Archive for March, 2006

March 29
no matter where you go, there you are.
posted by mike at 8:27 pm

So on monday I start a new job. What its doing (.net shite) is not really important, whats important is the location. When I graduated from college, and moved to baltimore it was some what like home and some what like a new adventure. I knew baltimore from living in moco and going to shows at the loft / memory lane etc and knew baltimore from the lady going to school there. Yet I had never lived there, and was teaching in a neighborhood I didnt know. I lived worked and loved in a new city I fell in love with. Then we moved to richmond, life was all new once again married and in a new city, we explored and gained alot of weight from all the eating out. We then moved back to charm city and settled in things were different again, but also the same. I started a job that essentially entailed me driving to a neighborhood over an hour away that I grew up in. I would pass my parents house or the dennys I used to hang out at in high school. Later I changed jobs, again 1 hour away, and again in a neighborhood I knew too well from my childhood. Where my current job is I pass my parents house, work 2 blocks from where me and the lady had one of our first dates, ate dinner before prom, went to get ice cream, saw worlds collide / ashes / pie tasters/ checkerd cabs etc in a vfw hall I can see from my offices window.

This new job is not anywhere near where I grew up. the very brief 15 min drive, doesnt pass any monuments of my youth. Hopefully eventually ill be able to ride the 8 miles on my bike, once I scope out a safe route. It will also give me back 3 hours of my life a day, and most importantly my lost time w/ the boy. I’m pretty freaked out about what the next couple months will bring, but at least hopefully I havent been there before.

 
March 27
Excited and crazy strhessed out
posted by jim at 9:04 pm

Wow. so we might be buying a house in B-more. put in offer in today. Totally Strhessful but exciting. put the offer in today. expect a lot more band practice and a lot more involvement in the rock and the roll.

 
March 15
66 days and it’s all uphill from here
posted by jim at 11:20 pm

66 days until the columbia triathlon. I have to redeem my DNF from last year.

my running has been sporadic but my 45 minute run the other day was only 3.5 miles
I swam for the first time in months today, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.
I’ve been riding the mountain bike everywhere and I am switching the surly over to a geared bike again this week.
I’m tipping the scale at a 174 which will make my wetsuit extra snug.
my parents might also be out for the tri, so I really can’t suck at this one

 
March 15
its not you its me
posted by mike at 5:47 pm

talking w/ cherokee last night I really came to the realization how much job situations, much like band situations, can offten feel like a relationship. You put allot into it, and you expect allot out, and when something goes out of plan people can get hurt. In my case I was the one doing the hurting. On monday I told my job that I was leaving. I fell upon a job which, unlike my current job, is in baltimore city and more than likely will mean I can ride my bike to work. My current job, although a good job and a nice place to work, is in bethesda … which means 3 hours of my life a day are spent commuting. The side effect of this I go insane, and worse than my sanity, I only end up spending at most 30 minutes a day w/ the boy. Plus putting all those responsibilities on cherokee. So when I went in to tell work that I was leaving, and that it wasnt them , it was just that this is a much better situation for my family, I seriously felt like I kept saying in business speak “its not you , its me…. youve been great, its my issues in the way”.

commuting is no fun

 
March 13
moments of zen
posted by mike at 9:49 am

this was my friday afternoon moment of zen

this is the end

and my monday morning moment of zen

“I have a present, it is the present” - jawbreaker

 
March 09

I’m sick again. Bleh.

 
March 07
holden update list
posted by mike at 4:44 pm

so holden has been doing some crazy “advances”, Ive been meaning to write this all down for a while…. so here is a holden bulleted list.

  • he has been all about the They might be giants , more specificly here come the abc’s, and even more specificly d&w and go for g… he demands it in the car, and will sing along full on with dancing.
  • speaking of dancing , last night he pointed at the boombox in his room and stated he wanted to dance
  • he also gets really excited when the ramones comes on his mix cd
  • further related, he does this dancing move we call stiring the pot, which involves him rotating his arm in a circle, not so much in the air, but like in a circle like your stiring a pot. He has also recently picked up his version of a circle pit, where he runs around in a circle offten while stiring the pot.
  • We got him fish for his bday, one is named nemo the other is named fish
  • Last weekend he came to the realization that he is “holden” and will refer to himself as such.
  • In related news he has , as always, been all about reading, only now he’s not to keen on us reading to him, instead he will say “no holden read”
  • We put up a huge map in his room, and he can now tell you he’s from baltimore, moma is from the philipines, and point in the proximity of said places. He also will show you that penguins live in antartica.
  • He’s also been all about “ makeing” as he calls it… basicly doing art projects, be it w/ clay or feathers or “colors

I cant quite think of the other stuff right now, but this is a good list to start.

holden with a book

 
March 05

…but, boy, I always figured that common sense would keep someone from actually doing this.

 
March 02
equilibrium is maintained
posted by jim at 10:55 pm

not so much blogging lately. Because I am a raging full on consumer, I mostly blog about things that I buy.

I will continue this pattern but also write about something that was stolen. THis bike was locked up outside with a combination cable lock. It had a sticker on it that said “Steal at your own risk. this bike has no brakes”. Someone decided to chance it. It wasn’t really that unsafe though. bumbike hub with loctite but it was geared 28×14. As a sidewalk cruiser, it posed no threat. Sucks that it was stolen because it was fun, but I’m not thinking about it too much because of this:

I just did the employee purchase on this bike and hot damn! it’s great. I’ve never had a bike with disc brakes before or a bike with suspension. both are pretty rad, it’s on a steel frame with horizontal dropouts. I don’t see getting rid of the other singlespeed anytime soon, but this thing is definitely my main ride for the dirt. I was going to take it out today but the rain hit. cross your fingers and hope for sun.