Scott Run Hike

Saturday after I came home from work and Delia was off to spend the night with her Grandma Constance, Keith and I set out on a little adventure. We decided to go for a hike and ended up at Coopers Rock. The park was closed, I guess it is still early in the season. So we parked at the Gates in the Day Use Area and set out on the trailhead closest to our car, which happened to be the Scott Run Trail.
According to the website, this is a moderately steep trail with an estimated walking time of 1 hour and 15 minutes. We made it last about 2 hours by trekking off into the woods to look at very large rocks. And that doesn't include getting back to the car, which took another hour. It was hell of fun.


This photo was taken rather early in the hike, and I didn't take very many photos afterward. First off, the light was wrong. The sky was overcast and there were absolutely no shadows. Second, we were having way too much fun booking it through the woods to mess around with the camera! There was also quite a bit of mud, which was fun once we started celebrating our waterproof hiking boots. I felt bad for the folks we met on the trail picking their way through very carefully in pristine white running shoes.

The trail came out at the campground entrance. So we were still almost 2 miles from our car. The Roadside Trail, which I believe is also a cross country ski trail in the wintertime, was level and even, a very easy walk. Would have been a great cool down if not for my husband's need to walk so fast! It's OK, I kept up. Wasn't even sore this morning.

Keith took this picture of what looked like a freshly busted tree. It was pretty impressive in person. I have no idea what happened to it. We saw tons of fallen trees in various stages of decomposition, but this one kinda stuck out because it looked new. I wondered if park rangers would come around and knock it the rest of the way down so it wouldn't fall on somebody.

It was so good to get out and move. We came home and had showers and NAPS, which are sweet, but especially so when your whole body feels like jell-o because you've recently kicked it's butt with an almost 3 hour long hike!

Refreshed, we headed off to Chris' Dungeon Basement where we played Dungeons & Dragons till 1:30 am. It was one of the best days I've had in a long time!

Toys and Games

I sat down this morning at the computer to read up on Feats for my D&D character, since I earned enough points in last night's game to make 12th level. Nobody who reads this blog cares though, I know, but I also made the revelation last night that the game is actually MORE fun when there aren't 24 beers sitting in the fridge when we start playing! But I never actually made it to the D20 Resource because I got sidetracked first by catshit.
Yes, catshit. Every cat owner knows how annoying it is. Lately here at Edgehill House we have experienced the drastic comparison between the eliminations of one 5 lb dog and that of 2 16 lb cats. Since I have been using fabric tote bags at the grocery store lately, my supply of plastic t-shirt bags has declined. I reached into my plastic-bag-holder the other day and came up empty. Into what shall I scoop the contents of my cat-litter pan? Oh My! So I get one of the little blue baggies that are attached to Tycho's leash, these are supposedly biodegradable. Great idea, yes? I guess so, but it just illustrates for me how much waste my cats create. I bet half the weight of my household garbage is made up of catcrap! The sheer volume of catshit is three to four times that of our daily dogcrap, and the dog usually goes outside!
This morning one of my cats takes a constitutional while I'm websurfing and drinking coffee (and the same thing happened last night while my Gamer friends were all sitting around my dining room table eating Windmill Cookies). Jehesius Chee-rhist! I was embarrassed last night and annoyed this morning, in both cases it required my immediate response. Sometimes people have suggested (very diplomatically) that we move the catbox upstairs, to the laundry room maybe... I have tried this, and the cats just crap on the floor where the litter box used to be. So we live with it, and let me tell you how it has been "enhanced" by a cat who sneaks in and eats dog food whenever he can. PU!
So anyway, first I was distracted by my stinky cat box, then I was distracted by an email about TVshows I don't even watch - there was a picture of Christian Slater, I was compelled to click! Stupid marketing... And then I was distracted by a link to the new toy I want for Xmas... the ASUS Eee PC.
I saw this toy at Target, it is in fact right in the toy department (except across the aisle in Electronics, which is just toys for adults). It is a tiny computer, about the size of a trade paperback, weighing less than 2 lbs, that would Fit In My Purse. It runs on Linux and automatically connects to any open Wi-Fi connection. It has just enough processing power to surf the internet. I want want want it. I want it like my daughter wants a Wii. I will have it, eventually. My Geek Friend Steve(n) tells me that Mac is releasing a mini-notebook this coming Tuesday, and then he spent 15 minutes showing me how his iPod did everything I could want and more. So I will look at Apple's offering (Dell also has a teeny meenie, but it costs more than the ASUS and runs Windows), but I am still attracted to the immediacy of walking into Target with three hundred dollars in cash and walking out with a little friend to take to the Riverstone, where the Guinness is draft and the Wi-Fi is free. Keith says then he will be able to write a book about being an internet widower.