catbirdseat

What gives you the idea you ARE living within the bounds?

What do you make of the letter from an Al Queda operative in Iraq which appeals for a sectarian war between Sunni and Shiite muslims? It sounds really fishy to me. If you were trying to get Sunni and Shiite to unite and form a government what would you do? Get them to unite against a common enemy- Al Queda .

Mix up your routine as much as possible. Vary the type and the intensity. Take rest days every now and then.

Hey, you knuckheads, Kevlar doesn't HAVE a melting point. It will char before it melts. Where are you getting your data anyway?

It would seem the safer procedure would be to cut out the old sling and sew a new one on. Home sewing jobs can be quite strong.

How about a swift kick in the teeth?

"Weak knees" I would suppose.

MtDoolittle, until you have climbed the mountain you will never understand the hardships that must be endured, nor the elation that comes with standing at the summit of Mt. Constipation.

It's the strip from Feb 8.

Come on, be a man and admit you were wrong.

OlympicMtnBoy and I arrived at Frenchman't Coulee at 10 am in fog. It was cold with some snow in the ground in shady places. We climbed awhile at the Feathers until the sun came our around noon and moved over to Sunshine Wall where we met about three of four other parties. It warmed up nicely and was quite pleasant. Altogether we climbed eight pitches or three leads each (2 sport and 1 trad). The most interesting routes proved to be Shady Chimney, which has an awkward start, but is rather fun afterwards. It was reputed to be "hard to protect", but turned out not to be so. You just need small wired stoppers. I only put my hand in fresh pigeon poop one time. I yelled "shit!" and my partner thought something was wrong, like a dropped piece. No, I was just being all too literal. We top roped Steel Grille, and found the off width portions to be challenging as neither of us had a lot of experience with offwidths. It was really fun. OlympicMtnBoy could probably lead that one, but I'm not quite there yet. It turned out to be quite a pleasant day- better than I expected.

I've got a bad cold and may decide to bag this trip until the next weather window. Arrrrgggghh! A lot of people are getting this virus. JoshK has it too.

1. Free Climbing Stoned, miss falling rock 2. Climbing in boots on hallucinogenics 3. Diving while stoned. 4. Caving while stupid 5. Narrowly avoids Gay Rapist 6. Bivies in Ranger's back yard. 7. Runs it out and takes a ground fall with minor injuries 8. Narrowly avoids careening crab pots 9. Almost gets knifed by drunk That's nine lives. It's a good thing you are a bug and not a cat, because you would be out of lives.

Wow, the NE Buttress is in way better condition compared to when Toast and I attempted it last year.

Did any of you read Dilbert yet?

Bear in mind there is a strength difference between a sewn spectra factory sling and a tied mil spec 9/16" sling. The former is 27 kN, while the latter is 11 kN less 40% for the knot or about 7 kN. On the other hand, you may clip a shoulder length runner to the cam to extend it and that is no stronger, either, but you probably change them every couple years or leave them behind on raps.

Michael, I'm not sure you'll go for this suggestion, but there are so many good photos, it would be good if they could be chosen in two rounds. Maybe yourself and Will perhaps one other person could get it down to the best six or so and then let the rabble choose from those six. That way, any one picture will have a significant number of votes behind it.

It reminds me of the Seinfeld "Bad Smell" episode. Everyone who came in contact with Jerry's car picked up the bad smell.

It might be difficult to get Kerry to wear his brain bucket. He wouldn't want to get Helmet Hair.

The veteran I talked to said that the large turnout is mostly because of the large number of candidates, but I think it is also because of the intense desire to not f--- it up this time. There was lots of talk about electability. There was also talk of not letting Kerry off the hook by letting him win easily. There was the perception that the competition from Dean and Kucinich was making him a tougher candidate.

I agree that without the belay loop when you are wearing a lot of clothes, especially a big parka, you can't see what's going on down there.

If you catch a cold, keep your face shaved. That way, if you have to blow your nose, the tissue doesn't shread on the whiskers of your upper lip and leave embarrassing white particles.

This was my first caucus ever. It could best be described as organized chaos. Our precinct will send 1 for Kerry, 1 for Kucinich, and 2 for Dean. My daughter is a delegate, while my wife and I are alternates.

I got a partner. We're carpooling from Issaquah Park and Ride at 7 am if anyone wants to ride. I could take two more.

There will be some folks going up on Sunday and Monday so we'll hear soon enough what it's like up there.