News…
Things have been a little slow here in the last week or so… Not, as is the usual case, for a lack of things to write about, but more that life has just been busy. So I thought a quick run down of what has been going on in life and some general thoughts were in order, as if often the case when I get track. And of course, I am thinking a list, even though the things in the list may not actually make sense together. I will decide about that after the fact.
- As has been noted elsewhere in this blog, I spent the later part of last week in Bloomington for a conference/seminar entitled NewspaperNext. The details are not important, but suffice it to say it took a lot of time and zapped a lot of energy.
- In conjunction with that, let me just say it is hard to maintain ones diet when the company is paying for meals in really nice establishments. It is further complicated by the company picking up the tab for a beer or two along the way. It gets even harder when some of your friends from work then want to have an additional one later. So, I picked up a total of ten freaking pounds from last Tuesday until Saturday when I managed to get back on a scale. People with high metabolisms make me sick!
- So the diet and exercise is going pretty good, but I have a membership to LAC that I bought for nothing and I am going to start kick behind working on a plan with a trainer I think when I activate that probably on Friday or early next week. Why is the pounds I lose come off my behind end anyway? That is the one place I really do not have pounds to lose.
- A happy thought. I have always bit my nails. More like I have chewed them, and in search of perfection I suppose, chewed them some more when something was perceived by me to be uneven. This is a habit that goes back to childhood for me. It is not out of nervousness so much as usually just being bored, like a wait or long car drive. I had stopped it once before and managed to go about a year or two with biting them, however that had resumed sometime last year. Now I am feeling all sappy and like I should be in a nail biters anonymous meeting or something, but aside from the pinkies, I have gone somewhere around six without biting at the nails.
- So last week I also moved, pretty much completely prior to leaving for the trip. Mostly I put my stuff in storage, just because that was quicker and closer to the office. But I left with the last of my stuff on Tuesday eve, spent one night at the new place on the couch, and then went on the trip for three days.
- Anyone who is wondering, the new place is in Lexington – so there can be a socially oriented night life on occasion with out the need to drive so far.
- It is great for Bitzer too. She has dog friends here and generally does not mind staying. She even stayed here during the day while I was out-of-town and not once did she try going out a window nor were any blinds torn down – YEAH!
- For those that are wondering, yeah, the roommate is female. She is a somewhat long time friend and we enjoy the occasional company. It also works out well for both of us financially and having someone who already knows your dog as a pet sitter is wonderful.
- Saturday, after being lazy and kind of catching up some on email, the new roommate and I went to the Woodland Arts Festival. We got there and went in opposite directions just to make sure anyone that knew us would not think we were together. Afterward we caught a movie, “Return to Brideshead.” Expect a review soon, as I have several movie reviews/thoughts to post about.
- Sunday, I went to watch some live music at the Woodland Arts Festival. The music was good, especially the bluegrass/folk music later in the day. Keep thinking I would blog while I was there, but just never really felt like pulling out the laptop and firing it up. I did not a few pictures of some really cute kids though.
- There were some really nice pieces of art around the festival. There were also several pieces of things that folks called art that I really questioned. I personally felt that most of the artwork was a bit overpriced, but the nature of it is usually most artist are present and willing to negotiate. Not sure if they would have come down to where I thought it should have been though. I was tempted by some prints of Angels and of course paintings and photos of horses and Kentucky scenes. It occurred to me though, that there was no wrought iron work. There was one that was close but even that was not wrought iron, just metal that was welded in shapes.
- While going to the festival, I parked on a side street several blocks away. I pulled behind a van – was not really comfortable with the space I left for a drive and so specifically checked the space between myself and van, to see if I could pull further forward. There was a good six to eight inches. Imagine my surprise when I returned to find a police note saying I had hit the van in front of me and the accident report could be picked up or mailed to me in ten days. I do not see how without a witness and no scratches on my vehicle and officer can legitimately make such a claim. Further I think back to all the door dings, scratched bumpers and just dents that I have had occur over the years and did not report. I am still hot about this one when I think about it.
- Two nights hence, I am going to the next to last Thursday Night Live in Lexington, in the side lot of the old court-house in Lexington – Cheapside is blocked off, beer and wine is available as well as some food and of course dogs are welcome. Grab a chair and come join us, as several I know plan to be there. Oh and the band is awesome – the Blind Corn Liquor Pickers! Start at 5:30, but plenty of playing until 7:30 most nights.
- A new plan is try to post at least two posts daily while I have this big huge backlog of ideas (scattered here and there as scraps of paper, napkin notes, back of business cards, on one of the three notepads I have, as well as emails to myself and several drafts that are started). However, I am not sure that two posts daily is maintainable with either my schedule or without becoming burned out. We will have to see how that works and I am not making any promises, short of I posted one an hour ago and this will go up shortly. If I don’t go to sleep soon or wake up early enough on the morrow there will be 2nd with the morrow’s date.
- In conjunction with this, I have gone back to putting in a break in the stories. I am still so unsure as to which why to do it. On the one hand it looks so neat and tidy when you can see the latest four or five stories in the scroll of a page and a half. On the other hand, is there enough in that first paragraph or so to catch your interests? Is going to the 3rd paragraph too much “leg” being shown? And of course, my personal inclination is more pages views and hence more ads shown, if you have to click. But that then makes me seem selfish and self motivated – WHA-HAHAA!! Can you tell it is late at night/early in the morning? Anyway, we are going to give it a few days and then evaluate again and who only knows if we will go back and redo all the old posts?
- Sometime soon we are planning to redo the blog roll (links to other blogs). A few of these have become stagnant and have little posted regularly, especially compared to what has gone on here lately. A few will remain even with light posting just because we like them. In the meantime if anyone has any suggestions, be sure and let me know.
- Hopefully this weekend we are going to get a small ad campaign that targets this blog kicked off. Not 100% sure about that, as it has been in the back of my mind for some time now and remains in an unimplemented state.
- A favorite time of year has arrived. Tonight dinner consisted of all home-grown items excepting the potatoes and I think those came from the farmers market. Now, unlike in years past, I had very little to do with the growing of things, but it has been very enjoyable eating and sharing the bounty of others. Especially the tomatoes.
- Saturday I am going to go give swing dancing another go I think. That should be fun. Earlier on the day on Saturday I am thinking the State Fair, as it is the last weekend and I so enjoy the fairs, especially the State Fair. I have to think about that one and decide if I am up to it. If not, I shall instead do the greek festival here locally and move some more of my stuff over. Sunday is hopefully an SCA/medieval ground fighting practice and some horse time – which is much-needed right now. Actually the thought of beating on someone in armour sounds just as appealing as riding.
- Oh and how rude of me – I have nearly forgotten that I am supposed to go visit someone way up North this weekend. I gotta think about that too – long trip and I am just not sure if I am up to it. Besides it will be expensive. The other hand is someone will be disappointed if I do not go. And of course I also have an invite to Tennessee as well, but I am nearly sure I am not doing either. May just stay nearby at a coffee shop and do nothing all weekend.
- I have a new thing I have become almost obsessed with lately – hence the picture up there at the top. Note, this particular one was built for Germany during the 2nd War. It was then brought state side by GI in the 50′s and later was stored in his barn. It is not completely original, but very nearly so, even suspect original spark plug wires – bet those are working great. Well, this one is a bit pricey, but I really want with a sidecar, which I saw for not much more a few weeks back. Anyway, donations accepted and I will happily give you my PayPal email address.
Well, I certainly did not mean for this rambling to go in this direction, but sometimes it just comes out that way. I think I have said all I intended to say and then a lot more. Hopefully though it gives some insight to how busy I might have been over the last little bit and maybe I am setting you up to not be too disappointed when I miss a day here and there over the next few days as well.
