Chattanooga weekend

Amy and I are going to Chattanooga this weekend to race the Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon. The way things look right now I might be cheering on Amy as she does the race. :-( During a trail run last weekend I pulled a muscle in my left calf and I have not been able to run or bike since. It feels a bit better now and I will take the bike, but I am a bit worried that it won't have healed in time to deal with the stress. Either way though, we should have a nice time in Chattanooga and I know that Amy will have a great race.

Congratulations Timo

Even though Timo Bracht has won several other Ironman races before, his win today at the Ironman Europe Championships in Frankfurt, Germany was the most impressive one yet.

Timo, I am very proud of you. Congrats.

Baby steps, baby steps

Several pages for the new Guerrilla Communication site are now done, and it is time soon to animate sections of these pages. Baby step, baby steps.

Feldsalat

Feldsalat is something I grew up with in Germany and in our region we often call it Ackersalat. It actually has quite a few different names such as Valerianella, Corn Salad, Lamb's Lettuce and Mache, and it is neither well known nor easily available in the USA. I recently discovered it at Whole Foods, where they sell it as Mache. We had some last night and oh boy, it is so good.

Precision speed skills

Wow, now that is drifting (and unique marketing for DC shoes.)

Liquid gold

I always liked European Fanta and it is stunning to me how much better it is than US Fanta. US Fanta actually tastes very artificial and strange and I barely ever drink it. But European Fanta (notice the yellow versus orange color) is liquid gold to me and we were able to a few bottles from the European Market while in Chattanooga.

Pete

I wish we were all as happy and content as Pete.

New site

My Guerrilla Communication website is a bit more than 2 years old now and I thought it should be time to give the site a new look and feel. The sketch below of the splash page shows what the site is going to look luke, except, it will remain a completely sketched website. All hand drawn and written. Yeah

The Art of Michael Lachowski

Michael Lachowski is an artist from Athens, GA who is involved in a huge variety of art projects. One of my favorite art pieces of his is hanging in the Grit coffee shop in Athens, GA and that coffee artwork inspired me to commission Michael to do a couple artworks for me. Since I don't drink coffee much though, we had to go down a different road.

The original coffee piece on a post card in my office


The Milk artwork currently is in our dining room


The Hot Chocolate artwork graces our living room

36 North Triathlon

Amy and I were racing in the 36 North Triathlon in Clemmons, NC today and we had an absolute blast. The race itself was held in Tanglewood Park and they capped out at 400 starters despite it being a first time event. But it was absolutely done first class and we were both impressed with the organization of the event. A big thumbs up to the crew that organized it and all the folks who volunteered.

Big smiles after the race is behind us


Awaiting the awards and representing slowtwitch


Amy finished third in F30-34 and this is her second podium finish


I finished second in M40-44 and top 15 overall and was very happy with the result.

The hole is "gone"

We kind of had a hole in our kitchen where the winecooler was suposed to go and we finally got it today. So no more "hole" in the kitchen.



On another note, we can now enjoy hanging out in the back. IE lunch today.

Ready for the race

Well, the tri bike is ready for the 36 North Sprint Triathlon in Clemmons, NC tomorrow. We'll find out in the morning around 7:30am how ready I am. I don't think I will do very bad, but I also think that this won't be my best sprint event. But the bike does look fast for sure.

A kitchen in time

When we first saw our new home we pretty much knew that it was it. We especially fell in love with the kitchen but decided to do a few small changes. We wanted more storage and also wanted the kitchen to be open to the dining room. The pics below were pretty much shot from the same point of view at 3 different times.

This is how the kitchen was when we bought the home. No flowers or any other decoration of course.


We took a good section of the wall out and opened it to the dining room. We also painted the walls a very light green color and removed the bench.


The new cabinets and countertop in place, plus the new dishwasher. :-)

Bratwurst

Tonight's dinner was a little homage to Germany and I enjoyed a couple Bratwursts. But just as the Bratwursts were ready to be eaten I discovered that we had no mustard in the house. None whatsoever. Good thing was that we had 2 brands of Curry Ketchup in the fridge and that hit the spot too.

Those were the days

The picture below was taken some time around 1991 and just recently popped up on facebook. It is very old school with the Giro Hammerhead helmet, IRD suspension fork, Campagnolo Record OR components and the trick light Litespeed Titanium frame from the era when there were no Litespeed model names but funky lime green decals. I even had hair at that time. :-)

Chattanooga has stupid ads dot com

Every time when I am in Chattanooga and hear ads for Chattanooga has cars dot com, Chattanooga has health dot com or Chattanooga has jobs dot com etc I think that those are some of the dumbest sounding ads in town. Maybe I should feature all of them on Chattanooga has stupid ads dot com. :-)

We are almost there

last night just before 9pm our dining room table was finally delivered. The chairs in the dining room had been sitting quite lonely for about a month now, but the table is fantastic and was worth waiting for. This morning the honed granite was delivered for the additional cabinets in the kitchen and the new vanity in the master bathroom. That means we are now almost there as we only have to deal with details.

The crew from Bloomsday granite and marble arrived at 8am sharp. (Yes, on memorial day)



With the honed granite in place we can now fill those extra cabinets. The "open" space will be filled with a wine cooler.



The new table has been in place for 14 hours only.



The table was made from an old elm wood door and has some interesting markings.



The vanity granite is in place too, and the faucets will be installed tomorrow. The lower cabinet gets a wooden top and a pillow and will serve as a seat.

Coffee table update

Legs are stained, glass top is in place and the table is now sitting in the den. It still needs a bit of work but it is very close to finished.

New coffee table

I have been working on a coffee table and it is slowly coming together. The metal ring will keep the rust look but the legs still need to be stained. Once the legs are stained they will be knocked all the way "through," leaving about 1/8" exposed on the top. The glass top will rest on these exposed wooden stumps. The whole table is very heavy and we'll have to test the floors to make sure it won't "crash through." :-)

New Gravitas brakes for my bike

My new Ciamillo Gravitas brakes arrived today and they are crazy light. They might be the lightest stoppers out there.

My new office desk

Today my new office desk arrived and it is very nice indeed. It is the crafty work of Roger Dinger of reinbarnation.com and he creates very cool tables from reclaimed barn wood. The pine wood for this desk came from the Barefoot Farm in Lake Waccamaw, NC.

The Aeron office chair is still not here and I'll clean up the cables under the desk, but this is basically what it looks like. The file cabinet is from CB2.


A hole in the back allows the cables to be out of the way.

A day in the park

Here are a few impressions of Pete's day in the dog park in Winston-Salem.

So many rules, so little time



Wow, so many dogs to play with



As long as you just sniff me...



Finally someone to dominate, yeah

Wedding anniversary

Today we celebrated our first wedding anniversary and we had several friends and family members send us warm wishes. We had a very nice weekend and the weather pretty much was great too. Friday night we went out for dinner to Fabian's and that was very good. Saturday morning we ran the 5k in the Race for the Cure and that was very fulfilling both from a physical as well as an emotional point. Saturday afternoon we went to a Kentucky Derby party at the house of someone Amy works with, and Saturday night we chilled and watched Slumdog Millionaire. Today we slept in, had a great brunch at the Village Tavern and then got the house ready for the furniture deliveries this week. Late this afternoon we took Pete to the dog park and that was great fun, but next time we'll give him the bath after the park and not before like we did today. :-)

Hopefully I'll never need one of those:

Athens weekend

Amy and I went to Athens, Ga over the weekend to see the Athens Twilight Criterium on Saturday night and also to spend a bit of relaxing time there.

It was quite warm there and in the afternoon we had time to just wander around



Kyle Wamsley of Colavita-Sutter and John Murphy of Ouch Racing in action



This video (posted by someone else) shows the throngs of spectators and the speed of the athletes



After a run on Sunday morning we went to the Grit for brunch



Behind the counter inside the Grit is one of Michael Lachowski's Coffee paintings. He painted that Coffee one in 1985, and he made both a Hot Chocolate and a Milk artwork for me in 2004

Introducing Pete

This week we adopted Pete from our friends Paul and Anita. I think they planned on having only 2 dogs but ended up with 4. Pete for example was dropped off at their house 2 years ago for a "couple of weeks" and never picked up again. Pete lost his front right leg after an incident with a car, but he gets around just fine.

Exhausted after the 6 hour transfer from Chattanooga



Hanes Park is just down the hill from us and offers lots of things to see



Wow that walk was tiring



Hello world, I am Pete

Seeing daylight

We still have a few moving boxes to unpack, but most of them are empty now and broken down to be picked up by the movers. The first room to be really finished with setting up was the kitchen, even though we are still awaiting the additional cabinets and countertop. But the cabinets and the fridge are filled and we were able to cook our first meal there. :-)

We love the kitchen, and dislike the dishwasher.



This wedding gift (thank you Deano and Angie) looks perfect here.

My thumb is still quite ugly

Saturday afternoon I closed the car door on my right thumb and it hurt like crazy. 5 days later and the thumb is still quite swollen and sore, plus of course ugly too. This is very helpful in the opening process of the moving boxes.

Getting closer to moving in

Tuesday, April 7 is the big moving day from the Piedmont LeafLofts to the home on Clover Street. Amy and I are both excited and ready to move into our first house that is ours (not mine or yours.) Our contractor Rick Stevens has done a great job with the opening of the kitchen to the dining room and the painting and finishing of several rooms.

The house is a bit easier to see with the leaves not yet up



We will need furniture for the living room.



A look from the living room through the dining room into the kitchen. It is all open now.



Only a few more days and we'll be cooking here.



The new cabinets and the counter top is not yet in place. The table won't stay.



A look over the back deck into the yard from the kitchen window



Upstairs now. A look from the master closet into the master bedroom. Master bath is in the background.



The guest bedroom is currently the only room in the house with some furniture in it.



The guest bathroom.



Amy's office is very bright and has unique window closing hardware

Hello Chattanooga

Tuesday through Thursday we went to Chattanooga as Amy was giving a presentation on Wednesday during a Trauma Symposium. Tuesday night Amy was going to a related dinner and I went to an art exhibit and visited friends, and I have pics of that evening below. Wednesday night Amy and I got to see Martin, Janelle and the 3 cutiepies and then we met Paul and Anita at the Meeting place. Thursday after a quick run and a brief shopping stint we drove back to Winston.


Paul and Anita in front of a random cd cover project



I really liked this selection of dolls



This doll even had a tramp stamp on her butt



Sharon's Asian inspired geometric pottery was very beautiful



George, Paul and Anita (Rick and I) were reunited in Big River



Good friends like these are hard to come by

A quick trip to New Orleans

Last weekend Amy and I flew to New Orleans to visit Laura. It was great to see Laura and of course New Orleans is well worth a trip in itself.

Laura picked us up at the airport and interestingly enough best friends Laura and Amy pretty much were dressed alike



We started our dinner at Frankie & Johnny's with crawfish



This monster Muffaletta sandwich was actually only a half size



Laura stumbled across this Banksy artwork



Beautiful architecture is all over the place



Walking through the French Quarters



The tourists were out in force, a good sign for NOLA tourism



Laura with Hank watching over her



Great stuff, but very expensive

The home update

Our contractor Rick Stevens has worked very hard since yesterday morning and the progress is fantastic. The additional cabinets and the new counter top are ordered and will take a little while, but we should be able to move in our home in the next 2 weeks.

The view from the dining room into the kitchen



The view from the kitchen into the dining room

Hey Hey

Don't you go anywhere

Mmm Milka

Our cat Sylvie is 12 years old and to this day has not eaten out of any one's hand, not even her cat food. I have been tempting her for quite a while with various items, and yesterday I finally succeeded. Sylvie loves Milka chocolate apparently and kept licking and licking and licking until the chocolate in my hand melted.

Apple iPhone versus Blackberry Storm

Neither of these ads is an official one, but each shows quite a bit of passion for the brands.

First came "BlackBerry Shows Apple Who Is The Boss."



The response from Apple fans came not much later.
(although they have a little issue too)

Flowers

Amy's birthday flowers looked very nice yesterday and still do today. But we knew that gifts would not stay nicely wrapped for very long so we snapped a quick reminder pic.

It is your birthday

Happy Birthday Amy

Amy

It is your birthday in only a matter of minutes.

Happy Birthday

The miracles of technology

6 months ago my 73 year old mom didn't even have a computer but I had wanted to get her one for the last couple of years. But while curious, she always had resisted. Before Christmas she finally got herself a laptop, went to a computer course and got an internet connection. We have been emailing back and forth on a regular basis now for about 2 months and it has been great. On the phone sometimes it appears that things get lost in translation, and that actually has nothing to do with me calling from overseas. It is also true for my brothers who call her from Germany or even within town. So the emailing has been perfect in terms of getting all information across.

When I went home recently I installed Skype on her computer and today I had my first Skype phone call with her. I could actually give my mom a video tour of the apartment as we talked. :-)

It is a miracle. Mom, you have come a long way.

Snow in Winston-Salem

It started snowing quite heavily last night and by 6am this morning Winston-Salem was covered by a thick blanket of snow.

After a morning of sunshine the snow is starting to melt



My snow covered Cooper S in the foreground, various RJ Reynolds buildings in the background



A look at the Piedmont Leaf Lofts overpass over 4th Street

Chubby cheeks

Before there was Arnold on Different Strokes, there was Herbert Krabel in Ostrach. :-)
This picture was taken the first year in Kindergarten.

Black Mountain Marathon

A few months ago I signed up for the Black Mountain Marathon in Black Mountain, NC because I had not yet done a trail marathon. Luck had it that I not only signed up for one of the most scenic trail marathons, but also one of the hardest. I have been running quite a bit this winter so I felt decently prepared, although here in Winston-Salem we do not have good uphill running available unless you drive. With 5,340 feet of climbing in the Black Mountain Marathon to the 13 mile turnaround point I would get plenty of climbing in during the race and we all know that what goes up, must come down. Lots of rain and cool temps on the top promised an epic day.

The calm before the storm. It is nice and dry in the hotel room.



Trying to stay dry under an awning with Jonathan Kelly (also Winston-Salem)



A few minutes before the start and it looks wet.



Amy was at the turnaround checkpoint and it was great seeing a friendly, familiar face. She caught me sucking down an e-Gel.



I crossed the line in 4:15:05 and was happy with this result in very tough conditions. The puddles in the grass are an indication of what the trails looked like.

The last few days - Germany, February 09

On Sunday morning we had planned to go to Reutlingen to visit Matze, Jutta and Oscar, but the road conditions were crappy.



So we put Amy to work instead :-)



We had lunch in the Alte Muehle in Waldbeuren with my mom, my uncle Fritz and his wife Maria



Our rental car was an Audi A3



After lunch we went on a run in the snow



Running on snow like this is a bit like running on sand



On Sunday afternoon we visited my friend Helmut and Angelika and they have this adorable Podenco dog named Perla.



I love those ears



The Rottweiler Narrensprung starts on Monday morning at 8am with several riders on horses. With the weather being somewhat iffy, I decided to watch with Amy and not make my costume dirty.



A short clip of the Narrensprung



Two Schantle are sharing a story



This Federhannes is smaller than the kids he is approaching



This Fransenkleid and the tiny Gschell are about to pass out some candy



A Schantle reaching out and down, and yes, that is rain on the mask.



My mom and I



A few Federhannes figures scheming



Amy enjoyed a Gluehwein during the parade



Another clip from the Narrensprung



Several Federhannes are seen here working here as a team



My niece Sara Nina loved the experience



This Schantle costume must be quite old. It has a tag from 1930 on it. These yellow and black tag show what years the costume participated.



One of the 7 or 8 Benner Roessle (2 herders with a "horse" and its rider) in action. They are at the beginning and the end of the Narrensprung.



A clip of the Roessle doing what they do best



A complete family of Narren after the Narrensprung



When I pulled out the camera, this young "guys" immediately struck a pose



We had a mellow day on Fat Tuesday and noticed a big herd of sheep on our way to Ravensburg



We had our last lunch in Germany at the Cafe Central in Ravensburg



Amy also enjoyed an Apfelsaft Schorle in the Cafe Central



And just as it started, the Ostracher Fasnet ends with a fire on Fat Tuesday night. But this times the witch gets burned and the other witches are beside themselves.

Witches, baths, Munich and more - Germany 09

After lunch on Wednesday we visited my uncle Fritz and his wife Maria.



On Wednesday night the witches in Ostrach get freed and that is the official start of carnival in my hometown.



More images from the freeing of the witches / Hexenbefreiung in Ostrach



On Thursday we watched how locals and the local carnival groups took over the downtown area of Ostrach.



The mayor's office has been taken over.



The big Narrenbaum / carnival tree is put up by hand



As the tree is almost up, someone tried to sneak into a pic with Amy.



And the tree is up.



Amy surrounded by carnival (Fasnet) figures from Ostrach.



Thursday night we went to the thermal bath in Bad Saulgau. It is called Sonnentherme.



A small video view of one of the Sonnentherme pools with 98 degree water temps, surrounded by snow.



We had dinner in downtown Bad Saulgau after our swim and bands and groups kept coming in to show their joy that carnival has begun.



Amy had trout and potatoes for dinner.



I had pork medallions, mushrooms and Spaetzle.



More bands and groups showed up in the restaurant, including the Fanfarenzug Bad Saulgau.



On Friday, we went to Munich and Maria gave us a small tour in the afternoon.



There was snow and a pretty strong police presence.



That night, Nicolas and Maria introduced us to the Wirtshaus in der Au in Munich and the food and atmosphere was terrific.



We really enjoyed our evening with Nicolas and Maria.



We wanted to see the Kandinsky exhibit in Munich



But a possible 2 hour wait to buy tickets just seemed too long.



Amy, are you sure you don't want to go to Starbucks?



You can't go to Munich without stepping onto the Marienplatz and looking up to the Glockenspiel

Another trip to Germany - the first days

The long escalator to the international terminal in Atlanta



Amy is connected in the airport in Atlanta.



It is now Sunday and the Delta monitor shows us that we are almost there.



On the way from the airport in Stuttgart we stopped to see my sister Sandra in Weinsberg



Early start on Monday morning with a Fleischkaese sandwich in Ostrach



We enjoyed lunch in a cool new restaurant in Ravensburg called Wilderer



In the pedestrian zone in Ravensburg



What a difference a day makes. Lots of fresh snow on Tuesday and Amy worked hard.



Shoveling snow is so much fun



Peaceful, cold and beautiful



Trying to catch Amy



Another run is in the books



A bit later that day, Amy in front of the Narrenbrunnen in Bad Saulgau



After dinner, more snow. Brrr

Germany soon

Amy and I are excited to go to Germany for 10 days to visit my family and enjoy carnival. Yeah

Can you believe it?

Yes, a long time ago I used to mountain bike all the time. Now I barely know what one looks like from close up.

If the shoe fits

People in Iraq just unveiled a large shoe monument dedicated to the journalist who threw his shoes at former president George Bush. Yeah, they really want us to be there.

ARTpARTy in Winston-Salem

Last night we held our first ARTpARTy in Winston-Salem and most likely the only one in our Piedmont Leaf Lofts condo. Not that the space wasn't great for having such an event, but we should be in our new house in a couple months and will then host an ARTpARTy on Clover Street. :-)
We had about 20 people in attendance and a pretty nice variety of art works.

Our neighbor Alex worked in oil and we felt lucky to get his artwork later.



Matt crafted beautiful cards



Travis is also a neighbor and she crafted a cork tray.



Mike's photo of downtown Winston was "stolen" quite often



Our realtor Rosanne had a magic touch with this orchid



My running buddy Treb utilized his suture skills to create the sock-animal



The mosaic of Leigh Anne and Breck was popular too



Luke and Melissa created a nice memento of Park Gruell in Barcelona



My ART piece was acrylic with leaves and a resin finish

Nice ad

Marketing Summit

The first weekend in February I have been asked to be a jury member for a marketing competition / marketing summit at Wake Forest University here in Winston-Salem. The event is sponsored by Pepsi Cola and the 6 finalist marketing teams were asked to also tackle a social responsibility/sustainability issue facing the sponsor. The first part of the challenge is already handled but the second part will be given to them on Thursday evening next week and then they'll have to present it to the jury on Saturday morning.

Best restaurant in Winston-Salem

We have been in Winston-Salem, NC for almost 6 months now and have tried all kinds of restaurants, coffee shops and diners. Our favorite restaurant so far has been Mozelle's on 4th street and we would enthusiastically say that they have the best food and service in town.

New toy

Still getting it all figured out and set up, but it is very neat.

Barack Obama day

The 44th president of the United States



Barack Obama's signature




Obamazing

Very sweet

I think I may have said it before, but if so, I just must repeat that the Lotus Exige is oh so sweet. It also looks like a perfect family car. :-)

Guerrilla Marketing fame

A recent cool advertising ad by Ontario College of Art & Design featured lots of famous folks and adrants.com found it quite interesting too. Just like me. :-)

A few more pics ...

I recently found out that the kitchen in our new home is featured by the cabinet makers in their portfolio. They basically took a few very nice pictures of the kitchen and that makes us even more eager to get in the house. But we first need to get some work done in the house.

Stop, look and listen or ...

This British PSA uses scare tactics like some older books used to do. Nice.

Three kings day

Yesterday was three kings day and that brought up some good old memories from my youth in Germany. As a young impressionable boy I was a catholic altar boy for quite a few years, and a few times during the time I was selected by our priest to be part of a "Sternsinger" group on three kings day (Epihany). Basically this is how that worked. Several groups of 3 kids (mostly altar boys in our town) were dressed up like the three kings Gaspar, Melchior and Bathasar and then were sent from house to house in a specific neighborhood to bless the homes by writing the initials of the three kings C + M + B and the appropriate year over the doors of the homes they visited. Not only do the letters stand for the initials of the kings, but of the phrase christus mansionem benedicat, which translates as "may Christ bless the house."

The home owners usually were quite grateful for the blessing and offered the "three kings" candy and other goodies. Since it is usually quite cold and nasty on January 6th in Southern Germany, some home owners then offered to warm us up with liquor. Mind you that we were about 14 years old at the time and while I have never liked alcohol, some fellow kings were not so shy about it and at the end of the tour of homes, some of them were quite wasted. :-)

Ah, the good old times.

No image of the author was available, so this google image will have to do

Running of the lights New Year's eve run

Amy and I started the new year by taking part in the "Running of the lights New Year's eve run" at Tanglewood in Clemmons, NC. The race started at the stroke of midnight (with a live feed to the countdown in New York's Times Square) and as we ranthrough and past all of the light displays, a fireworks display went off above us.

It was very cold with temps hovering around 25 degrees, brrrrr.



Mime or runner? A few minutes before the start with the warm jacket still on.



Amy had a great run despite just getting over a cold.

A big smile

Amy with a big smile while shopping in Columbia, SC on Christmas eve in balmy conditions. One could say that the weather was almost too nice, but complaining about 70 degree temperatures sounds silly.

Chuck's World

Chuck Herin is the inventor of pegheds and he bought a very cool school building he is currently restoring and making it into his home and peghed factory.

Chuck with the main school building closest to him and the auditorium to the left



The old blackboards work out great for Chuck to scribble down some thoughts



Some of Chuck's Pegheds



No doubt about what is being worked on here



The former gym houses some of the manufacturing plus some of his car projects



Inside the auditorium where we might see some concerts before too long

Fly with me

Maybe not.


wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

A Christmas party in Columbia, SC

We have been in Columbia, SC the last few days to visit family and attended a couple Christmas parties. The first one was hosted by Amy's dad Ron and his wife Amy and people travel far and wide for this party and the delicious pork tenderloin. Unfortunately I have no pictures of that event.
The day after Virginia hosted a party at her house and it appeared that Amy and I were the only non musical folks there. Everybody played an instrument and/or sang and the whole evening was quite a musical affair. Here are a few images.

This actually wasn't the only jam session that happened in Virginia's house



Grandmama Georgia is listening intently



Amy and her dad Ron surrounded by instruments



Ron's wife Amy did not play until later that night. Amy is actually a great violinist who played at our wedding with her brother Chuck and her friend Virginia



Amy's brother Chuck is a creative genius and he plays the Cello.

The 100 / 100 challenge

I recently signed up for the 100 runs in 100 days challenge on slowtwitch.com that started on December 15th and so far I have managed 6 runs in 4 days. That means I currently have 2 runs in the bank for possible sick days, travel days, holidays or plain old lazy days. We'll see how long the motivation lasts.

The pics below are taken on a loop that I run most often.

Ready for Christmas

Our condo in the Piedmont Leaf Lofts is decorated and we are ready for Christmas. It'll be our one and only Christmas in this place, and most likely the last time we can decorate our home like this. Unless we of course have exposed pipes in a future home that will allow us to hang ornaments. :-)

The new home?

Many folks have asked us about the new green home that we wanted to build here in downtown Winston-Salem as part of the SECCA on Second Street project. The longer we were waiting for things to move along and for good communication from the developer, the more we started to get a bad feeling about it. Along those lines, it is one thing to have a bad vibe about a pair of jeans you are buying, but that should not happen when buying a home no matter how expensive it is. So we decided to walk away from that project a few months ago and started to look at other options. We found a few cool older homes we liked, but Amy and I both were especially smitten by a home in the West End area.

So this might be our new home by mid January.

The front of the house



Cute little front porch area



The living room



Another view of the living room



The den is very cozy



The previous home owner put a lot of work into the kitchen



Did we already say that we love the kitchen?



One of the bath rooms



There is deck out of the back

A weekend in Chattanooga

Last weekend I traveled to Chattanooga to close on the house on Missionary Ridge, but the buyer was missing some paperwork and the whole thing got delayed. I still went anyway as Amy was getting ready for her boards in Nashville and I was going to be home alone in Winston Salem either way. I got there Thursday night and stayed with Anita and Paul and their 4 "kids" Belle, Brodie, little girl and Pete. On Friday I got some work done and the time originally scheduled for the closing was now open and I went to see Jill's "adventures on a pony." I had not seen Martin, Janelle and their kids since mid July and it was amazing to see how much the girls have grown. Friday night Anita, Paul and I met up with Rick and Mary Loggins, Pat and Kleehammer, Mike Madzin, Susan Mietling and a few other folks at Big River Grille downtown and it was nice seeing everybody. Saturday Morning Paul, Anita, Belle and I ran the Big Daddy trail on the side of Lookout Mountain and Rick Loggins joined us for a bit early on, and George Hovanec ran the last section with us. That night we went to the black tie event at the Hunter Museum and with several hundred people gathered there, we had plenty of people to make fun off. Sunday after a nice breakfast at the Blue Plate and a short visit to Martin and Janelle I headed back to Winston Salem and managed to make it in 5:05. :-)


Mmmm ice cream. Life is good for Bex.




Jill is growing like a weed.




A visit to Chattanooga without a trip to Big River is hard to imagine




Anita is ready to run the infamous Big daddy trail run in Chattanooga




Rick ran with Paul and I for a while, but he is still nursing a back injury and couldn't join us for "all the fun."

10/9 Central rant

This little thing shouldn't bug me that much, but I just don't get why a TV show start time has to be announced with two time zones. Example 10/9 Central.

Is the TV watching audience not smart enough to understand that 10 Eastern means 9 Central? Why not say 10/9/8 Mountain or 10/9/8/7 Pacific?

Give them what they want

If you give people what they want, they may give you what you really want. Just don't expect it, or be disappointed if nothing comes back. Are you listening Eric?

Happy, happy

Today is Thanksgiving's Day and I am very thankful for my health, family and friends. I am mostly thankful though to have met the love of my life and to be happily married to her.

A run up Pilot Mountain

On Saturday I ran up Pilot Mountain with Treb, who was kind enough to introduce me to this very nice trail run. It was a bit too cold on the top to hang out and really enjoy the views but we still took in some some magnificent vistas in passing. :-)
Thanks Treb.

The famous Ironman crawl

The 1997 Ironman Hawaii finish gives me chills every time I see it. But I also know that many people have never seen this. Watch Sian Welch and Wendy Ingraham in a display of unbelievable will and determination at the end of 140.6 miles of swimming, biking and running.

New anxiety medications

For Coping With Economic Gloom.

Debtrol

Downcyclen

Subprimacare

Lehmanax

Delinquedent

Panix

Nojoblin

Greedquil

Feariflu

Defaulta

Forclosen

Banxergon

Nuvopor

Catastrophex

For Peter Scallion's complete list click here

Piedmont Craftsmen

Amy and I went to the Piedmont Craftsmen's Fair today at the Benton Convention Center in downtown Winston-Sale. We noticed all kinds of interesting pieces of arts and crafts, but the most interesting projects came from a female "craftsman" named Cynthia Wynn.

Where we currently live

Thanks to the very nice street view of the google maps you can actually see quite clearly where we live in Winston-Salem, NC.

We are on the third floor of the Piedmont Leaf Lofts


A look up 4th street towards downtown


The map view of 401 East 4th Street (Piedmont Leaf Lofts)