We did up Nabe again on Sunday. Ron, Jami, Angel, Esther, Ingrid, Matt and Mora came over and we continued the ritual of Nabe. It was good, as usual. Esther made brownies and ice cream, that helped.

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On Saturday Dan and I went up the Rock Of Ages trail in the Gorge. It was pretty muddy and a pain to go up,but the Devil's Backbone is super cool. It was cool out and we had fog, which made it like Mordor or something. For once I didn't bring too much food and I was eyeing my advil as a source of food. Not that I'd really starve, but once you think about air dropped Philly CheeseSteaks (Dan's idea), it's hard to not get hungry.

While crossing one of the larger streams I thought I'd make it an easier crossing by chucking my boots across.

Bad Idea

As soon as the boots left my hand I knew it was going bad. They might have made it 2/3rds of the way across before landing in the fast part of the stream. As opposed to rushing to where they plopped in thestream, I stared at them in disbelief and thought "I used to throw in High School, how did they not make it?".Dan pointed out where they floated to and I moved there to snag them. They fell under a waterfall and got stuck. I tried grabbing the one boot and yanking on it, but the other boot was stuck somewhere. I regretted leaving my knife at home (I looked at it twice and thought "Why would I need a knife?"). I also regretted using 200lbs tensile strength cord for shoelaces as it's next to impossible to break with one arm.

I saw it getting worse instead of better, so I decided it was time to get heading back to the quasi warm confines of the Van. I had some duct tape and put it on my feet for the 3 mile hike out. After a while Dan pointed out I could put on my socks, so I did that and added more tape. Dan headed out faster to get my sandals from the car and brought them back to me about 2 miles later. A few people hiked by and wondered what the deal was. The deal is I can't throw two boots across a stream.

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Ron and I went down to Red Rocks in Las Vegas to do some climbing and to hang out with Jami for her birthday. We had a good time not losing all of our money, making fun of the other people at Circus Circus and getting in some climbing. We did a sick 5.3 trad climb (Chips and Salsa) that got us to the top of a few nice top ropes. We also got in a few good climbs on the Panty Wall and Ultraman Wall. Friday and Saturday night we went out gambling at the Sahara. I lost my first hundred over a few hours, during which the dealer laughed at me for doubling down on an Ace and a Two - I got another two and lost. The second night we got most of our money back after being down to 25 dollars. I found out my camera has a defect that puts a white line through most pictures, so that added a nice flair.

Photos

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We went out to Lebanese food for Esther's big 29 birthday. The had the largest pita breads ever and it was pretty grub.

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Last weekend Keevin and Silvia got married up at Timberline on Mt. Hood. Here are a ton of pictures and stuff.

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On Sunday Jill, Jami, Esther and Billy came over for some Nabe (Japanese one-pot BBQ). It was kickass.

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Ron, Dan, Kate, Esther, Matt and I went over to Smith to get in some climbing. Ron and I did Moscow (5.6) and it took forever. Neither of us really enjoyed the climb but we got through it and went over to do a 5.9+ sport route afterwords. Kate and Dan were working on a 5.11 climb and the light was good for pictures so most are of them.

Photos

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I did a lamb roast to celebrate Kate & Dan getting back from Asia, Keevin & Sylvia getting married and Mo & Dan just getting married. The fire the night before was just as painful as last year but we had hot rocks in the morning. We forgot to put the meat in a trench of hot rocks and just threw it down and covered it. And the thermometer broke, so we couldn't tell how hot the meat was. We went off of last roasts temperatures and took it out after 7 hours.

The bottom was cooked perfect, the top wanted to be thrown on the BBQ for a bit. But it was all good, we had a good turnout, the lamb was damn tasty and people had a good time. The 6 brought pictures and we watched them on the TV so everyone could see how their trips and such were. I started drinking from the wine bottle so the rest is a bit hazy, but someone might have spilt beer on me and pushed me over in my chair.

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In preparations for the lamb roast this weekend we (Dan, Ron and I) built a little hut over the pit. Hopefully if it rains the roof will keep most of the water off of the fire while we run around like pagans drinking beer and burning wood.

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On Sunday I went to the gorge for a little hike with Kate, Cyndi and Matt. We went up Munra point. Well, I didn't make it all the way cos my shoes sucked and were sliding all over the place near the top. Cyndi was nice enough to turn back with me as Kate and Matt went to the top a bit further. It was a cool hike and looked like Mordor for a while.

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