++ I GOT A flat tire yesterday and its causing me all kinds of trouble. luckily it didn't puncture, so i didn't even have to get it plugged. apparantly there is a problem with the seal of the tire to the rim and it leaks there..but ever so slowly. poop. and its costing me $30 to get it fixed.

although .. duck dodge tonight .. which means its sailing tonite! woohoo! ++

++ THE ACTUAL FOURTH of july was hot, as it is all the time in central oregon .. better known as the high desert. although i'm not sure why. it's not that its really all that high. mt. hood which is not quite central oregon sits at 11,000 feet, but thats the top of it. the base is only something around 8,000 and smith rocks state park is only around 3,500 at its highest point. i think most of central oregon sits around 2500-3000 feet above sea-level. but like all deserts it's hot in the day and cold and windy at night. its almost like ohio .. except not really at all .. well kind of minus the humidity and mugginess and muggings (if you are in cincinnati) and minus the sucky pro sports teams and minus the big air force base (better known as wright patterson air force base) and (for all the western people who have never been to ohio .. or anywhere remotely east of the mississippi corn and wheat .. because thats all there is in ohio. its one big field of corn interrupted only by one big field of wheat .. interspersed with cows .. everywhere). but except for those minor almost non-descript even non-noticable differences, its almost the same. except for the tumbleweed and sand and lack of mountains. the same i tell you. all the same. and overcast sky. you'd never even know you left ohio.

we picked up tony on the way out to smith rocks. he's a climber. and he's better than me. (which isn't hard i know.) actually he's way better than me. and its not just abour the whole skill level thing. its more so about 'da balls and the lack of fear of falling. (which if you know me i've experienced once or twice, so i am a little afraid of falling.) (and if you don't know me, i've fallen from real high up once and so i am afraid of falling.) together (together meaning tony climbed hard stuff and heather and i watched .. and then top-roped the hard route he did) we climbed quite a few hard things. we did some sport stuff, some bouldering (well he did, heather tried and watched, i tried and fell mostly), and a trad route. (well i did a trad route .. my very first trad route mind you! which may not mean squat to anyone else, but i did it and i was proud and ecstatic and scard all at the same time!) (granted it was an easy 5.5, but it was trad and it was me. yay. go me.) we camped three nights (thurs, fri, sat) and climbed two and a half days and it was a blast. i can't wait to go back. smith is a great place. go there. even if you don't climb. its spectacular.

the drive back home (home being seattle still) was long (only 7 hours? how's that long. ohio to seattle=44 hours. ohio to sf=36 hours. ohio to denver=18 hours.) the traffic was horrible. (luckily i only drove part of it) and everyone (ok not everyone, but close i swear) left seattle for the 4th to go somewhere else and all decided to head back the same way at the same time on the only north-south highway which winds through the state of oregon and washington.

oh yeah, since we were climbing and camping we didn't get to see any parades and we didn't get any free candy, but we did get to see fireworks .. from 30 miles away and they were about an inch big from our vantage point. poo. although some guy next to our campsite was watching the same one inch fireworks we were and after the finale he said aloud and i can only assume he was talking to us and said, "hey guys. i'm a war vetern and i'd do it again. cheers." all we could say in return was, "cheers". we heard him walk to his truck and turn up his cd player. it blared, "born in the u.s.a." by bruce springsteen. the song ended. he turned off his radio. his light. went to his tent. and went to bed.

i can't even say i was born in the usa. ..

.. and isn't that an anti-american song? ++

++ FOURTH O' JULY

amy to jeff ..
Hey – if you aren’t doing anything – and are interested….we’re again havin’ folks over on the 4th…..not as many people as in the past. – jessie and brian and a couple of aaron’s co-workers, a few friends, neighborhood cats, etc…..but nothing too extravagant. We’ll bbq some burgers and brats. That’s as much planning as we’ve done so far.
But, let me know if you’re interested, and I’ll let you know when we figure out what time this will all go down.
If not, have a good holiday.
Amy

jeff's reply to amy ..
my schedule seems to be clear. my ‘spokane crew’ was supposed to ‘represent’ this weekend but i haven’t heard from them ‘on the down-low’. so worst case scenario i may be accompanied by a family of 3. also, during a festive match of duck dodge last month i pointed your place out to Jay & Heather (jay’s ‘boo’) and hyped-up your ‘crib’ (as if it needs any hyping) as the premiere fireworks vantage point. i believe they say a prayer every night hoping you would take pitty on their poor souls and invite them as well…not sure about brian. as for their non-ARC function ‘down-ness’ i believe all of the above parties have put a significant amount of ‘impin in the pimpin.’ thank you for your time.
ps. jay does like fire and burning things, may need supervision if sparklers are involved.
-jeff

amy's reply to jeff. cc'd to jay and brian ..
Jay can come, too, but only if he brings sparklers. Heather can come only if she brings Jay, who brings sparklers.
Brian can come, too, but only if he promises to keep Jay from burning the place down. (assuming he even has any interest in attending….. if not, you’re in charge of babysitting Jay.)
We’re thinking 5 or 6-ish, if you’re interested in eating. We’ll be featuring a modest menu of said burgers and brats and a few sides and a few beverages. Bring anything else you wish to grill (which will be interesting on Aaron’s tail-gating size mini-grill.) and/or anything else you wish to eat or drink. I think the pyrotechnics (not jay’s, but the official ones) start at 10.
Parking figures to be her usual bitch, so let me know if you wanna try to arrange something before-hand. I’m not sure what that would be, exactly, but we could work on a plan.
Overwhelmed with patriotism,
Amy

jeff's reply to jay and brian ..
4th of July plans? see above ..
-jeff

jay's amy, jeff, brian, and heather ..
Actually, I’ve moved my pyrotechnics show to the campgrounds of Skull Hollow for the July 4th celebration. I heard a rumor they were indeed without a fire-starter consultant, so I’ve decided to be a good samaratin (doubly) by providing my much needed skills to the (TRANS) res(I)d(ENT) rock climbers of Bend, Oregon and Smith Rocks State Park for the weekend and providing those attending the aforementioned party at the humble abode of Amy with additional food and beverages by not being there. The Jay Pyro-Show Office Co. Inc. ©, where our motto is, “Always Courage under Fire In the Line of Fire without Grace under Fire or Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” wishes to thank you for your understanding and commitment to the best-show-ever, even if it’s not his and it’s without him.
Thanks again. See you after the Holiday.
Jay

amy's reply to jeff ..
Jay’s (and Heather’s) presence, albeit seemingly dangerous, if not just very hot….will be missed. Have a good holiday.
(okay, lobster-boy – in reference to the color of you skin, not your claw-like appendages – you are now burdened with the duty of providing sparklers….there’s got to be a renegade fireworks-stand or two in lawless West Seattle………)
(okay, okay…..really, I guess we’ll let you in to the party with or without sparklers…but not without your sparkling personality.)
(that was a totally cheesy thing to say.)
Amy

brian's rsvp reply to amy ..
I guess I never rsvp’d to this whole shindig, but assuming there’s still room to come, what are the requirements?... – I can promise no pyrotechnics. However, I am a kung-fu master. I don’t know if that helps. I also have an incriminating video of Jay-C taking out a rival arsonist only known as “Billy.”
Brian

++

++ EDUCATIONAL NERDINESS OF THE DAY:

there are two different kinds of cherries sold here in seattle: the bing cherry and the rainier cherry. apparantly there are bunch more but no one ever sells them .. like the lambert cherry and the lapins cherry and the van cherry and a whole slieu of other cherry varieties which i have no idea about. well there are these fruitstands all over washington with people who sell fresh picked cherries, mostly bing cherries, but sometimes ranier cherries. well its no scam at least from what i can tell. the cherries are real cherries (and they're really good) and legit cherries (versus illegitimate cherries?) and not 'hot' cherries (so to buy a cherry direct from a store would be a 'cold' cherry?). oh yeah and they sell for pretty cheap. a little box like thing of them usually cost $1. a box big of cherries big enough to feed two people is $5 (or big enough only to feed me if its for me). i think in the store bing cherries usually sell for about $4/pound and rainier cherries usually sell for about $6/pound. the fruitstand people sell them probably for approximately half that. pretty good deal. yum. thank goodness for street fruitstand people. ++

++ I SAW FOUR segways running around all in a little group yesterday on the way to the climbing gym. i couldn't tell if they were a family or a bunch of friends who all decided to buy them or just some people taking it out on a test spin. those things baffle me though. its not so much the actual segway which baffles me. i actually kind of understand it. its more about this whole health kick the united states is going through. there is all this talk about taxing fatty foods and then someone comes out with the segway. ok. i lost my train of thought.

..
..

i want to try a segway.

..
..

ok. really lost. now. yeah. bye. ++