Bouncing Marty

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I can’t believe the cars that drive around Vegas. Take, for example, the Merc SLR McLaren.

This guy costs $450k, and creates 626 hp, 575 ft·lbs of torque. Impressive. One of its claims to fame, this car is the “Fastest Automatic Transmission Vehicle in the World”.

Awesome vehicle. I wish I could have gotten to see it driving, or even better, someone getting into it. Apparently, it has flip up doors, like the gull-wing Merc’s of years ago. Very cool. This was parked in front of the Venetian as I left the jobsite. Very cool! Below is a publicity photo, showing what the doors are all about.

Vegas baby!

Shane and Jayna Swenson made the drive up to Vegas for a visit, so Shane and I took the opportunity to head up a 650ft crack system on the Mescalito Buttress, called the Cat in the Hat. This is a remarkably popular route, and we were lucky enough to be the first ones in the parking lot at 7:30AM.

Outside temperatures were in the 30’s, and we came prepared. Much more bundled up than my usual Redrocks attire! After a bit of bushwacking, we found our crack system, and up we went. The first pitch was COLD. Our hands were barely functional, and the first few moves were pretty ‘exciting’, to say the least.

This climb is traditionally done in 4-6 pitches, and I stretched it out and made it in four. Great continuous crack climbing, with good exposure throughout the route, super fun.

Shane did quite well, and showed no signs of being spooked, as we gained more and more altitude.  The climb went smoothly with the exception of jamming a small TCU in too tight, effectively wedging it into the rock, never to be removed.  Shane made great attempts to remove it, but it wasn’t to be.

We climbed all morning in solitude. It took us a bit less than four hours to reach the summit. The final pitch is a classic, a striking straight in crack, splitting a clean varnished face. Plenty of face holds and features keep the rating down to 5.6 though, awesome climb. As we descended, we passed a total of 4 other parties on the route. Eleven people in all would top out the climb this day. Amazing the amount of traffic the ‘classics’ of Redrocks get.

Shane and I did four uneventful (whew!) rappels down the face, and hoofed back to the car by 3pm. We headed home for a quick nap, then off to a fantastic dinner and a Circus du Soleil show! It made for a fun, but very long day!

Awesome climbing Shane, and thanks for trusting him with me Jayna! I can’t wait for the next time!

I’ve been digging through some of my older webshots pictures, and cleaning up some of my photos that randomly float around my computer. I found a bunch of photos that haven’t gotten nearly enough attention, so I’m going to throw them on here! Whooee!

Here’s the Best Man and Groom:

My Wife to Be:

Some backpacking romance:

Can’t put up photos without some skiing shots. I would love to put some sweet powder day shots up from this year, but so far the snow has been AWFUL. Come on snow! This is me and Shane from last year. Man that was a fun day.

And finally, this one is curtesy of Marshall’s Mom.

Well, things are coming along nicely. We have a location selected and held for both the ceremony and reception, the stately Carolina Inn.

Its a very ‘Southern’ feeling old Hotel on Chapel Hills’ campus. I have yet to see it in person, but it sounds like it will work wonderfully. Our ceremony will be held in one of the courtyards around the hotel. It looks fantastic, and having UNC’s campus as a background for pictures should be excellent as well.

We are scheduled for March 31st, at 5:30pm. Reception is directly following in one of their parlor rooms. The wedding is going to be small, with immediate family, grandparents, a handful of close friends and loved ones. Its been a struggle deciding how to work out the guestlist, but it seems that keeping it small and intimate makes the most sense. Looks to be somewhere around 25 people all in all.

For those of you who are unable to come, I promise lots of great pictures, stories, and visits very soon!

Mollie has her wedding dress and shoes already, our photographer is selected and on board, and we have an officiant scheduled to do the actual ceremony. We are registered primarily at Macy’s, and also at Williams and Sonoma and Target, to cover all of our wish list. We have a fantastic friend designing our wedding invitations (Thanks again Jayna!), and have selected chocolate brown and light green as the general color theme.

Right now it feels like we have the lion’s share of our big decisions covered, and its a good feeling. I know there will be a pile of other little things to take care of between now and April…we shall be busy!

For those of you who don’t live in the greater Vegas area, I have been testing my manhood by growing facial hair. Yes kids, even Marshall can grow a beard. Given enough time and considerable patience from one female in particular, I was able to transform myself into a rugged mountain bearded Man. Well, at least my face was kinda hairy.

Last night I’d had enough, so I figured it was time to go with another persona all together. Goodbye lumberjack. Hello captain 70’s.

Rawrrr.

I seem to do a good job at destroying things that are not completely bulletproof. Cameras are no exception. Mollie, in good faith, let me take her camera, an SD450, on some of my more adventurous trips, and it has taken a beating. So, its time for something new and fuctional. After much shopping, I found a good deal on a Canon SD630.

The primary and most noticable feature about this camera is the LCD screen. Its huge. Three inches to be exact. I wasn’t super excited about this fact, because of my tendancy to destroy and maul delicate electronics. Brainstorming with Mollie lead me to search out a hard case of some kind, that would protect the screen, and camera, but still be small enough to fit in a pocket.

Here’s the solution. An Otter Box 1000. Waterproof, indestructable. Saweet.

The camera fits in just right, with a little wiggle room. I’m going to find some hard foam, and custom make some padding to fill the rest of the room in the tiny box. Its still small enough to fit in a pocket, and should be tough enough to hang from a harness, drop from cliffs, or (good heavens no!) even sit on, without being damaged. Hopefully this works, it looks like a perfect solution to me!  Get this, the case only costs $9.  Has anyone else done something like this?

Last weekend I had the opportunity to beat my truck up a little bit off-roading with some of the folks in town here.  Brian Johnston was the instigator, along with Ted (his Dad), Brian’s cousin, and some other family from San Diego.

Brian recentely bought a full-on rock crawler, equiped with 42″ tires, a full roll cage, and suspension that could roll over a Civic without even noticing.  I was slightly concerned, seeing as how my truck is just barely above a stock vehicle, and rightly so.  In our caravan was a brand new (only 4,000mi on the clock) Jeep Rubicon, and I figured if he could make it up this trail, my truck could as well.

As usual, my truck impressed me with its ability to roll over whatever I point it at.  Unfortunately, it seems to have very little self preservation instincts.  In a particularly tight section, my rear tire slipped off a big ledge, dropping my passenger quarter panel onto a big ole’ rock.  Bummer.  I don’t mind the body damage so much (makes it look tough!), but getting a new tail light will be a drag.  That’s the price of fun I suppose!

I spent the majority of the week of December 18th convincing Mollie that I wasn’t going to ask her to marry me before she left on her trip to North Carolina. She was aware that I was having a ring made for her, and hence proposing, but it wasn’t going to arrive in time. Mollie was leaving on Winter Break and going back to North Carolina for two weeks. A perfect time to plan a wedding in North Carolina…assuming I asked her in time.

So, I tried to let her down easy, but it was killing me. The fact was, the ring wasn’t going to arrive in time, but I had a backup plan. I hunted around and found the biggest fakie plastic ring I could. You know the kind of ring; they’re usually on a spinning rack that sits in front of the checkout register at Walmart. It came zip-tied to a plastic hanger, and I just couldn’t imagine proposing without some kind of presentation box, so I had to make a trip to the mall. After harassing every jeweler in the Fashion View Mall, I found another fakie ring that came in a box of its own. I was good to go.

Friday night rolled around, and we headed out for one final meal before she left on vacation. She was noticeably sad, knowing that our engagement wouldn’t be starting in time for her trip home. It was killing me, but it had to be done. We finished our meal early, and had some time left, so we walked the strip like we’ve done countless times before. After an hour or so we convienently ended up in front of the Mandalay Bay, at a special and romantic (by Vegas standards) spot surrounded by waterfalls and greenery.

Ring in hand.

Say some sweet things (previously planned).

Down on one knee.

She said yes!

(smooch)

Mollie’s real ring arrived in the mail only a couple days after she departed. It would have to wait in my drawer for two weeks before finding its permanent home on Mollie’s finger. I can’t say enough good things about my Uncle and the job he did making it. Its absolutely perfect, just what we both wanted!

So, now we are just starting to understand whats involved with wedding planning. The date picked is March 31st of this year, corresponding with Mollie’s spring break. We have a couple tenative places that would work wonderfully, and the registering process is beginning. I have a feeling we are just dipping our toes into the ocean of planning required for this event! So far, its been exciting and fun, and I hope to keep it that way.

Whooee!

Last Christmas (and previous) my sister and I headed back home to Spokane, Washington to enjoy the holiday in the cold frigid weather of the Inland Northwest. After much harassment, I convinced my immediate family that we needed to find another suitable location to spend our precious vacation days. Much to my suprise, in the middle of February my Dad announced that we would be heading to Akumal, Mexico, which is just south of Cancun, Playa Del Carmen, and the like. A Yucatan Peninsula Christmas!

I won’t go into extreme detail, but the trip was absolutely fantastic. We had some issues at the airport locating one another, but eventually we had boarded our faithful Mexican VW Passat rental car, and made the drive 80 miles South of Cancun. Our home away from home was quite the palace. A giant stucco two story home, with big bedrooms and plenty of white sand beach out front.

The first few days we spend soaking in the 85 degrees and incredible humidity. The weather wasn’t perfect, with some overcast and a little wind. If nothing else, it kept me from getting my usual extreme sunburn right off the bat. Even with the weather not ideal, it was ridiculously pleasant. Leisure was had by all.

Our third day we were getting a little ansy to get out and do something active, so we signed up for a “Discover Scuba” course close by. The class was very basic and full of the typical Mexico Inefficiency, but when the day was done the family had finished an awesome 40′ reef scuba dive! I’ve gotta get certified, it was an amazing time.

The big event of our trip was fishing in the sand flats off of Punta Allen (about 20 miles South of Akumal) for Bonefish, Tarpin, Permit, Barricuda, and various other swimmers. Bonefish and permit are some of the most challenging salt water fish to catch on a fly rod, and we had great success. Beautiful weather!

Another day spent on the beach, and we needed something Touristy to add to the itenerary. We found this in the form of Tulum, a town close by that contains some spectacular Mayan Ruins, right on the beach! We were harassed by all kinds of street salesmen, and saw the Flying Mayans doing their deal out front.

I was super impressed by these ruins. Far larger and more formidable than I would have figured. This Mayan city was created as a port of trade; surrounded by stone walls, and a rocky oceanfront on all sides, it was quite the secure place. Beautiful carvings protected by massive iguanas were a highlight.

We spent eight wonderful days over the holiday, and each was restful, exciting, and unique in its own way. It was fantastic to spend such quality time with the family (except for the fact that they smoked me at Mexican Monopoly! Next time I shall RULE!).

Thanks so much Mom and Dad for putting it together. Invaluable memories!

Purdy huh?

Like the comments say, I don’t have any better pictures of it yet actually being worn. Its Mollie’s engagement/wedding/all around marriage ring. We haven’t decided how we are going to handle wedding bands yet, so for now this one will do for both!

I have an awesome uncle who still lives in Spokane, Washington, and he was kind enough to make a custom ring for my new bride. I must say, it looks far better on her hand then it does in the box! It’s white gold, and the diamonds wrap 3/4 of the way around the band.

Its exactly what I wanted, and Mollie couldn’t be happier!