Hurray!

Remember those bounced paychecks?  Today I finally got a cashier's check that covers the two bounced checks and the fees that my bank charged me.  Yeah!

I've been having trouble finding the tortillas that I like.  Today I found them.  Now we'll have to have tacos soon.

One more thing I'm happy about: my mini garden.  All my plants seem to be doing well.  The eggplant bloomed and the flower has since fallen off.  I think there might be a tiny little fruit there. I'm making some baked ziti this weekend and I'll be able to use some of the basil and oregano to spice it up.

Recent Movies

We've seen quite a few movies recently.  The best one was Das Leben der Anderen (Lives of Others).  I don't think I can put into words how deeply this movie touched me. I guess it tapped into my darkest fears. 

We saw Wolverine and we were both a little disappointed.  Not enough action.  Too much cheese.

When Tejal was here we couldn't decide which movie to watch.  We ended up watching Happy Feet. It was terrible!  When that was over Ross started Zohan. Holy crap. When he caught a fish in his bare ass we just turned it off. I don't think we lasted 5 minutes.

On Monday we went and saw Terminator.  We really liked it.  Lots of action.  Blood and guts. Good fun.

Ross might go with Troy this weekend to see the Star Trek movie.

If you haven't seen Lives of Others, it is definitely worth the rental.

Fun With Tejal

Tejal came to visit for the weekend and we had lots of fun.  On Friday we had yummy Greek food and went to the dairy for dessert. 
On Saturday we went hiking. The big tree looks totally different now that it has leaves. Tejal and I climbed up and Ross took photos. He kept teasing us because we were scooting along the lowest branch instead of standing up and walking. Ross jumped up onto the tree, stood up, took two steps, and ended up on the ground on his back. See kids, don't be a Ross.  
After our hike we took a break along the river's edge.  I even put my feet in for a while.  The water was cold, yet soothing.
Saturday night we went to Longwood Gardens and walked even more.

On Sunday we drove all the way to College Park for Boba.  It wasn't as good as it is at Bethany Boba back home. I was able to buy some of my favorite kind of oolong tea, so I'll be getting hyped up on Chinese Power Juice nearly every day. After dinner (I made enchiladas!) we ended up at the dairy for dessert.
On Monday before we took Tejal to the airport we went to the dairy one last time.  We really didn't want to let her go.

All New Record

I have a bunch of things that I'd like to blog about, but I will do them one at a time instead of having a long meandering stream of consciousness post.  First up--my work out minutes last week. I blew through my old record and set a new record of 640 minutes.  I didn't break 140, but I'm close. Maybe I'll get there by the end of the month. I'm going to rest a little now. I think my body really needs a break, so I'm only aiming for 300 minutes this week.

Longwood Excursion

Ross and I had heard and read about the du Pont gardens and decided to go check one out with Tejal yesterday. I was a little pooped from hiking and sleepy after eating, but I'm so glad that we went.

We left for Longwood gardens after dinner because they have a fountain show at night.  We arrived after only driving an hour.  Wow. The gardens display over 11,000 different kinds of plants. The outdoor gardens cover around 350 acres! The conservatory is expansive.  I've never seen anything quite like that.  It puts every other garden I've ever seen to shame.  

When we arrived there was a brass band playing in the outdoor theater.  It was nice to have music while walking through the gardens.  At 9:15 the fountain show started.  Tejal says the one at the Bellagio is better.  I agree, but the show was 30 minutes and had this misty effect that I liked.  With the changing colors and constant moving of the water the mist looked like the aurora borealis.

The conservatory alone was worth the trip.  One of the most surprising and best things about our visit is that there weren't many people.  I'm sure we will visit again, and we will definitely check out some of the other du Pont gardens.

Maus

I just finished reading Maus by Art Spiegelman.  I read Maus II a couple of weeks ago and wanted to read the first one.  After Maus II I was sad.  Now I'm terrified. Maus isn't apocalyptic science fiction, it is a true story.  It is history.   These horrible things really happened, and not just to Vladek Spiegelman, but to millions of other Jews. He survived.  Even worse things happened to other Jews (and homosexuals, and gypsies, and the handicapped, and the mentally ill, and all the other people that were deemed unfit for society).

Half way through the book I was actually thinking about where we could build a bunker in our house so that we could hide.  Would our neighbors turn us in?  Where could we, would we go? I'm overwhelmed by the thought of it all.  I'm scared.

Best I should not think about it too much.  Instead I eat cake.

Extended Hike

I was intending to hike for two hours yesterday, but I missed a fork in the trail and ended up hiking for more than two and a half hours! Thankfully I had the map with me, so I didn't panic when I realized I was no longer on the blue trail.

I'm going to rant a little now.  Halfway through my hiking I stopped on a small bridge and looked down into the water. I saw some money floating in the water.  It didn't look quite right, but I climbed down and picked it up anyway (and some more that I found).  When I unfolded it I saw a fake five dollar bill drawn on 2/3 of it and the other third said: DISAPPOINTED? SATAN also Deceives, but JESUS SAVES!  Uh, yeah I'm disappointed. Someone freaking littered in the park! Purposely!  In the water!  I hate religious tracts. I often see them thrown on the ground, but this one is designed to be litter.  The back of the thing of course tells me how I can be saved.  I saved them for the recycling bin. That wasn't the only trash I saw. I also picked up a reflector from a bike, and well, I didn't pick up the diaper and toilet paper I saw.  The toilet paper was under a branch, but right in the middle of the trail!  The dirty nappy had been dropped right on the edge of the trail.  Gross.  People are nasty.

The rest of the hike was great. The smell of freshly 

mowed hay was nice. I mostly saw small things this week:

butterflies, lots of flying insects, beetles, a slug, a worm, caterpillars, 2 dead mice, a small squirrel, lots of flowers, different kind of mushrooms, bright red ticks and mites, and two horses.