Vaso’s Kitchen and Gravelly Point

It’s always a treat to drive to Old Town Alexandria. We have been visiting there since before we moved to DC seventeen years ago! When we lived on Capitol Hill We frequented the city for lunch at least twice a month. Now that we live in northern Virginia we drive in for a morning walk at least once a month. I oftentimes find a scene for the weekly photo challenge that I belong to. And oftentimes after we take our walk, we sit on the bench facing the Potomac River and order pick up from Vaso’s Kitchen. Then we drive over to the restaurant for the Greek pizza and chicken kabob and head to Gravelly Point. Then we park in the parking lot that is located next to Reagan airport, watch the planes take off and land and have a picnic of sorts. We always have half of the pizza and save the kabob for dinner. It’s usually pretty crowded there regardless of the time of year. We once walked along the trails there but I don’t care to walk on the same path as the bikes. But the views are great. You can see the Capitol building across the way. Since we rarely go anywhere anymore it’s a nice way to spend part of the day. It feels like being on a mini vacation. And for the first time this week it was finally warmer and sunny. Who could ask for anything more?

Rustoleum Metallic Accent Paint

I’m not sure what happened to the grab bars in the bathroom tub/shower. For whatever reason the area doesn’t seem to dry and the end result is some ugly looking rust on the underside. We usually hang the bath mat on the grab bar after use, and that doesn’t help. But I’ve been in the mood to touch up things lately so they look a bit more like new. We recently got some grout paint that was used to touch up the discolored grout. It worked really well. We got a new bath mat. It looks really nice. So I got some Rustoleum metallic accent paint called sterling silver. Of course I wiped down and cleaned the areas in question. And I used a sponge applicator for lack of anything else. The area is quite tiny and hardly observable. But I know it is there. So the first coat just seemed to be quite watery and didn’t cover anything. So I held a paper towel beneath the area in question and the paint just ran down like water, but the paint itself was much thicker. So rather than use the sponge applicator I found a cotton swab that was just the right size to dab on the paint. And this time it covered the area nicely. I waited half an hour and repeated the process again. It covered this time as well. It certainly doesn’t look as good as I would like, but it covers enough to hide the ugly rust. I have a feeling that it’s going to happen again. At least I have the paint we need to get the job done - and to keep the bathroom looking half way decent. 

Oxo Good Grips Suction Razor Holder

We have been trying to keep the bathroom tidy. Most recently we used some grout paint to clean up the discolored light grey grout. It worked remarkably well and has so far stood the test of time. The paint is waterproof and it seems to be doing a great job. And it will be worth the effort to keep it maintained if it needs to be. I still need to find an acrylic/plastic “tray” to fit in the shower indentation where the shampoo and soap bottles are stored. It’s a lot easier to keep that area clean without messing up the tile underneath. But it’s an odd size and will take some investigating to find something that fits. So when my husband took over my razor holder for his body washing cloths to hang, I needed to find another razor holder. I just don’t like stuff lying around on the bathtub ledge. I never wanted a bath tub to begin with, but we ended up with a huge soaker tub. Anyway, I found an Oxo good grips product that looked good. We have several good grips products in the kitchen. It arrived today through Amazon and I promptly hung it in the shower. After half an hour it fell off. The next time I moistened the product and the wall, so hopefully it will stay put. In the fine print it says that the hanger doesn’t work very well on textured surfaces - better on mirrors or solid flat tiles. Of course the large tiles in the shower are slightly textured. Anyway, it’s nice to try and keep things organized as long as the products do what they say they will. All I can say is anytime we fix little things to make things neater - we feel like we accomplished a lot. This is the excitement of our day!

Preparing for Balcony Power Wash

We weren’t sure why it was even necessary. We got a notice a week or so ago from the condo newsletter that the balconies and sidewalks were going to be power washed. That meant that you would need to clear off as much as possible from the balcony. There are a lot of balconies that are empty. But for people who live here all year around there is at least some furniture. And for people like us who like to have a bit more of the outdoors there are planters and flower pots. So we were warned that if you want to preserve your plants and flowers because of the chemicals that are used, they would need to be brought in or covered. Because our flowers are in coco lined window boxes that are hung from the back of the chairs with zip ties, we needed to be creative about how to cover them. The last thing I wanted to do was have to remove them and put them in the house. Luckily we got a large roll of plastic during the pandemic that has come in to good use for a variety if things. We used the plastic to lay on the floor in the foyer to place the groceries and clean them before bringing them in to the kitchen. So we cut three pieces of plastic and wrapped them around the flowers. But before we did that we needed to find some sticks to hold the plastic so it wouldn’t fall down on the taller flowers. We found some sticks on our walk in the neighborhood. So we got everything ready on Sunday afternoon because the work was supposed to start in Monday. I didn’t have a good feeling about it to begin with. And my feelings were confirmed when notice was sent out yesterday that the work was going to be delayed until further notice. So today the plastic was removed along with the sticks and put away for whenever the next time is scheduled. I’m not looking forward to doing this again. 

Philip Guston at the National Gallery of Art

We always enjoy visiting the National Gallery of Art. When we lived on Capitol Hill we oftentimes would stop in for lunch after taking a walk on the mall. Now that we live in northern Virginia we still like to ride in to town at least once a week and take morning walks. And when it is particularly hot, cold, or rainy - it’s a great place to stop in to get out of the elements. And there is always something to see. We recently saw photographs, sketches and drawings from Britain. There is also a new exhibit featuring Philip Guston. There are two parts. One is called Poor Richard - depicting Richard Nixon and the other is Philip Guston Now. I really don’t know much about this artist but we visited anyway. I rarely spend a lot of time reading about all of the details about each art work. I primarily walk rather quickly through the exhibits and pick out the eye catching items that get my attention. I was never a student of Art but I enjoy drawing on my iPad and also taking photographs - and that’s the main reason we visit the galleries. My husband likes hanging about all of the visitors and being in the crowd. I prefer a sparse environment. I did notice an lot of orange and pink in this collection. After walking about there we meandered over to the west building where more of my favorite pieces live. It’s just nice to know that the gallery isn’t too far away and it’s always a great place to visit. 

52Frames One Light Source Photo Challenge

The subject for this week’s 52Frames photo challenge was “one light source.” I could have pointed a flashlight at something but that idea didn’t really do much for me. So we thought a trip to the National Gallery of Art might be in order. After parking on the National Mall and walking around the Capitol building, we tried to enter the east building. But it was blocked off because the First Lady was showing the space around to her South Korean guest. That was a bit annoying. So we continued walking on to the West building and climbed the steps to the entryway where my husband always gets stopped by the metal detectors. We headed to the impressionist gallery and found an older gentleman wandering about. Then in the garden area a person was sitting on a bench beneath the skylights. We tried walking to the east building underground but were turned away. But before we reached there we walked down the staircase. I asked my husband to stand in the spotlight. After editing this image in black and white Jo it looked interesting with the halo effect, double shadow and arched lighting. That was the one we ended up using because he liked this one the best. Back up in the west gallery there was a beautiful window with light coming through. Then there was a guy standing beneath a ceiling light admiring a portrait. The last image was inside of a movie theater of sorts where the screen was the primary light source. It was different. We visit the National gallery all of the time and there is usually something to see. This day was no different.