Or how about this . . . . Cairo at sunset after a rainy day . . . only time it rained while I was there and quite nice for me, but not for Cairenes apparently as they think it is bad weather! CAIRO, CAIRO, CAIRO . . . EGYPT . . .  

Gloomy day in the Washington DC area . . . so what should I do? I'm thinking about going to a movie since I don't want to walk around touristing in the rain. But meanwhile, I need to cheer myself up . . . . so here's some more fellucas on the Nile in Luxor! LUXOR, LUXOR, LUXOR!!! 

Rufus and more travel

Home for the weekend in Dallas. Took Rufus to the vet and he checked out at 100%. Yeah!!! One thing I don't have to worry about in my next 10 days of travel to Rockville, MD. Although, for some reason, Sylvia is hissing and growling at Rufus. This started up before I took him to the vet almost a month ago. Not sure if it is related to Rufus being sick or possibly me being gone so much. The vet says it is hard to pin-point these types of problems, but she had a suggestion for something to try to calm all the cats if Sylvia's anti-social behaviour continues.

Leaving at 5am for the airport. Oh, Joy! It gets so lonely up there without the kitties.


Although I do set my phone to vibrate while in the office as I do not want to disturb anyone with my ringtone. Not that anyone else appears to feel that way . . . sometimes I feel like I'm surrounded by a bunch of noisy people . . . we aren't allowed to listen to music without headphones so why do ppl think it is OK to barrage their neighbors with obnoxious and loud ringtones?? OK, I am cranky at times . . . I'm too stressed out and extra noise just makes it worse.


Catherine Barros

Here's a fun pic of the Jefferson Memorial . . . an airplane in flight on one side and a bird in flight on the other side! 

Cherry Blossom time in Washington DC . . . my first weekend on the job in Rockville MD, I went into DC to walk around. The cherry blossoms are in bloom and the hordes of tourists are out and about! With barricades all over the place and construction obstructing the way, I ended up walking much further than I had originally planned. I got detoured around and ended up walking across the Potomac River then over to the Rosslyn Metro before heading back to Rockville. I think I got in all my walking for the next week!

Thomas Jefferson Memorial 

Airplane through the Cherry Blossoms . . .

Airplane over the Lincoln Memorial 

Washington Monument shot from the area of the Lincoln Memorial 

Monday I head up to Rockville, Maryland, which is right outside of Washington, D.C. I'll be working there at NASD providing production support for PeopleSoft Financials while a team member is out on medical leave. Due to the nature of the work I'm doing, they want me to be on-site 5 days week. This means that I will not be home very much in the next four months as they are only going to authorize funds for fly-backs a couple of times a month. We'll just have to see what happens with that and how much I'll actually be in Dallas.

Meanwhile, I'm packing up various items that I think I will need for a longer extended stay as I will have continuous access to the same room in a suite hotel . . . . yeah!!! a kitchen with refrigerator and microwave, etc. Walking shoes and dance gear will also go with me so I can exercise, plus I'm taking my digital camera . . . yes, time for being a tourist in D.C. while the cherry blossoms are in bloom!

Unfortunately, this will probably make some things a bit more difficult such as the timely submission of papers to immigration to bring gozee to the United States. I just hope it doesn't slow things down too much as I was hoping that he could be here about the time this assignment wraps up. But we have already hit the first snafu as papers I need to send to Immigrations haven't made it here from Egypt and today is Saturday so they are not likely to arrive here before I leave on Monday . . . unless a miracle occurs with a Sunday delivery. I talked to the carrier when she delivered my mail today and she said that might possibly occur. But I figure it won't because I always have such bad luck . . . my expectations about most things seems to be shattered into little pieces.

I talked to Danuta (my friend and catsitter) to ask her to be on the lookout for the package from Egypt. Told her that the letter carrier has been informed that I'm expecting it and what my situation is. She will be able to go to the post office and pick it up . . . I hope they will let her have it!!! So maybe she can send to me in D.C. so it is not delayed too much more, but I fear that she won't be able to get it from them . . . I just hope they don't send it back or it gets lost.

Catherine Barros

Lenten Rose . . . early bloomer and quite profuse this year as I've had about 6 of them show up in this the second year of blooming! 

A host of golden daffodils! 

Is it time to stop and enjoy the spring flowers?