The Flashback - June

Well people - the year is halfway over. I repeat - the year is halfway over! I feel like Summer really just got started off properly and now there are less than three months until Fall gets under way. What in the world? 

Nothing like looking back at the passage of time to make you realize how quickly time actually passes, right?

2016

DC Baseball History hanging from the ceilings...

Father's Day with this lovely Father of mine.

2015

Summertime snuggles with this sweet one.

Moving day pals.

Bridesmaids Quote Along...costumes required, ha-ha! 

A warm...so warm...day in DC.

Walking with dinosaurs...

2014

A fond farewell to some of my sweet lovies...

Once more...saying farewell to little sweethearts.

Watson enjoying the ride en route to our new mountain home...

Styx at Jiffy Lube Live with lifelong (literally) friends...

Summer sunsets & snuggles with my favorite pup!

2013

Sunday morning snuggles with "my" boys...

Fresh guacamole with the family...

I promise Lindsey has clothes on...ha-ha...

CSI Animal Edition - What creature crawled across my car?

2012
I don't know what happened in 2012...but I can never find pictures.

2011

A weekend in Clinton with a friend.

Sibling shenanigans...

One of the last pictures in front of our fireplace....

2010

Summer Bowling League - sort of...ha-ha!

Eating beignets oh so carefully....

Exploring Cajun country...is that an arm in that gator's mouth??

Step right up to the mausoleum...

2009

Engineer Day - and Lindsey has on a cape...

Sibling Saturday night out...

Blueberry picking - complete!

2008

College town luncheon & high school kid drop off...

Sibling Saturday night out...the first edition...

The faces game...because we have no sense...

And the one and only way back in time picture that I found is below...because there were no others....

2003

Afternoon snuggles with a rescue pup....

Watson Wednesday - Watson's Moment of Glory

As you may know if you read this blog from time to time...I'm a big fan of the Washington Nationals. Well, it just so happens that by default, so is my dog - Watson. Well, Watson had a moment of glory (unbeknownst to him...) on Monday night.

My little love wearing his Nationals collar.

After the Nationals scored five runs in the third inning against the Mets, I tweeted out the above photo of Watson, mentioning specifically a Twitter user I follow that goes by the name of Jayson Werth's Beard. While not actually Jayson Werth; this guy (I'm assuming it's a guy....) tweets on anything and everything related to the Nationals.

Imagine my surprise when mere seconds after tweeting out Watson's picture, It was retweeted by Jayson Werth's Beard! This retweet also scored Watson's picture quite a few likes on Tweeter too! So, you see...Watson really had quite the social media moment this week!

Watson taking social media by storm....

Ode to Game of Thrones

I am a long time...as in....for the duration of the show...watcher of Game of Thrones. I have also read all five of the books and so as the show unfolds, I tend to sit back and think "wait a minute...that is not right..." I've enjoyed every crazy minute of the show until Season Five and almost every episode left me completely blank. The show seemed to have gone completely off the rails and I was 100% apprehensive about how Season Six could recover...

In all fun...I give you my ode to the absolutely delightful Season Six of Game of Thrones...

An Ode

Season Five ended and left me sad...

Mostly because the story line(s) and writing were so terribly bad....

You "killed" Jon Snow...you told us repeatedly he was dead...

You wanted us to have no clue where the story now led...

Season Six began...I watched without daring to hope...

I wouldn't let you get my hopes up; this season couldn't be good...nope...

Cersei's daughter is dead, two children out of three gone...
The Red Woman reveals she is REALLY old...please, put that necklace back on!



Daenerys is captured...Arya is a beggar...and blind...
Jon's body is still just laying around, shouldn't we get rid of that? It's about time...

In episode two, the first "big" reveal...

Jon doesn't stay dead...It's amazing how quickly all those stab wounds heal!

My interest was piqued by episode three...

Ned Stark, Arthur Dayne...is that the Tower of Joy that Bran sees?

Rickon is alive, Jon bids the Wall farewell...

Cersei overplays her hand and Arya's sight returns...things are going swell!

Theon returns home to help his sister secure the Saltstone Chair...

Ramsay kills Osha...we all knew it was going there...

The Stark children finally, at long last reunite....

Daenarys shows she's still got a whole lot of fight...

Sansa tells Littlefinger that battles aren't the only thing that leave scars...

Euron discovers he needs more boats because Yara took yours...(his?)

The White Walkers were created to slow the spread of man....

We lose Hodor (hold the door...) and it's maybe all because of Bran?

Uncle Benjen lives...another "surprise"...though not really...

Look who's arrived home once more, it's Sam, Little Sam and Gilly!

The Freys are still horrible, Jaime gets demoted...

Daenerys earns the Dothraki loyalty and her status is...well, promoted...

Jaime and Bronn try to break up a siege...

Jon, Sansa and company try to encourage the North to make House Stark their liege...

The Hound lives and chooses violence once more...

Arya takes a stab in the gut...all that training, what for?

The Hound joins the Brotherhood, revenge is his game...

Arya recovered from that gut would pretty quickly...that was a little lame...

Jaime and Brienne reunite once more...

Edmure surrenders Riverun to the Lannisters...

Honestly, this episode WAS kind of a bore.

The Battle of the Bastards...the most expensive episode to date...

The visuals were stunning and some (terrible) people finally met their fate...

Jon and the North were victors; Ramsay;s end was fitting as well...

Stark banners are flying once more at Winterfell...

Meanwhile in Meereen, alliances were made...

House Targaryen and House Greyjoy; girl power on display...

Daenerys used her dragons to make a show of power...

This episode may have been the show's finest hour...

And finally, at last...the finale arrived...

Who would live? Who would die? Would anyone survive?

As predicted, Cersei completely flipped her lid...

The Sept went up in (green) flames...out the window went her (last remaining) kid...

Half of the cast...blown sky high in one scene...

House Tyrell decimated and now united with House Martell; now that's a scheme...

Arya gets revenge...a dish best served...as pie?

RIP Walder Frey, no one will miss that guy.

Daenerys has allies, her ships are outfitted and ready to go...

Tyrion believes in something and that's a new feeling for him to know...

Cersei wears the crown but at what cost?
Do you think she even realizes all that she's lost?

Bran returns back in time once more to the Tower of Joy...

The theory is true...R+L = J, the new King in the North, our favorite boy...

Season Six - I loved it - I'm so pleased to say...

The show redeemed itself, somehow...some way...

Now there are nine more months till we learn our favorite characters' fate...

That seems like an awfully long time to make us wait...

So - there you have it. Things are really starting to wrap up...the end is actually beginning to take shape in Westeros. Who will survive and rule the Seven Kingdoms when all is said and done? Only time will tell...

Yoga, Sunsets and So Many Pictures of my Dog

I don't have a good "opening line" today... It's overcast and breezy outside and I'm praying the weather stays in a holding pattern so I can walk this afternoon without feeling like I'm going to die. Remember when I complained about walking in the cold? Ha - never satisfied I suppose!

This past week was a doozy...and that's putting it lightly. Also, my spellcheck is trying to tell me that doozy isn't actually a word, but since this my blog...it can be a word and that will be fine, ha-ha!

Mondays are tough on everyone...even the dog apparently...

Have I mentioned that yoga is a thing this month? I feel like I have...but I also feel like I haven't. Therefore: yoga is a thing this month. My friend Danielle and I decided to give it a whirl and this past Monday we went to a class labeled as "Gentle Yoga"...but I don't think it played out as quite so gentle...

As complete newbies to all this yoga business, we figured it was a good fit and when I saw that some older people had chosen to attend the class...well I wasn't even ashamed that I was in a yoga class with people that were possible 40 years older than me. All I could think about was maybe I wouldn't sweat quite so much in this class as I did in the last one... I obviously have my exercise priorities very straight.

The normal teacher was unable to attend and therefore one of her co-workers stepped in...and I can only guess from some of the more seasoned yogis that the way she operated the "gentle" yoga class was not as gently as they were used to. By the time the class ended, I was once again covered in sweat...but then again, maybe that's something that happens with every single yoga class? I'll let you know once I've taken aerial yoga...

Unreal sunset - picture one.

Unreal sunset - picture two.

My Mom and I met up on Tuesday evening and finally - yes I know it had only been out five days - saw Finding Dory, which I absolutely loved. I almost inclined to think that my Mom enjoyed the short before the movie more than the actual movie...granted, it was awfully cute! Sometimes seeing animated movies with little kids in the theater can be pretty funny - they tend to have some pretty fantastic reactions to things that play out on screen.

Wednesday was a LONG day and also the day that made the week such a doozy... By the time I got home, I just wanted to sit and do nothing. I rallied some level of energy and managed to get in just over a mile walk before showering and proceeding to "do nothing" in the form of watching Inside Out with Watson.

Modeling his new tag...that so perfectly matches his collar. 

Watching some Disney/Pixar on a Wednesday evening...

On Thursday Watson came to work with me and as always, thoroughly enjoyed himself. He was much more...chill....this time around and spent a large chunk of the day napping on his blanket. Of course, he made sure not to miss his chances at begging for bites of food from both me and my co-workers and was delighted to get to make a quick trip to the post office after lunch... He started the ride in his car seat (yes - my dog has a car seat) and after I quickly popped into the post office (fear not, it was overcast, there was a cool breeze, the windows were cracked and I was gone maybe two minutes...) I was greeted on my return to the car with a pup now seated in the front passenger seat! 

He wouldn't budge and so since our drive back was fairly close and quick, I just let it go.

I'm supposed to sit in my car seat? No thanks - I'll pass.

Taking in the sunset on Friday evening...

After a stop in at my parent's house site...where it seemed not a single thing had been done since last week...we grabbed some Mexican food for supper and then my Mom and I took Watson and drove over to my friend Katie's house. I was watering her plants while she was out of town for the weekend and I knew Watson would appreciate a quick car ride...

I didn't realize how much he'd appreciate trying to terrorize the next door neighbor's goats. And lest you think he really caused the goats any mental or emotional trauma...please know that my dog is a pansy and just likes to act tough! He growled fiercely and barked like a wild man...but the minute the goats moved closer to the fence, in an effort to check him out, he raced in the opposite direction...terrified. At one point, he even tried to rush the goats and then slammed on the brakes, sliding across the grass in abject terror that he was going to actually get too close to the goats. He's nuts y'all.

Glorious sunset - picture three.

I wish I could claim these as my own...

Saturday morning I got to do my favorite thing...sleep late! Actually, my Saturday started off pretty rocky because I felt a bit like I was going to be sick...but it passed, I rallied and shortly around lunch time, I joined my parents and we drove over the Sheperdstown, WV for a street festival. Let me just say...I don't know that I've ever seen so many mullets in one place...ha-ha! Looking past the questionable hairstyle choices, there were plenty of fantastic crafts on display and while I didn't purchase anything for myself, I saw plenty I would have loved to have!

Pineapple soda + street fair = Saturday goodness

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcake - obviously delicious.

After a delicious stop to grab a cupcake, we cruised over to Sharpsburg, MD and snooped around an antique store before grabbing supper and driving home. Both my parents joined me to go water my friend Katie's plants and then we went across the mountain to get some ice cream - and what do you know, they even offered a Pup Sundae that had a small scoop of vanilla ice cream and two dog bones! Watson immediately lapped up every drop of his sundae and then proceeded to prance around happily for the rest of the evening!

Wondering "where is my ice cream..."

A sundae - just for me?

I'll take care of this in no time...

Sunday was relaxing in an on and off manner... After church, I grabbed some Starbucks to go and sat out on the deck, enjoying my cold coffee, the gentle breeze, the sunshine and of course, my sweet pup's company! We grilled out for lunch and then I spent the afternoon being less relaxed, watching my Nationals finally eek out a win against the Brewers and put an end to the painful road trip they've been on. 

I closed out my Sunday evening with some vegetables from Cracker Barrel, enjoying the beginning of Shark Week and watching what might possibly be the best finale in the history of Game of Thrones. A doozy of a week, a good weekend and now we are on to the next one!

Sunday morning vibes...

Sunday morning vibes - part two.