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I did something a bit different on Monday. I took the day off work and headed south to my girlfriend’s house for an impromptu pajama party. Carol’s husband went and abandoned her for a few days (business trip), so she invited Tracey and I to come and hang out.

Carol, Tracey and I don’t see nearly enough of each other throughout the year. We hardly ever even talk on the phone. So we had lots to talk about and catch up on.  We pigged out while we chatted, of course.

I’m still practicing with my camera, and I took lots of pictures of Carol’s cats, which I will share some other time. Ironically, I didn’t take any pictures of the three of us, even though I had wanted to. The good news is, our annual girlfriend getaway is coming up, so I’ll be sure to get some new pics of the three of us then. Here’s a shot of Tracey and Carol from last year’s trip.

I did take a small detour on the way down, however. I was looking for the Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary but ended up at the Patuxent River Park instead. We’d had some pretty weird weather the previous day or two (warm, windy and with lots of rain). The storm clouds were clearing out, leaving blue sky and white, puffy clouds in their wake. It made for some pretty cool pictures. In my opinion, anyway.

I really like this image (above). When I showed it to Hubby and asked if he liked it, he pretty much said, “Eh. What’s so special about it?” I think it’s quite dramatic. But, like I told Hubby, appreciation of true art is in the eye of the beholder.

In this shot, you can see what breeze remained ruffling the water. We’d had so much wind and rain, that water levels were pretty high.

I couldn’t resist taking more pictures of the dramatic-looking sky.

If I hadn’t told you the storm clouds were moving out, you might think I was about to get soaked.

I hope you enjoyed my little detour as much as I did.

Here’s some not-so-riveting coverage of our recent bout with weird weather, courtesy of the Hampshire Review. That’s the local paper in our little corner of West Virginia…

Our house is on a hill, so no worries there. I’ll have to check to see if Buddy’s family got washed away.

It may be a bit late in the day for me to say Merry Christmas, but I’m saying it anyway.

After all the mad (as in crazy, hurried, rushed, etc.) preparation, it is finally time to kick back and relax.

Ah…

I hope that your day was safe, pleasant and merry!

Shannon made it safely to my co-worker’s house in Bangalore, India. Amy, TJ and kids will be coming here for dinner this evening. Eric will be spending Christmas Eve at his father’s house this year, but we’ll see him tomorrow.

Are we ready for Christmas? Yes and no. There are just a few last-minute things to accomplish. But work is first.

Before I get cracking, however, I thought you’d enjoy this little skit that Hubby, Meg, Belle, K and I put together for your viewing pleasure.

Merry Christmas eve!

…to keep your assets from “saggin’, baggin’ and draggin’.” That’s part of a Dolly Parton quote from the end of this video.

In case you don’t feel like watching, I’ll just say it’s all about stars who admit to having plastic surgery. I know a lot of these people are rich, and famous, and adored by millions. But I feel sorry for them. Especially the chicks who insist on lip jobs. Yes, perhaps lots of women do it. But if you ask me, most of them just look weird.

Here’s one example. Gorgeous before the lip job, sadly comical after.

Here’s a bunch of pics showing plastic before and afters. And here are some images that really tickled me, which show stars transformed into real people. Both are from the Web site, TMZ.com. The Web’s answer to People, Star, Us and the National Enquirer all rolled into one.

Plastic surgery isn’t bad. In moderation. I’m not sure I’d ever go under the knife. The laser, maybe, as in electrolysis.

I know, I shouldn’t talk. Most people probably think I could use some nips, tucks and other/or realignments.

Personally, I think I look fine.

Call me a wuss. Or a sissy. Or a loser. Or you pick the moniker.

I just can’t bring myself to go out and run today.

Wednesday, it was 75 degrees with 76% humidity when I ran. That, coupled with a personal issue of the female variety, made the jog/walk routine close to intolerable. But I still did jog a full 18 minutes.

Today, when I stepped outside with the dogs, I was immediately enveloped in a thick, warm, wet blanket of air. I checked the Weather Channel Web site. The temperature was again 75 degrees, but with 90% humidity. And that issue of a personal nature is still nagging me.

I did not run. I just couldn’t. I chose to stay in air-conditioned comfort instead.

How much does humidity really matter? Only a non-Marylander would ask. It’s 79 degrees in my office right now. But the humidity level is only at 36% (yes, I have a thermometer in here).

Oh well. Perhaps I’ll get back out there tomorrow.

I couldn’t think of a decent title for this post. Sorry. Now that that is out of the way…

Guess what I found?

The Paw Paw Tunnel! I was here once as a kid, like 30+ years ago. I thought it was cool and have always wanted to go back.

NOTE: if you want to see a bigger version of any of these shots, click on the picture. When done looking at the pic, use your browser’s BACK button to return to the blog.

Now I know Paw Paw (the town) is close to our WV place, I just didn’t know how to find the tunnel. Honestly, I hadn’t really looked. But now that our place is finished and we have so much time on our hands, we actually get to do cool stuff like explore.

I drove to the WV place on Thursday night with the doggie girls (I had Friday off). Since Hubby wouldn’t be arriving until Friday evening, I set out that morning to do a bit of exploring by myself. One of my goals was to find the tunnel.

I didn’t actually go to the tunnel. It’s only a 0.6 mile walk from the parking lot. But it was hot. My head was already all sweaty, hence the lovely hairdo, I was wearing black jeans and heavy leather biker boots. I thought of my friends who, the previous evening, had asked why I didn’t just take pictures of myself. Actually, I thought of that before I left and switched to an appropriate lens.

I found a cool road on the way to Paw Paw. From there, I went over to Berkeley Springs via yet another very cool back road. Both were a bit rough as far as road surface, but it felt like I was riding through a cool (as in temperature) forest. I didn’t spend much time in Berkeley Springs. It was hot, as I said earlier, and the traffic on 522 was backed up in both directions as far as I could see.

On the way to Berkeley Springs, I stopped near Great Cacapon (the town) and took some pics at the Cacapon River.

This is actually a train bridge.

This is the road bridge on Route 9 just outside of Great Cacapon.

As for the return trip, just west of Berkeley Springs on Route 9, I stopped at a neat overlook.

The town you see in the distance, to the left of the river, is Paw Paw. That’s the Potomac River, by the way. The land to the right of the river is in Maryland. I was actually headed almost back to Paw Paw via Route 9 this time.

I couldn’t decide which picture I liked best, with or without the bike, so I posted both.

Can you guess what happened after I left the overlook? I got rained on. It didn’t last long, though. And even though I got pretty wet, it actually felt kind of good. I dried out pretty quickly, too.

The next day (Saturday) Hubby joined me for another ride. We pretty much covered the same ground. On the way back, we went through Oldtown, Maryland. There are two things significant about Oldtown.

First, the C&O Canal passes through there. Locks 69 and 70 are VERY close by.

The above image is a shot of the canal below one of the locks (70?).

This shot shows the end of a lock and some more canal.

The second notable thing about Oldtown is the privately owned toll bridge. It’s made of wood. And it’s the only way to get across the Potomac without driving to either Cumberland, Maryland or Paw Paw, West Virginia, neither of which would be very convenient.

This is a view of the bridge from the Maryland side. The toll for motorcycles is $.25. Cars are more expensive at $.50. A lady sits in a little brick shack (toll booth) and holds out a tin cup to collect the money.

And here’s what it looks like as one approaches from the MD side.

Although we’d been here before, it didn’t register in my brain that the C&O Canal tow path is right there. It’s only about 10 miles from our house. Guess where we’ll be hiking and biking (bicycles) in the Fall?

I hope you enjoyed my not-so-little travelogue. I’ll try to be briefer next time.