Climbing season has arrived....

I got out to the Gunks today after a long winter of hibernating. (A.K.A getting the new house unpacked and looking like a home.) This is probably the earliest in the season that I've ever climbed, and why didn't I start this early before is a mystery to me. I only got three climbs in today, I was taking it easy. Miss Baily (in honor of St. Patrick's day) Middle Earth ( A Gunks regular for me) and Ant Line ( A new project). I only lead pitch 1 and 3 of Miss baily, cause I freaked out at the fact that pitch 2 had minimal protection on a face climb. Any way the roof of Miss Baily was solid and I took it like a champ.

Next we were on the Middle Earth. Did it, done it, got the ticket stub except for this time I mixed it up a little. In stead of going off to the left of the roof and taking the actually route, I went straight up and over the roof. Once again proving that Sean likes to hang on roofs.

Ants Line was a new challenge for me. A 5.9- that was sustained and had a really nice crack with good hand/finger jams. Too bad I couldn't complete it without falling. Douh!!!!!!!!!

It's a shame more people weren't out today, oh yeah they were WORKING....

I'm Back....

It's been quite a while since I last posted due to the holidays and moving into the new house. We finally closed on the house January 5th and we've been officially living here for fifteen days. The first week was the hardest because I was still working and had to try and unpack in the small amount of time I had before and after work. It all got better once the sixteenth rolled around which was not only the first day of my vacation but Autumn's birthday as well.

The march of the turkey's

Another holiday is approaching and what better way to kick it off with a good road race with dad. We ran it back in 2006 together and our times were ok. This year was perfect. The weather was in our favor (no rain like in 2006) and for the first time I can remember Autumn and Jaedyn came out to cheer us on. Nothing like a, "go daddy run faster, go daddy run faster" to get me moving. Let me tell you, boy did it ever. I didn't think I had anything left by the time I hit the last hill to the finish line, but hearing my little girl cheer me on pushed me beyond my limits. I finished up with a 35:38 a whole 6 min better than my old personal best. Dad had a new personal best as well with a 49:28. (2min off his old time)

The Hunt continues.....

Autumn and I have been waiting for this for a very long time. The time when everything comes into line and we are able and ready to buy our first home. Of course, finding the right house in our range and being able to purchase it without some scum sucking leaches snatching it away from us, is a different story.

Autumn has been relentlessly searching the Internet to gather a plethora of homes that our realtor (Adrianne) can show us as well as the houses that she was able to find. The first time out scouting was bitter sweet. We thought we had found the one only to realize it was a money pit and in the long run would be worth the effort. The second time we went out looking at houses, we had given Adrianne 13 houses that we had wanted to look at, not necessarily in one day. When we met up with her she informed us that approximately 6 of those houses had accepted offers on them in the last couple of days. Thankfully our top two were still up for sale. To make things short, our second choice became our overwhelming favorite and we made an offer on the house that day. Unaware to us, another party had made an offer that very same day. So while Autumn and I were in Newport, RI Adrianne e-mailed us stating that the seller had made us a counter offer in case the other seller fell through.

So thats where we are in the real estate game, confused and with out house....

Cape Ann Camping

Well it is supposed to be a diver's retreat but it seems that only about five of the twenty or so people that go actually dive. It seems that Mel Rich (the coordinator) has been going to this particular camp for many years now and arranged for our group to have a section of approximately fifteen sites reserved for us. Cape Ann is located a little north of Gloucester, MA along the salt marshes. Obviously since Jaedyn and I don't dive we dropped the kayak in off one of the jetties and paddled through the salt marshes, which were defiantly a different experience. They start out like a very calm river following the tides, weather is going in or out, and then they get narrow and start to wind around like a maze. Every once in a while I'll come to a dead end and have to turn around and remember how I got in to begin with. Oh who am I kidding, they were all dead ends. A couple of times I tried to stand up on the grassy marsh and see if I could find a way through to the river but it just looked like one big grassy field. As the picture can clearly show, between the grass are small thin water ways that i was paddling through. Sometimes I thought that I was coming to another dead end and suddenly a water way would appear around the high grass. This was defiantly like nothing I'd ever paddled through. I only wish Jaedyn had gotten to see it. Yeah she feel a sleep about twenty minutes into our trip and I had to wake her up when we arrived at the boat ramp.

Now how could I forget about dinner on Saturday night... This is what we were all waiting for. The LOBSTERS. I'm not talking about your 1 1/2 pound'ers that you get at the market. These babies were right off the boat. Lets see, we drove into Gloucester Saturday morning around 9:00 A.M. and went to the back door of warehouse on the water and waited for a scruffy old gentleman to let us in. We walked into a room with large crates floating in water that was being circulated by large hoses, kind of like a jacuzzi for lobsters, only the water was really COLD. Then we just let him know what size we wanted, payed and left. I can tell you that know one got anything less than three pounds and the largest was ten pounds. We opted to get a six pound that we split. Next time we're going to get a ten, because at six pounds it cost us $46 and a ten only costs about $12 more. Oh, we ate well that night. We had already brought our own corn potatoes and butter but it seems that Mel and his friends had already chipped in to get corn and potatoes for everyone, thanks any way.

On Sunday we drove into Gloucester and walked around shore and by the statues on the coast, like the "old man and the Sea." Then finished out or trip by having lunch at "The Gull" restaurant, which supposedly have the best seafood chowda. I'm glad that we went and if at all possible I really want to go again next year. Although the way things are looking right now, Jaedyn, Autumn and I may be living in New York in our first home. So we have a lot of good things going on right now and we are all really excited.