Annerisms

I guess I could be talking about Montezuma's Revenge, and that alone would cause a faint heart - or least a weak stool. But fortunately or unfortunately (depending on the way your mind bends) I am not making reference to traveller's diarrhea. I'm referring to one of the most well-preserved cliff dwellings in North America. This is the creme- de- la-creme of high-rise apartments. Being in the Verde Valley only makes it more special . We visited here at the behest of my partner, a lover of cultural history who has wanted to see this sight firsthand since we moved to Arizona. Since we are now looking to move back to California, we are feverishly pinning our tacks to potential national monuments we'd like to see before leaving the beautiful Southwest. In the early part of December in 1906, President Roosevelt commemorated the passage of the Antiquities Act by declaring four sites of historic and cultural significance as our nation's first National Monuments. I became ...

At the beginning of the summer, which began once I took my last final, I resolved to do two things more often: hike the trails listed on"Top Ten" lists in magazines, and read novels deemed to be our "classics" (which has been a puzzle given the Opening and then Closing of the American Mind perspectives). So far, I'm on track. My son and I have spent the last two-and-a-half weeks conditioning our bodies for major morning hiking by getting dropped off 3 miles from our home and walking back. My partner and I have ritualized every evening by closing out the day with reading. We've finished several novels this way. Although we both have a competitive illness of sorts, we do enjoy our nightly reads. We enjoy the same authors but have points of divergence. For instance, she can and does read Spanish novels and novellas. I, on the other hand, read stuff about fishing, sailing and how to raise a perfect child. The 'perfect child literature' is in my fantasy ...