lavendertook

Here are more pics from Saturday's Women's March in Annapolis.

Adults and kids in purple and pussy hats and doggies heading down to the gathering spot at the city docks:



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KVETCHING

A lot of annoying times for me these past 3 weeks, in addition to the upsetting world angst. Nothing life shattering for me--I'm just bent out of shape like it was--shape up self! Car repairs that took 2 days and resulted in having to replace the radiator and fan assembly. At the same time, I had a maintenance person in for 2 days working on the drip that had become a stream from my bathtub faucet and had to keep calling on him when the first days work resulted in not all the water going up to the shower head when switched, until he came up with a makeshift solution, which I hope holds.

Then the next week my bedroom ac stopped working. That took a week and a lot of calling, waiting for contractors who did not show up, hot nights, then the maintenance man making my sunroom into a mess when he brought in a portable ac. It was finally fixed Tuesday.

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Very Happy Belated Birthdays to blslarner and kittyfosterami!!! I hope it was a great birthday week for both of you.

I'm sorry I've been so absent lately. Things have been feeling hectic and busy--some good things, but a lot of stressful things.

But of the good things was the beautiful weather the last couple of days, and the gorgeous hike I went on today with the fun company of zlabya and a local women's hiking group to the McKeldin area of Patapsco Valley Park, about half way between Baltimore and Westminster.


So let me take you on the trail:

It's lined with little wild flowers, though you can't see them too well in this pic--lots of violets and spring beauties, among others.

And here's the Patapsco River we walked along most of the way:


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So is anyone up for a Maryland Moot next year? Our last was in Dec of 2012 for the first Hobbit film.

The end of April, beginning of May is often beautiful here, but not so good for those of the hobbit posse on academic calendars.

So I was thinking, how about the first weekend in June (6/3-6/6)? Is everyone's semester done then?

The weather is often still temperate here the beginning of June and roses are out, and it's usually quite lovely--though sometimes it can be stinky hot. This would be the week after the Memorial Day weekend. I figured air fares and airport congestion would be worse on Memorial Day weekend, but would be just as happy to have it then, if it were better for people, but I suspect that would be cutting it close for those finishing out semesters.

Or would you not be available until autumn?

What say you? Who is up for it?

So my trip and moot report! You already got the airplane flight--it was a great flight out. I'm going to try to fly a Southwest 737 any time I have the chance--it was so roomy compared to the SW 727 I rode going back--makes a big difference. This will be one of several pic posts I'll be posting of the trip and moot.

I arrived in Denver without a hitch and had a short while to wait before shirebound's flight got in and it was so wonderful to see and get to hug her as soon as she stepped into the terminal. We found mirabile_dictu and hanarobi picked us up and took us the scenic route up through Colorado to Laramie, for which I'm extra grateful with the drive being 5+ hours for her round trip. It was a really gorgeous ride.

The pics in this post are all from a moving car window, so not the best quality.


The Rockies just north of Denver!


The Rockies from around the Longmont area.

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I've got so much to post. The orioles returned to the lake 2 days ago, so I want to post bird pics. And I went out to the cat sanctuary in Gettysburg yesterday, so I've got more cats to post. And tons of flora and fauna from around the lake. But first, for the city-philes and ship lovers on my flist, more Baltimore Inner Harbor pics from last month:


The Baltimore Aquarium with dragon paddle boats in the foreground. I love that Baltimore has these dragon paddle boats, purple and green no less. And we're showing a bit of Legg-Mason Building behind the aquarium.

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A very happy birthday to the lovely lovethosehobbit! Come on for a walk around Greenbelt Lake . . .



This is how it looked a month ago when the trees were just beginning to put on their autumn finery. We had a brief autumn this year, cut short by the drought that browned out most leaves early, and ended abruptly by Hurricane Sandy and its tryst with the cold front that plunged us into an early winter. Normally, the leaves would be past peak right now, but there would still be many trees doing their own dances of bright color to prolong the loveliness past mid November, but the trees are uncharacteristically mostly bare now. Still, we had a lot of sunshine in October that made the few trees doing their dances of color shine with a subtler beauty, especially in the late afternoon light. So we'll continue around part of the lake below.

( Come walk around the lake . . . )

There's a new post up at mdmoot here.

Weighing the poll results and answers here and here, we're going to have us a December 14-17 Hobbit Moot in Westminster, MD. We'll go see the release of The Hobbit: There and Back Again together! Probably more than once over the weekend. Wheee!!!!

I'll set us up a community. Can I set it up on DW, since one of our definite attenders is only on DW? Is there anyone who is considering coming who does not have a DW?

We will be having a Maryland Moot this year in Westminster. Hopefully, we'll be able to get the Best Western again to hang out in. I called them, and they are about halfway full on both weekends, so we'll want to call reservations in the next couple of weeks for either weekend. But there are other places if it fills, so no worries. We have to choose between the 2 weekends now, and I'm going to announce a definite date before the middle of next week, so there's more than a month for people to make travel arrangements, no matter which we choose. I'm tentatively saying Friday through Sunday, and of course, people can hang out longer, but we can discuss the adjustment of days when we pick a weekend.

So the choices:

November 9, 10, 11. Veterans Day is Sunday, November 11th, so there might be flexibility on whether Friday or Monday is a work holiday for some people. The leaves should still be pretty around here. It's usually pretty temperate this time of year here. Just cross fingers for no possible hurricane.

or

December 14, 15, 16. The Hobbit opens in theaters that Friday. I guess that means the first midnight showing is Thursday night/Friday morning? so some people might want to arrive Thursday if you're a midnight showing goer. I suspect we might want to attend multiple showings that weekend, so everyone's best times, and 3D vs 2D needs and preferences can be accommodated. This is all stuff that we will need to discuss if we choose to meet up for this weekend. We rarely have snow or ice that early, so that's not a worry, and the weather can be anywhere from temperate to cold, or a hurricane. We don't usually have bitter winter weather here until January.

So, please pick one box for your answer. You have as many choices as the number of dwarves and hobbits together who went on the quest to Erebor to choose from. Discussion, suggestions, explanations, wishes, hopes, squee, and nitpicks are most welcome in the comments. (-:


[Poll #1869316]


Let's get this choice made so we can haz mootses soon!

PS: The spell-checker for "everyone's" gives the strangest suggestions! Efren's, Efrain's, Aryan's, overruns, Aryans, Ivorians. OK then.

PSS: Evidently, Smeagol is administering this poll. So if you answer incorrectly, you might be eaten. Responses hobbitses!!!

EDIT: I guess the DW poll, doesn't translate onto LJ. I will inset an LJ formatted poll as soon as I can. WATCH THIS SPACE. EDIT ONE MILLION: Done.

So here's the breakdown thus far.

We've got 12 people saying they are interested.

Of that 12:

5: Any weekend will work:
mews1945
lovethosehobbit
obeliamedusa, might not be able to make October
lbilover, though would prefer November
lavendertook

4: Conditions:
browngirl can probably make December, but probably not the others.
aliensouldream might be able to make December if it is close enough to NYC premiere in time>
romeny can do November.
finnegans_way can do December movie, but may not be up to moot further due to hobbitling.

3: Definite Maybes on all 3 weekends:
claudia603
ancalime8301
grey_wonderer

I'm excited! It looks like the best thing right now is to drop the October weekend possibility and decide between November 9-11 Veterans Day weekend and December 14-16 Hobbit Movie release. And it looks like more of us are leaning toward December, but let's discuss some more and see if anyone else wants to join in. What say you?

I've been getting through this heat wave by living nocturnally and staying in, only going out after sunset to feed the stray kitties (poor things in this heat) and get supplies. So these pics are a reminder of the good green world I hope to return to. (-; Tomorrow for a few days it will only be going up to the lower 90's for a breather (yeah, it's all perspective) and I will venture out into the daylight again. But in the meantime, I will continue to bring you the cool fresh air of this forest stream trail at Patapsco Valley Park.

I'm sorry for being so behind on replying to comments and commenting on entries! I'm still eager to continue the discussions on my LotR EE entries and will be back there. But I want to make sure I get more of this pretty trail to you during this heat wave some of us are experiencing. And hopefully the green is a soothing reminder for my winter-bound friends Down Under.

So here is another pic of one of my favorite things: clear stream running icily beneath lush ferns and moss. Please click on the pic to see it better.



Here's a question for LJ experts: I want to post these pics here at the same size they appear when you click through to the pic on my LJ scrapbook, which is double the size of what I'm posting here, so that you don't have to click through. However, when I do re-size them in the url for the entry, they come out fuzzier in my entry than they are on the scrapbook page you click to, even though the pics are the same size. Do you know how I can fix that so that I can post the pics clearly on my entries at the size they appear when you click through to the scrapbook? The LJ FAQ was no help to me at all. Thanks!

( Come along this woodland trail where you can feel the breath of the trees on your skin . . . )

Happy birthday, ninjamidget66, a few days late!!!! Remember this?Hope you enjoy! (-:

Back in April, I went to visit mews1945, ninjamidget66, and lazarus_rising2 and they took me to see this most excellent display in Westminster: The Carroll County Peep Show. I think the entrants were mostly kids, and the subject matter of the dioramas varied, but let me show you:


UFO Abduction
( Take a peep under the cut if you dare . . . )