Courtyard Yes, Parking Lot No

When the weather permits I like sitting outside as much as the next person. However, I must admit that if sitting outside an establishment means sitting next to the parking lot, then please count me out. Such was the case on Friday evening when our happy hour migrated one door down from Cheeseburger in Paradise to Outback Steakhouse. Outback was full enough not to be able to accommodate a group of seven so the decision was made to sit outside and be served by Brittany — one of the coworkers’ favorites. The outside seating area at this Outback is between the building and part of the parking lot, even worse, right next to where cars idle as they way for their Outback-To-Go order to be delivered. It was then that Paulie the Party Pooper emerged and I was on my way home.

It Was Like Hashing, Without The Beer
By 6:30am Saturday I was at the Chattahoochee River at our appointed meeting place. The plan was to shoot the band while they stood on rocks in the middle of the river. Though I brought my camera I knew that I was “second shooter” at best, and in reality I was go-fer. We waded through water which was sometimes waist-deep to get to where we wanted to be. I made multiple trips to the band’s rocks to retrieve their “water clothes” after they changed into suits, and then return said clothes once the shoot was over. After winding our way back to shore Maigh and I dried off and then she bought be breakfast from Flying Biscuit (near “Our Lady of I-75”).

A running group formed near Flying Biscuit on Saturday morning. Seeing those assembled, who am I kidding, seeing the women assembled, made me wish that I still could run. It also made me wish that I were younger and better looking, but neither of those will occur again either.

From the shoot I returned home to relax, watch the Team Time Trial of the Vuelta a España, and then basically piss away the remainder of Saturday. I even managed to talk myself into staying in on Saturday night (not a big shock any longer) and skipping the Six Organs of Admittance show at The EARL that I wanted to attend (thankfully no pre-purchase of ticket occurred for this show).

My Fun About Killed Me (Again)
Yesterday I joined three of my coworkers for a ride around Stone Mountain. And by around Stone Mountain I mean around Stone Mountain.

Buoyed by last weekend’s ride I was anticipating doing well, but I struggled mightily. Given that I was the only one of the four of us who has ridden Stone Mountain kinda sucked, but the guys were nice and put up with me being an anchor even though I kept reminding them that all roads in the park are circular and that I didn’t want to spoil their ride. Around the hour-twenty-minute mark I started to feel really badly, nothing to do with the hip mind you, I just felt terrible. I had been drinking plenty of water, so I stopped and ate four Clif Bloks (two-thirds of a package) in an effort to recover. After finally catching up to the guys, who had stopped and were waiting for me, I let them know that I was going to sit in the shade for awhile and cool down. We were closer to finishing the day that I thought we were (notice that my total mileage for the day was “only” twenty-two miles) so they waited for me to recover and then we finished our ride.

Yesterday was my first foray into using the heart-rate monitor with the Garmin watch. Interesting data… I “averaged” 160bmp but I wound up taking the strap off when I stopped to recover so I don’t know how accurate an average it was.

So far the worst affect of the ride was the pain in my right foot which occurred immediately after taking off my cycling shoe. I may have had that shoe too tight, or I may have been overexerting my pedal stroke and strained the muscles in the foot. It seems much better this morning.

Something New, Something Revisited
After the ride it fell upon my shoulders to decide where lunch would be eaten. Truth be told I have little knowledge of the Stone Mountain area; most of my time spent in that area has been on my bicycle riding to, or from, Stone Mountain park. We were parked in Stone Mountain village, which seems to have all of two restaurants, and the one which I wanted to eat at, Mama Mia’s Pizza, has recently become a restaurant called The Crab Pot, which didn’t seem very appealing to my post-ride body.

I instructed the guys to follow me down East Ponce de Leon as we headed to what seemed like the best option in the surrounding area, Brockett Pub House and Grill. As we reached the pub I was hesitant to stop as the area didn’t seem like the “nicest” one around (and this coming from an East Atlantan) but with no other options we went inside. Once inside I was not disappointed with the food and beer. While everyone else ordered bratwurst I ate an andouille sausage sandwich (no I don’t know why we all ate sausages) and we shared two pitchers of beer — one of Fat Tire, and upon noticing it after I ordered the Fat Tire, one of Monday Night Brewing‘s Eye Patch Ale. Lunch turned out to be a more expensive venture than I expected, but I did fill me up to the point that dinner was nothing more than a Cheerwine and a large bowl of popcorn.

I had no intention of driving past the intersection of my accident yesterday, but that’s exactly what happened. Somewhat fortunately for me the accident occurred on the opposite side of the railroad tracks along which I drove, but I cast my eyes to the area as I passed and replayed the events of February 27. I’ll admit, I was moved emotionally and am a little bit pleased to have that out of the way. The next hurdle to clear will be riding my bicycle along Church Street again past the exact location where the accident occurred.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – ready to start another busy week
Current Music – silence at the moment, I would be getting geared up to listen to the Vuelta a España, but I’ll be in an interview while it’s being broadcast
Website Of The Day – Last week I paid $20 for the iPad app created by AppCooker. This week I need to start to learn how to use it.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Sunday: cycling, 22 miles
Morning Weigh-In – Wednesday

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0.0 miles
Wheel Mileage – 55.0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 48 flights

Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)

Vegetarian Days – 1
Carnivorous Days – 20

Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

August Goals
– “Completely” recover from the bike crash
– Ride my bike no fewer than 150 miles
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Run at least once
– Eat vegetarian no fewer than five days
– Lose two pounds

2011 Goals [will be a little more fluid than in past years]
– Reduce my weight by 25 pounds based on the my weight as measured on February 1st
– Completely read the book Daily Negations which I received as a Christmas gift.
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business — one which does not get penalized.
– 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
– Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than two one half-marathon
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]