Mooooooo! |
Well, it's Sunday night, about 10pm, and I have found myself writing this at a Wendy's of all places.
It's been raining all weekend, and I felt like I have been trapped at my desk all weekend. Or maybe it was just today. After looking over the photos for this week, I clearly was outside of my house.
Regardless, I was stir crazy. I packed up my laptop and hit the road. Anything to at least work in different environment.
I went over to Border's Bookstore…closed. Hmmm. Better go over to Starbucks. Closed too. Oh yeaaahhh…It's Easter Sunday. I am such a heathen. That's why I had Friday off after all. There's a Wendy's across from the Starbucks, so I thought I would settle in here to do some writing.
I am taking Monday off too, so I can work. Funny huh? I am so behind. Have so many projects and things to do. It's getting to be crunch time again. Next year I will have to consider doing this ride again. Takes up a lot of time. It's worth it, but I do run around trying to squeeze my life in. I forget how busy I get in the Spring.
The training for the ride is going well. I did a 45 mile ride on Friday. The weather was gorgeous! Sunny and bright. I kept thinking it was gonna be an amazing weekend to train. Obviously I didn't read the forecast.
Friday was also a great do to do another photoshoot with Jonatan. Unzipped Magazine is going to do a feature article on Jonatan, my lil latin buddy who does all the metal sculptures. We have been planning on going out to his workplace, but the weather has never been correct.
We finally hit a great day this Friday. I got to see Jonatan in action with his plasma cutter and blow torch while making his amazing designs. He works out on John Mason's land, who also is a somewhat famous Austin metal sculptor. John's grounds are filled with artwork and rustic style that is screaming to be used in photoshoots.
For example, there is a stream behind the work area with these two old chairs. They are all rustic and just make a perfect setting. This is the last shot I took of Jonatan, and it's now one of my favorites. He smiles!
In conjunction with the article, we are finally putting Jonatan's work online and up for sale. The official location will be EvolvedMetal.com. That's one of my big tasks, designing something simple that he can maintain on his own.
I forgot to mention that Jonatan also came over on Wednesday night and we photographed a dozen or so of his pieces. I think his stuff is amazing, and I bet he will have so many orders he will have to hire a crew to keep cutting to fill orders. This is a picture of his small horny toad.
Letsee, somewhere along the way I built a computer for Carrie and Paul. Paul is taking a job in New Mexico, so Carrie will be moving on. ~sniff~ So many people just come and go. Anyway, she's been coveting these small form factor computers I have been building, so we did a shopping spree at Fry's. I spent a couple late nights putting it all together.
They came and got it on Satuday. Barbara was over working on the very LAST THING FOR OUR MOVIE, and my roommate was around, and a model was on his way over, and suddenly my house was full of people, and I realized I might…gasp…be doing too much. Naaaaaaaah.
BTW..we send all the artwork and DVD to be replicated early this next week. I will of course let you know when Bat Talk hits the stands.
Earnest wrestled me down and we went to dinner at the downtown flagship Schlotsky's on Friday night. It was my one purely social thing. The weather was still gorgeous and we sat up on the upper deck with a view of the city and park. We later hit Amy's for a little Ice Cream therapy.
Saturday started off muggy and foggy. I was so certain it was gonna be a good weekend weather-wise, but no luck.
Our training ride this time was out at Decker Lake, just South of Austin. The route has rolling easy hills, and was only 23 miles. This was perfect for me, cuz I had ridden so far the day before. I was too pooped to take on more. I'm gonna die on this ride!
Peeair 2 also made it, so he was riding tandem with Bill. I road by and heard him yelling at Bill, “ Get your ass up them hills, they're gaining on us” Geez, who know he could be so competitive?
Chester also road, and he complained the whole time. His shoes didn't match his gloves, he didn't like the flavor of the sports drink, his neck hurt. He is such a stick in the mud!
But he did make everyone happy. I set a task for myself to go by and take pics of people as they were riding. As I did the group photo, Bill and I were last to get started, so I had to really push to get caught up with the pack to try and get some shots.
Talk about smiles. I shot about 15 photos of riders, and when they saw me come up on them with the dog on my back and a camera in my hand, they immediately forgot about the hill that was killing them, and smiled super wide.
I realized that little fluffy toys don't just work for baby photographers. He definitely brought a smile to everyone's face.
Mission accomplished.
After the ride, a few of us went over to a BBQ restaurant. I sat next to Ted Smith, the other power fundraiser for the ride. Ted is cool guy. I'd definitely like to hang with him.
We plotted some nefarious deeds that would take both our teams to the top, but we doubted we could get away with it. I think maybe next year we will combine forces. ~eg~
As soon as we were done riding, the storms starting rolling in, and it's been raining since.
I had a short shoot with N.L., a very cute guy. Gonna do more with him later on. We went out to Barbara's and once again had to deal with weather. The barn/chicken roost location seems to be cursed with bad weather.
This time it was pouring rain, with high winds, thunder and lightening. We gave up after about a half hour. Still got some redeemable photos though.
On Sunday I had a shoot with Ethan. Ethan is from Denver, (you might recognize him as a dancer there and other major cities.) He came in to town to dance, along with his girlfriend Natalie.
We did a quick studio shoot- once again it was raining so no outdoor or location shots. Getting bored with this same location thang.
No chance for cycling, besides my butt is saddle sore. I actually took a nap later that afternoon, then got up and started some more computer work for a couple hours. Hence me fleeing to ANYWHERE other than my house/desk.
That about covers the week! See ya in 7!
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