Inside The Perimeter

Rats! I decided that since I was so tired of sweating I’d take a gamble this morning and head to O’Hare early to see if I could switch flights. No luck, it looks like I’ll be here all day. For being the World’s Busiest Airport Chicago’s O’Hare has there security check-point system working well. It was about 9:30am CDT when I arrived and I was the third person in line. Amazing!

I’ve just plunked down $7 for all-day internets, so consider me to be available, or at least accessable. In two hour’s time I will be searching for the elusive airport electrical outlet. And before you ask, yes I have double-checked my departure gate and will be doing so later as well.

Pictures return tomorrow…

ChiLanta
Between the heat and my newly discovered drinking problem (22 ounce bottles of Fat Tire are dangerous) I spent more time in the hotel room than I had expected. One of the things that I did a lot of was watch tv (because I could get not the internets in my room).

On Sunday morning I caught an episode of TLC’s “While You Were Out” where they made over a couple’s outdoor space in Chicago. I had a inkling to try and track down the site, but the heat convinced me not to head out on this wild goose chase. During my few days of taking pictures around the city I noticed and incredible lack of graffiti in the city. On the show they mentioned that it is illegal to sell spray paint within the city limits of Chicago.

On Sunday evening I caught an episode of A&E’s “Flip This House” (which is different from TLC’s “Flip That House”) where they turned around a house in Atlanta. It was a house in a neighborhood that I am not familiar with, but it was kinda cool to see sights from home while in Chicago.

Another show I caught on Sunday was VH1’s “World Series of Pop Culture”. One of the teams on last night’s episode was from Atlanta, and they were named “El Chupacabra” who were touted as bar trivia players. Here is a blurb from VH1’s website

El Chupacabra has been this trio’s name since they started playing trivia at a local hangout “The Vintage Tavern,” their very own version of “Cheers.

Has anyone played against these people?

Pitchforking, Day 2
It wasn’t all drinking, sleeping, and tv watching in Chicago you know. I did manage to make it out to Union Park for the second night of the Pitchfork Music Festival. As planned, after an unplanned beer-induced power-nap, I arrived in time to catch the last few acts.

When I arrived Devendra Banhart were on stage. It was hot and I was starting to question why I went outside so I didn’t really enjoy their set.

I heard Yo La Tengo next. For years I have heard about Yo La Tengo, but rarely have ever heard any of their music. I enjoyed what I heard, but don’t think that I’ll be jumping on their bandwagon anytime soon.

Spoon was next. This is the second time that I have seen Spoon live. The last time at Variety Playhouse I was very underwhelmed. This performance was better, but I still don’t understand why people like them so much.

The grand finale was a band Os Mutantes. This is a reunion tour thirty years in the making. Their website is in Portuguese, that should tell you how much of the music I understood. I decided to beat the crowd to The EL so I left early.

The funniest thing that happened to me over the two days at the festival was when I used a port-a-potty and realized that my shirt was inside-out. I walked the streets of Chicago, rode the train, and spent at least two hours amongst thousands of people, and not a single person alerted me to this. When you see everyone wearing their shirts inside-out this Fall you will know where the trend started.

I Think My GPS Runs Windows
On one of my runs this weekend my GPS froze at 11:51 into my run/walk. I had to figure out which button combination to push in order to reboot it. On the second time I used it it took a long time to acquire a satellite signal and when it located something it asked me “You are more than 100 miles from the last time you used this. Is this correct?” Yes, I get around…

How Sweep It Is
C’mon, you didn’t expect me not to mention the Mets first series sweep in Atlanta since 1979, did you?

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - tired
Current Music - none, listening to the Paste Magazine “Paste Culture Club” podcast
Website Of The Day - Next time in Chicago (when the weather is cooler) I will check out the audio tours offered by the Chicago Loop Alliance

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I’ve picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as “blogged.”

Exercise (b)Log - walking/running ~4miles Sunday

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

This is the first of a two-part summary of my weekend in Chicago. “But Paulie, it’s only Sunday, why post a summary now?” I can hear you say, “Because I have that much shit to type!” is my reply.

Introducing Melysa
On of the highlights of my trip has been Melysa, who has served me up beer each day at the Hard Rock hotel’s bar.

This morning (11:30CDT) I didn’t even have to ask, she just started pouring.

Hotcago
I think that “Chicago” was the Native American term for “open pores, sweat profusely”. I’m not sure that I have ever sweat so much in my life. My Visa bill is a bit higher thanks to the extra clothes that I’ve had to purchase because of the unexpected multiple costume changes.

Pitchforking, Day 1
I arrived at Union Park around 3pm, earlier than expected because I had polished off a full slab of bbq baby back ribs at Exchequer Pub (with a lovely Exchequer Red Ale) quicker than I expected.

My arrival time meant I could hear the Mountain Goats, but it also meant that it was 90+ degrees in the park. Luckily I found a seat in the shade (yes, they are smart enough to have trees in the park), and grabbed a Goose Island 312 (the beer line was much shorter than the water line, and far shorter than the line to refill water bottles from a fountain.

I listened to the Mountain Goats and then Destroyer, before relinquishing my shady seat so that I could get near the stages to see Art Brut and Ted Leo & the Pharmacists. Before heading into the crowd I decided to grab a couple of bottles of water, which I found out were only $1 a piece! note to Atlanta concert promoters and/or vendors: please stop screwing us over by charging festival prices for water during Atlanta concerts.

One Singular Sensation
And that would be frustration. I think that I put too much confidence in my guide book and my ability to locate things. While sitting the in the shade reading I felt extremely lucky to find out that Jason Lytle, former lead singer for Grandaddy, was playing an acoustic show in town at a place called Schubas Tavern. Lo and behold Schubas was listed in the guide book, where I read that it was on Southport at Belmont and that all I had to do was take the Brown Line to Belmont. In my mind that meant that Southport would actually be near the Belmont stop. After walking up and down Belmont then up and down some side streets and breaking out in my millionth sweat I gave up and returned to the hotel.

As I neared the hotel life got even more exciting as I fielded a call from ADT alerting me that my home security alarm had gone off. Great, nothing like being far away from home and worrying that your has been broken into. I never received a call from the police, so it must have meant that it was a false alarm. Did you have an extended power outage?

A Weekend Of Use And Abuse
I have walked miles upon miles in my few days in Chicago. I am hoping that this is one of the reasons that my runs have been so crappy. At a mere two meters above sea level (lake level?) I can say that it has nothing to do with the altitude.

I am tired of walking, and sweating, so I think that the only movements I will make are to go out and get some food, perhaps watch the Cubs on tv (plans to go to Wrigley have been scrapped unless I am just going to the surrounding bars) and then arrive at the second night of the Pitchfork Music Festival around 7pm in time to catch Yo La Tengo, Spoon, and OS Mutantes. I’d go earlier for Mission To Burma, but I am really tired of the heat.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - hot, tired, hot, tired, hot
Current Music - nothing because I can’t hear the music in the lobby
Website Of The Day - On my Friday morning run I ran into (not literally) the Tour of Hope cyclists. They started in San Francisco and will end up in Washington DC in a few weeks.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I’ve picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as “blogged.”

Exercise (b)Log - running/walking ~4 miles Friday

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Beer, Beer, Beer, Beer, Beer
Throw in a Italian Beef sandwich that I ate at Monk’s Pub (Google Map link) and you know what I consumed before taking a nice afternoon nap.

Beer tally:
1 - 22 ounce Fat Tire Amber Ale
2 - 12 ounce Goose Island 312 (a locally-produced wheat beer)
2 - 12 ounce Old Style

Wait Wait, Tell Me Why I Am Walking In The Rain?
Yesterday there was a 30% chance of rain. I encountered all 30% on my (slightly misguided) walk from my hotel room the the Chase Auditorium. It poured so damn hard that I had to stop in a CVS so that I could buy an umbrella. Let me tell you that a $5 umbrella doesn’t do the greatest job of keeping the rain off you. After a few minutes of valiant rain shielding my umbrella started letting water seep through. Oh well, it was certainly better than having nothing covering me.

The taping of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me was rather fun. As you can see below I was able to get a second-row seat. Woo Hoo!

It was interesting to see them redo parts of the show at the end in order to get a quality show for NPR. For those who listen to the show, one of the callers was a librarian from Jonesboro Georgia, but I won’t tell you if she wins.

Happy Birthday Greetings
My friend Lisa, known to many as Cheese Infection, is celebrating. It’s not nice to tell a woman’s age, so I’ll just say that she has no fear of turning forty for another four years…

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - Happy (yes, you read that right, happy)
Current Music - Tom Petty — “Free Fallin’” in the lobby of my hotel
Website Of The Day - Sometimes those “advertisement links” in Gmail are really awesome. Go check out Uber Tap the multiple tap keg tap!

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I’ve picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as “blogged.”

Yesterday’s Exercise (b)Log - none, took a day off (except for the mad dash from Concourse A to Concourse B)

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

It’s the little things in life….

My Trip Has Started Off With A Thud
Thankfully, this did not involve an auto or a plane (this is optimistic thinking). No, it involved packing last night. Apparently whatever efforts I have made to slim my waistline have failed, and most of the shorts I expected to bring along didn’t fit. For those who are sticklers for details will remember that I bought some shorts at Target the other day ($2.50!), but I never tried them on at the store so when I did last night I found out that they were a tad too small. Oh well, I plan to keep them and challenge myself to lose enough weight so that I can fit into them.

Go O.J., Go!
Here’s Paulie’s travel tip for the day…

Even if you check in online the morning you are to fly, look at the gate assignments when you arrive at the airport. When I printed my boarding pass this morning I was told that I would be departing at 8:00am from gate A15. I arrived at gate A15 sometime shortly after 6:15am so I wasn’t too concerned that the counter wasn’t displaying information about my flight to Chicago. I sat at that gate until about 7:35am, in part typing some of this post, when I got a bit nervous. I walked to the departure listings only to find out that my flight was departing from gate B33 and that it was already boarding! I did my best OJ Simpson routine (the Hertz commercial, not the (alleged killings) and ran from Concourse A to Concourse B, toting my suitcase. Luckily I made the flight with about ten minutes to spare.

What have we learned? Do a job half-assed, and you will get half-assed results.

Ode To The Smokequarium
If you are unfamiliar with the concept of the smokequarium, allow me to explain. I like to call the glass-walled smoking rooms in the airport “smokequariums.” It’s now 6:35am and the smokequarium is half-filled with those addicts who are in need of their morning fix.

I have already gotten my morning fix of a lackluster banana-walnut muffin and coffee, so who am I to judge. I am proud to say that I have fought the urge to purchase yet another useless magazine and a PSP from the hi-tech vending machine.

Would it be wrong for me to take pictures of passersby as I wait for my flight? The airport is such a wonderful place to people watch. Ooh, there goes an Amish wait a minute the Amish don’t fly, Mennonite husband and wife. Dang, there goes a Hassidic Jewish family. Eh, there is no sense getting airport security all up in my grill…

Looks Like I Am Starting To Make It
The Akismet spam filter is starting to capture more and more spam each day. Woo Hoo! Normally spam would irritate me, but since the spam filter is catching it, spam is one-button click away from being deleted.

And You Can Get An Early Listen Too
Yesterday I received an email from somebody in the Manchester Orchestra camp. The email informed me the the guys are working on a new album, and if I wanted to get an early listen to some of the music I could follow this link. (yes, they gave me permission to publish the link.)

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - Relaxed
Current Music - none, listening to Wednesday’s “Daily Source” podcast
Website Of The Day - none, try again tomorrow

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I’ve picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as “blogged.”

Exercise (b)Log - running/walking approximately 4.5 miles

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Damn the ability to shut off alarm clocks and go back to sleep! Damn 8:30am meetings! The confluence of those and my inability to get a headstart on today’s blog last might mean that this will be short.

Any Chigesstions?
This is the week of my first Chicago trip. If you lived or visited Chi-town please drop a suggestion into the comments telling me where to eat or drink. I’d sure appreciate it.

I Love My RealiTV!!!
Hell’s Kitchen has not let me down. They are down to the Final 4 and the remaining contestants consist of my favorite since the first episode, Heather, two dorks in Keith and Virginia, and the person I despise, Sarah. As they say, things are heating up in Hell’s Kitchen and I can’t wait to see how this winds up.

I am still trying to get into Big Brother. There is something about the fact that they don’t boot someone on every episode bothers me, although I guess it gives us more time to watch the interactions of the people progress.

I still refuse to give Rock Star: Supernova another chance. It’s just not my cup of tea.

What else should I be watching?

Stretching: The Truth
Now that I am exercising again I need to get back into stretching. Stretching used to be real easy when I would take spinning classes because I could use the bike as a balancing bar. After running I am so whooped and out in public so I don’t stretch. I am a very flexible individual and I know that in order to stay that way I should stretch both before and after exercising but I just don’t. Maybe I’ll start tonight after my run at George’s.

While I am asking for feedback, can anyone point me at a website with good stretches for running and bike riding?

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - Behind
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Jim Noir — “In The Key Of C”
Website Of The Day - Are you looking for recommendations about a plethora of different topics? (hmm, that sounds familiar) Well, if so give Listable a try to see if they can help you out. As for me I just don’t have the time, so could you help me out instead?

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I’ve picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as “blogged.”

Exercise (b)Log - running/walking 4 miles

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Can a person have more than one mantra? I still use my old (nearly fifteen years old) mantra

The legs are strong, the mind is weak.

when having a hard run. However, this year I have been forced to add

The more I run, the faster I will be done.

into my mantra playlist.

Two Fiddy?
Yesterday I swung into Target to look for non-running shorts. I found some, on clearance, for $2.50! Man I love living in the South where I can buy shorts on clearance in July and wear them all the way through October/November.

Meet The Hashers, Down In Flames Again
We cannot seem to get the hang of the betting strategy when playing trivia at Johnny’s. If we bet all our points then we cannot answer the question; if we bet zero points the question is easy. Last night’s final question was the latter, we bet zero and subsequently dropped from first place to out of the money. Here is the final question… (answers provided in comments)

Name the teams associated with the following four nicknames

• Phi Slamma Jamma
• Monsters of the Midway
• Purple People Eaters
• Broadstreet Bullies

Since the trivia host at Johnny’s doesn’t like us he must really be happy with our latest slip-ups.

Four In The Morning
It appears that my new morning routine will be running before work, with the exception of Wednesday nights at George’s of course. There is something amazingly satisfying about getting up early enough to beat traffic, get out of my car and run, and then return to the office for a shower all before most of my coworkers arrive at the office. Running in the morning makes my desire for a 2:00pm nap much harder to fight off, but in the end it is highly beneficial to my psyche and hopefully soon to my waistline.

For My Next Trick — Portion Control
Now that I’ve finally started exercising again it’s time for me to start limiting my food intake. Last night was a great example of my erroring ways. While I was good by drinking water instead of soda or beer, I ate an entire calzone which was stuffed with Canadian bacon and sundried tomatoes. Was it delicious? Yeah! Did it counteract my exercise? Yeah.

CD Pick Of The Week
I really need to start listening to Sirius Channel 26 more. Metacritic lists sixteen new releases today, and I know but a few of the artists listed.

Because I don’t really care for the one song I’ve heard from the New York Dolls release, I’ll play the safe bet and choose Tom Petty’s release of “Highway Companion” as my CD Pick of the Week.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - fair
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing The Decemberists — “16 Military Wives” (they are coming to Atlanta in a few months in case you did not know)
Website Of The Day - While out running I passed many locations that would be ideal for urban campers. I thought to myself “I bet you there is a website at urbancamping.com”, and of course I was right. I present to you Urban Camping.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I’ve picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as “blogged.”

Exercise (b)Log - running/walking 4 miles

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

What a difference a year makes
The evening of birthday number forty was spent eating a chef’s selection dinner in Las Vegas. The evening of birthday number forty-one was spent eating rice on my couch alone. Now before you scold me for whining, let me tell you that this was my decision.

Because the weather forecast for this weekend for almost every city within driving distance from Atlanta was the same as Atlanta’s, I decided not to flee the city. Instead I ran the Pine Lake 100 hash with 185 of my closest friends¹. I chose to run the “eagle” trail, touted as a six-miler with no swamp crossing. It was hot, I could not get hydrated and had to walk more than I’d like. The only reason that I didn’t fear dying was that nobody ever dies on their birthday². I was so tired when I got home from the hash around 8:15pm that I decided that I was going to stay at home. See, not whining…

On Sunday I was supposed to run the Black Sheep trail (way OTP in Canton!) but the blisters on my feet from Saturday convinced me not to run. For those keeping records I did drive the forty-plus miles to Canton in order to deliver the stats that I keep for the Black Sheep hash; I’m dependable that way.

1: okay, there must have been about fifty or more people there who I have never seen before
2: this is a made-up fact that I have not verified

And Prior To Hashing…
On Saturday morning I set out to join some Flickrites at the Lowe Gallery. The meeting was scheduled for 11:00am and I decided to get out of the house and head up there early so that I could snap a few shots around the Bennett Street area before everyone arrived.

Unfortunately I got up there so early I was done with my shooting by about 10:00am, and I didn’t want to sit around in my car until everyone else arrived… so I went home.

Tour de Lance Floyd
I am already having Tour de France withdrawal. After following the Tour for three weeks my morning seems empty. At least now I can get myself out on my bike and not worry about being called a poser.

A Class Action Suit Settlement With Little Class
I’ve been a Sprint customer for a long time. The other day I was sent an email alerting me to the settlement of some class action suit against Sprint. Quick to see what sort of settlement had been determined I scanned the long and boring legal document looking for my options.

There were three choices from which I could choose one. The most astonishing of these options was

A one-time payment of $15 as long as I agree to extend my contract for two more years

Are you kidding me? They want me to extend my contract for two years for a measly $15? No thanks!

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - fair
Current Music - Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing The Velvet Underground — “Heroin”
Website Of The Day - Tourist Remover looks like a neat app for magically removing people from your digital photographs.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I’ve picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as “blogged.”

Exercise (b)Log - running/walking ~6 miles on Saturday

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Age Of Uncertainty
For months my calendar has had Pine Lake’s 1000th hash penciled in for my birthday activities tomorrow. This morning a thought popped into my head

There is an outside chance that after work today I’ll be hopping into my car and going somewhere. I don’t know where I will go, but it will be “away” and my cell phone will be turned off.

It’s highly unlikely that I’ll follow through with this new plan, but you never know…

The Sights Only The Eye Can Capture
I wish I could share a neat phenomena with you. Yesterday at work I noticed an oddly-shaped smudge on my office window (on the 6th floor of the building). Upon further investigation I realized that the smudge was the profile of a bird. I assume that bird sideswiped the building like a drunk driver sideswipes a parked car. The details in the smudge is incredible. Unfortunately every effort to capture the image on “film” failed.

And If I Don’t Fly The Coop
If I decide to hang around this weekend then tonight I’ll be eating some wings and drinking a couple of beers at Rocky Mountain Pizza with the APWBWGTTD set.

After drinking I might also be headed to The EARL to see YOU and Modern Skirts.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood - lost
Current Music - none, Tour de France — this has gotten good
Website Of The Day - I don;t know what Mojizo means, so I will say that it means “pretty fucking cool character design”

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I’ve picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as “blogged.”

Exercise (b)Log - running/walking, ~4 miles this morning!