Some friends of ours once took their teenagers to see Barenaked Ladies. (Yes, I know they’re Canadian…) Much to the kids’ disappointment – and to the relief of the parents – they didn’t actually get to see any bare-naked ladies. (No, I’m not going to give a link for that one – just for fun, Google it on your own…) So much for truth in advertising!
Monthly Archives: March 2008
If I Had A Million Dollars
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Posted in Brad
Frank’s A Cake Now
So those of you who climb with me know that my chalkbag has a name. His name is Frank and I made him in late 2004. Some call him morbid, others call him cute and adorable. Everyone has an opinion though. I love him, as any good parent should.
Yesterday a very special person baked me maybe the best cake I’ve ever seen. It was Frank. In cake form…
Needless to say, I was psyched. It had everything!! A missing head and even the offset buttons!! Plus it was double chocolate chip.
For those of you who want to know, there was a head. It was chopped off and kept separate for later enjoyment.
Posted in Steve
The End of the End
Well, here it is. This is the final week of Curling for me. We’re in the playdowns, Curling speak for playoffs, and we’re sitting pretty well. We did well enough throughout the regular season to be one of four teams to get a bye through the first round. We play in the second round tonight and we’ll have to win our next three games to get to the finals.
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Posted in Steve
Be Aware – Cycling Season Is Here
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Posted in Brad
Pain Tolerance
This past Tuesday I went up to Devil’s Lake to climb for an afternoon. I was able to hop on one of my many projects, Rubberman. I had put in a very short day of work on it a couple years ago and was shut down hard by the first couple of moves. I lowered off without making any progress and was thoroughly humbled by it.
I find the first move on Rubberman falling in the same arena. I tried the move a couple times without really committing. Finally I grabbed the hold a little harder, forgot about the blood blisters and nearly stuck the move. With a little more work it’ll go and I’ll never have to use that stupid two-and-a-half-finger razor again.
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Posted in Steve
Thaw
On Monday, Pete and I took what will probably be the last skate-ski of the season. Monday bloomed balmy at just over freezing, which was significantly warmer than the single-digit temps we had last weekend. With daylight savings time in effect, we just had to get out in the warm afternoon sun. The skiing was good, with a soft top over a solid base and ice in spots. Now it’s all but gone. I’ll miss the skiing, but not the snow.
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Posted in Brad
Spring is for Cyclocross

The bicycle commute is a tad more hazardous this spring. But have no fear, the Madison Pothole Patrol is on the prowl. Even Mayor Dave is in on the action.
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Posted in Pete
Fed Up With Winter, Madison Won’t Take It Anymore
(reproduced in its entirety from The Badger Herald:)
Fed up with winter, Madison won’t take it anymore
by Jacquelyn Ryberg
Monday, March 10, 2008
Despite remaining snow and persistently cold temperatures, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz on Friday declared the official start of spring in Madison was Sunday at 2 a.m.
Typically the official start of spring is March 20, but a suggestion from Darren Bush, owner of a local paddle sport shop called Rutabaga, persuaded Cieslewicz to move the date up two weeks because of unusually harsh conditions citizens had to endure this winter.
According to George Twigg, spokesperson for Cieslewicz, the mayor wanted citizens to look forward to spring and forget about subzero temperatures and record snowfall experienced over the past months.
“It has been a long winter — tough all around,” Twigg said. “I think everyone is looking forward to spring and getting back out on the Union Terrace and enjoying some warm weather.”
A leisurely bike ride gone wrong triggered Bush’s proposal to push the date back to March 9, he said.
“I went for a bike ride last Sunday, hit some ice and went down really hard,” Bush said. “That made me really grumpy, and I said we are done. I called the mayor’s office, and I thought he would ignore it, but it worked.”
Bush said he spoke with University of Wisconsin astronomy professor Jim Lattis to see exactly how to make spring come earlier.
According to Lattis, the actual advancement of spring would require a large object, such as Jupiter, to increase the gravitational pull on Earth, which would cause serious ramifications.
“There would be environmental problems in causing the earth to shift so rapidly,” Lattis said. “It would change ocean currents, disrupt tidal patterns and just all kinds of stuff that would certainly have permanent effects.”
Lattis said this suggestion was impractical and proposed to simply change the date, although this would not change the weather any sooner.
“The time change is something we do have control over,” Lattis added. “Symbolically we have declared spring by the changing of the clocks, but it is kind of an arbitrary choice as to when to declare spring.”
According to Bush, the early declaration might make spring come a little earlier this year.
“It is kind of like Peter Pan; if everyone just wishes really hard it will happen,” Bush said. “If we can talk ourselves into a recession, we can talk ourselves into spring.”
Lattis said the mayor’s decision to officially start spring early would get citizens’ minds looking ahead.
“We need some psychological relief, and we need some reason to start thinking about spring,” Lattis said. “It is really a matter of what we all agree to do together. If we all agree to start acting like it’s spring, I think it will change our attitude and make us all be a little happier.”
According to Twigg, the mayor agrees the early declaration will convince citizens to look ahead to warm weather.
“Every little bit helps,” Twigg said. “Spring is a state of mind to some degree, so let us declare it spring and hope for the best.”
Posted in Pete
Vogue
Posted in Brad
Front Page, Above-The-Fold
It’s not every day that you wake-up to find your wife on the front page of the paper. On the website, there’s a video and everything. (Watch for bonus footage of my son John-Pio on her back, too…) Vera is a pretty inspiring climber, and once a year she teaches a class for women age forty and over. For all the right reasons this struck a nerve with the local editor, so there you go.
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