Furry Felines Ready to Become Your Forever Friend

My friend, Yolanda, is a volunteer with the Washington Humane Society. She's part of a cat adoption fair this Sunday.

The fair will be at Annie’s Ace Hardware, 3405 8th Street NE in DC, June 19, 12pm – 3pm.

So if you are looking for a furry friend and companion, stop by the fair this Sunday and see all the wonderful cats ready to be adopted.

More about the Humane Society:

The WHS Mission
The Washington Humane Society inspires and creates a community where all animals have secure homes and where people and animals live together with joy and compassion.

About WHS
The Washington Humane Society (WHS), the only Congressionally-chartered animal welfare agency in the United States, has been the area’s leading voice for animals since 1870. As the open-access shelter in the Nation’s Capital, the Washington Humane Society provides comfort and care to over 43,000 animals each year through its broad range of programs and services including sheltering for homeless animals, a comprehensive adoption program and off-site adoption events to find new families for the animals in our care, low-cost spay and neuter for pet owners and other local organizations, an aggressive TNR (trap-neuter-return) program for feral cats (CatNiPP), investigations of each allegation of animal cruelty or neglect through the Humane Law Enforcement, lost and found services to help reunite lost pets with their families, pet behavioral advice to help resolve issues that lead to animals being relinquished to shelters, working with breed rescue groups to find more homes for more animals, volunteer and foster programs to allow other members of the community to help us help more animals and an award winning Humane Education program that teaches kindness to animals to the next generation of animal lovers.

Look how cute that guy is in the poster!

You can also follow the Petworth Monthly Cat Adoption Event on Facebook.

Again. AGAIN!

Was shocked to wake to the news of another mass shooting?

No I wasn't.

But it made me very very sad.

Sad because we as a country didn't do anything to ban the sale of the weapon used in this attack.

Sad because we haven't done anything to improve facilities and treatments for people with mental health issues.

Sad because we have the same old rhetoric from both sides on the debate. When will people wake up to the fact that it is about the person doing shooting BUT also what they are shooting with. Both matter. Both have to be solved or nothing will ever change.

Sad because we will be back at this same place in a very short time when the next tragedy occurs.

Here are a few pictures from DuPont Circle.

NoVa Lights Chorale A Touch of Jazz!

It's taken me a week but I've finally got the picture I took at the NoVa Lights Chorale A Touch of Jazz! concert from last week. It was really a great concert. Here are are few of my pictures.

One quick note. My friend Mark introduced me saying I would be taking pictures. Also it just so happened to be my my birthday that day. And with that Happy Birthday was sung with musical accompaniment no less. I can't remember the last time that many people sung happy birthday to me. It was a special treat.

NoVa Lights Chorale A Touch of Jazz! — The Chorale Singing

NoVa Lights Chorale A Touch of Jazz! — Director Barbara Stefan at Work

NoVa Lights Chorale  is directed by Barbara Stefan. Here she is at work directing the Chorale.

NoVa Lights Chorale A Touch of Jazz! — The Band

There was a great band supporting the Chorale. Here are a few pictures of them. Alisha Coleman — clarinet and saxophone. Matthew Halligan — percussion. Glenn Harris — string bass. Griffith Kazmierczak — trumpet and violin. Anna Ko — piano. Michael Kramer — guitar.

 

Go Ape — Zip Lining

What great fun this was.

The actual zip lining parts were simple. You hooked yourself to the cable. I then just sat down. Felt the harness support me and then off I went. It got harder to get the zip platforms. Also you went up higher and higher each time.

The harder parts were the bridges you had to cross to get from one platform to another. They certainly placed some very interesting obstacles in your way.

The place we went is called GoApeUSA. Here's their description of the course:

The Go Ape treetop adventure course is made up of 6 zip lines (including Maryland and the USA’s first skateboard zipline!) numerous rope ladders, 44 crossings to include the Stirrups and Twister and 2 tarzan swings.  More than just a canopy tour, there are 6 individual sections within the course, each section taking you higher into the forest canopy and finishing with a zip line more exciting than the previous one!  If you’ve been before, we’ve added a banana load of challenging obstacles to make your adventure more exciting than ever before.  Furthermore, the course now includes a zip line taking you over a road!

The tarzan swing, especially the last one, was a leap of faith. But it was so well worth it. The hardest part was climbing up the net to get to the next platform which also happened to be the last zip line and brought you back to the start of the course.

Here is me practicing on a zip line. I stuck the landing this time. I got my legs moving as I came in towards the ground. So I was running as I came in. It didn't work on the longer zip lines. I always ended up coming in on my butt. It was hard to figure out exactly when you'd hit the ground. It came as sort of a surprise.

I have to mention our instructor, Cameron. He was just great. He is in the picture below to the left of me. He was very thorough. He also was a great motivator. There were a couple of times that I was stuck and he called up encouragement to get me going.

 

Here are a couple of pictures of one of the group coming in on the last zip line. 

This was a blast. I can't wait to go again.

So Much Happening — So Behind

A concert, a zip line course, a baseball game, Clinton as the nominee, a upcoming 90th birthday to talk about.

I'm so far behind.

I will try and play catch up over the weekend.

But before I can do that I have to get a haircut. Then meet a friend for lunch.

So here are couple of pictures for the zip line course which was by the way a blast.

Fine Furry Feline Friend Named Henrietta Needs a Home

I'm helping my friend Yolanda get the word out about her wonderful foster cat Henrietta.

Here's all you need to know about Henrietta in her own words.

Hi, my name is Henrietta. I am a 2 year brown tabby and the unique thing about me is that the soles of my feet are solid dark brown. I can be shy in the beginning and may rely on my carrier to hide, but once I warm up to you, I will be your cat and you will be my human. I enjoy batting and chasing my toy carrot, balls, and straws; if it moves, I will chase it. I am a foodie and like having company while I dine. I like being near you. I like gentle head scratches, but I always have to smell your hand first. You can check out how cute I am in a video that my foster mom took of me!

If you're interested in adopting Henrietta follow this link.

I Think Something is Missing Here

I wish any and all pedestrians the best of luck pushing that button.

2Political Podcast Episode 120

2Political Podcast Episode 120 is now available. You can listen to it or download it from the podcast site, 2political.com. You can leave comments there as well as download or listen to any episode (you can access the five most recent episodes from the list on the right side of my blog).

Back to political stuff this episode—though we start with just chatting.

When the political talk begins, we start with talk about how the Donald might win in November. Then we go on to talk about Bernie and his supporters. Arthur is increasingly annoyed with some of Bernie's most ardent fans. We have a few other complaints. We have a go at Drumpf and the Republicans, too, of course. We even talk about illegal immigration, both the hypocrisy of those who claim to want to fight it, and what would happen if they actually did.

Everyone's welcome to leave a comment (agree or disagree!).

Links for this episode:
”Most "Pro-Life" Americans Unsure About Trump's Abortion Views” - Gallup
”How Would Americans React to a President Trump's First 100 Days?” - Gallup
”Who are Trump’s potential Supreme Court picks?” - MSNBC
”The smug style in American liberalism” - The Vox piece we mentioned
”An Historic Night at Nationals' Park — Max Scherzer Strikes out 20” Jason’s blog post on the game we mentioned at the very end
Arthur’s blog, podcasts and videos can be accessed here.

2Political Podcast Episode 119

This is a different sort of episode for us—not unusual, but not common: This is one of those “& other stuff” episodes we mention on our website and album art. This meant that Arthur didn’t rush to edit it, then he got sick. Sigh. Anyway, we’ve already recorded another episode, and will be posted soon.

We begin by talking about technical, um, challenges. We have had a few! This led to a discussion of some American things not available in New Zealand. We also talked about baseball—well, Jason did. And, we talk about spotting famous people—and that leads on to famous people dying, some people’s reaction to those deaths and the reactions of people to those reactions. And then we end up NOT talking about comments. The trials and tribulations took their toll!

A newer (already recorded) episode will be posted soon (meaning, as soon as Arthur finishes editing it…).

Everyone’s welcome to leave a comment (agree or disagree!).
Links for this episode:
Bryce Harper’s Instagram photo that we talked about
Arthur’s 2008 blog post on his brush with a famous person he talked about (second item)
“After Prince died” The blog post Arthur mentioned
Arthur’s blog, podcasts and videos can be accessed here.

Fun with Peanuts and Baseball

 Some of the best series of cartoons in Peanuts deal with baseball. This is a gem.