Well, we lost another of the old timers at the barn. Doc, the big, friendly chestnut quarterhorse died about a month ago. For some reason, I've been putting off posting this until now ( Read more... )

Gee, I never thought I'd be a coffee achiever.

As was the case for a lot of people around here today, I got to experience my first earthquake.

While my California friends have described it as 'fun size' and "a little one,"  when you live somewhere where earthquakes are rare, even a 5.8-6.0 (depending on the news source) is a bit of an event.

It ( Read more... )

On Friday I saw an Airbus 380 across the street at the airport for the first time.  I didn't know any of 'em flew into Dulles.  That's one big ol plane.

Sheesh.  Finding a new doctor is a royal pain in the butt.  I really liked my old doctor, but back in 2006, he switched to a boutique practice and stopped taking any kind of insurance.  Since then, he went even further and now only does stuff involving Lyme Disease, sleep disorders, and something else that I can't remember ( Read more... )

There are some new faces at the barn nowadays and  a few old faces that're gone ( Read more... )

Unfortunately, I think it's Australian.

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Notice that the vehicle operating the pump or whatever is a DeLorean with big ol offroad tires.

As happened last year, there is a pair of crows that have decided to nest in one of the trees behind the building my office is in.  I don't know if it's the same pair as before.  In any event, this couple chose one of the trees right by the building as opposed to one on the other side of the parking lot as last year's did ( Read more... )

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Even though I now recall posting about it last year, I'd forgotten that Virginia's free system for filing state income taxes was gone as of this year. I did my federal return last month and just kept putting off doing the VA one until last night. I had an 'oh yeah' moment when I realized that ifile was no more. Technically, there are still ways ( Read more... )

Some biggish pictures behind a cut to save folks from being exposed to equiney images.
( Four pics )