Meet the Cavy

What you see here is called a Cavy. Specifically, a Patagonian Cavy. These animals are apparently related to Guinea pigs, but as you can see, significantly larger. Well, this animal is part of a mobile petting zoo that we say at 'Columbia Heights Day', a saturday afternoon fair in my old neighborhood. It was notable insomuch as I discovered this animal, which I previously not known to exist. In fact, Rebecca the biologist thought it was a kangaroo. I thought, despite knowing it would be impossible to breed, that this was a cross between a goat and a rabbit (it should be noted that both a goat and a rabbit were in the same pen, and they all seemed to get along.) Anyway, it was fun to hang out on a Saturday afternoon and see some animals.
This was the scene on the field. I didn't go on the bouncy castle unfortunately.
This is my friend Page and Rebecca, looking at Aladdin the camel.

Somebody had the bright idea to put a baseball hat on Aladdin's head, so I got this awesome photo.
There was also this 'Polish Chicken'. You'll notice a beak protruding from the tuft of feathers on its head, but otherwise you would have no clue where its face was. I tried to get a head-on photo, but when he saw my hand with the camera he tried to peck me!
A slightly better shot of our little Polish friend.

Anyway, other than look at animals, we mostly exercised and slept this weekend. This triathlon training is really getting tiring!

Lego...convention (?)

yes, it's true. An unauthorized, unaffiliated, fan-centric, 3-day, full-scale convention has sprung up around....Legos. You know, those plastic bricks that you build little cars and fortresses out of? Well, that's big business now. How would I know?, you may be asking yourself? Well, I took a look firsthand this past weekend. No, I didn't queue up with the hyper kids and adoring parents, or the, errr, weird kidless adult Lego diehards in attendance. But, I had the opportunity to glimpse the chaos courtesy of some of the former category: sister-in-law Sabrina and her family of Lego lovers.

They were in town visiting, see, and had to go back to the fair to pick up a special order of Legos, so I took the opportunity to see what was going on. Lots of elaborate miniature constructions of houses, buildings, cities; pixelized photos of you and your loved one rendered in Legos; even a 20-ft high operating Lego crane (so i heard, I didn't see that one). And, well, a lot of hyper kids. I guess about what you'd expect. A custom-painted VW beetle was parked out front with Legos all over the car and the license plate 'LegoLady' (from Ontario, no less!)

Anyway, between trips to the Lego fair we filled our time with trips to museums, restaurants, and a DC United soccer game. It was a fun, if exhausting time.

Rebecca and Nathan in front of Space Shuttle Enterprise at the Udvar-Hazy Center (part of Smithsonian Air and Space Museum)
Nathan and I prepare to go to the 'space station' in 3D!
Nathan and I with our tough-guy poses in front of this F14. Just like Top Gun!
Sabrina, Nathan, Sebastian, Rebecca, and spilled cheerios before going into the museum

To Vermont, and back.

Update: the car has left us. We had a wake during dinner on Monday, when Rebecca sold it. Everybody took turns telling their favorite memories about the car, and I took my turn talking about what a money sink it was and how much maintenance it required (I felt the other stories were revisionist). Rebecca alternated between telling me how much she would miss her car, how she should have tried to sell it for more money, and how she was doing the right thing and we didn't use it that much. It was quite an emotional rollercoaster. But, it went to a bike cop who works in the neighborhood, and he was pretty psyched to get it, so maybe that's good karma for down the road.

We spent last week/weekend in Vermont visiting Rebecca's old lab mates, some of whom I'd met and some of whom I hadn't. There were also three children under 4, so it was a pretty chaotic event, but ended up being really fun. Some of her friends have a cool farmhouse about an hour from Burlington, so everybody piled in there, sleeping on air mattresses, going hiking and canoeing during the day, and just chilling out. Vermont was really beautiful too. It is very mountainous, full of running rivers and trees... an outdoor playground. I had to remind myself how much the weather sucked for 8 months out of the year, otherwise I would really start liking the place. We explored some of the older towns in the south east, near Norwich which is where some other friends live. There are flour mills and furniture factories and glass blowers and potters and breweries and just a lot of craftiness that goes on. It sorta reminded me of the Pacific northwest, though not as beautiful (of course). We enjoyed being there, but I was exhausted by the time it was over. We pledged to not take all of our vacations visiting friends with babies anymore, because we can't keep up!!

Now we're back in DC, intensely training for the tri, and hosting Rebecca's sister next weekend.

Planes,Trains and Automobiles

Back from Boston, back into the daily grind. The visit was really good. We stayed with cousins Jody, Tammy, and Annie Friday night at their wonderful (parent's) city apartment. Had a nice Ethiopian dinner and chatted the night away. Saturday we walked around downtown Boston, which Rebecca hadn't really visited before, and enjoyed a few leisurely meals. Then it was on a train out to the suburbs to visit friends Ed and Sue and their 1.5 and 4yo kids John and Ariella. That, too, was thoroughly enjoyable: good food, relaxing time with good friends...they even have a small preserved area (basically a wooded park/lake) about a half mile from there house. This park has lots of dirt trails going all over the place, and it made a nice spot for a run. Sunday afternoon it was back to Boston, where I checked into the hotel, put Rebecca in a cab for the airport. I stayed for two more days for a conference, met interesting people and heard lots of talks, then back home for me. All in all, the trip was a success. It made me miss Boston (the parts I like), which is really pleasant in the summer time.

Now, aside from tri training and working on dissertation ideas, one of the things occupying my time is figuring out what to do with the car. You see, Rebecca's had this beauty for years, but it's slowly requiring more and more to keep it afloat. We only use it on shopping trips and weekend excursions, and even that not so much, so we could certainly live without it. But it runs like a champ and is convienient to have around. The problem is it requires a new CV joint to pass inspection ($200), which isn't much, but seemed like a naturaly point to evaluate whether we would should keep it, or donate/sell it. The blue book is somewhere in the $800-$1000 range, but we would probably ask quite a bit less. Rebecca has sentimental attachment to it as well, so it remains to be seen what well happen....stay tuned.