Back to school

As I may have mentioned, we have spent the summer living (in the tiny house) in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington. The neighborhood is also sometimes known as The George Washington University neighborhood. Even though there seemed to be a substantial number of students around for summer school, it wasn’t that big of a deal. The campus is urban, but nice to walk the dog around, so that was cool.

However, this all changed last Friday, as the students began returning to campus in insane numbers. Friday it was just the freshmen, with their parents tagging along. But throughout the weekend, more and more students showed up. Suddenly all the apartment buildings and dorms around us were full. We hadn’t even realized how empty they were before. Saturday night, we went to bed amidst the sounds of roaring parties and woke up to a neighborhood littered with red plastic cups on Sunday. The bottom line is: we are leaving this place just in time.

Also indicating back to school time, I woke up this morning to full-on jeans weather. And where are all my jeans? Oh, somewhere between Baltimore and Nassau. Luckily, it’s 90 degrees in Nassau today, so if I can just survive the next two days I’m set.

For anyone following along in the on-going Laika training saga, she’s doing really well since returning from her last camp. I feel much more like I’m the one in control on our walks, which makes me more confident, which makes her trust me more and behave better. In fact, we just spent some time training outside the Foggy Bottom metro stop. I made her lay next to me while I sat on a bench for about five minutes. With people, bicycles, strollers, and wheelchairs coming by, she did great – I think I only had to correct her once. Those of you that know how hyperactive Laika can be realize what an accomplishment this is. I’m sure it was the longest five minutes ever in her mind, though.

Today and tomorrow will be spent with final packing and errand-running. Then we’re off on our big adventure on Wednesday. Depending on how soon we can get internet set up at our new house, I’ll be posting photos as soon as I can.