One Room Note House

Snow for a Motorcycle Class

2012-02-11T18:53:00.000-05:00

I'm working a motorcycle class this weekend. Saturdays for me start in the afternoon, while Sundays start earlier than the crack of dawn.

Just into the first exercise this afternoon, Tony texted me to tell me that it was hailing at our house. Well, that's a little creepy, given that we're all outside, but I looked at my phone and the weather was moving to the southeast (not in our direction). The weather that was heading for us looked more tame.

Not long into the second exercise (the first exercise on the bikes), the wind turned frigid and the clouds covered the sun. Then, we saw a whirling mass of white coming down the hill behind the building in the picture. At first, we all thought it was just low-lying clouds, but it dawned on us that it was something else. My first thought was pouring rain, but instead, it was snow! Not just a little snow; it poured out of the sky and skittered around on the ground. Just after it started, Dick and Sandi pulled the students off the bikes and we huddled in the trailer, watching the snow fall.

I finally got my wits together and decided that there was no way I could pass up an opportunity like this - as a matter of fact, I should have taken a picture as the snow was approaching! Anyway, this is the best shot I got, but the experience was amazing. The wind was also amazing(ly cold).

The crazy thing was, the snow lasted less than an hour (probably not even half an hour). Then, the sun came out and it was almost warm!

Lexington Park

2012-02-03T10:39:00.001-05:00

Tony had a trip to Lexington Park, Maryland this week and asked if I wanted to go along. I love going new places and I really like that traveling with Tony on business makes it feel a little less (self-)indulgent.

We drove up Wednesday night and checked into the hotel. Thursday morning, I dropped Tony off at his meeting and drove down to Colton's Point. I'd somehow gotten the idea that there was a lighthouse down there. I thought I'd start there and work my way back toward Lexington Park. As it turned out, the only thing down there was a museum that didn't open until noon. Since it was only 10:30, I figured I'd head to my next stop: Piney Point Lighthouse (and Museum).

I hadn't had a lot of time to plan this trip as we found out only a few hours before we left that it was actually going to happen. As it turned out, a little more planning would have been a good thing in this case - the lighthouse museum is only open on the weekends in the winter. Fortunately, you can still go up to the lighthouse and look at it, even when the museum is closed.

It rained most of the morning, but the clouds were just starting to clear off as I was wandering around the lighthouse grounds. This panorama kind of gives a sense of how quickly the clouds were moving out.

Eventually, I ran out of things to look at there, so I went back to Lexingon Park to get some lunch (at that point, it was about 1:30, so I only had...three and a half hours to kill! Tony pointed out that the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum was kind of small (it was right across the road from the hotel we stayed in), so I didn't bother even trying to go there (although I should have, since I had so much time and so little to do).

Once Tony got off, we went to Solomons, Maryland (just north of Lexington Park) to CD Cafe on the recommendation of one of the guys he was working with. The food was creative, but still very good. We were both really impressed (although honestly, the desserts weren't nearly as good as the dinners).

Unlike Washington, D.C., there are things around Lexington Park that I'm very interested in going back to see when things start opening up. I'd like to go back to Piney Point and if Tony stays through a Friday, I'll see about talking him into staying over the weekend so we can take the water taxi to the Blackistone Lighthouse. There was also another lighthouse near where we ate dinner that I'd like to see (and another not far from that). And that's just the beginning!

Aunt Denise's Birthday

2012-01-31T16:48:00.001-05:00

This past weekend was Aunt Denise's birthday. She invited me (and a few other people) to go to the beach with her. I looked at the weather and decided there was no way I was going to let such a nice weekend pass me by, so I planned to take my motorcycle (initially, I thought I would take Tony's since I figure it's more comfortable for long trips, but it was broken, so I took mine after all).

I stopped a couple of times along the way to stretch out (I decided that a windshield would be nice for a trip that long) and it ended up taking around four hours to get to the beach. Saturday night, we (Aunt Denise, Aunt Darleen, Aunt Denise's friend Erika, and I) drove out to the Bay Bridge Tunnel to take some pictures and watch the sun set. This is from the far side of the two tunnels.

Sunday morning, we walked on the beach for a little while before we headed home. The ride home was quite a bit chillier than the ride to the beach. The forecast said it was going to be cooler, but I had expected that since I would be riding back later in the day that it would be approximately the same. I was wrong. Aunt Darleen rode part of the way home, which I really appreciated, since my muscles were getting really stiff.

I was going to hang out with Dad on Sunday, but he wasn't there when I got there. I rode my bike over to Nana's and hung out with her and Aunt Darleen for a while. I rode the rest of the way home with Aunt Denise and picked up my bike this afternoon.

Of course, more pictures here.

Winter...Finally!

2012-01-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

This winter has been really mild. We've had a few cold days (30s for highs), but they were immediately followed by really warm days (highs in the 60s). This past weekend, we finally got some winter precipitation (although today is supposed to be nearly 60 again)! Saturday and Sunday, we got freezing rain and snow. It didn't amount to much, but it was enough to make things look pretty.

We'd planned to drive up to the mountains to take pictures, but the fog was so thick, we would have done just as well to take pictures of a sheet of white paper. Ragged Mountain Natural Area isn't too far from home, so when we got back to town, that's where we went.

Ragged Mountain surrounds one of Charlottesville's reservoirs. I thought it was a bit like this picture, from the trip Jean and I took to see Grandma and Grandpa in 2009. It was great that the water was calm enough to make the reflection so crisp.

I'm not sure I've thought of bobbers as Christmas tree ornaments. Guess that just goes to show that I don't have enough imagination....

We wanted to make it to the gatehouse (you should be able to see a picture here), but we didn't have time to get there and get out before it got dark. As it was, we were glad we'd turned around when we did.

More pictures here.

Not a New Author...a New Blog

2012-01-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

Jean decided she'd rather have her own blog (and blame me for it). So she's here: jeansgenes19.blogspot.com.

DC on My Own

2012-01-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

Tony had a meeting in McLean, Virginia on Wednesday. He talked me into going with him and taking the Metro into DC while he had his meetings. I planned to go to the zoo and to the C&O Canal thing that's up there (supposedly hooks into Great Falls somehow).

The first thing to make the trip less than fun was trying to figure out how to park at the metro. Apparently, a lot of the parking is only open to people who have SmarTrip cards. Well, I don't have one of those and I don't particularly want one, since I don't plan to go to DC often. It took an hour and a few trips around the block (it was a very large block) to figure out where I could put the car. I almost went to another metro to try to find someplace to park, but on my last attempt (as I'd decided before I found the lot), I found a lot that let you pay cash. Finally!

I arrived in DC at 9:30 Wednesday morning. It was really cold and the one museum I wanted to go to didn't open until 10:00. So, I walked down toward the the Washington and Lincoln memorials. The reflecting pool was closed(more information here), as was the Washington Monument (more information here).

Initially, I thought I would continue on to the C&O Canal site from there, but I was pretty cold. Since it was after 10:00, I returned to the National Museum of Natural History. I wandered around in there for a couple of hours. Tony and I went there fairly recently, so it wasn't as interesting this time.

Around 1:30, I finally convinced myself to go up to the National Zoological Park. The creepiest part of the whole trip was going into and out of the metro stations near the zoo. The escalators were really noisy (moaning and groaning and creaking) and it was such a long way to the top (I didn't even walk halfway up and counted 30+ stairs!).

The zoo was boring - most of the animals were hidden - and frustrating - like a lot of people, I'm not terribly impressed with their living conditions.

The animals in the Asia part (the only part I spent any time on) were mostly inside (because it's winter). There were a few animals out, but the ones that sounded most interesting from the signs were not viewable.

I particularly wanted to see the Przewalski horse, but when I finally found them (there were two), they were in a little pen that had absolutely no grass. I don't know if that's where they usually live, but it looked like it was. The elephant was also in a pen that had no grass. I know they were doing work on the elephant house, so maybe that had something to do with it.

I understand that zoos serve a purpose, but it seems a bit sad that, for all the zookeepers do to keep the animals as close to their natural environment as possible, there isn't grass for the horses. There was a sign for one of the primates that the keepers put ants into crevices in the rocks so that the animals have to search for them, just like in the wild, but there's something about it that bothers me.

The panda was probably the most interesting part of the trip to the zoo. I walked toward his space and he looked at me. Then he looked away and I shifted and he (she?) looked back. Finally, it got tired of that game, bleated (like a goat!), and walked away. Who knew? I didn't!

Actually, another surprising thing was how lightly the elephant moved. After Jungle Book (the Disney movie), I assumed they were really heavy on their feet. But the elephant at the zoo jogged across the [insert correct word for paddock thing here] and it was remarkably light and it looked really smooth.

Once I'd seen the Przewalskis, I headed back to the metro to go back to the car. Tony's meeting wasn't out for another hour and a half (after I got to the car), but I was tired and hungry, so I went to a Panera to get some food and hang out for a while. When my computer's battery died, I left Panera. It took me 20 minutes to go the mile or two from the Panera to the place I was supposed to pick up Tony.

All I can say is, I'm really glad I don't live in Washington, DC (though I suppose I'd be a lot better at maneuvering up there if I did live there).

New Author!

2012-01-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

Jean mentioned wanting to share videos and pictures, particularly of Alexus with those who don't have Facebook. I offered her the use of my blog and she's tentatively agreed. Hopefully I can talk her into writing her own posts!

Until then, I'll link to her YouTube site.

Carova - Day 5 and Departure

2012-01-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

Friday, we were up for the sunrise. We went down to the beach to take pictures (Thursday, we took pictures from our room, though I don't think any of those turned out).

Later in the afternoon, the horses came back. It took until Tuesday for them to show up the first time, so I was a little afraid they weren't going to show up again until after we left. I think everyone thought I was crazy to get so excited about them.

Later in the afternoon, Tony and David got in the hot tub. That was the first time anyone had been in since we got there - at the beginning of the week, Tony had convinced himself it wasn't running.

We went to town to get a couple of things for dinner. While we were out, we went looking for a lighthouse replica for David's collection. We didn't find any, but Tony got some cool pictures!

We left on Saturday and didn't take any pictures.

There are more pictures here.

Carova - Day 4

2012-01-05T08:00:00.001-05:00

I didn't take a lot of pictures Thursday. I spent a lot of the morning and early afternoon walking on the beach with Tony's parents. We made it to the Virginia state line before David went back to the house.

Everyone was preoccupied taking pictures of the birds. Steve took pictures of the birds, while Betty seems to have been helping David set up his shot.

We saw some interesting stuff on our walk, including a huge rock sticking out of the water. The only thing I photographed, though, was this log that had washed up on the beach.

There are more pictures here.

Carova - Day 3

2012-01-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, we spent the morning walking. Close to the shore, the waves were as dramatic as they had been all week, but further out, the ocean was flatter than it has been for the last several days, but the wind whipped the spray up off the waves and it was really cool.

While we were taking pictures of the spray off the waves, we caught these birds. The dolphin in the background was a bonus.

Tony's mom found this piece of conch shell. She suggested it was a good mug handle. Tony decided it was better as a sword handle.

The rest of the day was spent in "town." It took about an hour to get there. Lunch was slow and then we went to the store. We got back to the house just before sunset, which was good (we didn't really want to drive the beach after dark).

There are more pictures here.

Carova - Day 2

2012-01-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

Tuesday started with wild horses on the dunes. I spent about 20 minutes watching them and taking some pictures. I couldn't really get a good angle without getting closer than you're supposed to get. This is the group of horses. The stallion is the black on the far left.

Later in the morning, it started to rain. By the middle of the afternoon, it was storming. I went down to the water (actually the walkway that goes over the dunes). The wind was so strong it had blown the beach smooth and was whipping the loose sand all over the place. It was amazing (the video is best viewed without sound).

The storm began to blow out as it came to sunset. The light was really dramatic then.

The day ended with an amazing sunset!

There are more pictures from the trip here.

Carova - Day 1

2012-01-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

Monday morning, we were up about the time the sun came up. Tony and I went down to the beach to take some pictures.

Some people were already driving the beach, even though we were out not much past high tide.

Later in the afternoon, we went for a walk. Our house was about a mile from the Virginia border, so we walked across the line and found this sign. The park (on the Virginia side) doesn't allow people to drive on the beach (except a few people who were grandfathered in). It seemed strange that they left the sign up, though.

I went out later in the afternoon as the sun was going down to take more pictures. Just as I walked out the door, this airplane flew by. Fortunately, the camera had already been unpacked, so I didn't miss much.

As always, there are more pictures here.

Carova - Arrival

2012-01-01T07:00:00.000-05:00

We left Christmas morning to spend the week with Tony's parents at Corova Beach (near Carolla, NC).

My Christmas present from Tony was a camera that I can mount on my motorcycle. We put on of the mounts on the dash of the car and Tony played with it on the way down.

We drove through this tunnel on the way down from Virginia.

We got a house on the 4x4 beach. I told Tony on the way down that whatever it took to let me drive on the beach, that's what I wanted to do, so we worked it out for that to happen. This is the access to the 4x4 beach.

Driving on the 4x4 beach was a lot easier than I was afraid it was going to be. I thought it was going to be easier to get stuck, but it was more like driving on a slightly slick road (and that only when I got too close to the water) than driving through mud.

Even once we got off the beach, we had to drive on this sand road (like dirt road or gravel road) to get to the house we rented. After we got to the house, I told Tony I was going to drive the beach on the way home too. He didn't like that idea much.

As always, there are more pictures here.

Bike Pictures

2011-11-01T12:00:00.000-04:00

Here's the picture of the bikes I promised. Mine's back in the shop for the third time. Hopefully, this time it will get solved, though I'm beginning to wonder....

Jean's Visit

2011-10-31T11:30:00.000-04:00

Jean, Chris, and Alexus (my new niece) came to Virginia for a short visit. It was a surprise visit, so I was the only person who knew ahead of time (less than a week, so I think it still counts as a surprise). And that was only because they needed someplace to stay!

They met me at Nana's house to surprise her, Dad, and Aunt Denise. They were all surprised (whew!) and really excited to see Jena.

The next day, I had class all day, but when I got out, I met them at the mall - they were hanging out with friends. I thought Jean's shirt was awesome, so I had to take a picture. It says, "Pilots without maintainers [mechanics] are just pedestrians with cool jackets and sunglasses."

The day after that, we met Dad at KFC for lunch. We got to hang out for a little while, which was nice.

As usual, there are more pictures in the album.

Mom came with Jean and Chris. They picked up one of Jean's friends on their way to town, so we had a lot of company last week!

Riding Partner

2011-10-30T22:35:00.001-04:00

Q has decided that he doesn't like it that he gets left behind when Tony and I go riding. So he's putting on his gear so he can be my riding partner too.

(I bribed him back into the helmet - he explored it on his own the first time - but he always burrows under my riding gear.)

Pennsylvania Trip

2011-10-17T18:09:00.003-04:00

Tony wrote about how we spent reading days. He used all the good pictures and school stole my brain, so I'll just leave it at that.

Updates

2011-09-19T12:00:00.000-04:00

There are a few pieces of news I need to add to make future posts make more sense.

Tony bought a new bike a few months ago. He's always had his eye on the Road King and finally got a really nice one. The handlebars were terrible and were replaced as quickly as possible. It's black cherry (dark purple); I don't think there are many colors that could beat that one.

I sold my Celica a couple of months ago. I spend so much time riding that the car generally doesn't make sense anymore. There are times that having only one car in our house is kind of hard, but we generally manage to schedule around each other, so it's been a mostly positive thing.

I traded the Super Glide for a 2006 Street Bob. Well, really, I am selling Dad his Super Glide back and bought the Street Bob. I bought it on a Monday last month. By Friday, it was making weird noises and we had to take it back to the dealer. I got it back two weeks later and within a week, it was acting up again (not noises, but the way it was running). It's still at the dealer. By the time it's all said and done, it'll have a new stator and regulator (I couldn't find a link for that one). It's all part of the battery charging system, so basically, it wasn't exactly something I could ignore. Latest news is that I'll have it back (again) by the end of next week. In the meantime, I've been riding Tony's R6.

I really need to get some good pictures of the bikes. School's been crushing me, though, so it'll be a while, I think.

Cold Ride

2011-09-18T16:34:00.000-04:00

Earlier this year, Dad and I did a ride that I really enjoyed. He told me recently that they were going to do another ride, but this time, just for fun.

The ride this spring had much better weather. Today, it was cloudy and chilly. Actually, the temperatures would've been really nice if we were coming out of winter, but since it's been in the 80s for the last several weeks, the fact that it was in the 50s this morning when we left was kind of shocking.

We met Dad in Ferncliff and rode the rest of the way together. Dad was on his Electra Glide, Tony on his new Road King, and I was riding Tony's R6 (long story). Of course, since most of the bikes on the ride were Harleys, I got some ribbing. Mostly, nobody commented on it, though.

The route this time was Maidens to Lake Anna (the east side), then on to Waugh Harley Davidson in Orange. Once there, we hung out for a while.

As for the riding, I was a lot less comfortable this time than last. I don't know if it was the weather (the cold makes me feel stiffer and that makes me less confident in handling the bike) or just my mindset. The corners on 522 may have been a bit more challenging earlier on in the ride (of course, I don't even know if "warming up" on "easy" parts is helpful). At any rate, I felt like I was using more of the road to make my turns. I didn't know the guy who was behind me, so I don't really know how he felt about the amount of space I was using, but it made me self-conscious. The other thing that I considered was that it was the bike. I haven't ridden the sport bike as much as I had the Super Glide, but it's been my transportation for the last month or so

Tony and I headed home from Orange since it was closer from there than from the starting point. It was Tony's first organized ride and he said he had fun, even though it was a little chilly (especially since he only has a mesh coat).

Virginia Beach

2011-09-11T16:28:00.000-04:00

School has started, but that doesn't mean I don't have time for some fun.

This past weekend, Aunt Denise said she was going to Virginia Beach for the day and asked if I'd like to go along. I figured I had done enough homework that I'd be able to finish by the time it was due, so I went.

We got to Norfolk around 11:30 and had a good time at lunch with Amy and Vic. After lunch, we spent some time wandering around the NEX to do some shopping for Brandon. Amy had work at 1:00, so we went on with the rest of our day.

We spent some time taking care of some errands for Aunt Denise (taking care of someone's apartment), but the rest of the day was for fun stuff. We walked down the strip, window shopping.

It didn't take long for people to get bored with that, so Aunt Denise and I left everyone else to sit in the apartment, while we walked along the beach. We didn't stay out for long, but it was long enough for my jeans to get soaked.

It was a good trip and I think we all had fun. And I managed to get some things done that I'd set out to do when I went down there, so I considered it a successful trip.

As usual, there are more pictures on Picasa (you can click on the picture and get there).

St. Mary's Falls

2011-05-17T23:09:00.006-04:00

Tony's been so excited about our new backpacks that every time we have a few days, he starts talking about going camping. The nice thing about his flexible hours is that if there's nothing pressing at work, he can take a weekday off and make up the time after hours or over the weekend. So, last Wednesday, we went to St. Mary's Falls for the second time. It seems kind of unbelievable, but it's been nearly four years since we were there last (Tony wrote about it here. One thing I can say for sure is that Tony got his wish - the water was quite a bit higher this time!

We got to the parking area at around 4:00. There were only four other cars parked there, so we very nearly alone, if not truly alone, by the time we passed four groups of people going in the opposite direction. It took us almost four hours to get in as far as we camped the last time because we were being careful to make sure our feet didn't get too deep in the water. Last time we hiked St. Mary's Falls, it was very dry and we walked quite a bit of the way in the dry bed. This year, the water was over our ankles at some of the crossings. We tried to jump from rock to rock, but at the last crossing, there were no rocks to use. We tried to tiptoe across the river, but the water was high enough that it just went over the tops of our boots.

We couldn't get to the campsite we had last time because there was so much water over the last set of falls that we just couldn't get up them. At that point, we turned around and went back to a site that Tony noticed last year looked like a nice spot.

The new site was pretty nice, if a little cramped. As you can see in the photo above, our tent was pretty near the fire pit. That wasn't all bad because our boots were wet and we spent some of the evening with bare feet, trying to get our boots to dry before we put the fire out for the night. The fire did a better job than I anticipated it would - by the morning, my boots were dry enough that I couldn't feel the wetness through my socks when I put them on. Not only that, but it made us some dinner too! Sausages and marshmallows made for a satisfying dinner before we turned in.

The trip out was much faster for one reason: I fell into the river on the first crossing we attempted and Tony chased in after me to make sure I didn't hurt myself. Tony is definitely better at crossing a pair of branches (sticks, really) from the bank to a rock in the middle of the river. He had crossed and was standing on the rock looking for the best place to go next. I had gotten all the way from the bank to the rock when the branches shifted under me and I slipped right into the water. I managed to not fall on my rear, but Tony grabbed for my hand to try to save me. I managed to pull him in right after me. I found out later that he only got a little bit of water in one boot. I, on the other hand, was wet to my knees. After that, we didn't worry nearly as much about finding the perfect place to cross to keep as dry as possible. If I didn't see a simple way to get across without getting too wet, I just charged through, no longer caring how dry I stayed. Not only was I already wet, but we were on our way home to clean, dry clothes.

If you're interested, there are more pictures here.

B3 Motorcycle Run

2011-05-08T23:00:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, Dad and I went on a ride for a guy in Goochland who was found dead on the side of the road. No one knows what happened, so the money from the ride is being used to fund a reward for details. The ride went from Crozier to Zion Crossroads to Buckingham and back to Crozier. There were 22 bikes, only a few of which had two people on them. There was one BMW and at least two Hondas. The rest were Harleys. This first picture is of the bikes lined up before we headed out (actually, so is the last picture, but that one is from the back, obviously).

Our first leg was from Crozier to Zion Crossroads. We went out to 250 and rode that the whole way to the Crossroads. The interstate might have been faster, but we weren't out for speed and I think it'd be hard to keep a group that large together on the interstate. Besides, it was a pretty day for a ride! It took about an hour to get there, by which point, my back was starting to feel tight. I was glad for the rest, but glad to be back on the bike about 10 minutes later for the second leg of the trip.

The second leg went from Zion Crossroads down into Buckingham County on 15. I was on the shoulder side of the lane when we crossed the bridge over the James River, so I got to sneak a few glances of the river as we crossed. It seemed to be pretty high, but I may have just been creating that feeling, as I'm not as familiar with the James River as the bodies of water nearer Charlottesville. We stopped in Buckingham County and, even though I think I could have made it back with the gas I had, I topped off to make sure there weren't any problems. We had about 10 minutes again and the tension was back in my muscles.

The third leg was from Buckingham back to Crozier. There wasn't a whole lot to comment about on the roads on the ride other than that they were really pretty. They weren't too challenging, which I appreciated, as I haven't been on my bike in about three months (long story). The one part I was worried about was when I saw a sign that said "grooved pavement ahead." I ran into that once on 250 when they were resurfacing the road and I was so uncomfortable I said that if I could help it, that was something I would avoid in the future. Fortunately for me, grooved road in this case just means that it was a little bumpy. On our way back across the James, I was on the inside part of the lane, so I didn't get quite as good a look at the river as I did on the way out.

When we got back to Crozier, the sponsors of the ride fed us: hamburgers and hot dogs. I have to say that after a ride, a hamburger slathered with ketchup and mustard is the best thing on the planet. It just seems to hit the spot for some reason. We hung around for a while after the ride was over, but we were one of the first to leave.

The thing that I was most pleased about with the ride was how comfortable I was on my bike. I was a little afraid that having been off my bike for so long would make things difficult, but it wasn't actually too bad. I had some rocky starts, but the corners (which can be really frustrating sometimes) didn't work too much against me. I managed to keep up with the pack most of the time and didn't really feel like I was holding people up most of the time. I asked Dad after the ride if he could compare it to the ride we did in November and he said I did much better. I guess I didn't write about that one. After the ride was over, he told me that I ought to try to get more comfortable riding closer to other people to keep the group more together. I didn't really think I did that much better with that, but I did try. I sometimes got distracted by my thoughts and just started following at my normal distance. Then, I'd realize that I was further behind than I ought to be and hurried to catch up.

Overall, the ride on yesterday was a lot of fun. The roads were pretty, the weather was amazing, the group was small and well-managed. I'm not sure what more you could ask for!

Baltimore Inner Harbor

2011-03-17T16:30:00.004-04:00

Tony found out Tuesday afternoon that he was going to Maryland for a Wednesday meeting and asked me to go along, since it was an all day meeting. I thought since it was kind of close to family, I'd go along and try to meet up with them. It turned out that it didn't work out, as they were out of state, but I had a good time anyway.

When we went up, I didn't have any plans. I knew that I'd be near Baltimore and that the Inner Harbor is a nice place (thanks, Dad, also for the suggestion), so I figured I'd wander around and find something fun to do. I looked up parking and found that the MARC was cheaper (and less stressful) than finding a place to park all day. I didn't pay attention to the fact that I could have just as easily gone to DC.

Traveling is always an adventure and this trip proved to be no exception, staring off with a bang. I read online that you can get tickets for the MARC at the stations for "list price," but if you buy them on the train, you have to pay an extra fee. Well, the ticket machine at Laurel was broken, so I was a bit upset at the thought of having to pay almost double for the ticket. As it turns out, there is no penalty if you have to buy a ticket on the train if the train system is at fault. I didn't realize this wasn't just a fluke until the return trip, however.

When I got to Baltimore, I sent my aunt a picture of the harbor and asked if she had any suggestions for lunch. Even though they weren't in town didn't mean I couldn't get information from them, right? She got in contact with me and got me into the National Aquarium (as well as a dolphin show), which was fantastically awesome of her and I had a really good time!

She didn't answer right away, so I wandered around the harbor, looking at what there was to see. I can't tell you when I was there last, I just know I've been there before, so as you can imagine, I don't have strong memories of the place. There wasn't much open...I guess because it was the middle of the week and it's not yet tourist season. At any rate, I didn't see that there was a lot I was interested in doing, so I was glad when I got a phone call asking if I wanted to see the aquarium (to which I enthusiastically said, "Yes, please!").

I was given an 11:00 entrance to the aquarium and an 11:30 dolphin show. Since I didn't really know my way around, I went pretty much straight to the dolphins. On thing that really impressed me about the aquarium was how good the signs were. I guess I shouldn't have been, given that they want people to find stuff, but I was. I did stop by the ray room before I went to the dolphins. I don't know if you've ever had a memory you weren't quite sure was real or a dream. That's the way my memory of the ray room was, from the last time we were at the aquarium. As soon as I stepped into the room, though, I was absolutely certain I'd been there. It wasn't too long after having been to Virginia Beach because Mom was talking about the skates we'd seen on the pier.

I'd planned to take our "real" camera to take pictures while we were in Maryland, but I completely forgot as we were packing and my phone isn't fast enough to take pictures to make it even worth trying. The dolphin show was pretty cool. It felt more like a school outing than a circus, which I think was to its benefit. After the show was over, I went to see the jellyfish, which I'd been encouraged not to miss. Of course, at the dolphin show, everyone was reminded of the same exhibit, which meant there were a lot of people there. I didn't have to wait long for people to clear out, though. I've got my pictures from that part of the visit on Evernote (I wanted to be able to keep track of which ones were which). If you flip through, there are some notes I made on a couple of them.

After seeing the jellyfish, I went to the Australia exhibit. In one of the very first exhibits there are several lizards (I don't remember if there are any other animals in that exhibit). There was one in particular who caught my attention because he seemed to be quite the showman. He'd run up to the glass and walk around a little before walking slowly to the back. A short time later, he'd run up to the glass again, strutting around a bit before heading to the back again. He'd walk over the top of a much larger lizard, who finally got fed up with being walked on and moved to another part of the exhibit.

One of the interesting things about the exhibits at the aquarium (by design, but still interesting) is that you're frequently viewing the tanks from under the water level. That made an interesting reflection of this croc. The bottom part is the "real" part and the top is the reflection.

There was this fish, which was really weird looking. I thought his eyes were the weirdest part...until I saw the sign...and the second fish.

Yes, he's out of water. Apparently, he breathes through his skin, as long as it's moist. And how does he get on the branch, you ask? My guess is by "walking" on his fins, though I didn't actually get to watch either of them get onto the branch (in spite of both of them being there by the time I moved on).

Eventually the tour takes you to a room where you have an underwater view of the ray room. Though that's not where this picture was taken, that's where I finally figured out the answer to the question, "If you could be an animal, what would it be?" I know this isn't the clearest shot, but it's a great example of why I think these creatures are so cool. Who wouldn't want to be able to glide through their environment with such a seeming lack of effort? From the little bit of research I did, they don't appear to have many predators (humans and, increasingly, sharks and whales).

After I perused as much of the aquarium as I could find, I went looking for a place to eat lunch before I had to catch my train back to Laurel. The spots right on the harbor near the visitors' center were really expensive ($30 for lunch?), so I went over to Rusty Scupper, which was slightly cheaper. It was fairly empty and all of the staff were really attentive, which was an interesting contrast to Charlottesville (even on an empty day). The food was pretty good, but with less of the "good stuff" and more sides than I was expecting, which was kind of disappointing. The view was pretty incredible, though.

It took a little longer to eat lunch than I'd expected, so I had to hurry back to the MARC station to catch the first train back. There was a line for the ticket machine and this was when the conductor for the train said that if the ticket wasn't acquired in time, there would be no extra charge for buying it on the train. That's when I realized they were more flexible than I expected anyone to be (which was a nice surprise, even though I did get my ticket in time). Tony picked me up from the station within 30 minutes of my arrival, so we got to head home early, which wasn't all good, since we got stuck in rush hour traffic on our way out of DC. It wasn't all bad, since we stopped to eat and managed to avoid most of the worst of it.

I didn't link all of the pictures, so if you want to see what else I saw while I was there, you can go to the album and look at all of the pictures.

More Pictures from Las Vegas

2011-01-29T12:00:00.000-05:00

Jean posted her pictures from our last day hike on Picasa so I could see them. She said that it was okay with her if I posted them, so the link to them is here.

Snow!

2011-01-28T17:14:00.003-05:00

We've not had nearly as much snow this year as we did last (last year would be kind of hard to beat). By the time we went to bed last night, we had about an inch of snow on the ground at our house. This morning, when we woke up, it was snowing again. It was enough to close schools, but not so much that I couldn't get out and take care of my commitments.

I took this at about 9:45 this morning. By about 11:30, the roads were clear and most of the snow in the fields were gone. At my house, we have a good bit left, but our yard is mostly shade. Places that get sun are clear.

Leaving Las Vegas - Day Three

2011-01-27T12:00:00.002-05:00

On the way to Las Vegas, we passed over this bridge (obviously), but it was dark, so my pictures were kind of weird, so I made a point of telling Mom that I wanted a picture of the bridge on my way home. The weather was lousy for taking pictures (it was misting), but we stopped at the rest stop just across the line in Tennessee and took some pictures.

Mom also found and took a picture of this monorail. It carries people to the island in the middle of the river for events and stuff. The bridge over it is for pedestrians, so you're not stuck with only the monorail, if you don't like that sort of thing.

We finally made it back home (at least for me) at about 1:30 on Monday night. Though I enjoyed my trip out to Las Vegas, it's just not home, especially since Tony didn't come with me. Maybe next time!

Leaving Vegas - Days One and Two

2011-01-26T12:00:00.001-05:00

The return trip went much more quickly. Mom and I left Nevada on Saturday after our hike. We managed to make it to Gallup, NM before we stopped for the night. It was too dark to take pictures for most of the drive, so I didn't get anything the first night.

We passed by this feedlot on our way through Texas (near Wildorado, or so my phone claims). Though there are a lot of cows in this picture, there were several groups of them. I couldn't even begin to guess how many there were. I'm not sure I've seen so many cows in one place at one time before.

Sunday, we made it to Russellville, Arkansas. The funny thing was, we checked into the same hotel we stayed at on the way out. Not only that, but it was the same man who checked us in. The similarities ended there, however. We weren't even on the same floor or wing as last time.

Exploring Las Vegas - Day Five

2011-01-25T12:00:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, the last day in Las Vegas, Chris and Jean took us all to Red Rock Canyon, which is just west of Las Vegas. There's some really great hiking out there. The views are pretty incredible too.

The first climb we attempted ended up at a dead end, but the rocks were pretty cool. I wanted a sense of perspective for the dimple in the rock, but Jean's face made this picture better than I imagined it would be.

This climb wasn't as steep as it looks. Going up was easy because there were all kinds of ridges in the sides of the rock to give you traction; going down was scary because of this weird perspective.

Getting to the top was totally worth it (though the first couple of climbs weren't too difficult). The views were amazing, as you can see.

Mom and Donald went on to hike another hill, but Jean, Chris, and I stayed behind just past where we ate lunch. I think Jean and Chris got bored because Jean was trying to take a picture of them, so I told her I'd do it...first with her camera, then with mine.

Again, there are more pictures here.

Exploring Las Vegas - Days Three and Four

2011-01-24T12:00:00.002-05:00

Thursday, we didn't do much other than hang around the house, so I worked on applying for readmission to UVa. With Tony's help, that went pretty well.

Friday morning, Mom and I went down to the end of the road, where you can see the jets taking off and landing. We spent a good while down there watching them fly around. Unfortunately, I didn't take the Canon because we hadn't set out to watch the jets, but take a walk around the neighborhood. When we went back to the house for lunch, we agreed that we'd come back later with the camera and take some pictures.

Later on in the afternoon, we did as we said we would and went back to the end of the road. Unfortunately, at 2:00 on a Friday afternoon, there aren't many people who are interested in flying. Even the jets that were out were landing, but not where we could get pictures of them. I was really disappointed.

About 8:00 p.m., Mom, Donald, and I went down to "the Strip." I figured that since I was in Las Vegas, I ought to see stuff at least once. After being there, however, I've decided that unless Tony wants to see it someday, I'm never going back there if I can help it. There was too much hustle and bustle and people pushing their little "see the girls!" papers at you. The casinos were kind of disappointing too. We went in a couple of buildings along the strip and, though they had really ritzy (read, expensive) stores, they felt worn out.

I don't remember the name of this casino, but they had some little gondolas that actually rode around in the water. They weren't running when we got there, but I got the impression they were operated during the day. It seemed like an interested gimmick and made for a pretty nice picture (this morning, I can see a potentially better angle, but like I said before, I'm not interested in going back unless Tony wants to go someday.

I don't remember where these were either (there was a pair of them), but I thought they were pretty cool. We'd just crossed the street on a raised bridge. But there were lots of those around the city, so I don't really know where the were at all. Stuff online seems to suggest that they live near Caesar's Palace.

I thought was pretty cool was the light show at the Bellagio. We were across the street from the Bellagio at about five minutes to the hour. I'd looked it up online to know that between 8:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. (see Wikipedia) the light show happens every 15 minutes. We were about ready to stop at the point, but we stuck around long enough to watch the light show.

After the light show was over, we found our way to the monorail station, where we bought tickets ($5/person!) and rode back to the car. We were tired enough that the cost was worth it, I think. Fortunately, the drive back to Jean's was pretty short and I could go straight to bed as soon as we got back.

Exploring Las Vegas - Day Two

2011-01-23T12:00:00.000-05:00

After Tuesday's hike, I don't think anyone was interested in a strenuous hike. Wednesday, we went looking for something we thought was an airplane that had crashed into the side of the mountain; it turned out to be only a cave. Anyway, as I was walking, all the shadows lined up, so I yelled, "Stop!" Of course, everybody looked at me funny, but did as I asked. They liked the effect when they saw the picture, though.

Not only was the view at the top of the mountain awesome, there were some pretty interesting things along the way up, including this cactus. They were all over the place, but I thought this one was cute, tucked up in the rocks like it was.

While the view from Tuesday's hike could have been pretty awesome, we were disappointed to find another mountain in the way of the view of the city. Today's view was fantastic for the effort we put into it. I know this isn't toward the city, but I thought there was pretty awesome scenery on this side too.

Jean and I sat on the top of the mountain, watching the sun set as Chris, Donald, and Mom went further up the ridge. The colors were pretty amazing and the fact that we actually got to watch the sunset made Wednesday's trip that much more enjoyable.

Finally, Jean seems to be pretty obsessed with pictures of Las Vegas under darkness or near darkness. And having attempted some pictures for myself, I can appreciate why she's so interested in them. I think this one's pretty cool myself, but it's even better if you can zoom in on it and see how clear some of the buildings are, given how little light I had and I didn't bring the tripod.

Oh, and I should've mentioned a few days ago: you can see more pictures here.

Exploring Las Vegas - Day One

2011-01-22T12:00:00.003-05:00

Tuesday, all five of us spent a good bit of time taking care of errands. In the afternoon, however, we went exploring. First, we tried to go to Lake Mead, but since we had to pay, went went drove around in Sunrise Mountain Recreation Area. We didn't have the camera.

After Jean finished at work, we went back out toward Lake Mead, but pulled over on the side of the road to climb a mountain that we thought would let us look over Las Vegas. This is a picture of the climb. It was pretty strenuous (though perhaps a bit simpler than Mt. Hope since there's already a path paved). Even once we got to the switchbacks that lead to the saddle, the road was pretty steep.

As we got closer to the top, the sun started to set and created some pretty incredible contrast and color. Wednesday, we planned to go up the mountain in the picture because on the way up the route we'd chosen, we noticed something on one of the mountains and since no one knew what it was, we thought we'd explore it.

We'd hoped that at the top of the mountain in the first picture, we'd be able to look over Las Vegas. Well, turns out, there's another mountain the size of the one we'd already climbed on the other side. It was coming on to dark and we were all tired, so we gave up. We sat for a bit to regain some energy before returning to the truck.

Here's a view of the hike we took - all the way to the top - from the bottom the mountain we climbed on Wednesday. Looking at the trail we took after having hiked it, I have to say it looked harder after having hiked it than before. That might also have been partly because I was pretty tired after having hiked it that I dreaded the thought of another trip like that in the near future.

To Las Vegas - Day Four Las Vegas!

2011-01-21T12:00:00.002-05:00

As we traveled from Albuquerque to Las Vegas, we went through Flagstaff, Arizona. After driving across the Colorado Plateau all morning, this sight was pretty amazing. While I thought there was a kind of beauty in the scenery on the plateau, coming from the sparseness of the "desert" into view of these mountains, well, I don't think there's a whole lot you can say, other than "amazing." Especially when it's over 50℉ and there's snow on the mountain.

We finally arrived in Las Vegas at a little after 5:30 local time. Just in time for dinner and bed!

To Las Vegas - Day Three Albuquerque

2011-01-20T12:00:00.003-05:00

As we went across the country, Donald wanted to stop at each state and take a picture to "prove" that he'd been there. So, when we stopped in Oklahoma at the welcome center, I was impressed by this picture. I don't know what the subject is, but I'm fairly certain it's the Trail of Tears. Actually, this page says it's a painting of the Trail of Tears by Robert Lindneux.

From there, we drove on toward Amarillo. The only thing I could think of every time I saw the sign was the George Strait song. After a while, it was kind of annoying to start singing the song in my head every time I saw a sign that told us how far the upcoming towns were.

This was the waiting area for the restaurant at which we had dinner on Sunday night (Saltgrass Steakhouse in Amarillo). Other than being really salty, the steak I had was the best steak I've ever had. The beef was really tender and really well-cooked. And the flavor of the beef was fantastic.

After dinner, Mom drove the rest of the way to Albuquerque.

Next stop: Las Vegas!

To Las Vegas - Day Two Arkansas

2011-01-19T12:00:00.003-05:00

After leaving Saltville, we drove west until we were ready to stop. This happened to be just west of Little Rock. We didn't really make very good time because we stopped so frequently. I'm not even sure where most of our time went.

The only picture I took worth sharing on this leg of the trip was this one, taken somewhere in Tennessee. There wasn't a whole lot that was new to me (as far as scenery is concerned). And we didn't go over the Mississippi River until it was dark. And I still couldn't really get to the Canon.

Next stop: Albuquerque.

To Las Vegas - Day One Saltville

2011-01-18T22:30:00.005-05:00

Mom asked me about a month ago if I'd be interested in riding with her to Las Vegas when she took Jean's brother-in-law Donald. I was thrilled with the idea of getting a chance to see more of the country, so I talked to Tony and when he agreed, I told Mom I was interested.

The truck was full of stuff to take to Jean's. Not only was there the stuff we had for ourselves (clothes, etc), but there was also a good bit of Donald's stuff and stuff for Jean and Chris. There wasn't any room in the cab either - the only space was in the seats and then just barely.

Friday, we left to see Aunt Darleen, who lives in Saltville now. On our way out on Saturday morning, we stopped to take this picture at a spot overlooking the town. Then we were on our way for real. Our next stop was just past Little Rock, Arkansas.

More Ohio Pictures

2010-06-23T12:05:00.003-04:00

Ok, I've finally gotten up all the pictures I want to put up from the Ohio Trip. So check them out. There are some that I didn't blog about, so there is still something new to see.

The link.

Steam Trains and Other Exciting Things

2010-06-20T17:51:00.000-04:00

Thursday, I also went back to the Carillon Historical Park, like I said I would. I thought the website would have more pictures, so I deleted a bunch of the ones I took because the light was so lousy the shutter speed was slow enough that it was impossible to handhold the camera and get a shot that wasn't blurry. Unfortunately, there aren't many official pictures on the website and doing a Google image search for Carillon Historical Park doesn't give me any pictures I'm interested in.

My first stop was back to see the Rubicon. I didn't realize at the time that they also had an older train engine, but knew that I had seen this train through the windows and I wanted to go back and get a better view...and some pictures. This is a much better picture of the Rubicon than any I could get; they must have moved it in the last three years to a darker, smaller building. The building it is currently in is much too small to get the whole engine in the picture and too dark to get a very good picture, but it's good to jog the memory!

Next, I went to the transportation building, which was probably my favorite stop of the whole park. The building had been locked when we went after hours and I was curious to see what was inside. I was pleasantly surprised to see all of the cool stuff they have stored in there. The girl who was manning the building gave me a tour. First, she showed me an engine that was even older than the Rubicon (see above) - "the oldest existing locomotive built in the US" according to the sheet of paper they give people.

Next, she pointed to this fire engine, parked next to the train. She didn't say much about it, save that it was pulled by animals. The sheet of paper they gave out says that this type of vehicle began to replace the bucket brigades. I have to say, it's nothing like the fire engines we have today, but I can see how it'd be an improvement at the time.

There were several trolley cars and those were really interesting, especially since they had ties to the area - most, if not all of the vehicles were made and/or used in the area. The Barney & Smith car was kind of overwhelming in the opulence compared to the other vehicles in the room (stained glass and mahogany with inlay, in particular). It had a separate section for the men who wanted to smoke/drink/play cards/talk politics/do other "manly" things. The summer trolley was interesting in that it only went one way, so someone had the foresight to make reversible benches so the passengers could always be facing forward. There were lots of other really cool things, but I can't seem to find pictures right now, so I'll just leave it at that.

My guide told me that the carriage was built to hold 9 people and that it would be a tight fit with any girls in there, as they wore large skirts during its operation (I can only imagine squeezing a maximum of 6 people in there in jeans). I can't even imagine....

----------

And so, after three days of wandering, my self-guided tour of the Dayton area came to an end. Friday, Tony and I went to the Air Force Museum before driving home. He took the pictures at the museum, so I'll have to get him to write about that so I can link to it.

More Bridges

2010-06-19T21:20:00.010-04:00

Thursday I drove to Germantown, Ohio to look at two more covered bridges before I left. I got to see these online, so knew that I was going to see something at least a little different than the ones I'd seen the first day. The first bridge, seen above, was in the middle of Germantown. It's a pedestrian bridge only, so I could wander around and take pictures of it from whatever angle I liked (there was even a path to get under the bridge), unlike the bridges I saw on Tuesday.

One of the nicest things about the bridge was that it was a really inviting place to just sit and chat with people around town, if they were inclined to just sit and congregate someplace. Of course, it didn't look like they thought this was the case, but someone had provided several seats. As I was taking pictures, I kind of wished I hadn't been exploring alone as it would have been nice to have someone to sit in the seat as I was taking pictures for the shot above. That's the view from the top of the bridge (obviously). Not much of a body of water to cross, but if it's like the other covered bridges around Ohio, its current location is not it's original location.

I thought the second bridge (above) I went to see (south of Germantown, just outside of the main part of town) was the prettiest one of them all. It was also, unfortunately, the only one you couldn't get close to. I mean, you could park right off the road from it, but you couldn't approach the bridge unless you wanted to be trespassing, and somehow, that didn't appeal to me. I'm not sure I was or am entirely upset, as the landscaping around the bridge was very nice. Again, the location seems a bit silly for such a large bridge, but I'm not sure this was it's original location.

37 Foot Waterfall(s) and a Park for History

2010-06-16T22:58:00.003-04:00

My first stop today was to the Charleston Falls Preserve where they boast a 37 foot waterfall. It seemed a bit silly, but something interesting nonetheless, so I put that on my list of sites to visit this week while I'm here. It turned out to be pretty interesting (more pictures later, since I still can't get them off the Canon).

This first picture is of the falls. You can see that there is a cut-out behind the falls. I thought it looked like an interesting place to explore, but there are signs all over the place warning you to stay on the path (like I said, more pictures when I can hook the Canon up to my computer and download the pictures I've taken), so I was good and stayed where they wanted. It also didn't seem like a good idea to get wet at the beginning of my hike.

There was also a cave a bit up the trail. The entrance wasn't much taller than I am (about 5'5") and pretty round. Not too interesting as you couldn't really see into it. The walk was nice, but not really much to say about that until I have the rest of my pictures.

This is a picture from the "goldenrod hexagon." I don't really know what it was supposed to be, but it was a really nice place to sit and relax. The only down side was that the highway was just past the trees on one side.

I spent most of the afternoon chilling at the hotel and when Tony came back from one of his meetings, I pressed him to go to the Carillon Historical Park. I'll keep most of the details on this a surprise, since we went after they closed and I have every intention of going back tomorrow. We got to peek in the windows (it's like a much more relaxed version of Williamsburg, I think) and there's some cool stuff in there, so some good pictures tomorrow, I hope (though, again, they'll mostly be on the Canon).

This is a beer truck from the historical park. I'll leave you with that as I'm being pestered about it being time to go to sleep.... :)

Ohio's Covered Bridges

2010-06-15T14:46:00.003-04:00

Tony is in Dayton for a conference this week and invited me to go with him. I was excited to get a chance to explore somewhere new, so I quickly agreed. We drove most of yesterday, so we didn't get to do much of anything except get our hotel room, grab some dinner, and crash.

This morning, Tony's conference started at 7:30-ish, so after he left, I started looking around the internet for "things to do in Dayton." It wasn't too long before I found that Ohio has covered bridges. After a trip last year with Aunt Darleen looking for some of Virginia's covered bridges, I thought that might be a good way to start the week. After doing some research, I discovered that Preble County has a covered bridge driving tour. Not realizing that I wasn't in Preble County and that Eaton is a pretty good drive from where we are in Dayton, I started off.

After spending a good deal of time in the car (an hour, maybe?...after spending eight hours in the car yesterday, it felt like forever), I got to the Preble County Historical Society building. I was impressed with the house and took a couple of pictures. As I was taking my second picture, a woman came out and asked if she could help me. She was really friendly and told me that the driving tour I'd come to do had a paper with text directions on it, which I thought was great, seeing as I don't know the area and the map they had wasn't terribly helpful unless you know your way around.

I left there around 10:00 and spent the next two and a half to three hours wandering around Preble County following their covered bridge tour. I think the most disappointing thing about the adventure was that the bridges all looked the same. I looked online before I left at some other bridges and there was a lot more variety in how they were constructed as far as a "normal" person could tell. The exciting thing about the trip was that I got to drive through most of them.

We failed to bring a way to get pictures off the Canon, but I took a couple of pictures on my phone, which I could get to, so I've included one of those (quality isn't great, but they're still pictures). I'll upload a couple of the pictures from the big camera later.

(You can get to the rest of the pictures if you click on this one.)

Wanna See It?

2010-05-30T17:16:00.004-04:00

I guess the last time I wrote, I was psyched about having gotten my motorcycle license. Well, now I'm psyched about finally having a motorcycle of my own! While I appreciated the generosity of the people who loaned me their bikes (thanks Dad and Aunt Darleen...and Sandi for offering her bike), there's nothing like having a bike of your own.

Tony wrote about getting his bike here. It was about a month ago that I finally got mine running. Well, street legal. It ran. As a matter of fact, most times Dad and I worked on it, we'd start it first...just to make sure it was still working. And to listen to the pipes.... :D

Now, I finally have pictures! Tony finally got on it and took it around the block today, so I took advantage of having someone else on the bike so that I could take pictures.

Motorcycle License

2010-02-21T16:53:00.004-05:00

This weekend, Tony and I spent a lot of time learning how to ride motorcycles. It was a lot of fun, but it was a lot of work! We have come home every night thoroughly exhausted. But it was totally worth it because we both now have our motorcycle licenses! While I don't think either of us is ready to go out on the road yet, we are more prepared. Now all we need to do is find a bike (and a little bit more gear)!

Let's Play Catch-Up (Again)

2009-12-28T13:56:00.005-05:00

School was killer this semester. I managed to pull of a GPA of 1.9 or something. It wasn't what I wanted and I'm not going to give you details (I'm still a bit sensitive about it), but I've learned a lot (outside of what you get in a book) this semester. This is learning I wouldn't have chosen to gain, but don't regret having. Things like how to fail a semester (basically) with grace (hopefully). Or things like learning to ask for help before it's too late. And things like my happiness used to far too dependent on grades (I had no idea how important they were to me). We'll see how long these things last.

The holidays have been horribly busy. Thanksgiving, we went up to Aunt Jane's house for the annual get-together. On the way back home from Maryland, we stopped at Tony's parents' house to celebrate with them. The Sunday following Thanksgiving was the Cortez gathering. Then there was Christmas. We had Christmas with the Cortez family on Christmas Eve, drove up on Christmas Day to spend the weekend with Tony's family, and we have Mom still to celebrate with. It's been busy.

Class starts in a week. Dean Papovich suggested I take a J-term class to help me adjust further to UVa, so I am enrolled in that class. We'll see how that goes.

Of course, the best news is the snow that we had dumped on us. We had somewhere between 18 and 21 inches the weekend before Christmas! It's the most snow I've ever seen at one time and I was thrilled. Even now, there is still snow covering grass in most places. We didn't play much in it, but we walked out in it several times. I was really glad to have all my riding gear - my feet stayed dry. The roads are finally plowed (after about half a week) and we are moving about freely again. I took some pictures, so hopefully those will show up eventually.

As for news, that's the latest. Now back to preparing for that class....

Fetching Kitty

2009-10-10T21:15:00.004-04:00

It looks from videos on YouTube that it's not really as bizarre a phenomenon as it seems (seemed?) to us, but Q fetches. It was a magic thing that just seemed to happen. Anyway, it's been a while since pictures of him, so I thought I'd share this with you all. Enjoy!

More Wedding Pictures

2009-10-07T09:03:00.000-04:00

Uncle Larry sent his pictures. They can be found here.

Brant's Pictures

2009-10-06T18:23:00.001-04:00

Brant has uploaded her pictures of the wedding and they can be found at her website.

Kitten Pictures

2009-06-24T07:12:00.005-04:00

I've written several posts now about Quicksilver (that's his name now), but never put up any pictures. So here you go. The first picture I got right after he yawned. But it looks like he's sneering at you! I know it's not a great picture as far as the focus is concerned, but I thought it was funny, so you all get to look at it. The second picture was him just being cute. It was only about the second time he'd seen the camera, so he was still fascinated by it.

Now all we have to do is teach him how to use the scratching post!

Kitten Update

2009-06-01T12:28:00.005-04:00

Those kittens we found? Yep. Only one left. No, they weren't adopted. We don't know what happened to them. We decided that socializing them would be best (while their claws still don't hurt). That was probably a good idea because they were pretty wild. There were two girls (one of the greys and the black) and one boy. The boy was the most wild, hissing and spitting at us when we tried to mess with him. The girls were pretty willing to let us play with them, even on the first day.

Thursday morning, we discovered the grey female was gone without a trace. That was weird, but it gets weirder. Friday morning, the black kitten was gone. Again, no trace. This creeped Tony out, so he brought the gray male inside (I was at work). He's been inside ever since. We figured if the mother was moving them, she would have moved them all more quickly. There wasn't any indication of death in their "nest" (as Tony calls it), but we can't figure out exactly what did happen.

The next weekend, we took the kitten to see Casey, the vet I work for. She gave him a dewormer and generally checked him over to make sure he was in good health. She said she'd give him his vaccinations when it came time, if we still had him.

He's really cute, but he doesn't have a name. He answers to "kitty," "kitten," and - of course - the sound of food in his dish. We may end up keeping him as we've (I think both of us) have learned we are more attached than we realized.

Mother's Day Kittens

2009-05-11T11:10:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, Tony's parents were here for Mother's Day. We had a nice afternoon with them. While they were here, Tony was showing his dad some stuff under the deck and called up that the cat we see around a lot had kittens behind his propane tank. They look like they are about a month old, so we're leaving them alone as the mother is pretty skittish. Tony figures we'll have to find them homes, so here's your information: the mother is part Siamese and two of the babies have her coloring. The third baby is all black. They're very cute (of course). Someone wants them when they are old enough to be separated from the mother, right? :)

Another Step

2009-05-10T11:23:00.000-04:00

For those of you who happen to read my blog who didn't get the e-mail I sent, first off, please let me know who you are if I needed to inform you. I think I got everyone, but I'm willing to believe I missed someone. Second off, this is your version of the announcement: Tony and I are planning to be married on October 3. Not sure I want to put all the details and everything out there for random people to find, but like I said, if I didn't tell you and you feel slighted, please forgive me and send me an e-mail.

University Student

2009-05-09T11:06:00.003-04:00

After all of the hassle of applying to the University of Virginia, I was accepted (as long as I keep doing what I've been doing). That was good news, though I wasn't terribly worried. Turns out, all of the people I knew at Piedmont who were transferring were accepted. Even one who wasn't applying under the guaranteed admission. Transferring from Piedmont wasn't easy, but it certainly was cheaper than going straight through UVa (like they would have accepted me out of high school...).

Final Semester, Final Exams, and Final Grades

2009-05-08T12:00:00.001-04:00

Yet another semester is coming to a close. It is the last of four long, relatively enjoyable semesters at Piedmont. Sure, there were the classes I didn't enjoy and teachers I would have been happier not to have, but overall, the experience has been fun. I've met some people I'd consider friends and that's been just as valuable to me than the learning experience, I think.

I've already taken the majority of my final exams. They've gone pretty well. My first final was my biology lab final and that was tough, but I did pretty well, I think. My overall grade for lab was pretty high, so I'm guessing I didn't screw up too much. My second was my dance final, which was really frustrating. I knew the movements, but I couldn't make my body do them. I think Cat would have probably said I was thinking too much. I'm not too displeased because I also came out with a decent score in that class overall. I know I learned a lot in that class and that's an exciting thought. French is not my favorite subject and I'm not sure how well I did. At some point, I stopped caring much about how well I did in that class as long as I could get by. I'm pretty sure I'll get the score I'm aiming for, so I won't be too disappointed. My logic test went well, I think, but I've never been good at guessing how well I've done. The tests for that class have actually been really frustrating. I think I've done well and when I get the graded paper back, I'm really disappointed. I don't know how that test came out yet. Today was my statistics final. It was actually kind of fun. I really enjoyed the class, so getting to do the tests again wasn't so much of a chore as an opportunity. My last final is on Monday: biology lecture. It's going to be tough, I think, but I'm studying with some friends tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.

Bad Squirrel! Wait....

2009-03-27T14:37:00.002-04:00

As you can see, Tony often makes a mess when filling his bird feeders. As you may or may not realize, this means I get opportunities. To take pictures! Yes, squirrels are a nuisance, but they can be really cute sometimes. And you kind of have to feel sorry for critters with thumb-less "hands."

I know it's not the best angle for the light, but you take what you get. He stayed there when I opened the sliding glass door. That's got to be worth something.

Rainbow River

2009-03-25T13:30:00.003-04:00

This is Rainbow River. I thought this was a nice picture to show the sort of plants there are in most of the places Jean and I visited while we were in Florida. It was beautiful in such a foreign way. Made the temperatures a bit more bearable. *grin* It was in the 80s while we were down there and I sure was glad to come back to the 40s here.

Rainbow River has a bit of the river (right at the head spring) cordoned off for swimming. This picture just shows how clear the water is. The leaf is at the top of the water, but everything else is on the bottom. There were not many places I (at 5'5") could reach the bottom...this was not one of them.

Hopping in was a bit unpleasant. You have to just do it. The water temperature is pretty high compared to the ocean (why manatees live at Homossasa), but it still was not terribly pleasant on my skin. That cold and knowing that I couldn't touch the bottom made my breath freeze, so I got out before too long. The advantage, I suppose, was that Jean and I stopped complaining about how hot it was. *grin*

Rainbow River is not just a place to swim. It also has some very nice walking trails. These waterfalls, as explained in the park (another built after a private park closed), were built by the first owners on top of the remains from mining. I didn't have a tripod, so the longer exposures are a bit fuzzy (I had a fence, but even then, my hand isn't terribly steady, I guess).

This was our last day sightseeing in Florida. We had a lot of fun and I really got to relax, which was extraordinarily nice. I wasn't too keen on coming back for school, but that's what you get for being a student, I guess.

Clearwater Beach

2009-03-22T11:52:00.006-04:00

Jean really wanted to go to a beach while we were in Florida and I thought that sounded like fun. I was not interested in going to Daytona or some other beach that was going to be overcrowded with college students on Spring Break. She talked to Cappy who said that Clearwater is a nice beach. Which, I'm sure it is when it's not Spring Break. In spite of the fact that it's not Daytona, there were a lot of people there. I'm used to winter beaches, which are often mostly abandoned. Fortunately, we only stayed for about 2 hours. While I enjoyed the beach for the short time we were there, I have to say I prefer winter beaches, when there aren't many people around. I'm not all that fond of swimming, so that doesn't matter as much (though it's fun to take pictures of other people who are playing in the water).

Homossasa Springs State Park

2009-03-20T10:12:00.010-04:00

This is Lu. He's the only non-indigenous animal living at the Homossasa Springs State Park. As in most of the other places we visited while we were in Florida, the park was originally private. All of the other exotic animals were given new homes, but no one wanted a gigantic hippopotamus. So the governor of Florida made him a citizen and he lives happily near the alligators. I heard he turned 49 this year, which is really old for a hippopotamus (or so they say).

These are Lu's alligator neighbors. When Jean and I passed them, they were quite happily sunning themselves (along with some of their friends, who didn't fit in the picture). They were still there as we were leaving. Guess reptiles are lucky that they're so cold-blooded because Jean and I were both quite warm. :)

There were flamingos all over in the bird section of the park. All of the animals in the park are there because of some issue they had in the wild or because they were born in captivity. These flamingos are only a few of the ones we saw as we walked around. There were several small groups and one rather large group. In the large group, there must have been a bunch of males because they were frequently fighting amongst themselves. But that's just a guess.

These are a couple of kestrels (I think...). Most of the pictures of the really cool birds weren't very cool because I didn't take Tony's camera with me when we went into the park. When we arrived, the building didn't look like there would be much that would be worth taking pictures. I didn't realize until later that we had to take a boat ride (over a mile) to the final destination with all the animals. Bummer.

Canoeing

2009-03-19T16:51:00.004-04:00

This is the Silver River. We canoed up to Silver Springs (we did not enter the park), enjoyed scenery, and returned. When Grandma and I went to get the canoe, the ranger warned us the we should return by 6:30 or he'd have to come looking for us. We laughed, assuming we'd be back by then. But we were directed down the wrong path and it took us an hour longer to get to the river again (it takes about 30 minutes to go down the path to the river, so the park automatically gets an hour, whether or not you actually take the boat). Anyway, we were out until 6:45.... Yeah. Not our best move, but we had a good time. Now we know to get there earlier in the day. Not only were we late returning, but we were really warm.

Meet the first alligator we saw on the canoe trip up the Silver River. We saw a bunch more later on. Bunches of turtles. And a bunch of fish.

And this strange-looking bird. It's an anhinga (also known as a snake bird, sometimes confused with a cormorant). It's pretty common down there. At one point, we saw one in the water and Jean asked, "Is that a snake?" It was rather large for a snake and had it's head pretty far out of the water (probably from the water to the edge of the canoe). But as we got closer, we realized it was an anhinga and knew where the nick-name had come from.

Spring Break (Silver River)

2009-03-16T09:55:00.009-04:00

Above is some sort of snake Jean, Grandma, and I ran across on the first day of adventures in Florida. We went to Silver River (there's a state park there and it's only $4/car to get in). As we were walking down the path toward the river, I stopped to take a picture or something and Jean said, "Look out!" I kind of jumped backward, not really knowing what it was that she was so worried about. When she pointed out the snake, I pulled out Tony's camera and took some pictures. None of them came out particularly well because the snake was so little (it was not much bigger than an inch in diameter, if that) the camera couldn't focus on it.

After we got to the river, we all decided that we wanted to rent a canoe. It was a half-hour one-way trip to and from the river, so Grandma and I left Jean down by the water, while we went back to get a key, paddles, and life jackets. When we got back to the trailhead, we met a guy who said we should take this other path. It, of course, went pretty far the other way. About halfway down (?), we decided to give up on that path and go back down the one we knew. On the way out though, we met up with an armadillo. Grandma's first wild one and I think maybe my first one in "real life." Unfortunately, I had the polarizing filter on and that took out a bunch of the light and he was moving so much in the shade that the picture's fuzzy. But you all should be able to figure out that I'm not lying.

Florida Vacation

2009-03-12T16:05:00.003-04:00

Jean and I drove to Florida to see Grandma and Grandpa for my Spring Break. It's been a lot of fun and we've gotten to so lots of really cool stuff. My computer doesn't get Internet here, so I'll write with pictures when I get home. We've seen alligators, monkeys, snakes, armadillos, turtles, and birds. We also went to Homossasa Springs State Park and saw all sorts of cool critters. I didn't take Tony's camera when we went, so no good pictures from yesterday, but cool stuff from Tuesday and today. We're leaving tomorrow morning. Not looking forward to going back to class....

Not as Simple as It Looked

2009-03-01T09:14:00.002-05:00

I finally finished all the essays for UVa and got an e-mail from them saying that I could log into their system and have a list of the things I have left to do. Well, I did that and most of the things that I have little to no control over are not due until the 15th. What? Oh well. I got most everything in that they need, so I should be set for a while. I don't have to stress about that and can focus on stressing about homework and all the tests this week.

Application to UVa

2009-02-27T22:02:00.002-05:00

I managed to finish my application for UVa. The part that I have to do anyway. I put in the application payment, the essays, and the parts of the application that I had to fill out. I have to wait and see if all the transcripts and letters from other people make it in time, but that's out of my hands now.

Now, all I have to do is maintain my GPA, hope that everyone else got in all the other parts of my application in in time, take a couple of tests, graduate from Piedmont, and I should be set. Not quite sure which way I'm hoping for. I think I could be happy either way. Though I wouldn't be looking forward to having to possibly fill out the application again.

And I'm so tired of writing, I think I'm going to stop now.

Transferring is Easier?

2009-02-20T13:46:00.004-05:00

By now, most of you know I'm attempting to transfer to UVa. I'm trying to get all the paperwork together so that I can transfer for this coming academic year (if I don't manage to get all the paperwork in, it will be a whole year before I can get the guaranteed transfer, as they don't accept guaranteed transfers in the spring). It's been a mess.

First, I thought I had until the middle of March and wasn't rushing to get things done. I found out around the middle of January that I would not have the extra two weeks. Ever since then, I've been struggling to find everything that needs to be done by the first so I don't miss the deadline. I have only a little over a week and several things still need to be done.

Second, I keep finding more and more paperwork that needs to be filled out. Two parts of an application, three sets of paperwork that need to be filled out by various people, transcripts from every school I've attended. All of these things are, I suppose, to be expected; however, having never done this sort of thing before, I've been finding things and not giving much time for things to be done.

The moral of the story is this: don't leave things until you think you have enough time. Do it with a year to spare...you'll be sure to find something you missed in the meantime!

Baxter

2009-01-31T10:29:00.005-05:00

Last year, sometime around September I went to Pennsylvania to visit one of my friends from Morrisville for her baby shower. At the time, she was considering purchasing this very cute Morgan colt. His name is Baxter. He seemed like he had a pretty nice personality (he let the guy who was selling him do all sorts of things to him). Though Toni didn't actually buy him, I got a couple of decent pictures of him, so I'm adding them for your viewing pleasure!

Sunrise Produce?

2009-01-18T18:22:00.005-05:00

Tony and I made a book of recipes for Mom for Christmas. In the design, we decided we needed at least a picture for the front, if not the recipes. So, here's the picture from the cover (we ran out of time to decorate the rest of the pages). It's better on a computer screen than on a piece of paper, of course. It's not taken at sunrise, but the light makes it look like it should come from a farm somewhere at sunrise. Kind of cool the stuff you can do with a camera!

Shock and Amazement

2009-01-16T18:44:00.007-05:00

I bought a new computer (one of the new Macbooks) for school. My old computer was being held together with binder clips. I was really excited about having a computer that worked. I got it last night (we went to the FedEx facility because no one was here to sign the slip when it was delivered) and opened it and played with it a little bit. I have to say, it's really slick. But....

Yeah, unfortunately, there's a but. It runs great and I don't have to hold it together with binder clips. That makes me really happy. But the headphone jack on my computer doesn't seem to work like it's supposed to. It's not just mine either. Check this out. Yeah. Not cool. But I'm going to have to wait at least until spring break to send it back to them. I bought the computer for school and if I sent it back, I couldn't use it. So I'm waiting. And kind of disappointed. And definitely shocked that this is such an issue.

Christmas Present and Another New Semester

2009-01-14T18:48:00.004-05:00

Mom gave my a pair of riding boots (I still need to determine if they fit) and a pair of half chaps. They're really nice and I look forward to getting to use both.

I also got a new phone for Christmas and it has a decent (not great camera). There was a nice sunset at the barn, so I took several pictures. They're kind of low quality, but it was such a nice sunset I had to try.

I also took a couple of pictures of my car. This is the best of the ones I got. The camera on the phone is really sensitive to light and motion, so most of the pictures I've taken with it are fuzzy or grainy. They look pretty good on the phone, but after I transferred them to my computer, they didn't look quite as nice. Oh well. I guess you've got to trade something for convenience.

Classes start on Tuesday and I'm taking five classes: French (my last semester!), statistics, a dance class (modern), logic, and biology. I'm not looking forward to my French class, but the rest seem like they should be interesting. Other than that, the only down side to this semester is that my logic class is from 7 to 10...at night. I just have to remind myself it's only for 15 weeks.

Busy Fall/Winter

2008-12-30T19:53:00.004-05:00

The end of the semester was really busy with lots of papers and preparing for finals. I finished the semester with three As and a B. I was pretty pleased, considering I knew from the beginning of the semester that I'd likely get a B in my French class.

I did not go to the barn very often at past about the first half of the semester because of all the work I had for school. Today, I had my first lesson in quite a while and it was really, really good. Patience was really pleased and I think I understand a bit better why she's such a great teacher. Not only does she explain the things she's telling you to do ("You do ____ because ____."), but she also doesn't rush you. When you're ready to learn something, she teaches you, but she doesn't push you to go faster than you are ready for.

Christmas was really busy. I didn't have Christmas with Mom until the Monday after Christmas, so everyone felt sorry for me and invited me to their Christmas party. It was fun, but by the time I got home, I was ready to crash. Hopefully New Year's Day won't be quite so hectic.

So there it is, an update on my life, for those of you who were bugging me. :)

Another Luke Update

2008-11-02T12:30:00.003-05:00

I went to the barn on Friday, as I usually do when I don't get swamped with homework or have conflicts (see Bryan Neubert Clinic). This week, Tara and I again took Moo and Rion out for a trail ride at Southern Cross. That piece of property is one of the places I'd never be able to afford, but would love to have. Anyway, after we got back from our ride, Patience wanted most of the horses to go outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. Luke went out in the ring field by himself and I thought it was a pretty good opportunity to take some pictures.

Luke's doing really well. I think he's really happy being at Patience's. He went through a period right after they took his shoes off that he was pretty foot-sore, but he's had a chance to get used to being barefooted and he doesn't seem to mind at all. He's gotten really friendly compared to when I first got there. But there was always something about him that I really liked.

When I went into the field with him on Friday, all he wanted to do was follow me around. I got him to walk all the way around the ring with me and even got him to trot a little, he was so interested, I think, in Tony's camera. He never really went far from me, but he did some exploring by himself. I'm not sure if that's the only reason he was so friendly, but it was a lot of fun. At one point, I was sitting on the edge of the ring and he just stood behind me with his head against my back eating what little there was under his nose. Unfortunately, it's not something I could have captured on the camera.

V-22 and Chinook (and Trail Rides)

2008-10-24T15:14:00.002-04:00

Fridays are my day off, so I went out to Patience's pretty late. As I was leaving town (at Pantops), I saw a Chinook, which I thought was pretty cool. It was way up in the sky, but ever since I lived in Missouri I love watching "non-normal" flying vehicles. I thought that was pretty cool, but it was only the beginning. On my way back into town, I saw a V-22. I've never seen one of those in real life and I thought I'd never even seen one in a movie, but apparently there was one in Transformers. Anyway, I guess it was getting ready to land because it was in the helicopter mode. That was really cool!

I went to the barn kind of late this morning. I didn't really expect to get to ride because I was so late, but I took my riding stuff anyway. But Patience wanted Tara to take Rion out on a trail ride (out to Southern Cross) and she asked if I would ride Moo and go along with them. Tanya rode him in the ring first and gave him a little exercise, but we still had a good time. Rion was being silly and even tried to bite Moo once, he got bopped and was done. It was a really nice diversion from homework.

But now I'm back in town again. I'm supposed to be doing homework, but I'm a pretty good procrastinator, huh?

Bryan Neubert Clinic

2008-09-25T21:28:00.004-04:00

Last weekend, I got an early birthday present. It was one of the coolest birthday presents I've ever gotten. Aunt Jane invited me to go with her to a clinic in a town about thirty minutes away.

Bryan Neubert offers clinics in various places (you can check his website for that stuff). The one in Waynesboro was a colt breaking clinic and a horsemanship clinic. Aunt Jane and I got up earlier so that we could watch the colt breaking bit, which lasted all morning. Lunch separated that bit from the horsemanship section. We rode in the horsemanship part.

Aunt Jane borrowed a horse for herself and one for me. They were older horses who were pretty well trained. Better trained than I am. I don't have much experience with Western and I kind of felt out of my element as I wasn't sure what to do with my body (that's one of the things I really appreciate about Patience's lessons). So I feel like I was inefficient. Which may have led to my inability to let the horse work at his own comfort level. I was always trying to take up more slack than Aunt Jane felt like was right for the level of the horse I was riding.

That bit of riding was frustrating; however, I think the clinic helped me regain some of the patience I think I lost when I began to think of my job as only a job, rather than a chance to enjoy being around horses. Well, that and the fact that I was so glad to get back to a familiar seat and familiar horses, I couldn't help but enjoy it.

I would definitely be interested in doing it again, but at the same time, not too soon. I learned a lot and I'd like the chance to sort through it all before I learn a bunch more stuff.

Patience's "Clinic"

2008-09-07T12:00:00.004-04:00

On Thursday, Patience had a lady (Britta) come down to her barn from Hume (about an hour and a half to the north of us) to give her, Tara, and Stacy a lesson. She offered me one, but I can't really afford a lesson right now, so I didn't take one. Instead, I left as soon as I could after class and went out to take pictures. Not many came out because of motion blur or some other technical or compositional defect.

The lesson I saw of Patience with Rion, Britta helped Patience get Rion to hold his neck so that his head didn't drag on the ground. It's amazing how much better he looks since his lesson with her.

Tara rode Amethyst and Britta helped her with her riding. Amethyst is a "schoolmaster," a horse who has gone through the levels and is used to teach beginners, so there wasn't really much reason for Britta to work on Amethyst's position. At any rate, I know Tara's really pleased with how much she learned from Britta. Kind of makes me wish I had the money for a lesson, but I really ought to just be grateful that I get lessons at all. And I am. But here's Tara during her lesson.

Howie and Blue Boy

2008-09-06T12:00:00.003-04:00

This is Howie (his real name is Decameron). He is one of the newest additions to the barn. He's a yearling Hanoverian that Patience is trying (kind of like test driving a car, but on a horse). He's really cute and he's got a really sweet personality. He came a few weeks ago and since then we've been treating an illness he got in transport (he ended up with pneumonia). He's better now, but he was getting several medications, including an injection.

Down below is Blue Boy (his real name is Seneca). He came along with Howie. He was pretty ready to get off the trailer, as you can see. I was disappointed that I was on the wrong side to catch this moment. He's not as nice (in his temperament) as Howie is, though everyone at the barn says he has a nicer body. He also came down with pneumonia, but like Howie, he's over the worst of the medications.

Both are settling in nicely and Patience has had the vet out to check them out and make sure there's not something seriously wrong with them. There are a couple of things on both of them that she's going to investigate before purchasing them, but I wouldn't be surprised if we kept both of them.

Perry's First Day

2008-09-05T15:29:00.003-04:00

Today was Perry's first day of work and I think he found it pretty easy. After all, we've been playing games like "walk and stop with me" for quite a while now.

The differences this time were that he was wearing a cavesson (it's a little harsher than a halter), Patience was leading him, and he was in the ring (rather than on the way to his field). He did really well, and since he's so nicely put together, he couldn't help but be cute.

Another New Semester

2008-08-31T14:41:00.003-04:00

Well, I'll do an update on a previous post for the first time in...oh, I don't know...a long time.

School started on Monday with biology lecture in the morning and lab in the afternoon. Wednesday was another biology lecture. So far, it's pretty boring. We've learned about classification the scientific method so far (*sarcastic* yay! *end sarcastic*).

Tuesday and Thursday, I start with macroeconomics, go straight to French, then straight to calculus. I know I'm going to enjoy my macroeconomics class...it's with the same teacher I had last year and I really like him. My French class isn't going to be much fun because I didn't study over the summer. And there's a real, honest-to-goodness French boy. That's going to be tough to get over while I'm in class. My teacher assigns seats, so there's a pretty good chance I'll have to sit next to him at some point. My calculus class seems like it's going to be interesting. I like my teacher and the book goes slow enough that I think I'll be able to keep up (I've never had a pre-calculus class...I tested into calculus after learning some stuff from Tony and a math book I bought).

So basically, I think I'll like half of my classes, one of my classes will be so-so (depending on the topic), and one of the classes is just not going to be enjoyable. But I'm sure it'll all work out in the end...it always does.

New Schedule

2008-08-24T15:07:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow is the first day of my new schedule. I've left my morning work, at least for the fall...probably at least until the spring and I wouldn't be surprised if it's longer than that before I get back to morning work. Patience is willing to let me come by whenever I'm not in class and have time, so I'm going to take advantage of her offer. I'll go down on Fridays at the very least and watch (and maybe get to ride). This Thursday, she's getting lessons from a woman who lives and works several hours away, so I'm going to go and watch that when I get out of class.

As for my class schedule, I can't get out to the barn in the mornings because my classes start so early this semester. Monday and Wednesday, I start at Biology at 9:30. On Mondays I also have the lab, so I'm at the school until 5:30. Wednesdays, I get out at about noon. Tuesday and Thursdays, I begin at 9:30 with Macroeconomics and those days run until about 2:30 (because of calculus and French). No class on Fridays, which is why I can get to the barn.

It's Finally Here

2008-07-31T18:31:00.003-04:00

After four and a half months of waiting and a false start, I finally have my car back. There's a new clutch, a new flywheel, and a new noise. Yesterday, Dad called and said my car was ready, so Tony and I went down there. We got about 10 minutes down the road and were headed back to the school when a hose popped off (with an exciting noise and a bunch of steam). We left it in some person's driveway until Dad could go and get it. He put the hose back on, made sure there was enough antifreeze in it. This afternoon, Mom got me from work and we went down to get my car. It's finally here and I'm really happy!

Toad Invasion

2008-07-24T20:28:00.002-04:00

This is one of the many toads who finds his way into the barn. He's not particularly special in that he's beautiful or anything...he's the one that was there when I had the camera.

They burrow into the bedding sometime between when the trees are shredded and when the bedding is put in the barn. I don't know if they come from the place the bedding comes from or if they make themselves at home after the bedding gets to the barn. However they get in the barn, I, along with the other girls at the barn, find them when we make deliveries to the stalls. Of course, on my way out, I take the time to examine them and poke around on their bellies a little bit.

Deer

2008-07-16T21:39:00.009-04:00

Tony's been borrowing one of his friend's lenses (he borrowed it for the beach...check out our pictures!) and I've been taking it to work with me. I also borrowed Dad's camera (Tony wrote about that in the beach post too), so I can get some really cool pictures. Unfortunately, I'd accidentally changed the ISO setting to 1600 (*gasp*) and didn't realize it, so some pictures, including this one, are a lot more grainy than I'd like.

One of the greatest things about my job is that there is so much wildlife. There are plenty of deer at the barn, but it's not often I get to photograph them. I took Bam and Dakini out for the morning in the Far Field. We spooked a deer that was near the gate, but she (?) didn't run far, so after I finished turnout, I grabbed my camera to see if the opportunity was still there. This is the deer jumping the fence because I tried to get too close.

Planning Yet Another Semester

2008-06-25T14:54:00.002-04:00

Planning for school is not my favorite thing to do. The system they use for signing up for classes is slow and not really efficient. The required courses for Piedmont and UVa may or may not line up, requiring that one finds a counselor with an open slot (not usually an easy job). There very few sections of each class, not allowing for much wiggle room when you're trying to set up your schedule. It's all pretty frustrating, but I'll get it all figured out at some point. It looks like because of the limited selection of course sections I won't be able to work much this coming semester. It's all frustrating, but I'll manage. Maybe not because of willpower on my part, but because this is something that needs to be done and I have people who are willing to pester me until it gets done. Off to figure out how to get into a counselor's busy schedule now....

Luke (New News)

2008-05-22T16:42:00.007-04:00

Well, several things have happened in Luke's life since I last wrote. He's no longer being rushed to find a new home. His owner has agreed to find him a nice home, rather than trying to rush his death. Also, a girl who worked at the barn before I worked there has brought her green horse to be trained. Patience put the two of them out together this afternoon. They hopped around like idiots, but never really hurt each other, so they're going to go out together tonight. I guess we'll see tomorrow how well they get along after being together for hours on end.

Luke

2008-05-16T15:57:00.005-04:00

Luke has been at the barn for the last year due to an injury "on the job." The lady who rode him was a working student of Patience's and thought that he'd have a good life there to begin his recovery. A couple of weeks ago, the vet came out to check his progress, but determined that Luke would be unable to ever return to work. Now, the guy who owns Luke is unwilling to put any more money into the horse and wants to have him put down. This has everyone at the barn in an uproar. For some, it's the fact that Luke was a horse worth over $100,000, but now the guy who owns him is unwilling to put any more time or effort into Luke. For others, it's just the plain and simple fact that he cares so little about this horse (regardless of the monetary value of the horse).

According to what I've been able to gather, Luke could be ridden at a walk, nothing more than that. But he's a horse with spirit. Not just anyone can ride him. And the people who can are going to be unwilling to. Patience and some other people are looking into finding him someplace to be a pasture ornament, but in some ways, that presents the same problem. I don't think just anyone could have him. He's a lot better than he was when he first came to the barn, but he still has his little "temper tantrums" (for lack of a better word). And sometimes it seems he doesn't realize he's so big that he can be dangerous. Not everyone looking for a pasture ornament can handle that sort of personality. He loves to be fussed over, just that at times, he's full of himself. They're also talking about finding him a retirement facility. I've never been to one, but it seems like there would be a lot of other horses there and not very many people (considering they seem to get money mostly from charity-type funds). It seems like he could easily get lost in the mix.

I Miss You

2008-05-15T15:46:00.006-04:00

One of these days I'm going to get my car back. And just as soon as I do, the roads had better watch out. I plan to go for a nice, very long drive.

My car's been out of service for almost two months. I've been very fortunate to have very generous friends who are letting me use their cars. First Tony, who let me drive his car for something like six weeks. It was complicated, but we made it work. Then Aunt Denise, for the last couple of weeks has been loaning me her car. But her car is not designed for performance, so I'm stuck sitting behind all the slow people instead of popping around them. It's been hard for my patience, but I suppose the more reserved of the population would say that's a good thing.

At any rate, I miss the peppy attitude, the great handling, and the comfortable familiarity of my car. So as soon as I get her back, we're going for a drive.

Oh, and for more recent events, Tony wrote about planting his garden and one of the coolest things I've ever done, so you should go check out the stories and pictures.

Late Winter Sunrise

2008-03-05T20:48:00.007-05:00

As the sun begins to rise earlier in the morning, I feel like a lazy bum. The sun has already risen by the time I get to work. This morning, there was a gorgeous after-sunrise scene, though. I think I'm glad I wasn't around for the sunrise because I likely would have been working instead of taking this shot. It's one I've been wanting for a while and not really knowing how to take. So now I have it and I'm happy. Enjoy!

Going for a Drive

2008-03-04T19:31:00.004-05:00

I love my car. Today after work, I went for a drive. There are lots of roads out near the barn that I've not gone very far on before. A few months ago, I looked one of them up on an online map and found that it led somewhere I would recognize if I wanted to go in a loop instead of out and back. Today I took that road and it was a lot of fun. On the way out, I was going the speed limit and no one was in front of me or behind me. I got out to the road that was to make part of my loop and decided it was too straight and turned around. Unfortunately, I got stuck behind a truck doing 10 under the speed limit. He slowed me down on a couple of turns before I had a chance to pass him. But I can now say I've passed someone on a two lane road (it wasn't all that exciting). The end came up a lot sooner going back, which was sad, but since I was supposed to be picking Tony up from work, I couldn't complain too much. And I got out before the storm came, so my tires stuck to the road like they're supposed to.

Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-21T18:23:00.003-05:00

Most everyone probably knows about the lunar eclipse last night. Tony let me borrow his camera to take a picture last night. His lens isn't exactly top choice for taking pictures of things that far away (if you want better star type stuff, go to Blackholes and Astrostuff). But I tried my luck and was pleasantly surprised. The picture is really small, but it doesn't look too bad for a little bitty lens not intended for taking pictures of the moon.

Political Rant

2008-02-11T19:29:00.000-05:00

I'm sure everyone has a political rant on their blog. I'm going to join them. And I'm not supporting any one candidate or other in this rant. Just so that's out of the way. And now, on the rant.

It irritates me that all the candidates are acting as if running for president is the most important thing they'll ever do for the American people. Sure, they say they want to represent us; I've become cynical. Look at their voting records (VoteSmart is linked on the side) in the Senate (at least, McCain's, Clinton's, and Obama's). They haven't voted on much of anything since they started their race for the candidacy.

Why do they think we care about their race if they are not going to take care of the responsibilities they have now? They were elected to the Senate to represent us. Now there are three states that are not being represented by their delegates. They are being shortchanged. And it's just because they want more. More power? More prestige? I don't know and, to be perfectly honest, I don't really care. It's stupid and I object. But what can I, one person do? Nothing. So I sit here and whine and complain, but nothing happens. Oh, I forgot to mention, they get paid really well to represent us, but they're running around the country saying they want to be President. So if they want something more than President when they get there, are they going to leave us in a bind?

Of course, Romney was the most obnoxious, saying things like his sons were serving the country by helping him get elected, rather than enlisting in some division of the armed forces. What??! How much more ridiculous can you be?

A Walk in the Snow

2008-01-26T12:25:00.000-05:00

A little over a week ago, we got about four inches of snow. Classes were cancelled (of course) and I didn't have to be anywhere, so I went for a walk with a camera. I managed to find some really interesting subjects. My favorite is this squirrel. I took his picture at the beginning of my walk. Nobody here in town (that I know of) is all that fond of squirrels, but he was cute, so I had to take his picture. I really like the way the snow is so visible too.

This picture was taken near the end of my walk. I was on my way back and I wasn't really expecting to take more pictures (thought I certainly wasn't averse to the idea, obviously). For some reason, the mailboxes caught my attention. I think it's because there were so many of them in a row and I really like those sorts of pictures. So, I took a few pictures and hoped they would come out.

I did not really look at the pictures as I took them because the snow was coming down pretty hard still and I wanted to protect the camera, so I'm really happy that I got the few pictures that turned out. I took the pictures in color, but desaturated them because I think snow pictures look better in black and white.

Tony's helping me with one of the pictures I took and hopefully I can put that up soon. We're playing around a little with color and stuff. He put up some of my favorite pictures on his blog (the post is Textures), so if you want to see them, you'll have to go over there.

Weekend Cleaning

2008-01-16T15:09:00.000-05:00

Saturday, I went to Nana's house for a "work day" organized by Aunt Darleen. I was going to take Tony's camera, but I completely forgot. Aunt Denise had her camera, though, so these pictures are hers.

We worked on a bunch of projects, enjoyed eating lunch together, and then worked on projects until people decided to leave in a trickle. Mostly, the pictures included are only of finished projects.

I think Aunt Denise managed to catch me in one of my lazy moments. Just goofing off.... I think the real story, though, is that Aunt Cookie and I were waiting for Marlena to bring the wheelbarrow back. We had a system of filling up the wheelbarrows while Marlena dumped them not too far away. It seemed to work well.

This is the project we were working on that I kind of referred to in the previous paragraph. These ties were all in a pile with a bunch of leaves and old hay between them. Marlena, Aunt Cookie, and I managed to get it cleaned up and organized them so that Nana can get a new load of hay for her donkeys whenever she's ready. It was good that we were all there because, even though the ties weren't that heavy, it would have been quite a project for just one person.

Dad and a couple of other people, including Aunt Denise and Aunt Darleen, put up a basketball net in Nana's front yard, out near her tire swings. He helped out with a bunch of different things (the basketball net, of course; the emu pen doors; the hay bale holder thing I talked about earlier), but managed to get something done everywhere he went. Dad doesn't usually let people take his picture, but he was even willing to let me put it here, so I jumped at the chance and here it is.

Finally, I have to mention our supervisor. He was very good at staying out of the way, but he certainly wasn't a help to us.

A New Semester

2008-01-15T14:52:00.000-05:00

This semester started off with a bang...of excitement. And not the kind the gets you in trouble.

For the first 30 minutes of math class, I was thoroughly bored. My teacher explained everything on the syllabus much more thoroughly than any other teacher I've ever had (to the point of excessive explanation). At the same time, there were things that people had to ask questions about because he'd skipped them. At any rate, it seems like it will be a good class, though like I told Tony last night, I'm really bad at telling until about halfway through the semester.

My economics class on the other hand is going to be terrific. My teacher strongly encourages (even nearly forces) class involvement. I'm quiet in my classes, but when a teacher asks me something (or to do something), I'll answer (or do it). So I think this class, other than being a really good class in terms of how much I learn about economics is also going to be good for getting me a little more involved in my class (at least this class).

My psychology class should be a lot more interesting than the one I started at Morrisville. The teacher at Morrisville wanted us to memorize people and write papers and do all sorts of other things, but my teacher here has only four tests and no other assignments other than to completely understand the material presented to us. In other words, basically making our own study style. It seems to me like that will be really nice. I won't have to write any papers in APA format and that kicked my butt last time I took psychology.

My French class is nothing new. There are a few new people in my class, which I guess will make it interesting. We got right to work, which was a little rough for me because I'm a little rusty, but it wasn't too bad.

I'm really looking forward to this semester. I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

Foggy Morning

2008-01-11T16:32:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I wrote about the mornings at the barn that are just cloudy enough to be beautiful. The other day (I forget now, which day it was), it was really foggy. It seemed kind of dangerous for driving to work with all the deer that aren't required to have on their headlights. You can get a general idea of how foggy it was in the picture above.

By about noon, the fog had cleared off to what you can see in the bottom picture. The horses didn't seem to mind being out the fog (not that I expected them to, but you never know what a horse will do). The drive home was much easier than the drive to work.

Sunrise

2008-01-10T12:44:00.000-05:00

One of many gorgeous views I have the pleasure of seeing most mornings at work. Sure, there are the dark, dull, rainy days (though one can't complain about a chance of rain, lately), but they are not all that common.

In between giving the horses hay and giving them their grain, I have to wait for a little while for their digestive systems to start working. There's also a chance to take pictures in the time that they finish their grain before I take them outside. That gives me a little bit of time to get out the camera and start taking pictures. The timing works out well.

This is a more recent morning.

ITE 119 and ENG 210

2008-01-07T20:57:00.000-05:00

I went to the school the other day to get some stuff straightened out. I found out online that I can do a test-for-credit for the ITE 119 class. So I asked one of the people at the counseling office about it. He said it would be more than 10 times cheaper to take the test than to take the class. I'm doing the "practice" questions online and they are really dumb. More of the stuff we've done in ENG 111 and 112, as well as all the stuff we did again in SDV 100 last semester.

I was looking at the transfer information for UVa and saw they require people who took ENG 111 and 112 as dual enrollment classes to take ENG 210. I thought I might count for that since I took both of those classes when I was in high school. It turns out it only counts if you were actually in the high school when you took the class. Since I took them at Piedmont and JSR, it doesn't matter (for some reason).

In other words, I'll be able to take more classes that I want to take (or avoid taking some classes altogether). I don't have to replace the ITE class with any classes, but I have to find some arts/humanities class to replace the ENG 210. I'm sure I can find something interesting. The only question is, which something will it be? There are too many choices.

Work for the Spring

2008-01-04T08:20:00.000-05:00

I'm not working as much over the spring semester. I'm going to be taking more classes and I want to be able to focus on them. I told Patience that I wanted to see if Miranda was willing to take my Tuesdays and Thursdays and give me Fridays. Turns out she was willing. It'll be sad because I won't be out there as much, but I won't have to rush from work to class (I don't have any classes on Fridays). Maybe I'll be able to ride as a result. And if she goes to the indoor arena like she's talking about, maybe she'll have to teach me how to drive the truck and trailer. All things to look forward to over the next semester.

Spring Schedule

2008-01-03T19:30:00.000-05:00

I've managed to paste together a tentative schedule for the spring. Classes start in a little over a week, but there are so many things that need ironing out before my schedule is concrete and with some things I'm not sure where to start.

So, for now, the classes I'm taking are algebra, basics of computers, and French. I need to find one more class that will move me closer to my graduation, but there are so many to choose from that it's overwhelming. I have it narrowed down to a few classes, but I won't decide until Saturday I think.

Friday night, everyone who forgets to pay loses their spots in classes. So Saturday, there should be a better selection of class times.

It was really complicated getting into my math class. Apparently there's a rumor in the counseling office that Piedmont doesn't accept JSR's tests and so they weren't going to let me in, but one of the guys in the office didn't believe that they weren't actually taking JSR's test, so he put me in the class. I'm really grateful to him.

The computer class is going to be dumb. I can't use my Mac and to use Windows, I'm going to have to use the computers at the school. That's going to be really annoying. I think the class Tony told me about is going to be really annoying to do and I'm tired of haggling with people at school about various things.

French is only going to be a bigger and better than last semester. As far as developments in French, Tony knows a girl in France and put me in contact with her and she wrote me this afternoon. Maybe I'll learn more in the times we talk. Though I'm not expecting to hear from her much, I'm hoping the times I talk to her I'll learn a lot.

Anyway, that's all there is about school for now. I guess I should get back on a schedule here, huh? It's been a while.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T11:53:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas everybody. Hope you have a great couple of days whatever you do.

I'm going to Nana's house tonight and tomorrow, after work, I'm going to enjoy the quietude of not having anyone around I have to see or talk to. That doesn't mean I won't change my mind later and decide I don't want to be alone. I just might. But I know people I can beg for time. *grin*

Exciting News

2007-12-20T12:31:00.000-05:00

I've got some exciting news. Check it out:

Do I Have an Advisor?

2007-12-14T12:35:00.000-05:00

I had my last final today. After I finished my exam, I went to the information desk to ask them for my advisor's phone number, as she's not written me back (I e-mailed her about a month ago and I e-mailed her early yesterday morning). It turns out she doesn't work there. I ended up going to counseling, where the man I talked to said I needed to go to the welcome center (a separate place from the information desk). So I went to the welcome center and asked for the woman I was sent to see. The woman at the desk said that she was really busy until January. I decided that was not enough time to make a schedule, so I explained that I was wanting to talk to someone about making a schedule. The woman asked if I was looking to be assigned a new advisor and I shrugged and said I guessed so (since no one told me what I was doing except going up to the welcome center and asking for a certain lady). Finally, it all got straightened out. The woman I talked to said someone would likely call me within a week. I figure if I don't hear from them, I'm going to go back to the guy I talked to last semester who helped me choose classes to take, since he was so helpful. Overall, I can't say it was a bad experience (as a matter of fact, it was kind of fun), but it's kind of amazing to me that there are so many places that are so specialized, they can't help you instead of sending you three different places. It happened when I was thinking about getting an ID too. Kind of amazing.

Paper After Paper

2007-12-12T19:53:00.000-05:00

Okay, I like to write. Well, I like to dabble. I never actually finish anything (except on occasion these little posts, but that's easy because they're short and if I don't like them, I can change them later). Papers for school are, of course, different. I finish them, but only because I have to. I only turn them in because I have to. If I could, I'd keep them and revise them and revise them and revise them. Then, there are other papers that I just wouldn't write. Like the English paper I just finished. I wouldn't have finished it if it weren't for the deadline. And I just barely made it for the deadline. I'm not kidding. I didn't leave as early as I wanted because I was still writing my paper. Then, when I tried to print it, it wouldn't print because Tony's printer was out of ink. The printers at school aren't free, or I would have been there. The library's not free. Tony was at work getting ready to go laser tagging (yes, that's a new verb...it's mine, so don't steal it). I quickly e-mailed my paper to myself and drove over there hoping he hadn't left yet (he works less than five minutes from his house). He was just getting ready to leave when I got there and he took the time to help me print my paper. Then I was even later and starting to wonder if I'd make it in time. I was praying the lights would be in my favor (they generally weren't). But I made it just in time. And I met one of my classmates in the hall and he said our teacher wasn't either of the places he'd expected, but I guess he'd not heard the part about puttng the papers in her box. At any rate, I got there about five minutes before time and she wasn't there. I guess I could have had about five more minutes, but it's better I was there when I was. My paper's not as good as I would have liked, but I suppose for all my procrastinating, that's what I get. And that's one more class that's done. Now I just have to write a paper for history and study for my exam and I'll be done. Hooray for Christmas Break.

Cozy and Warm

2007-12-02T14:46:00.000-05:00

Imagine: sitting on a couch with your best friend at the other end. You're both doing work (or supposed to be). You have a warm computer on your lap and a nice, large cup of tea on the table next to you. You look out the window and see clouds that look heavy with snow (though you know it's not cold enough for it to snow). There's no fire, but you don't really mind (that would take work). Your feet are covered by a warm blanket and everything seems alright with the world.

You've fairly well imagined my world right now.

Flower Picture

2007-11-30T10:37:00.000-05:00

I go grocery shopping with Tony on Sundays after church. One day, several weeks ago (like more than a month), I saw this and had to try to get it. I was amazed when it came out, but here it is. Nothing too exciting, but I was happy.

If your screen isn't adjusted just right, it's not as cool as what I see, but I really like the lighting, so here it is.