"they're on their third vacation"

this weekend we went to raleigh...again :-P we decided to go to marc edwards' birthday party, and it was a nice excuse to get to go to raleigh again. we've now gone the past 3 weekends, how silly! wouldn't it be better to just move back there? yes, i agree.

so friday andrew picked me up at work, and he, lillie, bailey, and i headed straight to raleigh. we dropped the dogs off at byron's (where we stayed for the weekend - thanks again byron and gerald) and the three of us headed to the mellow mushroom. we were fashionably late... only an hour... stupid living in boone! anyway, we had dinner and then headed out to some galleries. not really my thing, but i had a good time anyway - i pretty much always have a good time when i'm with andrew and our friends. after hopping around to the cupcake shoppe and a wine bar, the three of us being the last to leave, andrew and i ended up going to bed around 2am.


we didn't get much sleep, because we had to get up at 7 to get coffee, and then drive to boothill farm (out past chapel hill) to watch one of my former students at a horse show. it was a ton of fun, and ellie's a great little rider. i thoroughly enjoyed it, and while andrew may have been bored some of the time, he was a good sport. we left around noon and went back to byron's to "nap" but i just watched episode after episode of "america's next top model" while andrew and the dogs all slept on the floor. we got up and headed to the ncsu traverse wall for some climbing, and we had a really good time. after a rough start, i got through 6 panels all at once. i was proud of myself, and andrew and i really enjoyed getting to spend time together doing something we enjoy. we changed in the state student union and headed off to dinner. byron met us at the red room for some tapas dining - my favorite kind cause i love to try lots of different menu items, and this way i'm not being greedy! i enjoyed my many mango mojitos and my seafood ceviche, and of course the company! after we'd been there a while, jackie got off work and joined us. she had some food, and we all shared some chocolate fondue for dessert. man, i love food.


today we slept in a little and then took byron to our favorite brunch location, the mad hatters. food was great as always, and byron even enjoyed his silver dollar pancakes! we dropped him off at his house so he could head to work (workaholic!) and then took the dogs out to north cary park for some bouldering on fake rocks. aside from the sand-paper-y feeling, and the texture ripping the top 6 layers of skin off my fingers, and the fact that the sun had made the top of the "rocks" hot enough to fry an egg on, i really liked it. i've never actually attempted climbing these boulders before, and i like that they're designed with lots of options and several different difficulty levels. i really enjoyed warming up, topping a few routes out, and traversing a lot of the faces. andrew said he was proud of my climbing, and i think i'm getting better at some of the things i was working on. one thing i realized in looking at pictures of myself climbing is that i tend to put my heels level or down when i'm climbing (from my horseback riding background), which makes me "shorter" than i should be. today though, i focused the whole time on staying on my toes, and could really see how it gave me several more inches that i'm used to having. i am glad to have realized this tendency, and i'm excited to be on my way to correcting it.

after climbing, we went back to byrons and were lazy for a couple hours before loading up, saying au revoir, and hitting the road for boone. we're back now, and andrew's already in bed, so that's where i'm going! he promised me he'd post sometimes soon and complains that i always do it before he can, so i've tried to leave out details in the hopes that he doesn't think i've said it all and will actually blog!