Trip Time

So it's been a little while since I've enlightened the masses with a post, so let's get on with a story about the Yurt trip. Well it will be more like just a quick recount of the situation.

So the ski in to the T.U.N.A. Yurt in the Uintah Mnts, UT (how's that for exposition Shakespeare), was surprisingly long and painful. My groin hurt. I wasn't tired, but my little groing muscles or joints, or ligaments, or according to me ma, glands, just hurt like the dickens. Every step forward was a major sharp pain. But enough of that; on to the yurt.

It was hot. I had to strip to my bare chest in order to prevent myself from passing out from heat stroke. I would have stripped more had there not been mixed company. Eventually-about 3am I was able to put my shirt back on and get in my sleeping bag.

The yurt is lovely. 8 bunks with pre-installed foam pads to sleep on. Darren enjoyed some "mouse mints" under his head the first morning. He opted not to eat the little power pellets; I found his choice prudent.

We skied up a big hill (walking with skis on basically). Then we skied down the big hill. The powder was surprisingly good and I made very nice turns, with the snow accepting me into the turns and then easing me into the next turn. It ended WAY to quickly. Braden only fell a couple of times and made to the bottom safely with sagacious route finding.

The meal that evening consisted of deer sausage (courtesy of Maddy) biscuits, and mashed potatoes and gravy. Truly a meal fit for arctic adventurers. If you haven't had deer sausage, I'm going to recommend that you try it sometime, as well as frying biscuits rather than baking them.

The ski out was very fast and I nearly lost it when the trail got bumpy. My pack jostled and swayed, my skis clicked and clacked, I wabbled and bent, and I said "wh whoa." But by some miraculous miracle, I stayed upright.

That was my short made for TV, condensed book, short attention span trip report for the yurt trip. It was Grand.

Pictures of the post: The traditional power jumping for the camera in front of the yurt and (I know two is unusual, but it had to be done) and the pipe tapping the spring where we got water for drinking. To the left there are a couple of nice, dried cow or other animal pies. That's right, adjacent to our drinking water. So far no raging diarrhea, but I won't relax until I make it past Wednesday.

Hilarity of the Day

I had two experiences that caused much glee in me the other day.

1. I caught the good ol' faithful number 52 UTA bus to head home from work. I sat in the very back and made myself comfortable for the 20 minute bus ride. Just as I started to wiggle into the comfort nook the bus started bouncing up and down quite violently. I thought we were going over some rough construction repairs or something. Then the greatest bus ride of my life transpired. The bus started oscillating at about 4Hz then I was launched from my seat. I was in the air a good couple of inches. I was on a bizarre roller coaster. I almost hollered out with glee but I didn't want to attract attention to my self. I just bounced with a huge smile on my face, sucking away laughter. One lady a couple of seats in front of me was reading a book and at one of these giant bumps she bounced pretty good, not as good as the back, but her book flew out of her hand and I had to duck down to laugh it out. She looked so displeased with the situation. Then we made it to 15th East which is riddled with speed bumps. That's right, this is where I had my record breaker. I bounced so high I almost stood up. Must have spaced the seat 6 to 8 inches. I will always be a firm believer in the importance of public transportation.

2. While reading "The Disappointment" by Aphra Behn, there is a reference to Priapus. I do not know who or what Priapus is, but thank goodness for glosses. I look down to number 5 and read this: "Phallus. The ancient god Priapus is always pictured with an outstanding erection." I was in the Union, (how come ours isn't called "The Quad") and I laughed. Just picture it, "Outstanding work Priapus, really top notch erection you got going on there."
"Oh thank you sir. I've been working hard on it."
Oh, I'm having a hard time typing. I love literary critics.

Topost's picture is at Buffalo Bill's grave/memorial just outside Denver, CO. Sam on the left, me on the right.

School Daze

School started. Here are the highlights.

Spanish: Began class with a little get to know you exercise. It was to go like this: you introduce yourself to your partner, they introduce themselves, then you talk about your holiday break a bit. My partner, Katie, begins. It was my turn to speak and what came out of my mouth? You bet it wasn't Spanish; it was French. I guess there was some latent vocab pushing its way out in protest of this Spanish stuff I have been trying to learn. Not a terribly good sign.

Shakespeare: Introductions. We were to go around the class and state our name and which character in which Shakespearean play we would act if we could choose any character. Well, the class is going around pulling out all these obscure characters, chosen for their deceit, or craziness or whatever typical Shakespearean trait the character had. The ball came to me. I froze. My knowledge of Shakespeare is extremely limited compared to these people, who apparently don't even need this class. I thought and I thought and I couldn't think of anyone. So I said "that blind fortuneteller in King Lear, I can't remember his name." "Good," I thought. Well there is no blind fortuneteller in King Lear and I was thinking of Tyreseus in Oedipus Rex (not Shakespeare) and confusing him with the blinded Gloucester. Oh how I went red. I handled it fairly well, laughing it off and sort of covering my choice, but still, not good.

Other Classes: Nothing too eventful yet. Still have 3.5 more dreadful months to go so, there's still time.

Today's photo is the lovely backside of a head whose colors blogger has once again destroyed.

What? So Soon?

Yes indeed blogger friends; two for the price of one today. It will be short and the picture is stellar isn't it.

Today, at Waterford (my -one of two places of employment- for those of you unfamiliar) I had a shocker. To test the program, the games, activities, and their associated code, they have a testing rack. This consists of 150 or so computers of various sizes and computational capabilities all running "the product" non-stop, playing every possible iteration of a game or whatever, in search of a piece of code that will send it into a spiraling crash of doom (or, as in one case which ended in termination, the search of easter eggs). So these noisemakers are running non-stop and are on my route to the men's room. Today, after enjoying some clear thinking time, I walked back to my desk, enjoying the lovely animations or science facts or counting songs. All of a sudden, Loony Tunes style, I stopped on one foot and looked to my left. I looked a little closer. Sure enough, there was my Dad with my Niece and Nephew learning about food groups, in my Sister's home none the less. I knew my Pa had done some stuff for them, as well as my young and talented Niece and Nephew, but to just see them pop up, it's like seeing a movie star or someone famous. You can't really believe its them, but it is. Kind of Trippy.

So today's picture may not seem stellar to all, but I love the Spiral Jetty so much that any time I can reminisce, I will.

New Year?

It was incredibly wonderful to hang with friends this holiday who had vanished at the nadir of the summer. Spending entire days with good friends, forgetting that you have 45 children's books worth of audio to cut and clean, that you need to figure out how to have all computers on the network connect to the SQL Server, is something that everyone should do, and should be done more often by me. As I've said perhaps too many times words can never explain my true feelings but I try anyway. The feeling of spending New Year's day, eating, chatting and hangin' was a complete escape. I am ashamed to admit even when I am off enjoying the mountains, a camping trip, a nice drive, there is a constant looming spice in the back of my neck that it poking my taste buds telling me "You have things waiting for you sucka." On New Year's, the spice was abated by the plain yogurt of good friends. I was in the moment, relaxed, and unhindered. This is what friends are meant for I imagine. They are there to take you out of you and expose you to something new, share an insight into politics you may not have recognized, or bug the hell out of you so you can realize they are close enough to you that they can bug the hell out of you. Any time you get a new perspective, a new kick, you become a bit more robust, like getting extra additions to your transformers so they can now turn into a helicopter. So cheers to friends that have lasted the tests of time and distance, to friends who are new and germinating, to friends lost for a period and regained.

The photo is of a sculpture from an art gallery in SLC. The sculptor is Rober Taplin, and the exhibit is called the five planets, but there are no planets. This is one of 5 life size to double life size sculptures of a man. One is opaque the other, is translucent fiber glass lit from the inside. The sculptures were hanging from the ceiling in an otherwise dark room. It is incredible to walk in there and see orange dots in the distance, suspended. I recommend you click the pic and view the larger version. Later.