Okay, I know it's been a few days since my last post, for which I have already beaten myself up, but it was a fairly "distracting" week to say the least. In any case, things are back under control and here's another post!

Here's a great pic of yours truly doing a little scrambling in Salt Creek Canyon (a side canyon of Grand Canyon) during my April 2003 hike. It was a pretty challenging little day hike that we did on a "free" day during the backpacking trip. There were parts (like this one) where it looked fine to get down, but getting up seemed to me to be a bit dicier proposition. Everything worked out fine, although I did wind up putting my hand square into a prickly pear cactus and wound up with about 200 tiny needles in my palm. So, I spent the hour after we got back to camp picking them out with tweezers one by one... Did I ever mention that cactus needles are covered with some kind of alkyloid which is an irritant? Well... ow.



Oh - interesting side note - it was almost in this exact shot that my shorts gave up the ghost in an unfortunate tearing sound.... That's what happens to pants I guess when you slide down enough rock on your butt with them..

I should update those who know Charlotte Wormsign with "her" current condition. Some may remember Charlotte's most unfortunate encounter with the filter intake in my marine aquarium and how it lost most of its tentacles.. Well, Charlotte is still recovering well and has actually grown back a lot of the lost appendages! I need to get (or borrow) a digital camera so I can take a picture of the blobby little invertebrate and post it. "She" has taken to the tank wandering again though, so that concerns me a little bit...

Finally I just want to say thanks to ChefGrace for "listening"... :)

Do I have a quote for today? Hmmm..... How about:

"I don't think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that remains." -- Anne Frank