Resolutions!

Man, I love resolution time so much!

Let's see: this is what I posted this time last year.

1. Stop interrupting people. This is a terrible habit.

2. Pay off 15k of my student loans. At that point I hope to just knock the remainder off with my savings.

3. Develop a consistent running regimen. I don't care so much about mileage volume but consistency is key.

4. Follow my simple Bible in one year plan. Already started.

So how did I do? Let's go through them one by one.

1. I still have a problem interrupting people but I have been trying to be a better listener and corral my eagerness in conversation. You would have to ask my friends or significant other whether I have improved.

2. Not quite 15k but close enough to 10k last year that I'm happy... and also slowing down a little in order to beef up my savings.

3. Done and done!

4. Welp, that one didn't work out so well.

How am I resolving to improve myself this year?

1. Cash flow a kitchen upgrade and then add 5k to liquid savings as well as at least 3k to my Roth IRA.

2. Read more for pleasure. This may or may not include getting involved in my church book club.

3. Become more involed with my family. I have a nephew now as well as a baby cousin just down the street. I want to spend more time with them and really get involved in being an aunt!

I think I'm going to start with those. Basic and attainable. I hope!

National Arboretum

One of my favorite places in DC is the National Arboretum. Located in the hood and not near the metro, this place is almost never visited by tourists and rarely by in-towners either. There are amazing gardens and walking trails, a bonsai collection featuring some trees almost 1,000 years old, and the old Capitol columns that were left there and forgotten about during a renovation of the East Wing a long time ago.

It's one of our go-to places for a weekend run... hilly and scenic, you can do as little as three-miles or as many times around as you need to make your distance goal.

We took my father and his wife there yesterday for a short jaunt around the grounds before dinner on their last night in town. The sun was going down but I captured a few of the classic scenes: a bench from the Assian collection and the columns themselves.

Rainbow!

My father and his wife are in town for a visit and on their way home from a museum texted to let me know that an enormous rainbow popped up over Pennsylvania Ave!

I could see it from my window but I wanted to get a head start on one of my new year's resolutions, which is to take more photographs, so I ran outside in my bare feet and snapped a quick picture from my front porch.

Too bad the rainbow didn't arc over the Capitol dome! Oh well.

Was it worth standing on a soaking wet driveway with no shoes to get this shot?

HI MATT

Thanks for catching up on my posts :) I am going to be ready to blog starting in the new year. I have a 12-month photography project that I will be sharing here and hoping to have a bit more of a social life/a bit more to talk about.

Hardware Store Hero!

I have a topcase on the back of my scooter that's great for storage but not very well manufactured. This is not my scooter but this is what one looks like:

The topcase has been an ordeal from the start. At first it wasn't installed properly and almost came off completely while I was riding! Also, one of the hinge pins that attaches the lid to the base walked off, so not only was the whole case about to come off my scooter but the lid could have been pried right off my a motivated thief.

J, my Main Hero, took the thing back to the dealer for a reinstall but a few days ago I noticed that the same hinge pin had fallen out. So I get a terrible rattle whenever I ride over uneven pavement and the whole thing just feels unstable.

I went to the hardware store yesterday to see if I could get a nail and some crazy glue but the hardware store man had some other ideas. So I brought my scooter to the store today and he spent a good 20 minutes carting different sizes of nails and screws in and out of the store until he found the right one. Once he started he was absolutely determined to help me finish the project and get the hinge fixed! His fix has made my case even more secure than it was when I first bought it. There's absolutely no rattle and the lid fits tightly on the base.

The cost of the screw was a whopping $0.45 but I tipped the guy $5 for his dedication. He was very surprised and very thankful, but he really, really helped me out. Let's here it for nice guys at the hardware store!

Cats are weird

My cat Elena is the queen of finding the most perfect, cozy, tucked in spot to nap. She will also often fall asleep smack in the middle of the hardwood floor. Doesn't make sense!

Tourists and their photos!

I spend a lot of time on the National Mall, usually while running but often to visit a museum exhibit or a friend. And I see a lot of tourists and tourists take a lot of photos. Quite often I will turn around once I'm behind the photographer and see what they're shooting. Sometimes I just have to laugh! All of the great photo ops - monuments, the Capitol, the sculptures, the gardens - sometimes people just take pictures of themselves standing in front of nothing!

Today I was running and noticed someone taking an odd photo - sure enough, when I got past them, I saw that the person in the photo was just standing in front of a tree. If they had turned a little to their left and had the photographer move over just a little, they could have had the Capitol in the background! Why wouldn't they want that? Maybe they're arbor enthusiasts but... I doubt it.

People are strange!