The Gates were every bit as cool as they were intended and reputed to be. And since we went into the park up in Harlem, the crowd was merely bustling rather than insane.

I got a swatch, so I think I may now consider myself the object of near-universal envy.

Photos here.

Haven't blogged in a long time, mostly 'cause when it takes about three hours a day to summon the will to live, there just isn't any time left over for self-absorbed Internet rambling.

But I did some real rambling in the snow today, and it was fun. Click the dog for more:

My sister and I just got back from a fun-filled trip to Las Vegas, the city where you cannot possibly be dressed inappropriately, in either direction. Brace yourself for a slow trickle of photos from our adventure. Sure, I could just load 'em up without culling or correcting, but then you, gentle reader, would have to sift through the crap. That is not as it should be. As I recently found myself crying out by the light of a tiki torch, "Not editing is wrong!"

And so, with that warning out of the way, we begin.

We spot these in some gift shop at the Mirage.

They want your soul.

I yelp, "Aiyee!" Alanna says, "You can't just leave those out! You have to put up a sign or something!"

Then Alanna tries to make one of them even more frightening. She fails.

I have many, many, MANY photos of the Grand Canyon. But the most interesting ones are below: the ones of the storm that flew over us twice during our afternoon there. There were two strange things about it:

1. Because the canyon is so immense, we could see different, sunshiny weather seemingly not far away.
2. It frickin' TUNNELED. As Alanna said, "I'm no weatherologist, but isn't that a tornado?"

Incidentally, the dappling storm phenomenon put "King of the Mountain" by Midnight Oil in my head for the rest of the trip--"Bad storm coming, better run to the top of the mountain / Mountain in the shadow and light, rain in the valley below".

Stage 1: Looming overhead.

Stage 2: Tunneling.

Stage 3: No, seriously, it's tunneling. But note the sunshine in the distance on the lower left.

The full album is done. Click below for more.