Author: Doris

I am the luckiest person ever.

From Mom & Dad 🙂

At the park, there was such an interesting mix of people. There were families doing the car/short hike thing. There were the motorcycle riders with the black leather chaps and jackets and loud, loud engines. There were the bicyclists who had the colorful spandex and expensive bikes. There were the Appalachian Trail thru-hikers who hadn’t showered in weeks.

We ate a lunch of burgers and soda, then tried to make it to Jeremy’s trail:

We didn’t make it very far:

The trail was a little bit too rugged for Edda’s jogging stroller – downhill wasn’t too bad:

Uphill was harder:

Jeremy’s birthday and my birthday are a week apart and toss in our wedding anniversary a few weeks ago and we have a maelstrom of dates that need celebrating. I always want to do something low-key (aka, peck-on-the-cheek and a quick squeeze of the hand) and I think Jeremy likes something a little more exciting (which is anything else). Every year, I think my method of celebration wins out and I think Jeremy ends up feeling a little disappointed. This year, we got our act together a few months ago and decided that we’d spend the weekend between our birthdays at the Skyland Resort – a hotel in the middle of Shenandoah National Park. It turned out to be one of the best birthday gifts ever.

It was the most beautiful weekend ever. We got to bring Ruby too!

Jeremy and Edda are planning out some hikes. We knew Ruby could be in the park while on a 6-foot-leash, but we didn’t realize that Ruby was not allowed on the most popular hikes. Turns out the most popular hikes are generally the easiest and shortest hikes also known as the perfect Edda hikes. We decided that we needed Ruby to be certified as a service dog so she could go on the easy hikes with Edda. Hmmm…

We also got Edda’s access pass to the National Parks. It means that Edda (and her guests) have a lifetime, free admission to all the National Parks because of her disability.

I have started working more at work (as opposed to working in the study in the master bedroom) these past few weeks. Now that I’ve been working from home for almost a year, the initial sheen has worn off and I’ve been finding that I slowly go stir-crazy if I don’t leave the house for weeks on end. I do have a lot of people that I call throughout the day for advice or consultation on pressing patent issues, but somehow it’s not the same as meeting face-to-face (or going out to lunch with co-workers). There are many, many people at my work who work from home, but I think that I’m the one teleworker who shows up the most at the office. I do not have my own office at work anymore, I gave it up when I signed up to work from home, but there are at least 4 or 5 “hotel” offices on my old floor at work – so I feel very much at home. I do schlep files back and forth, but my favorite “hotel” office has my own mug and my own portable radio that I’ve tucked into a drawer of the desk.

I usually take the Metro into work, like I did today:

But on Tuesday, I drove into work because I wanted to have dinner with some pals in Vienna, VA. This is what it looked like on the way to the restaurant (495/66 interchange, stop-and-go 4 mile backup – fun):

I love the Metro – because of the Metro, I don’t think of DC as a place full of gridlock and terrible traffic because I don’t often find myself in traffic jams.

I took Edda to church this past Sunday. I don’t usually take Edda with me because I’m usually in the nursery taking care of toddlers or I want to sit in the service without worrying about Edda being loud and boisterous. This Sunday, as it was so beautiful outside, and Edda hadn’t yet left the house since Friday afternoon, I decided that Edda would come with me and Vince and we walked in the beautiful weather.

Edda did start the service by sleeping. But she soon woke up and started saying “Ba! Ba!”. I clamped my hand over her mouth hoping that she’d quiet down, but to no avail. Then she started licking the inside of my hand. Classic Edda.

We ended up in the crying room which I don’t like. I like siting in the sanctuary with the candles and the people around me. Oh well. I did get to meet a really cute 5 month old in the crying room.

We haven’t gone hiking along the Blair Witch trail in a long time.

Happy birthday sweetie! (Ask him about his avocado lemon pie!)

I have been wanting to film some video of Jeremy and his rapidly improving ukulele skills, but he’s a little shy, so nothing yet. Maybe in the near future, there will be a uke video that will go viral and we will all be famous and quit our day jobs. Ha! I am looking at the photo above, a little chagrined that I let Edda mouth her hand a little too much, which has resulted in a little wound on the side of her face and also thinking that it would be nice to have a camera which would take non-noisy photos at high ISO, but it is not something I have high on my priority list now. Last night, Edda was even awake for the jam session and joined in.

As I think we are committed (both in senses of the word) to camp again with the scouts this year, we finally bought a tent (hooray Labor Day sale at REI). We had originally thought we needed a 2-room 8-person tent and supply it with two inflatable queen sized mattresses, but somehow, based on the stuff on sale that we saw, we ended up with at 1-room, 5-person tent. Apparently we enjoy stuff on sale for half price more than we love having two rooms while camping. I think we might be able to fit one inflatable queen sized mattress in this tent, we will inevitably argue about who gets to sleep on said inflatable mattress, as all four of us cannot fit on a single mattress. However, we did not find the inflatable mattress on sale at REI, so it is not purchased yet, I assume that maybe we will all be sleeping again on the hard ground on the next trip.

As soon as it arrived, we went camping on the deck. Edda inaugurated it with her afternoon 15 minute nap.

Ruby checked out the luxurious accommodations:

Vince finished up the camp out with an outdoor picnic in the back yard. Vince had gone earlier in the day with Jeremy grocery shopping and managed to persuade Jeremy that instead of just the traditional berry and fruit flavored yogurt, that we needed to branch out into foreign territory such as French Vanilla and Orange Creme. And it is one of those flavors that Vince is eating in this photo.