Rock Creek

Easter

Couldn't have had better weather.



Or better food.



I'm guessing for that salami, because the dog got to it first. That'll teach the humans to be patient.



Organ concert in the late afternoon after some light spring showers, then a nice evening run down Embassy Row. It's a nice time of year in DC.

Earworm

Cattle Call - Log Trucks & Snowmobile Trails

I heard this song on Greetings from Area Code 207 back in 2004. I rediscovered it by stumbling upon an email in Gmail and, after searching all over the internets for this one song, ended up just buying the album, Good Life, on CD. Crazy, I know. Apparently you can still do that.

Because they're not posted anywhere else, here are the lyrics:

You can take your Texas prairie
And your Louisiana swamp
You can talk about the southland all you want

Sing songs about Old Dixie
You can wear your cowboy hat
I don't claim to know a thing about all that

Log trucks and snowmobile trails
Wind and snow and sleet and sometimes hail
I don't expect you rebels to understand
But I'll live and die in this winter wonderland

Up north the air is different
And the winter's way too long
And we don't pretend that the Civil War is still on

And the farms are so much smaller
And the days are not as long
None of that sounds romantic in a song

Log trucks and snowmobile trails
Wind and snow and sleet and sometimes hail
I don't expect you rebels to understand
But I'll live and die in this winter wonderland

You can take your Texas prairie
And your Louisiana swamp
You can talk about the southland all you want

I'll take Aroostook County
And I'll take the Fryeburg Fair
You can draw the Mason-Dixon Line right there

Log trucks and snowmobile trails
Last stop on the Appalachian Trail
I don't expect you rebels to understand
But I'll live and die in this winter wonderland

I don't expect you rebels to understand
But this Yankee's stuck up here in Vacationland

National Zoo Again

The parents were in town for the weekend, and what better way to spend a beautiful spring Sunday (whilst simultaneously benefitting from an as-of-yet operating government) than the National Zoo? Especially lion cubs?







Mama wasn't in a playful mood. Only a cleaning mood.





There's most of the family, but there are seven cubs total.



There are other kinds of kitties too! Ok but enough kitties for now.





Ok kitty time again.





And what better way to end than a fat prairie dog?



Nice.



Nice.

The Merits of Biking to/from Work

Utilizing a recent Living Social to try out the Capital Bikeshare, which seems to have had a lot of success since popping up last fall. Now that the weather is reasonably nice, it's turning into a great way to get to and from work.

I'm only using month membership right now since I'm going to be gone for basically all of June. Considering the price of the bus, I'd have to use the bikeshare eight times to break even on a pure cost basis. That equals four work days. Anything after that is pure savings, baby.

It took a couple days to figure out the best time to leave the apartment, the best corral from which to leave and to drop off the bike in both directions, and all of that stuff, but I've basically perfected it now. Approximate timings are below:

Bus
25 minutes door to door (relatively large standard deviation)

Bike
Downhill
16 minutes on bike
25 minutes door to door

Uphill
17 minutes on bike
24 minutes door to door

Not really sure why going uphill doesn't eat up more time. I guess the 16th St hill doesn't slow me down as much as I was expecting.

Anyway, even aside from the time and money, it's been pretty nice starting out and ending the work day with an easy bike ride. Traffic isn't bad, the breeze feels nice, and it gets the blood moving. I might change my tune a little bit once it reaches proper summertime temperatures in the District, but so far so good.

It's rather handy not needing to worry about the actual bike as well. Ideally, the bikes would have a few more higher gears, enabling it to be worthwhile to pedal going faster than fifteen mph, but for street purposes it works pretty well.

Springtime in DC

Just the phone camera.





Are we done oscillating between mid 70s and low 50s yet?

Earworm

That One Guy