yesterday biking

at coyote coulee, my first time there and my first time out in the woods with my good friend, the SX trail II. I had a blast. I forgot how exhausting pedaling uphill was, I admit it. but the downhill over all those little jumps was such a laugh. technically not hard, up maybe s0g0 with some s1g0 sections, downhill a plain s0g0, maybe one or two s1g0. sooo fun! Got to go out there again soon...

the photo shows the patio at our new place in Innsbruck.

V8

is not only drinkable, but also doable. also for me now. I sent my first V8 saturday. my tips were almost bleeding and my ego close to an all-time-low when it suddenly all opened up and it went! I am still pretty sore but it felt great. yesterday I joined corey, jesse and friends for some early-day climbing at loHo. they had to leave after a couple of hours which made me go find Ian, Joe, Sam and JD and climb 'til sundown with them. it was great, very goofy. the kind of really fun bouldering that you can get when you know you did good the day before and now can just play freely. Today I gave my last talk at the lab and now I think that a good bottle should help celebrate and heal the pain my bruised body gives me. V8 baby! sooo happy!

being a foreigner listening to pearl jam

Two stories today that will make sense in the end, I promise. I walked the dogs in the morning today, like every day. I decided to listen to Pearl Jam, the No Code album, which I really like. Sometimes I don't quite understand Eddie Vedder's lyrics though because he has a f... potato in his mouth. This time it sounded like something I want to have printed on a T shirt, I will get back to that later. A couple of years ago a friend of mine told me that she was approached by a girl in the climbing gym about this boulder problem she did. The girl told her how cool it was that she could send that problem and asked her how she can stick that funky move. My friends response: "Because I am better than you". I think that's just wrong. I know that climbing is such an ego boost when you get better and if you have a project for a long time after you send it you feel just great, like you can do anything. But I think it really is all just for yourself, not to be better than other people, just better than you were before. So back to Pearl Jam, the line he sung I still don't know but to me it sounded like "come to send, not condescend".

a couple of things

1, go buy the album "third" by portishead.

2, if you are sick, stay at home and recover.

3, huskies are cuter than pugs

climbing was great yesterday. lindsay and me went to loHo after work and met these young kids, the metal kind with long hair, trashed car, bandanas and metallica shirts. we had a blast, such a positive climbing spirit they had. no competition, just having fun playing around, no ego, everyone helping each other out and pushing each other in a very positive way. travis and me sent a couple of V5 and V6, lindsay got super close to two new V6s and then lindsay, travis and me started projecting a V8. he actually got it, it was great. the tip of my right my index finger split down way beneath the skin on the 2nd move crimp. now I have a new project at loHo!!! V8 baby, I hope it goes soon! I will talk about it if it does, no worries...

climbing anyone?

this weekend was kinda mixed. I climbed at loHo friday after work, lindsay started feeling not so good and thus didn't come with me. I brought a little videocam with me and the funny thing is that all of the sudden i wanted to look good while climbing. no grunting and stuff. i caught myself trying to smile while pushing through hard sequences. funny, i never had that happen before. saturday we went to lake como to boulder there with a couple of friends. it was a blast. luckily my friends had good stories to tell on the 4 mile hike out after a couple of hours of pretty hard bouldering... sunday was slow with rain and hail... today back to the horse!!!