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Kim organized a happy hour get together at Jai Thai near our house. It was nice to just get a bunch of friends together on a weeknight and have some cheap food and drinks. Afterwards Kim and I went climbing and Jacob came with us just to hang out. He was going to meet up with everyone at happy hour, but he fell asleep. I can identify with that. Sometimes it’s the best just to come home from work and pass out.

Yesterday Brian, Bridgid and her sister went with Kim and I to eat at the Olive Garden. I forgot how many fat people there were. It’s kind of scary how overweight our society is becoming, even in health conscious, trendy Seattle. I can only imagine what it’s like in cities where almost nobody cares about organic produce and there’s not a ton of outdoor stuff to do nearby.

Friday I stayed at work late to do some server work with Dennis. Saturday Kim and I went to see Finding Neverland. I thought it was going to be another Hook style movie about Peter Pan grown up, but it turned out to be about the writer of Peter Pan and was wonderful. Kim did some babysitting work Saturday night so I stayed at home and read and organized photos. Since Brian was nice enough to give me a flickr account it’s resparked my photo organizing kick.

Sunday Kim, Brian, Bridgid, Brian’s friend Mary and I went climbing out at exit 38. It turned out to be nice weather again despite earlier bad predictions. I’m really glad when I don’t listen to the weathermen. I always wonder about people who miss out on so much because of iffy weather reports. I think a lot of people just go do outdoor stuff when the weather prediction shows a bright sun. I led some 5.9′s and some 5.10′s, and everyone climbed very well. There was a guy named Jens at the crags by himself who we ended up climbing with and he was really good. He led a 5.10d that we probably wouldn’t have done otherwise, and he reled a 10.c when I got a rope stuck by trying to pull the rope through without undoing a knot at the end.

Mary had to be back at six, so we got back at 6:20. Not bad considering the large group we had climbing. The rest of us went to see a documentary at the Guild theater, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. It’s a small film only playing at a few theaters, but I’d say anyone who can see it should. I think documentaries are really beginning to fill a major role in education and entertainment. Perhaps I was just never aware of documentaries before, but I think they’ve really increased their stature in the film world, especially films like Fahrenheit 911, Bowling for Columbine and Super Size Me. It’s wonderful that documentaries are becoming not only very enlightening, but very entertaining.

Kim, Brian and I went climbing all weekend at Vantage, aka Frenchman’s Coulee. We went despite the nasty weather reports that predicted rain. I feel like it’s been raining and overcast for the last month in Seattle, so it was time to get out. It didn’t look good driving out there Saturday morning since it was raining in Seattle, raining at Snoqualmie, raining in Cle Elum, raining in Ellensburg – but when we got to Vantage and the Columbia River it was dry. We got a bunch of fun climbs in on the sunshine wall. We started out slow on 5.8′s since it was Kim and my first outdoor climbing of the season. Kim was also feeling really sketched by the expansive valley below and the exposed arrets we were climbing. I started off leading and led up to a scary 5.9 on Saturday. We camped Saturday night and were up fairly early Sunday to climb again. Brian started off with a chimney climb called Seven Virgins and a Mule that took a long time since it was only Brian’s second chimney climb ever and he placed a lot of gear. He did great though and then we started climbing some 5.10′s. By the end of the day Kim even overcame her fears and led a climb! Now we’re back in Seattle and it’s dark, overcast and rainy. I might start to believe all the Seattle weather hype soon.

Kim is gone for the weekend on the east coast for Effie’s bridal shower, so I have the house to myself this weekend. I haven’t been doing dishes or picking up after myself for a few days, and it’s nice for a little while. I’m going to clean up the kitchen in a little bit before I pick Kim up at the airport though.

Today I’ve been working on putting timer switches on the fans in the upstairs bathroom. It’s a pain though since the electrical box that they had in the wall isn’t large enough. It’s a single gang box that they put two little switches in. I got a retrofit electrical box, sawed a bigger hole in the wall, and put the new box in. I don’t think whoever wired the house originally did a very good job either. There’s really not enough extra wire in the boxes so it’s a royal pain to try to get everything organized. They also wired a lot of things in series, so that if you flip a switch the outlets also lose power. They also apparently never heard of a three way switch. I also patched a few holes in the wall that I made when I put in a new shower head. The shower head when we moved in was probably at 5 and half feet, which doesn’t work well for most people. Normally it wouldn’t be too hard to thread in a new shower head, but they didn’t put a board in the wall to brace the pipes, so when you tried to thread the new shower head arm into the wall, the pipes in the wall moved. Had to punch a few holes to get the threading to work.

Yesterday some friends and I went to a Mariners game since I got some tickets from work. The tickets are some of the best you could ask for. Travis, Brian, Jesse and I were three rows behind the Mariner dougout. The game was going well until the top of the ninth when the closing pitcher the Mariners brought in gave up two homeruns and Brett Boone had an error to let an extra guy on base, thereby losing the lead. And it started to rain then too. It was fun to watch the roof close, even if it took 15 minutes.

I’m finally eating food that I’ve been craving again. I had some pasta today… With CHEESE! I can hardly eat anything since my stomach’s shrunk so much. You’re supposed to gain weight back quickly too since your body now thinks it should store whatever you give it. I’ve barely gained anything back, but breaking the fast you eat almost nothing anyway.

The weather wasn’t great, but it was nice enough to spend a few hours outside and get the garden planted. Some plants will be ready to harvest in 35 days or so while some will take almost 70. We’ve got brocolli, carrots, soybeans, tomatoes, kale, peppers, some herbs, and a bunch of other stuff all planted in our back yard.

At work the partners cooked breakfast for everyone. Unfortunately I can’t eat any of it since I’m still coming down from my fast. Breaking the fast is actually a lot harder than fasting I think. The temptation to stuff my face is huge, but doing so would probably leave me feeling pretty bad. We’ve been mostly eating apples, raw veggies, yogurt, soup and some crackers. It’s good to eat again, but the food cravings are back now that my body knows that it gets food again. I get full incredibly easily.

Dennis and I had an April Fools surprise for our office today. We set a bunch of joke programs to run at logon for everyone. One program turns the caps lock key on and off every few second. This one’s my personal favorite. It sounds a bit lame, but watching someone try to type is priceless. PEOPLe end up sendiNG EMAILS THAT Look a lot like this last SENTENCE. There were a bunch of other little pranks but most weren’t so noticeable. One of the funniest things today was the fart sound that we set to play ever hour or so. Most people didn’t notice it because they don’t have their speakers on, but the HR manager came over and insisted that her computer was farting and that it wasn’t her. Pranks and computers just go together.