i thought i wasn't going to have time to blog today, but i have a few minutes before i have to take off for errr, lovely barstow.

this weekend was great! the rain let up at just the right time for liz, marla, and me to take an overnighter backpack trip in henry coe state park. i rented my pack from rei (since i don't have one yet), and we also rented a three-man backpacking tent so i'd have a place to sleep too :) the tent turned out to be huge! plenty of room for the three of us. my pack was decent, although it helped me figure out a few details that i *don't* want when i buy my own. i do, by the way, really want to buy my own pack now. i mean, i wanted to before, but now i *really* want to. oh no! i'm becoming a gearhead!! ;) at any rate, it was a good, tiring weekend. the terrain wasn't that rough, but we had some pretty steep inclines to overcome. we also had to ford some damn cold creeks that were running pretty high due to the recent storms. the dampened banks showed us where the creek had been running *during* the storms, too-- must have been some sight! it had settled down some by the time we got there, but we still had to do some wading to continue along the trail.

i also finally got to sample liz and marla's famous dried bean mix, as well as my very own tube of moose goo. yummy!

congrats to the cast and crew of lord of the rings, who deservingly swept the oscars last night. yay!