North Shore and the Ravelympics

I'm finally getting everything back in order.  My gear is (mostly) unpacked, laundry was done, work started up again, and the kittens have once again claimed their dominance over the apartment.  My first staff day at the college I'm teaching at this fall is next week, and I have most of my syllabus ready to go!
In between all the little successes, I found time to take some friends out to Palisade Head for some climbing!

I love bringing people out to Palisade to climb.  It usually means I get more time on easier stuff and less training time, but the excited atmosphere of everyone more than makes up for it.  Both my friends had been there only a handful of times, so it was still kind of new for them.  I made sure to throw them on a bunch of different routes- easier warmups where you can enjoy the view of Lake Superior, and harder crack climbs that would test their skills.

I'm hoping to trad lead as many 5.9s and 5.10s up there as possible before the snow flies and the cracks fill with ice.
I'm only briefly going to mention my small failure in this year's knitting olympics on Ravelry.  As I may have mentioned, I was hoping to knit the Dude Sweater for Scott, since he's been more than generous with his time when fixing my computers/helping edit dance songs/etc.  I picked the colors and ordered the yarn in the beginning of June, excited to bring the yarn with and cast on during the long drive through South Dakota.
Alas, the yarn didn't make it in time for me to take it with on the trip (it still hasn't arrived- the lovely ladies at Yarn Harbor are trying to figure out what's up).  Therefore, I had to find an alternative.  Due to when we got back from our trip and helping my parents go through stuff before their big move to Florida, I didn't land on a project idea until less than a week before the games finished.
I decided to attempt a finish at my Lavender Cardigan.  I figured it wouldn't be too tough- just finish knitting the body, knit the arms, and knit the ribbing for the fronts and the collar.
No biggy, right?
Well, when I finally pulled the sweater out of the bag, there were three days left in the Olympics with a lot of knitting to go.  I was only able to finish to the bottom of the sweater by the time the torch went out, but it was a good push for a project that now feels close to being done.

I'm going to push myself to finish the sweater before September starts, ready to wear for teaching!

Perfect time to get a sweater finished, right in time for fall.  Feels weird to knit one during the summer, but definitely worth it. :)
It was a little hard to swallow a failure for the first time in the Ravelympic Games, but I'm blaming a giant cross-country climbing trip and my yarn not coming in as large contributing factors.  I could have started on this sweater sooner, but more things got in the way.  Ah, well- 'tis life.