Back to Stone Gardens

After a long time away, we finally made it back to Stone Gardens as a family. The boys outgrew the shoes we bought for them for Christmas a few years back, but no matter.

Most the afternoon was bouldering:

But Reed got back into the autobelay that he loves:

Both the boys even tried some top-roping with me belaying them -- a great occasion for me to teach them climbing commands. (No photos, of course, since we were on-belay at the time.)

I also discussed with the boys that, back in college, we had to mark our gear in some way to discriminate between your gear and mine. We used cheap nail polish to identify our gear. Turns out I still have gear from my college days -- yellow and green was me.

This morning, we were all sore according to the climbing we did. And we're all looking forward to the next go.

2013 in books

In 2013, I read fewer books than I did in 2012, and I didn't break my habit of reading non-fiction like I'd wanted. I blame it on the switch to Microsoft and on taking on a machine learning course. Still, I'm disappointed that I didn't devote more time to reading, and I'm hoping 2014 will be better. Here are the books I did read this year:

• Inside-Out Simplicity
• You Can Buy Happiness (and It's Cheap)
• A Day in the Life of a Minimalist
• One-Minute Mindfulness
• The Power of Purpose
• Einstein's God: Conversations about Science and the Human Spirit
• The Price of Everything: Finding Method in the Madness of What Things Cost

I also started Your Money or Your Life but didn't get around to finishing it, so let's call that a half book. Seven and a half books this year isn't too hot.

There's certainly a theme to my reading. Can you spot it?

This week, I started reading Kerouac's On the Road, so at least I'm starting off 2014 avoiding my typical nonfiction fare.