Tourism

Tomorrow, I'm heading out to Washington, DC to visit my best friend, annikusrex. Boy, the last time I was in DC was back in 2006, when I attended a meeting of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects. On that trip, I traveled with a group of male graduate students I refer to as The Social Insect Boys, and we were fortunate to have a chance to stay at my cousin's house, close to the Capitol Building. Thing was, the Social Insect Boys were interested in completely different things than I was interested in, so every morning we would have a brief period of consultation, where they'd say, "We want to go do this!" and I'd say, "Well, I want to go do that!" and then I'd just go my own way by myself. Not a big deal, really. A person notices more when not trying to juggle social interactions and observations.

The photos from that last trip, in the album above, summarize the experience pretty nicely (though I wish the file for that spider sculpture weren't corrupted; I'd fix it except I have to dig out an old hard drive to do so). I got to check out a lot of great stuff, and I was especially grateful to have a chance to revisit the Hirshhorn Museum, and a first chance to visit the National Museum of the American Indian. Also enjoyable - watching a flamenco dance and later listening to jazz while drinking sangrias in the sculpture garden with my friend KY.

Where will we go this time? I don't know. I'm going to bring along a sketchbook, because I mostly just want to hang out in a big city, feeling that big-city energy. Maybe I'll draw the posterior of the elephant in the Natural History Museum again. Perhaps it's a strange ambition, but I get easily overwhelmed when going to enormous cities that draw thousands of tourists to hundreds of attractions. Whenever I stand in front of a monument or gravestone, trying to feel something, I usually don't. Big lists of Things You Must Do and giant museums stuffed full of artefacts make me tired.

Instead, I like to walk around and stumble across things - small parks, bookstores, coffeeshops. I have no doubt that we'll wind up doing such things on this trip.

Of course, in the meantime, there's too much to do. I need a couple of extra days still to get caught up on house projects. Those just have to languish for a couple more weeks.

Photo Updates

Some photos from a few recent projects.

Rowing Supplies	Brevet Preparation with J I suspect that randonneuring may not be J's thing, but props to him for giving it a shot.
Texas Wildflowers This is a reasonable summary of what they're like, only different areas will have patches that are different colors (such as the shockingly blue bluebonnets). Not as tall and gangly as Montana wildflowers, not as surprising as Arizona wildflowers.	Works Progress Administration bridge in Navasota Stopped here for a quick snack, 30 miles from home.
Kitchen Thing That's a fresh loaf of European-style whole-grain sourdough bread right there. Tasty. I am going to install hooks on the Kitchen Thing, plus maybe a towel rod, plus I need to relocate those spice racks now.	Succulicious My cat loves to chew on succulents. See the small fragment on the lower left? That pieces has sprouted fresh roots and appears to be getting a new start on life. Other parts that she chewed on have also regrown, thankfully. One of the things on the right-hand side has grown some odd, flowerlike structures, too. Here's hoping I can keep this away from miss Emma for a long while yet!

Woo, Dentist, Woo!

I have this feeling that, for the rest of my life, every time I visit the dentist I'll think of my good friend gfrancie. Like G, I went for a period of my life where I did not visit the dentist - a good six years, when I didn't have dental insurance (huzzah, grad school!), I didn't know how much it would cost to just get my teeth cleaned, and it seemed like other things were more important than scheduling a dentist appointment.* Anyway, I'm trying to reform my ways, so I went to the dentist in Seattle back at the end of December, where it became apparent that a second appointment would be necessary in Texas. I keep trying to think of ways to attach some kind of reward to dental visits, so that I'll associate more positive feelings with the experience (and so I can make such suggestions to others who don't get in regular visits). But I haven't come up with any good ideas, yet.

So, dentist visit number two. Actually, I liked the hygienist and dentist here more than their counterparts in Seattle. Unsurprisingly, since my prior visit was a mere three months ago, my teeth were still pretty clean. But unfortunately, on top of needing gum surgery, this dentist noted from the x-rays that there are five places where cavities have worn through tooth enamel. So, I'll be back to see him again in April, woo, for that fun experience of a numb mouth and fillings. Somehow, all of this has happened on the left side of my mouth. Time to chew on the right side, I guess.

The places where these cavities are occurring are along the upper surface of my teeth, where each tooth touches its neighbor, which makes me think there isn't much else I could have done to prevent the cavities - I've been brushing and flossing regularly, and using a fluoride-based mouthwash. That's all small comfort in the face of the additional expense for fillings, though. Ugh. In this case, I'm tempted to use some of my long-term, rainy-day savings to cover the cost, since it's an unanticipated expense. I'm reluctant to ever use any of those funds for anything, but this might just qualify.

So, there you go, for the Health Care Item of the Month for March. It looks like that will be the Health Care Item of the Month for April, as well, and perhaps May, if gum surgery gets scheduled for May. I may have to start doubling these things up a bit more.


*A similar philosophy applied to trips to the doctor, though those were covered by insurance, most people in my age bracket don't require regular checkups, and I did go to the doctor whenever anything came up that needed attention.