it's a two-fer!

as in, two-fer-the-price-o-one! two posts in one day! actually, that's cheating a bit. i wrote that last one a few weeks ago, and forgot to post it. it had been sitting in my "drafts" pile until i noticed it there this morning. oopsie.

well, i got back from chicago a few weeks ago. the SAA conference was a success - met some new folks, caught up with old pals, glad-handed and did some networking. drank too much at the swank closing party. all good times! i also did a lot of walking and sight-seeing - at least one of the days, my pedometer (which i didn't even have on me all the time) read 6.87 miles! for one day! that's a lot, for me. it stunk that scott couldn't go with me... but next year, the conference is being held in san fransicso - yahoo! i think he is going to make it a priority to come with me to CA. i mean, free hotel? comped meals? what more could you ask for...

in other news, i started bike commuting last week! i've been talkin'-big about doing it for a month or so, but i finally took the plunge last week. i'm going to try and bike in at least two days per week. last week i did two, this week so far i've done two. pretty good start! and it's getting a bit easier each time. the trip is about 9 miles each way - so that's 18 miles in one day! it sounds more staggering than it really is, but it's still more biking than i'd have the patience to do at the gym. the trip to work in the morning is mostly flat - several miles of gradual downhill (which is nice) and a few short steep hills. unfortunately, that means the trip home (when i am the most weary) ends with several miles of gradual incline. yuck. i am usually ready to kiss the ground by the time i get home. i really need a better bike though. mine (looks like this, but mint green) is so heavy and slow. i have mentally spent my tax return for next year - come spring 2008, melly is getting a new bike!

i had a really horribly day yesterday. i rode my bike to work, and i was about 3 miles from home when i realized i forgot my purse. :( and my lunch. too late to turn back, i just kept going. i was a few minutes late for work, then i got a call from the dentist reminding me that my cleaning appointment was that afternoon. my dentist is in downtown DC. !!! i couldn't just leave my bike at the office and take the metro downtown - since i left my purse at home, i had to go there first anyway. so i changed back into my sweaty clothes and rode home. halfway home, i ran through a huge length of fishing line that some jackass left laying around, and it wrapped all around my gears. without a pocketknife, i hacked away with pointy rocks for about 20 minutes in the blazing sun. i got my bike to pedal forward, but i couldn't coast or stop without my chain falling off. EVERY TIME. and i was stuck in the hardest gear. i almost got run over by two semi-trucks - at the same time. and it took me an hour and a half to get home. then i had to walk to the train, go downtown, walk about 6 blocks to the dentist... then repeat. i was BEAT last night, but had many chores to do and didn't get to bed until after midnight. :( good news being, i was able to remove the fishing line and my bike seems to be okay.

it's finally fall, here in the city... cool nights, warm sunny days. yay! everything is still green, but i imagine we'll start seeing some leaf-changes in a couple of weeks. september and october are already filling up with "events" - virginia state fair, renaissance festival, apple-picking, full moon hike at the arboretum... side trip to visit tammy in hershey, PA. and! jessie's baby shower is this coming weekend!!!!! i can't wait! i have some presents to wrap - i've been crafty lately... i hear there are cousins stay at mom and dad's, and a bonfire/wienie-roast on friday!

i'll post some pictures tomorrow or soon. i have chicago pictures and other assorted shots to put on my flickr page, and i need to empty the camera before i come home this weekend.

the blogs that i check daily

okay, so i've been slow (s-l-o-o-o-o-w) about catching on to this whole "blogging" thing. I still don't really get it all the way, and as you can tell from my own "blog" that I just treat it as a place to update my family and friends and tell them where to find my vacation pictures. stuff like that. but there are a few blogs and websites out there that i check every so often, and i thought you might like to check them out too:

http://brooklyntweed.blogspot.com (this site is run by this guy in brooklyn - he knits the most beautiful things!)

http://lonecellotheory.livejournal.com/ (my friend ian's blog, who is an actual blogger about interesting things)

http://www.weheartprints.com/ (pretty things to look at, wish for, and possible buy - because mostly they are affordable!)

http://www.frymyerfamily.blogspot.com/ (bessie and david's blog...)

http://icanhascheezburger.com/ (i am a sucker for stupid cats)

http://princeofpetworth.blogspot.com/ (site run by the "prince of petworth" - just observations about my neighborhood...)

i'm sure there are more - i mean, how else to i waste the first half hour of every workday? c'mon. i just can't think of them right now.

been so long, been so long

so, hey, i've been away for way too long. i realize that. please don't judge me! i am easily distracted sometimes. instead of writing a novella about what i've been up to, i am just going to string together some bullet-points. in no particular order - just whatever i think of first. that way, if you get bored by a section, or if you've heard it before... you can just skip over that one! perfect. so here goes:

• jessie and david came to visit over the weekend! yahooie! i am sooo excited to be an aunt, and bess definitely has a firm, round baby-belly now. she looks very cute and excited. i know they are going to have to cutest baby in the universe. i have some projects planned for my future niece? nephew? nieph? but since bessie reads this occassionally, i can't get into details. :) we did some touristy stuff on saturday - went on a DC Ducks tour! which was fun, even for a DC resident. i learned all sorts of factoids - most of which i forget now. but it was still fun. and we had great weather. the rest of the time we just hung out and gabbed and relaxed. and took naps.
  

• scott and eric are working on two music videos this summer/fall: first, one for the DC band Georgie James kind of pop-y music - great sound. they signed on with Saddle Creek earlier this year, and starting up a tour in england and canada right around the time their album comes out - in september. scott was busy with the video shoot all weekend, and i think they are hoping to finish up this coming weekend. i can't wait to see the footage! it's for their song "need your needs." the other video is for Dead Meadow - who are based out in L.A. now. scott and eric did a video for them back in 2005 (or maybe 2006), for "at her open door." they shot that one here in DC and Maryland, but this next one they are going out to Big Sur, CA to get most of the shots. that doesn't start up until later this month, so i'll keep you posted. they got a mention on Brightest Young Things today - check it out here.

• i finally got a bike! i've gotten to ride it a few times, but i took a long ride and hurt my back and messed up my knee somehow. my back is nearly mended, but my knee is still twinging a bit. but i am planning to bike to work once a week, after the weather turns not-so-ovenly-hot.

• i've re-started crocheting, and my friend jennifer has promised to teach me to knit - starting this thursday after work! i'm pretty pumped about that. there is a swell yarn store near my work, and it seems a pleasant place to hang out.

• the big SAA annual meeting is being held in chicago this year - i'm pumped about that! i went to chicago last fall for jennifer's wedding, and it was such a lovely city that i can't wait to see it again - this time on AIPs dime, not mine! :) i mean, sure i'll have to sit through days of workshops and sessions that aren't nearly as fascinating as the descriptions promised... but i'll also get to see some old grad school buddies and hang out and visit cool places in the evening - right? you betcha. i missed the block of rooms held for the conference, but i snagged a room at the spartan "club quarters" - itchy towels, tiny rooms, but great location and great price. plus, i won't have to continually dodge folks at the conference hotel. those folks who has been to a large conference know what i mean there.

• we went camping back in july - at assateague again. and we're going again in october! i think cliff and courtney are coming with us for the next trip, that that'll be particularly fun. i plan to dribble cheez-its all over their tent and watch the ponies come flocking. :)

• i let my gym membership slide since springtime, but i am going over there TONIGHT to re-up. sheer laziness that i let it slide, since it's pretty cheap. they are raising the rates - again - but it still works out to be $26/month. which is a steal.
  

• well, it's almost time to leave for the day, so i'll stop now. check out my flickr albums, to catch up on some pictures....

~mel

do not put your trash here...ever.

BIG NEWS! there's a feature on scott and eric in the washington city paper this week:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=1773

the lovely picture was taken in the alley behind our house, as some of you might recognize. (thanks for the location suggestion, dad - the photographer ended up picking your shot!) they are also having a screening of their last few projects - saturday night at the DC arts council in adams-morgan. come one, come all! they are showing both sexy stories, as well as the premiere of "the purgatory all-stars."

in other news:

• we went to a nationals game on wednesday night - i'm going to miss RFK stadium when they tear it down. i have a feeling that the new stadium will be much fancier and probably a little bit awful.

• i need to have a party! we had so many parties last year, and the year before. why not this year? i can't figure it out, except for maybe laziness and lack of money. i'll work on it.

• i also need to take more pictures. one of my co-workers said that she was sick of looking at my flickr site and that i needed to get on the ball. i couldn't agree more. :)

• i "won" a breadmaker on freecycle.com yesterday! yahooie! i pick it up tomorrow morning, and i can't wait to try it out.

• i've been running again, for the first time in 5 or so years. yikes! has it really been that long? anyway. i've been doing just-okay. i've been going twice a week, but i'd like to up it to three times a week if i can. so far, i'm running a half mile then walking for a while, then repeating that two more times. so that's a mile and a half total? sounds lame, but i've only been at it for two weeks and i'm pretty proud of it.

• i have lots of work to do today, so i'm not sure why i'm fooling around on my blog... and jennifer is having a BBQ tonight after work, so i can't stay late. off to do real job-like things!

Friday, King of days...

various updates:

• so a week or so ago, i "won" a huge stack of patio bricks from freecycle.com. i won!! i won!! i've been trying to snag some bricks for a long long time, and i guess patience and perseverance pay off because dammit if i didn't get them in the end. i ended up with about 220 bricks, which took two trips in my car, because i feared for the heath of my suspension (and tires) if i took them all in one load. i stashed the bricks under the deck to tempt the folks who wander the alley stealing my stuff... then i started digging. and digging. and digging. i knew that our yard was composed mostly of rocks, broken glass, chunks of brick, and trash - all held together by a little dirt. i knew all this, but i didn't realize how difficult the digging would be until i began. yowza. it was hard work, and took several tries before i got down 4" or so. i should have dug deeper, and i should have leveled it out more. but i declared that i wanted a more "natural" patio so i quit and moved on to the next steps: cloth, sand, then bricks. after the hard part (digging) was over, the weed-proofing cloth layer took... oh, say about 5 minutes. the sand took a few more minutes, because i did a little smoothing and tamping. then the bricks! aside from the hellish beginning (digging), the rest of the patio took about 2 hours to complete. yahoo! i am waiting for a few more bricks to make the path from the deck steps. but at least this is a start. once i locate the camera charger, i will put up some pictures.

• i just bought two new swimsuits online! a blue retro two-piece and a brown ruffled one-piece. they should arrive next week. that give me plenty of time - 2 weeks - to make sure they actually fit before the brown family vacation at the beach. unfortunately, i have to ship them to the office. i'll have some 'splaining to do, and hopefully there will be no forced fashion shows.
  

• scott's brother, kevin, is visiting from arizona this weekend... i have no idea what the plans for entertainment are, but i hope they aren't much. i am tired of running around.
  

• speaking of running, this is going to be the Big Weekend for me to try my hand at running again. i used to do it so often, and so well. maybe not "well," as those who have witness my pitiful form can vouch for... but i want to try it again.

• duchess had a check-up yesterday, and is doing much better. she has gained a half of a pound, and her thyroid levels (whatever that means) are getting closer to normal. she'll be 19 in july, and we will throw a big party for her if she makes it. that's pretty old for a tiny little tabby cat.

• enough is enough. i need to go back to doing real work.
  

mayday - one day late...

i think yesterday was may day? or did i just make that up... in any case, it was a pretty nice day. the weather was beautiful, i was wearing a cute outfit, we ate dinner outside on the deck, we watched spiderman 2 (in preparation for watching spiderman 3 on friday night...).

tonight i MUST clean my bedroom. there are massive shivery drifts of clothes all over the floor, and they are starting to make me mad. plus, i plan to haul out all my summer clothes tonight. this will probably entail a temper tantrum over winter-belly growth, and a crying jag of self-pity. i've been putting it off for far too long now, with the thought of "maybe i'll lose weight before i try that stuff on!" but it's getting hot out. and there's no way i am losing 20 pounds by friday. so there you have it. time to face the music... maybe i'll work out *before* trying on the clothes. then at least i might feel like it's not too late.

oh damn! i was going to make an eye appointment today. grrr... i guess it's only 4:00. there's still time. i thought i could sit here a while longer, leisurely writing some nonsense. hey! the phone just rang, and it was a lady from the library in ohio where my mom used to work! saved by the bell. she needs some advice on removing the moldy old smell from papers in a donation they just received! i have a mission to fill the last 20 minutes of my day...

the unveiling...

follow the picture below to my flickr album! you can view them as a slideshow, or you can click through each one separately to read my descriptions...