I’d love to write about the Festival of Books tonight. Really I would.

But it’s 9:00 at night and my un-air-conditioned home is almost 90 degrees, and writing is the furthest thing from my mind.

Maybe tomorrow. For now, I’m just going to go melt into a puddle on the couch…

In the process of seeking the proper Brawny Man image for the Cute vs. Handsome post, I ran across the ultimate find: the Brawny Man website.

An entire website, dedicated to the fictional character used to hock paper towels? Well, of course, I had to click.

Turns out, I had discovered the illustrious Brawny Academy and perhaps, just perhaps, the secret to attaining the elusive “handsome” moniker after all.

(Will comment on the much more interesting post below tonight…)

So here I am at work at lunch, mulling over the upcoming weekend.

(Yet another work-discussion that inspired a post…)

Okay, so here’s a question I’ve long been pondering: what’s the difference between “cute” and “handsome”?

Here’s why I ask: I’ve never really been referred to as “handsome.” But I have, often, been referred to as “cute.” (We’re just going to ignore the “you’re not a model” statement, of course.)

So what’s the difference between the two?

You know, I don’t claim to be an outdoors guru by any means. I haven’t climbed Everest, or hiked the PCT, or kayaked from New York to London.

I am, however, a fairly outdoorsy kind of guy, and I’d like to think that within the limited scope of things that I do, I’m good at them.

And yet, in the last few weeks, I’ve managed to:

There was a discussion at work today about things that had been said to us that we’ve never forgotten. You know, when someone says something to you that they themselves didn’t think were consequential, but impacted you in a way that you never forgot.

For most of us, we remembered things that don’t really influence us anymore, but at the time were so profound that they seared their way into our memories forever.

For me, I came up with two:

It’s not much.

It’s not Earth-shattering or life changing and angels didn’t sing from on-high.

But two good things did happen today:

(A few very cool photos that didn’t quite make the post text here.)

The weather forecast for the weekend was a mini heat-wave, with temperatures in the nineties possible in the Valley. It’s the kind of weekend where one should really just hunker down with copious quantities of cold drinks and stay cool or head to the beach.

But, you know me. I’m not much of a beach-goer (I think I can lay on the sand for about ten minutes before I’m bored) and I just couldn’t resist a short hike. Where to go, when temperatures in the Santa Monicas would probably hit the 100’s? One place sprang to mind: The Grotto.

It just sounds cool, both in temperature and as a destination, doesn’t it?

(Sorry it took so long to write this week; I had over 300 photos from this hike!)

Las Virgenes and East Las Virgenes Canyons, once known as Ahmanson Ranch, and is one of those seemingly all-too-rare examples of nature actually winning over development. The central feature of the park is a broad flat mesa, which for several decades had developers salivating at the idea of a few thousand houses, golf courses, etc.

Luckily those who wanted to save the area were successful in stopping those plans (I’m not necessarily opposed to golf courses but, seriously, how many does the world need?), and in 2003 the land was deeded to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the State of California for protection. I’d clipped an article from the paper at the time, out of the sadly defunct Outdoors section of the LA Times, about the new park and stashed it for future reference. Amazingly, I was able to find the article on Friday and made my way there on Saturday.

An Ode To My Burned Feet*

Standing in shower
Water falls like tiny sharp daggers
On red sun burnt feet

*Yep. Somehow I managed to burn the tops of my feet while kayaking yesterday, despite two thick applications of sunscreen. Even did the whole 30-minutes-before-you-go-out thing. Bloody Hell it hurts.