All kinds of stuff ....

So the title of this was going to be more birthdays, volunteering and Canadian Thanksgiving but that was getting way too long.

So this was a great long weekend. Saturday evening I volunteered at a Light the Night event in support of Leukemia and Lymphoma. It was very inspiring to meet the people that have fought these diseases - to meet their families and friends. I met a high school senior who has fought the disease for the last two years and her strength was incredible. Again I want to encourage people to register for the Bone Marrow registry at marrow.org.

On Sunday myself, Tika, Kris and one of Kris's friends, Bree, went to see Religulous. A good movie that raised some interesting questions. It was nice to be able to get the kids involved in open conversations. Sam then came over and we cooked a big Canadian Thanksgiving dinner - turkey, potatoes, stuffing, broccoli and a vegan dish for Tika with tofu, snow peas, bok choy and ginger. We finished off all of that with some cherry pie. It was a great evening.

Monday - yet another special day - HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM. Here in Virginia the day started with a great hike and then myself and Tika went to DC and I taught here a bit about using a SLR camera and she ran through a roll of film. She seemed to be enjoying things and we had lots of time to talk and explore. It was a thoroughly great day.

Looking forward to a good week coming up. Hope yours is great as well.

---- cu

A break in New Mexico

It has been 4 or 5 years since I have been in Albuquerque so when I found out I had to be here this week I planned a half day just to go hike in the Sandias which is something I have done every trip out here. Usually I hike to the peak but this time I decided to get adventurous and it paid off. I pushed myself a bit and tried some new routes that I never would have tried before. So rather than just hiking I ended up doing a bit of hiking, some scrambling and a good bit of bouldering. The bouldering was the most heart racing as it meant pushing (well in this case pulling) myself. I tried some 20 and 30 foot boulders and had a blast. A few scratches etc but nothing major.

For some perspective Sandia Peak is over 5300 ft above Albuquerque which puts it at over 10,600 feet elevation. Normally I would do the peak but this time I stopped somewhere just shy of 10,000 ft and then scrambled back down through one of the canyons - which was as hair raising as some of the bouldering. The picture on the left was one of the routes I came down.

There is a lot of cool stuff that you can see - some of the other pics are self explanatory - well the eagle got way too close for comfort. I suspect I was near a nest. The cactus above was one I found on the lower trail.

It was a fun 3 hours. Looking forward to a productive week as well.

.... cu