Gettin' dressed up

Today, I have to go get measured for the tuxedo I'll be wearing in Pete's wedding. And later this week I'll have to go pick up the fancy pants robes I'll be wearing at graduation. I am sure I will look fabulous in both getups, but probably a bit better in the Tux. You never know though. The robes might be quite flattering. I doubt it though. I think they are designed to conceal the many ills that often plague the bodies of a life long academic.

So, as I mentioned previously, my birthday was on Saturday and it was awesome. I went to a Dodger's game with Josh, Meghan and their friend Kara. It was a good game and we had pretty decent seats. We were in the second row of the upper deck, just above the railing so that we had an unobstructed view of the whole field. I did struggle to gauge where line drives were going to land. There were hits I thought were going to be caught and lineouts I thought were going to be hits. I think I'd have to spend a few games in those seats to get used to it.

After the game we came back to Josh and Meghan's place and cooked up an awesome dinner, with bruschetta, green-lipped mussels steamed in beer broth, and steak frittes. Meghan made some amazing molten chocolate cake for desert which paired with with a bottle of the New Glarus Raspberry Tart. Speaking of beer. There were four of us drink that night so we were able to drink a few more beers than Josh and I can usually make it through with just the two of us.

Here is the list:
Stuise Earthmonk
JW Lee's Harvest Ale 1998
Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA
Struise Stuiselensis
Russian River Temptation
Upland Wheat
Alesmith Old Numbskull
New Glarus Raspberry Tart
Three Floyds Dark Lord Stout

All in all it was a great day. And I owe a huge thank you to Josh and Meghan for making it all happen.

The next day I lazed around for a bit before taking off to go to Black Mountain a nearby bouldering area. Well not too near to LA, it is out in the mountains west of Palm Springs. To get to Black Mountain you approach from the west side of the range and drive up a dirt road towards a boulder-strewn campground. There are lots of cool problems there, but it is certainly not for the novice climber. I checked out the OK Corral area on Sunday evening and climbed a few interesting problems there. I saw many more interesting problems that were just a but too hard for me. I then drove up the road to find a spot to sleep in one of the free group campsites that climbers generally stay in.

The first one I came across had a tent and some gear in it but the owner was not around I set up my stuff on the far side of the campsite, which was actually farther away from his stuff than the next site would have been in most of the official campgrounds I have been in. I ate my dinner and listened to the basketball game (Lakers/Celts game 2). I was just getting ready to go to bed and read for a bit when the guy came back. After a couple minutes he came down to talk to me, and it was clear he would rather that I was not there. I offered to move and it took him a bit to admit that he actually did want me to move. I agreed because it really was no big deal. I was only there cause I didn't know how far up the road the next site was, and I figured this was big enough to fit both of us (and more for that matter). However after I agreed to move it came out that his girlfriend was coming up that night and since he hadn't seen her in a week they were going to be "noisy" all night. The real reason he was uncomfortable is he didn't want anyone within listening distance. I of course told him he should have said that right away. I have to problem at all giving some lovers a bit of privacy if they need it.

So I moved and it was easy. The next site was just up the road. I woke up the next morning (Monday) and headed to the Boulder Basin Campground area. This is the main climbing area but also a campground you have to pay to sleep in. Some of the boulders are right next to the campsites so it is a good place to go on weekdays and avoid on weekends. After I had checked out some of the problems and had started warming up I met another group of climbers from Murrieta. I ended up hanging out with Joel, Terry and Daniel for the rest of the day and together we went out to the summit area to find The Visor boulder and the climbs NRA and Facemeat. I was able to climb Center Visor (V6), Joel almost managed it but was unable to pull the mantle. It was a hard mantle, there must be an easier way than I did it, but I was happy to have done it however awkward it was. I think got it on the third try, but after the first go who really cares. Daniel sent Facemeat (V6) and Joel was very close. I did not try it because it involved small and painful looking crimps, that would have been well... painful. Well then proceeded back to the campground area where the guys showed me the climbs Bull Durham (V6) and Velvet Revolver (V7). The opening moves on BD weren't too bad, but the crux involved a long move off of two painful holds. I think I will wait until I and stronger and the holds don't hurt so much to try to send this one. However VR was much nice on the fingers and I almost got the crux move a couple times. And I think I would have sent it, but my should was hurting me pretty bad for the first time in months and I had to stop climbing for my own well being. I think that doing pushups the other night must have messed me up, by weakening my muscles as they recovered from the workout and then I stressed them again climbing. Hopefully a bit of regular push up work will make it so that my muscles are not too sore and weakened, and I can both climb and do push ups.

In any case, I high tailed it back to LA after that and I hung out with Josh and Meghan last night. Josh and I tried some coffee stouts, Peche Mortel and the Central Water's Coffee Stout, along with the Great Lakes Blackout Stout.

Tomorrow I will leave for Stanford, but I think I might go climb a mountain on the way....