Saturday was my first attempt at climbing in the Gunks. Risi has been climbing there a lot in the past two-three years and I guess only his impending departure finally convinced me to join him and Maria. Since I last climbed at Carderock, Maryland almost a year ago I made no grandiose plans. My goal was pretty much to climb a few easy routes and get used to the exposure the Gunks are famous for. That and to grab a 5-star difficulty geocache "Vertical Limit" (bragging rights) located on the GT ledge in one of the climbing routes. The weather was incredibly hot and humid and its effects were exacerbated by the mere three hours of sleep I got the night before. In the end I only climbed the two-pitch Easy Keyhole (5.2) which was more of a warm-up that I bargained for, than failed to get past the first few steps on Laurel (5.7) and concluded the day with the first pitch of Arrow (5.6). Not much but I had enough because of the heat. I also failed to locate the cache on the GT ledge which was very disappointing. On the way back to the parking lot we picked up two other caches by the trail and ended the day with swimming (wading?) in the Coxing Kill and dinner/beer at the Gilded Otter in New Paltz. All in all - a good day.

Quite unexpectedly, a new photogallery was added today. Also quite unexpectedly, the subject is a three to four week old kitten found on Stony Brook University Campus few days ago. Here is a quick look at the litte fella (unsure of sex as of yet)

Few weeks ago we visited Andi's fam vacationing on Cape Cod. We had a great time and besides swimming and relaxing also managed to bike the Cape Cod Rail Trail (CCRT). We started in South Dennis and biked all the way to the end in Wellfleet and then back. With a few detours for geocaching we logged 46 miles. The kml file for Google Earth is here. Here is the map:

Well ... I know it is late and everyone knows by now. But still due to a variety of issues I finally got around to honoring my favorite comedian - George Carlin who died on June 22, 2008. Here is one of my favorite bits from his 1999 HBO show "You Are All Diseased"

The vacation in Slovakia renewed my interest in biking. I borrowed my father's mountain bike and had a lot of fun riding around my hometown (Trip 1, Trip 2, Trip 3, for example). Upon my arrival on Long Island we have therefore decided to invest. Andi got a Diamondback hybrid bike and I got myself a Trek mountain bike. Hybrid (trekking) bike is definitely a better option for riding on paved Long Island roads but after several test rides I decided I felt too uncomfortable (!) riding a hybrid.

Last weekend we took the bikes out for a spin around Stony Brook (GPS track). Decent ride. No major problems. I am I am beginning to like this whole GPS tracking thingy.

I am attending the 5th Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon 08) this week near San Jose, CA. My talk is scheduled for Thursday in a session titled "The Evolution of the Biogeochemical Cycling of Phosphorus and other Bioessential Elements: Sources of Bioessential Elements".