First time on trail 100 today, and really the first day of fall here in the valley. Apparently the 180 guys do this all the time, but it's a little different than the shuttling I'm use to (check the height on those seats!) Earning your turns on a damn fine day to ride.

Nick took me out for some canyoneering, previously known to me as repelling. Either way, it was fun to get back in the saddle again. Next stop: Coon's Bluff.

I think these trash/recycling bins around ASU are a pretty clever in their power and their subtlety. If we could figure out more ways to simply (and cheaply) get a meesage like this across sustainability could be less a movement and more a way of life. Almost everything is right about these: their message, their strong duality, their graphic execution. Kudos to the designer.    

James Turrell's newest installation of his series of Sky Spaces has opened at ASU, and it is pretty amazing. At first I was a little put off by the colored LED show that it puts on, preferring instead the simple and secluded purity of his SMOCA Sky Space, but after a few outing I have really come to like this one. The changing colors cause your eyes to see the sky in the void and around the edge as an inverse of the LED color: Purple and Green, Blue and Yellow, even White and Black. It's pretty intense at times, almost unbelievably. You can kind of tell the difference in these pictures, but you really have to go and experience it for the full effect. Hats off to everyone involved.

Well, it finally happened, our little D-Rock and Grec got hitched. It was an amazingly beautiful ceremony and reception in Paradise Valley. From start to finish (including the invitations) this wedding has been given all the skillful design touches and inventive tweaks by both of them, and I have never seen such a "High Design" yet casual and very Arizona (go natives!) pulled off so well. The ceremony was in a desert wash, held under an altar that Dusty and Nick put together and set to the tune of steel drums, and concluded at PVCC with an epic sunset view. Congratulations you guys and much love!

You can't help but smile when you go to Tour de Fat. It was my first time in the parade and actually the first time I have ridden Victoria in a while. But I once again conquered the Shoe Bike!

Techno's first ascent, ever, and my first back in AZ

That's right, BATTLE SNAKES. When all of Steve's groomsmen were in town for some bachelor party shenanigans I was telling them about all the snakes in Arizona and one of them asked, "Did you just say battle snake?!". Thus, a new, ferocious breed was born. Venomous at both ends, they have cobra hoods, rattler body and scorpion tails. We laughed about it for a while, but I thought it would be a pretty hilarious gift to make shirts out of it. Well, Steve was two steps ahead of me and had his  friend Kristin make this sketch of the infamous creature. We just ordered shirts to wear under the tuxes at the wedding, and I drew up a list of the nefarious characters that help spawn these devil creatures to put on the back. I can't stop laughing.