Non-Newtonian Fluids!

The music in this video is awesome.

The content is also relatively awesome.

This weekend was A+ and not just because it contained nearly 10 hours of rock climbing.

Saturday I hit up the rock gym with Mechanical Pete and Simon the German. My arms were miserably sore from a Friday workout, but my hands were steel traps. I attempted a few 12’s, but didn’t have nearly as much success as last Thursday. I did come to a major realization regarding the 5.12 with which I have been struggling.

There is one particular move which is so perfectly awkward that it’s nearly impossible to do slowly. I’ve found that the discomfort level increases rapidly, almost to an asymptote, at that one move. See red line on graph:

The only way I can get through the crux is if I ride the comfort momentum and swing through the moment of difficulty, not unlike bridging the current spike on a MosFet. Note the blue line on the graph above. With this realization, I expect little difficulty in the future.

Saturday night I checked out Big Shot (a billy joel cover band) at the bar Rookies in Cromwell. I wasn’t entirely impressed with the bar, but the band was top notch. Their sound was so perfectly full. The singer sounded exactly like Billy Joel and the bassist had the most unbelievable look of apathy for most of the show.

Sunday, I zipped over to Main Cliff at Ragged Mountain and played with the routes Y.M.C. and Carey’s Corner. Devin, Irene, Mechanical Pete, Tony, Paulette, and Nick were there. It was a climbing party.

Carey’s Corner is a route that follows two unpleasent offwidths. An offwidth is a crack that is just a little too big to use a hand jam. Instead, you kind of have to stick half your body into the crack and torque your body to push against each side. Then you inch your way to victory any way you can.

It was a great weekend.

Yesterday I felt like cooking. I haven’t really made a homecooked meal in awhile and needed to feed that fever. So I pulled out the cook book that Theresa put together for me a few years back and decided to make my Nana’s famous Porcupine Meatballs.

What’s fun about these little guys is that you put uncooked rice into the meat. After forming the meat into balls you pour some tomato soup over them, cover with aluminum foil, and bake for an hour at 350.

The rice cooks and expands so that the meatballs look like little porcupines. The tomato soup adds a wonderful flavor and the surplus soup can be used as a sauce for the meatballs afterwards.

This recipe is very fulfilling. I would recommend trying it out.

Nana Folger’s Porcupine Meatballs

Pre-heat the oven to 350

Mix in large bowl:
1.5 lbs ground beef
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup rice
1 small onion, diced
healthy dose of freshly ground pepper

Form the meat into balls and put in a 9×13 pan. Mix a can of condensed tomato soup with the required amount of water* and pour over the meatballs.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees F.

*Presumably you could also just use 2 cups of rich creamy tomato soup. I trust you’ll do what needs to be done.

Enjoy!