How conversations go ...

Me: "Tom P, are we going snowshoeing again this winter?" Tom: "Sure! We'll go twice as far." Me: "Awesome." R: "Wasn't it Z who had so much fun last year?" Me: "Yes. Z had a blast." Z: "I'll snowshoe again when there are two feet of snow. In hell." Me: "You said last year's expedition was hell, and there were ten feet then, so let's go!" Z: "Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame ... wait." (lots of big laughs) Z: "I got that mixed up. Me and George Bush, that one gets us both." R: "No, you had it right. Keep going." Me: "Z, you make me smile." R: "Sounded more like a laugh to me." Me: "I smiled out loud." Tom: "I wanted to go a lot farther last time." Me: "Yeah ... I need socks that don't get so soggy. And I need to not be working that afternoon ..." (we chat about how totally snowy it was last time) Tom: "The next day, they totally closed the roads. They couldn't keep up. We'd've been stranded." Me: "We could have been hard-core survivalists! ... Or dead." Tom: "But people in Wyoming spend weeks and weeks in the winter in their cabins, don't they?" Me: "Yes. And every now and then we venture out to herd our cattle on horseback." (pause) Me: "And by 'cattle,' I mean shopping carts at Wal-Mart." R: "We have those kind of cattle out here, too!" Me: "I know. I feel totally at home here."