The husband has some sort of bug. Here's hoping it's not contagious. Or that I just fight it off without actually coming down with symptoms. Poor guy.

But, in happier news, I ran this morning. Wasn't long (11 minutes, 8 repeats of run the block of townhomes and walk back, 0.7 miles), but no knee pain while running and as of this evening, still no knee pain. I almost cried at the end. Fourteen months after the knee surgery, and eight months into an overall strength and conditioning program, and I was able to run without pain. Don't get me wrong, I anticipate being hella muscle-sore tomorrow, maybe, but as of tonight I'm absolutely golden.

As with large swaths of the rest of the upper North America, the DC area got a return of wildfire smoke this week. It sort of hit Thursday, then it really hit on Friday. When I went out to drive to the Metro you could clearly see the haze in the air just looking down my short block. Smacked the 'recirculate air' button on the car AC as I headed out. At the Metro parking lot I got out, took a whiff of the charred smell and promptly put on a COVID mask, which actually helped a lot with the smell. Took it off once I got inside the train car, and noticed the smell fading as we rode through the tunnels through most of the District on my way to Virginia.

But each time the train exited a tunnel into the open air, the smoke smell returned.

The views on bridge over the Potomac were surreal. Couldn't clearly see anything past the two bridges on either side of the Metro bridge - the airport was out of sight, as were any of the memorials and monuments, normally clearly seen in the background. It wasn't quite as bad once I got down to Alexandria as it had been up at home in Maryland, but it was still pretty bad. The ride home in the evening was more of the same; Maryland was worse, and the smell persisted.

Today we went out shopping for some needed polo shirts for me and it was still hot and smokey. Big rainstorms on the drive home seem to have driven most of it away, however. Am hoping they're able to take care of the source fires soon, for the sake of the local communities up in Canuckistan, as well as everyone else's lungs.

Odd because of the holiday, and the heat. It's forecast to be in the low 100s F (38-40C) here around DC, and combing that and (for Federal workers) the observed holiday today, my boss told us all to telework yesterday. Meant I had to do some cleaning of my desk at home to relocate stuff that had accumulated on it. I am my parents' child - if there's a surface, stuff gets put on it, at least in my office; I'm better about the rest of the house because the husband won't put up with out there. Yesterday was also odd because the local power company reached into our thermostat and set the temperature up 4 degrees, as they do from time to time to avoid brownouts, and in exchange for slightly better electricity rates. Normally those will go for 2-3 hours, typically 4pm to 6pm, but yesterday it ran from sometime in the afternoon all the way to 10pm. And they never sent a notice that they were doing it, even after the fact. Annoying,.

We laid low yesterday, but braved the heat today. Out to an Uno's Pizzeria for a treat, hit Target for some toiletries (and a clay garden gnome on clearance for the back yard), Barnes & Noble to pick up the third book in a trilogy I've really enjoyed (Rebel Blade by Davinia Evans). Hit a theater on the way home to see the new Minions movie, which was cute. It was more an opportunity to do something outside that house that wasn't impossibly hot than anything else. Remembered to put some internal window covers on the sunroof of our Mini so it wouldn't get quite so hot inside the car. Also remembered to put bags over the (black) front seats where they'd get sunlight while parked so we didn't fry our legs when we got back. Makes me ever so glad we bought a townhouse with a garage - that always makes the initial temperature setting easier when taking off from home.

Have a potluck on Sunday with the neighbors but haven't decided what we want to make yet. Looking forward to meeting more folks in person.

The tiny town we go to for our anniversary each year (Cape Charles, Virginia) has been putting out Xmas ornaments as a fundraiser for the last 9 or so years. We managed to pick up most of them from our innkeepers, but she didn't have this years. She texted me last night that the new one was out, so it's been ordered. This year is the local theatre, which ironically is the one place in town we've never been. Most years it's closed, or we just miss whatever is showing, or it's showing something we have no interest in (this year was a Dave Matthews cover band - no thanks). Once we got past the first 4-5 of them I put a note in my phone with an inventory to make sure we don't buy extras.

The husband is flying back from Chicago this morning. Has been nice having the place to myself and setting an earlier schedule, but I look forward to hearing about the trip, and the big Spider-man exhibit that was there.

Picked up the latest Ravenloft book from DnD. I remember the original Curse of Strahd coming out in the early 1980s and loved that one, so even though I have little to no time to play DnD these days I still enjoy reading the source books.

I think it's finally time to try running again, a year out from the knee surgery (June 12, 2025). The exercise/mobility program I've been doing has been fantastic for my body overall, not just the knee, but definitely has helped there. Who knew that lots of squats and lifting weights was good for you? Everyone, of course. So I've hauled out some of my favorite books on the subject to develop a return-to-running plan. I also discovered that there's a local running group that meets on Sundays a short walk from the house, so I can get some social interaction with it as well, once I'm sure I'll be back to it. I'm medically cleared, and have been for months, this is more the mental hurdle of "am I going to injure myself again".

Making more use of the local library this summer, but as a result I have a backlog of books now. While I get a lot of reading time on the Metro sometimes you don't want to haul the giant hardback with you along with everything else (lunch, etc.). I no longer mind the weight (thank you exercise program), it's more the bulk of it. Add to that my usual cyclical backlog of comics. I'd gotten them all read the last time the husband went out of town, but when you add to the collection weekly they can overwhelm.

I always build in a buffer after some time off, especially if it involves travel. There's always something that needs to get done afterward, like laundry, grocery shopping, etc. This trip was no different. The day after the anniversary trip we had the ground floor of the townhouse power washed, and had our handyman over to finish fixing the owner's suite bathroom ceiling and wall.* And, naturally, laundry and grocery shopping.

The trip itself was wonderful. While the forecast called for constant rain, that didn't materialize. There was a lot of rain, but it generally held off to mid-morning, allowing me to get in some morning walks. Only one day did it impinge on the front porch with some wind creating a small lake there. Otherwise was perfect, and I got four and a half books read.

Went into the office Friday for a day of email catch up while it was still the holiday week. Mostly caught up and I know the projects I'll have to get to this upcoming week. Not that it's going to be a full week - I'm taking tomorrow off for a doctor's appointment, and Thursday to see the new Masters of the Universe film with the husband. He's a HUGE fan, as is his sister - they have matching tattoos of He-Man's and She-Ra's swords. So the movie is a big deal, hence the day off.

* Some time last year a bird got into a vent on the front of our townhouse. Called a trapping company, they confirmed there was evidence a bird had gotten in, was no longer there, and they put a new vent cover on. Around the same time we had some water damage on the wall toward where the vent was. I had surmised that the bird had broken the duct when it got in and we were pumping moist air into the wall when we ran the exhaust fan. Finally got someone in to fix the duct, they put a hole in the ceiling to get at it and discovered ... there was no duct. As in, the vent cover didn't connect to anything. Apparently on the other models that's where the clothes dryer vents out, but on ours the dryer vents to the back. The builder put the hole and cover in the wall for the vent, but didn't connect it to anything. The exhaust fan piping goes up to the roof. Oy. The water damage was from something else, but wasn't anything active, just a coincidence with the bird intrusion. Hence the need to get the ceiling patched and painted and the water damage cleaned up and painted.

Puttering around the house this morning, doing all sorts of little maintenance things. Watering the new grass-and-clover mix in the back yard, brushing a cat, refilling the dish soap dispenser. The foaming hand soap dispenser in the kitchen is starting to run low so I looked online to remind myself what the ratio of soap-to-water is (1 part soap to 5 parts water). In doing so I discovered that the designers made it easy for you - fill the clear part at the bottom with soap, then fill the rest to the 'max fill' line under the metal portion with water and voila - just the right ratio without needing an external measure. I love little details like that, where designers work with the product to make it easier to use and aesthetically pleasing.

I head back to the office on Monday, part of the first wave of folks moving into our new office building. Hopefully the internet will work; supposedly we're going to be on hotspots, which does not sound like a sustainable model. And based on the calls with the few leadership folks who've been in the office, the connection will be ... less than optimal. Whatever. Y'all set the conditions and I'll do my best to work under them.

Tomorrow I'll have to go through the stuff I hauled home from the old office building and see what needs to go back immediately and what can wait until I decided to drive down.

Hardest part is going to be figuring out the new morning routine so I can get my exercise in, and still make it to the office at a reasonable hour. I know myself well enough to know I have to do it before work or it won't get done, and I've made too much progress this year not to make this happen. Heck, the other day I was able to squat down and play with one of the cats and stay in that position for a while. Not bad for ten months out from knee surgery!

The husband is off with his sister for their annual remembrance of their mother, who died of COVID this weekend in the first wave back in 2020. So I'm on my own, and taking a quiet weekend of it. Catching up on comics - I had a month plus backlog that I'm about halfway through as of this morning. Not helping has been a sore throat that popped up yesterday with a mild fever. Still sore this morning, but no fever. Bodies are such fun.

Did manage to solve a longstanding eyesore of cables and needed accessories by the TV yesterday, relocating and hiding them all inside the entertainment center. This has long been an issue, and was one of the first things you saw when you came around the corner and saw the TV setup. Now, no more loose wires and doodads hanging out, and all the peripherals that needed them are working. Yay!

Got chosen as the president of my HOA. Oh joy. It was something of a game of hot potato, with the three (of three total) board members trying to be nice and defer to each other, but effectively passing the baton around and around before I said yes.

The pressing issues of the day are parking, lighting, and rats. The Facey-B group for the HOA has the torches and pitchforks out for a business in the boundaries of the HOA that has some (if the photos are to be believed) pretty serious rat problems at their foundation. No indication that they're inside, but the business isn't doing anything to control them outside, either. City Code Enforcement has been out to inspect and warn the owner to get on it. The owner, however, claims to be an attorney and is threatening slander and libel lawsuits. Which is why we're going to let the city go at it. In the meantime, the HOA itself does not control the Facey-B group, thankfully, so there's no there there for a suit. D-R-A-M-A.

Thankfully our newish management company is much more on top of these things than the last one, so the manager has things well in hand with addressing what we can address (calling the city, having the HOA pest people out to handle our stuff).

When last I posted I was getting ready to head to Texas to visit my family back in early March.

Got to the airport (BWI - Thurgood Marshall Baltimore Washington International airport), got parked, got through TSA without a hitch. Then apparently sometime between sitting down and boarding it began to snow. So they had to de-ice the plane. Then it began snowing harder, which meant they needed to re-de-ice the plane using a different, stronger de-icing treatment. Sat on the plane while they did all that, then finally got in the air. Flight itself was fine, but as we were approaching it became clear there was no way in hell we were going to make our connection. United rebooked us to a later flight while we were still trying to get off the first one, because our original flight finalized boarding while we were still deplaning.

Then somehow we wandered through two terminals at the Houston airport that were ... rough. The first looked like the basement of an old municipal buildings: concrete, cinderblock walls, scuffed up earth tones, etc. Caught a shuttle from that one one to the other, which looked slightly better, but still in desperate need of a refresh. Caught some lunch from a no-name sports bar, and halfway through the meal we got told we were being moved to yet a third terminal. Thankfully it was an easy rail ride to that one, which was okay, but still nothing to write home about. In the air for one of the smoothest rides I've had on a small plane, and down to McAllen.

Visited, enjoyed seeing people. Took the three nieces to lunch one day with just them and us so we could talk to them without their parents or mine. Parents were okay. Did get my Dad set up with the hearing aid function on the air pods I'd gotten him for Xmas, which definitely helped his level of involvement, since he could finally hear people. On the other hand, he's also managed to alienate all three of his granddaughters by being a jerk to live with (my brother, his wife, and their three girls all live in a 5 bedroom house with my parents). *sigh* What a mess. But, overall, a nice visit over the long weekend.

The Sunday before we were scheduled to leave it got up to 102F/38.6C (!!!!!). A bit warm, especially since it was snowing when we left Maryland. We were supposed to fly out Monday, then the weather people got themselves all up in a lather over spring thunderstorms and tornado warnings, and air travel turned into a disaster. They got so worked up that schools back in Maryland were closing at 2 or 3 in the afternoon to get everyone home, which meant that workplaces had to do the same. Before we even got to the airport Monday morning we'd gotten an alert that our flight was delayed from 9:30 to 10:50. At the airport it was further delayed to noon, then quickly cancelled altogether. Apparently things were backing up in Houston, with nothing being able to go further east, so they started limiting what could come in. We rebooked as soon as we got the cancellation, but couldn't get out until Wednesday. Two extra days with the family.

With the rebooked flights we gave ourselves a lot of extra time in Houston to make sure we could make the connection. Early, early morning flight, which went off without a hitch, including the TSA process. We were a bit worried because it was the beginning of all the news reports about hours long delays at the major airports. McAllen is so small we sailed right through. When we arrived in Houston this time, though, we were convinced we'd been punked the last time - the C and D terminals have been renovated, very nicely, with good food choices, plenty of clean bathrooms, etc. Was a totally different experience than the first trip through. Was also glad we gave ourselves more time between flights - didn't feel as rushed/stressed about making the next batch, even if it meant more time in the terminal.