An Update and A Random Observation

O.K.

So it's been a while since my last post. In the intervening time, we took a little vacation to Las Vegas and surrounding areas (Zion and Bryce in Utah, and a quick trip into California to visit my aunt and uncle). Zion and Bryce are spectacular. Vegas is a spectacle. And California was on fire! (We saw lots of smoke from wildfires and were close enough that we actually saw a dump of fire retardant from a helicopter.) Fires notwithstanding, California was inspirational, as we passed by (through) a huge wind farm. How people can say that those windmills are an eyesore is completely beyond my comprehension. I think they're beautiful, partly because of the pure aesthetics and partly because of what they represent.

While in Vegas, we renewed our vows on our third wedding anniversary with a giant Elvis as the officiant. (Perhaps I'll post a picture or two sometime.)

Since then, we've had our first official house guests in the new house. Chris and Petra came to visit a week ago. They had just gotten engaged after the start of their road trip. (We were at the tail end of their trip.) So I guess we got the honor of being the first people "from back home" to see the ring on Petra's finger. Congratulations again, Chris and Petra!

Otherwise, I've just been working too hard.

So that's the Update. And here's the Random Observation (for the purpose of easing me back into the swing of blogging without too much straining):

I think it may be an (tragic?) accident of history that I haven't heard "Walking on Sunshine" at all this summer. This may just be because I haven't been tuned in this year to whatever I had been tuned in to in all those previous years. The song had seemed inescapably pervasive for so many summers. I now find myself wondering whether perhaps I haven't heard it this year because nobody wants to say "Katrina and the Waves" (or to even think it) in the aftermath of the sinking of New Orleans.