Phabulous Pho

Pho Real. Seriously, that's the name of my very phavorite pho place. Okay, I promise I'll stop with the phoolishness now. Oops, that was a PHAIL. I'm having way too much phun here.

Pho Real is located in the shopping center at the corner of Briggs Chaney and Old Columbia Pike in the outer reaches of Silver Spring. It is very attractively decorated and very clean, and the broth is always fresh and delicious, and never greasy. They serve it with basil, bean sprouts, jalapeno slices, and lime, which you can add as you see fit, along with the red chile sauces. I usually skip those because I like tasting the combination of basil, jalapeno, and lime with the broth without the distraction of hotness. I always put the bean sprouts in first so that they'll become as soft as the noodles. The summer rolls at Pho Real are also excellent.

And here's one more photo phor you. On the way there today, I spotted this cute out building on Briggs Chaney Road. I think it looks rather nice against the phall pholiage.

sad start to the day

As much as I complain about the deer eating stuff in my back yard, I still think they are beautiful and I do enjoy seeing them and I am slightly attached to them because they visit us so often. But I also wish they weren't so bold because in my area they are constantly being hit by cars. I guess they aren't that bright and just don't know any better, so they get scared and bolt out into the road in a state of panic.

This morning I pulled up to my house ready to begin a day of painting, and there was a deer that looked like it had just been hit lying right in the middle of my driveway at the edge of the road. It must have suffered a concussion because there wasn't any blood or broken bones. She was really pretty - her stomach was so clean and white. Anyway the sight of that pretty much ruined my morning. I called animal control and was told that they would pick her up within 48 hours.

I took the recycling out to the curb and as I got closer I couldn't bring myself to look at her. I noticed that there was no smell yet. I went inside and took a picture from the second floor, but I've decided not to post it - that wouldn't be right somehow. I kept thinking about her lying out there in the driveway and about how the animal control people might not come for another day or so, and since I was still wearing the rubber gloves I had put on to stain the threshold, and since she didn't smell at all, I decided to go out and move her over to the side of the driveway.

So when I went out there to move her, she was gone. I figured that animal control must have already been in the area. But then about an hour later when I was inside painting my foyer, animal control came and knocked on the door, wanting to know where the deer in my driveway was. At first he didn't believe me, so I showed him the picture I'd taken.

I guess someone saw that the deer was "fresh" and saw an opportunity to have a couple of months' worth of free meat or something. I felt a little less sad after thinking that something useful might have happened as a result of "my" deer getting killed. I wonder what the animal control people do with all those deer that they pick up every day? The guy who came to my house had two deer that he'd already picked up today.

This deer situation has been getting worse and worse over the past ten years or so. I hope the powers that be will eventually come up with a solution that is both intelligent and humane. As long as they continue to develop every possible inch of space, it's going to continue to be a problem.

random observances

The sky was so beautiful today. I'm SO glad it's not raining anymore. Now if it would only warm up enough for me to go to the beach one last time!

This bird was just sitting there on the top of the cedar tree. He was big and fluffy and light gray. I have no idea what kind of bird he is.

This is the worlds tallest stump. It's been like that for two years.

These balls are looking out the window and wondering how much longer they'll have to wait to assume their proper place in the world.

Another beautiful fall sky. I can't believe the leaves are changing already!

P.S. Don't forget to vote for your favorite moulding!

while the cat's away.....

Cyndy will play..... this time with power tools! (cross-posted at foamcorefantasy)Usually I avoid these things like the plague because they can be very dangerous to your hands and I need my hands. But I decided to save a whole lot of decision-making time by constructing a few mockups of potential moulding for our kitchen cabinets.



We were planning to use a copy of the original crown moulding from our old house to go around the tops of all the cabinets. Doug really want to use it in the kitchen for sentimental reasons. But the other day, he got started putting it up and we realized it didn't look good because the recessed lights cause the moulding to completely cast a shadow upon itself. So we'll just use it somewhere else instead. There are plenty of places it could go.

I remembered the experience with making the vent pipe covering and decided to get things moving by doing a sample of what I had in mind myself. That way when Doug gets back from his trip it won't take as long to get it done because all of the discussions will have already taken place.

My original idea was just to use a piece of half-round. It would look neat and clean and simple. But the sizes I bought were not big enough to look right so I ended up splitting a wooden closet rod in half. That one was so easy to make that I decided to get fancy and play around with the other sizes of half round. The second one I made is a flat trim board with small half-round beads on the top and bottom. Then just for laughs, I made another one that was three pieces of half-round attached to a trim board.

After the glue was dry I cut them with the miter saw and glued the two mitered ends together on each one. I couldn't find the staple gun or the finish nailer so I just used glue to put them together. I primed and painted them last night and this morning I put them up to see how they'd look.

#1

#2

#3

#1

#2


#3 - that's just silly!


#2 on the left, #1 on the right

different angle - #2 on the left, #1 on the right

When I first made #3 I was laughing because I thought it looked like Lincoln Logs, if you're old enough to know what I'm talking about. Then yesterday as I was driving home from my gig, I saw this and it just made me feel like mocking #3 even more.

If you think they all look bad, please don't hesitate to tell me, because the other option is to go with no trim at all. Except that then the stupid outlets for Doug's recessed rope lighting will show.

Posting from Panera

So yesterday was my first day off from EVERYTHING in over two weeks and the weather was just wonderful in honor of the occasion. I'm pretty much not a rain type person, but it did cause this rose bush to look rather delightful.

The internet is not working, but at least I have heat. Hopefully the oil truck will show up before it runs out. Meanwhile, I'm keeping the thermostat set to 55 degrees. That feels really nice.

I have a test I'm supposed to take for an online course I'm taking, but I'm not used to being able to think with a bunch of loud inane conversations happening all around me. Maybe it will be quieter in here tomorrow and I can do it then. I'm not in the mood right now.

Apparently Panera is the big hangout for the Leisure World crowd. There's this old couple in front of me looking out the window and giving each other a non-stop commentary about the various goings on out in the parking lot. "Let's see if that idiot can back out of his space without hitting anyone." "Oh look, she's putting on her seat belt." Most of their comments were really smug and obnoxious and completely unnecessary and unfortunately they were irritating me so much that I was not able to ignore them. It was almost like the senior citizen version of Mystery Science Theater. I sure hope I don't become that bored, obnoxious, and smug when I get old. I'll probably become one of those silent types, rocking in my chair out on the back porch looking at the herds of deer running through. I hope I won't be compelled to say "look, a deer" to anyone who will listen, although I think I've shown telltake signs of that behavior already. I'll just have to watch myself.

I'm not really feeling this posting from Panera thing so I'm probably going to make myself scare for the next week or so. Unless the secret project I'm about to go work on ends up being photo-worthy.

I hope this weekend of wetness passes quickly for all of you!

like a deer in the headlights

.



They sure are pretty. But they don't respect me and they're not afraid of me or my car. They eat my apples and they sleep lying down right in the middle of my back yard at night. I don't know if you can make them out in the picture below, but there are two pairs of eyes there, glowing in the dark. If you click on the picture you'll see that they are relaxing in the grass. Don't bother getting up, it's just me flashing my camera at you in the dark. I hope I'll be able to grow something besides grass after I move back in. Sheesh!

Fall Flowers

The other day Doug ran out of gas right next to the Heyser Farms orchard way out here on New Hampshire Avenue in Cloverly. I was already working over at the house when he called, so I grabbed the gas can that I use for the lawn mower and went to rescue him. I've only ever driven by there before, but since I was parked there for a minute I decided to get a few shots.

It looks like they have a cutting garden in addition to some very loaded apple trees.

It also looks like they just dump their unsold produce into a compost pile of sorts. There was a very strong apple cider vinegar smell. If you click on the picture you'll see that there are all kinds of vegetables there in addition to the apples. It's a very colorful compost pile!

In other news, today is day six of thirteen straight days of gigs. I am very grateful to be working so much this month doing what I love, instead of working so much on the house . Well I'm still working on the house every day, so nevermind. Anyway, I'm happy to be employed. And we are making good progress over there right now. Slow, but good.

Fetching Fan in Frederick

Yesterday Doug was so eager to get the fan that he'd just bought on eBay, that he couldn't wait for them to send it. So we drove all the way up to Frederick to pick it up. It's a very handsome fan, and although it's a little more modern looking than anything else in our house, I think it will be okay on the porch. At least I hope so.


We stopped at the scenic overlook on the way up. I'd never stopped there before. The sky was actually more scenic than the scenery. The area does have a vibe though. It looks out over the Monacacy River Valley where one of the many gruesome Civil War battles took place. After their victory at the Battle of Monocacy, the Confederates marched to Fort Stevens in DC. Even though they'd won that battle they had a lot of casualties and I think that's why they didn't actually attack in DC. I think they decided it would be better to just leave. Anyway, here's a view from the scenic overlook. The trees are kind of in the way of the view of the valley in the distance.


On the way back we saw a huge Black Walnut tree in the old section of Rockville. It's already lost most of its leaves, but the walnuts were shining brightly in the afternoon sun and I loved the way the green looked against the blue sky.

Sunday Afternoon Sky

The clouds were pretty cool looking this afternoon. These photos only show a tiny bit of what was up there today. Clouds like this always make me happy, especially when the sun is shining through them.

A Cat Concerto for Ted and Tom....

... and Felix and Seymour and TopCat and Lulu. These are all of the cats that have been important to me for one reason or another. Sadly, none of them are still here with us, except in spirit. The video below, which I initially stumbled upon over here somehow made me miss all of them even more. I realize that the cat part of this video is very cleverly patched together, but it has been incorporated into the composition so beautifully that it's become a work of art in its own right. Maybe I've turned into a crazy cat lady (who no longer has any cats), but I somehow felt Ted's spirit around me when I watched it:

This time of year contains a little sadness for me because it was around the end of September two years ago that my beloved Ted passed away. And last September my friend lost her cat Tom, which made me doubly sad. I'm certainly not a natural-born cat lover the way my husband is, but Ted changed all that for me, at least during his lifetime. Now I have an appreciation for cats that I would not have had otherwise. Ted was special. They all were. So I'm declaring September to be National Cat Memorial Month.

Here's something my friend Nancy wrote about Ted after having him as her guest for two months while we were on the road:

A study in Triangles

Ted.
His face
is a broad,
lovely triangle.
The brown front end
of his nose is a microcosmic
triangle of the larger face,with
two black nostrils defining its outer
limits. When he tips his head upward,
looking at you over his shoulder, while
laying on the bed, the large triangle-head
is inverted, nose at the top. At this moment,
a person standing in front of him sees a whitish
triangle, his soft neck and chin tipped skyward. His
rubbery black craggy lips form a two-sided arrow of a
triangle. And, of course, one can't miss the nearly isoscoles
ears. Finally, Ted's tail is the narrowest of triangles ever imagined.

a multi-cultural weekend

On Friday night I had an orchestra gig at the KORUS Festival in Annandale, accompanying the local Korean-American community's answer to The Three Tenors. They sang a few Italian arias and the orchestra played The Barber of Seville overture.

In between the opera segment and the US and Korean national anthems, there was a spectacular performance by the Gambling Crew, which is an ensemble of Korean break dancers. I don't know about you, but Korean+break+dancing are three words I never thought I'd see in a row, much less on stage. I guess I don't get out much. Anyway, their show was really impressive and exciting. And for some reason it didn't occur to me that boys would also get tramp stamp tattoos, but again, I just don't get out very much.

On Saturday a friend of Doug's who was visiting from Texas stopped by to see all the work we've been doing on our house. Afterwards we went to grab a bite to eat at the Ukrainian Festival which was happening nearby. We had pierogies, sausage and sauerkraut, and borscht. They also had stuffed cabbage and various pastries, along with regular hot dogs and hamburgers, and a Ukrainian beer garden which we did not indulge in because we had work to do.

There was lots of dancing and assorted musical performances. It was interesting to hear virtuosic Russian gypsy violin being played with a disco style backup track. I can't say I liked that aspect, but hey, I guess that's multicultural too! I was disappointed to not see any balalaika bands while I was there. The various Russian dance troupes were excellent and almost as exciting as the Koreans. But their costumes were much more interesting and the dancing was a lot closer to their actual cultural origins. Nearly everyone who came to this festival (except for us and a few others) were wearing embroidered Russian peasant shirts or costumes of some sort.



Another thing that tied these two events together for me was that one of the songs the Three Korean Tenors sang was O Sole (get it?!?) Mio, and then on Saturday one of the virtuosic violinists who performed was named Solomiya Horokhivska. Really! Okay that was really really bad. But true! Anyway, she played beautifully.

I wonder if my geese migrated over to this nice pond at the back of St. Andrews Orthodox Church.

And one last thing - if you ever happen to be in outer outer Silver Spring (as in Cloverly, way out on New Hampshire Avenue), be sure to stop in at O'Keefe Orchard and pick up some fresh, crisp, juicy apples.

I think it's pretty close to the end of peach season by now, but the ones we've been getting there for the past month are the best I've had in years. Incredibly delicious and impeccably unblemished. But their apples are also equally outstanding.

Endless Summer

Summer is not over (for me) until I say it is! September is actually my favorite "summer" month because it's the very best time of the year to go to the beach around here. The air is still warm and the water is a very comfortable 68 degrees. And the light at this time of year is amazing. Click on my short little litte video and enjoy the beach for a moment without getting any sunscreen in your eyes or sand in your shoes:

I've decided that since I didn't get a "real" vacation this year, I'm going to revert to my old habit of taking as many day trips to the beach as possible during September and October. Summer won't be over for me until the water is too cold for swimming and that will not happen until the very end of October, thanks to the Gulf Stream.

So yesterday we did our usual day trip to Assateague. My camera's battery was dying so my picture-taking was limited. Anyway, here's a picture of a giant jellyfish that was on the beach. I've never seen one so huge here before! Usually there aren't jellyfish there at all.

There were ponies on the beach, but they didn't come near us. It's always fun to see them, but they can sometimes be pests. One time I was in the water and when I came out there was a pony standing right in the middle of my blanket and he was nosing through my bag. They are totally unfazed by people so I couldn't really chase him off - I had to wait until he decided to leave. It's a good thing I was done for the day because I wouldn't have wanted to get back on my blanket after that. Here of some of the other horses grazing in the distance.

For a long time, Ocean City was the main beach I went to. Then I went through a Rehoboth Beach phase but now I'm back in Maryland and Assateague is my beach of choice. During the last several years they've made a few changes in order to improve the flow of traffic to and from the beach. I used to consider Vienna, MD to be kind of the armpit of the trip. It was such a dinky little town that Route 50 had to go down to two lanes, and I think there might have been a drawbridge there at one time. It always kind of annoyed me. It was definitely the slowest section of the the trip, and not very scenic.

They finally built a bypass, including a big new bridge, but I was kind of surprised at my reaction the first time I went over it. At first I thought that it was great that they'd finally done something about the delays that would often happen there, but then I started feeling a little disappointed. It seemed sort of anticlimactic passing by Vienna now - the poor little town was sitting over there all lonely in the distance. But that's progress I guess.

So as we were heading home yesterday, we saw an amazing sight as we were crossing the bridge there - a tugboat was pushing a barge loaded with huge piles of sand down the Nanticoke River. I decide to take the exit and see if I could drive to where the old Route 50 used to be and get a picture. The old bridge isn't there any more and there's a small field where the road used to be. We got there just in time.

Since we were already out of the car we decided to walk around a little. Vienna is actually much nicer than it ever looked from the old Route 50. They have a tiny little river walk, and there are a bunch of nice old houses facing the water, and several of them are for sale by the way. There's not much else there, but it's a very nice little sleepy town.

The Nanticoke Inn is still open for dinner every day from 4:30 until 6:00. I guess they have enough local business to have survived the moving of the road. And they still have those lovely decorations on the side of the building.

We opted to stop in Easton for dinner. Easton is really cute, but it's sort of turning into St. Michaels South. There are a lot of excellent but pricey restaurants there. We went to Darnell's Grille and Catering, which was excellent but reasonably priced. The cream of crab soup was completely amazing. Doug got the soft shell crab special with collards and macaroni and cheese, and I got Rockfish with coleslaw and potato salad. Darnell used some huge basil leaves as a garnish, and so my coleslaw was infused with a hint of basil, just from that leaf laying on top. It was really good! Doug added some of his basil to the collard greens, which were good to begin with, but again turned into something spectacular with the basil. I guess we just love basil. My rockfish was delightful. The softshell crabs were delightful. The potato salad was excellent. The macaroni was some of the best I've ever had - kind of light and fluffy, but the cheese was very flavorful and present. We shared a delicious piece of lemon cake for dessert.

I will definitely be going back to Darnell's Grille. Darnell is an excellent host and an outstanding cook, and his prices are totally reasonable. The address is 22 N. Harrison Street in Easton, MD. Check it out the next time you are passing through!

So today it was business as usual. The porch ceiling is nearly all the way up, and then we did a bunch of odds and ends most of the day.