Canto XLII

Well, the week certainly has gone by. First some updates about TASI, the theory summer school I'm now attending. The talks have been a lot of fun, and talking about them afterwards with the other students very rewarding. I'm learning bunches. Of course, the more I learn, the more I find that I don't know much. Frankly, I feel like the only reason to come to these schools is if you already know everything, and just want a place to show that off. Maybe this is just playing into my fears that I'm the dumb one. I'm not sure who said it, but the quote goes something like "If you look around the table and don't see the sucker, then you're it." I don't see any suckers here...

In other news, Steph arrived for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary. She came in Saturday morning, we rented a car, and after a brief stop in Boulder, went straight up to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). The first day, we just drove around the main road up to the pass, and did the basic motor-tourism Americans love so much. Saw a bunch of elk, a coyote, two bighorn sheep (very briefly, they ran across the road and straight up into the hills) and some smaller things as well. The scenery is quite nice. We were staying in a cheap hotel in Estes Park, the local tourism town. The next day (Sunday) we drove to the far side of the park and worked our way back across. We also did some nice hikes, both long and short as we went along. Among the interesting things we saw was a coyote hunting some field mice (not bopping them on the head). It looked exactly like our dog when she would chase down balls and other things. The coyote would jump in with both paws out, and nip at it with his mouth. Of course, he was actually eating them, but you could see where our dog got that from. The other cool thing we saw was a moose. When Steph and I moved cross-country, we visited many parks and did many hikes in supposed moose-country at supposed moose-time, but never managed to find one. But now we finally did. They're very cool, a nice lope to their stride and very casual. Next time we need to find a big bull moose, as this one didn't have the requisite antlers for the full moose experience. Monday morning we also went out for some hikes and finished up sightseeing in the west part of the park that we hadn't got to the day before. Here's a picture of me at the nicest place we hiked to, Calypso Cascades, in the Southeast corner of the park.

And here's part 32 of Stephanie's continuing series of me throwing rocks from places. I don't know what it is about rocks, but I love to throw them. You can also notice the hair growth, two weeks after the shaving.


Monday was, of course, our 2nd anniversary. Like I said, we had gone hiking that morning, and then returned to Boulder to a lovely little B&B we found online. Very granola if you know what I mean. But we enjoyed it immensely. We went out to dinner at Sushi Zanmai, which was also wonderful, then walked around town & campus a little bit and had ice cream at Glacier. I'm only providing these links so that if you find yourself in Boulder, you can retrace our steps. Or enjoy them on your own. Sadly, that was only for one night, and now I'm back in the dorms while Steph visits some of her family that live up in Fort Collins. I already miss the bed. It was a pillow wonderland.

Anyway, that's about all. A whole bunch of us from the dorm went down to the local coffee shop to "get some work done" because they have wireless. And now, everyone is actually getting work done, while I surf the web and blog. It's very depressing. Maybe I just need to get motivated. I wonder if I'll ever feel like I'm not the dumb one...