Thursday - despite my best efforts, I worked late and left town an hour after I said I would. That's the curse of driving - you think you can make it up on the road. Just my luck there were a couple of accidents clogging up the freeway. So unfortunately, I got into Plano after supper time. Still, it was good to see Jeremy and his daughter Erin.
Jeremy's 14 year old cat slept with me that night. But she left sometime in the night - that tramp.
I tried to get a family shot of Jeremy and Erin before I left, but Erin wasn't cooperating.
This was her best shot. But my framing was a bit off.
Friday - Left Plano in the morning for Nashville. Kathryn plays tennis on Fridays, so I didn't have to be at her place until 8:30 that evening. That gave me time to check out the Clinton library in Little Rock. I was pleasantly surprised with Little Rock. It's a cool little town.
Next, I stopped in Memphis for a late lunch. I wandered around downtown until I found a rib place called Rendezvous. Cool place - it's been around since 1949. The pork ribs were ok. I later read on-line that their ribs are highly rated. I guess I prefer Texas-style BBQ.
Got into Nashville and went out to a nice brew pub for dinner with Kathryn. She also has a 14 year old cat (male and huge) who's pretty friendly. Her 2 other female kitties are younger and a bit more shy.
Saturday - left in the morning for Indianapolis. It rained hard most of the way, which is just draining. I got in early, so I went to a Target near my motel to see what different merch they carried. I was surprised to see they sold liquor and beer - things you don't find in Texas. I bought a 6 pack of honey wheat for later. Looking up at a store clock, I suddenly realized that Indy is on East Coast time, so I had lost an hour. I ended up getting to the North American Handmade Bike Show a couple of hours before they closed.
The show was packed - much more so than the San Jose show a couple of years ago. I was getting a little claustrophobic, so I left after about 90 minutes. Eh, it was long enough to check out all the booths and talk to some of the frame builders I didn't know. I'll stop back on my way out of town tomorrow for one last look. Definitely lots of bike bling - and lots of fixie types.
It had been a long day, so I bagged dinner with some of the Serotta forum-ites, and I no-showed on the talk Ben Serotta was giving at one of the local bike shops. Instead, I bought a half dozen White Castle sliders and washed them down with the above mentioned beer from Target.
Off to Chicago tomorrow...
Oh, and here are some of the bikes I liked from today...
I've been finalizing the details for my upcoming road trip. Leaving from Austin, I'm driving to Plano to visit Jeremy and Erin. Will spend the night with them. Leave the next day for Nashville to see Kathryn. Spend the night there. Will be in Indianapolis the following day and night. Then will meet Belinda in Chicago, where I'll stay a couple of nights. I was originally going to spend a couple of days in Milwaukee, but I don't have time. However, I think she mentioned something about dinner in Milwaukee. Will leave from Chicago and drive straight back to Austin. I'll probably find a motel for Indy, but looks like my lodging is taken care of for the other stops - Thanks everyone! Lots of driving - 7 states in 6 days. But you all know how I like to drive.
Currently, I pay around $170 a month to Grande Communications for my Internet, land line phone, cable, and security system. I received an offer in the mail from AT&T recently for their U-verse service, which promised to save me around $30 a month. Sounded good, so I called Grande to terminate my service. The Grande rep asked if they can save me more, would I keep their service? Sure, why not. So they dropped my fees by $60/month. Yeah, not bad - but I hate these stupid games you have to play.
In other news, the morale has been so low recently that my company has resorted to sponsoring happy hours at work every other Friday. Distributing depressants to a bunch of depressed workers - it sounds like a good plan. I understand they're handing out letter openers as door prizes.
Dios mio! - Did I just use a Britney Spears song as a blog entry title?! I really have hit rock bottom. That would also explain why I signed up for a certain on-line people matching site today. See, I'm pretty reclusive by nature, but I've been getting even more so recently. Probably not a good thing. Not that I have very high expectations for this venture. Actually, they're dismally low. But if I find someone who just wants to hang out and grab a bite or see a movie every now and then - well, I've greatly exceeded my goals. Btw, being the cheap guy that I am, I even managed to find a 15% off coupon on the interwebs. Which begs the question, "Can love be discounted?"
And now, here's the best version of that horribly infectious song:
Dustin was nice enough to play photographer yesterday, so I thought I'd share some of the shots he took. Yes, my shoes are so white because this was my first time to really run in them.
Here's me and Nick (Dustin's older brother) around mile 7:
Here I am at mile 14 (still smiling). This is from a video Dustin shot:
Glenn ran me in from mile 16 (many thanks). Here we are at mile 18:
Didn't win, but I did set a PR (by a few minutes) in yesterday's Austin Marathon, despite cramping from the heat. Got a nice sunburn also. Yeah, it's not a blistering fast time, but given my strict training regimen, I have no complaints. Thanks Glenn, Pete and Dustin for the support. You guys were great. And thanks to my friends that showed up on the course to cheer me on. Had lunch at Joe's Bakery and Mexican food on the East side after the run (it was so so), spent some time with my family, then watched movies (Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler) for the rest of the day. Legs are kinda tight right now, but we have today off for President's Day, so that'll give me a chance to recover.
Btw, I had 3 songs on my iPod: Talking Heads: Life During Wartime (live version), Concrete Blonde: Still in Hollywood, and The Cure: Just Like Heaven.
