Rain, Fog

Thanks to a nice blast of rainfall last night, there was plenty of fog in Frederick County this morning. I managed to spot what appeared to be a fox on the way into work this morning. The fog was less impressive in Montgomery County. I also spotted a group of deer along the ride.

All in all, a pretty typical Saturday morning!

Windy!

This is what gusty winds can do. Snow has been gone for several days now.
No snow from the Noreaster.

Snow total

The snow total from the storm was 4.5". The deepest snow pile is at the corner signpost, where the snow plow created about a foot-high pile.

First Snowfall

The dogs are enjoying the snow this morning. This is the front yard at the house...


I took this picture earlier today. We have a fresh coating of snow, and the garden is covered.

Flurries!

Flurries fell at the house this evening, the first snow spotted of the Fall. I'm expecting another round of snow this Wednesday. A light dusting seems pretty likely, maybe an inch. It seems early for a Clipper system, but maybe I feel that way because it was 68, warm and sunny not that long ago.

Ending the blog?

I haven't gotten any new readership, so should I end this blog or promote it more?

2 Dogs, a Pig, and an Orchard Store

Today, I drove down to Butlers Orchard to pick up a pumpkin. Since the dog park is on the way, I decided to bring the dogs with me. On my way down there, I encountered a PIG wandering outside its enclosure. I thought I'd seen it all, but a PIG?!?

The Big Woods bridge is still not finished. If they keep working on it, I think it will be done by mid-December.

The dogs enjoyed running around the dog park.

Got Deer?

Just in case you didn't know this already by reading previous entries, deer are a common site on my commuting route. Today, I was coming home between 5 and 5:30pm, and I saw about a dozen dear just south of the intersection of MD 144 and Musseter Road. Five of them were hanging out on the street. I'm glad that deers' eyes are so reflective. It makes them pretty easy to spot. Also, they run off the road pretty readily when they see cars. Thank goodness they don't run TOWARDS cars!

Slowasmolasses

I can't stand it when people think it's their personal duty to travel 10 mph under the flow of traffic, providing an obstruction that all must navigate around and pass. UGH!

Muddy

After the recent rain, the mud is sticking to the tiller when I run it.

Doe, a deer...

Yet another deer spotted today along Boyers Mill. It leapt over the fence that contains the cows. Non-descript day with light rain, drizzle, low clouds... really blah.

Today's Commute

It was back to the normal commuting route today. I got to see the RR crossing in daylight, and there were piles of rocks and those huge railroad ties. Not sure if they're done or if they've even really started.

Gotta give a shout-out to the trash truck driver who allowed me through. That was awesome to see. A black cat with white lower legs was roaming around near the main entrance gazebo. If it were mine, I'd call it "Boots". It also had a little white on its face. Nice looking cat.

Very light traffic today, and even with the light rain, no problems. The only backup was on MD 80 near MD 355 (Urbana Pike) where the road widening project is still underway. The traffic light took several cycles, but nothing horrendous. I heard a radio report that an accident occurred there as I approached the office.

Today's Route

My usual commuting route will be unavailable since RR track work is being done near the intersection of Ijamsville Road and Musseter Road. So, I decided to take MD 75 instead. But first, let's start at the house.

I left the house about 8:30 this morning. It was quite frosty, so I used my car starter before stepping into the vehicle. Pongo was apparently amused by the smell of his frosty gift pile, but we digress. I had forgotten to pick up the yard waste can from yesterday, so I'll have to put that on my to-do list this evening.

Up the street at the gazebo near the trail entrance, a dozen or so parents and kids await the school bus, which for some strange reason, stops at the end of a narrow street to the east, then has to make a painfully slow turn to go down to the gazebo and its nice HUGE parking area. This doesn't make much sense to me. Why is there a school bus that late any way? What time does school start, 9 am?

Down to Boyers Mill Road, and a young buck bounds from west to east across the street. That little spot could be dangerous as he was hidden from my view until the last second, and did I mention he was bounding?

Since I chose MD 75 today, I had to go all the way into town (New Market) on Old National Pike (MD 144). A jogger with 2 dogs and a school bus about to pull out from dropping off kids made it pretty interesting. It was pretty slow going through Monrovia, but once the huge moving trailer (for construction equipment?) turned left, I was moving nicely. An interesting little area is near the Green Valley Vet Center... there's some sort of animal farm with what looked like an ostrich. Now horses and cows are pretty typical along this route.

Everything was honky dory all the way to MD 355, with a poor little dead fox on the way. A quick little jaunt on MD 109 to get on I-270 and I was back up to speed. Nice flow to the traffic, fairly light although it was a bit after 9 by this point.

From there to the office, just typical navigating. I was hoping for a parking spot at the front side of the bldg today to avoid the construction and the new speed bumps, but like I said, it's after 9, so I get an okay spot on the sunny side. My car will be nice and warm when I go to lunch.

Sunday drivers

Ever get caught behind someone taking their sweet time, and of course, it happens when you're running a bit behind? Well, I was joking the other day about how I do a daily commuting blog. Now, I don't commute every day obviously, but maybe that would be fun.

I could do a daily roll call for animals. I frequently see deer on my commute. Sometimes, they're standing in the road, but mostly, right next to the road on the edges of the meadows.

Or, if I happen to come to a complete stop and watch the MediVac land, which happened on Fri, Oct 12.

Anyway, we'll see how this blogging project goes.

Molly, the dumb dog

Molly likes to go after flying insects of all kinds. Butterflies and moths like to hang out around the flowers around the house. Molly tries to capture them. This is all fine and dandy if it were just butterflies and moths. It's also a bunch of bees and wasps!

You'd think she would stop after getting stung. Either the bees aren't stinging her or she's the stupidest dog ever because she keeps going after the bumblebees! I keep yelling "Molly you don't want THAT one!!!".

Today's cool event was watching 2 hawks (I think) flying towards the lake. I kept hearing a loud squealing noise, and noticed one of the birds had a small animal in its talons.. Couldn't tell if it was a rabbit, squirrel or something similarly small in size.

Flossie and Dean

Hurricanes Flossie in the Pacific and soon-to-be-named Dean in the Atlantic are sure to keep everybody busy at the office, including myself.

It's been a while since I blogged. It's not on my daily to-do list, I guess. I still have to take some pics of the gardens around the house. Had a couple of inches of rain recently, and wouldn't mind some more to water the corn.

Woof!

The dogs have figured out the yard and are really enjoying running around now. Pongo actually is down 5 pounds since his previous weigh in back in May. Haven't had the "Squirrel Test" yet, but they have passed the "Walking Dog Test".

I transferred the corn over to the garden on the south side of the house. All of them are looking good. Hopefully, they will get taller and produce real corn this time. I didn't get much of anything last time.

The tomatoes are producing now. Have 4 tomatoes so far. These tomatoes are bigger than I thought they'd be. Sort of like huge grapes.

Fence Progress

After seeing the dogs display shyness during Week 1 of "Correction Training", they seem to have recovered to understanding that only the flags are bad, not the whole yard. It's good to see them enjoying the yard to its fullest. Hopefully, they won't get shy again.

Meanwhile, the robins have flown the coop. And every time I fill the bird feeder, my "guests" empty it out in like one day. I actually saw a hummingbird the other morning at the other feeder out front. Maybe its time to refresh with fresh sweet water.

Only One Left

The dogs got a hold of another youngster yesterday. It flew towards the nest and landed on the patio. I tried to grab Molly to keep her from attacking, but wasn't able to get her in time. Pongo grabbed the bird too, so now only one young robin is left. Hopefully, it will be able to stay alive.

I can only do so much to keep my dogs away. Molly has that killer instinct in her when it comes to small animals like birds, rabbits, squirrels, etc. I was fairly surprised that Pongo joined in.

The dogs have begun to figure out the fence. They are close to being ready for off-leash supervision. To this point, I've let them run with leash attached just in case they did something. I just hope they learn to enjoy the yard without getting the correction. It's an Invisible Fence.

Baby Robins

There were four baby robins in the nest, and two are dead. The two left appeared healthy and ready to fly soon. These are the quietest baby birds EVER. I expect plentiful chirping, but I rarely hear them at all.

Baby Bird Update 2

The eyes have opened, but I only saw 3 heads this afternoon. I'll check again later for four.

Molly & Pongo's Great Adventure - Part 2

So, I go to Pep Boys and they say I'm looking at 1.5-2 hours before being ready. It's about 5:00 pm, so it's looking like 6:30 - 7:00. I decide to walk the dogs over to the Pet Smart. We go waste about 1.5 hours over there, and then return to Pep Boys. I was able to watch my car getting serviced.

So, 7:15 rolls around, and I'm paying for the work on the car, but I have a softball game in Gaithersburg at 8:15pm. If I go back home to drop off the dogs, I miss all of game 1. So, I decide to grab some snacks at the gas station (trail mix rocks!) and drive down to the park with dogs in tow.

The games went well (we won both!), and the dogs behaved just great. They were beat from all the excitement, so not much energy left. I ended up getting home just past 11:00pm.

Did I mention I didn't get to sleep until about 10 til midnight and woke up this morning at 4:30 am? Ah yes, thank God the pets cooperated this morning.

Molly & Pongo's Great Adventure

Ever have one of those days? Yesterday was one for me. It all started when my foot started itching overnight, and I got woken up again by a ringing phone on my day off. So, I'm up early and not feeling well-rested.

A comical series of errors then unfolded. Hubby and I were going to drive separate cars to the office parking lot and then I drop him off at the Metro. Well, we dilly-dallied our way through lunch and ended up rushing. We ended up in one car. Oh, and the dogs came with us. I wanted to take the pups to the Ridge Road Dog Park after dropping him off.

So, everything is honky dory until I get to the park. That's when I notice a hissing noise on my back left tire. It's a jagged metal loop sticking into the rubber... a FLAT! So, here it is mid 90s with dewpoints near 70 and I have two dogs and a flat tire. So, I put the dogs inside the dog park fence so they don't get super hot while I try to take care of the tire.

I get the jack out and the donut tire and the piece you put into the edge of the jack to get it to go up/down is missing. I end up trying a small screwdriver. I got it high enough to get the flat off, but not high enough to put the donut on. I end up calling roadside assistance. So, I go inside the park to wait with the dogs and play with them, resuming my original plan. Might as well try to salvage the trip and get the dogs running around.

After about an hour, the donut's on the car and I need to find a place to patch the flat. I can't commute around here on a donut (50 mph limit). I end up going to Pep Boys.

Baby Bird Update

I saw some heads reaching over the edge of the nest, but still no eyes opened. I don't hear much peeping yet either. Surely these little guys will be making noise by the end of the week.

Invisible Fence

We have started training the dogs on the Invisible Fence. Hopefully in about a month or so, we can just let them out in the morning and go do their business. It will be nice for the dogs to be able to run around in the yard. We just have to teach them to respect the boundary.

Bird Watching, Part 2

A quick update to the earlier post... add chickadees and mourning doves. Also, 4 heads in the robin's nest. One baby was reaching up with its head. Very cute. I'll try to get a photo.

Bird Watching

So, it's time to start logging the avian visitors to the feeder and the birdbath at the house. We have bluejays, cardinals, robins, sparrows. The robin's nest is still nestled under the deck. I'll have to confirm eggs in there, but I'm pretty sure there are some.

What's a Blog?

What exactly is a blog again? It's supposed to be a web log, a diary if you will. I can pretty much say whatever the heck I want here... or can I? Does anybody read this crap? I mean really, it's not like I advertise it or anything. You'd have to stumble over yourselves to find it, unless you came here to read from the Sunflake page, which is linked from a couple other spots from my GFK days. But seriously, folks, if you're reading this then you probably need a life. The fact that I'm TYPING this obviously shows I have no life. So let's get real and go do something, already!

Don't Bother

I have two fantasy baseball teams and they both stink. I say, don't bother playing fantasy baseball because it never pans out the way you think it will.

I Burnt My Face In San Francisco

Okay, I didn't exactly get a total sunburn, but my arms, cheekbones and nose got a little pink during my weekend extravaganza in San Fran. Some peelage on the arms, but nothing too itchy or painful.

Life gets funky

What a great time it was to have my parents come up to the house and hang out for Memorial Day. The neighbors are really nice... we all sat around and had picnic food (watermelon!). It seemed like everyone brought their dog, so we joined the party by allowing Molly and Pongo to socialize. The kids started running through the sprinkler in a classic display of summer fun.

On the funky side, I got a nasty blister on my foot. Hopefully everything will be healing nice by the time I get to San Fran this weekend. I'm going to see my sister and enjoy a vacation for 5 days.

Love it

The house is really great. The yard is mowed and some flowers are planted. Bird feeders and bird bath are getting regular visits. I have some corn seeds and some flower seeds that I need to plant soon. Inside, we got a new range and some new furniture. All that's left is hanging up pictures and plaques.

Time for the Garden

So, it's time to take a trip to the nearby gardening store and try to spruce up some of the landscaping around the new home. In particular, I'd like to attempt a small garden this year, primarily aiming to try small tomatoes. Sweet Million is the variety I grew very successfully in Grand Forks the past couple years, both in pots and in the beds. I have a little space that would work for a bed, and I still have my planters as well.

There's a tree stump in the front yard that I'd like to disguise with flowers such as marigolds, pansies and perhaps geraniums

Comcast, get your act together!

It's a tragicomedy of errors as we try to settle into the new house. The chief culprit in the misery is Comcast's craptastic internet service. One week, a new modem, and still no internet connectivity. The monkeys in the various departments really need to converse with each other to resolve things like erroneous account codes. Seriously, how can you download their internet software one minute, yet not sync the modem the next?

Pick a Horse

The Kentucky Derby is about to get underway, which means it's time for my yearly wild guess. I know nothing about horse racing, so I usually pick interesting names or horses with odds between 10 and 20-1, or based on how good the jockey's uniform is. Real scientific, huh? Well, before you laugh too hard, let's see how well I do this year.

1 - Storm In May (26-1) ... can't help but go with horse named after weather!
2 - Cowtown Cat (20-1)... meow!
3 - Scat Daddy (7-1)... a cool name and nifty colors.
4- Any Given Saturday (13-1)... a tribute to successful underdog teams.

Reunited and it feels so good....

Steve (my husband) is finally making his way to Maryland permanently. He's visited a few times since I left Grand Forks in January '07, but it will be so great to be back together, living in our new house.

House

Tomorrow, I get to sign all the papers associated with closing a house purchase. I have lived in Maryland since mid-January in an apartment, so it will be awesome to live in a house once again.

Green & Orange Pie

After mulling over the name of my new blog, I have decided to go with "Green & Orange Pie". For those who are Trivial Pursuit buffs, you know that Green is "Science & Nature" and Orange is "Sports & Leisure". This sums up my life and interests quite well.

Thanks for reading!