i finally met marla's illustrious marathon-running sister becki, who is in town for their kamikaze trip to yosemite and disneyland. (yes, they're doing the half dome hike and then heading down for fun in sunny southern california. they invited me to go with them, but i don't think i could hack it!) becki seems really cool-- she looks a lot like marla, and they definitely have the sisterly bickering thing going on :) it was quite entertaining. it's obvious that they enjoy being around each other, but you can also clearly tell that they are siblings. hee!

marla wanted to take becki climbing, so we hit up planet granite for some very warm indoor climbing. i actually had a pretty good climbing day (for me). i climbed two 5.8s, which is better than i've ever climbed. one of the 5.8s was a shorter route, and i would have been done with it if heather hadn't told me exactly where the next hold was so i could swing out and grab it. but she did, and i did, so i made it to the top. :) i actually was even able to get over some of the outcroppings yesterday, which usually are too hard for me to power through. does this mean i'm actually getting better at this?!! i love having my own gear to use, too, even if my shoes make me have gangorange (as opposed to, you know, gangrene? ha. ha. okay, anyway...).

it was interesting talking to becki, too, because i've heard so much about her and know a lot about what she's been doing... so i was talking to her as though i know her, even though she and i had never met. i'm sure she's heard plenty about me too, so she didn't act as though she found it odd, but partway through the conversation i wondered if she thought it was funny that i know all these things about her. oh well....

earthquakes countdown: t-minus 7 days. yikes! at the game on wednesday (which we lost in the 90th minute after completely outplaying the crew the entire game!), there was a sign in the corner that read "amanpour, make yourself our hero." here's hoping...