Inside The Perimeter

After gnashing my teeth to weave through heavy afternoon traffic to get to meet up with Cockpit to reccy last night the evening turned out to be a success. We’ve successfully wrapped up with our reccying and now just have to hope for decent weather Sunday. After reccying for a good two hours we headed to Holy Taco for a delicious bite to eat.

Free No More. Free, No More
In the past few months I’ve been digging the free Road (Cycling) magazine app on my iPad. Each month I’d download the magazine and read the parts which interested me as well as admire the photography within.

Unfortunately, starting with the July issue Road magazine requires a paid subscription in order to access their magazine. Sorry but I have too many other free (or much cheaper) entertainment options to warrant paying for Road — so I deleted the app from my iPad.

I Hope That I Could Get Fucked Up Again
It frustrates me when two or more things I’d like to attend occur on the same night. I believe that I mentioned that I’ve signed up for a food blogger event to be held at The Shed in Glenwood Park on September 11th. Yesterday I received an email telling me that Canada’s Fucked Up will be playing at the Drunken Unicorn on the same night.

The good thing about this conflict is that I might be able to attend both as I can’t imagine Fucked Up taking the stage any time before midnight.

ITP Flickr Pic
There is an effort to clean the windows and building at work. My office is on the sixth floor and yesterday the workers’ platform was outside my window.

It is no secret that I am afraid of heights, so I’m glad that they are doing that job instead of me.

(In the background you can see the Concourse — King and Queen — buildings)

No Draper Last Night
I caught up on Top Chef instead of watching Mad Men last night. I was pooped and fell asleep at least twice during my viewing of Top Chef and had to skip back to see what actually happened during the show.

There is buzz on the internets that this season is the most boring Top Chef ever. I can’t say that I disagree, but time will tell. What says you?

I’ve just read AJC food writer John Kessler’s recap of last night’s episode. Kessler’s recaps this season have been less than stellar, and in the comments yesterday he admitted that he has actually stopped watching the show and is recapping from other website’s recaps. Interesting…

Happy (Day Before Your) Birthday
Tomorrow is ITP-Reader Barb’s birthday. I’m hoping that the weather nerds are wrong about their weekend forecast so that I can go out and do a good ride with her on her birthday.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – confused, but okay
Current Music – getting ready for today’s stage of the Tour de France
Website Of The Day – I didn’t watch any Mad Men, but won’t let that stop me from pimping an artist, Christina Perry, who has made some awesome Mad Men posters.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~7 miles, Wheel Mileage – 95.1 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 16 (16)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 15
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

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]

Me. That’s right, I was in attendance at George’s Bar last evening. It was good to see many of my friends (read “hashers”) there, though the scene has changed somewhat. Prior to sitting at the bar I purchased items from Half Moon Outfitters (a small 1-Liter dry bag for camping) and from Paper Source (a birthday card for my uncle John). My purchases won’t single-handedly keep either place in business, but I’m trying to spread some of my discretionary spending money to local merchants.

I Can Recommend The Food, But Not The Smoothie
Yesterday a coworker had to pick up some floor tiles at Floors & Decors so since we were headed that direction (the southbound I-85 access road near REI) I chose the Havana Restaurant as our lunchtime destination.

Nestled in the new shopping center across the street from Lee’s Bakery and right next to Pirates Pub, I’ve been meaning to try one of the two Havana offshoot restaurants from the burned Havana Sandwich Shop for some time.

As soon as we entered I knew the food would be good because the room was nearly filled and there was a line of about ten people ahead of us still waiting to order food. This was fine by me as it gave me time to peruse the menu (not that I had anything other than a Cuban sandwich in mind) prior to stepping up to the counter to order. I did order the Cuban (half) sandwich plate (which comes with yellow rice and black bean soup) as well as a mango smoothie (I’ve been trying out different non-soda specialty beverages these days, but I need to go back to just drinking water). The sandwich, rice, and beans were superb, the smoothie was sub par. The problem with the smoothie was twofold; one, their blender didn’t properly pulverize all of the ice into a “smoothie”; two, the straws they provided were too narrow to stand up to the task of drinking the thick concoction and mine continually collapsed on itself making “drinking” impossible.

I will return to the Havana Restaurant when feeling the desire for Cuban cuisine, though I have to admit that I’d still rather have one of Lee’s Bakery’s Banh Mi sandwiches when given a choice. Lee’s sandwiches are just as good, cheaper, and their smoothie was much better.

SPAM That Amuses Me
I received the following in electronic mail yesterday.

Dear Weelittlebit,

We can increase your web traffic. See for
yourself. Email us for a free consultation
and site review.

Sincerely,

Carolynn C******
U-Media

It seems that U-Media knows me so well that they are comfortable referring to me by my hash name. Yeah, right.

ITP Flickr Pic
More iPhone 4 camera testing.

If I told you there was a really pretty short-haired woman sitting the booth ahead of me, but that I decided to see how the camera took a photo of my salad, would you believe me? Well, you should because I clearly focused on the salad. Also dimly pictured is the bottle of Sam Adams that I consumed with the salad and slice of pizza I had to eat that night. I was going to have a JailHouse Brewery beer, but the only one they had available was the Slammer Wheat, and while it is “wheat beer drinking season,” I don’t do wheat beers.

fwiw – As has been reported I had to adjust the white balance for this photo as the one straight out of the camera(phone) was too warm and yellow.

One And Done
I almost made it through one episode (the season premiere for Season Three) of Mad Men last night before conking out. Fret not as I had the opportunity to watch the episode in its entirety when I awoke again at 3:00am. I figure that if I can watch one episode a night I can have myself all caught up before the start of Season Four.

Because I conked out so early (was it the beer?) I did not get a chance to watch last night’s Top Chef so if you could do me a favor and not provide any spoilers today I’d certainly appreciate it. My plan is to watch last night’s episode after coming home from reccying with Cockpit tonight.

Dear Chrome Developers: Why Are You Not Catching All Of My Misspellings?
“Attendane” is not a valid American English word, why is there no red line telling me that I’ve misspelled “attendance?” I happened to notice my misspelling (and fwiw Chrome just happily let me type “happend” instead of “happened”) while proofreading today’s post. Just what dictionary are you guys using?

I hate to throw this in your face too, dearest Almighty Google Developers, but Firefox correctly caught both of these spelling errors.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – meh, wishing I was getting more exercise so that I could drop some weight
Current Music – silence as I await today’s Tour de France stage
Website Of The Day – Evernote released and update version yesterday, go check out the news on the Evernote’s Blog.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~7 miles, Wheel Mileage – 95.1 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 15 (15)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 14
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

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]

With only a 20% chance of rain predicted today’s plan was to cycle to work. That plan was destroyed when I pulled into my driveway and remembered that I left the key which opens the lock securing my bike to a pole was still inside my desk drawer at work. Do I get half-credit for the thought? Unfortunately I cannot ride tomorrow either because I need to meet up with my co-hare Cockpit after work to do some final planning for Sunday’s Black Sheep Hash.

My Night With The Drapers
Last night I did what many Americans did prior to the invention of the internet — I watched television. For some reason I was wide awake last night and manage to watch four, yes four, episodes of Mad Men getting me all the way through the end of Season Two.

I’m not sure these can be considered spoilers since Season Two ended two years ago, but if you are like me and are just catching up, you have been warned.

Season Two of Mad Men took some bizarre turns in plot. Don Draper going AWOL on Sterling-Cooper and spending time in California? Roger Sterling leaving his wife for a twenty-something secretary? The sale of Sterling-Cooper? Betty Draper becoming mean and self-righteous (with her riding friend) and then having an affair, including getting pregnant? Is it Don’s baby? Is it that other man’s baby?

Please don’t spoil anything from Season Three as I’m planning on starting to watch that tonight.

ITP Flickr Pic
I’m trying to be more creative with my photography, as well as to try and use the potential provided by the iPhone 4′s 5-megapixel camera.

One of the joys of Summer is a nice bowl of icy-cold Bing cherries.

A Day Of Procrastination Would Have Saved Me
Saved me about 10% to be exact.

Yesterday I had a rare patch of free time, so as I mentioned I went shopping for some new cycling shoes. I drove down to the I-85 / N. Druid Hills area and decided to check out REI before heading over to Performance Bike to see what they had in stock. As it turned out REI and Performance Bike both sold the same Shimano shoe that I was considering purchasing, for the same price. Since I am a REI member I decided to purchase the shoes there without even heading over to Performance Bike. It felt good to make a decision and act upon it.

Wouldn’t you know that when I arrived home there was a coupon from Performance Bike good for 10% the total of any purchase between now and August 1st. Dangen! So now I have to decide if it’s worth the $11 to return the shoes to REI and make the purchase at Performance Bike instead. Would you?

Funny thing about the Performance Bike mailer; the photo on the front is of a rider from that team with the brown and black-trim kits. Couldn’t they get a photo containing a person in a more colorful kit?

btw- If I decide to keep the shoes I need to install the SPD cleats I have, those which came with the pedals I bought and put on my mountain bike recently since none came with the shoes. Anyone have pointers on how to make sure that I attach the SPD cleats correctly?

First Bob Sheppard, Then George Steinbrenner, Which Yankee Is Next?
I was a kid growing up in New York when George Steinbrenner purchased the New York Yankees and quickly turned the team around to return them to World Series Champions. I liked those Yankees, though I have always been a Mets fan, even during their lean days of the mid/late 1970s. I was quite shocked to hear of George Steinbrenner’s death, even though he was eighty years old. I wonder what will happen to the Yankees without the ego which returned the franchise to prominence?

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – confused
Current Music – listening to yesterday’s news about George Steinbrenner’s death
Website Of The Day – I wonder if Bastille Day NYC existed in the Mad Men days of the 1960s? I’d probably guess that it did not. Want to know more about today’s French holiday? Check Bastille Day.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~7 miles, Wheel Mileage – 95.1 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 14 (14)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 13
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

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]

If you’ve read this space for any length of time then you know that I battle depression occasionally. Last night I decided that I need to start removing that which depresses me from my life. Makes sense, no? The first step in this process is to stop reading Twitter because for some reason reading constant updates about how great people’s lives are, or what sort of fantastic luck they’ve been having, or how often they go on vacation has been getting me down. I’ve not gone as far as to delete my account, but I’m very close.

Next up is to rid myself of the twenty pounds I’ve been trying to lose for the past five years.

Consumed With Laundry And Dinner
Last night I took a load of laundry to the lavanderia next to Lee’s Bakery. I started the process fairly early (5pm) and after all was said and done I was home again ay 8pm.

I treated myself at dinner last night. For my main course I ate a grilled pork Banh Mi with a glass of water. On my way out I wanted something sweet so I purchased a mango smoothie which was quite sweet and delicious.

With at least one more day of reccying and then actually laying the Black Sheep Hash on Sunday I’m sure that the next load of laundry I take to the lavanderia will be just as nasty as last night’s; I can only hope that it won’t be as large.

Cruising Through The Mad Men
Other than laundry and dinner my night consisted of chatting with my mother (using Skype on my end) and watching two more episodes of Mad Men. I am nearly through Season Two.

I meant to mention this yesterday, but if you’re looking to catch up on Mad Men and don’t feel like waiting for Netflix to deliver all of the discs, for a limited time you can buy and download each season (Season 1-3) for only $9.99 each (or $14.99 for HD if you are a high roller) from iTunes. Just be ready to spend some time downloading, however; each episode from Season Three in Standard Definition was over 400MB and there were thirteen episodes in Season Three.

ITP Flickr Pic
Feeling hot? Stare at this photo for a while.

Then imagine drinking the beer that resides behind this cool wall.

The Jackmobile Has A Clean Bill Of Health
For the first time since our lovely politicians returned emission testing to an annual task, and allowed testing centers to charge up to $25 I was able to get an emission test done for less than the maximum allowable fee. On many trips to lunch I’ve notice an emissions testing center on Ashford-Dunwoody just inside I-285 advertising a $20 emission test.

Yesterday I pulled in to get the emissions test done (now if I can locate the tag renewal paperwork), and with the exception of the kid running the machine telling me that my OBC (on board computer?) connector being “loose”, everything turned out well.

Next up is to find my paperwork and pay the State their damn ad valorem tax so that they’ll send me a new sticker.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – meh
Current Music – listening to today’s Tour de France stage
Website Of The Day – I hear that going to the movie theatre is a popular past-time. If you are one who enjoys movies you may want to check out Slash Film (aka /Film) to see what others are saying about movies.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~7 miles, Wheel Mileage – 95.1 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 13 (13)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 12
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

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]

Not being a fan of the “World’s Most Popular Sport” I’m pleased to know that I won’t have to hear much about the World Cup for the next four years. And low marks to Fritti who kept all flags flying this time around instead of taking down the flags of countries as they got eliminated from the competition.

I’ve Surpassed 100 Beers!
My original Friday night drinking plans were canceled, so I joined a group of coworkers over at the Taco Mac (Perimeter) for a few beers with food. Little did I realize until I ordered my first beer that I was drinking beer #100 on my Passport, leaving me a mere twenty-five more to reach the 20oz mug status. The beer which eclipsed this monumental achievement (for me) was a Widmer Drop Top Amber.

In some ways it seems just like yesterday when ITP-Reader Stacy and I laid a hash trail on March 4th, 2006 and we wandered over to the (then new) Taco Mac and had a celebratory beer, signing up for the Passport Club at the same time.

I Visited Jail On Saturday
Admittedly Saturday was an odd day for me. My original plan was to wake early and go for a morning bike ride before plopping my ass on the couch to watch the professionals do the same. Instead I arose to a gray morning and immediately rebuffed any notion of riding.

After watching the pros ride to their destination I set a destination of my own, Hampton, GA. Most people know Hampton as the home of the Atlanta Motor Speedway, I know it as the home of JailHouse Brewing. JailHouse holds “tours” for $8 which gets you a glass and the privilege of tasting up to 32oz of their beer. Currently JailHouse, which opened for business in October of last year in Hampton’s old jail house, is brewing three beers — a wheat, an IPA, and a stout. Not being a fan of wheat beers I got my fill of the other two as I was educated in the art of beer making.

In addition to learning about beer making, I found out that JailHouse is still being served at Gravity Pub and Grant Central Pizza in East Atlanta (they were in Flat Iron but things didn’t work out there) as well as Six Feet Under. The owners also mentioned that they are in discussion with Taco Mac, as well as hoping to launch distribution in bottles in the near future.

The only downside of my excursion was that I realized that I hadn’t packed the proper camera gear for meeting up with ITP-Reader Steve at the Dick Lane Velodrome and decided that once I got home that’s where I’d stay.

ITP Flickr Pic
For some reason I felt funny bringing my dslr into the brewery, so I didn’t.

This is a photo of one of JailHouse’s kegs, taken with my iPhone 4.

Yellow And Brown
No, that’s not the answer to some disgusting bathroom joke, it’s the answer to the question what two colors did I see most yesterday.

Yesterday morning I headed over to Public Enema’s house for the annual Cheesy Yellow Tour de France Sunday Run. However, this time around there was a group of us who turned it into a Sunday ride instead. We headed from the house out to Stone Mountain and back for a loop of about twenty-three miles. The ride was great, except for the fact that I had a hard time breathing on a couple of the steep uphills, and I managed to embarrass myself nicely by leaning the wrong way while stopped, being unable to unclip my foot, and crashing to the ground, skinning my knee. Come to think of it, I was just like Lance Armstrong yesterday! It was really good to see some friends that I’ve not seen much of lately. And many thanks to ITP-Reader Debbie who supplied casseroles which not only provided me with breakfast, but dinner as well; they were delicious.

I had just enough time for a nap before heading to meet with my once-again co-hare Cockpit and her two sons to go reccying for our July 18th Black Sheep Hash trail. We walked and bushwhacked through land which is much thicker with scrub trees than I ever could have imagined. I think some of our conservation areas need a good controlled burn to clear things out a bit. We’re almost prepared for our trail; I’m glad we still have some times to work out details before we have to lay it live though.

I’ve Finally Been Disturbed By Mad Men
You’d think all of the smoking, drinking, and carousing would bother me, but it wasn’t until watching a Season Two episode last night that got my feathers ruffled. In the episode in which Don purchases a new Cadillac the family goes on a roadside picnic. At the end of this picnic Don throws his beer can as far as he can into the woods, and the Betty picks up the blanket and leaves behind all of the family’s trash. Seriously? This is how New Yorkers of the early 1960′s lived? Is this why the had the crying Indian campaign against litter in the 1970′s? Unbelievable.

I guess I was further disturbed because I watched this episode after reccying in an area that has a considerable amount of senseless littering including probably over one hundred tires in a river. I never understood why these things happened, but that episode of Mad Men cleared things up a bit.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, though I still have my issues
Current Music – silence at the moment as I try to concentrate on finishing the blog
Website Of The Day – I’ve slowly been getting my console gaming on again (to the detriment of other things). If my love for gaming catches on like it did about six years ago I just may join Gamefly, which is like Netflix for gaming.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Sunday: cycling, 23.3 miles; hiking, ~4 miles
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~7 miles, Wheel Mileage – 95.1 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 12 (12)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 11
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

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]

GO! GO! GO! That’s how I feel my life has been lately. I have to make it through July 18th and after which may shut myself down for awhile to attempt to recuperate.

I Don’t Know What Was After Me Last Night
I met up with my Cockpit (aka Gina) last night; she promised to help reccy the trail and when it’s all planned I’ll do a walkthrough with the person who has stepped up to help me out with laying it live. Reccying when okay last night, though we only made it through about half of the planned trail. I won’t say that this will be the best Black Sheep Hash ever laid, but I think people will like it.

I’m suffering today because four times last night I received a sharp pain in my legs. I believe one of those pains was caused by a wasp, as I swear that I swatted one on my calf right after I felt the pain. The other origins of the other pains is still unknown, not that knowing would make things less painful.

The oddest occurrence of the night was walking up to a guy in a pickup truck, who had stopped and waited for us to get to him. I feared that it was a landowner, or worse the police, but instead it turned out to be Robert — the owner of Holy Taco. Apparently Robert frequents this part of the world and was out to watch the red-tail hawks which have taken up residence in the area.

ITP Flickr Pic
One of the things I hate most about being at an undesired weight is not to be able to eat delicious treats such as those seen in this photo.

I must eat too much other crap though as I’ve not lost any significant weight this year.

RealiTV Update: Top Chef — Chop! Chop! You Two Are Outta Here!
Last night I finally got around to watching this week’s Top Chef episode. I’ve not said much about this season of Top Chef, mostly because it’s early in the season or the fact that I’ve not been following it as closely as I’ve done in the past.

Last night’s episode was interesting as it was a double-elimination night. I assumed this meant that one person would be axed after the QuickFire Challenge, and one would be eliminated after the Elimination Challenge. Instead cheftestants has to pair up after the QuickFire Challenge and put their faith in their parter as one team of two would be asked to pack up their knives and leave together.

The Elimination Challenge was weird to me. All teams prepared a breakfast and the top(?) two teams did not have to prepare a lunch and/or dinner. The teams not relieved after breakfast had to prepare lunch and the top(?) two teams did not have to prepare a dinner. The remaining three teams prepared a dinner, with one team getting axed and another winning prizes (a trip to Italy for one, and a trip to Spain for the other). I didn’t understand why the teams who only had to prepare a breakfast weren’t up for the prizes? Obviously their dishes were the best for that first round, that’s why they were safe from elimination.

Speaking of elimination I think that it was a shame that both chefs on a team were automatically eliminated. I think that Arnold got ousted because his partner Lynne undercooked their pasta even though he implored her to start cooking it earlier than she did. Also I think Kenneth’s team got a pass because Kenneth has been a strong contestant (and I think will make it to the Final Three) and the producers didn’t want to see him go this early.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – bummed
Current Music – listening to “The Breakfast Club” podcast from CBC Radio 3
Website Of The Day – I love food. I love eating it, photographing it, and reading about it. Check out Food Blog Forum, who on today’s front page is announcing a seminar in Atlanta on September 11 (and it’s going to be held at The Shed in Glenwood Park!).
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~3 miles, Wheel Mileage – 71.8 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 9 (9)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 8
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

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]

As if I needed something else to stress me out, last night I received a text message from my co-hare telling me that her work is sending her to Europe and she’ll be unable to lay trail with me on the 18th of July. We are supposed to reccy trail for the first time tonight! Fortunately she found someone who can take her place, but the whole scouting of trail together a few times before the actual hash has now fallen to pieces. Why do I sign up to hare Black Sheep Hash again?

I Went To A Bar And A Run Broke Out
You probably think I made it to George’s last night. I did not. Instead I met up with my friend (not ITP-Reader) Steve (who, as I found out last night once date Insufficient Cums — small world, eh?) at Meehans Public House in Sandy Springs.

When I arrived in the parking lot I was amazed to see the front entrance littered with running-type people. Apparently local running store Phiddipides was holding its inaugural Meehans Pub Run 5k. Running and then drinking beer? What a concept!

I was a bit surprised to only recognize two hashers (Furry Balls and Maxwell Twat) at the event, and one girl who I used to see at George’s (a regular at the Reserved table, who had you seen her would understand why I remembered) back when I used to run.

While Steve enjoyed Meehans tradition of serving McSorley’s beer in two ten-ounce glasses just like they do at McSorley’s in New York we watched some of the runners come inside and head straight up to the upper level for their private party after their run. Some day I’ll have to scan the photo I’m in which was taken outside of McSorley’s back in about 1996/1997 (or was it 1998?).

Terri and Pat, if you happen to read this Meehan’s was a much better place than when we went to hear the REM cover band.

ITP Flickr Pic
Another from last Sunday’s Peachtree Road Race

As Peachtrees go this year’s had very few people dressed up in elaborate costumes. This guy was one of three or so that I saw wearing something elaborate.

Trying To Find An Open Weekend Has Become Increasingly Difficult
I want to go camping one weekend, but weekends are all but accounted for over the next few months. I guess that I should have followed through on my threat to have my Black Sheep happen at a Georgia State Park.

The other day I highlighted High Valley Resort up in Suches, GA and would love to have a weekend of camping and riding up there before the weather becomes too cold again (September/October).

One Reason Adobe Irritates Me
A few months ago I bought Adobe‘s Photoshop Elements 8 for Mac. I installed the application on my home computer as well as the one I have at work. I didn’t feel I was violating Adobe’s End User Agreement by doing so and was pissed off to receive the following message yesterday.

In case you don’t want to click through to read the text on their error dialog, it says the following:

Licensing for this product has stopped working.

This product has encountered a problem which requires that you restart your computer before it can be launched.

If you continue to see this message after restarting your computer, please contact either your IT administrator or Adobe technical support for help, and mention the error code shown at the bottom of this screen.

What a mess. Restarting my computer did not solve the problem. This may be a byproduct of the fact that I had to recover all of the data on this computer a few weeks ago, but regardless this is the only application which has this problem.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – stressed the fuck out
Current Music – the “Net @ Night” podcast
Website Of The Day – In a stress-free world I would leisurely peruse Epicurious and be able to buy the necessary ingredients to make myself a wonderful meal.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check. I wish stress caused me to lose weight
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~3 miles, Wheel Mileage – 71.8 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 8 (8)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 7
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

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]

(alternative title – “Today is not my day”)

Whew, my life is a mess…

I Was Duped!
After a delicious Las Tortas Locas lunch yesterday I went into an Asian market to pick up one or two “different” things to bring over to ITP-Reader Betsy’s for Hell’s Kitchen night. I wanted the items to be savory, but in actuality I brought over two sweets.

The first item was a bag of odd, bird’s nest like crackers which tasted as if they had honey in them. The second item was explained to me to be “rice and some meat wrapped in a banana leaf” by a nice Asian lady in the checkout line. Unfortunately, she was wrong as inside the wrapped banana leaf was a greenish goop (perhaps a variant of a sticky-rice short-grain rice) encasing what tasted to be more sweet-bean than meat.

Oh well, live and learn.

Update: The third strike has occurred. I just noticed that the steam rice cake that I bought to eat with breakfast the rest of this week has started to mold. DANGEN!

ITP Flickr Pic
A mister seems like the perfect thing to have nearby for the next few days in Atlanta.

Hey, we’re no longer in a drought, right?

Better Late Than Never?
Just one day after bragging about never being late on a payment I’ve come to find out that I am four days late in renewing my Personal Articles insurance policy (the thing that covers my camera gear and such when travelling). What a dumbass I’ve become.

Through the miracle of modern, online payments I sent virtual money to a company providing a virtual service to (hopefully) guarantee the replacement of physical goods in case of emergency. Now I just hope that the payment is accepted without problem and I don’t have to do some song-and-dance to really renew the policy.

Just to make sure my quarterly Car Insurance payment, due on my birthday of July 22nd, was made, I also paid that this morning.

Next up… car emissions check, and upon clearing that, paying the state for the privilege of putting another sticker on my license plate.

RealiTV Update: Hell’s Kitchen — I Need Closed Captioning
The combination of two-episode Hell’s Kitchen nights with alcohol and rampant conversation has made updating and critiquing the series impossible. I could go back and watch the recordings I have, and given that I could probably get through “two hours” of Hell’s Kitchen in about an hour once you skip the commercials and repetitive recapping, but I probably won’t.

I’ve said this before, but I think that Hell’s Kitchen is dead to me. This season seems like nothing more than a way to advertise Ramsay’s next effort called “Master Chefs,” which is to premiere on Fox on July 27th at 8 PM EDT.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – unknown
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – If you think you’re missing out on some news about a musician or band, then you need to try out Roadie.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~3 miles, Wheel Mileage – 71.8 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 7 (7)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 6
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

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]

July 6. Back in the office.

Suches Life
Yesterday I had one momentary lapse of reasoning which convinced me that it would be a good day to ride Three Gap with ITP-Reader Bob and his friends. We met up at an Einstein Bros on some road called “Windward Parkway” before convoying up to Dahlonega.

The last, and only, time I road the gaps was six or seven years ago (eight perhaps?) when I was about fifteen or twenty pounds lighter. It was tough back then, it was as tough if not tougher yesterday. There may have been eight or so riding yesterday, I was by far the slowest on each and every climb. It was good of them to wait at the top of each climb to make sure that all was okay, but I have to admit that I can’t stand being the one making people wait.

I meant to get a photo of the Wolfpen Gap sign after the climb, but I felt that I’d held up the riders long enough so I didn’t. Since I didn’t get that photo, here’s an elevation map of the ride we did yesterday. The first climb is Neels Gap, the second is Wolfpen Gap, and the third is Woody Gap.

(click on it to get to see a larger version)
The ride was similar to what I remembered from all those years ago, except Neels kicked my ass more than I remembered it doing so then, and I felt that I handled Wolfpen much better this time around.

I’ve come to the realization that there is a reason that Nike‘s slogan has long been “Just do it.” and not “Do it well.” because I’m proud of myself for doing it no matter how poorly I did it.

And hmm, I may have to up my riding goal for this month. Today is July 6th and I’m already half-way there. W00t!

ITP Flickr Pic
I’m trying to break out of a creative rut. In order to do so I’m trying different things like using wide angle lenses at different vantage points.

This was taken at the last (only?) turn of the Peachtree Road Race on Sunday. I like that the woman waiving the flag is sharp, though I wish that the flag was waving into the photo instead of out.

Fool Me Once, Shame On Me. Fool Me Twice, Won’t Get Fooled Again.
I had originally planned to ride the gaps, come back ITP, and then head back OTP for the special Monday night Black Sheep Hash. I had everything packed and ready to go, but when push came to shove I decided that my legs were too trashed to hash. I did make it to the start, which only made matters worse since I saw everyone who was there to hash, but I think that I made the right decision to go home and settle in for a night of “Mad Men” viewing (I’m almost done with Season One) and turning in early.

Besides, I’m not a fan of pool endings. I don’t exactly have a body that I’m looking to show off.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fair, confused
Current Music – listening to yesterday’s le Tour de France stage
Website Of The Day – Yesterday I rode past High Valley Resort, which was the start/end of the Muscle Mountain Mania a few years ago.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – cycling: 35.8 miles
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~3 miles, Wheel Mileage – 71.8 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 6 (6)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 5
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

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]

I’m on a paid holiday today, but if you’re not here’s short blog to tide you over until tomorrow.

The $200+ Bike Ride
Sometimes I wonder about my sense of reasoning.

I woke up an did what was almost an incredible East Atlanta <-> Stone Mountain bike ride on Saturday morning. For the longest time on the ride I thought the worst of it was going to be the rock that I hit square-on while not paying attention which I thought for sure had bent my front rim. That was until I stopped for a traffic light and switched podcasts on my 160GB iPod Classic.

When I pushed off from the stoppage I slipped the iPod into the leftmost pocket of my jersey. The iPod felt uncomfortable in that pocket so I went to put it into the middle pocket while riding, and that’s when it happened… Out of my hand and onto the street the iPod fell. I quickly stopped and retrieved the fallen iPod and was relieved to see that it seemed to only suffer some surface dings but still worked.

I had questioned taking the 160GB iPod that morning because I’d performed a sync on my old 8GB iPod Nano on Friday afternoon and that would have served me well on the bike ride. But no, I took the “big boy.”

My relief turned to horror when I arrived home and tried to sync the 160GB iPod with my Mac.

“iTunes has detected a corrupted iPod. You need to perform a Restore.”

No problem, I’ve done this in the past and figured that a clean slate might be a good thing for this iPod.

“An error occurred and iTunes cannot Restore this iPod.”

And that’s the last time I saw my beloved 160GB function properly. All attempts to put it into “Disk Mode” so that I can force a Restore failed. All functions, except for the hard drive tests, seem to pass muster using the “secret” Service Menu Tests. As you might guess the hard drive is a crucial, and perhaps most expensive, component in the old iPods.

Did you know that refurbished 160GB iPods still cost over $200? Neither did I, and had I known this on Saturday that iPod would have never gone out on the bike ride with me.

ITP Flickr Pic
I did some photography at the Peachtree Road Race on Sunday.

This was the lead pack for the men. Somewhere in this pack was the day’s eventual winner. These guys are F. A. S. T.

On a critical note: Although I really like this shot (as well as the post-processing I performed on it) I assume there will be a day during which I stop trying to shoot so damn tight and get everyone’s feet into the photo. I have to learn to remind myself that it’s not a crime to shoot a little wider and crop.

I’m Spending Too Many Nights Alone
When I was a kid I never understood why my parents rarely went out at night with friends. Other than local family it seemed as if they had no other friends, but from what I understand now it may have been related to our lack of finances as well.

I see myself starting to fall into that same pattern of staying at home alone on many nights and I don’t like it. Yes, I do a lot of things — eating out, going to concerts, etc. — mostly during the week, but also I do most of these things alone. I don’t feel a need to do everything with someone else, see also my Colorado driving trip that I will relish taking alone in August/September, but the amount of time I spend alone at nights is really starting to concern me.

A case and point: For perhaps the eighth out of the past ten Fourth of Julys I stayed at home alone. I remember one year going over to Maigh’s old apartment to shoot fireworks photos, and I’m fairly certain that Jeannie and I did something the one Fourth of July we spent together.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – I really don’t know today
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – Did you know that our Federal Government has a website? Yep, it’s at USA.gov.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – n/a
Exercise (b)Log – Saturday: cycling, ~37 miles; Sunday: walking, ~3 miles
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~3 miles miles, Wheel Mileage – ~37 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 5 (5)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 4
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

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]