Cookies

So a while ago, I found a recipe on Pinterest for flourless fudge chocolate chip cookies.
This is what they were supposed to look like.

From here

This is what they looked like when I made them.

I ended up using four egg whites, next time, I will use three. They're good with a dash of mint extract mixed in, and a glass of milk on the side. They batter was very drippy and messy. 

Not that they don't taste good. They're very sticky. And kind of hollow. Mommy says they had a meringue-y texture. But mostly they were chocolaty. I liked them.

Climbing. Climbing. CLIMBING

Readers, I've been keeping a secret from you: I am a crazed rock climber. 

The first time I went climbing, I was probably five. The instructors gave us little pieces of rope and taught us how to tie figure-eight knots. In fact, I still have the rope. Somewhere. 

There are a few other vague memories (like a birthday party), but the next time was this experience. Man, I was cute back then! The funny thing is, I no longer have to wear a helmet when I climb. I don't know why. The helmet was kind of annoying, though.

Flash forward a couple years--I went with Zelda and another friend to a special climbing program at a "nearby" Girl Scout camp. I'm pretty sure we didn't have climbing shoes--I'm surprised I made it up the walls in the first place! I climbed a vertical wall, but there was also an overhang that everyone was scared to climb. Then we went to a real rock that was so short I probably could have bouldered on it. Those were the days...

Then, a couple years later, a gym opened up near my house. It's not an exclusive climbing gym, just a regular gym that probably had extra space, so they decided "Hey! Let's put a climbing wall here, and put rubber on the floor. Really annoying recycled rubber pieces that get in your shoes and make a HUGE mess outside the gym, and make the treadmills stop working." 

Anyway, Kathy and I climbed there with Mommy and Daddy for a while. Mommy and Daddy got belay certified (Kathy and I are too young), and tried lots of different climbs, but I was. Immensely. BORED. Why? Well, Kathy and I would race for the really easy "baby wall", and the one who wasn't climbing had to sit around waiting for the other. Then we would sit around waiting for Mommy and Daddy...basically, it was a lot of sitting around.

Then in May, I was getting better. One person who worked at the rockwall (and would soon become one of my coaches) told my parents how there would be a summer climbing team, and that it would be really great if Kathy and I came to tryouts. So we did. I can't remember a lot about tryouts, just speed-climbing up the baby wall, struggling up a 5.6 (which is now really easy), and falling off a route with a really big dyno. Somehow, I made the team. 

In June, we had our first competition; Kathy won a trophy in her age group for top-roping, but I did not. I did, however, get a higher score than she received. 

The next comp was in July. I tied with a boy in my age group for top-roping.

The comp after that was in August, and hosted at my gym. That time, I won flat-out, and when the scores were emailed a few days after, I had the highest score of any of the top-ropers.

I missed the very last comp because I was on vacation. But in September, Kathy and I began to train for the bouldering season. We competed at the USA Climbing regional competition, then she made it to the divisional competition. I didn't qualify to compete, but that turned out okay, because I got to take a picture with my climbing idol! If I had been competing, I wouldn't have been allowed in the building and I wouldn't have gotten to meet her.

Next stop is top-rope season. I don't know what will happen. But whatever does, I will try to make the best of it.

P.S. If you clicked on the link to my first climbing post, you will notice I said the easy paths disappears as you get closer to the top. No. No. That's not how it works. My newbie-climber brain was just trying to think of a reason why...yup, nope, I can't remember. But the good holds don't disappear.
P.P.S. Top-roping climbs are called routes, bouldering climbs are called problems.