Ilanarama!

So, some of you may be familiar with the Windom Deathmarch. Ahem. Britt and I have just returned from backpacking in the Escalante region of southeast Utah, in which we made this literal (sort of!) by exploring both Death Hollow and Little Death Hollow (which are two completely different areas some 30 miles distant from each other). Our victims were our friend Kevin, who lives in Annapolis, and his girlfriend Jenny.

( Death Hollow )

( Little Death Hollow )




And if you haven't had enough, you can see all 37 photos on our Flickr page.

This was going to be the year that Britt and I got new backpacks, since mine is 15 years old and his probably more than 20, and each of them weighs about twice what a modern light pack weighs. So when we went to the Outdoor Retailer summer show, we tried out bunches of them, settled on a brand that we 1) liked a lot and 2) could get a pro deal on, and now each of us has a new Deuter backpack.

Also at the OR show, I won a backpack from GoLite (well, Britt won it, but it was a women's model, so it's mine).

Then a couple of days ago, I was notified that I had won an after-show drawing from womenspecific.com, and where should they send my new Lafuma backpack?

Then last night, we went to see a new rock climbing film, and various gear was given out for correct answers to trivia questions, and Britt won a new Osprey backpack.

Yeah, we got new packs this year, all right. Whee!

I added a blanket to my bed last night and turned on the heated mattress pad. Mmm, cozy.

I just bought approximately 2% of a local startup biodiesel plant.

So we arrived back in Durango on Sunday, and on Monday morning Britt's family mentioned they were haying, so we headed out to Bayfield to help with the hay. It took me only one and a half loads before the hay attacked me viciously. I was really trying hard to lift the bales carefully, from the legs! But I was on the back of the hay wagon stacking bales, and the wagon was lurching around the field, and even though I was just sliding a bale sideways, the combined forces of me and wagon and hay added up to OW OW PAIN AIE CAN NOT MOVE OW!

I hung out on the living room floor and drank wine and popped ibuprofen for the rest of the day. Yesterday I lay in bed all day, munching leftover percocet (I KNOW!) and reading and messing about on the internet (ooh, what fun, DSL again!) Then I finally got the bright idea of calling my doctor, who it turns out has back problems also and was happy to diagnose me over the phone and fax in a prescription for corticosteroids. Oooh, I can actually stand up without screaming in agony! Maybe I'll even be able to walk downtown for the parade and fireworks by this evening.

Um, the whole point of this is: I know I promised Great Backpacking Adventures, but they may have to wait for a while. Stupid evil hay.

I finally bought our air tickets to get out to the boat.  It turns out that one-way to Myrtle Beach, SC is a lot less expensive (read: half the cost) when you 1) fly into Wilmington NC instead and 2) fly out of the podunk little airport in Cortez, instead of our podunk little airport which is actually not even as podunk.  Apparently Cortez is subsidized by the Essential Air Service program, since otherwise no airline would bother flying there.  So instead of driving 20 minutes southeast we drive an hour west, and save $600 between the two of us.  Woo!

Now we just have to find someone willing to wake up early and drive us out there...

Britt: Nice pink sweater.
Ilana: Thank you! Actually, I'd describe it as 'coral' rather than 'pink'. Not that coral really is this color. Hmm, what color is coral? Yellowish, really. Don't you think?
Britt: Some of it is yellow. Some of it is purple. Some of it is pink.
Ilana: When it's dead, it's white.
Britt: You know, naming a color 'coral' is kind of like naming a color 'flower'.

At this point I snorted coffee and collapsed in giggles.

It is raining. In Colorado, at 6600 feet, in January. WTF, weather? Where is my snow?

I finally got our front yard landscaping photos onto the computer. For those of you following along at home, we live in town on a teeny city lot. Our front yard is divided by a walkway from the street to our door, and originally there was a lawn on both sides. The lawn on the west side (our house faces south) is fairly sunny and open, and it's reasonably lush, but on the (much smaller) east side the lot is heavily shaded year round by a big blue spruce by the street and a juniper next to the house that acidifies the soil, so the grass has always been pretty pathetic. This fall we dug up the entire east side of the yard and rebuilt it with a patio and fake-stone planter terraces.

This is what it looked like in an early stage of the landscaping:



This is what it looks like now:



In-progress pictures, with bonus cat in most of them, are here on my flickr page.

ETA: The lighter green groundcover is Aegopodium ("snow-on-the-mountain") and the darker green that is near the juniper is Sweet Woodruff, which supposedly likes the acid soil. The upper terrace has Plumbago and the lower two varieties of Coral Bells (one with purple foliage, one with green) and the quarter-circle planters have Cranesbill Geranium surrounded by small Butterflybush. Hopefully next spring everything will have spread and filled in!

I just received email to my work account with the following subject line:

Subject: Memo To All Staff: Policy Regarding All-Staff Messages

( as you might expect )