Had a good Saturday. Got up late. Had breakfast with Dani. Came back and had a nice long shower. So nice...hmmm.

I'm trying to install some different sound drivers for my machine here because the ones i have SUCK! I'm having troubles...The soundblaster live software does NOT like to be removed. It forces you through a bunch of hoops, then asks you to reboot. Well, with WindowsXP as soon as you reboot it recognizes the hardware and installs the drivers automatically. The drivers I just removed. I havent figured out how to stop it yet. What a pain.

Oh well. Maybe I'll take dani to Bodega for dinner. That should be nice.

So, I am trying to put music together for an album. And I have most of the music itself completed, I just need somebody to write lyrics and sing. The latter I could do, but I dont want to.

I have posted many many want ads all over the internet, and have been hosting pseudo auditions. People have been emailing me demos of their music and I have been listening...patiently...patiently...

I thought I had found a guy, 'cause his music was pretty good the first song he sent, but...as I listen to other stuff...not so much...

Its really sad-the lack of creativity among Christian musicians these days, and the lack of skill is killing me. I am by no means the greatest...Please dont get me wrong. But my desire is to play my instrument skillfully. It seems that many of these people just dont. Otherwise they would know what they need to chnge, and would not publish songs where they sang the ENTIRE thing in a different key than the music was played.

Ah well...the hunt continues...

I dont know what I did last night, but at some point I climbed something that absolutely moogered my elbow. I can hardly shift gears in my truck... Oh well, I wont be climbing again until Sunday, so I'll give it some rest and hope it heals.

Every day at about 10:30 a.m. an elderly couple stops their truck right in front of our office window and lets their dog poop in the grass near the sidewalk. This has become kind of routine, a lot of people do it, so its no big deal. But this couple takes it a bit further and actually wipes their dog's butt.
This drives one of my cow-irkers mad. IT bug him so much that this morning we pounded on the window to try and get the couple to stop doing this. The gentleman turned around and charged the window and started pounding back flipping us off and whatnot.
Then the guy comes around the front of the building and barges in shouting profanities and barking orders. We politely asked him to leave and he refused and kept going..All the while Chris is cracking up laughing...
The old guy finally left after he was threatened with calling the police.

I wonder if they'll be back tomorrow.

Some people...

I decided to take a class with Dani, since I kinda like her...
We're taking Spanish 1. FUN. I took this class way back in junior high. I made it all the way up to spanish 6 in high school. I was amazed that after not using spanish for 5 and a half years, it came right back.

The teacher is pretty funny. Early 50's, short, slightly rotund, and VERY sweet. Her teaching method is interesting. She stood there giving us instructions for sbout 10 minutes in spanish. It was 10 minutes of, "Stand up, sit down, touch the table, raise your hand, yell, hit the desk with you hand, hit your head with your hand, yell 'ouch', etc." All in spanish of course.

And naturally the class is full of people who arent going to read the book, and then will complain about how they arent learning...oh well...thats people.

All in all it will be good. Dani and I have never had a class together, and I look forward to working with her on the homework and stuff.

Sunday, Brent and I went out into Porter Creek looking for a boulder to climb. We tromped around in the brush for about an hour before we found it.

The rock was nice for some traversing but not much else. Brent kept muttering "I need a wire brush". The climbs that were marked V0 were clearly not (unless you were strapped up toprope).

So, all in all there was not much climbing done, but we got some good battle wounds from the brush...fun!

So yesterday we went to San Francisco to spend some time doing ministry work.

We took about 8 high school students and I was really interested to see their reactions to spending time with homeless people (many of which are crack and heroin addicts). I was surprised at how well they did. they didnt freak out, or get wierd, but rather embraced the opportunity.

We also went on a walk from somewhere int he Mission district to an Indian restaurant in the Castro. That wierded some of them out pretty good. For many of them it was the first time they had ever seen men holding hands or kissing, etc. I had to shut one of the kids I was walking with up when he just blurted out, "OH MY GOD! THAT RESTAURANT IS CALLED BIG JUNK OF JUICY BEEF!!!! HAHAHA!" I grabbed him by the face with my hand over his mouth and had to remind him that we were there to be an example.

Afterwards we went to Pier 39 for some dinner and fun. That was a good restful way to end the day.

I just hope those kids are able to take what they learned during their time and begin to really respect and appreciate everything they have and were thankful for the warm bed they had to sleep in that night...

Brent is so annoying! :P

He's got this funny idea that if you don't try anything difficult, you'll never get better at the things you can already do... :P

The other night he got me to try a 5.8 climb. Up until then I had only completed ONE 5.8 and was getting pretty proficient with the easier climbs. When I got on the wall I was already tired but somehow managed to scramble up. I was thoroughly dissatisfied with my performance though. It was erratic and choppy.

So last night I decided to try it again (this time when I was fresher). I had a little trouble with the start but managed to get up no problem. It felt really good.

Then I tried another that was right next to it. This second one is all over hang (lots of arm strength needed). And as anybody who looks at me can tell...I have WEENIE ARMS!!! I got up to the second-to-last hold, and lost it. I'll get it next time though...

Thank you Brent for introducing me to this...

It started a few months back.

My truck was invaded by some fool who felt it was only to his/her benefit to steal the little screwdriver tips to my Multi-headed screwdriver, and about 80 cents. They didnt take my backpack or climbing gear, or anything else. I didnt think much of it because several cars were broken into that night, so I just moved on. A little annoying, but thats about it.

Then a few weeks ago, I was planning on going fishing. so I got up early, and went out to the truck to load up. As I was securing the rods so they don't slide around, I noticed that somebody had written 'FOOCKA' on the tailgate in a blue wax pen. My first thought was to see if any other cars had gotten it. So I hopped in the truck, and drove around the circle. Apparently I was the only one whose day this person felt like ruining. I cleaned it up, griped about stupid punk teenagers, and moved on.

Much to my shagrin (spelling?), when Dani and I returned from our *weekend getaway* a few days ago, I noticed that there was a foreign object in our little backyard. When I went to look at it, I was outraged. I was ready to knock on every door in the neighborhood and beat every male between 12 and 20 yrs old to a pulp. It was an empty 12 pack of MGD - AND a couple broken beer bottles scattered about. They have now invaded my private area and desacrated it. And I don't know what to do.

I dont want to call the police because all they'll do is send someone out and say "If it happens again let us know." THANKS FOR THE HELP BUDDY!

And I certainly dont want to take it into my own hands because then the police would be visiting me for another reason.

I don't understand this. We have been the *almost* perfect neighbors. With the exception of some excess noise every once in a while, nobody has anything to complain about. We mind our business, we smile and wave, and we dont leave our trash can out byt he curb. What more could you ask?

What to do???

I dont exactly know what to say here.
I'm not feeling terribly coherant this morning. Nothing spectacular has happened yet today.

I suppose I'm just trying to figger out what the content of this site should be. I dont know if I want a simple joural-type thing, or to develop some sort of alter-ego, or what...