We baby-sat a real live bear this weekend (see pictures below). She guarded our dog’s food bowls and growled at us when we approached. Strange beast.

We have a busy few weeks ahead. Next week Wednesday we close on our new property and Mary flies out the next day to see a friend of hers in St. Louis. I think I’m flying out to Vegas the first week in March, but I haven’t nailed anything down officially yet. My flight voucher expires March 9, so I need to jump on that as soon as possible. Really I should be doing that right now even as I type this, but I’m trying to find someone to go with me first. Initially my thought was a return trip to Joshua Tree (I can’t believe it’s been two years already!), but now I’m definitely leaning toward one of those caynon/desert environments in southern Utah. Zion or Bryce, maybe Grand Canyon. Maybe I’ll just pick one when I get there based on the weather report.

I’ve been meaning to start working on some of the static pages (about, contact, etc) on this site, so I’m writing this now to make myself do it. Maybe that’s something I can do to kill a few hours when I’m working third shift one of these days.