ARTpARTy on Clover

Last night we had our first ARTpARTy in our new home on Clover Street and it worked out great. There were lots of interesting and beautiful artworks plus a ton of nice people. Below are a few images of the people as they arrived with their creations. A few hours later everyone went home with someone else's art.

Amy finally wanted to create her own art piece



My artwork reflected too much and we had to go outside to not use the flash



Despite being a bit sick the last week, Mary was able to come



Caroline and Matt each worked on an art piece for the party



Art pieces showed up in all kinds of different ways



The older son of Nate and Jenny give them the inspiration for these popular items



Laura and Jared brightened up the party with their painting



An old tourism card print was crafted by Scott and Mitch



Tom and Travis and their candle art



An endless art piece by Laura



Luke and Melissa worked with wood



Ken is a neighbor from up the street and created an interesting Mango



Leanne and Breck worked in cork



Nancy created a 2-piece artwork



Treb ran an errand for us and thus came a bit later with his beautiful rope work



Related image galleries:
- Piedmont Leaf Lofts ARTpARTy
- 2007 Chattanooga ARTpARTy
- Late 2006 ARTpARTy in Chattanooga
- Early 2006 ARTpARTy in Chattanooga

Faded glory

We recently noticed that the dishwasher not only took the coffee stains out from inside this mug, but also the writing on the outside of it. Amy kind of felt bad because she used it a few times, but I think she is not to blame. My award seem to be fading away in conjunction with my fitness. :-)

Coffee and Milk Art

Mona Lisa in coffee and milk? Or should I say an image of Mona Lisa created from over 3,500 coffee cups of various mixtures of milk and coffee? One thing is for sure, someone in Sydney, Australia made quite an effort to create this piece.

Life is a beach

Well, the title should have been Life at the beach, because that is where we were last weekend. Amy, Pete and I went to Litchfield Beach in SC where we met Amy's Dad Ron and his wife Amy. We had a great time and especially enjoyed the delicious shrimp dinner that Amy prepared. Yummy.

Pete seemed somewhat puzzled by the ocean and the sand


Friday night we grabbed dinner on Murrell's Inlet


Saturday morning we went on a 2 hour ride before it got too hot or busy


Happy to be on the bike after a long time off with various injuries


Looking good with a new leash and collar


Trying to be as close as possible to mom and dad during the drive

Little runner girl

Over the weekend my niece Sara Nina ran a 5k race with my younger brother Manfred, and the 2 of them crossed the line in 32:29. That is not shabby for a little girl who just turned 6 in May. She is the little girl on the left with bib# 397. Which one do you think is my younger brother?

Solar eclipse

An interesting shot taken during the solar eclipse in Allahabad, India. Now those are some cool shades dudes.

On the tracks of Andy Griffith

Over the weekend we got a visit of Amy's mom and we had a very nice time with her. Saturday night we cooked dinner at home and our neighbor Mary joined us. During dinner conversation I found out that both Mary and Amy's mom like Andy Griffith, so on Sunday we drove to "Mayberry" and had lunch there. Mayberry of course is a fictional town based on Mount Airy, NC, and that is where we went.

Mom's new ride

Well, my mom didn't get a new bike, but she did get a new car. So here are a couple pics of mom's new silver colored Opel Corsa. Go Frieda.

This ain't a bike water bottle

To avoid injuries from fights and accidents with broken beer bottles, the city of Hamburg, Germany now uses special plastic bottles in the Reeperbahn district. They even have the reminder "weapons prohibited" printed on them. Those crazy Northern Germans. :-)

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. :-)