calls, climbing, and cooking

Thursday night, I met Dew at Upper Limits for some more bouldering. My arms and hands were so cold, it took me awhile to be able to use them well enough to climb. Afterwards, I picked up Saori and we went over for a big plate of curry. The Japanese curry is somewhat similar to Indian, but is much more mild, sweet, and savory. It's more like a spicy beef stew. We ate it in the best way to be served- over a big plate of rice, and topped with bacon and a fried egg.  Oishikata.

Yesterday was a busy day. Saori has set up a workstation in the living room and consequently draws a lot of power, especially for the space heater. When Vivian uses the hair dryer in the bathroom, it blows the fuse, and everything shuts down. So that took some time to straighten out.

I had a phone interview in the early afternoon, and then immediately afterwards dashed over to teach a revit workshop for an architecture studio. The professor of the studio, Cruse, taught me in my first studio at Wash U, and I'd when I heard that the entire class would be working in Revit, and that everyone involved had little to no experience with it, I offered to lend my services. Besides, what the hell else am I doing of use?

Anyway, the studio is very unique- the project is to take two identical vacant apartments buildings, both built in the early 20th century, and refinish one in the typical manner of the developer who owns the area, and the other in a more sustainable way. The two buildings would then be compared as to energy usage, water usage, etc.

The studio itself is held in the top floor of one of these apartment buildings. It's cool to be working inside the building you're investigating and going to change, but it sucks to be so far from your other classes, classmates, plotters, etc. Alex and Luke have done admirably with Revit so far, and I was happy to help them out since I know how frustrating Revit can be. I presented to the studio the basics of navigating revit and making some changes, and hopefully people got a better sense of how it might be used or at least, navigated.

After a few hours of instruction, I biked back home and then Saori and I went out to the Asian markets to get supplies for making okonomiyaki for dinner. Then we drove downtown, and had nearly hit a car on the freeway which had stopped suddenly for a lane closure. The ABS kicked in, and we came within a foot or two of the car in front of us. The car behind us was thankfully far enough back to avoid the same kind of brake-slamming I'd employed.

Anyway, we made it to Climb So Ill alive, and met up with Reid and Kirsten, a very intelligent couple who have led very interesting lives and who are both experienced climbers. We were shortly joined by Dew and Chuck and Alex and Jenn. I much prefer climbing at SoIll to Upper Limits. The gym is huge, the bouldering is a lot more fun, and you climb a lot higher. If not for the membership fees, I'd be there all the time.

I finished a few v1s, and one v2 that was really bothering me. I attempted a few v3s but could barely get started on them. Towards the end of the night, my hands were incredibly raw and finally, losing my footing, and slipping off the hand holds, I ripped one of my callouses open, leaving a flapping bloody wound which ended my climbing for the night. Some of my other fingernails were already bleeding at the cuticles. It stung like something fierce and the chalk getting in there didn't make anything better.

Anyway, we invited everyone over for okonomiyaki afterwards and we feasted again. Okonomiyaki is basically a savory pancake, mixed from a batter with egg, chives, and tons of chopped cabbage. The batter is fried into a large pancake and then served covered with dried bonito or salmon flakes, ribbons of tonkatsu sauce and the spicier Japanese mayonnaise.