Wow, what a day! We started it off as usual, waking at some point in the morning( my watch battery is dead, so I never know anymore ), eating breakfast( Mini Wheats ), and setting off to the Convention Center. We first attended a seminar on building websites for builders( very good, though Dad says the speaker lost him at some point ) and then began to walk the booths. Before long, the most exciting part of the day arrived. The Ryobi( Ree-obi ) booth.

This year, the Ryobi booth boasted quite a number of product displays and employees displaying products. But, most significantly for us, they also had a rock wall. :-D

The rock wall was of course very popular and they were offering prizes. First, they offered a free tool bag to whomever qualified to climb the wall( Dad didn't climb, though he qualified and still got his bag ); second, they gave away T-Shirts to whomever attempted to scale the contraption; lastly, they offered a free cordless combo set for whomever could climb the wall without using the handholds as footholds. WOW, that was surprising news.

To be honest, I thought I was witnessing an incredible number of complete wall newbies trying to climb without knowing to use their feet properly. I thought that surely they must be daft. But, no, they were trying for the prize! We found this out while standing in line to climb and immediately I began to feel nervous. What a large amount of added pressure! Hardly anyone was surviving; at most, we may have seen 2 or 3 people actually make it all the way up. I felt semi-sick to my stomach, as it wasn't looking easy. It wasn't.

Jacob and I went at something like the same time. He in fact tried to go without using the forbidden footholds and even made it to the fourth level with his hands, but before long, he was down. I crawled my way up, struggling more at some times than at others. At more than one point, I almost lost my handhold because of the strain inflicted upon my fingers. It was tough, fellers. I got to the very top area, but couldn't find any more legitimate places to leverage my feet off of. Everything was off limits, it seemed. So, I stretched... ..and hit the buzzer! I made it! Praise the Lord, I made it!

I was very trembly for while walking around afterwards, but I was ok. I need to go, so no more writing. Cici's Pizza, here we come, D.V.!

:D

P.S. Dad's camera batteries were dead, so no pictures. Sorry!