Hello From Rainy Raleigh
I’m not going to complain about the rain following me. Thankfully the weekend’s weather was magnificent.
I’ve come to the conclusion that abiding by a daily regiment is never going to be successful for me. I never shot a photo on Friday, nor have I remembered to get my pushup and situp goals accomplished since announcing my plan on Friday.
Bringing Down The Attic
On Friday night I met up with a buddy of mine for a night of country/bluegrass (or “newgrass” as one person described it) performed by Chatham County Line at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur. It was great to finally get to attend one of the concerts on my calendar last week.
I never realized that Chatham County Line was so popular, nor that they had not played Atlanta since April 2008. Eddie’s was jam-packed with uproarious people who, along with the great music belted out by the foursome, made for a rather enjoyable evening. Because of Eddie’s “no talking” policy (which wasn’t obeyed as much as I’d wished during the opening act Slim Chance) and Decatur’s “no smoking” policy Eddie’s has quickly become one of my favorite places to see/hear a show.
Chatham County Line played a great set, complete with a few encores. I may have been the only one in the house happy to see the show end and that was only because I knew that I had to get home and pack a suitcase before waking up at o’dark thirty for my early morning flight.
R&R In Raleigh, NC
I’ve escaped ITP for a few days.
I grabbed an early flight out of Atlanta on Saturday morning for the short one-hour flight to Raleigh. As soon as I arrived at the Raleigh/Durham airport I was confused. It seems as if they’ve been doing a bit of construction and for a few seconds I feared as if I’d landed at that wrong airport because I was certainly not in the small, sleepy RDU of past trips.
With nothing specific on the agenda it was good to hang with ITP-Readers Lisa and Randy along with their two lads. One of my goals for the weekend was to eat vegetarian — which is harder than it should be especially when faced with the choice of getting a special lengua taco at the Mexican restaurant at which we ate lunch on Saturday.
A baby sitter had been secured for the evening so the three of us went out to a fancy-pants Italian restaurant (named Gravy) and then to a local downtown watering hole for a couple of beers.
One of the more interesting things I heard on Saturday night is that Raleigh is banning indoor smoking as of next year. So why can a city in tobacco country do this, yet Atlanta still can’t? Reason #232 to escape I suppose.
On Sunday I was able to join the family along with their friends for a C.R.O.P walk. The 5k walk was put on in an effort to raise money and awareness to stop hunger. Somebody obviously put a lot of time into planning the event but not on the mapping of the walk because it turned out that the course was mislabeled and if I had to guess, we walked somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 – 2.5 miles instead. The weather was fantastic and all people large and small seemed to enjoy the ending outside of Marbles — Raleigh’s Children’s museum of science. Okay, I think the small people enjoyed running around and climbing up and down more than the tall people, but a good time was had regardless.
ITP Flickr Pic
I’ve been trying to take more photos. However I know that I am quite critical of my photography so I find myself taking few shots because I don’t think that they will meet my “standards.” That being said, you might not care for this shot but I like it.
The funny thing about this shot was that I sat there for minutes trying to envision the shot I wanted to take and by the time I did people started walking by and children started to climb on the gates. So, I had to be patient (which I am not great at) until the scene cleared again.
Too Close For Comfort
For some reason I had a temporary lapse in judgement and chose the Cincinnati Bengals to win this week in my NFL Eliminator challenge. At the start of the season there were sixteen of us trying to pick one team to win each week — pick incorrectly and you are eliminated. To make things more difficult you are never allowed to pick the same team twice.
So there I was, sizing up the week’s games and I saw that Cincinnati, coming off a big victory, was playing the hapless Browns. This might have been the only time I’d feel comfortable picking Cincinnati so I decided to take a chance. My gamble nearly blew up in my face though, With only seconds remaining in an overtime period the Bengals kicked a field goal to win the game.
What about if the teams had played to a tie? I most likely still would have been eliminated since the rules stipulate that you must pick a winner and there are no winners in ties.
Stupid Fantasy Football
The thing I might dislike most about fantasy football is having to root for teams which I’d normally ignore, or worse despise. A close second to this is that feeling that no matter how well your players seem to play your opponents can still win.
Going into last night’s late game I had a good feeling about this week’s game — after all I was only down by a little and I had Big Ben going for me at quarterback. Unfortunately for me, my opponent had Pittsburgh’s TE Heath Miller who caught two touchdown passes, including one not thrown by Big Ben.
So after two weeks of glorious victories my Deadbeat Dads are now a disappointing 2-2.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – good although I’m spending another of my scant paid days off today and it’s raining in Raleigh
Current Music – silence, okay the sound of a near-four-year old getting ready for school
Website Of The Day – Their gates were the inspiration for today’s photo so I’ll give Marbles Kids Museum a nod today.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – not working today
Exercise (b)Log – Sunday, maybe three miles of walking
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 3 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 2, Carnivorous Days – 2
Marta Rides – 0
October Goals
- Not get fired from my job
- Take at least one photo every day
- Restart work on house, actually making progress this time (note: not successful during August)
2009 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
- Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
- Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalapeño Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop
The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
It is raining here in Atlanta too, so you aren’t missing much.
BTW – I figured out a way to take all the pictures you want of pretty girls. Come to the Breast Cancer Walk. The ending at the Atlanta Zoo had more than a few guys taking pictures, and I highly doubt all of them have websites where they will try to sell them back to the walkers. I don’t know if I will do it again next year – I think 5 years in a row is enough. Plus, I’m considering the 3 Day, 3 days of slow spinning…..
Barb, while that sounds like a great idea I’d feel like a creepy man out there taking photos of pretty women I don’t know.
Kudos for you for volunteering for five years. I think moving up to the three-day would be excellent.