Inside The Perimeter

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]

As I sit in a hotel room in Rapid City, SD I’ve found out that my good friend Eric from Huntsville, AL has been in Deadwood, SD since Thursday. Deadwood is only forty miles from Rapid City. Had I known that Eric was in Deadwood I’d not have reserved a hotel in Rapid City, but in Deadwood instead.

AT&T Hates South Dakota
I’m sure the feeling is mutual.

For most of my travels across South Dakota today I had either data roaming or Edge coverage on AT&T’s network. While inconvenient it has really made it difficult to locate and navigate as I’m winging most of this trip. I hate to think what this is going to cost me. Oh well, I’m on vacation….

Mt. Rushmore Or Bust!
I’m staying in Rapid City, SD tonight, thirty minutes from Mt Rushmore (I’m starting to see a trend here). I found out that the National Parks Annual Pass that I purchased for $80 today so that I could see Badlands will not be accepted at Mt Rushmore. What a crock of shit! I apparently will have to pay $10 to park when the park opens at 8:00am (almost two hours after sunrise).

Of course, there is a good possibility that I’ll try to meet up with my friend Eric today and hit Mt Rushmore tonight/tomorrow since I have this “extra” day in my schedule.

ITP Flickr Pic
What’s a boy to do when he continues to see billboards for The Corn Palace?

Stop and see it of course!

The Beer Collecting Has Already Started
Not that I have the room to spare in my already-packed trunk, but I’ve already purchased one case of beer (a 12-pack and two 6-packs) for later consumption, and I’ve not yet reached the beer Mecca of Colorado. The point of this exercise is to get beers that I cannot purchase in Georgia. Think of it as a smaller version of Smoky and the Bandit.

Yes, I plan to share with my friends.

Until tomorrow…

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – strange
Current Music – listening to the “Daily Giz Wiz” podcast
Website Of The Day – In case you plan to visit Mt Rushmore you can reference Mt Rushmore Info too.
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 – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 217.0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 9 (9)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 29
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 4

August 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 200 miles
- Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving further
- Complete at least one iPhone application (seriously, this needs to happen)
- 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]

Where I am no longer depending on when you read this….

St. Louis, I Hardly Knew Ye
My stint in St. Louis was much shorter than I expected. I wound up spending Friday night in a town about six miles outside of St. Louis. I figured staying in the suburb would be easier with my bicycle in tow.
I woke very early on Saturday morning to get sunrise photos at the St. Louis arch. (photos are still unprocessed). I made the mistake of returning to the hotel and eating a lousy waffle, thus ruining my lunchtime appetite. At the same time I came to realize that my laptop backup hard drive was still in Atlanta. So, with that I ventured out to find a Best Buy, and soon thereafter a Wal*Mart to purchase one for this trip. Both Best Buy and Wal*Mart were to the west of St Louis, as is Kansas City, so I never made it back.

I Went To Kansas City, Kansas City And I’m Gone
Kansas City is about four hours away from St Louis. This near proximity allowed me to get into town and relax before heading out for my night’s plans. Because of my Sunday morning plans I chose a hotel in a Kansas City suburb known as Lee’s Summit, which meant I had a near thirty-minute drive to get in to Kansas City.

For Saturday evening’s dinner I chose to go to Gates BBQ (see below). Once I had my fill of barbecue I ventured out to find a bar called Record Bar because Alejandro Escovedo was scheduled to play there. To my surprise and dismay the show was sold out. I was going to give up and leave, but decided to see how my luck was running. I missed out on the first person to have an extra ticket which he sold to someone else for $30. Only a couple of people remained outside of the show and I sheepishly asked a guy if he had an extra ticket — and he did! I asked how much he wanted and he said $20, so I decided that I’d be a good guy and gave him $25. Pay it forward…

The show was great, with the exception that a small percentage of people in Kansas City are just like those in Atlanta — they just can’t keep their mouths shut. One girl, a typical “my type”, broke out into some loud conversation about how she gave one of the guys on stage a massage and he put her and her boyfriend on the list so that they could get in to the show. Ugh. I returned back to my hotel (after Jill the GPS took me on an incredibly sketchy route back to the hotel.) around 1:00am (this will be significant in a second).

One of the big reasons I’ve been toting the Red Rocket with me on this trip was to ride in a ride called the Summer Breeze ride which started and ended in Lee’s Summit. I stumbled upon this organized ride while Googling for “Kansas City group bike ride” a few weeks ago. Registration opened at 6:00am so I woke up at 5:00am (remember what time I got back to the hotel?) so I could fill the Jackmobile with gas from the nearby QT and make the thirty minute drive to the start of the ride. I signed up (no t-shirt? dangen!) for the 45-mile ride. Here is my odometer at the end of my ride. Huh, somebody’s measuring device is not correct.

The ride was mostly flat, over some rough roads in spots, and for the first half was into an annoying head wind (which thankfully was a tail wind for the ride back).

One of the things I hadn’t figured out was how I was going to shower post-ride. Because of the starting time and length of the ride I had to check out of my hotel room before leaving for the ride. The ride started and ended near a small campground so I drove there to see if I could find a shower. Luckily for me the attendant cut me a deal so I could get through their gate so I could shower for $5. Yippee! I love it when Fortuna smiles upon me.

Once showered I decided to lunch in Kansas City before pushing off for Sioux Falls, SD.

A Tale Of Two Sandwiches
Two meals in Kansas City. Two meals consisting of barbecue. Two meals starring what is known as a “Burnt Ends” sandwich.

Gates BBQ’s “Burnt Ends” Sandwich:

Arthur Bryant’s BBQ’s “Burnt Ends” Sandwich:

The verdict? They both kicked ass!

I Think I Made A Miscount
I’m confused. While driving to Sioux Falls I was doing a mental check on my schedule and an extra day has emerged. I don’t recall whether or not this was supposed to be a night spent in Kansas City Mo, or Fort Collins CO, but I may take another day around Mt Rushmore since it’s supposed to rain there today.

Since the weather in that part of the country is sketchy my revised plan is to drive to Rapid City, SD (about 30 minutes from Mt Rushmore) and spend the night there. Tomorrow morning I’ll wake really early so I can be at the park by daybreak.

Quick Hits

• Driving America’s interstates is boring.
• Holy shit this country grows a lot of corn!
• I passed a free-standing hearth in Missouri, but I was unable to photograph it because I was tooling along the interstate.
• I’ve packed too much shit for this trip.
• I’ve completed two of my audiobooks — Anthony Bourdain’s “Medium Raw” and Mark Frauenfelder’s “Made By Hand”
• Missouri has QT, but they don’t have Wachovia bank ATMs inside of them.
• America has become annoyingly homogenous. I’ve found myself in some suburbs and based on the stores around them you could be almost anywhere.
• You can purchase beer on Sunday in Missouri and South Dakota — so I did.
• Yesterday’s ride went through the town of Peculiar, MO. Had the “Entering Peculiar” sign been facing in a way the sun would have lit it, I’d have taken a photo of myself below the sign.
• Thankfully my hotel room had AMC so I was able to watch “Mad Men.” I loved last night’s episode (could Don Draper be a drunk?) though I’m disappointed that they are in 1965 and have yet to acknowledge my birth.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – absent
Current Music – listening to “The Splendid Table” podcast
Website Of The Day – Tonight I’m drinking a delicious Cherry Cola from Sprecher Brewery. Yeah, they make beer too, but the gas station from which I purchased my “dinner” didn’t sell any of their beer.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
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 – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 217.0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 12 (12)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 28
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 4

August 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 200 miles
- Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving further
- Complete at least one iPhone application (seriously, this needs to happen)
- 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]

Or wherever city the Jackmobile makes it to tonight. Inconceivably, today is V-Day where the “V” stands for vacation. I’m not sure where I will be when we next chat on this blog, but I’m hoping for damn sure that it’s not Georgia.

But, before I can hit the roadways today I need to complete, copy, and mail my City of Atlanta Business Tax Application. The City will happily bill me $75 for their application fee and then require me to pay sales tax based on my sales. The City’s demands have put me over the top and unless I change my mind while driving, I expect to shut down Sharpened Stone LLC and chalk up the near $200 in expenses I paid out this year as a mildly-expensive, highly-stressful, and annoying learning experience.

ITP Flickr Screenshot
The plan.

Though, depending on the weather forecast for Sioux Falls I might take a different path from Kansas City to Mount Rushmore.

In Case You Didn’t Know How Weird I Am
Last night’s dinner?

- one King of Pops popsicle (Plum Pomegranate because the East Atlanta Farmers Market cart didn’t stock Banana Puddin’. The amazingly beautiful, and (unfortunately) tattooed, girl working the cart sold me on the Plum Pomegranate; it was delicious.
- a half-loaf of asiago bread smeared with artisan hummus which I had purchased at Urban Cannibals and needed to eat before leaving for vacation.

It’s Like Reading With My Ears
I plan to “read” the following books while on vacation:

• Getting Things Done — David Allen
• The Intention Experiment — Lynne McTaggart
• Made By Hand — Mark Frauenfelder
• Medium Raw — Anthony Bourdain
• Star Island — Carl Hiassen

I’ll have plenty of time alone in the car, so I think that I’ll be quite successful in my quest. In the worst case scenario I have many podcasts and much music as a fall back.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – frustrated, but ready to put everything behind me
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – ITP-Reader Barb pointed me at this really neat art project called Touching Strangers which was done by photographer Richard Renaldi.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t care
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 167.0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 9 (9)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 25
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 4

August 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 200 miles
- Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving further
- Complete at least one iPhone application (seriously, this needs to happen)
- 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]

But not “Rush Limbaugh.” So many things to do today, including mowing my front and back yard. Who the heck called for this morning’s rain? There was no prediction of rain for this week, let alone on my last day before vacation. Dangen!

As if I needed another task to complete before departure, I received a letter from the City of Atlanta telling me that I’ve not registered for a business license in the city and must do so within the next ten days. WTF? This is the first I’ve heard of this matter; this was not mentioned in any of the research that I performed prior to starting my LLC in February. I am not the only person for whom this documentation is puzzling either. When I posted my receipt of this documentation a few people also said that they had received it and had no idea that this process was required. Some days I think that I should give up on the LLC since I’m rarely shooting and not coming up with any stellar application ideas.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – frantic
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – Curbside_Food + Video_Podcast = Awesome! See also VendrTV.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – cycling, 6.3 miles
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 167.0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 8 (8)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 24
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 4

August 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 200 miles
- Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving further
- Complete at least one iPhone application (seriously, this needs to happen)
- 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 because I’m losing weight, but rather today’s post will also be lame and I don’t foresee that changing a whole lot in the immediate, but temporary, future. It’s already been an insane morning and I’ve yet to get started.

I would like to publicly thank ITP-Reader Barb (and her hubby Allan) for feeding me a delicious meal, serving me quality wine, and replacing the rim tape on the rear wheel of the Red Rocket.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – way behind schedule (because I am!)
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – This one is for the techies. I feel as if I’m living life in a fog, but if I wanted to put my life into the “cloud” I’d check out Tonido.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my bike
Exercise (b)Log – cycling, ~16.5 miles
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 160.7 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 8 (8)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 24
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 4

August 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 200 miles
- Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving further
- Complete at least one iPhone application (seriously, this needs to happen)
- 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]

Because I am tired of changing bike tires. This morning I set the bike outside to get ready, and just as I was about to mount it I realized the back tire had gone flat again. One failed patch and forty minutes later I was on the road with my only remaining tube. “Luckily” I made it to work without incident (with the exception of a stupid teenage girl who opened a car door from the outside, right in my path; luckily I was able to swerve out of the way).

Barb, if you can convince Allan to look at the back wheel tonight dinner is on me. I’d like to take off with the Red Rocket on Friday without any lingering doubts in my mind. As it is I’m contemplating getting a new bike computer to replace the one which is currently schizophrenic.

Well, [it's now 9:00am] I’m now late and need to work…

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – deflated
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – Here’s a neat blog about which I heard yesterday — DJ Anonymous. The only problem is that it appeared to go flat in 2007.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my bike
Exercise (b)Log – cycling, ~17 miles
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 144.2 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 7 (8)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 23
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 4

August 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 200 miles
- Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving further
- Complete at least one iPhone application (seriously, this needs to happen)
- 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]

Busy Little Weekend
Friday night’s play, which was fantastic, was also three hours long. Consider Atlanta’s already shitty rush hour traffic on a Friday night on which it is also raining? Yeah, that sucked. The play was to start at 7:30pm. Given this start time and the eternity it took for me to get to the theatre, I did not have enough time to eat dinner. This matter was worsened when I was informed that the play was going to last three hours with a single fifteen-minute intermission. My dinner on Friday night consisted of trail mix, followed by some bread when I arrived home at 11:00pm.

I packed as many activities as humanly possible into Saturday. Breakfast at The Majestic, followed by a photo critique session in Decatur, followed by lunch at Twain’s, followed by a failed nap attempt in the Decatur library, followed by meeting up with friends at the Brick Store, followed by a party at some friends’ house. By the time my head hit my own pillow I was exhausted.

Yesterday I drove the Red Rocket down to Moreland to partake in the Wheelhopper hash which was laid by ITP-Readers Steve and Barb, and Barb’s hubby Allan. The ride was a hot one, made worse by the fact that I tried to play that “unknown French rider who wins a stage of the Tour de France.” Knowing the area a bit I was able correctly guess at a check and sprint out (winning the sprint points!). For about twenty minutes I was winning the hash! My reign of terror ended when I had a one-in-three chance of guessing correctly at the next check and I guessed incorrectly. My efforts cost me. Not only did I wind up being DFL (of the long trail), my feet still hurt from trying to pedal feverishly, and I’m also sore from resisting getting thrown into the (green) pool by Allan (in my defense, Allan is a fireman and outsizes me greatly). The day was a blast, and even though I didn’t think I was going to wind up at Holy Taco with ITP-Readers Betsy and Sarah, I did.

I could use a day of rest.

ITP Flickr Pic
It’s 8:45am and we’ve just broken into our own office.

I could use one of these right now.

Holy Shit, I’m Going On Vacation This Friday?
I really need to start getting all of plans set and shit packed. And, since I’ve had a late start to this morning I’ll have to abbreviate today’s blog too.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – beaten up
Current Music – silence as the podcasts download
Website Of The Day – I parked next to a Mini Cooper sporting two Blue bicycles atop it yesterday. They looked like some nice rides.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Sunday: cycling, ~25 miles
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 127.2 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 6 (8)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 22
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 3

August 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 200 miles
- Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving further
- Complete at least one iPhone application (seriously, this needs to happen)
- 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]