Molly and I spent last weekend at Skamania Lodge, her treat—Yay for women's lib! (My return present was getting the sewer line cleared out this morning, so some gender roles still stand.) It was cold, grey and windy, expensive and crowded. But we'd never been there before, and we had a good time.

Here's my favorite photo from the trip:





At first, I wished I'd centered it a little more evenly, with some padding on the right of the sundial, but on second glance I really like how the way it's cropped mirrors how it's nestled into the rock.

One month until we leave for China, and my passport renewal application has finally shown up in the system. Estimated delivery: March 29th. That leaves only around 11 days to get the visa taken care of. No fun. I think I can throw cash at the problem, though, and get them to push the application through the pipeline. So that's what today is all about: paying people to make sure crap flows properly.

(swimming update: two miles total in just over an hour tonight. brought all 10 1:30 interval 100s in under 1:20, so next time I'll go for 1:25. my 500 came in under 6 minutes, which means I can't count and actually swam 450.)