Yep, Still Breathing

You know you're working hard when you get an e-mail from your parents that say they never hear from you. Then you check your blog and see you haven't posted in a month and a half. Wow. We've been a bit busy. Moreso than usual since the online empire took a severe kick to the groinular region. We're cranking out new shops, new blogs, and basically scrambling to lessen the impact of it all. Hey, it still beats waking up to an alarm clock and going through the day with homicidal thoughts. Plus, we're learning at an almost constant rate. Scary, perhaps, but true.

Sunday marks our sixth wedding anniversary for those of you keeping score at home. It seems that the traditional gifts for year six are candy and iron. Don't get those confused. The modern gift is wood. We'll take the candy, thank you.

Western Tanager

Nothing really blogworthy going on. The most interesting non-work-related thing to happen was two-fold: it rained, and during the rainstorm we were lucky enough to see a pair of amazingly colorful birds out of our sliding glass door. Glowingly bright yellow body, orange head, and black wings on the male, and yellow and grey on the female. I later learned that it was a pair of Western Tanagers (not teenagers, though some of those are colorful). They made for a nice splash of color on what we've come to term a "grey New York kind of day".

Other than that, not much. Working. Go figure. We're exciting like that.

Red Rock, Sedona, and Trains

The weather was darn near perfect. The above was taken at Red Rock State Park, where we walked several miles of trails. The train ride was downright nifty, even though there were far, far more people on the train than I had expected. ("Any" counts as far more people than I expected.)

It was a cloudy couple of days, which in any place other than Arizona would be bad. In Arizona, clouds are welcome. They add greatly to photographs, and cut down the blasting bleaching badness of the big hot thing in the sky.

My Brain Hurts. Or It Will.

I got a call today from the migraine study place. They're cancelling the study. She said it was because the company felt they weren't getting the results they wanted, but I find that hard to believe. So that means that early next month I go in for my last appointment. We'll see how many days it takes until I start getting migraines again. It was a nice vacation. Maybe they'll be nice and give me a going away present of a few metric tons of pills.

The Last of the Thirties

I turned 39 a few minutes ago. At least as far as the calendar is concerned. If you want to be a stickler about it, it won't be for another 18 hours or so. I don't remember the exact time. I didn't have a digital watch then. (Or now, for that matter.) It's the last year I can be 30-something. I'm OK with that, because that was a crappy show. Deb has already made her famous chocolate chip cookies in honor of the event, so our plans for the day will involve cookies, lunch out somewhere, and more cookies. Sounds pretty darn perfect to me!

Next year at this time, I'll be cursing at turning 40. Because it just sounds old. And in 2012 when the Mayans come back from the dead and their gods kill us all, I'll be 42. Assuming they wait a couple months before they snuff out all existence. If you're a Douglas Adams fan, that age is significant. If you're not, then it isn't.

It's A Tradition

Whilst taking down some Christmas decorations outside today, I heard something that really put me in the mind of Christmases (or Christmasi) gone by back on the hill. As I was outside in my T-shirt, taking down garland and tending my peppers (yes, they're still growing), I heard the lilting notes of an ice cream truck. Not the engine, but the plinking music. It's just what one would expect to hear on the second of January, no?

End of December

Isn't this what the end of December looks like for everyone? T-shirt weather. Sunny, green, low 70s... No? Sucks for you, then. We spent part of the day breaking in our new walking sticks at the Catalina State Park. We walked for a couple miles. Had to cross actual water on multiple occasions, too! A rarity in Arizona, for the most part. The sticks were invaluable in that regard, so thanks again Kathy and Dan!