++ I LOVE THE OUTDOORS. heather asked me the other day what i like to do. i answered, " i like to be outdoors. i like to climb, i like to hike, i like to camp, i like to play soccer, i like to golf, i like to be in the outdoors, doing physical outdoor stuff. i'm not a big fan of sitting in a classroom, of sitting listening to lectures, of being passive." if it were me, i would wake up do something active outdoors, then eat, then do something else active outdoors, and then eat again and then do something else active outdoors and then sleep. wake up and do the same thing again. i'd never get sick of it. and if i did, then i would do something different active outdoors.

white water rafting - was awesome as it always is. there weren't any swimmers, although j-ackleg w-hitewater almost bit it twice. if it weren't for those footholds... and he's a good shield for blocking water from hitting the person behind him. i think between him and heather, they got more soaked from incoming water after lunch in the first rapid than the other five of us got the entire ride. the water was freezing. we had to wear wetsuits and booties and i had on a fleece, a raincoat, and a life jacket and i was still a little cold!

camping - was cold. i like fire. i was a pyro when i was a litt..younger kid. i loved fire. camping lets me re-live my younger childhood. isn't it great though? you like a fire and throw stuff on it and it burns. then you throw more stuff on it and it burns as well. and then you throw a lot of stuff on it and it burns like crazy. its so great. and then it goes out and its cold.

kayaking - heather and i went kayaking out on lake union and lake washington on sunday. apparantly two days of camping, the matrix reloaded, and a day of white water rafting weren't enough, so when we got back on sunday, we went to the university avenue street fair and then kayaking for 2 hours. the place we went to has a dock right in between lake washington and lake union, but to get out to lake washington you have to paddle through the montlake cut through portage bay and then out to lake washington, which is fine when the water is flat, but when the boats are going past you the wake tends to get a little higher the closer you are to the boat, which is fine unless you are right next to the boat, which you are when you go through the montlake cut, which is creepy, especially since i don't think i would know what to do if i flipped the kayak over. but anyone can kayak. all you have to do is fill out a little piece of paper with some information on it and sign your name saying you are responsible for yourself, not the company, and then they give you a boat and off you go. no experience required. but then again, they won't save you if you start to drown.

sleep - is good. especially when you fall asleep at 8.30 and sleep soundly for the entire night and then get up at 7.00 the next morning to go to work. believe it or not, it actually makes work easier in the mornings as well. and you don't have to visit the coffee machine as many times. (although if you are the first one in, you have to make the coffee. found that out this morning. apparantly it doesn't 'magically' make itself.) ++