Fear and loathing OF Las Vegas

Las Vegas is absolutely the armpit of creation. Are those words too strong? For those of you who are of the Facebook nation and familiar with the 25 little known things thread that's going around, here's a fact about Fargnoli: he lived in Las Vegas for four months. Yes, it's true. Right here in the armpit of creation. We went to see "Coraline" today (in 3D - really please see it this way! It's incredibly cool and such a good movie.), which was unfortunately being shown at the Red Rocks Casino theater. I've never been into a casio before and am happy to now know that I am not missing anything. Did you know that they actually pump fresh oxygen into the casinos so you'll stay awake, squelch every shard of natural light and make clocks contriband so you don't know what time it is?! Insane. No prana in there.

BUT it's not all bad! Red Rocks is stunning and the climbing is fantastic. I lead my first outdoor climbs yesterday (two 5.8s) on the Hunter S. Thompson wall and we did a couple of climbs in the Black Corredor. Coming from Joshua Tree where the granite eats your fingertips, we welcomed the kind touch of the red sandstone. Our campsite minutes away from the park and we have wonderful Canadian neighbors. Speaking of whom...

FUNNY STORY: we met two of the Canadians (Francois and Chris) yesterday at the Hunter S. Thompson wall. While I was climbing and about three clips from the deck, James was describing one of the climbs - a 10.a - that Chris was doing to Francois. "Great climb, really fun and consistent. It's A all the way!" I started laughing. "Oh, you can do it!" James called up to me, thinking I was laughing at the difficulty of the climb. "A all the way?! That's a hilarious thing to say to a Canadian!!" Get it? A...pronounced as "eh"...Canadian, eh? Ha ha ha. Ha?

James, the picture man, will post pictures of our recent adventures soon. Pictures of the above, and also of our fantastic breakfast today at Hash House A Go Go (go go there!). James got a bloody mary the size of his head!!

Signing off now.

With love from the armpit of creation,
James and Kristen