Inside The Perimeter

No, I didn’t meet a woman yesterday…

My right index toe is still not back to normal (at the time of this writing — 10:15pm Eastern), nor at the time I awoken –5:15am Eastern, though the swelling may be subsiding).

ITP Flickr Pic
Last night my co-worker and I ate at one of Clemson’s fancier restaurants, called The Blue Heron.

I ate shrimp and grits for dinner.

The meal was delicious. Even better is that my company paid for it, though I shelled out $5 for ice cream last night.

I’m Not Myself These Days
Perhaps this is maturing, but I spent the night in a college town and did not go out to the bars. Perhaps it was the realization that I am not Don Draper and therefore will only wind up disappointed. Regardless, my indulgence last night was going to Clemson’s coffee house / ice cream parlor called Spill The Beans, where the ice cream side of the house was jumping, but no one seemed available to sell me a coffee to go with my ice cream.

RealiTV Update: Please Don’t Spill The Beans
The hotel in which I stayed last night did not offer Bravo so I currently do not know who won Top Chef. Please do not spoil it for me.

For some odd reason I stumbled upon and watched the season premier of Survivor: Nicaragua. This season the tribes have been divided into “30 and Younger” v. “40 and Older.” also for some reason former football coach and tv commentator Jimmy Johnson is one of this season’s contestants. I probably won’t watch log

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – puzzled
Current Music – listening to last weekend’s “Car Talk” podcast
Website Of The Day – Perhaps I should start submitting my actions/outcomes to Fault Meter to see if all the bad things happening to me are my fault.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – couldn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~15 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 2* (2)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 15
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)
- lose 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]

It’s recruiting time again kids! I’m headed to Clemson University today for their career fair. Fingers crossed that the Jackmobile is ready for some more driving.

We’ll Always Have Parish
It’s a good thing that ITP-Reader Betsy and I had to meet up for a late dinner (9pm to be exact) because Parish was slammed when I arrived just before our scheduled meeting time. Upon entering I was asked if I had a reservation, for 9am on a Tuesday night, and since I didn’t I headed to the bar and waited there for Betsy.

Parish was filled with many pretty people, including our young and lovely bartender Lauren, who was obviously having a rough night because of the amount of work which was necessary to handle the crowd. I asked one of the waitstaff if this was normal for a Tuesday night and found out that it is not, the crowd was due in part to the fact that this is apparently Restaurant Week for Concentrics Hospitality, the owner of Parish, as well as being the final week to use the Groupon deal for Parish. Betsy and I were there to participate in the latter.

The meal last night was delicious, and I was thankful that we had my $35 Groupon coupon (which I don’t recall how much I paid for it, so it felt like we were getting $35 off). I drank a few Abita Ambers while Betsy chose to go with wine. Because the restaurant had run out of the bacon and beet appetizer the two of us shared a charcuterie plate, however I don’t think either of us were disappointed. I ordered a stuffed catfish plate served over a smoked-corn maque choux while Betsy ordered the local farm vegetable plate consisting of fried green tomatoes, sugar snap peas, asparagus, radishes, squash and grits. We shared each of these entrees and I have to say that both plates were rather tasty.

The pre-discount total for our meal was about $85. If I ever get one of those things the kids call a “date” I might return to Parish with her.

ITP Flickr Pic
The other night I went to Lee’s Bakery and like the food blogging nerd I desire to be I took a photo of my Bahn Mi sandwich using my iPhone

The photo was “okay” but I decided it needed to be doctored a bit using the Polaroid processing by the iPhone app called “Camera Bag.”

Oh Toe!
I know exactly when I felt the first tinge of pain while hashing on Sunday, though the damage may have been done already. When putting on my hashing shoes I notice that my right index toe had some reddening on its “knuckle” but didn’t think much of it. At some time during the hash I felt a sting/bite which I at first attributed to the plants through which we were hashing. For the past few days the toe has been stiff, with what can best be described as a red-ant bite in the spot that showed reddening. The damage to my toe jives with the few ants I saw on my legs later that day while standing around my car at the hash’s end, so I don’t fear that the pain and swelling is anything more than the results of an ant bite.

But it hurts. And I have to stand on my feet for at least four hours today. And I was hoping to ride my bike on Saturday morning. Oh Advil, work your magic.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – concerned
Current Music – listening to today’s Daily Giz Wiz podcast
Website Of The Day – Local good blog Chow Down Atlanta published an interesting round up of local Bahn Mi sandwiches.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – not going to check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~15 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 2 (2)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 14
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)
- lose 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]

I considered riding the (rather dirty) Red Rocket to work today, but failed in the end. I did laundry last night at a nearly-empty laundromat (it was wonderful!) next to Lee’s Bakery (yes, I had a Banh Mi for dinner) and then plopped my buttocks on the couch for an evening of football and Mad Men.

Clearly The City Of Atlanta And I Are On Different Pages
After doing laundry last night I returned home to watch my NY Jets play an absolutely forgetful game while I opened up the two weeks of snail mail that ITP-Reader Betsy was nice enough to get from my mailbox since I was not going to be making back to Atlanta on my scheduled date. I had the Post Office hold my mail, but the entirety would have been in my box for a couple of days since it was scheduled to be delivered en masse on the day I was initially scheduled to return.

I’m happy/sad to say that nearly 95% of the mail was junk — flyers, useless credit card offers, etc. However there was one piece of mail, a large yet slender manilla envelope which caught my eye. It was from the City of Atlanta and contained a single sheet of paper which is some sort of certificate related to the business license document I hurriedly mailed before departing on vacation. On the document is the statement “This Certificate Must Be Publicly Displayed In Accordance To The Law.” (I’m paraphrasing since I just realized that I left the document at home. WTH?

Clearly the City of Atlanta does not understand Sharpened Stone, nor the fact that I have no storefront set up at Sharpened Stone’s business address.

ITP Flickr Pic
Be warned. Until I get my shit together I’m going to be digging through the photos I took during the first week of my vacation (they happen to be the only non-iPhone photos taken during the vacation, but that’s neither here nor there).

St Louis arch as the morning’s first sun strikes it.

I’m Not A Loser After All
For the past two days I’ve been searching for an iPod that I last remembered seeing before Sunday’s Black Sheep Hash. I distinctly remembered placing into my trunk, but when I went to retrieve it post-hash, it was missing. I assumed that I had moved it back into a safe place within the car, but no amount of scouring the past two days produced the iPod. I’ve returned to the trunk on more than one occasion, lifting items, checking inside boxes, moving everything around, all to no avail. This morning I took the drastic measure of taking nearly everything out of the trunk and looking around into the deep dark corners with a headlamp. Nada.

And then I noticed something. A notch cut into the trunk’s bottom which is used to lift the trunk floor when needing access to the spare tire. The notch which I most certainly assumed was covered the entire past two days, and could only allow the iPod to pass through in a portrait orientation. Certainly there was no way the iPod had slipped through this hole. Certainly I was wrong. As I shone the headlamp into the notch I saw the familiar glisten of the metallic back of my beloved fourth generation iPod.

I am not a loser.

see also: “body weight”

Parish The Thought
Some time ago I jumped onto the Groupon bandwagon and purchased a coupon for Inman Park’s Parish. Tonight I’ll be using that coupon (before it expires on Friday) by dining at Parish for the first time. I’m really looking forward to it as I like what I see on their menu, though I’d be happier to endorse them if their website didn’t require Flash or play music upon loading.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, though feel it’s time again to try to lose some weight
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – People For Bikes is an interesting group trying to raise awareness for bicycles and bicycle safety. Now if I could only manage to get myself to ride more.
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 – ~15 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 1 (1)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 13
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]

You’re probably expecting to come to this space to read about the disasters that occurred in Colorado. Sorry to disappoint you. I had somewhat of a revelation as I returned home, with little drama, the past is the past and there is no sense dwelling on it much. I’m sure I’ll hit the roof when I find out how much it costs to repair two, nine-inch scratches to car doors, but until then I’ll say nothing.

My trip back to Atlanta was long and tiring. People warned me about Kansas, a state in which I traveled more than I had intended on my journey home.

But for as flat as it is, the state contained some interesting scenery. I saw parts of the country twice on this trip, something that I was trying to avoid. On the return trip I stayed one night (five hours to be exact) in Kansas City (no time for a burnt ends sandwich unfortunately), drove past the free-standing hearth I saw on my way out, hit a little bit of bad weather,

drove by the St Louis Arch again, and returned through Nashville before returning to Georgia. My intent was to cut South out of Kansas and see parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Alabama before returning home, but time didn’t permit.

In the end I’ll give the trip a very expensive B-.

I’ll be signing up for Colorado InviHash #15 in 2012 when registration opens.

Batting .500
I had four images in mind that I wanted to capture on my trip. I managed to capture two of those four images — the St Louis Arch and Mt Rushmore at sunrise.

One image I could have caught but because I was hurtling toward home I didn’t want to invest the thirty minutes it would have taken to find a safe place to stop, set up my camera gear, and wait for the decisive moment. That image occurred in Kansas, where I was able to burn it into my memory by looking at it in the rear-view mirror of the Jackmobile. Imagine the bright orange sky of a beautiful sunset, where the sun is setting behind a field of modern day windmills which are gracefully spinning in the wind. I saw that, I couldn’t capture that.

The final shot I was hoping to get was a long-exposure of an oil derrick pumping in a field. I saw a few of those as I drove through Kansas, but nothing that matched the image I had in my mind. Besides, I probably wouldn’t have wanted to stop the car to take a photo of that either.

ITP Flickr Pic
This is the intersection where the vacation started to slump.

This photo was taken during my first drive in the Jackmobile post-rebuilt transmission. I was on my way to LiquorMart (to load up on Colorado beer for the trip home) when I realized that I’d be passing through the intersection which started my downfall and just had to drive through it to prove a point.

Why The Rush?
You may wonder why I rushed back to Atlanta when I could have taken my time and arrived home some time during the weekend. Clean clothes was one reason (though I did break down and buy some necessities when I realized that my trip would be stretched further than initially scheduled). Yesterday being a Black Sheep Hash Sunday was another. However the main reason was that I had purchased a $99 ticket for a full-day Food Bloggers Forum seminar which was being held at Glenwood Park’s The Shed (of course I left my ticket at work so I had to drive from East Atlanta to Perimeter Mall just so I could attend a seminar in Glenwood Park).

The seminar, based on marketing a food blog, food photography, and networking was really good. I was one of about between-five and ten men in a room full of attractive, though almost all married, food bloggers from around the country. The day was further improved when my name was drawn from the basket and I won a 5.5 quart Le Creuset dutch oven (which is supposed to be shipped to me at some time). As if the day’s proceedings weren’t fun enough, there was an after-party held at The Spice Market (inside the W Hotel at Colony Square). A word of caution — on Saturday night I parked in Colony Square’s parking garage for an hour and forty-five minutes, the cost of my parking was $10.50 (ouch!).

What A Way To End The Night
There are only a few times in my life that I desire to be in my twenties again. Most of these times occur when I’m at a concert. After the post-party on Saturday night I made my way to the Drunken Unicorn for an early, all ages show headlined by Canada’s 2009 Polaris Prize Winning band F*cked Up. I had seen F*cked Up play The EARL when they last passed through Atlanta, so I knew I was in for an entertaining night of punk rock. I was not disappointed. The night was filled with indiscernible lyrics, hard pumping music, stage diving, and slam dancing. I never went to punk / hardcore shows when I was a younger man, so these days I look on with envy and amusement as the testosterone levels in the room rise. The only noticeable victim of the night was an attractive young girl who must have gotten kicked in the head because she was bleeding a bit and when I walked past her overheard her telling her boyfriend that her glasses were fucked up (oh irony, you are so ironic!).

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – exhausted, even though I fell asleep before Mad Men last night
Current Music – silence as I try to remember how to do this
Website Of The Day – If you won’t be in Hartwell for the Black Sheep Hash on September 25th, might I suggest you attend Jazzoo.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Sunday: hashing, ~5 miles
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t want to know
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~15 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 12
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]

September 1: I was sick.
September 3: The Jackmobile’s transmission died.
September 5: I cut myself over my right eye while trying to pick up a bar of soap in a hotel shower.
September 7: The rental car I’m renting mysteriously obtains a large scratch while parked in a hotel parking lot. The only reason I’m renting a car and it was in this parking lot was to make up for the fact that the Jackmobile’s transmission problem.

Wtf is going to happen on September 9th, the day I’m supposed to drive back to Boulder, get the Jackmobile back and launch my return drive home to Atlanta?

According to American Express their rental car agreement will pay up to my insurance deductible, then it’s up to me to determine if I want to file a claim against my auto insurance policy or pay the balance out of pocket.

Spiritually I am spent. Financially I am much worse off than I was before embarking on this trip. Every time I’ve tried to do “the right thing” the past few days I’ve been shat upon. I’m not sure how much more I can take.

This May Be The Last Post Of The Week
I’m not sure if I’ll have time to post tomorrow or Friday as, if things return to “normal” I’ll be driving many, many, hours. This will not make for great blogging and I’m sure all I’ll want to do when not driving is sleep.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – hating my life
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – Honda Problems.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my now scratched rental car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – don’t give a damn today even if I could 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 – 7
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]

I’m going to be honest. I’ve been so bummed by the way this trip has turned out that I briefly considered killing the blog. But then I remembered how much of a self-centered attention whore that I am and started typing.

Step One, Get Out Of Boulder
Because I work for a company based in Denver, Colorado I’ll be able to to work today and tomorrow (as you read this). In order to get closer to the office I rented a car (more money spent) from Hertz which for a while I wasn’t sure would be open on Labor Day), packed up all of my crap, and bugged out of the InviHash early. In Denver (or more accurately one of Denver’s southern suburbs) I purchased some clothes and shoes for work (because I’ve not been spending enough money on this trip), and then settled down for a night of relaxation before tackling another day.

When the Jackmobile is healed I’ll pack up all of my crap and return to Boulder for the briefest of time possible and head on my way home driving as fast and long as I’m capable of doing.

I Had A Horrible Thought
Yesterday the Boulder area had wild fires in the mountains. What if this somehow delays the repair of the Jackmobile? As is stands right now I’m not going to be able to get out of Colorado until Thursday.

ITP Flickr Pic
On the last day that my vacation was fun…

This was taken with my iPhone while traveling (alone at this point) in Wyoming, or perhaps southern South Dakota. I can only imagine, and only hope that I’ll only ever have to imaging, breaking down in the middle of nowhere.

$2 Well Spent
I’ve been spending so much money, why not spend another $2 so I could watch Sunday’s episode of Mad Men?

I originally hoped that I could stream the episode using my Dish Network 922 DVR at my desk in Atlanta, but alas something seemed to be set up incorrectly so I couldn’t.

Sunday’s episode was outstanding!

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – uncertain
Current Music – listening to a
Website Of The Day – Next time I consider taking a long car trip I’ll reconsider and look in to doing a Beer Trip instead.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my rental car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
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 – 6
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]

In case you don’t follow me on Twitter, or if you are not my friend on Facebook you probably haven’t heard my latest tale of woe.

On Friday morning I was driving to get breakfast in Boulder and suddenly the Jackmobile started to act oddly. While pulling up to a red light it bucked a couple of times, and then the Check Engine light illuminated and the D (Drive) on the dashboard started flashing. If I’ve learned one thing from Car Talk is that the Check Engine light means business and one should pull over immediate when it illuminates. So I did, and then I called AAA to get the car towed to a garage.

Diagnosis: I need my transmission rebuilt
Cost of Repair: ~$3500
Estimated Repair Date (taking in to account it was Labor Day weekend): late Wednesday

Fuck. Me.

Vacation Interruptus
As you read this I am supposed to be headed back to Atlanta. Instead I’ll be working in Colorado for a couple of days and then (hopefully) heading home on a (hopefully) fast and uneventful journey.

I have had my sights focused on this trip for about a year. This trip was supposed to relax me, bring peace back in to my life, provide an escape from my day-to-day life, and help me try to forget about all of my personal shortcomings for a couple of weeks and until Friday morning it was doing just that.

For the optimist, spending a few extra days in Colorado while forking out around $3500 for the joy of getting the one’s transmission rebuilt wouldn’t be too bad. For me however, it’s been devastating. What was supposed to be a joyous weekend at the Colorado InviHash has turned into a stressful affair of figuring out the logistics of getting a rental car (where/when to pick it up, getting one large enough to hold all of the shit I packed for this trip — including my bike, when to return it), and shifting hotels so that I can work in Colorado instead of burning vacation days (so that I can burn those vacation days on what will become a nervous long drive home) — all on Labor Day.

Today I will going out to buy some clothes since one of the work-related tasks in which I’ll be participating involves a meeting with company big wigs, so my casual vacation attire will not suffice.

For me all of the fun of this vacation went away in a matter of seconds. I recognize that things could have been worse, like having the transmission die during the many days I was in the middle of nowhere with no cell service. But what could have been doesn’t outweigh what is.

And, I realized today that because of my bad luck I probably won’t make it back to Atlanta in time to attend the Food Bloggers Forum seminar on Saturday. That seminar, which will be held at a restaurant about a mile from my house, is an all-day event related to food photography followed by an after party.

ITP Flickr Pic
Next to the hash hotel exists an extremely mediocre “Thai” restaurant.

While eating my pad thai on Friday one of my chopsticks snapped.

A Somewhat Fitting End To My Weekend
The hash itself was a blast, though noticeably smaller than the two previous Colorado InviHashes that I’ve attended.

I ran the “Eagle” trail on both days and yesterday’s trail took us up some beautiful, and difficult to navigate, countryside. Post-hash circle yesterday I found myself joining people in the pool, clothed mind you. After swimming (and countless beers) I made it back to my hotel room to clean up for dinner. While showering I whacked my head on a metal handle in the shower while trying to pick up the soap with my eyes closed (don’t tell me you’ve never done this) and cut a small gash over my right eye. I managed to get a band-aid on my eyelid and then must have decided I needed a nap, because the next thing I experienced was waking up at midnight. I briefly thought about going to the hashpitality suite looking for midnight pizza, but I decided I’d already done enough damage to myself and went back to sleep (briefly, because as I write this it’s nearly 3:00am MDT on Sunday).

What’s Next?
Good question.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – broken
Current Music – listening to a music podcast
Website Of The Day – Channel Flip is yet another good source for online entertainment.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – n/a
Exercise (b)Log – hashing all weekend, about nine miles worth
Morning Weigh-In – couldn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~9 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 5
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]

The air conditioning in my hotel room is ten times worse than the one at home. The refrigerator in my hotel room seems to do nothing. I had to trick the WiFi in my hotel room so that I could get my MacBook to connect to the internet (very important because I drafted the 2010 version of the East Atlanta Deadbeat Dads last night). All this and the Colorado InviHash has yet to start! I’ll probably have chatted with the front desk by the time you read this, but as I write it I’m rather frustrated.

Look Ma, 3G!
I can’t believe that I’ve been without 3G coverage for nearly a five days (I think I lost it heading through Iowa, and I know I didn’t see it again until I made it into some populated portion of Colorado). I’m already missing the seemingly super-fast internet connection that I had in Hill City, SD though.

Crazy Windy = No Crazy Horse
There is a certain irony that I traveled to western South Dakota specifically to see Mount Rushmore, and to a lesser extent the Crazy Horse Monument, and that I actually never made it to the premises of either.

My travel from Hill City, SD to Boulder, CO took me right past the Crazy Horse Monument about thirty minutes before it was due to open at 8:00am MDT. However the winds at that time were supposedly gusting up to 20mph (with predictions of up to 40mph for later in the day) so I decided to skip waiting around for the park to open. I took a few long-distance shots which I’ve yet to load up into Lightroom to see how they look.

ITP Flickr Pic
Just some of the mountain lion food pretty deer that I saw in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood, SD.

I have a lone shot of the deer furthest back and right with all of the tumors on it. I share a certain kinship with this deer and have considered posting a close-up of it, though it might gross people out.

Vacation Hits And Misses
Hits

• The weather has been great. It was very windy yesterday and I’ve seen a little rain, but other than that I have no complaints.
• I really liked South Dakota — although I was there when their weather was its best.
• I’ve ridden my bike 100 miles (and hopefully am riding when you read this).
• I really do like driving, and have listened to two audiobooks (thus far) in the process.

Misses

• I need more time. I’ve passed up too many photographic opportunities.
• I’ve only eaten a couple of really great meals. I’ve tried and failed to find many funky small restaurants.
• I’ve tried, and failed, “winging” it. I’ve relied on AT&T cell coverage for my discovery of fun and I should have had paper map backup.
• I’ve only ridden my bike once.
• I’ve packed things I didn’t need and should have packed a few more of other things.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – dejected
Current Music – listening to the “Breakfast Club” podcast from CBC Radio 3
Website Of The Day – I’m planning a lot of changes in my life upon returning from vacation next week, including paying attention to Coffee Geek.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – n/a
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
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 – 2
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)
- lose 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]

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]

Another “night before” blog. This time I’m updating the stats to September since when you read this it will be September 1st. This will be short because I’m incredibly tired (you’ll read why) and I plan to wake early to try and shoot Mt Rushmore this morning.

28 + 22 = Imbecile
I’m not handsome enough to be this stupid. I had four, count them, four turns to remember and I managed to miss 25% of those.

I was feeling fat and in the need of exercise. Through Map My Ride I thought I’d found a 30+ mile ride starting and ending in Hill City, but when I looked closer at the route it turned out to actually be 44 miles. I thought that 44 miles, including a steep climb, would be more than I’d like to tackle so I altered the route and came up with a 28-mile route consisting of four turns.

Here is the ride I planned to ride:

The first time I entered Custer, SD I was thrilled. At that time I had conquered that big(ish) climb (which honestly was easier than climbing Neels or Wolfpen) with relative ease and had traversed the downhill with speeds upward of 40mph. The second time I entered Custer, SD I was dejected and fearful that I’d fail my ride and have to seek assistance in getting back to Hill City.

Here is the ride I did:

I don’t know why it took me so long to stop and check my iPhone to make sure that I was headed in the correct direction on US-16. I “knew” I needed to be on US-16 which, when I saw street signs telling me that I was, felt some form of confirmation. Not seeing any distance-marking signs for Hill City should have been a clue, but my blonde roots must have started to emerge as I kept pedaling.

When I finally arrived back in Custer I stopped at a gas station to purchase a Gatorade and ask for direction to Hill City. Thankfully, though very cold, much of the route 13-mile from Custer to Hill City was downhill. As a positive on this fiasco, I kicked fucking ass yesterday!

My August total mileage wound up at 267 miles, and sadly I think I out-ate / out-drank all that hard work and managed to put on some weight during the month.

ITP Flickr Pics
Shots from my “short” ride while I was still having fun.

Before the climb:

During the climb:

Very narrow tunnel near the top of the climb:

There were some nice shots, including the Crazy Horse Memorial, on my last leg but by that time I was concentrating on making it back to Hill City prior to sunset.

The Day Started Off Weird As Well
I started the day by driving from Rapid City, SD to Deadwood, SD — home of the Mount Moriah Cemetery containing the likes of Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane. When I arrived I was warned that there had been a mountain lion in the area and that I should be careful. Greeeeeeeat. I hemmed and hawed about going into the cemetery and then decided to give it a try. Not ten minutes into my walk in the cemetery I saw something move — thankfully it was deer. I figured that if there were deer in the cemetery I’d be okay, because while I can’t outrun deer, they wouldn’t be there if a mountain lion was nearby.

I didn’t spend much time in Deadwood, choosing to try (and fail) to meet up with my friend Eric in either Sturgis, SD or back in Rapid City, SD. After eating lunch alone Rapid City I decided to make my way to Hill City early so I’d have time to do things, like, you know, go for a short bike ride.

And A Very Happy Birthday Wish
Today is the birthday of ITP-Reader “Martha.” Hope that you have a great day doing whatever it is makes you happy even if that consists of doing fifteen thousand chin-ups.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – so damn worn out, this ride has killed me like no other has
Current Music – listening to a recent “The Story” podcast
Website Of The Day – Deadwood is more than a television show.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – n/a
Exercise (b)Log – cycling, 50 miles
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 – 0
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

September Goals
- Not to get sick for the entire month (I did it once, I can do it again!)
- 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]