Friday, May 27, 2011

Artwork?

I've sent this to a few people and no one seems quite as fascinated by it as I do. I just love the way that things can be represented graphically in so many different ways. Maybe its the artsy part of me, I don't know. But I want this mounted and hung on my wall. The DC one, the NYC one, the New Orleans one....

They can be found here.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

I ride my Bicycle

Last year when C and I got this handsome devil:

we came up with a game plan. Since Spek was still only 4 months old and needed to go outside...a LOT...we agreed that C would do the middle-of-the-night walkings, while I would do the mid-day walkings. It made sense. Although I didn't drive to work and C did, C worked 30 miles and about 40 minutes away, so it was just unreasonable for him to do it. I work about 1.2 miles away. And there isn't an easy way to get to/from other than walking. I don't live OR work near a metro, and there are no bus lines that go conveniently from Georgetown to the part of Rossyln where we live. I love walking, don't get me wrong, but its still at least a 20 minute walk, and when you factor in time to change before and after the walk (I sweat at the first sign of physical activity. Even when I'm in great shape. Always have, always will), it would leave me barely 10 minutes to spend some quality time with pup during my lunch break, before I had to head back to work. That just wasn't enough play/pee/exercise time for a little puppy in the middle of the day. Putting him back in his cage when I had to leave broke my heart (note: it still does). 

So we (I) decided that I should get a bike to make the trip quicker. C has a bike that I could have used, but my short legs (I'm 4'-11") could barely reach the pedals when I was on it. Not fun. I knew I didn't want to spend a ton of money, it was just a short commute after all, but I didn't want something that would fall apart on me after my 10th ride. So I looked and I looked until I found a sweet deal on this little thing:
A Schwinn Frontier GS. It was a 2009 model, so it was on sale, and a Labor Day sale made it even cheaper. And? It came in an XS frame size. Perfect!

So my trips with pup became longer, we were able to play more, he could eat a bit of food, take a longer walk, and just spend more time together. Just the 2 of us. 


When winter came, I stopped riding. Mainly because I'm a huge cold wuss, but also because he just didn't NEED a mid-day walk anymore. Our mid-day walks became less pee-centered and more "Mommy I don't want to go inside yet. I'll lay on the ground and you'll have to drag me inside because I won't go. I won't." See also:

 

But now that the weather is nicer, and my walks TO work just make me sweaty, I figure its time to break out old Schwinny and start riding again. I won't be going home to pup at lunch still, but if I work through lunch I can leave earlier and spend more time after work with him anyway. Its a good trade off.