Huh. I always wondered why toothpastes carried that warning. What's the reasoning behind foaming Aquafresh, anyway? Is it supposed to be like the bathtub cleaning stuff and "scrub" on its own or something?

Just had to pipe up again to confess to the torrid love affair I'm currently having with my Crest Cinnamon Rush toothpaste. I'm a bit of a cinnamon junkie (my current prize possession is my Altoids Heatmiser tin, which I keep refilling with cinnamon Altoids from normal tins-- YAY!), and that stuff is freaking AWESOME.

(Whereverthesister thinks I've gone completely mental with the tooth cleaning-- "You're brushing AGAIN?!? What is that, like 5 times today?!? Freak.")

She should be thanking her lucky stars that her sis is devoted to dental hygiene! The only time I started to get alarmed by someone's devotion to hygiene is when I found out my roomate brushed her cat's teeth. Daily. I love my cat and all....but.... Of course, I should add that said roomate was studying to become a dental hygenist. (I can't spell today, sorry, folks). I guess she practices what she preaches.

I am suffering from massive it's-the-beginning-of-another-semester-and-I-can't-get-my-ass-in-gear-itis.

Well I hope you know, whereverthefk, that your toothpaste and your Altoids tin are both cheating on you! Wow that is some toothpaste, I used to be tempted to buy the kiddie bubble gum or berry flavored toothpastes because I am just not a minty person. But this stuff is amazing.

And the Heatmiser, well he just rocks. Oddly though I am not a fan of hot weather.

Damn, now that song is going through my head. "I'm Mister Green Christmas , I'm Mister Sun, I'm Mister Heat Blister, I'm Mister Hundred and One"

Having met you....we understand! ;>)

I'm looking for a picture of Chris at the Venice Roadblock for a Pixel Challenge entry. Anybody have a resource for this?

BTW, there are several TAR entries in the latest Pixel Challenge in TV Potluck.

MWAH!

*blows a cinnamon-flavored kiss to all 3 Guidos*

When are you boys coming back to our humble city, btw? NYC needs its Guido--fix, and it's been ages (ok, months, but it feels like ages)!!!

(Though actually I don't recommend right now for a trip-- it's f-f-f-f-frickin' f-f-f-f-freezing!!!)

Same here in Washington DC. Below zero wind chills this morning. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Thank God for long underwear and fleece. I had my scarf covering the lower part of my face and my glasses kept getting fogged up though.

It was 9 below this morning when I got up, with wind chills of up to (down to?) 40 below. (Boston area.) Schools were closing like mad, which I frankly think is nonsense. But yeah, it's a tad chilly out there.

I have gas heat and water, and my gasline must be sucking in so much of the stuff that they can't both keep up. And I just had them checked Tuesday, so I know they work. I hate cold weather, but my favorite part of the country is the Northeast. I live in the Washington area in part because it's the southernmost Northeastern city and therefore isn't as cold as, say, Boston (which I love but can't physically tolerate). The hot summers don't bother me so much.

I am now starting my third week of this. I had gotten used to Toronto's balmy winters and forgotten what real winter is like. I am so tired of putting on layers and taking them off. If this keeps up I am buying a snowsuit like the little kids wear.

I just know that if they announced an air date for The Race, I would be able to smell spring coming.

Hi all!!!! Long time no talk!?!! How you all doing? I've had a great last couple of months. I got to host Christmas this year...yes, my brother and family FINALLY came to see me. It went very very well. The dogs were great with the kids, which was a concern for the new dog as I didn't know for sure how she'd be. I actuallly had a couple of blind dates that went well this last month...maybe by the time of TARCon, I'll have someone to come with me?? hee

Anyway, the main reason I'm back is to share this little gem from our system administrator at work. I might be the only one who enjoys her emails...yes, they usually mean bad news, but she's just so snarky. I'm confident that she is a fan of Miss Alli because I can see Miss Alli writing this...
(by the way, she's talking about a system called Habeas that is used by many many spammers and slips by our SpamAssassin program)



I bolded the parts that really cracked me up.

Seriously...who knew techies could be so funny? ;-)

So The Zzard and I have reservations to stay overnight at Phantom Ranch, the "hotel" (really dormitories!) at the floor of the Grand Canyon, in April 2005. There are so few spots that you have to make your reservations 2 years in advance, which I did. And as a concession to middle age, I have us staying there 2 nights instead of the usual 1, because otherwise we'd be going on a nine-mile hike 2 days in a row, with the second day being all uphill. I don't want to be rescued or to hate myself, hence the extra day of rest. Anyway, we decided that even in the worst weather, we were going to do one "training hike" a month through this April, then do them even more frequently, in addition to our normal hiking. The weather has been bitterly cold, but today we tromped out to this little park that's an urban wetlands -- you get trees and deer and beavers and big birds, etc., etc., along with highway and airplane noise. I think we made it a whopping 1 mile. The wind chill was something like 13, so I'm feeling moderately virtuous for having made the attempt.

Well, I can tell you from personal experience that the oddest things occur to you when you've been alone in the server room for hours on end.

Oooh, DariaG,, you lucky thing. You're right to go on training walks - keep getting out there every weekend, even if it's just for a short walk. You'll thank yourself about halfway up the trail.

April should be a nice time there - it's usually mild weather, though if there's snow at the rim, the trailhead can get icy and slick. I was there one winter with my husband, and we looked down a veritable luge run at the trailhead and said, "Rim hike for us."

A friend of mine walked diligently 3 or 4 times a week for 4 months before she went on a Havasupai canyon hiking/camping trip with a group of very fit people. She was worried about not being able to keep up on the very long 10 or 11 mile hikes in and out. She was very pleasantly surprised to find that she was up for that and more, with few aches and pains.

My husband and I did some walking in England last fall, and didn't stick to our training program as much as we should have. We did fine on 5 to 6 mile hikes, but that was our upper limit. But those were piddly little hills compared to your return hike. ;)

Ooh, I'm so jealous DariaG. I did that way back in April '94. Well, kinda. I didn't have reservations at the ranch since I didn't know when I would be there, so had to content myself w/ walking down and back in one day. Unsurprisingly, I didn't have time to make it all the way to the bottom, only maybe 2/3 of the way. I'm still pissed that I didn't go a little further. There was maybe an hour of sunlight left when I made it back to the top, and I wasn't that tired. (I was in much, much better shape back then.) It was in the 30s at the top, and there was about 6" of snow on the ground. But it was 70 degrees at the bottom. I was well bundled up when I left, but kept shedding layers as I walked, till I was down to shorts at the end. Then I put them back on again as I walked up. If I had to rank my best days, that one would be in the top 5, maybe tops.

April will be a great time to go. You won't have the summer crowds, which are supposedly insane. Plus, in the summer the rim is hot, and the canyon is unbearable - almost always in the 100s! But April wasn't too hot or too crowded. I'd definitely go in Spring if I go back. When I go back!

Is anyone here familiar with Paris in March? Is it doable, or so nasty that I should wait a month or two?

mac, Paris is totally doable in March. Just make sure you bring an umbrella for the spring showers (although it was just damp and not rainy on my trip), and a medium-weight jacket would be good.

Bungle, several times we've walked halfway down and back in one day, which is one reason we're pretty sure we can manage it if we split the round trip into two separate hikes. On the Bright Angel trail, the steepest part is the 3 miles closest to the Rim, and the top half of that is by far steeper than the bottom half. (And Red Targetter, our first time down, the trail was all ice at the top -- I slid down on my butt where it looked too slick, and that worked pretty well.) When we were there in November 2002, we were easily passing all the other 40+ hikers except one couple that appeared to be in their 70s. They were slow and steady and never seemed winded. At one point, we were resting at the same group of boulders, and I asked them if they'd done this before. To make a long story short, they are Canadians who winter in Phoenix, and they hike down to Phantom Ranch every fall. And the reason they're so fit is that they're ballroom dancers. They were the healthiest-looking old people I'd ever met.

There's a fabulous book on all the deaths that have ever occurred in the Grand Canyon. Seriously, it's really interesting. Like in the early 1900s, there was this couple that tried to raft down the Colorado River, and they vanished -- except there was a lot of speculation that the woman killed her husband and popped up later as a river guide. Except for the mid-air plane collision back in 1956 that led to the creation of the FAA, most of the casualties are young men who get off the trail, hike in hot weather, and don't carry enough water.

macaddict, don't forget to check your tapes of episodes 2 and 3 of season one of TAR. They were in Paris, and it was in March, 2001.

Your trip sounds like it's going to be so much fun, DariaG! I love taking hiking trips. I'm not an avid hiker/exerciser but when I find myself on vacation in the great big outdoors (away from my small office in the big city) I become so energetic. Last fall I did a hiking trip in the cayonlands of Utah. On my way up to Salt Lake City to catch my flight I took a van service. For entertainment the driver provided a huge album of clippings of tragedies/deaths of area hikers, bikers, rock climbers, etc. Yes, it was quite interesing.

I would love to hike the Grand Canyon one day, but this year I doubt I'll take another adventure holiday. Instead I've booked a cruise this spring on Royal Caribbean (yay! TAR sponsor!).

Oh, and thanks to all who mentioned the Crest Cinnamon toothpaste. After lurking around here last week I picked it up this weekeend and just wanted to say "thanks" because I love it.

Yep, works great until you have to stop. Hee! I envy you so much - it's so beautiful there. Take lots of pictures, and just sit and watch the light, too. We spent about an hour on the rim one day waiting to take this one..

Later in May we're taking a big, fat road trip via the Rockies, and we're going back to spend more time at Mesa Verde. THAT was beautiful, too - the ruins are just breathtaking. And now I'm reminded that if we're going to enjoy it, we'd better start walking and working out again, too.

Paris Hilton in March is nasty. Just Paris in March is doable. :)

I'm going to Paris in March, and also to London, Bacharach, Lucerne, Milan and Nice. It's all in fifteen days, so it will be a very busy trip, but I'm looking forward to it. Only 49 more days! ;)

I was in Paris in March a few years ago and the weather wasn't horrible but a little cold and rainy. Don't forget your umbrella if you decide to go.

Yes--even if you don't need it, there is something so very Parisan about the image of gray umbrellas, sidewalks...so very black and white, so avant-garde... there's a famous painting that is sticking in my mind with this image, but I can't remember it.

eta: well, I couldn't google up the painting because I just couldn't remember it, but this photo conveys a similar feeling! One thing that I really remember about Paris is the large quantity of dog shit on the sidewalks. There didn't seem to be a stoop n' scoop program campaign when I was there.

They are getting better about the poo, turtle dove. Thank goodness.

Well, I did find this one, too. It's not the 'popular' one you're thinking of either, though. Click it to see the bigger version.
http://www.parisandvenice.com/images/paris_bw2_sm.jpg

Novac, that's the picture that turtle dove linked to.

I know I've still got over a month before I leave but I'm already worrying about what to pack. Do I need running shoes, boots and sandals? Just how many pairs of jeans can i fit in a single suitcase? Will I need more than eight rolls of film? How many batteries will I need for my CD player? These are the kind of things that are running through my head already, so I can't wait to see what I'm thinking two days before the trip.

Hey, I remembered! Here it is.

[/obsessiveness over this]. This image was always stuck in my head because it was on the cover of my parents' address book when I was a kid, and somehow it always fascinated me. Voila.

eta: hey, yogi bear, that was posted almost perfectly in sync.

I think the painting is called Paris Street; Rainy Day. It's by Gustave Caillebotte, and it's in the Art Institute of Chicago. Try this link.

I spent a lovely March in Paris some years ago. I think April came early that year. The weather was perfect. People we all over the parks taking the sunshine. Hopefully, you will have the same good luck. If not, there is an excellent umbrella shop on Blvd. St. Germaine where I purchased several excellent umbrellas as gifts.

I used to go to Europe for four or five months every year with a small blue nylon carry-on that I bought on the street in Athens. I was cuter then, that's for sure, but I found I could go anywhere with a black knit dress, a pair of heels for evening and a pair of sandals for day. Half my bag was for books anyway. Now I can't go anywhere without six pairs of shoes, minimum. Sigh.

I am feeling very itchy to travel, just hearing this talk about Paris. I at least need my TAR fix to live voraciously through the racers. *sigh*. But in terms of stuff like batteries and film, mel42024, don't worry so much about packing it in advance--you can always buy it over there. I guess it depends how mobile you have to be, but less is always more. Whenever I came home from backpacking I'd always have to throw out the clothes I wore and fumigate my backpack.

Now if I went, I'd probably feel the need to take my wheely bag and six pairs of shoes, too.

Here I am trying to give advice and it sounds like you're the expert. How many times have you been to the Grand Canyon, DariaG?

I'd love to get back there sometime. Have you (or anyone else) read 'A Man Who Walked through Time' by Colin Fletcher? It describes his hiking trip through the entire length of the canyon. He may be the first and only person to ever do so. It's a good book.

mel42024 are you traveling on a bus tour, car rental or some other way? When I travel by rent-a-car, I pack pretty much everything I could possibly need. I bring a big suitcase, and two backpacks. The big suitcase stays in the trunk the whole time, and I replenish my backpack from that every night.

My last trip was all rail based, so I packed very light, just one large and one small backpack. If I had to do it again, I'd cut it down even further, to just one backpack. The first time you go 'super light', it is surprising how little you absolutely do need.

I'm getting the travel bug again too, and it hasn't been that long since my last vacation and that was a doozy. Time to see how high the lottery is....

As luck would have it, I was in Paris in March last year on my grand European holiday. The weather was excellent - sunny days for the most part, though there was a little fog in the mornings. You shouldn't have any real trouble with it.

And while you're there, I would recommend a TAR1 pilgrimage around the sights visited by the racers. You'd be surprised how many you can see - only those specific sewers are off-limits, and La Grande Roue has been torn down, but otherwise they're all where they were left! (Oh, and you can't quite ring Quasimodo's Bell at Notre Dame, but you can certainly get up on that platform. Ask me, I nearly fell down the stairs!).

Incidentally, whilst I'm in this thread, I thought I'd trail my intention to become the person who has travelled the greatest distance to attend a TARcon this year. It was looking shaky for a while after TAR4, but thankfully my 21st birthday came and went with the promise of one more season. I've been saving like a demon and it looks like I'm going to make it! And if things really go well, I'll be flying around the world myself to do it - which hopefully may lead to me meeting some west-coast racers along the way.

bungle3358, my trip is a bus tour. Due to the limited amount of storage, we get one suitcase and one carry on, so I'll be using a backpack for that. We're only staying in one place for about 3 days at a time, but I figure when we're out during the day I can fit what I need in my purse and coat pockets.

I haven't really been on vacation since I went to Halifax for a week three and a half years ago. This will be my first time leaving the continent, so I'm really looking forward to it.

The Australian, our itinerary is relatively inflexible, but we will be heading to Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, so I will at least be in the same places as the racers, even if they aren't as obscure.

That's awesome that you are travelling halfway around the world to go to TARcon. From all the stories, it sounds like it will be worth it.

What can I say? Great minds think alike.

And as my mother says, fools seldom differ. ;)

As one of Glark's shirts says: "Ask me about your mother."

When I went to India, I had to take so much non-clothing stuff that I despaired of ever getting my clothing into my one suitcase. That's when I caved in an tried those vacuum bags for packing clothes. They work like a charm, and I am just sorry I never tried them before.

(Basically, they are large ziploc bags with a valve on one end. You put your clothes in and zip them up, then you roll them up towards the valve end, and all the air trapped in your clothes is forced out. Then you unroll the bag and the clothes are all in there, about 1/4 the size they were before you shoved the air out -- amazing how much space air in clothes takes up.)

I loved them because they made my clothes take lots less space. I carried an extra one for dirty clothes, which prevented the dirty laundry from stinking up the suitcase. The only thing is that anything that creases will not like the vacuum treatment. Since I travel with mostly microfiber, that's not a problem for me.

Since the trip to India, I use these things religiously -- they let me carry lots more books in the space my "clothes air" used to take up.

I'm not participating in the European travel discussion because I've not done much and I'm extremely envious. Have a fabulous time, one and all!


There's no such thing as too much advice, and there are so many ways to see the Grand Canyon that everyone probably has a different experience there, so I appreciate your input, Bungle. One of my best friends is a former park ranger who spent several years there, then married another ranger and moved east. So of course, they have a kazillion stories about it. Our first time there was a comedy of errors -- the hotel we stayed at had construction starting loudly at 7 a.m. daily, we forgot to carry the water we'd put in the car, The Zzard fell, and in our worst hiking escapade ever -- worse than getting lost on a mountain for 4 hours with someone else's 3-year-old -- he handed me his $200 prescription sunglasses, which I somehow lost. We won't discuss how this happened or why I became responsible for his glasses in the first place. But if you were on the South Rim in spring of 1991 and saw a tall blonde crying in frustration, that was me. I don't cry very easily, either, and I was also pissed, but I'm going to stop that story now. We visited again a couple of years later and stayed at another hotel, where some German tourists got into a fist fight one night at dinner and the police made everyone leave the restaurant, and something else awful happened that I've blanked out on. Stupidly enough, we went back again, to the North Rim. The North Rim is 1,000 feet higher than the South Rim, and while I handle high altitudes pretty well, it took an extra day to get used to it. But nothing went wrong and we went on some fabulous rim hikes and befriended a ranger who showed us some of her favorite spots off the beaten path. Then in 2002 we went back to the South Rim and nothing went wrong (the curse was lifted, I guess) and we hiked halfway down and back as described on another page in this thread.


Loved that book! He's such a great story teller, and it's always so satisfying to read an adventure told by an upbeat raconteur (sp?).

Whoever put the link to that sunset picture on the South Rim -- that was fabulous. Calendar quality, definitely.

I'd love to go to the Grand Canyon because it is so freakin' gorgeous. But isn't it hot? Really hot? (I hate heat). Just curious. Any times of the year that it's not too bad? (use celseius if you're referring to temps, please...or, I can convert it. I'll deal).

Not necessarily. Yes, it's in Arizona, which is a desert state, but it's between 7,000 and 8,000 feet in altitude, which makes a huge difference. Don't go in the summer if you don't like heat, but I can recommend March, April, October, and November for moderate temps. We were there in Oct-Nov 2002 and it snowed. Cold enough to snow, too cold for shorts, cold enough to require gloves = not hot. You can find more info by going to the National Parks web site, then going to the Grand Canyon page. Or try Google.

I am completely inspired by all your stories of hiking in the Grand Canyon. I just went back the last few pages and re-read all DariaG's posts about it. I am watching the Golden Globes with one eye and madly googling Grand Canyon hotels and information with the other. I have already begun my campaign to convince the Yogi family that hiking the Grand Canyon would be wonderful, exciting, and enriching, but Mr. Yogi is the original urban man. He truly believes we should pave all the gardens and paint them green to reduce the effort of cultivation. My favorite thing to do in the world is hike, but I go by myself or with other friends on all my hiking trips. I figure I'll make the reservation and spend the next two years convincing Mr. Yogi he must come with me, while he will try to convince me that it's enough just to look from a hotel terrace!

And turtle dove, I just realized we posted simultaniously the link to the Caillebotte painting. In our case, I'm sure it's a matter of great minds!

In reading the 15 days/pages I've realized how much I've missed all of you TARfolk. I do wish we'd have TAR soon so that we'd have TARCON again soon. Sigh.

The reason I dropped in was to let the Philly area folk know that we're trying to organize a CON. So please stop in to the TWOPCON organization thread to add your 2 cents on date and event. (We're thinking DimSumCon--a moveable tradition.)

For those introducing cats, I'm at the end of a one-month adjustment period for Arthur, resident large 8-year-old cat, and Claude Lemieux, new little one-year-old cat. Some blood was spilled one night while I was asleep. But I couldn't figure out who's or from where, so it wasn't too serious. Someone I know recommended the tuna thing, but they never needed it. Claude is seriously unable to interpret social cues and was completely unwilling to accept that Arthur wasn't happy to see him. So they fought a lot (and Arthur, always a bit doglike, has such a doggie growl). Now Arthur's resistance has been worn down and they are buddies. They do the evening wrestle and chase around each evening. But none of the fighting is really fighting.

And Claude is becoming famous. A friend on ESPN.com who writes about hockey has included him in his column (yes, the cat, not the hockey player), twice already. I saw him at a game in Philly (he was on a busman's holiday) and he said the plan is to slowly build Claude up to a cult following.

On Thursday when I took the train to NY (to see Rangers v. Flyers) I noticed banners at the entrance to the zoo that were very much TAR red and yellow. No lettering or pictures like most Philly street banners have. I don't know what this meant, but I looked for people with backpacks!

Shameless plug here (hey, BoDiva did it first. If she can, I can) for all who are in the Madison area (or within striking distance) to come to the TWoPCon planning thread; the idea of a MadCon at Kites on Ice is being played with. (KiteLady are you and the Kiteman going to be there?)


I wish that hiking the Grand Canyon was a possibility, but I'll have to be content with stories and pictures. No way would Mr Rabrab be able to walk it, and I have this thing about unguard-railed edges. I curl up into a pathetic, weeping ball of melted-down Rabrab. (I don't scream like Flo, I just whimper a bit.) We've tried a lot of things; it's not the height, it's the edge that does it to me.

Also, thanks to all for the toothpaste recommendations. I'm using ToM's Apricot now and it's so much more pleasant.

Yikes, Rabrab, I hadn't thought about that. Are the trails really treacherous?

I doubt that they're treacherous, I just can't cope with nothing between me and an edge, and all of the pictures I've seen, there's no handrail; it's a mountain trail, not a sidewalk.

Here's the link to the Park Service Grand Canyon South Rim Dayhike page. Only the Rim Trail is easy, and a couple are flagged as being for unmaintained and for "experienced desert hikers" only. It's an extremely informative site.

A few years ago my then best-friend moved from LA to NY. I went along to help with the driving. One of the best parts of the trip was stopping at the south rim of the Canyon. We got to the entrance to the park about 30 minutes before sundown. We drove the U-Haul (with the car hitch) into the park and found a decent parking lot and then proceeded to sprint to the edge of the canyon. As it was our first time and we are not the guidebook types, we knew nothing of the unguarded edge thing. One of my most vivid memories is sprinting over the crest of this hill and doing a very cartoon like skid to avoid a hiker as we realized we were on the EDGE of the GRAND CANYON!!! No mater what you see in pictures, photos just don't do it any justice. If you can go you should.

Rabrab, it wasn't until we went back to the car that we read the newspaper that the park gives out that was plastered with warning about the edge, folks falling and high winds. It can be pretty dangerous if you are sloppy or stupid, but for the most part if you are determined not to end up falling into the canyon, I'd say its pretty easy to avoid that fate. When I was there I saw plenty of folks standing way back from the edge. It's just easy to end up in a precarious situation if you are not careful (for instance, running to the EDGE of the canyon when you don't know where you're going).

I want to go to the Grand Canyon, now! It sounds amazing. Now that I've been reassured its not necessarily a heat-fest. I just hear "desert state" and curdle inside. My most likely shot at travelling anytime soon, however, is driving across Canada. Maybe. Have any of you ever done it? How long did it take you, if so?


Hee. You could always plan to go with another couple, who has a similar urbanite/naturalite blend. The two urbanites could spa it, and you and your naturalite friend could hike it! And the four of you could spend plenty of quality time together gazing from the terrace, as well.