AROUND AND ABOUT - 9-25-24

 These are a few photos I took when running around this past week. The first one is when I noticed these wispy clouds and pointed them out to dear other half. He said that there was bad weather on the way. Sure enough the next few days held a lot of dark clouds and a lot of rain. These are cirrus clouds, I am giving myself a refresher.

Doggy fix for the day was seeing this sweet pooch waiting for his cup of coffee in the drive-thru.

Such a good dog, he didn't make a peep.

When we got home and I went to open the patio door, this little fella greeted me.  By the time I got back from the kitchen to take another look, he was gone. 

Added note 9:59 am., 9-25-24: Ginny asked in her comment about this insect. I thought it was a grasshopper but thought I ought to check on that. This is the information I found at this link. It is a grasshopper. 

"The main difference between a grasshopper and a cricket is that crickets tend to have long antennae, grasshoppers have short antennae. Crickets stridulate ("sing") by rubbing their wings together, while grasshoppers stridulate by rubbing their long hind legs against their wings. Grasshoppers detect sound by means of little 'ears' at the base of their abdomen; in crickets these are on the front legs. 

Most crickets are crepuscular (which means they come out at dusk) whereas grasshoppers tend to be out and about during the day." Thanks for another great question Ginny.

Gregg introduced me to this place (in my next photo) years ago, when he was still working in Washington DC. With the heavy traffic at rush hour, it was not much shy of a two-hour commute one way. More often than not, having such a busy work schedule, he often had no time for lunch. He was always hungry and when he saw the sign for the first time, he stopped off for a Bahn Mi sandwich half way into his journey home. Another story I have mentioned before, but he moved here first and I stayed behind while our son finished the school year in San Diego. A new colleague introduced him to Vietnamese and Thai Cuisine, which was and still is very popular in our area.  When we joined him several months later, he introduced it to us. It was fun to try something different, and he took us to all his favorite restaurants, and they became ours too. Those places have unfortunately closed but there are other places we can go to. We just don't eat out a lot any more, though we get a Meatball Bahn Mi about once a month. It isn't like an Italian meatball sandwich. It is made with pork and the seasonings are very different, and delicious. I wrote about it before, and other things, in this post. There is no seating inside and we usually have a car picnic in the parking lot. Still fun to do. You'll read in the old post about a time I had another knee problem, more steps I should have stayed away from. I had forgotten all about it until I found the post again.  C'est la vie! Obviously still learning!

We got our latest Covid booster last week at our local supermarket's pharmacy. The young man who gave me the injection was very gentle. I actually asked if he was done as I saw him putting things away and was a bit surprised. He joked by saying yes he had and that he was that good. He laughed, I laughed and I told him you are way better than good, thanked him and got out of there.

We had a nice treat yesterday. Our son had had car issues, and we loaned him ours for a couple of days. As a treat he took us out to lunch, and we ended up going to the Hawk and Griffin, which is a British pub/restaurant in Vienna, about ten miles from home. The boys fancied Fish and Chips and there was no complaint from me. I can honestly say it was the best Fish and Chips I have had in a very long time. We all enjoyed our meal. I will share the photos soon, but in the meantime you can go to this post from our last time if you would like to take a peek. There is also a story on there about Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill, which I had also forgotten I had shared. It has been about a year since we were last at the Hawk and Griffin.

Thanks for taking a look and I hope your day is a great one.