There was little middle ground this weekend; things were either highlights or lowlights.
In fact, the weekend extended for one more day. The sickness that I describe below has caused me to burn another paid-day off. For the record I’m feeling miserable but hope to return to the living tomorrow.
Highlight : A Hawk And A Hacksaw
After hanging with coworkers for happy hour and an ill-fated night of Team Trivia on Friday night I went to The EARL to see/hear A Hawk And A Hacksaw (I’d link to their website if it weren’t a Flash-driven Godawful affair).
The show was absolutely amazing. For those of you who are unfamiliar, A Hawk And A Hacksaw are mostly comprised of percussionist Jeremy Barnes (formerly of Neutral Milk Hotel) and the incredibly stunning violinist Heather Trost. On this night they were joined by a tuba player, trumpet/french horn player, and guitarist. The band was tight, performing instrumentals on stage for about an hour, until one of Barnes’ accordion keys broke. The band then took about a ten minute intermission in an attempt to repair the accordion. When they returned, Barnes now playing a loaner from accordion, they played one song on stage and then a two-three song set in the center of what was that time a group of no more than forty of us.
I was thrilled with the way the night turned out and, even with a high probability of rain on Saturday, was really looking forward to the remainder of the weekend,
Lowlight : Shithead Small Crowd At The EARL That Refused To Shut Up
One of the openers for A Hawk And A Hacksaw was a man and women duet who played acoustic guitar and keyboard respectively. Why I didn’t care much for their music I was not the bane of their existence.
For some reason the crowd at The EARL was exceptionally loud and talkative. I’m not sure if the small size of the audience allowed their voices to travel more easily, but the guy on stage also noticed. In fact, at one point he asked the crowd to be quiet for their next song. And when the crowd complied for about half of that song he took to dismissing the crowd as being rude — “The last time we were here we opened for Boris. I thought their crowd was loud because their metal. I guess you are lowed because you are still allowed smoke.”
I’ll never understand why people can’t step out of the music room in order to have a conversation, but I guess alcoholics can’t be expected to be considerate.
ITP Flickr Pic
This was not intended to be today’s photo. However, due to circumstances that’ll be outlined below it turns out to be just that.
“What is it?” You ask? It’s part of the ceiling mural painted inside Joe’s Coffee Shop in East Atlanta.
Lowlight : Is It H1N1?
There I was, minding my own business; just hanging around in my basement watching college football. Then, later in the day, out of nowhere, WHAM!
My nostrils started to feel uncomfortable.
Then my throat started to feel scratchy.
Could I be getting sick? If so, how?
What had I done Friday to expose me to germs? (I know, I was around many people but this is nothing new for me).
On Sunday there was no doubt… I was really sick for the first time in a long time. My dreams of a level fifty-mile bike ride quickly went out the door — DANGEN! — and my thoughts shifted to minimizing the impact of this on my life.
Unfortunately, as the day went on the conditions got worse instead of better. I was supposed to go to The EARL to see/hear The Baseball Project, that was ultimately scrapped too. As The Amazing Race time neared I was utterly miserable.
I woke up at 5am this morning and realized that today was going to be a “no-go” as well. I am keeping my fingers crossed that today will be the last day — I don’t have that much paid-time off remaining.
Lowlight : My East Atlanta Deadbeat Dads Were Deflated
For the first time this year having Double D’s didn’t cut it.
My fate was sealed by the 4 o’clock kickoffs when my star running back had left his game with an injury after amassing a mere 0.4 fantasy points and my opponent was leading by seventy points thanks in part to his quarterback scoring over thirty-two fantasy points.
Lowlight To Hightlight? : My Macbook
I’ve had it with my MacBook whose keyboard has frustrated me for months. Some time ago the ‘E’ key popped off, but I was able to pop it back on. A couple of months ago the ‘W’ key also began popping off, and I was getting ready to give Apple a chance to fix it. On Friday night the ‘4’ key joined the pop-off party, and I made an appointment for this tomorrow morning with the Apple Store Genius Bar in Perimeter Mall.
The MacBook is still under its one-year warranty so I’m expecting no hassle with getting the keyboard repaired. However, I’ve taken the necessary precaution to remove all personal data from the hard drive. What still concerns me is that I upgraded the memory to 4GB
And So I Don’t Seem Self-Absorbed…
Had I not been in such a shitty mood on Friday I would have announced birthday greetings to ITP-Reader Debbie (in Saturday) and ITP-Reader Randy (on Sunday).
Hope your respective birthdays were fantastic.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – sick and miserable
Current Music – listening to this week’s “This Week In Tech” podcast
Website Of The Day – Through one of his tweets Lance Armstrong turned me on to Universal Sports on which they were streaming road cycling!
Mode Of Transportation To Work – not a work
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 5 miles, Wheel Mileage – 171 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 7 (10)
Vegetarian Days – 2, Carnivorous Days – 25
Marta Rides – 0
September Goals
– Not get fired from my job
– Take at least one photo every day
– Restart work on house, actually making progress this time (note: not successful during August)
2009 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
РEarn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalape̱o Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Bummer you are sick.
It was a beautiful day for a bike ride in North GA. And – I made it up Wolfpen (gap#2, the toughest of the 3) without stopping, very slow, but no stopping! 3rd times a charm I guess. Sarah did awesome as well.
The boys did great riding all 6 gaps (103 miles with over 12,000 ft of climbing), I don’t think I EVER want to ride all 6, but 3 was a blast.
BTW – BOLD is back on again.
Fixed. Thanks.
Well done to all yesterday. Sal (if you’ve not already read and dismissed today’s blog) how was Ekiden?
Paulie, sorry you still aren’t feeling well. Do you have a fever? After almost two weeks, I’m pretty close to normal.
I’m at home today. I had jury duty but my group wasn’t called. Since work isn’t expecting me I’m just going to do a little work from here. I may run to Nick’s for lunch. I can stop off at Stone Soup and grab you something if you think it might help (the cuban black bean soup may just be the thing).
Low key weekend here, I ran my last long run before Chicago, Jerry helped with some yard work, football…
I heard from Harold this morning, he finished his Ironman 70.3 but forgot to wear his timing chip?
oh – if anyone tries to look up the results of 6 Gap, no one except Sarah wore the transponder, we didn’t want the world to know how slow we were……. so I’m guessing it will say we didnt’ even ride?
since I’m not a tri-geek – what does Ironman 70.3 mean?
The depression of my sickness is further amplified by the excellent physical achievements performed by my friends this weekend. You all did so well this weekend.
My temperature (using my old digital thermometer) was 99.2º F. I’m still sneezing occasionally, have a runny nose, and am sore to the bone (my teeth hurt).
Forgot his chip? Oy Vey!
Barb, I would have used the transponder if for no other reason that I could be found if I went over one of the guard rails.
Paulie – I’m wondering if they would work for that? I guess if you didn’t turn it in at the end of the day? Another reason to have someone to ride with.
But – there were so many riders out there, only a few times did I feel like I was “alone” on the road & no one could see me (due to the roads winding).
Half Ironman
1.2 56 13.1 = 70.3
He told me he fired his support crew this morning, 🙂
No fever, probably not the flu. Mine started with stuffy nose, sore ears then it moved to my chest accompanied by a nasty cough. I really only felt bad for a day or two, the rest was just annoying and prevented me from doing much physical activity.
They are probably as useful as a hash sign-in sheet. Heeey Ooooo!!!!
The only problem with relying on others is that if they don’t stop immediately then they may have no real notion of where you crashed unless they note their mileage.
Hoping it’s not the flu. Regardless it’s made me really depressed. I hate being useless, and my house is a complete mess.
Sorry you don’t feel well!
So far this year I have been able to stave off the sickness that surrounds me! 🙂
Such a great day yesterday for hanging out in the park. Over 130 teams this year. My masters women team came in second to the ATC. Marty’s mixed masters team came in first in that category. The bloody mary’s were really good!!! Only one other group stayed in the park longer than we did.
Was able to get all the camping gear from The Big South Fork camping adventure dried out.
Congrats to all the bike riders yesterday.
Bob is riding in a car down to Orlando today – I wonder how much fun he is having after that ride yesterday……….
Yeah, although I think I’d prefer to be in Bob’s predicament over my own.
Sorry you are sick Paulie. (Maybe I should change that to sorry you are ill. 😉 )
The yoga couple was my pick for most annoying on Amazing Race, so I was pleased they didn’t get off go. My second pick for most annoying is the street tough lawyer dude and his wife, but I was okay with who left. The whole “trying to decide” if I want to get married dreck was annoying.
The Aspberger’s (sp?) guy might be my fave so far. I love his matter of factedness — too funny.
Thanks for the birthday wishes. I had a great weekend. If you’ve ever wondered what a 43-year old woman gets for her birthday, in my case it was a really cool camcorder, chicken art, misc nifty things… and a 12 gauge shotgun! I bet some folks are still talking about the latter which was delivered in the parking lot of Fox Bros on Saturday night. Very funny.
A shotgun???? Have you lost weight Debbie? You look fantastic! 🙂
People may be talking still, but given that it was Fox Bros the talk is probably getting one for themselves for protection against our thugs.
Funny, Steve’s been real nice since Saturday, too! 😉
Paulie, thanks for the Bday wishes! Hope you’re on the road to recovery – we’re looking forward to catching up with you this weekend.