Bonding with Amelia

I finally found some time to take Amelia for a spin yesterday in the beautiful fall weather. 65˚F and beautiful sunshine here in Atlanta...quite a change from what I'd grown accustomed to up in Vermont on one of the last days of October. I feel a little like I'm living in perpetual August/September weather and I couldn't be happier. There will be some adjustments when we set the clocks back next weekend and it's darker earlier - but I'm still getting on average an extra hour of light every day. And let me tell you the difference it makes. Amazing.

My ride was fantastic. It felt so good to use my body for exercise again. I went over to the west side of the city and found the start of the Silver Comet Trail, an old rail bed that's been converted to a really great bike path. I can see why it'd be good to not go there on the weekends - when it is likely to be over-run by baby joggers, roller bladers and all kinds of family "vehicles" (think training wheels and tricyles). Which suits me fine. I'm thinking that Monday afternoons will be a good time for me to get over there. It's nice to have a schedule that allows me to take a few hours in the middle of the day. Incidentally, there were several biker types on the trail and none of them were very friendly or even really acknowledged me. Roadies, perhaps? I didn't get good the good tri vibes I was hoping to find.

My next mission is to find the bike trail that goes from Midtown out and around Stone Mountain. Because riding in the streets here is just not an option.

Going to see about a running club this weekend - Saturdays at 8 am in Piedmont Park. Wish me luck! Joining new groups is a challenge...

Here's a picture of the cut paper poster I've been designing in my Design Aesthetics class. What you see here is a culmination of more than 100 hours of work done over 3 weeks. First we drew our animal (mine was an "exotic" sheep) in the style of our civilization (mine was the Absaroke or Crow Indians) in black ink - 100 thumbnails @2" x 3", from those: 33 rough roughs @4"x6", then from those: 11 roughs @6"x9", and from those: 3 tight comps at 12"x18." Then we had to go to kinkos and scan our best three to 24" x 36" and then fix what got bad when we enlarged it (e.g. big areas of blank space). THEN once we figured out just how we wanted our final, we had to make the entire thing again, at 24" x 36" but this time out of cut paper ONLY and only using blacks, whites, and grays. Hard to imagine, isn't it? That's what I thought too. But look!!! School is pretty cool... 'cept my hand still hurts from using the exacto knife.



Train hard!