October 29, 2003

'The Lovely Bones'

I just finished this bestseller. The first half was great ... scary! Hard to put down. Made me fear for my daughter and all my freinds' daughters. Reminded me that my own cousin went through this exact nightmare and this could have been her story. I don't watch scary movies and I don't remember ever reading scary books. And what was scary was that it was so real ... and then halfway through it just got cheesy! I think if I was more into fantasy I would've appreciated it more. People were seeing and talking to her ghost. No problem. But then she got her wish to leave Heaven, spent a wonderful night in the body of a girl she didn't know well on Earth, and got to KISS and make LOVE all night with the boy of her dreams. Puh-leeease!

— sbj

October 27, 2003

Grant's first Limestone

I got Grant on Limestone for the first time today and of course, he excelled. We were lucky. The weather stayed perfect and just a bit chilly. Retta let everyone know when her mama was climbing by crying at the top of her lungs. Grant is a hero. Not too many men will pick up a crying baby and try to entertain her like he did. Even though I would have liked to get on about 25 more routes than I did, I had a great time.

Halloween party

Retta and i topped the day off with a Halloween party at Kelly O's. It wasn't until I was sitting in there carving a pumpkin that I really felt disappointed that Paul will be missing her first real halloween. She loves her pumpkin. He even gets hugs. It was the wildest party I think I've ever been to. Rivaled only by a Halloween party I went to my first year at UT. Except this one must've had 25 kids under the age of 5 running wild. And her house really isn't that big.

— sbj

October 26, 2003

Surprise project

My secret project is underway almost as scheduled. Bry has many ideas which I am grateful for. Char was supposed to come stay Friday and help map ideas, but that totally fell thru. As long as Bry actually comes over today and gets started I'll be very happy!

No rain, please!

I'm going on my first climbing outing today without Paul, with Retta! I so hope it doesn't rain. I'm really excited to get out. Grant should be here at 8 and I hope he'll be on time since he has that extra surprise hour of sleep. Eeeeeeeeek! Had the opp. to meet Beth and Barry at E-rock today too but I decided I really want Paul if I'm hiking out to B's Roost. Maybe I'll change my mind by next weekend.

— sbj

October 25, 2003

The Corlione Wedding

Retta and I attended a beautiful backyard wedding in the Hyde Park area tonight ... and the bride was a knock-out! Lucky Brian! Of course Brian is the ultimate sweet guy so they're perfect for each other. It was weird hanging out with all of Paul's old work buddies tho (Bri is a freind Paul worked with at New Edge Networks). Frank and Kreggor (who I barely even know) were super friendly. As were their dates. Murphy was nice too but his wife didn't make it b/c they had a 4-mo-old sleepy head at home. Derek, the one who I've probably spem the most time with and talk to the most was downright weird. Maybe it's b/c they dissed us on their wedding and he feels uncomfortable. Whatever. He's an asshole. How'd did he get such a sweetie for a wife?!? Retta and I didn't stay long b/c she was sleepy and mosquitoes weren't even respecting the DEET on my feet. Many many happy years to the bride and the groom!!!!!

— sbj

October 24, 2003

The Eiger Sanction

I was out of town earlier this week and flipping through the channels on Monday came across the last half of "The good, the bad, and the ugly". The ultimate in spaghetti westerns, but the very next night, the same channel had the Eiger Sanction on, and that movie is Awesome on so many levels. First of all, the Un-PC-ness of the whole era with race based slang and innuendoes (as Clint romances a black woman and a native American), derisive homosexual comments and the like. Secondly, there is actually a plot based on cold war strife, stealing secret tapes, secret agents, double agents, and sanctions: hired killings. And third and most important is that there is actually some good climbing scenes and if you are not watching too closely, you don't notice that Clint is toproping a chimney in one scene to be leading it (in silhouette) a split second later. And fourth, it's Clint! He is cool and self-assured, but only cocky with other individuals, not the mountain.

— PLJ

October 23, 2003

Almost there

I am days away from being in the valley and getting humbled. less and less people are interested in climbing these days and that means less and less people interested in wall climbing. Only know one person (in Texas) who is somewhat interested in doing wall climbing and who knows, maybe after this trip with Jason, he will always be up, or maybe I will meet a bunch of other climbers who are into this thing. it could be a lot worse, i could be an ice climber in texas. then I would really be screwed.

— PLJ

October 22, 2003

Star Wars Kid- The Climber

Ok this is him, he was there at erock. ok it wasn't the actual star wars kid, that dork was some french canadian and younger, but this guy was cut from the same fabric. pudgy 6 foot two or so and had a huge rack of seemingly brand new gear. he was fixing to lead up jack knife, if you don't know it, it is a great first lead, I am going to test my gear placing abilities b/c i know I am not going to fall climb. grant and i were going to do a quick linkup of this and another easy climb called cave crack. two dorks were at the top of the climb when we showed up. I asked if they were going to be a while, well, he explains that one of the guys at the top is going to come back down because he (star wars kid) was going to lead it, he actually declared it as if he were announcing running for office. Ok, cool, whatever. we would wait, how long could it take, so i start organizing gear. star wars kid asks me what my adjustable daisies were and I said adjustable daisies, oh, he murmers a second as he reflected, then shared with me that he had read about them on the internet and several people have had problems with them, the people in fact, climb in yosemite. i did not respond, and as grant taped up, I decided I would teach him (Grant) how to remove gear and the basics of following a climb, using daisies to clip to the anchor and how to transition to rappel. Well we did this on a crack around the corner and came back and the jack asses still weren't up the climb. I was getting a little frustrated, was supposed to be my fast and loose easy climbing day and these jack holes were making it slow and tense. fucking up the whole program. As soon as the cleaner was to the anchors I was up the climb. and shortly after grant was up and doofus had his rope stuck in the anchors as he rapped down the opposite side of the boulder and the rope was not flowing. He asked if I could remove it and I told him I would as soon as grant was off belay. he downclimbed the the boulder and they were all at cave crack. I mentioned that I would like to jump in front of them on cave crack. Lead doofus was already leading, sweating and snarling and placing gear like he was an aid climbing dwarf. He was tripping bad and couldn't read where the route was going. Meanwhile we had a running commentary by star wars kid. ok, it has been exacltly six months since my injury. I was bouldering and came down hard on my heal, I did not tear anything per the mri, but I pulled every tendon in my ankle. did I mention that I climb at joshua tree, nothing is like that desert granite. I run the idea by them that I would like to run grant and myself up the route after the lead climber was at the anchor, well ya see, he had some problems route finding (you follow the 6-12 inch crack all the way up the face) he decided to break the route into two pitches and set his anchor. since we were running the whole way up, what the hell would he mind if we took two minutes to go in front of them, he agreed, but as I pulled grant up, grant let me know that lead doofus thought our actions "were not cool". I kinda speculated his basis for this assesment. As far as safety goes, I didn't jepordize theirs or ours and as far as them having to wait on us for 5 minutes, well fuck 'em. It is not the fact that they were learning that bugged me, but that they made no concessions for us.

— PLJ

October 21, 2003

Internet Exploder Bites My Ass

It got some worm or virus or something that doens't let me go to google or teoma, but shoots me to c-plane or c-span or some shit and has links to patches and band aids, but nothing works and apparently it is only a problem on the explorer......

— PLJ

October 20, 2003

'Camp 4' - The Book by Steve Roper

I finally got my hands on a copy of 'Camp 4' that I saw at half priced bookstore in dallas a few months ago. I kicked myself for not picking it up back then and when I went back they were remodeling and all the books were in boxes. 'Camp 4' lays out all the history of the valley up until 1970. Most people think of old school as Jim Bridwell and John Long, but this book is about the really old school, Harding, Robins, Salathe, Chinourd (sp?) and Sacherer. Awesome read and makes going to the valley more than a climbing trip, its more like a history lesson with a dose of humility, all the while sharing the same sentiments of roustabouts from decades before.

— PJL

October 19, 2003

Muddy Buddy (post race report)

What a blast! The race directors really got organized this year. Team TopRope finished at a whopping 51 minutes, passing teams Austin360, the TraceStars and the Corpus Dorkuses ... but they all did great too. The obstacles were more fun this year too ... we sure missed our local race snob, PLJ, who decided to go climb a rock. Solo. Many thanks to Bevy who kept Retta entertained thru the race.

Cranium heads

Got in an incredibly rowdy game of Cranium Saturday night. Four teams and lots of chaos. Haven't played in a while but totally recommend it. Retta mixed it up a bit, eating a few cards and making her Baba nervous by chewing on the dice.

October 17, 2003

Muddy Buddy

The troops will start pouring in today for the Muddy Buddy. Last year I did it with PJ and this year I'm racing with my dad!! Hurray for young parents! The race isn't until Sunday but I need to teach Cy to ride a bike and we've got to cabo-load!!! Read: EAT a lot! Paul bowed out b/c he insists that if he gets a free weekend he would rather climb. Even if it's alone. At ARG this week Paul met a girl who WON the race last year! Oh my god! To be so competitive. I don't think I've ever won a race ... I'll work on it and maybe next year ...

Beth K. was telling me all about the Danskin and it's now officially on my list for next year. And that list is growing fast!!

— sbj

October 16, 2003

OS X

I HATE it! Why do I have to open a classic environment to open SimpleText. Why must there even be 2 different OSes on the this stupid little machine. What was Apple thinking.

Thyroid

I've always heard of thyroids. Only as problems tho. People are either hypo or hyper but never really looked into them beyond that. Until I went to the doc with an impossible-to-soothe sore throat. Eight days into it I decided to get it checked. Maybe I had strep and I wanted to know before I run around town or take Baby to any more of her playdates. Ha! I was totally taken by surprise to her hear it was my thyroid. Now worries. It's not catching. And I'm perfectly healthy. But it still hurts. And now I'm worried about it. And I don't want to take meds for the rest of my life ... I don't even take advil ... didn't get the coveted epidural ... got my fingers crossed that this will come out all right. What a pain in the neck.

— sbj

October 13, 2003

Hair Products

I went to the gold's gym north today as I was to be at solectron at 8 am. I showered there and ever single dude had some sort of hair product, some even had hair dryers. I am thinking, what a bunch of fags. Not literally, but gimme a break, hair gel and a blow dryer? One dude has this whole bag for his; I don't know what you would call them, accoutrements? And these are supposed to be guys that think of themselves as manly, sitting in front of a mirror dolling themselves up like a teen aged cheerleader before a big Saturday night. I guess most women don't mind this and this is a big reason why there are shows teaching men to act like fags. I know I am mostly alone in my opinion and even know some dudes who are into 'beauty' products, and sure they are not bad people, but not someone you would want to back you up in a fight, or worse; a sick, scary, run out finger crack.

October 7, 2003

Small World

In addition to seeing familiar faces from the past at the women's adventure race, I ran into the racing partner of Lies of Rattlesnake Racing at the gym this morning in Richardson. She works there and I told her that I recognized her from the race this past weekend. She said it is a small world. I guess so.

Newbies

It has been a long time since Suz and I have introduced anyone to the sport of climbing, but our friend, Grant has climbed with us for the past two weekends, and not only is he a natural, he really enjoys it. We used to really encourage newbies to join us, hoping to turn someone on to a new passion. Then we realized that a lot of people express interest but have no desire, so we quit. Well we invited Grant to climb, and I am glad we did, he puts up with "music together", gets along great with Retta, and is shaping up to be a decent crack climber. We taught Grant to belay and I had him catch me on Texas Crude where I took a nice little lead fall. To his surprise, he caught me, and neither of us was worse for the wear. I fixed the line on TC and then cleaned it as I jugged and that was an ass kicker as the rope sucked into the crack and wedged a cam sideways way into the crack. I needed a hammer and gear pick to set it loose. The weather was great and it only decided to rain when we were in the auto heading home.

— PLJ

October 4, 2003

Race day

Of course I couldn't sleep at all last night. I could blame the crying baby. But I know it was part me-just-never-able-to-sleep-before-a-big-next-day kind of thing. And our preggo racer won't be here after all. Not even to cheer. She's fighitng the icky cold that I think the Johnsons had for a while two weeks ago. Now if I could only ditch the cough...

October 3, 2003

The Women's Race

Our team is down to 2. One of our teammates got knocked-up. I imagine this could easily be a common problem with women's races. But we're all jumping up and down and would rather see her preggers than racing. Plus she'll be out there cheering and supporting and flying the team colors so it's all good. I am a tad bit nervous. I know a bunch of these women have been attending clinics and doing wild things like, uh, training together ...

WAHM

I've got to rethink a new biz idea. I want to work. how many jobless friends have I had over the years that suck up unemployment or stand in line to collect their foodstamps. Single, capable people. Milking the system. I can't imagine doing it. I don't remember a whole lot from the ol' history and government classes but I'm sure those programs were created more to help families and "less fortunate" keep from falling thru cracks or something.

— SBJ

October 1, 2003

Loose Pugs

Third time in like five days. Maddie is the kingpin, and Rufus is the loyal Sidekick, Mack is the lookout and doesn't leave the premises. Together Maddie and Rufus wander the streets and yards of Granada Hills. I rechecked the fence and pounded on some boards/busted up some boards which I will have to replace this weekend.

Town Lake romp

Suzie and Retta and I went jogging at town lake last night and the weather was awesome. I need to start jogging more as I want to build up to marathon capacity before Feb. The cooler weather really helps.

Nobody wants to belay me

Still haven't found anyone willing to "Aid Belay" me at the gym. The unpopularity of Aid climbing in general is astounding to me. Even before I wanted to do it, I was at least intrigued by it. My motivation for aid is not for aid in and of itself, but to do long routes that have some bad ass free climbing, but require aid to complete. Maybe, someday later in my climbing career I would like to do some A3 or something, but for right now, I am all about 5.9 C1.

— PLJ

Past blogs: August | September

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