Iron Like a Lion

Zion National Park in Utah was great. Beautiful. I totally recommend a visit. Jesse and I were there (and Vegas) June 12-21. I have been meaning to write this up for a while. A lot is going on. (The careful reader will note the foreshadowing)

Zion was not too crowded. We saw a pair of introduced condors, which was a highlight for me. By-and-large the two day hikes we did were pleasant and not too strenuous.

However, we did one two day trip called ‘The Narrows’ which requires 14 miles hiking down the middle of the Virgin River. When we did it the water temperature was 59 degrees which is colder than it sounds after the 4th hour submerged up to your waste. The river has a bit of a current and the riverbed is covered with slippery rocks about the size of thanksgiving turkeys, so every step is a turned ankle waiting to happen. I fell a couple of times and got wet down to my bones. My recollection of the trip is of being cold and wet and grouchy, but Jesse tells me it was beautiful and reminds me that we were passed by a troupe of boy scouts, so how bad could it have been. (I’ll post pictures soon that support his version of the story.)

I live in Fort Greene, Brooklyn now. The move was a bit of a pain, as they always are, but I survived. The new hood is great. I’m about a mile from Prospect Park and I run, bike and play disc in the park pretty regularly. Getting to practice is quick and easy for once. I live above a stop on the C, which I can feel gently rock my bed as trains pull in and out of the station if I listen carefully enough. The neighborhood has lots of bars and restaurants and I am very happy to finally be in Brooklyn where most of my friends live.

I went to see the Staten Island Yankees with Patricia for the 4th of July. That was pretty awesome. We rode the Staten Island ferry to the game and watched the fireworks from the ferry on the way back.

My fellow founding gastronaut Benji Pauker was on my favorite show, the Jon Stewart show. Check him out: (He’s the smart American at the end.)
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=231547&title=jason-jones-behind-the-veil


I read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close . It was pretty good and reminded a bit of the The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The book has some quirky affectations with pictures and edited pages and even a section in numeric code, but if you look past all that the story moves along at a good clip.

I went to see Wilco on July 13 at Coney Island. I love the new album. However, something about a title album at this stage seems odd. Even a title track. It’s like he’s painted himself into the painting. The show was the largest I’d ever seen and the band played for over two hours with lots of stuff from YHF, Summerteeth and of course the new album.

The Mets are KILLING me. I am done with them. The Wimbledon Gentleman’s championship was amazing. I’m going to the US Open in a few weeks. NFL training camps are underway: Go Eagles!

Goldfish Carry Disease!

There were no pets allowed in the freshman dorms at Georgetown and a certain DOPS student guard I worked with used to periodically proclaim the title above.

That’s what first ran through my mind when I saw this photo in the Bodega nearest to my apartment:

I like to think that the sandwiches are labeled with which disease they carry. Here’s a pastrami and H1N1 on Rye. Here’s a BL (hepatitis) C.

I turned 33. Thanks for everyone who sent e-mails or someecards. 33 is terrible. I didn’t think anything could be worse than 32, but this is. When you’re 33 pretty much the next thing you have to look forward to is retirement, and that’s 32 years away.

Speaking of old age, I got cut from Bent, which wasn’t too much of a surprise. That team is going to be very strong and I wish them luck in the season.

Now, I’m thinking I might try to play coed. Last weekend at the Mixed Easterns in Devens, MA I played with Zojirushi who I’m now trying out for. We had a lot of fun and the team did really well, finishing 9th after being seeded 20th.

In other Ultimate news, ESPN is right on about the UPA being fools:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=buckheit/090529

I don’t know what I’ll do when the NBA and NHL finals are over. This is the most depressing sports time of the year. Wimbledon?

I saw Art Brut last week with Stephen. They were great except for the idiots in front of me who seemed really bored. If you ware bored, leave! We’re going to see the Decemberists tonight. I hope they don’t play too much from the new album, as I don’t love it, but they probably will.

I hope you are having a good summer. I had a great time at Oak Island seeing how big Kate and Lindy have grown and riding on Robbie’s new boat.

I’m off to Zion National Park in Utah for a week of hiking. I’m a bit nervous about the sleeping in a tent and the lack of sports talk radio but I expect to come back with some great photos.

There is still a great deal of ambiguity about where I might work next, which as you can imagine is becoming somewhat tiring for me.

Has anyone made it yet, that could use a personal assistant?

And finally, on the left here, you can see that our poll has closed. It seems I have 13 readers, 5 of whom are Internet stalkers and 5 of whom plan to excel in the next impromptu round of Courtney Kelly Trivia. Good luck! The integrity of the poll continues to be indicted by the fact that none of you are fessing up to being my mother. I'll see if I can come up with another poll question. Don't hold your breath.