Downtime

I hate losing one of my goals on the first day of the month, but there was no denying that I was sick yesterday and the many hours of daylight sleep that I got was validation of this fact. Scratch “Not to get sick for the entire month.” from my list of achievable goals. And scratch nearly one day of my vacation.

ITP Flickr Pic (#1)
I did manage to make it to Mt Rushmore, though I never actually entered the park.

In case you’ve not figured this out, I’m a stickler with my photography. Thus, I had to make it to Mt Rushmore during “golden light”, well before Mt Rushmore opened its doors at 8:00am MDT. If I had been feeling better I would have gone back later in the day to walk around the park and take a lot more photos, but alas my morning/day ended after driving through Custer once more, stopping to buy a coffee and delicious doughnut, and figuring out why I missed my turn on Tuesday.

ITP Flickr Pic (#2)
I had decided to drive to Custer (again) for dinner. That was until all of the things I was doing caused me not to get out of my hotel room until 6:30pm. Combine threatening skies with a twenty minute drive, and I decided that the less-than-mile drive to Hill City’s restaurants was the way to go.

Hill City does not have much in the way of food selection. In fact, the only presence of fast food that I could find (Subway) has gone out of business. Because I didn’t feel like eating Mexican food, and the German place in town has a severely limited dinner menu, I wound up eating at the same place that I ate at last night — the Bumpin’ Buffalo Bar. Dinner was the only real meal that I ate yesterday, and eat I did. I ate a buffalo burger with some fries and some deep-fried creamed corn nuggets (delicious!) and this beer.

During my first trip to Bumpin’ Buffalo I ate a “small” meal consisting of eight ribs and a normal-size beer.

Where The Buffalo Roam?
Really, I keep seeing signs warning me about the danger of buffalo, but I’ve yet to see a single one (other than stuffed inside Bumpin’ Buffalo). I’ve seen my fair share of deer (and thankfully no mountain lions) but no buffalo. I’ve eaten some of the beast however, and damn they are tasty (sorry vegetarians).

While I’m Away Apple Changes Everything!
I slept through yesterday’s Apple announcement in which they updated the entire iPod line as well as the tv. I am intrigued and am trying to grok the new situation.

I Know Who I’ll Be Rooting For In The Next Amazing Race
I found out that the next The Amazing Race starts on September 26th. This year’s “Mother and Daughter” team, Andie and Jenna, hails from Atlanta (well, daughter lives in Athens). I’d have linked you to their cast page on CBS’ website, but CBS has annoyingly put in automatically-launching video, of a tv commercial no less!, and I don’t want to support this behavior.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – ready for a change of scenery — Boulder here I come!
Current Music – listening to yesterday’s “MacBreak Weekly” podcast
Website Of The Day – Give yourself a Don Draper look by buying a fedora from Custer’s own The Fedora Stroe.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – n/a
Exercise (b)Log – nothing, mostly because I was sick
Morning Weigh-In – couldn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 1
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

September Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Ride my bicycle no fewer than 250 miles
– Determine the fate of Sharpened Stone, LLC
– Complete at least one iPhone application (seriously, this needs to happen)
– lost five pounds
– eat vegetarian at least one day a week

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]