Home to MN and Back

October 8 to 11, 2010

This weekend I went home to MN. It has been too long since I've seen my nieces and nephew. The flight home on the 8th went well. On Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch to get a couple of pumpkins to cook and a couple to carve. Little Aurora and Abbi came with us. Here are a few pictures. Rori really is a happy girl :) I think she didn't want her picture taken at first...On Sunday my aunt, uncle and cousins came up from Iowa. It was nice to see everyone again. We all met up at my Grandma's house and hung out for an hour or two catching up. I was at my sister's house in the evening and the kids were playing. Aurora (Rori) was jumping on me then went in the play room. She came back out and ran toward me like she was going to jump on me. My sister said "Aurora, don't even think about it." Aurora turned around and went in the play room and said mommy scared me...sad. Then two seconds later the protector Leonora comes out of the play room scolding my sister. She looks at us and says "Did you scare her? (pause) Did you? (pause & shaking her finger at us) Because that's not nice!" then she went back in the play room. It was pretty funny to hear a 3 year old say that and stick up for her twin sister! I wish I could have gotten that on tape or at least taken a photo. Here is a photo of the little protector riding her bike.Monday the flight back also went well. When I landed I took a couple of really cool photos of the sunset with the wing of the plane in the picture....then the unthinkable happened. The touch screen on my cell phone stopped working! There is no saving it. My cool sunset pictures are lost forever. It is going to take 7 days to get a new phone so I'm using a non-touch screen phone. It is OK but it takes some getting used to again. It is going to be a long 7 days.

Traffic That Never Ends

October 7, 2010

I've known for quite some time that the traffic out here was pretty bad but now that I get stuck in it, uhhhh is all I have to say. During the week it takes 1 hour and 20 minutes to go about 20 miles. On a good day/weekend it takes about 35 minutes.

I've come to realize that the stop lights out here are extra, super looooonnnnng. I timed a couple of them and it took 3 minutes to get the green light. It wouldn't be so bad if there were only a couple of lights but when they are on every block it is hard to get anywhere.

During my journey today I tried to take a couple of pictures with my cell...not the best but hopefully you will get the idea. The above photo was taken around 5:15pm. There are 5 lanes of traffic on each side, 10 lane highway, jam packed.The photo below was taken around 7:15pm. The only difference is it is dark out. You can see the stream of lights in the distance...all cars. I think it is time for the DC metro area to build some more bridges over the Potomac River so drivers have more options.

Random Things Around Town

October 6, 2010

Here are some things I've noticed around town while I've been back. It has been really nice being home. Above is a picture I took with my phone of the sunset. Not the best picture but you get the idea. The weather is much cooler these days so more people are outside with their animals. There are more animals in this apartment complex than I thought. I saw a guy outside with his little dog who was taking a bathroom break. The owner said to the dog while it was doing it's job "good boy" over and over. Really!?! I know when a dog catches a ball or a Frisbee people usually say "good boy" but when it is going to the bathroom...does a dog really need praise for that? Hummm, I thought that was odd. I also saw a guy who had a pretty big black cat on a leash. I thought OK, he doesn't want the cat to walk/run away but when I passed them in my car they crossed the street and the cat in the lead! I've never seen a cat being walked before.

I went to visit the dentist the other day and went into the restroom. The building was an older building but the bathroom looked newly remodeled, complete with a TV! What in the world? In between the mirrors was a TV playing Fox News. I guess it was OK to listen to but I've never seen anything like that before in a bathroom. Technology is everywhere.
One last thing....
I was reading a paper I got from a dietitian that listed baked kale chips. I've never heard of such a things. I looked them up on the Internet and it seems people like them. I can't image how they taste, I think they might taste like grass but I've only read good reviews. It might be worth a try!

Around Sterling

September 28, 2010

My mom came to town this past weekend and we hung around and did some errands and decided to try some canning. I've never done it before but needing a low sodium diet has led to drastic measures...canning is one of them. I figured if I could can my own tomatoes I wouldn't have to worry about all of the sodium in the cans you buy at the store. We went to an outdoor market and got some tomatoes and did our best. It was a learning experience but things actually turned out pretty good. Here is a photo of some of the cans...It has been raining here on and off for the past couple of days but we aren't getting any major flooding like MN did a few days ago. I took a couple photos of the evening sky, taken from my deck/porch. Seems like more rain isn't far away.

Rain and Bugs

September 22, 2010
A bit of a storm rolled across Sterling this afternoon. It didn't last long, maybe 1/2 and hour but it brought some pretty heavy rain. Luckily it didn't hail. My car needs a break from the hail damage repair shop. Sterling is on the right side of the red area in the radar image.
These bugs (below) are EVERYWHERE around here. They are a bit annoying. They make this loud clicking noise when they fly. I'm not sure if these are the noise makers at night but there are definatley a lot of them around. One of these things flew in my house the other day and I had my TV remote in my hand so I swung at it. I think that is a natural reflex, right? I actually hit it! Who knew I had such good hand eye coordination. The bug was so hard it just got nocked to the ground and I don't think it even knew something hit it....crazy.

I was looking at the Mount Rainier National Park web cam this morning to see if my traveling partners would be getting a break in the rain. It actually looked pretty dry but this image made me laugh. Can you see the little bug in the lower right area of the image. I guess we aren't the only ones that have problems with bugs flying on the glass and getting in images. I guess bugs know just the right spot to be...