WE DO LEAVE THE HOUSE.... SOMETIMES....

I have to hand it to the postage service. I send 4 boxes of goodies to the family last week (AJ, sorry you missed out my dear, pretend I sent you the camera ;) and they got there in a week.
I knew it had gotten alot faster but thats pretty good. The world is shrinking every day, and once we get those teleportation beams they promised us up and running, we will be sorted.

We had a good weekend, family dinner on Friday night out on the veranda. The weather is really loverly at the moment, warm days, cool nights with the odd thunderstorm. The forest is green and the wildflowers abundant.

On Saturday morning I got Weatherwax, my Troll Shaman to level 70, finally. I've been a slow poke. I also have two other characters in the 60's aswell, so I'll blame spreading myself thin and not focusing. But I'm there and have a flying purple Manticore..woot.
Watched the trailer for the new expansion (which looks pretty cool) which probably won't be out for a year or two, and it will level cap out at 80....sheez. It never, ever ends.

Oh I'm talking about World Of Warcraft here in case you don't have enough nerd points saved up.

After that important bit of business was attended to, we actually went outside.
Highway 89A from Flagstaff to Sedona, runs though Oak Creek Canyon, you drive down a bunch of switchbacks off the Mogollon Rim, into Sedona. When we drove to Sedona a few months ago we went the more straight boring route because it was snowing and didn't want to slide off the edge to our Doom. We couldn't come back up that way because a large rockslide buried part of the road that day and it was closed for two weeks.

Oak Creek Canyon switchbacks

So finally we made the long, arduous 20 minutes drive to Pumphouse Wash Trail. It still surprises me how close beautiful and varying landscapes and views are from here. Its wonderful.
The trail is really a dry creekbed loomed over by canyon walls. Not a place to be after heavy rain, but it was perfect on the day and no flashfloods in sight. Darwin had fun rockhopping, and we only had to lift her up and over a couple of times. She got to paddle and drink in the occasional pool and roll in something really stinky.

Pumphouse Wash walk.

We are hoping that when our box turns up and we get our camping gear back...(its been 7 months now and I forget most of the contents) we can do some overnighters. We could just borrow some, which at this point we just should cause who knows when it will get here. We think its in the country, just needs to go through customs and the such.

After our walk, we all cleaned up and relaxed. Darwin was not happy talking a shower and being de-stinkafied.
Went for dinner at the Outback Steak House....maaaaaate it was bonza. Though I'm considering offering my consulation skillz for a modest fee to help Aussie it up.
We still remember a radio ad from '99, in a appalling accent it went 'Bring your mate and your date and your flaming appetate...' which all sort of rhymed in a horrible way. I don't think they have it anymore which is a shame, cause I still quote it and it makes me laugh.

Maaaaate...bonza beer and a few coasters I liberated.

My steak and Aussie chips were tasty but Rob burger had NO beetroot...and they presume to be a Australian themed restaurant...bah.
They had Coopers and Boags so we were pretty happy about. It was all good and our waiter asked if I wanted a application because I would be a shoe in. I told him was already had two jobs and would probably be ditching one. But I'll keep it i mind if the Vet Tech thing doesn't work out.

Faux Aussie burger....sans beetroot.

After our patriotic meat and beer fill we went and saw 'Stardust'. Its a fairy tale written by Neil Gaiman. I love his stuff, the Sandman graphic novels are awesome. I read Stardust about 10 years ago so couldn't remember much of the plot. The movie was gorgeous, a great tale, actors and pacing. Kids would love it and leave the adults charmed. Everyone is really good in their parts but I think Robert De Niro steals the show as Capt. Shakespeare.

I've started a Facebook thingy. Its pretty cool and a big timewaster. I will probably spend far to much time fiddling with it and then forget about it, but till then its another good way to keep up with folk.