Lunch With George!

Greatest Hits
September 26, 2002 thru October 24, 2002

Agenda

This is the second (and hopefully final) installment of "Greatest Hits" of lunches we enjoyed from September 25th through the end of October.

• September 26 - Grilled Expedition / Paradise Bakery
• October 10 - Fuddrucker's
• October 17 - Islands
• October 24 - Paradise Bakery

September 26 - Grilled Expedition / Paradise Bakery

This week, I ate with George & Teri, then George and I went to Paradise Bakery to split the BEST BROWNIE ON EARTH. Wow, are they good!

Figure 1: Not a right triangle

George showed me a puzzle which a co-worker of his (Can Demirkaya): Given a, b-c, and C (see Figure 1), use only a straight edge and a compass to determine all other parts of a triangle. In other words, you are provided with the length of side a, the difference between sides b and c, and the angle C. You must show how to find sides b and c, and angle A and B. It can be done!

Try this out for yourself, and keep an eye on the website-- I'll be posting a contest soon!

 

October 10 - Fuddrucker's

George and I had been trying to get to Fuddrucker's for months... and we finally did it. It was terrific, as usual (except for the pseudo-waiter who kept trying to get soda refills for us...).

George forgot his show & tell-- a canvas bucket from SAILNET.COM, the cyber hangout for sailors! I'd never heard of a canvas bucket before, but George says it hold water pretty well. Needless to say, it packs a lot better than a galvanized bucket! Hopefully I'll get a look at it next week.

George sent me some e-mail about an intersting web site: the Sucks-Rules-O-Meter. This site searches the web for sites which contain operating system names adjacent to either "rules" or "sucks". Take a look!

October 17 - Islands

Boy, I'm not sure has a better burger-- Fuddrucker's or Islands. They're different, but I can't pick a winner!

This was Show & Tell day. First, George showed me the canvas bucket. Cool! but it was nothing compared to his new Rugged Razor. George bought a scooter! Out at Lake Pleasant, it's a loooooong way from where George parks his car to the slip where he keeps his J24. It's also mostly down hill... so he bought a scooter to ride down to the marina. The Razor bottoms out occcasionally, and George has to be careful not to ride the brake (he smelled smoke last time...), but it's an idea that seems to be working.

Myerchin B001 Offshore System Knife

Finally, George showed me the new rigging knife that be ordered for himself (it seems sailors are always cutting something). It's a fixed-blade knife, and comes with a Marlin Spike ( a sharp, pointy thing that you can use to get difficult knots out of lines). It has a cool image of a whale engraved on the blade, too! Both items fit into a nylon sheath. Click here for more information.

October 24 - Paradise Bakery

AMC Instructors were ready

We finally made it onto real rock. George and I have been taking the

George rappelling

Dueling Hammers

The AMC puts together a great course (you can read about it here). On Saturday, we arrived at the climbing area near 132nd street and Dynamite road. The AMC instructors (about 35 of them) had 25 different climbing station set up to let us try out all of the techniques we had learned. We climbed faces (flat faces of the rock), as well as cracks. We also got to practice rappeling under varying conditions, and even got to try to climb a "chimney". There were always lots of helpful instructors on hand to help us out. We even got to try a "fist jam". This is a climbing technique where you make a fist, jam it into a crack, and use it as a hold to pull yourself up the rock. Fun!

On Sunday, we went back to the same general area, but this time is was like a real AMC outing. Several climbs were top-roped (meaning someone free-climbed to the top, set anchors, and installed ropes to provide the safest climbing situation), and we had the whole day to climb whichever ones we wanted.

George on Dueling Hammers

We headed for the wall known as "Dueling Hammers," named for the racket made when the first bolts were set on multiple climbs simultaneously. We tried three different climbs there (but I fell and sprained my ankle on one of them).

George and I finished the day attempting the "Slot," a climb to which a fair

Paul on Dueling Hammers

amount of my epidermis is no doubt still clinging. This is the climb that convinced me that shorts are a bad idea on granite. I made it most of the way up before crying uncle, er, I mean "Ready to lower!" George, being the vastly superior climber that he is, made it all the way to the top.

Next week we will learn self-rescue techniques, and Saturday we'll embark on our graduation climb. More news next week.