chelle

Damn dude. Can you please return that? I really need to look at it periodically to calm my nerves. Good thing that it's getting cold out now and I don't have to worry so much.

I can see rattlesnakes in a crack a couple pitches up being kinda scary, but in general I think I'd prefer a frog, snake, lizard, or spider on route compared to a bat. I had to share the crack on the 3rd pitch of Nutcracker with a lizard last fall, and also with one on Haystack at Lover's Leap. They were kinda cool and I knew they wouldn't hurt me. The crawled down as I went up we just kinda coordinated it.

The only thing worse than trying to teach a good friend how to ski is teaching a signifigant other how to ski. It's a recipe for disaster. I'm thinking of checking out back country skiing this winter (using AT gear not tele). I used to be a pretty good skier (could get down most CA black diamonds fine with the occasional wipeout). I ended up switching to snowboarding but am not interested in snowshoeing behind the crowd nor a split board. Is there much about skiing technique in the back country that is totally different than in bounds? Do I need to take a lesson again?

I started wearing a helmet at ski areas a couple years ago when I got a concussion after hitting my head on some icy snow in a wipeout fall. It keeps my head warmer too.

Thanks for the warning.

Macromedia flash crashes my computer. Guess I'll still just have to wonder. Most of Kubrik's movies make me wonder.

I think the year was 1975... I would never want to go back to jr. high or high school. Life is so much more fun when you're of legal age and have a few dollars in your pocket. Saw the swarm a few years after that conversation on my neighbors front porch. I remember having nightmares. Why would parents let 9 year olds watch the swarm anyways? Jaws, the Deep, and the suicide scene in Sat. night fever also caused me some stress. It's a wonder I love movies at all today.

Someone wants to get this jacket. Come on ladies... Make me an offer.

If I can sell my arc'teryx jacket I might be interested. I want to replace it with a schoeller.

No thanks. We all have our "thing" and exploring dark, dank, caves with slimy animals and furry ugly flying things doesn't sound fun to me.

I tell them about it, but caveat the site so they know what to expect. This place is overall good, but is a f'ed up as any dysfunctional community.

Yeah! That was a funny one. Got me to commit too and run it out until I rounded the corner. I think I hinted there was something, with the exclaimation of "Oooh gross!" just before I took off.

I remeber a conversation with a couple of older playmates when I was about 5 or 6. There was some article in Time magazine about killer bees and a map with dates projecting their migration. We were trying to figure out how old we'd be when the bees came and everyone was killed. Pretty morbid topic for a group of kids. Now that I think about it I was waaay to serious waaay too early in life.

for me cracks just feel way more secure, so I prefer those. I get sketched climbing bolted routes on top rope sometimes. Kinda dumb, but I hate how insecure those little crimpers and nubbins feel under hands and feet.

All the dumb arrogant insensitive people on this board.

Watch out that studd has a nasty kick. I won't ever touch the stuff again! (insert green puking gremlin here...)

Good to see we're back on the assigned topics for spray. We've had the trash Erik thread (amazingly he started it) and now it's morphed into the we hate everybody psychoanalysis thread. Maybe this place will get more interesting in the next couple days.

Excessive dehydration if you don't drink a lot of water with it. If I remember the discussion from my nutrition class last winter correctly, a few body builders' and I thought a football player's deaths were linked to its use.

I'm usually pretty scared if I'm up 15 feet or so with no rope and there's any exposure. And I am still terrified of climbing anything taller than my 4 step stepladder. I used to hate when it was my turn to climb up onto the roof in winter and clear the snow from around the stovepipe.

Yes, some (primarily vegetarians) need iron supplements during the time in their life where they are having monthly reproductive cycles. But if a woman eats a well-balanced diet they can generally get eough iron through dietary sources or by cooking in cast iron. With calcium that can be different unless you eat a lot of dairy products. Some of us just can't stomach the stuff.

Thanks j_b. Very interesting when you look at the actual figures. I somtimes wonder if Bush et al. thinks leading the country like CEOs lead a corporation is the appropriate way to use information and make policy. I used to see this sort of spin all the time in my corporate consulting days. Execs only taking from survey data the parts that support their "story" or "strategy" for their pet project...then spinning it out to the ranks in hopes to rally support for the next great thing that will produce profit. Unfortunately, most of the time this backfires in corporate America and I'm thinking in the government too. The behavior (on the part of Iraqi citizens) doesn't follow the spin by our "executives". People are starting to figure this out.

Trask - good to see a hardcore conservative like yourself thinking about this sort of thing. 1) I'm not an economist and don't know whether we can absorb these costs without significant impact to the US economy. What does cause me to be concerned is that we are spending so much money over there when there are a lot of domestic issues at home that also need attention. I think it will be hard to tackle both things, particularly now that the administration is admitting they will need to request more money in the future. 2) It is a necessary investment for the future. We bombed their country and have to at least get it back to where it was before that. However, doing only that and walking away would be insufficient and would likely create resentment on the part of the people of Iraq. We need to help get them to the point of stability and independence, which will hopefully help the middle east region. Unfortunately there is no guarantee that rebuilding Iraq will create stability in the region, nor create strong allies with any country including Iraq. And the current foreign policy has not really focused on creating allies and long lasting diplomatic ties. 3) I think we have set many precedents as a country through this war and how it has been dealt with at home and on the world stage. I only hope that some of them will be lessons learned that will not be repeated should the leadership of this country feel the need to preemptively take out a potential foe in the future.

Heard that late last night on the radio. I don't think I'd heard his music 'till they played 3 songs just before 1 am when they announced it. I liked it. What strikes me most is that he was the same age as me and died by suicide. How very sad. Makes me wonder what troubled him so much.

If you are eating a well balanced diet and include MANY of the different colors of vegetables and fruits, you shouldn't need to spend money on supplements. Except maybe a multivitamin. Or calcium if you're a woman. Overloading on specific supplements can create a lot of really expensive pee and poop. And some supplements can also create health problems (BTW creatine is one of them). Not sure what that guy has to say specifically on the subject, but you can literally flush a lot of dough chasing the supplement-yourself-to-get-the-body-you-want dream.

Thanks for the article. I'm certainly going to do more checking for cheaper books overseas next quarter. Too bad copyright doesn't apply to climbing gear though. The American manufacturers have done a good job of making sure foreign sites sell their gear at prices close to US prices...