Another thunderbumper.

Santa Fe is in the monsoon season.

The best of...

....our little part of the world: Santa Fe local living 2007, from the Santa Fe Reporter.

Map credit: epodunk.com

Eldorado preserve.

We like to walk at the Eldorado preserve. There are two, one up near Canoncito, which is wild and crazy and well worth the adventure. This one is right near a gas station on 285 and leads up to some foothills. My favorite sign at this location says, essentially, beware of rocks, rattlesnakes, coyotes, lightning, and cactus, and for Gosh sake don't walk if a storm is brewing. I like the neurotic sensibility; I'm guessing a transplanted New Yorker wrote these signs.

A new movie theater for Santa Fe.

We've taken the kids to a couple movies since the new theater opened on Zafarano Drive in Santa Fe, and zowie, it's clean, comfortable, cool, great sound, stadium seating, and the employees are really pleasant...just terrific.

It is such a vast improvement over the movie theaters at the Villa Linda and DeVargas malls that it's as if we are talking about different planets.

By the way, Hairspray is upbeat, colorful, and fun.

Enjoy the new Regal theater!

Lawnchair pilot.

We hear a buzzing sound overhead...much more like a lawnmower than a small plane...this being Santa Fe, it's a guy in a homemade flying machine chugging along through the sky. Nice enough day for, er, a lawnch.

The Things That Almost Ate Our Portal.

Like a tiny horror movie, the wind blew them at us --aaaugh!-- and then blew 'em away. What are these called, anyway? Some sort of grass -- after blooming these are the little dried husks.

Let me save you a trip. Target in Santa Fe....

...is way preferable to the dreaded Wal-mart. Trust me on this. Why? Oh, just the little things, like lighting, width of aisles, level of claustrophobia, cleanliness of bathrooms, choice of merchandise...and none of those wacked out GREETERS. "Bright and bustling" are not adjectives applicable to the local Wal-mart experience.

Most importantly, Target pays its employees better and offers good benefits. Is there a downside? Oh yes my friend. The strangely-difficult-to-navigate Target parking lot. But when you visit Santa Fe and desperately need to buy paper towels, don't say I didn't warn you.

Be sure to check out the brilliant dissertation Ten Reasons Why Target is Better Than Wal-mart.