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Baseball, Payday, and Marriage

June 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The beginning part of the week has slipped a some from my memory.  Usually I make a note or two to job my mind, but there is not much for the first few days.

Wine tasting at the restaurant Monday.  All the wines tasted really young to me. Most were 2008 vintage and not close to the quality that you would find in an SF corner store.  Seriously a wine so sugary that it smells cloying?  Whose claim to fame is that is it made by a woman living in Washington for those wanting to transition from the sugarty taste of white zinfandel? Blech.. it was nasty NASTY! The whole tasting felt like it was the wine mechant pushing a collection of his high profit margin bottles at use under the guise of a well rounded varietal and geographic selection. We tried nearly 15 wines…  I see no reason to offer the patrons so many choices especially when the staff demonstrated no knowledge of how a good wine should taste.  

Fortunately I escaped and headed to meet Shelley at Beaks Old Florida for dinner (after some meet up confusion)… i tried their margarita… and well not again.  The key lime pie was awesome and for the life of me I can’t recall my entree.   GEtting home after dinner I located a copy of Quicksilver, where Kevin Bacon plays the role of a bicycle messenger in San Francisco circa 1986.

Other things that happened on Monday were that I began using the MapMyRide application for the iPhone to track my speed and distance traveled.  I’ve noticed that my average speed has increased nearly 5mph since I was riding the mountain bike.  I also made some progress on June’s Gulfport Goes Green, we will now have a book swap, clothing swap, Blood Drive, Computer recycling, and battery recycling.  Oh and MooseB8 came home!

Tuesday I was back in Gulfport for the Tuesday Fresh Market.   I arrived very early to begin taking phots of the empty vendor pads as the next step I’m working on is an interactive map for participants and spectators alike.   Shelley scored tickets to the Rays vs Royals game.   Our first baseball game in Florida.  Rays won despite the stadium less than half full (13,500 in attendance) 

My Wednesday was filled with the spirit of Jimmy Buffett – a late morning ride where preening pelicans were the star followed by a midday margarita and then writing.  I have finally started adding content to a few of my other sites.  I also set up an interview for the next day.

Thursday’s interview consisted of a  20 mile ride to meet with a recruiter who was trying to fill a position at a company I’d interviewed with nearly a year ago.  why didn’t I get the job?  I live to far away.  Granted I am now in St. Petersburg, but 5 miles off a 60 mile commute through the worst traffic in Tampa Bay may not be enough to sway the hiring manager.  During a later in the day bike ride  the chain came off my bike.  It was a little scary and I’m glad I did not crash.  Fixed Gear bikes are a s strange beast.   With the restaurant deciding not to open for Friday’s Artwalk in Gulfport I was told not to come in so Shelley and I rode to get margarita supplies (we were running low on lime juice) 

Thursday night I had a surprise call from a dear friend to let me know that her boyfriend is now her fiance!!  The wedding is set for next year and I cannot tell yet as she is still making the personal calls.  Soon as she updates her facebook status you’ll be reading all about it on Perez Hilton!

I ducked off to Gulfport on Friday morning to finish my photo shoot of the empty vendor spaces and [ick up my check from the restaurant.  $130 for 20 hours work.  Next on the list was taking Shelley to the airport for her flight to San Francisco.  She is going for Frank and Robyn's wedding (and trader joe's)  On the way back from the airport I met up with Isabel and dropped off her two laptops I had been working on.  One was salvageable the other was simply too old. (Pentium 166 running an older version of Win 2k)  I walked away with a little cash and 2 freshly picked mangoes direct from Miami.   I stopped for a smoothie at Tropical Smoothie Cafe and the first one they made was a mass of crushed ice with hint of mango (by hint I mean it had the color.. and none of the taste)  The store manager remade it to the tasty (and sweetener free) beverage I wanted (and I did get confirmation from the TSC tweet stream that it is 1/4 cup of sugar and not a full cup that goes into the beverages) With that fiasco concluded I parked MooseB8 and grabbed the bike destination - Gulfport Artwalk for the start of the weekend!

More to learn!

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