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So, I went to Burning Man this year.

For those not familiar, Burning Man is a giant one-week festival in the Reno desert. You must bring everything necessary to live and have fun with you and you must take it all with you when you leave. The environment is extreme: mid-day temperatures exceed 100 degrees, winds can exceed 75 mph and daily dust storms (think The Mummy but without the gaping maw) are common.

I decided to camp in a tent instead of renting an RV. Being able to nap in a tent during the day required covering it in shade. I decided to build a shade structure out of PVC instead of purchasing an expensive steel structure pre-built. I chose to build a Puma Cave, with some modifications. The Puma Cave called for 10-foot lengths of 1-inch PVC. To avoid having to transport such long lengths on top of my Honda Fit, I cut each 10-foot length in half and used a 9-inch section of 1.25-inch PVC to join the 5-foot lengths together. The 5-foot lengths fit in the Fit nicely and assembly was fairly easy. Huge thanks to Rick for helping me figure out this whole thing

The large group of friends I went with, Debase Camp, was an established theme camp this year. This meant placement within the city and many fun events throughout the week, including Black Rock City Combat Club and Kundalini Yoga every morning.

I felt very different about this trip than my first time attending, in 2003. My life was so different at that time and Burning Man became a fantastical escape. Today, I am much happier with where I am in the “default” world. Burning Man 2008 instead was an opportunity to re-connect with old friends. It also turned out to be a very interesting reset in my own personal values. I believe that it helped me find more of myself.

View the rest of my pictures at my Burning Man 2008 photoset.

Rick and I went to the Mid State Fair in Paso Robles this weekend with a co-worker of his from India, Awi. We went around noon which was great to avoid the crowds but bloody hot - it was 100 degrees! While there we saw the world’s largest pig weigh in at 1000 pounds and checked out all the livestock from the 4H kids. We drank cold beer, ate some giant turkey legs and checked out some rodeo competitions.

On Sunday, I ran (only) 10 miles to keep up with marathon training. (View my route.) It was nice to do a long run in the cool beach air in Los Osos for a change. The knee is still doing well - I just need to figure out the plantar fascia pain that bothers me for a few days after these long runs.

In older news, my first foray back to college has gone well! I took a summer drawing class to get back into the swing of things and scored an A. Here are some pictures of our final setup and exhibition. Click the photos to visit the set on Flickr and you can hover over some of the photos to see which are mine.

And in random news, Rick and I found a heinous black widow outside his apartment. At first, I thought it was a garden spider because of its sheer size!

FINALLY! I was able to train this weekend’s long-run with no knee pain. A podiatrist recommended over-the-counter orthotics called SuperFeet. Those, combined with a new way to lace my shoes that kept my feet from slipping, seem to have fixed the problem. I was able to run 14 miles this weekend (over half a marathon) with no need to ice afterwards and no pain at all. It was great. I’m ecstatic.

Now I can focus my efforts on fundraising. I have raised $1137 so far and still need $1000 to make my goal. Every contribution, no matter how small, counts! You can support my efforts to raise money for the American Stroke Association by donating at http://lattes.kintera.org/vanessa_mills - Thank you!