San Francisco!

Amy and I got super-cheap tickets to San Francisco on Virgin America back in August (I think). I had never really been to California, except for a brief drive through the desert about 10 years ago.


So, yay! California! Palm trees and bikinis and sun!

Except, apparently that is only Southern California, and only certain times of the year is it nice in San Fran. I had checked the weather before we left, so the three days of rain and bitter cold shouldn't really have surprised me, but they did. And I didn't pack very well. We ended up with two days of sun at least, which was a nice way to end the trip. On to the photos.

Here is a picture of the inside of the airplane. I only put this up to show the cool pink/purple lighting. Really.




Being cold all the time makes me tired.




Adam (our wonderful host who let us crash at his apartment for three nights), me, Amy, and her sister Gina who came down from Redding to hang out:





Scharffen Berger Chooooocooooolate Factory tour! Here's a machine grinding nibs. Mmmm. Nibs.


Those are tubes, tubes full of chocolate! overhead.




Our last two nights we moved to a hostel. Besides being surrounded on all sides by strip clubs and porn shops (and having the most miserable mattress I've ever slept on), the Green Tortoise was pretty rockin. Siobhan (from Ireland, on her first few nights of a year of traveling ) was also staying in our room and became our third partner in crime for the next couple of days.


This picture is blurry. I know.




Me, looking like a huge nerd in the bike helmet Amy made me wear, and the Golden Gate Bridge:


Alcatraz! (we didn't go) :



Bridge, Me, Amy:



:(


Bridge pictures:

Our new Canadian skateboarding friends at the hostel:



Chinatown!
Best lunch ever at Lucky Creation, a vegetarian restaurant in Chinatown:



Riding the cable car up:



A video of the cable car:

January in DC...

...is pretty miserable. In my old age the winters have become much harsher and harder to deal with. Another miserable thing is what is happening to my neighborhood:

Bye bye affordable housing, hello overpriced condos. I give my apartment complex 5 years.



I like it when the water in the plant pots overflows but doesn't quite flow over.


Kelsey (and my parents) came to visit! We went to Gravelly Point Park next to the airport to watch the planes go over. Kelsey likes airplanes when they are in the sky and appear bird-sized, not so much when they are 100 ft overhead



Super Furry Patriotic Dog?



I'm going to San Francisco Thursday; I cannot pass up a super super cheap plane ticket. I'm going to take lots of pictures. And maybe share them with you.

I'm Back

Hi.

I got a new camera. It seems like I do that every few posts.

I promise I'm going to try extra hard to post so that people might actually start reading again.

Here is a picture of some baby cilantro sprouts:



Here is a picture of some baby cacti. We like to grow things at work:



Here is my roommate and her devil eyes in the midst of a mess she created:


I didn't promise my posts would be good.

Horsey Island, VA

aka Assateague Island

Camping trip, back in the first weekend of August.
We bought lots of food at farm stands during the long, hot, all-around bad drive.
The funny part is that everything in this picture (except for the produce) is still in my trunk, 2 months later. The bread isn't even moldy yet.


There were horses all over. They liked port-a-potties.


Awww, baaaaaby horse. Or pony, whatever.


Diana is an experienced camper. She brought a knife. So smart.



Way back in the day (60+ years ago? I can't remember exactly) some brilliant man thought cutting big strips into the marsh would get rid of mosquitoes. He was wrong, but the cuts never went away.

Pretty pretty salt meadow grass:



Hello, deer.


Hello, beach.

Wild ponies grazing off yonder in the marsh.






Pony on the road. See ya.



I haven't really taken any pictures of myself recently, and I won't be taking any in the near future do to my recurring lack of a camera. Here's one on a night out with Jo, except she isn't in it. Just me and her boyfriend, Adam.
That's all.

I've Almost Given Up

on posting and buying a camera.

So, here are some pictures. Yay.
My unbreakable camera got stolen. Of course.

Here is a Golden Lion Tamarind at the National Zoo. They don't live in enclosures in the summer, they just hang out in the trees.



Here I am with Pat and "Harry Potter" on the night Book 7 came out. Yes, I am okay with my dorkiness:


Alison and Gustavo had their American wedding in Michigan. Ju is huge :



The Bahia/Michiganders:


It is impossible to say "no" to this animal:



That's all for now. I have pictures of camping on Assateague Island and a couple of other adventures to post when I get some spare time (of which there will be more now that September is over). Also, this post is boring. Sorry.

You don't ever update blah blah blah....

Yes, I do update. I am updating right now.


Caitlin visited back in the beginning of June.
Part of my kickball team. We finally got shirts.



Squishy face. This is a good, good, picture.


So serious. Tim and Amy.


Did I mention this was the flipcup finals? And though they may at time encourage heavy drinking...


these boys do have a tender side.


Hard at work with my lovely coworkers (minus Cindy) in our awesome new t-shirts.

Our text book really is that interesting.

And we really do work hard. rly.


We work together, we go out together... me, Erin, Diana, and some random brasileiros at a brazilian party in DC.



We also go on weekend trips together. I guess we like each other. We went floating down the Shenandoah in tubes. For almost 5 hours. It was fun. Afterwards we found our super-secluded and super rustic campsite. The toilet was a wooden box, but I didn't even see it until the next morning. Here I was experimenting with the "night" setting on my camera, minus a tripod. it didn't turn out great. Me: "You guys, just don't move for a second. Don't move, don't move...... don't moooove. One more secoonnnd. Ok." "Adam. You moved your head."
"Okay Cindy, just don't move for onnne minute."


"Okay Cindy, just stay there for a second again. Don't move. Your hand isn't burning. It will be worth it. This is going to be a sweet picture."

It's okay. Not that sweet.


"Fine, I 'll just use the flash."


Raar. Erin Monster.


Campsite in the morning.

I <3 moss.


Heck yes! I ran into this on the mall (Fourth of July preparations) while heading to the Botanic Gardens to check out....


The corpse flower! A brief summary: it only blooms every couple of years, and only for 24-48 hours (here it's already closing, I missed the real blooming). It smells, strongly, of dead mammal (and apparently looks like it too on the inside) in order to attract its pollinators, beetles and flies. Yum. Also, it's huge. Like 6 feet.




Fireworks on the mall for the fourth. Exploding monument.


Pretty.



Three Washington Monuments. oops.