I’ve always been a fan of sandstone. The colors. The texture. This last weekend the lady and I, and couple of friends, took off for Red Rocks. Though not expecting much of the trip I did plan to try something hard.

 

 

 

I had set my eye to try Lethal Design, up in Gateway Canyon. It seemed enjoyable. Powerful moves, on good holds, for a long time. Kinda my steez. With a large group we found ourselves all about the Kraft boulders and Gateway. Stevie finished off her project, Monkey Bar Traverse. Tim and Jeremy gave Bitch Slap 5! some solid burns. And everybody struggled a bit on Pork Chop.

 

 

 

The weekend was special though not just because we took a little trip, but because it was Dayna’s birthday! She’s a super stellar lady and I’m a lucky guy, to say the least. To celebrate, we got sushi and saki bombs Saturday night, a lot of sushi.

Since Tim was on the trip, and it’s difficult to teach older dogs newer tricks, we had the pleasure of staying at Arizona Charlie’s. A fine, smokey, bingo hotel. I’ve stayed here a few time now, and while I always second guess my choice when driving there from the boulders, Tim’s pure enjoyment and sass always make it well worth the copious amounts of stop lights and traffic. This trip though brought a new experience. Tim attempted to teach me the craft of playing Black Jack. Now I knew Tim was good with numbers, by his own prescribed ethnic characteristics… The man knows the game. While I caught on relatively quick, Tim’s rapid counting and situating helped me to double my money (read Tim’s money) in a relatively short time. Here though I took over the reigns, and rather quickly lost all of my money (again, read Tim’s money). But because I got a few Black Jacks I now have a lucky half dollar in my wallet. Well it may not be lucky. But that’s not the point. It’ll at least stand as a reminder of winning, losing, and general debauchery.

 

 

 

Recently the sun, and its dang shadows, have been making photography difficult and frustrating. But, none the less, I stole a few pictures here and there. Dayna has been taking up the camera a little more as well, and it seemingly fits quite well in her hand.

Tuesday was veterans day. Since Dayna had the day off, as did Tim, we decided to head down to Sedona and test out the temps. Dayna was able to take down an old project, Lazer Cut, in a few short goes.

 

 

 

I then trounced over to a very long standing project, Alien Baby Right, and tried to conquer the old foe. I failed. But that’s ok. I’ve become a veteran of failing on this problem. Many of my buddies have done, and did it easily. I always argue that I can’t do it because I’m a bit shorter and the crux move is my full span, but excuse will still be excuses. However, I did come very close to doing the problem that day, three or four times. Maybe this winter is the season to finish it off.