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<\/a><\/p>\nWe celebrated Rosh Hashanah a few weeks ago, the Jewish New Year, with two other couples. There was a lot of good food, even after our ovens ate much of it in impressive smoke belching displays (we need to learn how to use oven timers). I managed to launch that cooked fish on the left, off the oven, over the counter, and onto a chair, somehow landing right side up:<\/p>\n
To further demonstrate my occasional crazy behavior, here I am dialed into three work conference calls at the same time. I do it for the technological challenge, not for any productive reason, as I\u2019m not able to converse with any one of those calls, and when I try, I often un-mute the wrong one and everyone else joins me in being very confused:<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been having fun touring Salt Lake on my bike, seeing what interesting things pop up. Here is a monument to the short lived Pony Express. For $5 (>$100 today) you could send a 0.5 oz letter, which would be carried by a < 125lb rider at 15 mph, changing horses every 15 miles, and changing riders every 10 hours, day an night, crossing the country in 8 days. <\/p>\n And here is a Matterhorn replica found in the Swiss section of a very pretty and flower full Peace Garden:<\/p>\n Not far from there was another Pyramid, used by a group that does \u2018Modern Mummification\u2019. Human prices start at $70k, but you can do your pet and have him live in your living room forever for $20k:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Last weekend we drove to Bolder to attend Noah\u2019s Master\u2019s concert \u2026 he did good:<\/p>\n We brought Irena a sampling of roses from her backyard (she and Boris have been in the UK and NH for a few months), which is flowering wonderfully:<\/p>\n We met up with one of Helen\u2019s friends for a quick hike up the famous Bolder Flatirons:<\/p>\n Yesterday I went on a hike up the trail near here. Even red-green colorblind me could see beautiful colors in the changing trees:<\/p>\n It snowed last weekend, so the mountains have prettied up:<\/p>\n My goal was to climb Black Mountain, which is somewhere along this ridge on the left:<\/p>\n I overshot it (apparently it is not marked) and hiked almost to the other end where I met up with another crazy hiker who had also underestimated his hike (supposed to be 4 hours, we ended up at 9 hours). We teamed up, keeping each other company for the long hike back. Fortunately, he had found a flashlight someone had lost \u2026 came in pretty handy as we didn\u2019t make it back until 2 hours after sunset.<\/p>\n I\u2019m goanna close with some bug photos. Zach, close your eyes as you will not like this first one, my first tarantula:<\/p>\n These guys were guarding the entrance to what I imagined to be the New York City for wasps:<\/p>\n This guy I had never met until yesterday. He is called a Jerusalem Cricket, which is really weird as he is not a cricket and he is not found in Jerusalem. He is big (2-3\u201d) and scary looking, but relatively harmless (he can bite, but no venom): <\/p>\n And finally, some more photos from my new favorite bug. Not only can they pray, but they pose well:<\/p>\n And they enjoy a good sunset, like we do:<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n