Following Ivan's visit to Tennessee, we've been experiencing the most amazingly perfect weather. Blue skies, sunshine, not too hot or humid, breezy... day after day after day. It's great, but I never want to be indoors. Every day is a good day to sit outside and read, go to the park, have a cookout.... and every night is a good night to sit out at a patio restaurant, or listen to music outdoors (Ben Folds, then Wilco, specifically these past two weeks)...

It's lovely, but ridiculous. I really need one nice, rainy, gloomy day to stay at home and do laundry, reorganize my closets, etc. (Just one day, though, Weather.)

Last Sunday my roommate and I decided to actively embrace the weather with a quick hike. I suggested a park I've been to once before, which had a 4-mile day loop. It would have been a perfect length, getting me back in time for my dinner grillin' plans... if we hadn't accidentally taken the wrong trail. Oops. Somehow we missed the large sign pointing us back to the trailhead, and instead went down the one-way overnight trail. WAY down the overnight trail, since we were chatting, had no watches, and no clue of the time...

Total hike length? 12 miles. In four hours, since we had to move at a steady clip to make it out before sundown. Did I mention dehydration? I only brought a 12-ounce water bottle with me.

So, while it was fun, and definitely funny, this morning I chose track over trails for my run. Good, flat, no-risk track. I think I'm still sore from the hike though.