Pedal-philia

Lately, Bree's been enjoying the fantastic process of discovering her feet. She finds the toes tastiest. We, of course, have not been discouraging this in the least because it's so damn cute, as you can plainly see. Some suck on thumbs, others... well, you can see what some others do.

Save Toby

I have seen some pretty funny sites in my life. I've also seen some sick ones. I can't decide which catagory this falls into, but SaveToby.com cracks me up in a very sick sort of way. Check it out.

Sharing Hearts

Friends are for sharing blankets at nap-time... Okay, okay, maybe not all friends (I know what you're thinking, Harles), but certainly these friends.

Cherished Checkerboard XII

After Pulcheria had been mollified (by me), pacified (by time), and drained (by Beemer), she agreed to this shot. I loved the way that the hail-stones filled up the little wrinkles on Checkerboard Mesa. It looks cool normally, but here the squares really seem to pop because of the contrast. Of course, to me, the best part about this shot is that its human subject is smiling again.

Hail to the Canyon XI

So, we're up at the top of Zion proper, and I decide that we need some photos of this cool little canyon with a little stream running through it. It's drizzling slightly, but Pulcheria grudgingly agrees to it, anyway. We bundle up Beemer in my sweatshirt, and we're off. Now we're at the bottom and the drizzle turns to rain to hard rain to hail. Pulcheria becomes Pulcheria irata. This moment of transformation was captured to be admired for a long time to come. Here is the nervous/ irate mother protecting her offspring from the elements that the short-sighted father led them into. We can't help but laugh when we look at this shot. Ah, the memories.

Rain Falls X

And here's those same falls as shown below, after it had been raining, on and off, for about 18 hours. The transformation was startling! I have found out that being at (in? with?) Zion in the rain is one of the most surreal, transcendent experiences out there. Desert is totally transformed, and, everywhere you look, living water shoots forth from barren rock. There was not a single spot from which we couldn't see at least a few waterfalls. It was gorgeous beyond the capacity of my miniscule vocabulary to describe.

Pre-rain Falls IX

[We now return to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress.]

Here's a shot of the waterfall (from Weeping Rock VIII ) from a few hundred feet away. I loved the way it looks like braided silk, as it falls. This is, of course, before the rains came that day... and continued to come throughout the next day.

Ludi Romani C

And finally, here we are to be found with (from left to right) Dr. Norm Jones (USU History Dept. Head, and Elizabethan England Expert), Dr. Mike Sweeney, Journalism Professor, and Dr. Christopher Pelling, the Regius Professor of Greek Language at Oxford. Yes, the Oxford (that's right, he's the current occupant of the worlds most prestigious Greek position).

Ludi Romani B

And here we are with Professor Kevin Doyle, one of my favorite people at the University. Kevin is a teacher in the Theatre Dept., and is one of the few directors there that I've had the chance to work with in recent years. This year he was playing the Eastern god, Mithras.

Ludi Romani A

[We interrupt the normally scheduled program, "Ahenobarbus' Amazing Vacation Travelogue," in order to bring you some breaking pictures.]

Tonight was Utah State University's annual presentation of the Ludi Romani (i.e. The Roman Games), a kind of live version of Risk, where the board is a huge room, and the armies are real people. The setting is ancient Rome, during the transitional phase between Republic and Empire.

The picture above features me, Ahenobarbus, with one of my mentors, Dr. Fran Titchener (here playing Juno). Holding Dr. T's finger is our own Pulchella (a.k.a. Bree).