Come one, come all. Hurry, hurry, hurry, step right up. It is time again for another one of these silly ol' things. Feel like it has been a while. This is largely due to the fact that I no longer have Internet at my disposal. Not quite sure if I had mentioned in the last one, but I am currently residing in Scottsdale, AZ, in my first real place. I got myself a little studio apartment near Old Town. Close enough for me to bike to work most days. I have had plenty of roommates in my day (sometimes 8 at a time) and living alone is certainly a change of pace. Anywho, these first pictures are from a trip I took back to Vegas with an old friend. Most people get their thrills in Vegas in the casinos and clubs.... fools. Here is where the real wild times are. This first picture is from a monumental climb we did. It is a route called Epinephrine. It is well known all over for its 400 feet of very slick, very strenuous chimney climbing. If you look close you might be able to see a climber up there, but that big crack is the chimney we went up. You put your feet on one wall, your back on the other, and your faith in the creator above. It was the hardest and biggest climb I have done to date. We climbed over 2000 feet in one day... car to car in about 12 hours.

This is me flexing my muscles at the top of the climb. It was truly exhausting but so worth the abuse. While I was in Vegas we also did a few other climbs (one of which I had a mean encounter with a few years ago). My buddy also had some friends in town for a bachelorette party, so we hung out with them on our rest day. Chillin' on the 32 floor of some nice hotel right on the strip, over looking the pool and drinking beers is a good way to recover from an ass-kicking on a rock.

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Work has been going pretty smooth lately. Maybe a little too smooth... you can see me catching a few Z' s on the job here, hahaha (keep in mind there is a fountain about 60 feet below me). I am logging lots of hours on rope and very excited to be able to get enough hours to go for my next level of certification. I will keep you updated about that

Here is a first for me... a Gila monster. This little guy kinda caught me off guard while hiking to do some climbing. They are small, but much like a kimono dragon, they have so much bacteria in their mouth that a bite from one can be fatal. He didn't seem too concerned about my being there but it was pretty neat. Still haven't run into any snakes, scorpions, or spiders out in AZ yet... yet. AZ hosts rattlers, scorpions, black widows, brown recluse spiders, and Africanized bee's (these ones scare me the most... there is no where to run from them when you are tied to a rope, up on a rock).

This is a picture of (most) of the crew working on the Barney's of New York building I had mentioned in my last blog. It is nice to have some new projects... keeps things interesting. This is a giant glass cube that we cleaned. Pretty funny to see the people inside, willing to spend more money on clothes then I did on my van. Speaking of my van, I have acquired quite a collection of bumper stickers. I get plenty of diverse reactions to them... I will try and snap a photo of it and post it up on my next blog.



I have also gotten to go home twice since my last post. The first time was for my cousin's wedding and currently I am actually sitting in my house in MN after a nice long memorial weekend up at the cabin. Got to see the family and my good friend. The weather was kinda cold and rainy, which most people seemed bummed about, but I was psyched about. When I go home tomorrow I will be going back to the oven. I am anticipating mostly triple digits until late September... fun fun.

I thought this picture was pretty funny. Seems like the 'Merican dream... morning beer, rubber waders, and a wiley look in the eyes.

Here is a picture of us putting my the dock. It was actually pretty fun to do. (Nice job supervising, dad). I got to do some kayaking, and some fishing and all around lounging. The time flew by and now I must prepare for another regular old week.

So let's see... don't have any sorts of plans lined up for anytime soon, though I am sure I will stumble into plenty of adventure (the fuel of my life). My sister and her husband are moving to Denver pretty soon. We are trying to line up a hiking trip in the Grand Canyon or Zion for October, but that is quite a ways away.

So that ought to about do it for this one. I recently turned 24 years old and had to celebrate in a manner worth remembering... what better way than sky diving? That's right, my first time. I wanted a photo of the actual dive, but the jackals wanted 60 dollars for it. So this will have to do. This is me in my jump suit a few moments after I landed back on earth. For those of you who have never skydived before... you must. It was one of the greatest times of my life. I will certainly be doing that again, and who knows... BASE jumping someday? Only time will tell.

Remember folks... don't do anything I wouldn't do. But if you do, think of me.


Now and until the end,

Danjerous