This life

1st life is so wonderful, everyone can get stuck sometimes in reading terrible things on facebook or listening to horrible events on the news.  You know what, that isn't how I want to live, I turn off the media and think about all of the great things in this world. It really is a great place. I went hiking with a friend yesterday at Three Creeks showing him a couple bluffs and caves I knew about. When he left I returned back to the trail and sat on a log, it was then I heard stillness, leaves, birds, and trickle of a nearby brook.  I noticed my breath becoming longer as I drew in more air, more relaxed more intune with myself. Thank you, I needed that.

Oh no getting the bug again

I think I get these urges once someone plants the bug in my head...now I am looking at bike touring but on a small overnight scale....off to look at bike panniers (and learning how to say that word too). Stina planted in my head that there is a Peddler's Jamboree coming up...we'll see.

What's next

Right now I have a baby on the way. Maybe i'm getting cold feet or mayb I just want to discover myself more before he comes.  I've been thinking of a few things that I wish I had done before he got here but then again I hope that one day he will want to do these things with me....like backpacking.

(on the cedar creek trail, cooking some tea and, some sort of noodles)

It doesn't help with my backpacking urge that I have a friend who is backpacking the Appalachian trail right now. She has a blog so I am keeping up with it regularly.  From reading her experience it's nothing like I imagined the trail would be like.  

Hot Summer ride

VERY VERY hot! after biking is over with its all about cooling down the fastest!

Its back to biking again. It’s just one of those things that keeps coming back. Also, the temps are hitting the 90s so now is a good  time to freeze those water bottles.  I’ve started stretching more although Christina would say this really isn’t a stretch. That is about as far as my leg will bend, I don’t want to end up in physical therapy again so this is my new routine. ..WHAT FUN….

Basement fixin' up!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.726629746498.2182999.49709290&l=21aa9e64a0&type=1Basement progress

at it again?

Met another guy named Aaron and we biked 16 miles...it was hell on me and my enemy lactic acid came along! also Stina planted a seed in my mind to go on this Peddler's Jamboree thing...we'll see how it goes. I get SO caught up and attached to things like these but it always comes in phases. Wonder what its like to just have one hobby instead of all these things that you love to do!? haha!!

day 2

Chest workout and hit the legs a little with leg extensions but not over 45 degrees (b/c the doc. said not to)...went home to shower and discovered my shoulders hurt so much I could barely get my shirt over my head to get in the shower haha!shouldn't have quit exercising!

I'm back

First day back to the gym I joined the ARC in columabia, MO. did shoulders today @ 5:30 a.m. for 45 min. I am hurting! looks like an awsome gym except for the gang showers.

The working man

Steps that I've gone through now. Ok so
1. Moved to Columbia, MO.
2. Got a job at U.S. Rents it rental company as cashier for 3 months while searching for architecture job.
3. got a part time 20 hr/week job at SOA in september.
4.Got hired full time in Janruary.
5. September Proposed to Christina at Capen park while hiking on a cliff overlook.
6. April -current under contract for a house.
7. Registered to take ARE 4.0.
8. Got a dog named Koda from second chance humane society 1/2 border collie and australian shepard.

So now I'm just wondering whats next! exciting stuff!!!!

Moving

So, I guess i'm officially a bum now. I quit my job at an architecture firm it just didn't fit me well at all, but I tried to hang in because I was surrounded by experience. I'm also homeless after a fiasco with the electric company I am having to move out tonight and finding somewhere to "camp-out" till my official move. Its wierd how really good people shine through when you're in your time of need. So for food....this is my dollar store meal pretty decent. total $2.07 The lizard picture is my homeage to Bear Grylls. I titled it "urban survivalism" I thought it was a fun self- portriat.

The shoot

So this was such a great experience! I got a quick lesson in how to communicate with these little kids and try to get them to smile and interact a bit. Learn about the business side. Which I love! I learned about sensor flash units vs. radio units. Mary, the photographer below is shoot with "line of sight flash" and the other well known Memphis photographer below is shooting with a radio activated unit. She filled a 4G card and moved to another one in about 1 hr.

Follow in the footsteps..

Yea following is crazy and no one likes to do that! Especially not individualistic artist types. Well, I've contacted someone we'll call her Mary, and she is going to let me sherpa her camera equipment today for a family photoshoot in Memphis. It will be my first time getting to see a "real" photographer do their thing! I'm pretty excited and brought my camera so I can maybe take some shots of her in working. I want to see how she communicates to the client how she conducts a shoot and all that. Hopefully we'll both be doing each other a favor!

back from the doc

Well, after some anti inflamatory, a knee alignment brace, and some excersises the doc visit is over I took the rest of the day off and did some p90x I finally got a pull up bar its pretty awsome wish I would have gotten it sooner! GAH! lol. well, Off to work!

Visit

So Mom called on Friday and said, hey what are you doing want us to visit? So of course I said YEA! they came up and we visited the Pink Palace, Gus' fried chicken, and a few other places around it was great just to spend time with them again! I love my family and feel really lucky to have them around. later after they left I took my camera out for a quick afternoon shoot to try to catch the "golden hour". It was like 98 degrees at 6:00pm so I saw this sprinkler and had to capture that great water shooting thought it!

Yeah for food!!

So, here is some glazed eggplant that I made that was pretty great I covered that in some couscous and it was just a good day from then on! It is glazed with some curry and honey but thats the major tastes that came through anyway. Hooray for good food! especially when it turns out looking like the picture in the book, unlike looking at the burger on the Mcdonalds sign only to get a smushed looking wrapped up solid substance that they pass as a burger.hehe!

The vegetarian returns

Well, my girl came in for a visit over Labor day and it was great fun! We didn't do anything to spectacular but we enjoyed the time with each other. It was a great weekend with great weather and the Hurricane Gustav may have even helped the weather in Memphis stay breezy and cool. I'll leave you with a picture of some salad I made us....it was like greans and tofu with mushrooms cooked in a curry and coconut milk base. Although both of us are sceptical of my skills with vegetables this one turned out pretty good!

LEED seminars

So we took a trip to Little Rock to check out the cool things going on there involving LEED design. It seems Little rock is taking off while Memphis is soo slow in even getting involved. Some things that stick out in my mind were the business that loaned bikes to their employees (also had showers in the office). They collected rainwater to use for flushing the toilets landscape watering...and so on. Heifer uses a moat around the building to naturally bring a draft through the stair well so they don't have to condition it! There were some great features! In all it took up a Friday but I'm glad I went! we visited Heifer International, Clinton Memorial Library, and Winrock International.

Training?

What in the world have I been doing? well, I did go to my new apartments so called fitness room and have been doing cardio on that. I think I may go mountain biking today because it isn't scalding hot outside. This past weekend I was in Galveston eating icecream and eating oreos! It was kinda nice to not have to worry too much about what I'm putting down the ole chute. But I got to see my girl Christina and we just enjoyed each others' company.