the olympics are over! :( i'm actually kind of sad about that-- i really like having sports on 24-7. yes, i'm a nut, that has been well-established. in cool end-of-the-olympics news, meb keflezighi of ucla running fame won the silver in the men's marathon! so damn cool! i'm so proud of him. i wish i had a way to let him know, but yay! also cool: the u.s. team voted mia hamm as the closing ceremony flag-bearer. what a nice recognition of her 17 years at the top of her game.

nice mellow weekend with nothing of major note to speak of. i went climbing on friday with the regular crew, and actually had a decent climbing day. all of last week was somewhat stressful due to the inordinate responsibility placed upon my supervisor and myself (two of the three regional directors we work with were out of town on vacation for two weeks!), so i had some energy to expend. i hauled through a lot more than i usually do, and got to the top of every climb i did (except the last one, after i'd blown out my forearms and could no longer grip the holds). that's unusual for me... i still wasn't climbing anything too difficult (5.6-5.8) but i was pushing through it harder than normal. we might try to do some outdoor climbing soon, although that means i have to dredge up some climbing equipment. liz, marla, and heather are all well-equipped, so i probably just need to bite the bullet and make an REI run.

teddie liu, where are you?

the crowd gets back from asia and europe this week... i've missed them! i've been keeping busy and have been feeling somewhat antisocial so i guess it's good that i've had some time to do that. i'm excited to hear their stories and see their pictures. soccer has started up again, and choir starts tomorrow. back to a busy, regular schedule for me.

countdown to the earthquakes' D-day: T-minus 19 days. the clock is ticking... good crowd on saturday but a lackluster showing by our boys. they need to do better than a 0-0 tie to get the support to stay in san jose...