Coming up for air

Yes, Glo, here I am - I read the late comments on my last post!

Omigosh!  It's raining cats, dogs and a few horses out there!  It started just as I typed the last sentence.  This evening walking home the air was heavy, warm and moist, like a primordial soup, with a few silent flashes of lightning.  Like the rebirth of life was about to happen.

Anyway, you want to hear about the job.  The image of the cherry blossoms above are from the two trees flanking the office entrance in Arlington.  Everyone is so nice and friendly there.  It's a quiet and studious environment, which is perfect for me.  When it's a hectic week, you can hear a pin drop.  When there's not enough work, it gets noisy.

So far, I've edited documents in Latvian, Portuguese, French, and - get this - Azeri (from Azerbaijan) for things I shouldn't tell you about.  But I now know how to say gamma and neutron in more than one language.

I'm a tri-stater now:  live in DC, work in VA, hang out in MD.  I've never crossed state lines so much in my life.

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This weekend with J was wonderful!  Saturday was hot - nearly 80F/27C - so we absolutely had to stay outdoors.  We went to Great Falls national park which sprawls across both Virginia and Maryland.  We were in the Md. part of course, on a part known as the Billy Goat Trail.  Being a native Marylander, J knows all that there is to do in that state.

Some rapids where we spotted a few kayakers going sideways

After about a mile hike, resting on the rocks at a small inlet beach

Leaving the inlet and heading back the way we came, we stalked a blue heron.  This is 5x zoom.

At a quiet pond we spotted another heron - can you see it?



There he is - being all still and zen waiting for a meal

Roots of a log that spans the stream



Pretty blue flowers (any of you expert floraphiles know?)

Gritty, sweaty, and icky, we freshened up (good thing he only lives 10 minutes from my place), I got picked up again and crossed back into Maryland where we went to dinner at a very swanky Vietnamese place in Bethesda.  It was some of the nicest decor I've ever seen in an Asian restaurant down to the details - very homey despite the soaring ceilings, the fancy aquarium and the waterfall behind the bar.

As a result of all the clambering and climbing, I was very sore today.  My quadriceps and even my deltoids are feeling it because I used my arms a lot to climb up and down.  It's funny because J feels it in his calves, but mine are fine.

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Sunday was very Sunday-ish.  J picked me up and we went to lunch and then Macy's.  My mission failed in that they were out of my shade of makeup.  J's mission was accomplished in that I helped him pick out a new shirt and tie for a client event on Tuesday.  If it doesn't work I accept the blame.  Even though I used to buy ties for Dad, I haven't had that much practice matching them with shirts and suits.  Then we went to DSW Shoe Warehouse where I made up for the lack of makeup by buying two pairs of shoes for work.

We rambled around downtown Bethesda for a while and enjoyed the band playing Led Zeppelin outside Barnes & Noble.  When it tried to rain, we retreated inside to share a big cookie and sat together reading magazines until it got dark and chilly outside.  Finally, we went to Austin Grill for a dinner of starters, enough for two small people.  I think we stayed out much later than I had expected for a Sunday night!

Two interesting cakes in the window of a cupcake bakery:

I shall call this one Wedgwood