I started this post on Monday and managed to get derailed, distracted and otherwise disengaged from all thing blog-related. I'm not sure where my head was...but it wasn't here. Weekends always seem to pass in a blur and the past weekend was no exception...
The week preceding it was fairly quick too - my boss was out of town and so work manages to somehow be less busy but the days still pass quickly. I realize that I've been doing this random photo dumps over and over and over...but whatever writing "mojo" that I have seems to be in flux lately and so...photo dumps it is.
The final product of two weeks of construction has wrought a beautiful deck on the back of the house - and has brought an end to my sweet pup's hours long freak out sessions in response to the nail gun used to put the pieces together. I snapped the above picture of him sitting on the deck early in the week; likely contemplating why in the world he tore his bed to shreds as a way to cope with the construction noises. *sigh* Yep - ripped his bed to pieces.
Happily I had foresight and purchased a miniature animal skin rug at IKEA last weekend and I purchased it just for Watson! He wasn't 100% keen on the rug to begin with, but when it became his only bedding option; surprise surprise, he embraced it!
The past week was fairly perfect as weather goes - gorgeous...near perfect blue skies, fluffy clouds and light breezes almost all week. Hence the pictures of the beautiful night sky and the perfectly blue sky shot from Thursday afternoon. Alas - perfect weather cannot last forever - the weekend arrived and with it, Summer finally made it's arrival too.
After a rather long work day on Friday, I joined my parents for a drive into the Shenandoah National Park to watch the sunset and hopefully catch the rising of the strawberry moon. We grabbed some Popeye's (meh) before heading into the park and had a quick picnic supper before finding an optimal spot to watch the sunset. Watson came along and thought it was an absolutely grand adventure - most especially the part where he got bites of chicken tender while sitting at the picnic table like the human he thinks he is...
It should go without any explanation(s) that the sunset viewed from above the Shenandoah Valley was absolutely spectacular and I snapped an absurd amount of pictures of the sunset...I've only shared a couple here because perhaps you don't want to see fifteen very similar pictures of the sunset? It was beautiful - words do it little justice and my iPhone camera does little better...but it was a worthwhile way to spend a Friday evening.
I also snapped what is now my favorite picture of Watson - honestly - is that not the best picture ever?
I included one very weak snap of the strawberry moon...it rose with a bright pink hue, but within about fifteen minutes of climbing over the trees it had turned a deep shade of orange. Obviously the moon was called a "strawberry moon" because of it's pink tint - but I like my interpretation better: that when the strawberry moon rises, it's the best time to pick strawberries...under the light of the strawberry moon!
Saturday...Saturday was mostly a wonderful day, but it was also a day that included a poor life choice. *sigh* After finishing my re-watch of season one of Game of Thrones and taking the dog out to walk, I noticed a neighbor jogging through the neighborhood and for some reason the voice(s) in my head said "you've been using the elliptical continuously for nine weeks - you can jog too!" And so I suited up and headed out into the almost noonday sun and discovered that maybe I should stick to the elliptical for now...
Saturday evening I headed up the side of the mountain...and down the mountain a bit to my friend Katie's house for dinner, a movie and catching up! We had some delicious supper (courtesy of her sweet husband) that I'm still thinking about and watched Beauty and the Beast while catching up with each other. We ended the night taking in the amazing views off her deck - it may be a bit of a beast getting to her house on some steep roads, but the company makes the drive above and beyond worth it and the view...the view isn't bad either!
Sunday was a day jammed full - we had tickets to the Nationals game at 4:05 and we headed into DC early to peruse the National Mall and take in a museum for a couple hours before going over to Nationals Park. Sunday was; of course, the hottest day of the year thus far and made for some warm wanderings in the nation's capital.
We decided to check out the American History Museum; I don't think I've been in the American History Museum since I visited as a tourist way back in...oh...200? I can't remember, ha-ha! Suffice it to say that it's been a while! We made a pretty good circuit around the museum and saw a good 75%, including eating at the cafeteria - which wasn't terrible - although it wouldn't have been my first choice. Around 2:00 we headed for Yards Park to grab some delicious Ice Cream Jubilee before the game. Always so good - and always worth the line! My Coconut Lychee Lime sorbet was divine and really hit the spot on the blazing hot day!
The Nationals game was...well...*sigh* The seats were good and the highlight of the game was seeing Max Scherzer get his 2,000th career strikeout but alas, we ended up leaving early when the bullpen took over the game and pretty much immediately blew the game. I won't get into it too much, but the bullpen is an absolute nightmare and the final innings of games are always near heart attack inducing these days. It had been a long day and when the bullpen allowed the Rangers to score four runs in one inning, we packed it in and headed for the Metro.
I love being at Nationals Park and I love cheering on my Nationals - I'm looking forward to being back at the park for Game of Thrones night in less than two weeks. Here's hoping the bullpen can figure some things out well before then - or I might be leaving early again! Blegh!
The weekend was capped off with a late supper from Panda Express - side note: if you're trying to eat food that doesn't have a bajillion calories, Panda is not your choice! It was delicious - but yeah, not so healthy. We had dinner on the deck, under the lights of the newly installed umbrella and I slept like the dead on Sunday night!
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On an unrelated but awesome note - as of today, I've been living in the great state of Virginia for three years! Moving to Virginia is still one of the best decisions I've made and I am so glad I made the leap and made a change for myself! Here's to many more years as a Virginian!
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