Stupid Hurts

I headed out watching the sun set over Birmingham, Al. And I drove west. Crossing through towns like Brilliant and Gu-Win before passing into Mississippi. Luckily the drive was really uneventful, well until I started to hallucinate outside of Salisaw, Ok.

12 hours of driving later I was near her home town watching the sun rise over my shoulder.

And now we nap!

Since this is supposed to be primarily a travel site I suppose I should actually get out and travel on occasion. So tomorrow when I get off of work I intend to drive out to Oklahoma to see Sarah. since we was nice enough to fly out here a bit back. I am pretty excited about the whole thing. Hopefully work will not carry on the tradition of piling on silly amounts of work on Friday like they normally do, so I can get headed east at a decent time.

So I think after a total of 15 some hours of [tag]sewing[/tag] my [tag]messenger[/tag] newest bag is finally done. [thumb:525:l][thumb:524:r]

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I am fairly happy with it, there are a few small things I may have to go back and fix later, but this one managed to address most of the design flaws and functionality issues I had out of my other bags. The only downside to it at this point is that it is a bit bigger than I expected.
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Even that aside, I like wearing it so far, and I can’t wait to get a new [tag]bike[/tag] so I can try it out on the road.

Now the hard part is deciding if I am goign to take my left over fabric and parts and make another bag

I have a [tag]headache[/tag], my legs hurt, and i can’t hear. The persistent [tag]ringing[/tag] in my ear is probably going to keep me awake for a few more hours yet. But is was worth it. Let’s go back to the beginning.

I spent most of my morning [tag]sewing[/tag] and working on my new [tag]bag[/tag], I feel like I made a great deal of progress with it I may be ready to tackle mating the bottom halves together at some point tomorrow.[newline]
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I took a break from sewing for a bit to watch the [tag]Birmingham[/tag] [tag]Rugby[/tag] team [tag]practice[/tag] before making my weekly vigil to the local bicycle shop where I got sized and got information on a new [tag]bicycle[/tag].

My evening is where things got interesting. First off was the best dinner I have had in ages. We went to a local Thai place not to far from my apartment called[tag]Surin[/tag] West,t I have been horribly wrong in neglecting to visit there before now. The ginger chicken and several rolls of sushi I ate where amazing. Every bite into something new was promptly followed by a “wow!” I wish there has been some left over so I could snack on it now. From there I went with a few friends to my favorite dive bar the [tag]High[/tag] [tag]Note[/tag]. Tonight It seem like I knew about a third of the people from there from various parties I have attended. Lots of hugs, smiles, and hand shaking

After a few hours of watching my friends drink and catching up on current events, Several of us went into the [tag]music[/tag] venue in the back to see the bands that were performing. The last band on made the best impression on me.

The lights in the bar dimmed, and I felt the heat of a bunch of lighters rise around me. A [tag]guitar[/tag] chord rose up from the floor sweeping the room destroying every other sound until it had the crowds full attention. The lights slowly gained power and the band [tag]Mindtrip[/tag] proceeded to put on a massively impressive show for us. I left partially deaf and thoroughly rocked out. It made for an amazing night.

It is amazing the silly things I can find to stress out over. My current issue is as such. I messed around and sold my bicycle with the intention of buying a different bike to replace it with. Now after test riding a much nicer bicycle I think I really want that one instead. Part of the problem stems from the fact I haven’t been able to touch or ride the cheaper bicycle so I do not really know how it compares to the nicer one. The other issue with buying the more expensive of the two bikes is that it would negatively affect my saving for my trip to Europe this summer. I dont know if I really want that to happen at this point. But it looks like I may end up with a silly amount of over time at work over the course of the next few weeks so I am going to sit back on my haunches for a bit before I decide. Hopefully I can make a choice before attrition sets in to badly.

That aside I came across one of the oddest things recently. Apparently it is the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars Franchise so in conjunction with the postal service they have places several mail boxes around the city that look like R2-D2. I think they are pretty cool if not just a little odd[newline]
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I got up this morning and the [tag]weather[/tag] was [tag]perfect[/tag]. I had to get out and enjoy it. So I spent my morning [tag]practicing[/tag] my [tag]front[/tag] [tag]hand[/tag] [tag]springs[/tag]. I haven’t really tried them since breaking my leg. After 30 minutes or so, I realized that I landed them a lot more consistently if I tried leading with the other foot, such a simple thing. So I kept working at them till I landed ten handsprings in a row. I hate to admit it but it is really bad when you are sitting on the curb covered in dirt and grass grinning to yourself like a fool and a [tag]homeless[/tag] guy walks by and shakes his head at you.

From there I ran out to [tag]Ruffner[/tag] [tag]Mountain[/tag] [tag]Nature[/tag] [tag]Center[/tag] and hiked about six miles down their hardest trails. I had a really awesome time walking around and even managed to get a few good pictures. i even added a new album in my [tag]photo[/tag] gallery for them Please check them out.
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Since this was my first full [tag]Saturday[/tag] off in over a month I decided to get more done with my day than siting alone at [tag]home[/tag]. I spent my morning walking around downtown [tag]Homewood[/tag]. While down there I took the time to visit Homewood Cycles . There they let me run up and down the road a few times on an [tag]Ulteggra[/tag] [tag]Cervelo[/tag] Dual

Once I stretched and got into a comfortable [tag]racing[/tag] tuck, it felt like I was riding a guided [tag]missile[/tag]. Each pedal stroke rocketed me forward. The wind tore at my face till my eyes wateredf. I definitely want a [tag]TT[/tag] [tag]bike[/tag] now.

More or less how it happened
We were walking downtown headed away from the Alabama theater. She teased me so I spun her around pinned her to a wall and looked into her eyes. She looked at me and her eyes flashed mischievously, her lips curled up at each end into that beautiful smirk she has. With my hands on the wall at both sides of her head, she just titled her face playfully to the side and said.

“Cowboy I think today is the luckiest day of your life.”

I missed blogging yesterday because I worked an 18 hour day and just came home and collapsed. Fortunately I was sent home early today and that allowed me a chance to catch up on several projects that have been stagnating. I managed to get all my parts for my new messenger bag cut out except for the flap and the strap. I still haven’t figured that out yet. After a bit of time laying out my pocket patterns

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I got ready to start sewing and doing prep work only to realize that half of the sewing machine I intended to use was missing. So I am stuck until I find a new machine to use.
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On a side note, I paid a visit to my friend Matt today. Since he is leader of the Birmingham Scooter Syndicate he knows all sorts of useful information about they city. He helped me find a place that sells seatbelt straps to use for my bag, I am so excited

So last month sometime I wandered on to a sale at my local [tag]fabric[/tag] [tag]store[/tag]. There is a roll of [tag]cordura[/tag] there that I paid $13.95 a yard for in when I made my last [tag]bag[/tag]. Last time I was there it was on sale for $1.95 a yard so I got a few yards in the hope that I would make another [tag]messenger[/tag] bag.
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Well the past few days I have been [tag]visualizing[/tag] and drawing up a new bag design. Tonight I finally got my math to add up into numbers I liked, so I took a few hours to draw up and cut out the first piece of my new bag.
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I see pockets in my near future.