2014 in a Dozen Photos: September-December

Missed Parts I and II? Check out January through April and May through August.

September

September 2014: Great Falls National Park

The Potomac River has many faces, all of them beautiful to us.

My husband took a week of leave in September so we could spend Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year) with our family in Northern Virginia. When we weren’t davening (praying) or hanging out with our relatives, we managed to squeeze in a hike around Great Falls National Park. The vistas are spectacular, though the view above is of a quieter part of the river downstream of the magnificent rapids. We spent a lot of together time here when we were in high school, so it’s a special place for us.

October

October 2014: The Tenth Doctor

You didn’t know I was a Time Lord, did you?

The squadron had a Halloween party, and we geeked it right up. Apparently “Doctor Who” isn’t terribly well-known amongst naval aviators, because we confused the heck out of everyone with our Ninth (husband) and Tenth Doctor (me) costumes. Does my hair look David Tennantish enough?

November

November 2014: Blackwater River

The sandy-bottomed Blackwater River meanders through a forest north of Milton, Florida.

Yes, here’s river picture number two in a single post. What can I say? We like rivers. In November, there were finally a few precious days of what I would consider proper early-autumn temperatures. When one such day happened to fall on a weekend, we jumped at the chance to get out of town a little ways and explore a park we’d been meaning to visit again. Our first visit had been the previous summer, and it was hot. With the temperature in a more comfortable range, we were able to truly enjoy a number of little trails by the sandy banks and in the woods.

December

December 2014: Almost Done!

Ninety-nine squares. One more to go, then the border…

I started on this afghan in the fall of 2013, took a huge break when it warmed up in the spring of 2014, and finally picked it up again when I started getting together with my next-door neighbor to knit on a regular basis in late summer. By December, I was in the home stretch. Since the above photo was taken, I have completed all one hundred squares, stitched the four quadrants together, and begun on the border. Had I not come down with some kind of demonspawn hell-cold right as we were heading out of town on winter leave, I might have finished it on the long road between here and Virginia. If I’m not a complete procrastinator, I’ll have the whole dang Rainbow Dash-worthy thing ready to show off before the end of January 2015.


And now we’re all caught up (well, for a somewhat scattershot value of “caught up”) and primed to tackle a fresh year. Hope everything is off to a good start with you!

2014 in a Dozen Photos: May-August

Missed Part I? Check out January through April.

May

May 2014: Wat Mongkolratanaram

Wat Mongkolratanaram, also known as Wat Tampa, is a Buddhist temple in Tampa, Florida.

My request was to spend my thirtieth birthday weekend riding roller coasters until my face melted, and my husband obliged by whisking me away to Tampa, Florida for some quality Busch Gardens time. The coasters were fantastic, but perhaps the best part of the weekend was our discovery that Wat Mongkolratanaram, the temple serving the local Thai and Buddhist community, hosts an open house on most Sundays. Not only did we have the opportunity to learn more about another culture, its beliefs, and its practices, but we had the best Thai food I have eaten in a long, long time. Highly recommended.

June

June 2014: Middlebury, Vermont

A view of downtown Middlebury, Vermont.

June is hot and sticky in Pensacola. June in rural Vermont is lush, green, crisp, and mostly cool. While the favorable climate was not precisely the driving factor in my decision to apply for an intense, three-week total immersion program in Modern Hebrew at the Middlebury Summer Language Schools, it sure didn’t hurt! Going to Middlebury was a big step outside my comfort zone, and not just because of the pledge all students sign to speak no English and communicate only in the target language for the duration of the course. It’s amazing how much Hebrew one can learn when one has no choice but to speak it at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all classes and activities in between.

July

July 2014: Shalom, Chavera

Saying goodbye to my best friend from the School of Hebrew at Middlebury Summer Language Schools.

After three weeks of the most intense language study I have ever experienced, it was time to return to the English-speaking world. I know I said that these monthly snapshots wouldn’t necessarily depict super-significant, life-changing moments, but my Middlebury experience represents a turning point. I packed more Hebrew into my head than I would have through possible in such a short time, but perhaps the most important thing I learned is that after seven years out of academia, I could still hack it in a school environment. Not only could I hack it, but it energized and excited me to the point that I am preparing for a big, scary, exciting, terrifying application process in 2015. (More on that later.)

August

August 2014: The Prettiest Challah

Six strands, no problem.

I bake challah, the traditional bread for the Jewish Sabbath, frequently throughout the year. One I made in August just happened to turn out the prettiest of any I made in 2014. I was just branching out to a six-strand braid from my usual four, and this one looked good enough to eat. Which we did. With extreme enthusiasm. Of course, we do that even with challot that turn out a little derpy-looking.

The Nth Demesne

Observant visitors to my blog might notice a little something different in the address bar at the top of their browsers.

ToTheNth.net

Look, a real domain name!

I decided it was finally time to invest in a domain name for my blog that would be a little less cumbersome than the default “tothenth.wordpress.com” upon which I have relied until now. If you would like to update your links to reflect the new address, please do so, but extant links should redirect to the new address seamlessly.

http://www.ToTheNth.net

Say it with me: “To the Nth dot net.” Rather mellifluous, to my (admittedly biased) ear. It’s shorter, simpler to type, and way quicker to jot down on a napkin when you just have to take a moment during a coffee date to tell one of your milspouse friends about this great blog you read. 😉