back and forth back and forth

The guys are in my apartment doing some painting so I grabbed my laptop and am down here in the lobby hanging out while they finish. Right down the hall a married couple owns two units that are across from each other.

They do a lot of going back and forth and seem very anal about locking the doors.

This is what I've been hearing pretty much constantly for the past 25 minutes:

Person leaves Apartment #1: Deadbolt turns from the inside, door opens, shuts, keys in, lock deadbolt. Two steps across the hall, keys in, turn deadbolt, open door, close door, lock deadbolt.

Person leaves Apartment #2: Deadbolt turns from the inside, door opens, shuts, keys in, lock deadbolt. Two steps across the hall, keys in, turn deadbolt, open door, close door, lock deadbolt.

Person leaves Apartment #1: Deadbolt turns from the inside, door opens, shuts, keys in, lock deadbolt. Two steps across the hall, keys in, turn deadbolt, open door, close door, lock deadbolt.

Person leaves Apartment #2: Deadbolt turns from the inside, door opens, shuts, keys in, lock deadbolt. Two steps across the hall, keys in, turn deadbolt, open door, close door, lock deadbolt.

Seriously?!?! If you are going to be going back and forth so rapidly, just leave the freaking deadbolt open! Honestly! This is not Beirut, no one is going to storm in, the building is secure, it's 4:12pm, it just seems like such a hassle to deal with the deadbolt when they're obviously making MULTIPLE trips and back forth.

Sheesh!

Holding Hands

Natasha napping with her little paw wrapped around my finger.



She's been sleeping all day long! Lucky girl.

Misc Musings

1. Where is this year going? I can't believe the 4th of July - and my 30th not too far after - is next weekend. Yikes! I feel like summer should just be starting but we're already closing in on July.

2. As an early birthday present from my father I got a Roku! This thing is awesome. It's a little box that you connect to your TV and allows you to watch your Netflix Instant movies and TV shows on your TV! I feel like I basically have HBO. You start it up and it conencts to your queue and the rest of Netflix's Watch Instantly inventory. Right now I'm watching some old episodes of Law & Order: SVU, earlier I was watching old episodes of The Office. It's GREAT, just like channel surfing except with wayyyy more choices. Thanks Dad!

3. Today we met up for lunch at a place called Locolat Cafe and had a great meal. I had savory herb waffles with prosciutto and parmesan cheese. He had a smoked salmon and cheese panini with spinach. We passed on dessert - the summer slimdown is in full swing.

4. My bookshelves... omg... so close and so far! My carpenter came over yesterday to take one final measurement. Construction has started but he needed to confirm one detail and talk about some of the finishings. He said it should only be another day and a half for construction, then we have to figure out where to do the painting - either in the workshop or at my apartment after installation, or a combination of the two - and then we're done! I can't wait. Pictures will be posted.

Sailing

Kicked off the summer solstice with a nice long sail down the Anacostia following by amazing steaks, pasta salad, corn on the cob, and beer grilled at the marina. And I'm not even sunburned!

It's been so hot here - in the mid-90's for weeks on end, and DC always seems to just miss the thunderstorms! They brush right by the city and give us a half-hearted mention but nothing satisfactory and nothing to break the heat.

MS White House

This humidity is really crushing my runs. I just find it very difficult to run strong in the heat and humidity. I know it takes time to acclimate and I'm working on it, but in the mean time, discouragement sets in. So I took advantage of cooler temps and cloud cover to run the long way home from work today.

First I jogged up to Meridian Hill park, tackled a whole bunch of steps, quads screaming! I made sure to do some work along the way:



See the MS 13 carved into the bench? Second rung from the top.

Then I headed down 16th St to the White House and cut across the Mall, taking Independence Ave to Washington Ave and around to my home.



Overall the run was just under an hour, which is the longest I've done since the weather turned. I was sweating and tired when I got home but encouraged and sunburn free.

Splurge!

I did something today that I have rarely done since discovering coupon savings... splurged on groceries. AND I did it quite cheaply! I'm proud of myself... I got some necessities for the week and a couple of nice treats and still stayed under $25.

Necessities:
2 red bell peppers
2 heads garlic
1 package baby spinach
10 Dannon yogurts
1 vidalia onion

Splurges:
Mixed olives from the olive bar
Hummus
Italian sausages
Raisinets

Subtotal: $34.19
Coupons: $10.00
Total: $24.19
Savings: 29%

Not the best savings rate but I'm very happy with my overall out-of-pocket total!

I've been craving fat lately hence the olives and hummus, and also eating a ton of roasted veggies over greens and/or pasta. So it looks like I'm set for the week and not too far off of my target $40/week budget.

Rave Run

My latest favorite place to run is the National Arboretum. The Arb is a serious gem, a large swath of trails and gardens in the middle of northeast DC. The main loop is about 3ish hilly miles of paved road, with plenty of little offshoots if you want to check out the fern valley, the Asian collections, the conifers, or any other little spot along the way.

At the welcome center is a great koi pond with fish all too accustomed to being fed! For a quarter you can get some fish food out of the vendor and don't the fish know it! They all crowd toward the wall closest to the vendor and look up at you with gaping mouths. Worse than a dog at the dinner table!

Another favorite spot of mine is the bonsai garden. Some trees are over 100 years old. How do you get the job of bonsai curator?? Sounds awesome to me.

Here are some photos (not mine) of the Arb. Can you believe this is right in town? And less than ten minutes by car from my condo.

All Dressed Up and Someplace To Go

Tonight the four of us went to see the Capitol Hill Chorale perform the Georgian Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, the first time this liturgy has been performed since it was written by Zakaria Pavliashvili in 1909.

Unbelievable. Dark, haunting, with harmonies of the type I'd never heard before. The chorale learned the music from a photocopy of a photocopy of the microfilm on which the score was being stored at the Lenin Library in Moscow. The ambassador to Georgia and his family were in attendance; it was a full house!

I dressed up a little bit and even broke out a rarely worn necklace that I picked up in the Yuruan Market in Shanghai a few years ago.

File Under PITA

I came home from work today and there was water all over my bathroom. Turns out something is wrong with my air conditioner unit and it leaked through the trapdoor and into the bathroom itself. Investigation revealed and rusty and potentially cracked condensation pan. The repair guy is coming tomorrow. In the mean time my windows and thrown open and I'm thankful for a little storm that came through and cooled things off.

Unfortunately cleaning up and trying to solve that mystery took a bit of time and by the time I could sit down and think about dinner, I was way beyond starving. I chopped up some peppers and garlic and threw them into the oven to roast and have over greens. Yesterday I purchased a huge tub of salad greens (not cheap!) and was hoping to have healthy dinners for the next week. Well, I opened the tub and all the greens were slimy and gross. I was able to pick a few good ones out but the slime is pervasive. They must have been old - I'm meticulous about storing greens and can usually get them to last over a week.

Sigh... I'm taking tomorrow off for the repair guy AND some good news (my carpenter is coming to take hard measurements for my shelves!) so at least I can look forward to a leisurely morning and an extra hour or so of sleep.