Back Whence We Came:

Azzes to Azzes, Dust to Dust.

After an excellent stay in Flagstaff this weekend, we're back in The Valley aka the Innie of Satan. It's still hot as all get out here, nothing new under the sun, so to speak. We're surviving.

Our last hours in Flagstaff, though, were quite nice. Went on a quick hike through the recently drenched forest Sunday morning, dragging the W-D along with us. Took a little while to get her revved up to go:

And we're off! Note that this is a fairly typical Wrigley-gets-off-the-couch routine; we highly suggest that you try it at home, too!

Woods were gorgeous; I'll let the usual picture table do the talking:

Those last couple of the toadstool were actually shot in Katy's parents' backyard. Increible! I was looking for smurfs:

One pill made me bigger, one made me small? Yeah. We followed up the hike with some brunch at a local restaurant; hit the spot. Packed up our stuff, bid Flagstaff adieu and watched the Prius's external thermometer creep from the low 80s to the high 100s on our way back. Sigh...

All was not lost, though, because we headed over to D&C's house last night to eat some excellent Xtina made spaghetti and meatballs. I especially appreciated the uniform thinness / smoothness of the homemade pasta. Great food, wine, and times per usual; after dinner we kicked it on the couch awhile and watched miscellaneous twelve year olds perform gymnastic routines. Looking forward to moving closer to Dan and Christina, indeed.

Side note rant of the day: WHAT THE HELL IS UP with the now ritual / habitual / obligatory "Can you describe the emotions you felt just then when that thing there happened?" questions? Sports coverage generally makes me want to perform a self-lobotomy with chopsticks poked above my eyeballs, but this has taken it to a new level. Is there any way we can abolish this line of questioning? Every one is answered with "Great" or "Happy" or something equally predictable/moronic/meaningless. Just once, I'd like someone to say "No, I cannot describe the emotions, because I have spent years honing only this skill and lack the oratory practice to convey them; besides, emotions are ineffable, and despite our vicarious attempts, we'll spend our entire lonely lives trying to know make real contact with another person and failing miserably, limited to our own hollow skulls. I'm going to go cry into my gold medal now."