September 30, 2003

Someone Moved My Cheese

What a stupid book.

Frog Kick

The mornings are a lot cooler out. I have to start looking for my winter wear for the Yosemite trip. We climbed on Sunday and it was good to be out on granite. Turned a friend on to climbing who liked it a lot, and showed some promise. I aided a line that does not easily lend itself to aiding. It was good to be in the aiders and the gear was in my way a bit. Last night I jugged in a tree in our yard. Frog Kick is the way to go on free hanging jugs. The other night I read parts of El Capitan by Daniel Duane. He got spanked three times before he made it up the salathe. Chris Mcnamara made it up his first time on the Nose. One thing is for sure, the more I inquire into partners for aiding/big walls in Texas, the more I realize that people want to go climb 3 or 4 5.8's and then go home, and not climb if it is too hot or too cold or some other ailment/injury du jour that they can blame for their lack of desire.

September 28, 2003

REAR END

On Friday night I got rear-ended trying to pull into the over-crowded Toy Joy parking lot near campus. The man in the Caddy who hit me started by honking his head off while I waited for a car to pull out so I could pull in. There really was no where I could have gone. So I guess he got tired and actually did what I've contemplated doing nearly a million times. He just RAMMED into me. SHIT! I had a baby in the car. What the hell was he thinking. It's one thing to consider doing this and it's a whole nother thing to actually DO IT! How many times have I wanted to ram into another car. Well, when we got out of the car he was immediately on the defense. 'Look Lady,' this! and 'Look Lady,' that. Paul got a kick out of me being called Lady over and over. Retta slept through the entire incident. Insurance never exchanged hands. I couldn't notice any damage, aside from my aching back, which Paul claims is just stress. The man actually hit our bike rack, probably denting the front end of his car. But of course we didn't even look.

— SBJ

September 24, 2003

Final countdown

One month from today I will be headed to Yosemite to do some Big Walling with Jason Leibgott. Suz and I took him climbing at guide's wall back when he and I both worked at Austin360 . He then met up with us for snowboarding in Steamboat and then moved to the golden state. He kept climbing when he moved and now he is all about big walls and was out last Saturday sizing up half dome in a day. It wasn't to be as there were 3 parties on the route and 4 waiting on the ground.

I am training via weights (high reps, low weight) and cardio (biking, swimming and eventually some more running and hiking). I have been off the granite since July, but plan to get in my aiders this evening at the gym and on some granite at erock this weekend. The great thing about this trip is that Jason owns, is beg, borrowing or stealing all the gear we will need. Aside from my personal gear, what does he want me to bring? 10 biners.

BTW, we plan to do half dome regular northwest face route and the nose.

— PLJ

September 23, 2003

The Last RLAG

Last night was the last Ride Like A Girl for the summer ... and it was soooo much fun. Not because I rode hard, because I didn't. Not because I learned anything new, because I don't think I did ... but you can never be sure. But really because my dear friend Charlotte went with me. And I really and truly cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard for so long. I was still laughing on the drive home. And in the shower after I snuck in the house. And this morning when I got the office and had two silly messages from Char on my voicemail.

I was going to these rides religiously at the start of the year. I even got Mondays as my own designated day to ride. Paul just planned to babysit. And then work started and I couldn't seem to get together the energy to get my butt out there. And I got tired of committing and then having to cancel out of pure exhaustion. But I met Jen and reconnected with a girl from last year and did get to ride with Georgia so it was great while it lasted.

But I knew this last ride was coming. I offhandedly just mentioned it to Char last week and to my complete shock (and I have no idea why I was shocked because Char is definitely the kind of girl who tries new things all the time. She's not the type to go on and on and ON about things but then never actually do them. I took her rock climbing a million years ago and she had us in stitches the whole time. Of course she rocked. Then there was rollerblading. Her crazy crash at 100mph down a 3-foot slope should not have been a laughing matter. But I'd never seen anything like it. I also took her swimming. She doesn't swim. Doesn't even know how. I took her in a river where there was very little touching bottom. Char may think I'm trying to kill her. But we had so much fun and again, we could have easily laughed until we drowned. Mere mention of the 'retard train' makes me chuckle. More on that later.) she said, 'I'll go with you.'

'Really!' I screamed. And then I went on and on about how fun it is and how she can ride one of our bikes and how she'd love it and how she shouldn't worry at all because we could ride with the beginner beginners. And the first sign I had that she didn't have a clue about what she was getting herself into was when she said, 'We don't have to ride with the beginner beginners. I'm sure I can still ride a bike.'

Her sister dropped her off at Walnut Creek. Out stepped the most beautiful woman. Perfect afro (I had forgotten about that and was wondering if the spare helmet I brought would fit over her hair.) Sleek black pants. Black patent shoes. Or were they boots? The best dressed biker!

On her first ride Char did an ENDO!!! Of course, she was on the HONKY. More irony that a few of you will get. She hit several trees. Continually tested the left brakes. Barrelled down hills with reckless abandon. There was one point I thought I wouldn't be able to ride anymore because I was crying so hard from laughing so hard. Poor Char didn't look happy. I thought she would kill me, if she didn't get killed first.

She didn't get killed. And the farther we got from the park, the more willing she was to say she had fun, sort of. She won biking socks at the raffle. And drank half a beer. I almost choked on my water when she said, 'I hope my mom doesn't drive by and see me drinking this beer.'

I gave this silly 32-year-old a Sonic mint and dropped her off at her mom's house. I can't wait until our next adventure!

— SBJ

September 22, 2003

REI Still Sucks

If anyone was wondering.

Went there to scope some gear for big wall outing, namely approach shoes, rain pants and double gear sling.

Don't have approach shoes, sez hippie (I interupted his discussion with co worker) rain pants are over there, ask someone for help if you can't find them. They didn't have double gear slings either, but oh well. Thats REI for you. two tumbs way down.

In other news Suz and I were sick this rainy wet weekend. Didn't go to the Austin City Limits Music Festival either, and not too tore up about it.

Did go to Susan and John's house so Retta could play with Shaun. The boy is a mad man. Retta had a lot of fun after she loosened up a bit. Plus, they have a kitty she got to pet and kiss. Good times.

— Paul

September 18, 2003

The lucky flat

So, I am usually not too pleased when I get a flat tire. This morning it proved to be a good thing though.

After riding to Barton springs to swim and then riding to the gym, I fought my way through the crowd of smokers outside the gym to my bike and lo and behold I have a flat. First flat on the scattante, but I did hit a ledge in the sidewalk pretty hard and was not surprised. well no problem, I have a tube, i have co2, and fix that flat in no time. When I put the tire back on, KA-BOOM. The tire blew about 5 inches from my right ear. Say What? I don't know if you have heard an inner tube blow, but it is a little less loud than a 12 gauge.

I called Suz, it was around 8 am. She came to get me. Lucky to have such an awesome wife. She asks if I want to get bagels and I say yes, and we get into some northbound Lamar traffic. Screw this we say and head over to Kerbed lane for some eats over there. We are chowing down; Retta is entertaining passers by and in walks someone pretty familiar, but a bit out of place. It's Homero of Hidalgo Fame with Mario Cantu and Two friends. What a trip. The last person we thought we would run in to. I jump up and say "its Homero" and shake his hand, Suzie gives him a hug. We say, this is our baby Retta, and Homero gives her cheeks a big ol squeeze and she looks terrified. We finish up eating as they get seated, and then we go over and give Homero our home phone and invite the whole crew over for diner tomorrow night. They are in town for a few more days, so hopefully they give us a call and Suzie can whip up one of her specialties.

What a lucky flat.

— Paul

September 17, 2003

Harmless bit o' fun

So I am reading the statesman (statesman.com), which comes to our house although we have never ordered it. And there is a story about a guy who got busted for "electronic peeping" via a camera phone. He was getting shots up women's skirts at some lame "sports bar" (rhino and jocks) and was gleefully telling his co-workers. One of the coworkers was vaguely aware of recent laws passed concerning such past times and called the cops. The guy surrendered his cell phone with the offending and some not so offending photos (some were women's legs and feet) and pleaded that he was only "messing around". The police theorized that these photos could be emailed and posted on the Internet in a matter of minutes. I'm thinking, what a Jerk-off, serves him right, valuable lesson etc, but I assumed it was some kid about 22 years old, attending SouthWest ( ), excuse me, Texas State () or ACC . It is some dude 42 years old. Shouldn't he know better, or at least pretend to know better? It looks like he just ended his career highpoint at Rhino Sports and Jocks and will be cleaning up highway roadsides for a while.

— Paul

September 16, 2003

Recovery

Two and a half days after the race in San Angelo and I am still full of stickers. However, I am a lot less overall sore than I usually am for a race of that length.

It is lame that the "race season" for adventure races and triathlons happen in the summer and not earlier in the spring and later into the fall, b/c I am just getting into a groove and things are winding down. I know some tropical places will have tris in November and December, but it looks like for me it will be the dirty du series etc. I was wanting to do a half ironman sometime in the spring, but Minna says I would have to go out of state b/c the texas ones aren't until the summer.

Alas, I will train my ass off for Yosemite and thereafter, I will develop some "Geezo challenges", maybe some special ass whooping for the 35th b-day.

September 15, 2003

True Missouri Dumb Ass

So I got a climbing guide book for Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Illinois etc a couple years back so I could scout the climbing areas en route to my parents house etc.

The said guidebook purported to have beta on not only rock climbing, but hiking, mountain biking, wine tasting, I don't know, maybe even fishing and other assorted outdoor activities.

Well once you plunge into this pulp, you soon find out that the book's author is a rambling, proselytizing, loopy, wing nut. The information is incomplete and the book is hardly worth carrying to any of the places it describes. When we went to Sam's Throne two years back, I found much more valuable information on the internet and when we got to the area we ended up talking to other climbers who described other nearby areas. I told them that my guidebook didn't include much else and they knew the author and described him as a jackass.

His name, by the way is Marcus Floyd.

Lo and behold, the fatal climbing wall accident from a month or so ago was on this guy's portable climbing wall that had an automatic belay winch that attaches to the climber with a cable. The cable broke. It is still under investigation, but from first accounts, the cable had a damaged area that was covered with duct tape.

Floyd's retort was that in 10 years of owning a gym and 20 years of guiding, he has never had an injured client. (From Climbing magazine).

To publish a horrible guide book is one thing, but to lose a life and blemish the safest, most controlled type of climbing by sheer lack of preventive maintenance is a whole other. The duct tape would indicate that someone had seen the damaged cable, but was too complacent or too cheap to replace it. The variables in this sort of climbing are much fewer and easier controlled than outdoor and other forms of climbing. The fact that the primary variable (a good cable) was completely disregarded is sickening. I hate to think of the precarious situations he put clients in during the past 20 years.

I not only hope that they shut down this guys operation, but he should do some jail time for criminal negligence.

— Geezo

September 12, 2003

John Ritter

Just heard the news about John Ritter. I can't beleive it. He was so young! I LOVED Jack Tripper and I loved him as the dad on his new show. What a terrible loss. Only 54. The world will miss you, John.

Tom Ovans and Lou Ann

Took Retta to her first late night rock show. It wasn't really late. And it wasn't rock either. but it was great! Tom and Lou Ann play at Ruta Maya every other Thursday and you've got to go see them. There was a horribly rude moment when RM staffers started dragging around screechy furniture while Lou Ann was singing, but LA's friend set them straight. Apparently this is why it's called RUDE-a-maya.

Race This Weekend

Team TopRope is making another run for the gold tomorrow in San Angelo. We need to get them hooked up to GPS trackers so we can just watch their progress online. Hopefully we'll get the Team site up and running soon (oh my god! did I say teamsite??? that's the devil incarnate coming soon to the statesman.com near you ... but i'll save that for another blog). If we get GPS trackers, we'll also get interviews and profiles of the racers. GO PAUL, DAVID AND BJORN! MAKE US PROUD!!!

— SBJ

September 11, 2003

Blog sites

After looking at other blog sites this morning I've decided ours is ultra pathetic! Coming soon: more "flare" ... if I can even get a hold of the hold cerial number for our ftp software. A recent crash has left us in disarray.

Big decision

I'm faced with a big decision. In three weeks my contract at statesman.com will end and I can't decide if I should stay. I've spent the last few days of work listening to my boss shout "fuck!" on the phone over and over because of some user registration problems. No one ever told him about catching more bees with honey ... as I was walkin gback from the vending machines with my buddy Randy we saw the boss and he completly ignored me. This, I beleive, he does to everyone. But Randy even commented on "what a jerk" so now I know it's not all in my head. He ignores all of his employees. Another gal who works the night shift says when she comes in the boss doesn't even say "hi." He just gives her the rundown and then splits. Do I want to work in that environment any longer ...

— SBJ

September 10, 2003

Argentina

I booked my tickets to Argentina this week. Oh. My. God. I'm so scared. Nervous. A wreck. Thanks Dad, for handing down the anxiety gene. This trip is at least 3 months away so you'd think I could wait a bit to freak out. Forget it. Things that frighten me: planes crashing, maleria,

— SBJ

September 9, 2003

Books and Movies

So I was never one to read anything that would turn into a movie. Sure most of Jim Thompson's books would be great movies, I am sure they are considered too old timey or something, so they get passed over for Pulp Fiction wannabes by lesser talents. But low and behold two of the books I have read in the past year or so are now movies (and I am not what you would call and avid reader). I always thought people were lame, saying, oh, the book was much better, what they are really saying is that they invested so much time into this story, they chatted about it in book club, they are smart.

So anyhow, Mystic River and The Human Stain are now movies, and I almost feel compelled to see them, but probably won't, just like I didn't see "catch me if you can" mostly because of that kid from the titanic, what a puss.

If they make a movie of the 50 classic climbs of North America, I'll be like, oh, no way, the book got way more in depth than that, one guy didn't get the first ascent on all fifty climbs, and all those chase scenes, those weren't in the book, they made it soo Hollywood.

— PLJ

September 8, 2003

Cold Front Farce

So everyone (in the media) was hyping some cold front that we were to expect this weekend. "lows of 63!" Well, Unless you are up at 4 in the morning, the low is not going to make much difference b/c the highs are still around 93, but hey, I, along with most Austinites will take it.

Big Wall Knee Pads

Suzie and I were going to do the "keep Austin weird run" No, not because we think Austin is not weird enough, (see previous blog) but because we have both been running, the money goes to Barton springs pool, and we thought Retta would enjoy it. Well we had just decided that morning to do it, and when we called the information line, they said registration was closed. C'est la vie, the race was at 5:30 anyhow and it was pretty blistering hot out. Went to academy, got some big wall knee pads, some zip the leg off pants and Suzie got her team matching jerseys for the women's adventure race in four weeks. Then we went to Jason Perez's house for a cool slide shoe and good eats. Retta was loving all the attention she got at her first "adult party".

— PLJ

September 6, 2003

New Guy

There's a new guy "in the office" He started about two weeks ago. I use the words "in the office" loosely b/c while I actually do work in the office, he actually works in "housekeeping." Housekeeping works in many offices throughout the building including the bathrooms, the breezeways, etc.

He reminds of Christian Slater. Not in the good 80's-cute-boy way, but in the creepy Jason Dean-"Heathers" way. He could lead all the young girls in the office to commit suicide or something. If he worked the same shifts they did.

He stood out immediately b/c Housekeeping is comprised entirely of African-American and Hispanic men and women — all over the age of, hmmm ... 50? And then Christian Slater. Twenty-three. Leaving the over-taxing carpet business behind to work at the newspaper. Where he cleans the carpets every night.

— sbj

September 5, 2003

Subaru Primal Quest

— PLJ

September 4, 2003

Perfect Evening

Suzie went to bunco, and Retta and I were going to go get a burrito at Chipotle. We were also going to stop at circuit city and get some more video tapes, to record all of retta's latest antics. I went a rather circuitous route (potential early morning bike route to Brodie) while playing the endless "music together" cd. When we got to the circuit city/Chipotle parking lot, Retta was fast asleep. I unbuckled her restraints and she stirred a little bit and then went back to sleep, resting her head on my shoulder. I went into Circuit City and TV's were blaring and Retta hardly moved. I couldn't find any tapes and I couldn't get any help and this usually pisses me off, but I was cool with it this time. I went to customer service and requested some help from the girl behind the counter and she ran around until she learned that they were sold out of the tapes and would have more Saturday. C'est la vie. Retta was still sleeping and I hiked across the parking lot, the setting sun on her eyelids didn't even stir her. She slept as I ordered and paid for dinner. I got her a side of black beans and an extra tortilla (which they didn't charge me for). And when we were to sit down, she perked up and was like, Hey where are we? I put her in a high chair, offered her up some tortilla and black beans and she went to town. I forgot to get her water out of the vehicle, so I let her pull ice out of my tea. She was having the best time, turning around in her chair, waving to all her friends, and smearing black beans all over her face. After a while I just fed her beans and then we decided to go. On the way home she was singing along to her music and bobbing her head. When we got home the pugs were here to eagerly great us, and after a diaper change we were preparing for bed. Retta pointed to the front door which meant that she wanted to go to the neighbor's house to look for their cat "Bear-Bear". Bear-Bear wasn't around, but I did see a quick little snake in the grass and was trying to find that. Then Tommy (four year old neighbor) wanted to show me his "motorcycle" (electric 4-wheeler) but the batteries were about dead. After chatting with Tommy and his Mom, Liza, we headed back in. Retta and I looked at some of her books and she wanted to go back outside, but it was time for bed and she got a bit upset. After a bit of crying, she settled down on my belly as a I chanted a variant of a song that Suzie sings to her. I thought she was asleep and when I quit singing, her head popped up and she nodded "more, more", so I kept going. She was restless, not able to get comfortable and at one point started grabbing my face and stuck her index finger so far up my nose that I was sure it was bleeding, and see laughed. Finally she fell asleep sprawled right across my throat. I managed to get her to lay to my side and soon I was out.

— PLJ

September 3, 2003

Austin Zoo

The Austin Zoo is one best-kept secret, four miles from our house and they have lions and tigers, you know the rest. And, of course it is small, most Austinites don't even know that we have a zoo. We went there on Labor Day proper and about 20 minivans in the dirt parking lot. When you enter through the office they ask you if you would like some feed for the goats and deer (I assume you have to pay for it). The great thing is that kids never get sick of animals, so you can take them their with repeated success. Most of the animals are rescued from torture labs, confiscated in illegal game trade, or ex-pets from people that thought they would be the next Zigfried or Roy. Go check out the Austin zoo, the lions are waiting.

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