday morning.  There were mostly trucks out on the road, and it was still cold outside.  The roads were good, but about 50 miles up, my windshield began freezing over from the outside. I slowed down a bit decided to pull off at the next exit. As we pulled into the gas station, my ice magically melted away.

Thank You, God, for keeping us safe, once again, on this drive. You make it so clear that You have a different plan for us.

As the ice melted, Holly and I watched a fire truck with sirens blaring enter the highway.

We got back on a minute or two later. Two miles up, traffic was at a standstill.

Two cars had collided in our northbound lanes, with one ending upside down in the median.  Traffic stopped.  A young woman was either not paying attention or lost control of her car slammed into the back of a stopped semi.  Her car burst into flames, and passersby pulled her out. She had already died.

We were stopped on the highway with no where to go and waited almost two hours at a standstill.  We knew from other Wazers (my GPS app) and the highway patrol website that there was a bad accident less than a mile ahead.  With all of the driving we've done back and forth, we've only passed on other serious accident, and we've only had one other slowdown (minor compared to this).

I am so, so thankful for the ice that slowed me down.  We surely would have been behind the first accident, but we would have been very close to the second one.  It was awful finally driving past it, the burned out shell of her car, getting ready to be lifted on the flatbed tow truck.  So very sad.

It wasn't fun to be stuck in the car for so long, but we were quite aware that it was better than being further ahead in any accident.

Leaving on Tuesday morning meant that Holly missed her first class. Being stuck for so long meant she missed her second class.  She still wanted to go out to lunch when we got back to school, which meant she missed her third class of the day too!  It made for an extra long spring break, and as I'm writing this, there are only seven weeks left until the end of the school year.

Snow, snow and more snow

Holly was supposed to go back to school last Monday, but it began snowing on Sunday and was not looking good up north to make the drive on Monday.  School was cancelled, so we decided that I'd take her back Tuesday instead, and I would swap work days.  I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and then drove the back way--lovely view! 

Sunrise

As I was leaving for work last week.

Holly's fish

When Holly was home at Christmas break, she bought a couple of fish and a fish tank for her dorm.  This is her little betta fish, who is still pretty much unnamed, at the top of the tank.  She also has a plecostomus, Neymar. He's stuck on the side of the tank; you can see his dark flat belly pressed against the glass.

This was taken back in January before they all went back to school.

She's had troubles with her tank and murky water from the first week.  I have a much smaller tank, with just one fish, and I've only changed out my water twice.  She changes out her water (40%) a couple of times a week, and the water still looks awful.  She brought her guys home this week so Robert could give it a try.

The one thing I noticed is that her betta fish is much more blue. I don't know what makes them change color.  But he's definitely gained a lot of color.

It's hard to get a good picture of him.  He enjoys playing in the current caused by the filter, and when I look at him closely, he follows me and looks at me head on, no matter which angle I try.  Sweet little fish; we're hoping Robert can get the water issue straightened out in time for the trip back up to Fairfax.

Day After Daylight Savings

I was at the airport last night at 11:45 picking up a friend (who lives in town).  Trevor came along for the ride.  The airport is close, 20 minutes away.  We got home before 1 a.m., and I finally went to bed at 2.  That's when I started to worry.  I can't survive on 3 hours of sleep.

I set my alarm for almost an hour after I usually get up for work, just giving up some of my computer time.  Interesting trade off; perhaps I should do it more often.  Robert had been up since 4 a.m., couldn't sleep.   Holly was up until 5 a.m.  It was crazy. 

I didn't feel any aftereffects of less than 4 hours sleep, in fact, I'd even forgotten about the time change, except that when I left to go to work, I thought, "It sure is cloudy this morning!" before realizing it was just dawn.

Trevor kept going back to sleep, finally getting up around 2.  He's been sleeping SO much over the past week that I think he must be starting another growth spurt.

Good day at work, right now I'm feeling like I'm on top of things--for the most part, anyway.

Holly had an eye appointment at 6--p.m., thankfully. The kids have reallyreallyreally wanted McDonald's for dinner, I know Holly hasn't had it since last summer, and I'm pretty sure Trevor hasn't either.

I think I've recovered well from the time change, but everyone else seems to be suffering.

Sunday

Robert and I visited a new church, the same one we went to last week.  We've gone to Bedrock for over a year but found it very difficult to gel with out a real "meeting" place. I guess we're pretty ambivalent anyway, otherwise we may have made more effort to make it work.  Anyway, it's nice to find a church where we were surprised to recognize people when we walked in the door, to already feel part of a group, to see the families and kids hanging out and enjoying talking to each other before and after the service.  The kids didn't come, they enjoyed catching their extra hour of sleep for Daylight Savings Time.

Robert's been spoiling Holly (which she much appreciates) by making her french toast two days meals in a row.

It was another pretty nice day outside.  Vader enjoyed the sun and open air in the sunroom (all cleaned out, who cares if it's not done).

Pumpkin nested with Holly, who made her own nest in the couch and was happy to oblige.

I took Kota for another walk.  She was good, again.  I took a picture of her engineered collar set up.  (I've been admonished in the past for calling it jerry-rigged.)  She excels at escaping, and she will run out her zipline in the backyard and use the tension to slip out of her collar.  It's thick, fits very snugly, and has no give, but she has a very large neck and narrow, small head.  So we added a choke chain, and we clip the loop in her collar to the chain.  When she slips out of the collar, the choke chain will **usually** keep her on her line.  But she still has figured out how to slip out even of the choke chain.  We've considered a fence, but she would jump anything less than 8', and we can't afford to fence in the yard.  She'd swim from Alcatraz and make it every time.

BBQ tonight--while we still can weather-wise, and while Robert won't need a flashlight with the extra hour of daylight!

Saturday

Gorgeous day out, mid 60s--finally!  Holly said, "I hope it stays this way . . . for the rest of the year!"  Couldn't agree more!

Robert and I took Kota for a walk, the first one in a long time.  I am so lazy with that dog, but she's an angel and was even not too excited to be out. We walked across the main road just to the other end of the street, where the creek was washing over the road. 

Holly and I went out shopping at Kohl's, where I bought a cute necklace on clearance for about $3. We stopped at Starbucks on the way home, but it wasn't quite warm enough to sit outside (just a little windy).

We stopped at Food Lion. She insisted on MY using the cart to get the groceries to the car--and when I didn't unlock the trunk fast enough, she ran to her door and jumped in, leaving me with the groceries.  I shouted at her, "Hey, don't be a lazy fat!!!"  ("Fat" in this instance is an affectionate noun, only used as a joke in our house.)  We cracked up when we realized there was a man in the car next to us, waiting for someone, with his window wide open.  Of course, she is by no stretch of any imagination "fat," lol.

Trevor and Robert cleaned out the sunroom today.  It's been a state of perpetual renovation for, oh, three years.  I don't care WHAT it looks like, I want to have the room OPEN, I'm happy to have a chair on the subflooring with unpainted drywall, if that's what it takes to enjoy the sun and warmth it will provide the rest of the house right now.  Robert even washed all of the windows, and I'm pretty excited to have my room back for spring!

Old people

Old people go to sleep early.  They go to sleep without trying to. They leave their books open next to them. Sometimes they take off their reading glasses, other times, they do not.  They leave lights blazing and the tv on, sometimes with their hand still grasping the remote.

It's wonderful to have a 15 year old to put everything away, turn everything off, and basically just to put both of you to bed at night.  Even if he does take a picture.

More snow

So.done.with.snow and the bipolar Jan/Feb/Mar (so far) that we're having!  62 yesterday.  I woke at 3 a.m. to pounding rain and checked--and then double-checked--the temp outside.  52 degrees. 

Yes, I sleep next to my phone, and woke up enough to do this.

It turned to snow this morning, with the temp diving down to the mid-20s.  But despite all of the snow, I'm happy to report that it didn't amount to much.

Throwback photo

Following Trevor's joking disbelief that I ever could have waterskiied, my mom sent me this.

 

 

That's Lori on the left, me on the right at Lake Shasta in August 1975. That's the I-5 bridge behind us.  Almost forty years later, this run remains legendary in our family.  We boated every weekend, and this was a special trip where we spent the entire week up at Shasta.  Lori and I skiied together here for more than half an hour, covering more than ten miles.  It was such a thrill to go so far together. We went for so long without signs of stopping -- or falling!!-- that in the end, we finally tossed out our ropes and gave up!