Commoditized climbing

I went with sheenaqotj to a place called "The Main Event" and got a very different experience of climbing than I'm used to. Instead of belaying your friends, all the climbs are on auto-belay device. Instead of being surrounded by young athletic hipsters there were swarms of kids and parents. They had an easy section of maybe 8 5.6 climbs and a couple 5.7ish. It was pretty busy. The intermediate section started at 5.8 and with a little cheating I got up one of them. The whole section seemed a little less well maintained and less often visited and yet some of the holds seemed a little slick from too many unchalked hands.

It was fun anyway. In under an hour I did 7 or 8 'easy' climbs and got myself a thorough workout and thoroughly tired.

Whirlwind Austin Weekend

Friday I flew down to Austin to hang out with sheenaqotj. It was an awesome and full and busy time.

We started out Friday night after work by going to a live performance heckling of Forest Gump. That was a good laugh. Then, off to dancing!
( me dipping sheena )

And then off to a wild party until 3am. Uf.

Saturday morning, up at 8am and off to the trees.

( videos and pictures of playing around up in the trees )

Then nap, dinner, a very strong drink called a "mexican martini" which is like a marguerita only more so, and a bunch of cruising around Austin looking for either a downtown scene or another party to go to before winding up home at a much more reasonable 1am.

Sunday started with pancakes and a couple hours of ultimate frisbee. That was more running than I've done in a long time. Then off to "The Main Event" for a quick round of laser tag and the aforementioned climbing.

Nap, and then off to a party of Sheena's friends for the very sweet occasion of her friend's girlfriend moving from California to Austin to live with him.

That's about it. Sleep, airplanes, and now I'm home. I have a big nasty blister on each foot from the running Sunday morning. I'm also really sore and tired all over from a much more physical weekend than I'm used to.