Sunglasses

Okay, maybe aviators don't need to be worn inside, but I've been using every excuse I can get lately to wear my new shades. My housemates have been telling me that I needed to get myself a pair after seeing me wear Jen's. Instead they got me a pair as a gift! Thanks, Jen, for the glasses and the photo.

Mt. Lemmon

This weekend we were lucky enough to have JVs from Los Angeles visit us. A group of us did a hike on top of Mt. Lemmon and discovered this great rock. We nicknamed it Elephant Rock. See it? More photos here.

Triskele

Cool tattoo, right? That's my friend Audra, and the symbol on her arm is called a triskele. We were at Barrio Brewery, one of my favorite spots in Tucson, and a spot where Audra and I have enjoyed good beer and good conversation a few times before. (And, I hope, a few times more.) Anyway, the triskele is one continuous line forming a triple spiral, and it shows up on some ancient Celtic sites in Ireland including at Newgrange. Like any well-planned tattoo, this one has personal meaning for her. I won't be able to explain the significance of it as well as she does, but she told me the interconnected spirals represent both eternity (it's one unbroken line) and the cyclical nature of life. There's a lot more to it than that, but I recommend asking her to explain it in person. Maybe over a beer.

Last day

Yesterday was Kaitlyn's last day of teaching at Santa Cruz Catholic School, and a student gave her a rose as a goodbye present. So cute!

Bike bridge

On my morning commute to work along the Aviation bikeway. A bikeway, you say? Yes, even conservative Arizona gets a few things right. (At least, Tucson does.)

Maya Quetzal

Erin, Kaitlyn, and I went out for dinner at a Guatemalan restaurant last night. It was delicious, and just fun to get out of the house. Do you know the song, "everybody's working for the weekend..."? Sometimes I feel like that. Especially lately. Wake up, work, come home, read, eat, sleep - that describes my recent weekdays. So a little change like going out to eat is a welcome treat.

Quote

It might be hard to read, but the quote on the picture above (taped to the back of my door) says, "To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself." The quote is attributed to Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. I wrote the quote on a picture from a National Geographic magazine during a recent spirituality night I led where we wrote down quotes and posted them around our house.

Photo of the day

Not that I will be putting up a photo every day, but I think by posting a photo and a brief explanation instead of several paragraphs, I may start posting things more regularly. That's the new plan, anyway.

The hands in this photo belong to Jen and Kaitlyn, as they were braiding dough for challah bread which we brought to my coworker's Shabbat dinner Friday night. My coworker had talked for a while about how she would like to have friends over for Shabbat (she is Jewish). When she did pick a date, I was happy that she invited me and my housemates, and even happier that all four of us could attend. It was a fun night for Casa Nacho, and it was also fun for me to hang out with a coworker outside of work. Jen decided to provide the challah, a recipe which she had made once before. The bread turned out amazing. And I'm not just saying that because Jen will read this. It was deliciously flaky on the inside, with a dark chewy glaze on the top, and the braiding made it easy to pull off individual chunks. Yum.