Friday night was our church's Daddy/Daughter activity. The theme was a Western Hoe-down. My youngest daughter is the only one left at home young enough to go (it was only for girls ages 3 to 11 inclusive). We dressed up in hats and boots, tied our scarfs and headed out.

Games! Toys! Prizes! Food! It was a lot of fun getting there and seeing friends, and playing. She climbed right up on the horse and knew what to do!

But disaster struck! After getting our food (fruit salad, tortilla chips, and chili), we made our way to a table to eat, and oh no! She spilled chili all over her beautiful white shirt. A quick trip to the kitchen and vigorous scrubbing with cold water didn't help much. There was a huge orange stain down her front. It even made her tummy orange underneath! But, I thought to myself, what would my wife do? Look really close at that last picture, where she has her hand on her hip. Click it to zoom in. Then, click one of the other two pictures. Can you see it? Different shirts!

From a previous reconnoitering of the neighborhood with my aforementioned wife, I knew about the Village Economy Store three blocks South of our church. We hoofed it to the car, made it through a green light, quickly scanned the girls sections. We both agreed it should be white like the chilified shirt, and modest. One shirt was rejected because it was too short. We found one that looked good, she changed quickly in the dressing room (I don't know what the reviewer in the above-linked page means about no dressing rooms), agreed it fit, and scooted to the register. She turned around so the cashier could take price and remove the tag. Cool, it was even half off today!




Back to the dance in less than ten minutes. Just in time for cake and dancing!

~My (Your Affectionate Sobriquet of Choice) Takes the Morning Train...~

When we moved from Forest Hill to Aberdeen, one of the aspects of the move that I was most excited about was that I would have the chance to take the train to work. For the first several months, I couldn't, because I was still driving our middle son back to Forest Hill for Seminary every day so he could finish out the school year at North Harford. Theirs was the choral program that took him to China this last Spring, so it was worth the sacrifice. He has had angst since over his new school's program, saying there are only a handful of boys even in the chorus.

Then, a week after school ended, our oldest was commuting with me on her way to NASA. So, still had to drive.

But starting August 22, I've been taking the MARC train nearly every day to work.

The very non-intuitive trip planner at MTA's web-site doesn't know about my walk through the woods at the BWI end of my train ride. I hustle the two oldest boys out the door at 5:30am, drop them off for seminary, and hurry down to the station to catch the 5:48 southbound. It's too dark to see much until I get south of Baltimore, but I've seen some lovely sunrises.

And once I disembark at the BWI Amtrak station, I have a lovely walk through the woods. There is an 1/2-mile long iron bridge, maybe 25-30 feet off the ground, from the Station to MDOT headquarters that goes over a pleasant little creek. Originally, headquarters was supposed to be closer, but there was apparently a bog fern that needed to be protected along the creek. So it got protected with this super-awesome bridge instead! The rusty look of it is intended, a new-old modern technique I guess.

MY absolute favorite part about commuting via train is the walk home. You might wonder, since I walk over a creek/bog/swamp whether or not I have to battle mosquitoes; Nope! I think the bridge is so far off the ground (and so rarely used), that mosquitoes never find it. But other wildlife do occasionally.

And the bridge over the creek is idyllic. I stop there everyday and count turtles. Twice, I have seen an enormous snapping turtle floating in the water, like some kind of reptilian nuclear submarine. I like to count how many turtles are sunning themsleves on a tree that has fallen into the creek.

It's fun to feel like I am saving the planet, saving money, enjoying nature, all at the same time. So if I ever phone you between 4:45pm and 6pm on a weeknight, and it sounds like I'm calling from a busy restaurant, that's just me multi-tasking, taking advantage of the hands-free ride home on the train.