Le Tour Est Fin
I’m still debating whether or not I’ll watch the recording of yesterday’s Tour de France finale. I have no good explanation, but I’m not much of an Alberto Contador fan.
World Wide Photomelt
I was supposed to meet my Flickr / Roswell Photographic Society gang at the Chattahoochee River at daybreak Saturday morning — that was until I didn’t wake up until 6:15am EDT. Ugh. I did my best to get up there and salvage my morning shoot, but only managed one shot with which I can be pleased (Barb, I tried to shoot that free-standing hearth but none of the shots of it that I took Saturday morning came out the way I wanted them to).
From the river our gang headed up Roswell Rd / Atlanta St to eat breakfast at The Southern Skillet. If you were to blindfold me and take me into The Southern Skillet I’d never believe you that it was part of a strip mall / shopping center. Overall the food was really good, though the wait to get our food on a Saturday morning was rather long.
After our breakfast we drove up to the meeting point for the third annual Scott Kelby World Wide Photowalk / Death March which was the gazebo of the Historic Roswell square. By the time we got sent off for our walk it was past 10:00am EDT and it was hot. My small group of photogs barely lasted an hour before succumbing to the heat and calling it quits. In retrospect I should have just stayed in the parking lot behind the Soda Salon and watched the parade of beautiful young women who were going there instead of trying to fight the heat elsewhere.
It Was A Mad, Mad, Mad, Weekend
For many there was an eight-month wait for last night’s Mad Men Season Four premiere, for me it was more like an eight-hour wait. I’m not exactly sure how I managed it (other than being lazy) but from the time I returned from Eddie’s Attic on Saturday night through yesterday afternoon I was able to watch the last eight episodes of Season Three in order to be caught up for last night’s premiere. And boy was I ever happy that I had intimate knowledge of the series going into last night’s episode… I’m hooked and am looking forward to keeping up with the Mad Men as they march toward that magical time of 1965 — the year yours truly entered this world.
A Mile For Every Year
Yesterday morning I woke up (later than I desired because of the three-plus hours of Mad Men I watched into the wee hours of Saturday night / Sunday morning) and hopped on the Red Rocket for a morning ride before the heat index climbed above 100ยบ F. The plan was to ride forty-five miles, essentially one mile for every year I’ve been alive. Because of the pain I experienced last week with the new bike shoes I decided to “play it safe” by wearing the mountain bike shoes which had not given me much bother all year.
The ride started really well, even though by 7:30am EDT the Georgia temperature and humidity were fighting me. Regardless of the weather I pushed myself as hard as I could. Around mile twenty-eight the knee pain started to return; they’re not sharp pains (on the inner portion of my left knee and the outer portion of my right knee), but but neither should be there.
I finished up my forty-five miles (in somewhere around 2:50:00) and sat in a cool bath for a little while trying to provide some relief to my worn out bag of muscles and fat.
I’m wondering if I have to scale back my grandiose plans to take the Red Rocket with me on my Colorado trip and get some serious riding in while on vacation next month. I certainly hope that I don’t have to, because bringing the bike is one of the big reasons I’m driving instead of flying.
ITP Flickr Pic
One of the benefits of riding alone is taking the road less traveled. One of the benefits of having an iPhone 4 in the Red Rocket’s seat pack is having a half-decent camera with me when I ride.
This was my view of Stone Mountain from the turnaround at what used to be the parking lot for the Olympic velodrome.
Thumbs Down, Thumbs Up
Talk about your contrasts…
On Friday I joined my friend Kevin for the Grace Potter and the Nocturnals show at Variety Playhouse. The night started off on the wrong foot when the plan to eat at The Vortex had to be scrapped because of an unfortunate turn of left-the-tickets-at-home (not it!) events. Instead the only place I could find an empty seat was in The Corner Tavern. The Corner Tavern’s garage-door window was open so I figured that it wouldn’t be very smoky, but what I should have realized that with the rain and heat which Little Five Points experienced on Friday night the place would be the sauna that it turned out to be. After dinner we headed into Variety for the sold out show. Between the annoying, blinding, headache inducing light show and the fact that I could not get into the Grace Potter sound I wound up leaving early.
On Saturday I went solo to Eddie’s Attic in Decatur to see Chatham County Line. You might recall that the last time I went to Eddie’s I had a less-than-stellar experience because I didn’t know of the procedures for checking in with the doorman. On Friday I received a blast email reminding me of the check-in procedure (could this email be in part caused by the bitching I did in this space?) so I decided to skip my plan to eat at Farm Burger and get a good seat inside Eddie’s instead. The Chatham County Line show was great, until I made one of the least graceful dismounts from a bar stool that anyone will ever see. Mind you I didn’t fall off, but I wasn’t that far from doing so because my legs were sticking to the wooden stool as I tried to spin around and hop off the stool. I was so embarrassed with my lack of grace that I decided to skip the final few tunes of the show and head home. Besides, I needed a good night’s sleep before riding — until I got sucked into my Mad Men vortex.
I Have Laundry Yes I Do, I Have Laundry What About You?
I’ve taken so long to do laundry that I’ve maxed out the capacity of my two IKEA shopping/laundry bags. Tonight’s laundry will be done at the lavanderia next to Lee’s Bakery so that I can hopefully meet up with my friend Nav for a Banh Mi sandwich.
Speaking of Banh Mi, has anyone listened to This American Life #412 “Million Dollar Idea” in which they said that Banh Mi and Bubble Tea is the latest craze? Seems to me that they are a few years late with that assumption as I’ve been going to Lee’s for “crazy cheap sandwiches” for at least six years.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – in pain
Current Music – listening to a CBC Radio 3 concert podcast by Elliot Brood
Website Of The Day – AMC is the home of Mad Men and apparently some other original tv series. To think, I’ve always just considered them to be American Movie Classics.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Sunday: cycling, 45 miles
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check, though I should have
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~12 miles, Wheel Mileage – 210.0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (16)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 25
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 1
July Goals
- Not to get sick for the entire month (still waiting to accomplish this)
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 150 miles
- Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving further
- Complete at least one iPhone application
- Completely plan out my August/September Colorado trip
2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I've sadly gained weight; I'm at 203 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 Sharpened Stone.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers
The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS Objective-C
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Saturday morning Michelle & I had thought about trying to stalk you while out on our bike ride, but she wasn’t feeling well, so we headed back to the cars before getting to Historic Roswell. I don’t think we would have gotten down near the gazebo, so we would have never found you.
You just need to adjust those cleats forward or back, eventually they will be in the right position.
Our pool ending for the hash yesterday was a little warm, they don’t have enough shade on the pool, so the water was nice, but not refreshing. But – good times were had, and Allan & I are no longer mis-management! We can now just go to the hash, and not have to shop & load coolers, etc. Anyone that has even been mis-management will understand this feeling of joy to not be responsible.
BTW Steve – we had plenty of burgers & dogs left over, want to grill at your hash next month?
Barb, congrats on shaking the mis-management (again), who is the GM for Wheelhopper now?
I was so worn out yesterday morning that I took a bath, perhaps only the fourth bath that I’ve taken since moving into the house eleven years ago.
GM – Check My Bag (we strong armed him),
Hash Cash/Beer Miester/Coke&Snack Whore – Coach Clit & Denial of Service.
and – Allan says the hash is a stick this time, not a boomerang, we have thrown it away, and it will not be circling back to us again.
I can’t blame you two for wanting to no longer want to be mis-management. Check My Bags (ITP-Reader Bob) is a good choice for GM — and perhaps he won’t use this as an excuse to pick up the family and move.
I have over 150 rides with Wheelhopper, I guess it was about time to take up a responsible position
We’ll try to keep it alive as long as we can, may even try to grow it a bit.
Yesterday was just hot, very hard to find any relief. A cold bath sounds like a good idea.
I was planning on grilling anyway Barb, so stick them in the freezer and we’ll use them in a month. I’m fighting the good fight with the pool water at the moment.. I hope it looks as good as KnT’s yesterday.
I was looking forward to riding the wheelhopper (road version) yesterday.. had my bike, had my helmet, had my shoes?? FAIL!! So I just sat around and drank beer all afternoon. Down downs for Bimbo and forgetting shoes! Double whammy.
I’ll ride this afternoon after it gets nice and hot.. this is my Friday off, since I was working in Nashville this past Friday.
-FP
I ran both Saturday and Sunday morning…it was too hot. I started @ 6:30 Sunday and it was already too late. It was a loooong 10 miles.
After that I was done, I just sat in the house for most of the day. Jerry and I went to The Shed around 3 for a snack…a little disappointing. They just had a brunch menu, I wasn’t really in the mood for breakfast in the middle of the afternoon. I did get the Shed Benedict, it was good but not what I wanted.
Jerry takes ice baths after his long runs to help with recovery…too much for me, then again I don’t seem to hurt as much as he does.
Mine was only a cool bath. A cold, or heaven-forbid and ice, bath would have shocked my system too greatly. It was nice to cool down instead of just jumping into the shower and then sweating to death once I got out.
In addition to missing out on Farm Burger I also missed out on J. Christopher. At Eddie’s Attic I ate three delicious bbq pork tacos and some sweet potato fries.
Also at Eddie’s I managed to get surrounded by the Young and Pretty. Oddly I felt uncomfortably old and out of place. Once again, I’m certainly no Don Draper — not that any of the girls around me even considered talking to me that night.
I’m being reminded just how old I am right now.
Some girls from the gym have been talking about a “Girl’s Night Out”…in my mind that’s dinner, a glass or two of wine along with gossip/bitch session. They are talking about dancing at the Havana Club…ugh…I forgot these ladies are all in their 20s.
I’ve never done an ice bath – I just don’t think I would like it.
I know I’m old, I don’t need to be reminded. And Martha – I’m with you on a good GNO…….. I bet Havana Club is all smokey with cigars too.
and Paulie – there are very few guys out there like Don Draper…….. so don’t let that get you down.
http://video.pbs.org/video/1543948477/
I know you’re a big breakfast person, me not so much but some of these places might convert me (the cuban place for sure!!).
My sister and her husband own Soda Salon (Tracey and Erik Pearson)…
. Used to be a location in Glenwood Park, but it wasn’t nearly as successful as the Roswell location.
Have they closed the Glenwood Park location, or have they sold it to someone else?
It’s closed. Don’t think anyone has moved into the space yet. A lot of their stuff is still there, last I checked.