this and that

It's been quite a while. It's been busy, but good for the most part. I just got back from camping up at Big Lake. I confess, I had my doubts when I heard we were camping in Arizona, but Big Lake is surprisingly pretty. It is an area full of spruces and firs and aspens, not just the usual ponderosa pines. It was very green too, this because of the massive amounts of rain they recieve. Every day. I like rain, I do, but when you're camping it's a bit of a hassle. And it's cold. At 9,000 feet it's cool anyways.

I did enjoy the sun while it was out, I got about half way through David Copperfield and ended up with a pretty good sunburn... We played lots of badminton, as usual, and we got pretty good at it. I'm not sure how the days passed so quickly, being as we did not do much of anything, but it always seemed to be later in the day than I expected it to be.

We left early, we were going to stay til Friday, and coming back to the Valley, I expected the usual blistering heat and sun. The one time you look forward to the sun in Phoenix it happens to be hidden by more clouds. So I've come to the decision that I probbly won't ever be able tolive in Oregon. I need sunshine.

So now we're back in Phoenix and I have a couple days of vacation left. I think we'll be going to the concert in the park in downtown Glendale tonight. RIght now we're going to look for some henna at Trader Joe's.

On the book update, I just finished a biography on Tolstoy, decided he was very interesting, confused, and wrong, and I don't like him but I still love his books. He was very, very sexist. Poor wife.

I also read the Six Wives of King Henry the VIII. Also an interesting man. It is rather humbling to read about history and realize there really is no new thing under the sun. We saw a movie last night and one of the previews was for a new movie that's coming out about Elizabeth the I (King Henry's daughter, sister to Mary Tudor or Bloody Mary).

Now I'm on the second half of the biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. The interesting half, all about FDR's presidency and the New Deal legislation. The tough thing about federal law is that it covers a great deal of diversity in our country, and for this reason I think it may not work so well here as in smaller countries. I think the New Deal was necessary though.

It's been nice to get away for a while..