If you want to watch Russian Jugglers talking shit, visit this link: The Galchenkos.

You must click on the videos. I laughed so damn hard when I watched these.

I stole this link from Hillary

At the show last night I participated in the following exchange with Brent:

Me: Hey man, check out the guitar player. He’s got sideburns tattooed on his face!

Brent: That’s not a dude. That’s a chick.

Me: OK, you win. I fucking love Athens!!!

The show kicked major ass, except I was not impressed with the crowd at all. There were a lot of loud conversations going on, and for an intimate group like Hope, it really fucking interferes with my enjoyment. I’m known to lose my shit and make a scene, and I came very close last night. Other than that, the music was great. I love bands with cellos and Will is the best cello player in town. The Campbell sisters’ voices are unbelievable. That shit will haunt you after you hear it. I had to buy a cd because I knew I’d need to hear it again, soon.

Meghan didn’t make the show, but they are playing again at the Caledonia in a couple weeks I think.

Check out the band’s website: Hope For a Golden Summer

Go and listen to them if you get the chance. They are good and you won’t hear another band like them.

I go back to work tomorrow. I was off all week trying to relax, and I think I’ve accomplished it. I managed to avoid checking my voice mail or reading my office email all week long too. Of course, tomorrow when I go in, I’ll have a ton of shit to deal with. But really, how is that different from any other day?

Tonight Meghan and I are going to see Hope for a Golden Summer at the 40 watt. I think she’ll like them. I know I will, I’ve heard them before. Brent is going too, so we’ll get some beers beforehand.

Now I’m going to relax some more and enjoy my last day off.

Tom Danielson wins the GC. Trent Lowe of Jittery Joe’s wins best young rider. Chechu Rubiera wins King of the Mountain. Gord Fraser won the last stage into Alpharetta. You might recognize him. He won the Twilight Criterium a few times.

Good race. I’m pumped for the cycle season now! Next up, the Giro!

OK, I broke down and bought one of these a couple weeks ago. It’s basically the new gameboy. It plays old Gameboy Advance games, as well as new DS games. I didn’t see any DS games I thought I’d like, so I bought a couple of GBA games, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, and Final Fantasy I and II. I’m a big fan of good RPG and Adventure games.

My problem is that I always buy a game system, get one or two games for it, and never get any others. I don’t want to do that with this. So I’ve been scouring the internet for some clues as to what kind of games I’d like. Here is a good site: Kotaku DS Site.

If any of you out there have any experience with this system, drop me a line. I don’t want it to go unused after I beat these games.

to the blog The Day Jobs. This is a blog run by anonymous folks from around town in Athens. It’s pretty good! My Athens related activity on this page is pretty limited, mostly because I like to do things by myself, like ride my bike. But these guys are all over the place. And honestly, they aren’t as anonymous as they would like since I know a couple of them. It’s really just a formality so they don’t get canned I think.

Anyway check it out if you want to know what’s going on beneath the surface of our city, kinda like the river of slime from Ghostbusters II.

Today started off good. Got up, took a shower, went to the Grit for brunch. This is my weekly ritual. I’m big on rituals, which sometimes irritates my wife. She just doesn’t understand my need for routine. I guess it borders on the OCD edge of things, but I really get upset when I can’t go eat brunch at the Grit. This is one of the things that I dreamed about while I was freezing my asshole off up in Erie. It’s one of the things that made me want to move back to Athens. And now that I’m here, I intend to take full advantage.

I love eating there. I alway bring a book with me. Not just any book, but something that will make me think. Right now I’m reading ‘The Elegant Universe’ by Brian Greene. This book is going into serious depth about string theory, which is the next evolutionary step for the theory of relativity. It’s pretty intense, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.

Today is the last day of the Tour de Georgia. I decided not to go see the finale this year. Last year Lance Armstrong won, and I went to get his autograph and pictures. This year, Lance will not be winning. The winner most likely will be Tom Danielson, who is probably going to be the next Tour de France contender from the Discovery team. It would be nice to see him race this early in his career, but I didn’t really want to go by myself. I was supposed to go with Charlie, but they had a funeral to go to, so I decided to just stay home and watch it online.

Talked to my friend Eric on AIM last night. I haven’t really talked with him in a while. He works for Microsoft in Seattle. He got married recently (I think it hasn’t been 6 months yet) and I wanted to find out how that was going for him. I hope to meet his wife someday, but Seattle is fucking far away.

Speaking of old friends, I found that my friend Aaron is keeping a MySpace blog about his adventures in Iraq. The rumor is he’s coming to Dothan in May for some shore leave. I will fucking BE there for that. We used to hang out all the time. Actually, that’s kind of an understatement. All of my youthful memories involve him in some way and its a fucking shame that it’s been 10 years since our last meaningful discussion. I hope to rectify that soon.

Well, now is the part of today where I kill a few hours playing The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap on my new Nintendo DS. What can I say, I’m a geek and a sucker for gadgets.

Well, looks like I missed an epic battle on Brasstown Bald today. Tom Danielson of Discovery took the stage and the yellow jersey from Floyd Landis. I need to find out more about Mr. Danielson. Everywhere I’ve read about him says he’s the next big thing. Looks like he’s off to a good start anyway. Armstrong finished pretty good, but he’s out of contention for the overall win. Tomorrow should be a good finishing day though. With such a small gap between the top guys, it could come down to sprints at the end.

I’m looking forward to it either way.

Today is NFL draft day and I’m going to be watching to see where the UGA players all end up. So far we’ve just had one, Thomas Davis, a safety, go to Carolina. I’m interested to see where David Pollack ends up.

Sports Illustrated Draft Day

UPDATE: David Pollack picked 17th in the first round to Cincinatti.

OK, so I didn’t go to Brasstown Bald today. I wanted to sleep in. I’m glad I didn’t go anyway because its like 25 degrees and snowing up there. No thanks! So I’m sitting at home nice and warm, and watching the play by play on www.cyclingnews.com.

I am going to Alpharetta tomorrow to catch the end of the race though.

Also, I’m officially on vacation till next Thursday. Finally I can relax and not think about work.

I’d say this has been one of the best weeks I’ve had in recent memory. Maybe it’s the bike riding, but my mood has been great. I’ve been eating better (and more), and I just feel fucking fantastic. This weekend is going to kick ass. Tour de Georgia all weekend long! and I’m off work monday through wednesday for a little mini vacation of doing nothing. I think I’ll just ride my bike and catch up on some reading.

Had a fucked up dream last night. I was in my dad’s old apartment on North Ave. He was there, very much alive. He’d shaved his beard off, and just had a moustache, which was how his facial hair looked when I was very young. He was skinny too. I told him I thought he looked pretty good. His dog was there, but she was a different dog altogether (but still the same dog, get me?). So was his cat Booty. The apartment was completely empty except for us, and a phone. He kept picking up the phone expecting someone to be there. He kept wondering why no one was calling.

I have no explanation for this dream. It was just very vivid and strange. It may have had something to do with my lack of sleep. I didn’t actually get to sleep until almost 4 because I was addicted to reading Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown. Good stuff. Kept me up though and I’m still paying the price for that.

Weeks like this are the reason I wanted to move back to Athens. It’s fucked up, but I’ve accomplished every single thing I wanted to when I moved back here. I have a great job, I’m exercising, we bought a house….things are just great.

I wonder what will happen next?

Went to the OTC show, had a fucking blast. Elf Power and Olivia Tremor Control are two bands that work very well together. They played all the good stuff and were very entertaining. I especially like when OTC took an intermission, left the stage, and a minute or two later, came through the front door of the 40 watt parade style with Scott Spillane sporting a huge fiberglass tuba. Fun stuff, although I did overindulge myself on the alcohol and got sick. A rarity, but it did not diminish the awesomeness of the evening.

On an equally positive note, I rode my bike home from work today. 10 miles in half an hour. That’s not bad. It was a lot of hills so the downhill part went by fast. But damn, those are some steep mo fo’s. All I have to say is that by next year I’ll be flying up Brasstown Bald.

Speaking of which, I’m going there this weekend to see the TdG stage. Looks like it’ll be a good one. I didn’t know this, but Cesar Grajales, the guy who won the stage ahead of Lance last year, will be back to try again, just not on the Bean Team. He rides for Lincoln Navigators now. But either way, it’ll be Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer, and Cesar going for it. I’m pretty pumped.

So tomorrow morning I’m getting up and riding back to work. This will now become a daily occurence. Fitness, here I come.

The show is tonight. I’m pretty excited. I’m supposed to meet Brent and Jeff downtown so we can get our drink on before the show.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a Jeff Mangum guest appearance, but I know how unlikely that is. I don’t know very many songs by OTC so I hope they will play at least one that I know. Elf Power is opening for them, and I’m more familiar with their songs. This shit is going to kick some ass.

The Tour de Georgia is coming up. This year I’m going to make it to the Brasstown Bald stage as well as the finale. Last year we went to the final stage in Alpharetta and got some amazing photographs, as well as Lance’s autograph! But we missed the best day of racing and didn’t get to see Athens own Jittery Joes squad go toe to toe with the big boys and beat them on Brasstown. I’ll not be missing it this year! Also looking forward to seeing Bob Roll again. The man is impressive in person. His hands are frikkin huge.

OK, the goal this week is to ride my bike every day. Today went well, I’m getting stronger. My appetite also is increasing exponentially. That’s a good sign for me. I have a pretty speedy metabolism anyway, but when I start exercising regularly, I can consume mass quantities. I feel healthier already, and I really haven’t done much yet.

Got an email from my friend Amanda from my high school. She tells me that another one of my friends is getting married and a lot of people I haven’t seen in almost 10 years will be there. Hopefully she’ll take lots of pictures. I am curious to see how everyone is doing.