Update now, photographs to follow.

I'm a wee bit tired, but should probably update while the day's adventures are still fresh on my mind. It was one of those days when I should have been getting work done, but playing hooky was so much more fun. A group of grads and I went up to Wet Beaver Creek this morning. A couple of us are training for a marathon in January (I think I've mentioned this before), so the trip's goal was to give us a chance to complete a long run in a new, fun, scenic location. Okay, it wasn't all that new--I had been up there earlier in the summer--but still much newer than our regular loop in Papago Park.

We got off to a bit of a late start, and reached the trailhead at about 11:00. The runners took off right away, and rather quickly left me in the dust. I'm used to that by now--I'm definitely not running the marathon for time, so I'm in no hurry while I run. Unfortunately, the other runners were a bit too far ahead when T described the trail to them, so all I caught was, "Always bear to the...and follow the creek." I missed a rather crucial directional term somewhere in the middle. Since the creek was to our right, I assumed that meant to bear to the right and thus I ended up on some rather overgrown, uneven trails. I was still right beside the creek, though, and the final destination was right by the creek, so I figured I'd just meet up with the group at the end of my trail, where hopefully it would join the other trails.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, but I eventually turned around and got back on the right trail and all that. It just made the whole running route a bit more interesting than necessary. We had a nice lunch and swim in a couple of the main swimming holes on the creek, and then headed back down the trail to the cars.

It was a good run overall, but now I'm tired and have a lot of work to catch up on. Oh well. Hopefully I'll upload pictures shortly.

Oh, and in great contrast to my recent resolutions to give up gossip, today we decided that there isn't enough new gossip in the department at the moment--the same old stories keep getting told. So I guess it's time for me to get back to work and generate more gossip. Or else that task is up to you, O loyal reader. Sally forth and do something interesting and tell me about it so I can tell stories about you!

In the meantime, I think I shall read a book and go to sleep. There is much to do in the morning.

Oh, and--

Tonight T and I made Cabbage Potato Extravaganza, out of my newly purchased Indian cookbook The Healthy Cuisine of India. It was extremely simple to make (cabbage, potatoes, peas, and spices, and no crazy cooking steps), and fantastically delicious. The cookbook looks to be quite promising--annikusrex recommended it, and was definitely right about it. I can't wait to make more stuff out of it. Food rocks.