Apologies yet again for failing in my blog schedule… I’ve uploaded more photos from the trip and made comments over on flickr, in the Utah album. Head over there and check it out. The first five or six photos have already been posted on the blog, but the rest are new.

I’ve mostly been reading this week, between efforts to settle back into the routine of being home. On that front, it’s been a rough week. We had several special events on campus, which meant shuffling our usual schedule, and I’ve been fighting off a rather persistent bout of depression recently. It manifests as an extreme inability to focus combined with rather overwhelming lethargy. I’m working, bit by bit, to keep moving forward, or at least not stagnate entirely. It seems a hopeless business most days, but I have good friends and family who keep me in line and crack the whip when I slide a bit too close to the edge of full-out wallowing.

So that’s where things stand. It’s a busy, rather stressful month in the Whitt household, since June is extra-busy for Matt and his youth ministry responsibilities. He’ll be home eight days between now and July 4th. I expect to spend rather a lot of time with Shiloh at the dog park while he’s gone. I’ve got a few other plans, too, which I won’t expand upon at the moment. We’ll see what the month brings.

Okay, okay, this makes three days without updates. You should know by now that my promises of daily postings are more like wishful thinking than anything else.

So, here’s your update. We did go to IKEA on Saturady (I was going to take a photo to post, but Matt wouldn’t let me. Party pooper.) and we bought too much stuff, as always happens when we’re let loose in that fabulous store. Picked up a few Christmas gifts for family members, some airtight canisters to store our coffee in, new pillows, things like that. We also hit up a couple other places, including Payless Shoes, where I got these (much cheaper than that) and another pair, even cheaper, that I can’t find on the website. Both very cute and comfy. Yay shoes!

Yesterday (that would be Sunday) we made a rather abortive attempt at hiking. There were several obstacles, but between the semi-slushy snow on the trail (but not enough to make snowshoes worthwhile, of course) and the unrelenting rain, we turned back sooner rather than later, and spent pretty much the rest of the day avoiding the outdoors, because it was rather uninviting. And since it was raining while we were hiking, we never pulled out the camera, so no photos. Not that you could have really seen anything anyway.

I have, so far, read three books.

This morning, we decided to head over to Park City and see where the day led us. We walked around historic downtown PC for a while, then went east to Kamas for lunch and then farther east into the Wasatch National Forest for a bit of mountain biking. It was muddy and tiring and I’m way out of shape, and we didn’t go very far, objectively speaking, but it was lots of fun, and I’m glad we did it. Still having plenty of daylight, we swung down and got a really fantastic view from the top of Memorial Hill in the Heber Valley. Here’s part of the view, plus proof that I’m actually on the trip:

See? Skinny, pale, and squinting. It must be me!

Anyway, from there we headed a bit farther south and west over a well-traveled gravel road to get to Cascade Springs, which was lovely and interesting and generally great. Matt took some great photos, but apparently I didn’t upload any. At any rate, we were going to continue on a paved alpine scenic route up past Mount Timpanagos and on to Provo, but it was closed. The nerve! But never fear! There was another option–a state park road that dropped south to the road we needed.

It did come with a warning, but that seemed like much more of a formality than anything.

I mean, look at that! You can almost hear the birds singing! That sign? Biggest. Understatment. Ever.

On the up side, Leo (that would be our 4Runner) got to have fun on vacation, too!

That was the first of three water crossings. Then there was the freakishly steep climbing, which we probably would not have managed without Leo’s low 4-wheel drive gear. There were a few very scary moments. Not, “Oh no, we’re going to die” scary but, “Hmm this might be very, very bad for the car” scary.

But we got some really amazing views. (97% sure this is Timpanagos)

We wouldn’t have gotten anything like that without hiking for several hours. It was fantastic. Very cool. Very fun. I have no desire to ever do it again. :) Definitely an unforgettable part of this vacation.

Between the driving, which always makes me stiff, the mountain biking, and the off-roading adventure, I anticipate not being able to get my own body out of bed in the morning without help. I’ll make sure there’s a book or two on the bedside table so I won’t have to move if that’s the case. Never hurts to be prepared.

Viva vacation!

Okay, so I don’t have any Utah photos for you today, but I do have photos from the first part of our morning. We stayed outside of Grand Junction and took the time to drive through the Colorado National Monument, which really is lovely. We’d like to return sometime and do some hiking, rather than being relegated to the Rim Road. It was a spectacular drive, though, with many opportunities to pull over and walk to an overlook and take photos or just enjoy God’s creation. Driving through on an overcast Friday morning certainly affected traffic, and there were hardly any other people. Amazing quiet, and a really surprising lack of wind, given the fact that wind and water are the chief agents of erosion in this really amazing terrain.

It’s hard to see the vegetation much there, but up along the road there were old trees twisted by the wind, stunted by the harsh conditions. Most of them are probably a hundred years old, but look much smaller. Here’s one that must have started out in a crack in the rock, but has gotten big enough that it looked like it was rooted directly in the sandstone. Very cool.

Tomorrow we’re going to take it easy, really relax and unwind, and maybe venture out to IKEA. Whee IKEA!

I am a vain, fickle creature.

My blog stats did something funky about three weeks ago, and now even though I know people are stopping by, I don’t get any record of it with wp-stats, which is the widget I use. Which means I don’t pay as much attention, and I don’t post, and everything is really quite silly.

I think I know how to fix the stats issue (thanks Will), but unfortunately I have neither the time nor the burning inclination to do so at the moment. Still, I will try to be better about blogging. Because it’s fun, and I get to tell funny stories, and that’s good for me.

Things have been busy. I’ve been trying to catch up on getting things done that have fallen by the wayside in the last few months, and Matt is coming up toward the end of his semester at school, so we’re both a little bit brain-dead.

Also, Shiloh has turned into the neediest dog ever. If we’re sitting somewhere, she’s right beside us, looking at us mournfully, as if we don’t regularly pet her and feed her and take her for walks and, recently, at least once a week to the big dog park with WATER! To run in! I really need to remember to take the camera with us one of these times.

But still, she wants to be rightbeside us all the time, as you can see in this lovely photo, where she found Matt working on the floor and just made herself at home:

Silly puppa.

Okay, folks, it’s update time.

I’ve spent most of the day cleaning my desk, which might sound to some people like the job of an hour or so, but those people have not witnessed my desk. When I’m done entirely, I’ll take a photo and you can all ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ at how lovely and clean it is.

In the meanwhile, Bob2 seems to be faring well. I’d post a photo, but it would look pretty much like all the other ones you’ve seen of Bob2 thus far, so that seems silly.

Shiloh has been a bit neglected lately, in the sense that Matt and I have both been either too busy or too disinclined to brave the cold temperatures in order to take her out for a proper walk or run around the park. But she makes do with running around the house like a demon with one or the other of her toys in her mouth. She also spends a great deal of time looking out the window, now that she can both see out a window and look at something (the parking lot) which is interesting at least some of the time.

Notice that the ledge is at just the right height for her to rest her chin there while she watches. Very convenient.

I took this one this morning when she was playing with her squeaky bowling pin. The body has a nice duck-call noise when you squeeze it, and the rubber’s tough enough to take her chewing for more than five minutes without falling apart.

So that’s what’s going on in the Whitt home today.

I feel I’ve been neglecting you. Let me make it up by showing you pictures.

This year, I think I’ve finally found the secret to the lovely kind of toffee that crunches and then melts on your tongue. The light brown stuff that’s always better than the dark, semi-transparent stuff. Not that the latter is *bad*, just that the former is completely fantastic. That’s right. I’ve made whole sheets of light brown fantasticness, and here’s the proof:

Also, Matt cooked his first turkey on Thursday. He did a fantastic job with dinner in general. . . he cooked everything, with my full moral support (I was napping on the couch). From the top of the photo, that’s stuffing, green bean casserole, turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry ice (okay, I made that the night before) and, down in the corner, you can see the gravy. Matt’s gravy is to die for. Srsly.

You might be wondering how Shiloh has been doing lately. I’ve been so busy I haven’t mentioned any of her recent cuteness. She got a new beef bone for Christmas (with jerky on it!), which kept her nicely occupied while Matt and I opened our presents. She also got a candy cane-shaped squeaky toy, which she loves. Sometimes she throws it for herself and then pounces on it. I think she likes its distressed SQUEAK!! when she pounces.

We taught her right from the start not to expect to get People Food. She doesn’t get it often, pretty much just when it drops on the floor while we’re cooking, and sometimes not even then. So she doesn’t actively beg. But she is aware of the possibility of food falling, and she makes sure she’s around in case it happens. We have given her a super-dog alter-ego. Everyone watch out, because Opportunity Dog loves turkey!

Allow me to illustrate.

You see how she positions herself strategically in the place where food is most likely to fall? She wedges herself in the funniest places to ensure her availability. Also, notice her innocent expression. My appearance with the camera didn’t distract her from looking up at Matt with puppy-dog eyes. No, before I took the picture, she was just standing there looking at the drawers you see in front of her. There, just in case. That’s Opportunity Dog for you, always ready to help.

And I know I’ve been delinquent about posting pictures of the new apartment post-unpacking, and I’m afraid I’m going to continue on that front for a little while yet, but I do have two photos from right before our Christmas party last week, so you get to see the living room.

Nice, eh? We like it. Of course, before too long, the Christmas tree will be gone.

Now I have to go finishing cleaning the house and folding laundry so I can concentrate on other work tomorrow. Toodaloo!

I need to write my genre paper, and I’m just not feeling it yet today. Part of the trouble might be that I compiled about 22 pages of material and quotations from my sources, and the paper is only supposed to be 5-10 pages long. I will have to summarize and distill things, and I haven’t quite got a firm handle yet on exactly what I want and need to say. So I’m putting it off for another hour or so.

The book I’ve been reading most recently is Naomi Novik’s VICTORY OF EAGLES. I have to say, I love Temeraire just as much as always. Being just over halfway through, I will say that I wish I liked Iskierka better – she’s impetuous and hotheaded and bent on gathering treasure, and I just wish she had some element that made her lovable despite that, that made me want to forgive her instead of just smack her at times. But then maybe I’m not supposed to like her.

And since I’ve been promising them for almost three weeks now, I’ve finally uploaded some of the pics from our backpacking trip in Rocky Mountain National Park. The aspens were in full color, which made for some really beautiful views.

This is me and Matt (no I’m not really that tall – I was standing uphill).

I love mountain waterfalls. . . see how the area at the base is flattened from the weight of ice through the winter?

Matt and I really are in this picture. . . we ate lunch up here in the middle of all that stark beauty.

Pretty pretty.

More pretty pretty.

And I couldn’t resist a great shot of one of the streams.

What a beautiful weekend.

Oh, what’s that you say? I need to work on my paper now? Well, fine. I suppose I can think about it, at the very least.