He's got the whole world...

I've read about it on Roadside America and i once caught a glimpse of it through the trees, but i'd never actually seen the globe water tower, until now. Located in Germantown, MD it really is a ginormous water tower painted like a globe. The cool part is that it really isn't a tower so much as a tank (as it sits close to the ground) so you can't photograph it from the road. You have to go find it. I tried all sorts of places based on a section glimpsed over some tress and visited a lot of dead ends in business parks, but finally VICTORY! It is on the campus of Montgomery College; i'm pretty sure i was on Rt 118 when i finally found the correct entrance. You can't get too close to it what with the barbed wire and all, but you can at least get close enough to appreciate the detailed paint job of our little island in space ( i really liked the weather patterns; is that a hurricane headed toward Mexico?!?). Look - i think i see my house!

Go to DefCon2

Travelling in and around our nation's capital one sees some odd things; like Polaris missiles in parking lots, for example.

Security Detail

Sometimes you just need a little extra protection for your desk and you know how cutting edge my place of business can be. Introducing our new anti-theft device, the Kallie 2008 try to break into my computer now, suckah

Friday Picnic

I took off from work on Friday and went on a picnic. I drove to my favorite regional park in Maryland which is in the middle of nowhere Montgomery County. It takes about 45 minutes to get there, but it is worth it. There is a nature center with cool stained glass of local animals (why no pictures? you say. i don't know; just felt like enjoying the sunshine i guess), a lake, a dog park, hiking trails, an observation deck, pavilions, play grounds, a fitness course which i actually did, tiny ponds and lots and lots of flowers: They grow specific plants to lure specific insects and birds here. It is a stopping point in the Monarch Butterfly migration. I've seen more hummingbirds here than any other place. On Friday i didn't really feel like taking a lot of pictures (i really wanted to get to my yummy picnic and reading a book in the sun), but i was taken with these orange butterflies on pink flowers; it's a nice contrast: But then it struck me how everyone is taken with butterflies. Everybody tries to capture the cool butterflies in pictures, but what about the poor bees? They work hard. They're industrious. They're lovely, in their own way. No one loves them. So in the interest of insect fairness here are some bee shots : (though i hafta admit that they are SO industrious that it is a bit hard to capture them)

So i'm bored

Got back from my show in Acokeek - yep, that's a real place. Kinda not ready to go home yet, but don't want to do work so i punched out and starting reading blogs - lots of pictures of people on vacation... lots of people traveling... sigh... Kate P was procrastinating on 3 grad school projects and did a meme mosaic of Flickr pics. I enjoy cruising Flickr so i figured, why not? Besides, it was something to do. So here is my meme mosaic: 1. What is your first name? 2. What is your favorite food? 3. What high school did you go to? 4. What is your favorite color? 5. Who is your celebrity crush? 6. Favorite drink? 7. Dream vacation? 8. Favorite dessert? 9. What do you want to be when you grow up? 10. What do you love most in life? 11. One word to describe you. 12. Your Flickr name. Probably my favorite picture is the one of the squirrels drinking margaritas. teehee... My least favorite would be the freaky fairy - YIKES! - but the instructions said that i had to use a picture from the first search page and it was the most interesting, to say the least. So there you have it.

We're nuts

Yep. That's a gazebo shaped like a giant acorn. It's in the town of Silver Spring, MD. And that is my logistics coordinator, Wendy. She went on the road with me today as my Adult Safety Partner, since I am 2 team members down. (side note- anybody need a job? bad hours, even worse pay, but you get to see acorn shaped gazebos... anybody?) I love being out of the office THIS MUCH!

Fun with light

I hope everybody had a great holiday weekend. I went to a cookout at Ron's house; man, i love cookouts. Food just tastes better straight off of the grill. We decided not to drive somewhere to see fireworks, but went outside after dark to play with crackers. Turns out that there were duelling fireworks going off right over the trees! We also had more fun with glow bracelets than should be allowable by law. Dontcha just love chemiluminescence? We started out just wearing them, but quickly people started connecting them and having fun with light, which translated to me having fun with camera settings: Ron and Justin built large interlocking rings and stared playing glowing ring fling across the road, trying to throw and catch at the same time with the rings crossing over top of the cars driving by. Mark my words, light ring fling could be the next Olympic sport! This was my favorite picture; it would be awesome if i could actually remember how i got it to come out like this: And this was hands-down the best light creation of the evening: Now THAT is a hat.

Neato Burrito

My shows today were in a little town in Pennsylvania south of Harrisburg. You can always find the most interesting places to eat in tiny towns; places you would never expect like Recommended by our librarian this place made yummy kinda non-traditional burritos. I had the burrito of the day "Cowboy Crunch" which had BBQ chicken, BBQ rice, beans, lettuce, ranch sauce and crumbled tortillas. It was fabulous. Adult Safety Partner Jami had a buffalo burrito made with pulled bison roast. She loved it. The decor was mixed retro: wood paneling, string art, 50s counters, tattoo print tables, stuffed animal heads, fun mid-century album covers and lots of paint-by-number animal scenes. Of course, there was a picture of Elvis on the office door. Add to that the early-emo music of The Cure and The Smiths that was playing and it was truly a unique experience. Jami especially felt a strange vibe since she had a giant bison watching her eat bison. You can't help but wonder if her burrito was someone he had known. (this is how it looked to Jami) If you are ever in New Cumberland, PA i strongly recommend the Neato Burrito; it's across from the volunteer fire station. [apparently there are 3 other locations as well - i say try them too!]

small town aspirations

Sometimes it feels like i live in a tiny town in the Midwest instead of 10 miles from the heart of Baltimore. Driving home from work at dusk I turned onto my street to find it lined with tiny flags. As far as the eye could see it was bitty little flags every 15 feet. I realize that many would have some sort of knee-jerk political response one way or the other : rampant patriotism or outrage at the patriotic affrontery (yep, i made up that word). But not me. On my shady tree-lined street as the sun set it was really altogether quaint. It looked charming and peaceful and homey. It is like i live on the set of a movie taking place in Smalltown, USA in 1944. I wasn't even offended by the blatant capitalism i mean those Realtors deserve a little shout out for buying and planting all of those flags - can you even imagine punching all of those cards and threading them onto the flag poles? You can feel everybody gearing up for the celebrations. We are at T-40 hours from parade time; i hope you are all prepared: FYI Safety first, people.

Sometimes

Sometimes you just have a really long day. Sometimes you just need to take a hot bubble bath. Sometimes you're so tired after your long day that the world seems a bit off-kilter, askew if it were. Sometimes you're just trying to take a dang bubble bath after a long day when out of the corner of your eye you spot the bathroom mirror and realize that your i'm-taking-a-hot-bubble-bath-after-a-long-day hairdo looks like a perfect round fan on top of your head. It looks like freaking Queen Amidala, circa Ep 1. Sometimes the sleep deprivation makes you take picture after picture in the mirror trying to show how HUGE of a bun shadow that puppy casts. (like Deanna Troi, circa season 2) Sometimes you're so tired after the really long day that you become entranced with making your hair look like different things. Like a tribble. really. Sometimes you realize screw the hot bubble bath; i had better just go to bed right now.