March 4, 2006 - The most appropriate thing to do on International Marching Band Day (March 4th...March Forth...alright, that's a bad band joke I learned in high school) is to go for a long hike. John took a big group up Camelback Mountain in Phoenix. Before the hike, though, we went running. The run was about 3 miles, and the hike was 1.25 miles in each direction, with the majority of the hike up a steep hill. At the top I saw some neat things: a helicopter flew up and the pilot waved at everyone on top of the mountain, I saw a butterfly, and a hummingbird. It was neat seeing those things at the top of a mountain, where you wouldn't expect to see butterfly's and hummingbirds hanging out. Later in the night, we all went out for the evening. It was quite an event. I should mention we had a cookout first, at John's place, and the theme ingredient for the meal was jalapeno peppers, which were in the burgers and tacos. It was after dinner that Colleen was making it clear to everyone that she wanted to meet up with her friends who were already at a place called the Martini Ranch...clear to everyone except her boyfriend John, who didn't seem to want to listen to her. I made sure that we went there, since Colleen had been ignored all weekend by John so far, and we had a great time...that is, until the end of the night when some poor communication ended up in John being left behind as we all rode back to his place in a cab. Lots of drama that I don't feel like adding, but I think most people were in bed by 4 AM.