I had the most excellent dreams last night. Slept very very deeply. Rested.

I thought (in a meta-dream evidently) that I had written them down, 'cause I wanted to remember the details. But I didn't and thus have forgotten them.

There was one scene toward the end I remember; a semi-invisible horse made of flame with a stripe on his nose, I could hold the stripe somehow and make it visible, control it.

I assure you it made much much more sense in context. o.o

And Claire and my-Ben were there too. But I don't remember how they were involved. I think it was in separate dreams.

p.s. damn metadream, tricking me. and the laptop was right there. gr.

Friday:

Took the day off from work, with Trevor's blessings. Took care of some personal stuff - emails, reading, laundry, etc. Relaxed. Went to see Nathan in the evening; we made pizza (from scratch, prompted by a TV ad and Nathan's "cook everything from scratch" habit). Pizza was good.

There was a pretty big thunderstorm, with the water pouring down. So, we went for a walk. :-P It was about 5 miles total; we both got completely soaked and thoroughly enjoyed it. Part of our path went through a forest (off-trail, of course, and this was after dark anyway). Lightning helped to see periodically.

A few highlights: there was one grove that had two potted pot plants (one pretty healthy / well-grown, the other fairly small); I took a leaf as a souvenir but lost it at some point. Pretty close to the trail, actually, but hidden by a small field of tall ferns.

At another point, there was a river we wanted to cross. No bridge, and too deep to wade (I'd guess at least 2-3 feet at that point, with the downpour). This was after the rain had stopped, fortunately. There was a tree that had fallen across, very conveniently and pretty stably. So we crossed, mainly by crawling or butt-sliding up it; the only hard parts (which were a bit of a problem) were the occasional branches or stubs sticking out of it that required balancing or other creativity to get legs around. There was also a bit of maybe-poison ivy (but no problem avoiding it, and no rashes afterwards).

There were a few groves that had a lot of fireflies around them. Very pretty; somewhat druidic in feel to me. Relatively hard to catch, since there wasn't enough lighting to track / stalk them when they weren't lit. Nathan managed to catch one and gave it to me; it flew around inside my cupped hands for a bit, lighting up. That was quite neat.

It was quite fun, really; some interesting reactions from people in the downtown area who noticed the (closed) umbrella in my pocket. ;-) Haven't done it before, but I guess I'll have to agree with Claire now - thunderstorms *are* good weather. If you're dressed right for it. (My boots got a bit flooded on one of the stream-crossings, and I had to put them in the dryer afterwards).

Saturday, we-three (me, Claire, Nathan) went hiking in Shenandoah Park again, this time a somewhat shorter path. Pretty, some good overlooks. Brought riceballs (yummy, and again Nathan's fault) to eat, plenty of water. Only overheated a bit, yay. I don't have the stamina for more than 5 miles or so though; I think they-two are planning on taking another hike sometime of ~15 miles. *shrug*

Sunday I don't remember.

Monday we-three went to the National Mall. Saw some more cooking exhibits at the Smithosnian Insitute's Folklife Festival (hence the ice cream & pizza dough recipes), plus various other ones. Lounged on the grass. Listened to 40 minutes of the concert, then went to try to see the fireworks from my office roof. We got there just as they were starting... but grr, the building west of us blocked the view of half of them. We ended up going down to the street to see 'em from across the street from the White House, and they didn't last much longer after that. Fireworks were somewhat disappointing, but still a good day overall.

So yes. Good weekend.

Tomorrow, I think we're going to see some monuments, and maybe stay out and watch the stars. We'll see.