To catch you up:

The Cactus Rose 100 happened out at Bandera.  Eliot, Asa and I camped out and roasted marshmallows for S’mores over the alcohol stove Rob made us.

A closer look at Rob’s handiwork:

If you’re interested in how these little guys work, take a look at Wikepedia’s info below.  If you don’t care for soda can origami, skip down to my prickly pear cactus pacer costume.

Denatured alcohol is poured into the stove and ignited, burning in the center.

The flame heats the fuel and interior of the stove, causing the fuel to vaporize.

When the temperature is high enough, vapor pressure causes fuel jets and a ring of flame.

Materials: Two aluminum beverage can bottoms.

“An inner wall is cut and rolled from the can material. A ring of holes is pierced into the top with a pin. Parts are glued with high-temperature expoxy, or sealed with thermal foil tape, although this is not strictly necessary.” (Not sure what Rob did.)  “Total height is less than two inches (50 mm), though dimensions may be increased to hold more fuel or decreased to take up even less space.”  It doesn’t weigh anything.  There’s much more information here and a video here if you’re interested.  My dad covets ours, so I think I’ve hit upon the Howard 2011 Christmas Gift.  (Rob, you and Karen will have to settle for homemade biscotti.)

And here’s my prickly pear cactus pacing costume.  I took great pleasure  telling people that they were hallucinating and I wasn’t wearing a costume.  It’s the simple pleasures…  A huge thanks to Rosie for the costume.

(But P.S., I think I’ve checked the wearing-a-big-foam-costume-while-running box.  I will be much more streamlined for Javelina next weekend.)

And then there was also this:

And then The Conference:

Check out the super cool attendee/presenter/vendor gift.

Sadly next weekend’s belt buckle won’t be as easy to come by as working the NOLS/WMI booth and talking about “Mental Heath Concerns on Wilderness Expeditions.”

There was also a little of this:

and this:

sprinkled into my blogging absence.

And that’s about it.

I read a nice write-up about Javelina last night while I was avoiding adding some evil Power Point to my Mental Health piece.

Thank you to Jeremy and Jay for the kind words and for making me laugh milk through my nose.

“#2 – Debbie Gibson – 47 – Helena, MT – She is a stud. Plus, she ran the Pemberton 50K here in February with a 4:30:39. Enough to catch Howard? Not unless she is eaten by a dragon or is struck by lightning but she’ll be on the podium for women.”

I will add clear skies and valiant knights to my prayer list.

(Good grief!  I almost forgot the ER visit for my mom’s finger.

Note to all wonderful grandparents:  If you are inspired to make ratatouille for your grandchild after watching the movie together, remember those Mandolin vegetable grater/slicers work on fingers too.)