Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Janet's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, May 17th, 2008
7:32 am	in another country I'm in lovely Montreal visiting the lovely papersky and family. The drive up was unremarkable. Since I'm a whimp about trying to drive 600 miles in one day I stopped overnight Thursday near Albany and arrived here just before noon yesterday. My new GPS was helpful in navigating the final stretch of city freeways, which I find poorly marked, with little advance notice of turnings. Yesterday afternoon, as we ran an errand to the western part of the island, I got to see parts of the city rarely visited by tourists. In the evening we had a delicious meal at a Japanese restaurant. I collapsed into bed fairly early and slept well. No visit to Canadian Tire yet, without which my visit to Montreal would be incomplete. Sometime this weekend, I'm sure. Latter today we're heading south into Vermont, so that the newly anointed permanent residents of Canada can do something official at the border crossing. Fingers crossed that all goes well. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 12th, 2008
11:16 am	flowers wild and otherwise Last Friday's wildflower walk (the last of three) was rather a wet one so I kept my camera in my backpack except at the very end of the walk when these cute critters swam by on the canal-- Despite the rain most of the folks showed up. We were back on the Maryland side of the Potomac, at Carderock. Spring wildflowers are mostly history. We scrambled down to the river to see leatherwood (Dirca palustris), a rare plant locally. Other plants not seen on previous outings included lyre-leaved sage, woodsorrel, meadowrue, and deerberry. In the middle of last week I went to the garden center to get annuals to plant in the flower boxes and pots around my back door. Several containers didn't need new plants because my faithful columbine appeared again this year and a bunch of vigorous snapdragons popped up in another large pot. Both already have lovely flowers: Here are the boxes at the side of my porch, now filled with impatiens, vincas, lobelia, and a couple of other annuals. They are being well-watered--it's been constantly raining since yesterday afternoon. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 1st, 2008
5:38 am	house calls A college student working as a Dell service tech came to my place on Monday to diagnose and yesterday to fix a problem on my laptop caused by an out-of-alignment hinge. I'm so glad I opted to renew my service contract. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
1:12 pm	I can be a meanie April has almost slipped away without Schroeder and Lucy putting in an LJ appearance. Rushing to fix that-- The kitties usually sleep all afternoon. This is a quiet household of few conflicts. But recently they've often claimed my comfy chair while I'm occupied elsewhere. I hate to disturb them but sometimes I (*gasp*) evict them from the chair. I really don't have another good spot to curl up with my laptop. The guilt, it is great. Schroeder is especially hard to shift. He sleeps hard. (13 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 27th, 2008
5:42 pm	Friday wildflowers We assembled Friday morning at 10 at Turkey Run Park on the Virginia side of the Potomac River (just up the road from CIA headquarters). It was another beautiful spring day. The progression of early spring wildflowers continues. Virginia bluebells and spring beauties are still putting on a show but many of the wildflowers we'd seen before have finished blooming. Among the new wildflowers seen were rue anemone, squawroot, cleavers bedstraw, dwarf ginseng, hooked crowfoot, swamp buttercup, clustered snakeroot, perfoliate bellwort, wild ginger, wild geranium, and few-flowered valerian. Wild geranium (Geranium maculatum) Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) Our leader was excited about finding a few-flowered valerian because it's considered an endangered plant locally. Few-flowered valerian, Valeriana pauciflora The flower cluster is about an inch across. Yes, common names of wildflowers are often inscrutable. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
9:25 am	the herring didn't get the memo The outing yesterday morning to observe the herring run up Rock Creek was delightful even though we didn't see any herring. They were still waiting downstream near the Potomac for the right conditions (temperature, water level, inspiration) to start their journey upstream. Oh well. We'll be alerted by email when to revisit the good viewing spots. We met at the Cleveland Park Metro Station on Connecticut Avenue and walked down the steep Hazen Trail to the creek and north along the bike path to Pierce Mill. In 1904 someone had the bright idea to build an artificial waterfall there. This scenic feature, now considered a historic landmark, had the unfortunate effect of blocking all fish (such as shad and herring) who migrate upstream from reaching their historic spawning spots. Last year the Park Service finally was able (using mitigation funds tied to the construction of new Potomac bridges for the beltway) to build a fish ladder at the waterfall. For the first time in over a hundred years the herring and other fish had a highway they could use past the obstruction. The fish found and used it--cheered on by humans who'd worked long and hard to undo a bit of human folly. Here're photos of the ends of the fish ladder (entry to the right of the waterfall facing upstream) Rock Creek and its deep valley, protected as parkland, are a wonderful asset to the city. The stream is unfortunately degraded by its urban location; it suffers pollution from water run-off and even overflow sewage after big storms in a couple of places. Parkways and bicycle trails run through it. But still it provides a refuge for birds, foxes, raccoon, beaver, deer, and other critters, including people. During our intense peering into the creek waters looking for herring we spotted sunfish, catfish, and carp. We watched a lively muskrat swim back and forth. We spotted two shy wood duck couples, one with ducklings. We saw a Baltimore Oriole and a red-tailed hawk. We admired the wildflowers (and cursed the invasive species such as lesser celandine). The Jack-in-the-Pulpit plants are growing rapidly: (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, April 18th, 2008
7:14 am	Restless Earth Early this morning a 5.4 earthquake, centered in Illinois, was felt hundreds of miles away. Did it wake you, prairierabbit? (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
8:07 am	restless, what me? I've acquired a new toy: That's my TomTom One (3rd edition), the most basic and cheapest of that company's car GPS navigation devices. It was on sale at Dell and I had a Dell coupon to spend--at half the list price I couldn't resist. Rather than use the windshield suction cup or the glue disk to attach the holder, I've rigged up an easy and secure way to position it by using a spring clamp (inside a shaggy hand duster pocket) that slides into the recessed shelf under my radio. The TomTom is clever and amazingly easy to use. I think it will prove useful on future roadtrips. It includes maps of all of the U.S. and Canada and they're supposed to be some of the best available. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, April 14th, 2008
5:43 am	Happy Birthday, stevendj! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, April 12th, 2008
2:57 pm	wildflowers II I was stuck in traffic yesterday behind a new-looking cab. The name of the company was painted neatly on the trunk: Mayflwoer. The first of our Friday wildflower walks was along the Potomac in the spectacular Mather Gorge section. This was a couple of miles upstream from where my Audubon Naturalist Society class fieldtrip took place a week ago. Eight of us met at 10. Creeping along, eyes to the ground, we spotted and took a close look at the same wildflowers I'd seen last week--except no bloodroot--and more (the new ones I've listed behind the cut). There were several spots where the Virginia Bluebells carpeted the ground. ( more Spring wildflowers seen ) It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the high 70s (around 25C). We set off at 10 and finished at 12:30. I would have liked to linger but I had to rush home to eat lunch and walk to my afternoon tutoring session. No pictures--I forgot to take my camera. The next wildflower walk will be in two weeks on the other side of the Potomac. Next Saturday it's into the wilds of Rock Creek Park (a half mile from where I live) to learn about and watch the annual run of herring up the creek. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
1:39 pm	stalking the wild flowers Thursday evening I joined 7 others for an introductory class on wildflower identification offered by the Audubon Naturalist Society. Saturday we had a wildflower fieldtrip (from 10 to 4) at Carderock on the Potomac River. Fortunately the dire prediction of wet weather was wrong. We had a lovely Spring day with lots of sunshine. We found and admired fifteen or so wildflowers. One of my favorites is the Virginia Bluebell. Our teacher encouraged us to look carefully at the whole plant and all of its parts. We practiced using the clever ID scheme in Newcombe's Wildflower Guide. You pick one of the broad characterizations of the plant's flower, stem, and leaf (which you can determine by looking closely, no botanical expertise needed) and the guide directs you to the section of the book where your wildflower is likely to be found. ( Behind the cut is a list of the native wildflowers we found and another photo ) The DC area is great for Spring wildflowers. The season starts early and lingers long. I've signed up for three ANS wildflower walks scheduled for Friday mornings in April and early May. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, March 29th, 2008
3:23 pm	taking the A train Monday morning I took Amtrak to New York City to visit friends, including these sweeties (shh, don't tell Lucy and Schroeder)— ... Chico and Camus in Brooklyn...Olive in Manhattan ... I arrived at Penn Station about 3:30 and made my way by subway and foot to L's place in the Inwood section of Manhattan (last stop on the A-train). Tuesday L and I went to the lovely Bronx Zoo. Unfortunately it was too chilly for the outside part of the Gorilla exhibit to be inhabited but there was a large gorilla family indoors to watch. The African wild dogs were fascinating to observe and listen to; they made chirping sounds greeting each other. ( two zoo animals ) Tuesday night L and I watched La Vie en Rose on cable TV. Wow! Marion Cotillard is extraordinary as Piaf. Wednesday morning I took the A-train (and the G) to Brooklyn to J's place. Thursday morning I did something that I've wanted to do for more than thirty years: Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. McCullough's wonderful book The Great Bridge, which I read shortly after it was published in 1972, inspired my long interest in walking the bridge and a Ken Burn's documentary about the bridge, which I saw on PBS recently, renewed my interest. The day was rather gray but it was quite a lovely (and easy) walk to Manhattan and back. Thursday evening J and I met L in lower Manhattan to eat a delicious dinner at a tiny place called the Noodle Bar (near the W 4th station of the A). Another subway ride Friday morning to Penn Station and home to DC. Lucy and Schroeder greeted me warmly and did some serious sniffing of the interesting smells I brought home with me. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 20th, 2008
7:29 am	cat snaps The Mighty Hunters have spotted a tiny fruit-fly. I spoiled their fun by getting to it first, so the doomed lamp survives another day. Lucy has a new favorite perch: on my chest, her rear end abutting my laptop. Very cuddly, but her intervention makes it rather hard to read LJ. As we used to say in my family: "You'd make a better door than a window." This week I have tickets to two evening events at the Smithsonian. Tonight it's the new IMAX film of the Grand Canyon and tomorrow, a presentation at the planetarium about Mayan astronomy. Monday I abandon the kitties and take Amtrak to NYC to visit L and J. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
3:54 pm	taxes and Barney Miller Subtitled: The Web in its diversity. For many years I've purchased TurboTax to do my income tax but my taxes are rather simpler these days and I looked around at other options. The Internal Revenue Service now offers in partnership with 20 or so companies free online tax preparation and e-filing (for those of us with incomes under $54K). ( tax prep tedium ) Grrr. I don't enjoy dealing with fiddly numbers. Fortunately I found something to brighten my day on the Web. I followed an LJ link to hulu, which went public on 12 March with free movies (few of interest to me) and TV shows (ancient ones, too). I watched a 30-year old episode ("Abduction") of Barney Miller. Very enjoyable. That was a great series. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, March 3rd, 2008
6:07 am	Happy Birthday, mayaknife!!! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, February 29th, 2008
5:25 pm	the flutter of wings The live Butterfly Pavilion at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum opened two weeks ago. I was on the Mall this morning to attend the first of the Washington rocks lectures so I decided to take advantage of being down there on a weekday to visit the exhibit. The butterflies are plentiful and beautiful. At the moment they have only 300 or so but promise 400 soon. The critters are imported in the crysalis stage from all over the tropical world. (Comment on this)
Sunday, February 24th, 2008
10:32 am	trees in winter I spent from 9 to 3 yesterday at a tree identification class offered by the Audubon Naturalist Society. Identifying trees when they are leafless challenges you to look closely at the bark and the twigs and the buds, as well as to try to grasp the "gestalt" of the whole tree (as our teacher puts it). In the classroom we examined tiny leaf scars with a hand lens in our quest for enlightenment. The 20 of us spent the last 2.5 hours tromping around the Woodend grounds meeting actual trees. We identified about 28 species of tree under the guidance of our teacher. At one point a deer group of six, including a nicely antlered buck, watched us attentively from about 15 yards away. The weather was overcast and damp, around 35F. I got a bit chilled (I should have worn another layer) so I was rather glad to slide into the car and drive my creaky body to a warm home and hot tea. At the beginning of April I'm taking a wildflower identification class from the same teacher, followed by a series of three Friday walks along the Potomac to see the Spring wildflowers as they emerge. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 18th, 2008
10:31 am	hot cats Lucy is in sphinx mode. Schroeder poses on the new kitchen rug. Really I don't keep my apartment cold. It's usually 70F at least and I'm comfortable in a t-shirt. But Lucy and Schroeder are heatseekers, hugging the reading lamp on top of the radiator cover. It's a wonder the lamp has survived. Schroeder was in the mood to eviscerate something so I tossed him a bear of unknown origin that had been lurking for years in an odd corner. (More new photos here.) (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
10:12 am	voting My polling place is in the church across the street. I went out to vote about 9:15 and found a line of people stretched out the door to the street so I decided to wait a bit longer. By 10 the line had cleared and it took me about 2 minutes to cast my ballot--most of which was spent waiting for the clerk to slowly find my name on the voter roll. (I plan to volunteer as a poll worker before the next election.) My ballot registered as #399 as I fed it into the counting machine. DC sends 38 delegates to the Democratic convention so it's not a totally insignificant part of today's "Potomac Primary" (as the Washington Post dubs it). For various not very profound reasons I voted for Clinton. I'll have no problem supporting Obama if he is the presidential candidate. I expect him to win big in the DC primary. I feel a bit neglected: I've had only 3 electioneering phone calls (two robocalls and one live person). Why Republican presidents have no love or respect for their neighbors in the District of Columbia: My precinct has 3354 registered Democrats and 454 registered Republicans. Citywide registration shows 279,411 Democrats, 28,502 Republicans, and 4532 Statehood Green Party. (Not voting today are 63,293 people registered without a party affiliation.) (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 4th, 2008
5:55 am	focusing Yesterday afternoon I participated in a jury focus group that lasted slightly over 4 hours. There were seven of us who listened to the arguments that would probably be used by attorneys for the plaintiff and the defendant in a civil suit. Then we gave our reactions and discussed the issues raised in detail. The issues were sticky ones (I'm not free to say anything about the case). The attorney-facilitator who kept us focused was quite good and made us feel that our opinions as outsiders were valuable to the attorneys preparing to take the case to court. We were paid $105. Saturday evening I made the drive to the far suburbs to selki's place to join her birthday celebration. Good conversation. Yummy food. Thanks for the invite, S. Friday afternoon I walked down (in the rain) to a small neighborhood elementary school where I'll be tutoring a 2nd grader in arithmetic. I was given an orientation to the program by the on-stie coordinators from FLOC. Each Friday there are about 15 kids getting one-on-one math tutoring during the school's regular aftercare program. I had a chance to read through my kid's file and think about how to get started with her. The kid didn't show up for the session because of a doctor's appointment so no actual tutoring happened. We'll see what happens next Friday. I'm rather glad my kid is so young. I won't have to worry about reviewing the multiplication table or tackling long division. (Thirty years of calculator use has left me rather rusty in my arithmetic skills.) (2 Comments |Comment on this)