Lots of Lox

this is all you get. (here's more in the album)

WTF, loser?

I am sad to say that I've been busy and not in an entirely fun way.

I've been adjusting nicely to the new job but it takes up a lot of time. Not just in the working 8 hours kind of way - I have to wake up early to get ready (in comparison to my other job, this is not one where I can roll out of bed, slap on some clothes, and be decent for the office), and my commute is pretty ridiculous. I know for a fact that some people have MUCH worse commutes but again, in comparison to my old job that was practically down the street, this commute takes forever. Not only do I get to enjoy the beltway, but the traffic is pretty foolish coming into/getting out of the city of Bethesda anyway. As evidenced by the picture to the left.

I have also started school which is good. I do not have a very flexible schedule, though so I end up fitting working on school stuff on any spare hour I have. I'm taking four classes which is a full workload because a) I want to get this over with b) It is a financial aid requirement. So on the roster for this semester: Silkscreening, Physics, English for Art Kids, and Quark Design. Those are not the actual names of the classes - they have goofier titles but above is what they actually ARE. I was trying to figure out why this semester has been harder for me than last semester and I think I've finally got it - I'm not particularly interested in any of these classes. I kind of hate silkscreening, Physics makes me kind of barfy, English is something I feel I can do blindfolded, and I personally think Quark is a bullshit program that doesn't hold a candle to InDesign. Never the less - gotta get that over glorified piece of paper...

So, that is all. I wake up at 7am, feed the dog, walk the dog, get ready for work, spend an hour in traffic, work for 8 hours, spend an hour in traffic, feed the dog, eat dinner, walk the dog, do school work and GO TO BED.

Fall is coming...

I love Fall. It is hands down my most favorite season. People who have known me for any length of time know I get comically enthusiastic about Autumn, or specially, Halloween. It can start as early as July, but really kicks in during August when stores like Michaels start putting out their Halloween wares. I have to restrain myself from buying all the awesome stuff at once so I can prolong the Autumn Enthrallment.

The first step this year was visiting Benke's. The trip was planned out of necessity - it was imperative that the weed situation in the front and backyards were addressed in the form of getting mulch to smother them. So, since those are not my yards to be tending I wanted to get something fun as I tagged along.

Behold - Mums. They are the quintessential fall foliage. They have rows and rows and rows and thanks to genetic engineering they come in lots of wonderful color variations. I selected one called "Dark Triumph". Your plants must have sufficiently Metal sounding names. I poked around a little bit more to see what else I could find and came across a really interesting ornamental plant that looked like it had little peppers all over it. The color palette was right, and it was weird enough. Plus, it was called "Explosive Ember" and really, how could you NOT pick up a plant with a name like that if you're already getting "Dark Triumph"?

The mums haven't bloomed yet, but they're working on it. The EXPLOSIVE EMBER is fullblown, though.

Alley Cat Alley

October 16th is National Feral Cat Day - the annual kick-off for Alley Cat Allies' national education campaign.

As a sort of promotion of the event, and just a generally fun way of showing support, there is Photo Pledge page for members of the public. Basically the game goes like this:

1. You print out this page and put your name on it.
2. You take a picture of yourself (and your pet! If you have one)
3. You upload the photo here.
4. It gets posted to the gallery here.

Highly entertaining - so I encourage you to do it. I'll show ya mine, if you show me yours :)

Lots of Dog Park

In the pursuit of finding novel things to do, we've been taking Locksley to as many dog-friendly places that we can find. Fortunately the DC Metro area has quite a few.

Recently we went to both the Quiet Waters park in Annapolis, and the Greenbelt Dog Park. The Annapolis dog park was nicer - it was huge, had a dog beach (unfenced which was not so good for us) and lots and lots of people and well behaved dogs. It cost $5 to get into, though, which was kind of lame but understandable since the park was HUGE and obviously well maintained. The Greenbelt Dog Park was nice and close, but when we went there weren't many dogs around (and the ones that were there weren't as mellow and playful as the Annapolis dogs).

Regardless, Locksley had a great time and was exhausted by the end of it. More pictures in the Locksley photo album, but a couple silly ones here:

I am good at the internet

I am in a job transition. My last day at the job I've had for nearly 2 years was July 25th, my first day at the new job will be August 4th. That means I have a whole week to reflect and get ready which was afforded to me by the wisdom of my new employer. When they asked "When can you start?" I of course enthusiastically replied "Whenever you need me to", but instead of saying "Tomorrow!" they said "Why don't you take a week off and start on the 4th". Brilliant. I need people to set boundaries since - as evidenced with the last job - my work ethic can get the best of me.

Regardless I've been spending the time rediscovering why I love the internet in the first place. I've been researching getting a laptop for school (since the company issued one is where it belongs - with the company I left), re-acquainting myself with personal email, and playing with an assortment of Google incepted toys. I've been bouncing around bulletin boards, signing up to mailing lists, and - yes - spending way too much time with lolcats.

I've also been thinking about actually working on my website, making an honest woman out of my blog (what?), and finally getting around to picking my mother's brain about setting up her website.

Today I realized it was only TUESDAY. That is good and also terrifying. I don't feel like I've had this much time on my hands in a while and I apologize in advance for whatever messes I make between now and gainful employment.

Locksley

I have acquired a dog.
This should be absolutely no surprise since I have a long history of surrounding myself with animals. However even I will admit that this was probably a bad idea, mostly impulsive, and something I will mostly likely regret on a bi-weekly basis.

I am of course being melodramatic.
For months and months I had been scouring pet shelters looking for a dog that might like to come home with me. I finally picked a medium sized Afghan Hound Mix Female. When I went to visit, though, it turned out the dog was more like a large German Shepherd Mix Male. Oops. Fortunately (for him) he was very endearing and I decided to fill out adoption papers anyway.

I ended up bringing him home on June 27th and spending the rest of the weekend FREAKING OUT. Mostly because I thought I was just filling out paper work and not bringing him home until the week after. But no. Chaos, right out of the gate.
Thanks to my very best partner in crime I kept my head on and so far dog partnership has been pretty entertaining. We've gone to the woods in Pennsylvania, walked around Old Town Alexandria, had 4th of July in Delaware, and taken a swim in a Lake in North Carolina.
The Dog's name is Locksley (or Loxley, if you prefer) as in "Robin Of". While he is a bit puppyish (he's maybe 10 months old and gets bored - read: destructive/hyper - with a frequency that I can mostly tolerate) he did come crate trained, knowing how to sit, lay own, and "shake", and for the most part listens really well. He get walked twice a day for anywhere between 15 and 40 minutes and has energy to spare.

So be on the lookout. Click on the picture above for an album. More pictures as they come, and probably some good adventure stories.