a little bit random

News of the mildly strange

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As I was walking back from the park today, I noticed a woman walking a dog in front of me.  The dog was in a harness, on a leash.  Nothing remotely unusual.  They were, I don’t know, 50 feet in front of me, and the woman was carrying something in her arms.  I was far enough away not to see any details, but it was about the size of a small child or a baby.

I assumed it was a small child or a baby.

After she crossed the street, she stooped to put down whatever was in her arms, and I could see it was a big gray cat.  It wasn’t wearing a collar, it wasn’t on a leash, and it didn’t follow her down the sidewalk, even though she kept looking back at it.

Was it her cat?  Was she taking it for a walk?  Did she expect it to follow her home?  Maybe she knew it would find its way eventually.  If it wasn’t her cat, did she pick it up thinking it was a stray?  If so, why put it back down and leave it?  Was she just helping it across the street, like you might help a senior citizen?

TANGENT: I have never seen anyone help a senior citizen across the street in real life.  Do people really do that?  In the movies, it’s just boy scouts or characters proving they’re nice people.

If the lady was helping a stray cat across the street, how did she know it needed help?  And if it needed help across the street, it seems cold to just leave it behind after that.  Of course, it looked pretty healthy and whole to me.

I didn’t stick around to see what happened, so maybe it WAS hers and maybe it DID follow her down the sidewalk after a suitable waiting period to show it was capable of doing things on its own, damn it, and it doesn’t need anyone’s help.

Still.  Who carries a cat around at the park?  Unless she thought it was the zombie apocalypse…it all makes sense now.

Corey presented this video as proof that he could have caused his little sisters more harm.  Congrats, Cor.  You’re not the world’s worst older brother.

Away with March

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Today is the last day of March.  There’s something about March 31st that tickles my memory, but I can’t quite get to what it is.  Maybe it’s nothing, a phantom itch.  I googled it, which didn’t help, but did provide a bunch of random facts.

  • Ewan McGregor, Al Gore, Christopher Walken, Angus Young, and Johann Sebastian Bach were all born on this day.
  • The Eiffel Tower opened on March 31st.
  • It’s Dance Marathon Day AND National Farm Workers Day.
  • The US took possession of the Virgin Islands.
  • Ford debuted the V-8 engine.
  • LaGuardia Airport opened.
  • Okay, that’s enough.

I’m done with facts and clearly too lazy to provide links and NONE of that helped me figure out what I’m trying to remember.  Let’s just assume it’s nothing until I hear otherwise.  March 31st is like any other day.  Go about your business.

Pleasant mornings are pleasant

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First-graders are like wind-up toys.  Really.  I ran by the local Catholic school this morning as parents were dropping their kids off, and I saw half a dozen little kids in their cute little uniforms pop out of several cars already at full-speed (the kids, not the cars).  It looked like someone wound them up inside the car, opened the door, and let go.  They all went dashing off down the sidewalk with their giant backpacks on.  I was amused.

I saw daffodils this morning!  They’re so friendly.

Spring is nice.

Rock lobster!

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I’ve got nothing tonight.  Well, not nothing, but I can’t get back to what I had because “Roam” by the B-52s has inexplicably gotten stuck in my head.  (It’s a little difficult not knowing ANY of the verses.)  While I figure out what I thought I had, I’ll share with you.

I’m not that big of a fan, really. I’ve still never seen The Notebook.

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For reasons that I cannot remember right now, I googled “Rachel McAdams hair” today and searched the images that appeared.

To start with, I was (and am) tickled at the categories across the top.

 

rachelmcadamshaircategories

You can search for pictures of her hair by year, by color, by movie – the possibilities are endless!

Oh, I remember – I saw a picture of her on Tom and Lorenzo with blond hair, and I couldn’t remember what she looked like with red hair.  It was important to me at the time.

So I scrolled through the results.

Rachel McAdams with short hair:

rachelmcadamsshort

Rachel McAdams with red hair:

Rachelmcadamsred

Rachel McAdams with brown hair:

rachelmcadamsbrown

Rachel McAdams with blond hair:

Rachelmcadamsblonde

NOT Rachel McAdams:

sarahhyland

Imagine my surprise when I found that among the many many many head shots of Rachel McAdams.  That’s what’s-her-name from Modern Family.  She doesn’t look like Rachel McAdams.  She has hair, so maybe that’s why Google included her?  Nah, Google is better than that.

But wait!

ALSO not Rachel McAdams:

kerirussell

Dude, that’s Keri Russell! And wait, isn’t that Emma Stone?

emmastone

Why are these people who are not Rachel McAdams showing up in my Google results?  Is Google sick?  Maybe Google is very clever and has reached into the heads of these three women and discovered that they all want to BE Rachel McAdams, and because Google loves them very much, it wants to do them this favor and let them pretend they ARE Rachel McAdams and so they show up in search results for Rachel McAdams and….no.  That can’t be it.  At least because I can’t imagine any of them wishing they were Rachel McAdams instead of themselves.  Not because I think any of this is ridiculous and far-fetched.  Because it’s definitely not that.

I want to see it again

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We saw the new Star Wars movie last night, and it was awesome.  I totally want to see it again in the theater.  I got misty a few times (including the crawl and the theme at the VERY beginning) but there was one part where I cried like a baby.  Good stuff.  I sang the theme the whole way home, and I woke up humming it.  Happy me.

In other news, today is our anniversary (15 years), and there’s a parade in Annapolis!  (Not for us.  I think.  Maybe it is.)  I want to see it, but we don’t have a good track record for that kind of thing.  A few weeks ago, I wanted to cheer on some runners during a half-marathon that was supposed to go right down our street, but we missed it (slept too late).  Fingers crossed we’ll make it to the parade on time!

Watch out for fog bears

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The mist has turned into straight-up fog today (and I think the rain is supposed to start soon and will go on all day).  I wish I’d thought to bring my phone with me when I ran.  The roads criss-cross the top of this ridge, and there’s this one section where the land falls away from the side of the road into a big depression.  There’s a house at the bottom of this bowl, and every time I run by it, I wonder why anyone would build a house in the bottom of a depression like that.  It seems like it would flood when it rains, fill up with snow in the winter.  What about landslides?  What’s the view from the windows?  It’s a pretty steep-sided bowl.  Was it always like this?  Is it a sinkhole?  (I’ve spent more time than you might think on this particular house.)

Anyway, the fog was so thick this morning that I couldn’t even see where the ground dropped off, much less the house.  What if it disappeared?  What if the Nothing gobbled it up?  I wish I’d brought my phone with me to get a picture.  Instead, here’s the view of the backyard right after my run.

IMG_20151223_092350

It had started to recede a bit by the time I took the picture, but now (several hours later) it has come back.  Brighter, but thicker and closer to the house.  Looks like the world outside is disappearing…

 

I think I left my brain at the food court

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We braved the mall today.  It was…not terrible, but we’re both completely worn out.  What is it about shopping that takes so much out of people?  It wasn’t that much walking, and it wasn’t that crowded.  Maybe it’s about the decisions?  We spent entirely too long in one store, considering a couple of ideas, and then we spent even longer in Clarks, trying on too many shoes.  (They actually had some shoes in John’s size (almost – not wide enough).)  After that, there was one more particular thing I was looking for (an idea of a thing), and we got to the point where I’d see a likely store, cruise through it in 30 seconds or fewer, and walk right back out – not the right place, they don’t have the thing.  When I found that I wasn’t even looking around anymore, we knew we’d had enough.  But then we had to walk back through the entire mall to find where we parked the car.  There’s something weird about the layout of that place.  It makes zero sense to me.

This post is not making that much sense to me, either.  Better publish quick before I think about it too much!  (That is not how this is supposed to work…)

Overactive imagination

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I went down to do laundry (yes, I’m ALWAYS doing laundry), and I found the door slightly ajar.  The lights were off.  I was alarmed.  Clearly, the basement monster got out.  Or was thinking about getting out.  Or was standing right there at the bottom of the stairs waiting for me.  But I turned on the light first because I know what’s up.  No monster.  Which only means he’s fast.  And hiding.  Or already lose and on the rampage.  But my guess is that he was hiding and using his creepy monster powers to make me forget things like my keys.  I got all the way up to the apartment door before realizing I couldn’t open it because I left my keys on the icky folding table I will never ever use.  Had to go all the way back down into the basement to get them.  Luckily, the monster hadn’t taken them yet.  Lesson?  (I have to learn a lesson since I’m stuck in this basement/laundry/monster situation.)  Always wear clothes with pockets when doing the laundry.  Then the keys go into my pockets and don’t get left behind.

Who needs normal? What IS normal?

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I know that Portland is supposed to be weird (I’ve seen Portlandia), but I hadn’t really heard that about the rest of the state.  I suppose it stands to reason that everywhere else might be a bit quirky.  That was confirmed one of our first mornings here.  We went to Eugene for breakfast (Off the Waffle) and to check out the area, and on our walk from the car to the restaurant, we passed a street musician playing the recorder.  That’s a little weird (you don’t see a lot of recorder-players around DC), but not totally off the wall.  The guy had a little animal crate next to him and a double pet dish with food and water in front of his feet, and a CAT eating out of the dish.  No leash or anything.  Just a cat eating at the feet of a dude playing the recorder on the sidewalk in downtown Eugene.

I like Eugene.

Rhapsodic about cucumbers

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Cucumbers are a wonderful thing.  I mean, they’re not as great as avocados (let’s not get crazy here), but they make other foods better.  I’ve been slicing cucumbers onto my sandwiches all week, and the other night I added cucumber to a caesar salad.  So good, so crunchy, so FRESH!  A cucumber slice in water is delicious and light (and THAT I would never do to an acovado).

I sound like a morning talk show personality.  I should stop now before I start in with the cucumber-related beauty tips.

To bad “thoughtless” has a different meaning

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I have no thoughts.  Well, I have no interesting thoughts.  I have gosh-I-wish-it-would-rain-already thoughts.  I have don’t-forget-to-get-the-laundry-out-of-the-machines-in-an-hour thoughts.   I have I-can’t-tell-if-Sudafed-is-really-helping-me-today thoughts, and I have I’m-going-to-go-to-the-gym-after-work-even-though-I-don’t-feel-like-it-because-I-didn’t-run-this-morning-and-it-might-be-raining-tomorrow-morning-so-I-might-not-run-then-either thoughts.

But that’s all.  There are no other thoughts.

It was dark, so I couldn’t get pictures

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IMG_20150915_075635

The other night we were out by the water, and I was watching the ducks.  (I like the ducks.)  There was this one duck just floating in place.  He wasn’t paddling, he wasn’t fishing, he was just sitting there on top of the water.

What was he doing?  What was he thinking?

Then another duck paddled up to him, and off they went down the docks together.  So what was he doing?  Waiting for the other duck.  And what was he thinking?  Probably “Where the #$*& is the other duck?”

It makes perfect sense

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Despite not having heard any Prince songs recently, I have a medley of them in my head.  Allow me to explain how I got to this point.  This morning, Mom made a joke about how the song “Secret Agent Man” will forever be “Secret Asian Man” to her.  I responded with one of mine (“Chicken To Ride” for “Ticket To Ride”), and then John chimed in with his for “Smoke On The Water”.  Instead of “Smoke on the water, fire in the sky”, he hears “Slow talkin’ Walter, fire engine guy.”

Here’s where my brain went:

  1. “Smoke On The Water” is NOT by Muddy Waters.  (I always go there first, even though I know it’s wrong.  Water/Waters – you can understand my association.)
  2. It’s by Deep Purple.
  3. Deep Purple did NOT do “Purple Haze”.  That’s Jimi Hendrix.
  4. “Purple Haze” sounds NOTHING like “Purple Rain”.
  5. “Purple Rain” is by Prince.
  6. Now I have several Prince songs battling for supremacy in my brain (“Raspberry Beret”, “Kiss”, “When Doves Cry”, “Little Red Corvette”, “Diamonds and Pearls”…you get the picture).

Logical, right?

Does the word “purple” look super-weird to anyone else right now?

Eh

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I am working.  It’s almost 10.  At night.  Why am I working?  That’s a very good question.  And it doesn’t have a very good answer.  And actually, I’m done working, so maybe it doesn’t matter.  Maybe I’m tired.  Maybe I feel a little guilty that I took a couple of hours out of my normal afternoon to follow John to his flying lesson and read in the shade of a tree at the airport.  (But it was so nice!  Until a mosquito bit my thumb.  Bastard.)  And maybe I’m over the guilt and going to bed now.

Good talk!

For everyone’s entertainment, but mostly Dad’s

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Presented without comment (sometimes):

From The Bloggess, An accidental competition for the worst mother ever.

Dad, you have to watch this gif.  The category it belongs to is Kids Falling Down.  It has cracked me up several times in a row.  Because I am a terrible person.  But so are you.  🙂  Click this link.

From reddit, the caption was “Hover mode engaged.”

hover mode engaged

 

From Dinosaur Comics:

(I’m sorry the text is blurry.  Not sure how to fix that.  But if you can’t read it, click the link to go to the page directly.  True for both of the dinosaur ones.)

dinosaurfruit

And this one, which actually made me laugh out loud (this should surprise no one): dinosaurupdog

And The System:

2014-11-06-definately

A bit of this, a bit of that

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For a change of pace, here are some pictures I’ve taken over the last couple of days interspersed with random sentences I’m hearing in the background right now.

“There’s no mud.”

I'm sorry it's grainy, but that is the dome of the Naval Academy chapel.

I’m sorry it’s grainy, but that is the dome of the Naval Academy chapel.

“I’ve got a large body of work.”

Sleeping duck on the dock in the early morning! It wasn't actually that early. This was a lazy duck.

Sleeping duck on the dock in the early morning! It wasn’t actually that early. This was a lazy duck.

“And that’s in the past.”

Do you feel threatened? I think this guy would be easy to duck. Hee. Duck.

Do you feel threatened? I think this guy would be easy to duck. Hee. Duck.

“Let’s leave the science to the scientists.”

Well, that was a failed experiment.  For my next trick, I’m going to post pictures from the Bookshelf Porn website because DAMN – check these out:

This framed bookshelf looks so cool.

http://bookshelfporn.com/post/100068917098/framed-bookshelf-by-mark-taylor-design

And this, man, our bedroom is going to look like this when we settle down again:

http://bookshelfporn.com/post/100196654923/we-do-love-some-bedroom-bookshelves

 

Noises

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We moved into an apartment in an old townhouse, so a certain amount of noise is to be expected.  We have creaky floors, thin walls, and an unexpectedly noisy central air system.  It makes some super-weird sounds every time it comes on.  After much thought and hours of study, I have narrowed down the source of the noises to one of two things:

  1. Fiends from hell are straining against their chains, struggling with everything they have to come through the vents and drag us, body and soul, down to the fiery depths.
  2. Pterodactyls have gotten stuck in the air ducts.  They’re growing hoarse, but we can still hear their creaky roaring.  They’re coming.  If they can fit through the vents.

I’m relying on you to avenge us.

Someone tell me how to make hats work!

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How does one become a hat person?  I like hats. I like to try them on.  I like to buy them.  I think I look pretty okay in hats.  But I own three hats (of the non-baseball cap, non-winter kind), and I NEVER wear them.  Even when I think, “Hm, I could wear a hat with this outfit,” I NEVER choose to wear the hat.  A big reason why is because I’ll have hat hair.  I already suffer from lack of volume.  Wearing a hat makes it SO much worse (and adds a big dent all the way around my head).  How to hat people avoid hat hair?  Do they have perfect hair that doesn’t flatten down or show weird ridges where the hat hits the head?  Is there a trick?  Do they just never take their hats off?

Maybe I’ll figure it out this fall.  I’ll try it.  Maybe.  If I don’t, my hats are going away.  Why move with hats I don’t wear?

All moving, all the time

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Fair warning: this is probably going to become a Hey, We’re Moving! blog for the next couple of weeks.  Not like it wasn’t before, but we’re kicking it into overdrive!  (I don’t know what means.  Does that refer to cars?  Does my car have an overdrive setting?  Do I have to kick something to make it happen?  I find it unlikely that I would.)

We spent all of last Saturday moving from one storage unit to another.  You might think that sounds like an exercise in futility, a zero-sum game.  Why do it?  Why waste our time?  But you’d be WRONG!  It was the RIGHT thing to do, and it needed to be done, and we feel extra-special good about ourselves for getting that chore behind us.  (I may have had a little extra coffee this morning.)

Why would we leave our storage unit in Ashburn when we won’t be living there anymore?  Wouldn’t it be better to take a smaller unit (one JUST being enough to hold our stuff) that’s close to someone we know and trust?  Someone who could check on things in case of an emergency?  Someone who isn’t going to move again, at least not for a few years?  And if we did need something out of it, we could get it AND visit relatives rather than go back to the place we don’t live anymore.  Yes, it would be better to do that.  To sweeten the deal, the unit up near them is less than half as expensive as the one in Ashburn AND it’s climate-controlled.  So we wore ourselves out moving stuff out of the apartment (dining room table and chairs, my big dresser (which is EMPTY!), and a few boxes), then emptying the storage unit into the truck, then emptying half of the truck onto Sean and Emily’s lawn so we could unearth the eight bookshelves they were taking, then repacking the truck and driving it to the new storage unit, and then emptying the truck into the storage unit.

EVERYTHING FIT IN.  It’s tight, and when you open the door, it looks like it’s all going to explode out onto your head, but it won’t.  (Mom, you were right.  There is a name for that type of closet, and it is named after an old radio show – Fibber McGee’s closet, from the Fibber McGee and Molly radio show.)

If all goes well, we won’t even have to think about that storage unit (except for paying for it) or anything in it for years, not until we get tired of our new life and start thinking about settling somewhere.  That’s kind of cool.