National Gallery of Art - West Wing

This was the first time I spent any long amount of time at the National Gallery of Art. A friend from work who, unlike me, did not grow up in the area, had never been to the museum before, so we stayed all afternoon. My favorite paintings were all of forests, caves or castles:

DC is Made for Walking (but Apparently Not for Sleeping)

Here is a recent graph I made showing my Average Steps Per Day (with 10,000/day being the typical goal) based on data collected with my Jawbone UP May-early Sep'14 and May-Jun'15:

So it seems that living in DC has been quite good for exercise, simply by account of living and working where I do and walking literally everywhere. I typically only drive my car every few weekends if going back to the Northern VA suburbs to visit my parents in Falls Church or to visit my dentist, doctor, or vet. I am averaging between 9436-15,619 steps/day, 11,738 when the dataset is looked at as a whole. Next descriptive stat I want to look at is how many steps I average per day just during the work week, since that is when I get the majority of my steps in, walking up and down the Olmstead and DAH hills at work.

Sadly the sleep data - Average Hours of Sleep Per Night - collected May-Aug'14 and May-Jun'15 shows that I could use a lot more (typical goal is 7-9 hours/night, I'm averaging between 5.04-5.58 hours/night, 5.29 hrs/night when the dataset is looked at as a whole):

In the Neighborhood

I love my neighborhood. Nestled adjacent to Rock Creek Park it's heavily forested, only a few blocks from the White House, and incorporates the Zoo where I work, giving my cats everything from a variety of birds to gibbons and siamangs to hear from my bedroom window.

My neighborhood also features some quirky places. One is my new favorite geocache (for the uninitiated: geocaching.com), "Jurassic Pork" (for details, see Jurassic Pork). Last night I walked to the cache, visiting it again to drop off the latest travel bug I found in a northern VA cache. While there I also exchanged what geocachers refer to as "geoswag", in this case all little plastic dinosaurs.

Here is a photo of the geoswag I have acquired since starting this hobby, which has taken me to some pretty interesting places:

Another curious thing in my neighborhood is a guy who regularly posts these fascinating flyers at the bus stop closest to the Connecticut Ave entrance of the Zoo:

 

Yay Supreme Court, Celebrating in DC

No longer being on social media, this is one of the few times I miss it, being able to celebrate decisions such as the recent Supreme Court ruling with like-minded people. Then again, when I was on social media I was linked either directly or indirectly to quite a few people who don't share my views on many issues and because social media has muddled the lines between personal and professional relationships, I wouldn't have been able to share my views the way I can on my personal blog.

Thanks Obama, for doing this to your house a few blocks down the street from my apartment:

Wearing the shirt I got at DC Pride a few weekends ago when I contributed to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), as always with a cat in the background:

Reliving my Childhood

On a recent visit to my parents' house in Falls Church, VA, I discovered the many Star Wars figures I collected in the 80s on a bookshelf, which now I hear are considered vintage:

I also found a few somewhat embarrassing but nostalgic photos, which I have added to the Nostalgia tab of my blog. Here is one example (I sure did like to wear boys tube socks!) - with my parents in our back yard in Falls Church, VA:

My Favorite Netflix Original Series

Oh how I love binge watching Netflix Original Series. My favorite so far:

Orange is the New Black (it's back as of yesterday, watching Season 3 as I type!):

Grace & Frankie (Lily Tomlin is spectacular in her role as Frankie, so happy that Martin Sheen took this role, and can you believe that Jane Fonda is 77 years old?!)

After a While

After a while you learn
The subtle difference between
Holding a hand and chaining a soul
And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning
And company doesn't always mean security.

And you begin to learn
That kisses aren't contracts
And presents aren't promises
And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head up and your eyes ahead
With the grace of a woman
Not the grief of a child

And you learn
To build all your roads on today
Because tomorrow's ground is
Too uncertain for plans
And futures have a way
Of falling down in mid flight

After a while you learn
That even sunshine burns if you get too much
So you plant your own garden
And decorate your own soul
Instead of waiting
For someone to bring you flowers

And you learn
That you really can endure
That you are really strong
And you really do have worth
And you learn and you learn
With every good bye you learn.

Veronica A. Shoffstall