uh, i think that means, “our day at the grand canyon”. gotta get ready for my trip to argentina next week, ya know.

i’ve been to the grand canyon a bunch of times. it’s amazing. but we thought we’d do it differently this time around — so we took the train. the grand canyon railroad is overpriced, indirect, and slow. perfect. it took us over 2 hours to get to the south rim from williams, which would normally be the final 45 minutes — at the most — of a drive.

but how can you argue with this?

then we had a nice walkabout on the rim before heading back.

pass the pigs, online! we played the old skool version with little rubber pigs this week.

(all thanks to the ht goodness of miss shawn edwards)

ok, my brain tells me i should find this uh-maze-ing, truly flabbergasting, massively impressive. but watching it, i’m just annoyed. maybe it’s the frickin’ scott joplin playing in the background that just makes me want to shoot my piano teacher from when i was in 5th grade. or maybe it’s that this pool dude spent way too much time on this thing. whatever. i’m cranky. maybe i was cranky already, and that’s why i’m more annoyed than impressed. no, i think this guy made me cranky.

yesterday, we spent a good portion of the day at slide rock state park, just north of sedona. amazing little place, where a beautiful, cold and clear river has carved out a natural waterslide out of the red rock. there are parts that really are like a waterslide, and other parts that are shallow water over extremely slippery flat rocks (which, if you relax and stay flat — on tummy or back — will allow you to slide along slowly). and there are some deeper sections with rock high on the sides, perfect for jumping.

jeannie and i are particularly sore this morning, as middle-aged people get when bashing their various body parts against rock all day. i had one jump where the landing spot wasn’t really deep enough, and i hit bottom (with my feet) hard, my knees buckled, and i smashed one knee on the rock bottom. so that knee is swollen and stiff this morning.

when we were here 5 or 6 years ago, my brother-in-law, my nephew and i jumped of a spot a bit downriver, under an overpass, out of the view of the crowds, that was about 50 feet high (into a deep cold pool). we went to that spot yesterday, and i had absolutely no interest in jumping. liesl wanted to jump there, and is hoping we’ll go back another day this week to jump at that spot. i’m hoping she’ll forget.

this totally has “youth group game” written all over it, if there were any way to get some of these flavors here.

a few of the most tantilizing:

ox tongue ice cream
raw horseflesh ice cream
charcoal ice cream
spaghetti bolognaise ice cream
fried pork rind ice cream

(ht to bob c)

i dare some guy to tell this woman she should be in the kitchen…

we found an amazing organic food store (very much like a whole foods) here in sedona, and splurged a bit, since we’re on vacation and all.

yesterday for lunch, i was a foodie. i had…

slices of the following cheeses:
“chive and onion gloucester”
“chedder with guiness”
and “powerful welsh chedder”
(jeannie also had a “la tur alta langa” - a combo of goat, sheep and cow’s milk soft cheese, which was too much of acquired taste for me)

we ate these slices on:
roasted garlic artisan bread
and blue star farms organic stone ground wheat crackers

along with a nice pinot noir

and pieces of the following chocoate bars:
barcelona bar — 41% cacao deep milk chocolate with hickory smoked almonds and grey sea salt
naga bar — 41% cacao deep milk chocolate with sweet indian curry powder and coconut flakes
black pearl bar — 55% caco dark chocolate with wasabi, ginger, and black seseme seeds
(jeannie and max also had some exotic darker chocolates - i’m not a real dark chocolate guy)

oh, and we had stark crimson pears, donut peaches and pluots.

that’s what i’m talkin’ about.

ht to steven shields for this helpful chart

in honor of steve and jody duhamel, two ys staff members who decided to hole up in their cancun hotel and not flee hurricane dean last week, i bring you a mcsweeney’s list:

here’s the story.

my favorite line:

Doctor Ed Carruth was flying in a one-seat plane yesterday when he felt something “licking” his arm.