One day of MARTA is all it took to get me back to taking the Jackmobile to work. While I certainly enjoyed zipping past all of Atlanta’s rush-hour gridlock on Friday afternoon the experience wasn’t rewarding enough to get me to become a full-time rider.
Today’s Daily Challenge
Press palms together in front of you, elbows pointed out, and gently push your hands to each side.
Wrists, forearms, and hands can become stiff and sore after a day of working at a computer, doing chores around the house, or gripping a steering wheel. While you may not be able to cut back on these repetitive motions, stretching can help keep your wrists pain-free and flexible.
Now this is something that I need to do more often.
An Overall Busy, But Good Weekend
On Friday night I met up with photogs at Thinking Man Tavern near Decatur. The occasion was the two-day return of one who left the fold a few years ago. We sat around and shot the shit for awhile before I went home and passed out on the couch before 10pm.
I met them all again on Saturday morning and we did breakfast at The Majestic, a trip to the High Museum of Art, had lunch at Star Provisions and ice cream at Jeni’s Ice Cream (side note: had the line been as long as that shown on the website I would have skipped the ice cream portion of the day) before Maria had to head to the airport to return to San Francisco. After finally making it home again I took a nap, and then wound up meeting my boss at Wrecking Bar Pub for an afternoon of beer and food before I went home and passed out on the couch before 10pm.
I was awake early yesterday and in the office by 8am, but for some reason I had very little mojo (looking outside at a perfect Sunday while you are in the office on your day off perhaps?) and left around 3pm. I drove home listening to the Braves game on the radio and after sitting at home for not more than ten minutes had arranged to meet the boss at his place at 5pm to go for a walk. Hank lives near Clairmont/Buford so we managed a 5.6 mile hike around Peachtree-Dekalb Airport seeing and hearing a raucous fiesta taking place in Plaza Fiesta (aptly named I’d say). We decided to save a few shekels so instead of ruining our exercise by going out to eat we made some hamburgers at his place and drank some of the spoils of my travels (read “beers I purchased in Florida and Texas”) instead. I know that I passed out on the couch prior to 10pm last night because I woke up shortly after Mad Men started. I was too groggy to watch last night’s episode, so please, no spoilers today.
ITP Flickr Pic
A photo? Wha????
“The Gang of Four” (now at a size you can actually see)
On Saturday morning a gang of eight met at The Majestic for breakfast but only four hearty souls made the trek to the High Museum of Art for some additional fun and photography. In case you can’t recognize me, I’m on the far right, attempting to elongate my body to hide the bulging fat. 😉
Looking Through Different Glass
So two things happened this weekend:
1. I shot my DSLR, enjoyed it like I had in the olden days and may have gotten the photography bug again.
2. I nearly purchased my plane ticket to Brussels. This will happen this week.
In consideration of spending up to two weeks traveling in Europe I have decided that my beloved Nikon D300 and all of its heavy components will not make this journey. Instead, I am going to go with the much lighter and more compact Nikon V1. This decision provided me with a buying opportunity(!) and you know that pleases me. 😀 Because I only own a single 10-30mm lens for the Nikon V1 I decided to purchase the Nikkor 30-110mm lens for this camera body. With the V1’s CX lens mount’s crop factor of 2.7x this new lens will supply me with an effective focal range of 80-297mm, which is ideal for my traveling purposes.
More photos for this blog can’t be a bad thing, right?
Today’s Personal Project
It’s Cinco de Mayo! Although it’s unlikely I may head to an Irish bar (The Elder Tree?) before going to The EARL for tonight’s Dick Dale show — assuming I can stay awake until the 77 year-old Dale (his birthday was yesterday) takes the stage.
While I will certainly be thrilled to hear Dale play again I do wish that I lived a little closer to Athens (there’s a phrase I don’t type often) so that I could attend tonight’s M. Ward show at the 40 Watt.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – nervous about tomorrow’s demo because I don’t think all is in order yet.
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – The guys at Myth Busters also run the site Tested. Nerd away, friends! Nerd away…
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Sunday = walking, ~5.6 miles
Morning Weigh-In – Arg, I keep failing to jump on the scale
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~5.6 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Gym Visits – 1 (1 cardio)
Marta Rides To Work – 1
Bike Rides To Work – 0
May Goals
– have European trip plans carved in stone
– clean my basement to the point where I could have people over
– hire a plumber to fix all of the sinks at the ITP Estate
– go away two of the weekends
2014 Goals: Measurable
– Get my weight down to 190 pounds so that I can wear a 36″ waist pants comfortably
– Completely read ten books, audio books permissible
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Completely run at least one 10k
– Fix all (or at least most) of the things which are wrong with the ITP Estate
– Sell the ITP Estate (tentative)
2014 Goals: Unmeasurable
– Continue to Simplify, simplify, simplify
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions
– Start, and continue, to make my own bread using my bread machine as well as using the technique outlined in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
– Read and discard magazines during the month in which they arrive (even digitally)
Books I’ve Read/Heard In 2014
- “Johnny Carson” by Henry Bushkin
- “Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative” by Austin Kleon
- “Chaos: Making a New Science” by James Gleick
- “What’s So Funny?: My Hilarious Life” by Tim Conway
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Has there ever been a Mad Men spoiler on this blog? I’m not sure who watches it, but it isn’t me. I watched a few episodes way back when, never got addicted, so someday I’ll do a Netflix watching of it way after the fact I’m sure.
I went bike riding back out at Arabia Mtn Path trail again Saturday, John & Kat (& Allan) wanted to check it out, and it is nice to not have to deal with any cars. They need to clean the trail though, lots of tree debris, made it a little more interesting, trying to pick the lines to not hit pine cones, small branches, etc. with the skinny tires. We had dinner after at the U Joint, we were out numbered by kids, I think every table but ours was a family. I figured out how parents today keep their kids quiet & happy, give them a cell phone to play games or watch a video. (I found it sort of sad).
Sunday afternoon we went campground shopping up at Lake Allatoona. Allan’s brother’s family will be here from Spain this summer, & thought maybe a couple days of camping might be fun for the kids. Found 2 places with nice beaches, just need to decide on dates & see what sites are available.
There has never been a Mad Men spoiler, and I don’t want that to change today.
I hereby declare that I will return to bike riding the weekend after this (since I will be in Black Mountain, NC this weekend).
Let’s see- Saturday, out to Stone Mountain to de-commission some old “decorations” we no longer use and just take up space in one of the trailers. Back home and whisked away to Megan’s farm where I video’d ponies running a jump gauntlet untethered. Apparently it demonstrates their ability and intelligence. Most had the good sense to do it once and then go eat grass.
Dinner with Sleazy Rider at Georgia Shrimp Company after her 31 mile run.
Sunday, drove to the Birmingham office, worked a very few hours and returned home- since Talledega was happening (which I completely forgot on the way over), I decided to take the slightly longer route home- via Alexander City and Opelika. About a half hour longer, but many fewer redneck stock car fans.
Was watching “Outrageous Acts of Science” and one bit was 5 people holding hands and daisy chained to a hotwire fence (like we used to have). 4 were standing on boxes or tables and the last guy on the ground- when he took the hand of the last in the chain, he completes the circuit and they all jump! To see it (and having been shocked myself enough) it was quite funny.
-FP
All of intown is becoming pretty ‘kid friendly’…I mean I guess it’s a good thing but I do miss the days of not having to dodge scooters & strollers every time I go out.
Speaking of, we went to May on May Saturday afternoon, it was okay. Seemed like a smaller crowd than past years. The weather was perfect and I did run into Betsy along with a few folks from the gym. We stayed a couple of hours then came home and cooked on the grill.
I spent almost 3 hours at the gym yesterday. I made it to yoga at 9:30 then at a 45 minute wait until boot camp started. I thought about grabbing some coffee but stayed and did a mini-pre boot camp warm up. On top of all that boot camp went long…I was beat!
I think I’m going to try to get out on the bike tonight, since we blew it off yesterday. Maybe a nice loop near the river……
Not riding is k i l l i n g me. I tried to run Friday and last night and have a pulled calf muscle which is keeping me from doing much. Been thinking about riding my trainer to “see how it goes”. Maybe I’ll try that tonight.
Funny, as today has worn on my legs have started to hurt from yesterday’s walk.
My plan is still to go out to see Dick Dale tonight, but any previous shenanigans never materialized; that’s probably for the best.