Living in the Scoot Utopia

When the year began I set a few goals for 2007. Now that the year is half over, let's see how I'm doing...

• To break the elusive 30-mile barrier with a long walk somewhere in the metro area.
  

Done. On April 15 I walked 37.5 miles from Liberty to Olathe. And I'm just hours away from embarking on an attempt to break 40.

• To weigh 20 pounds less on December 31 than I do on January 1.

I've lost four, so I have a lot of work to do to meet this goal.

• To have an HbA1c blood test result of 5.9, which would essentially be diabetes-free.

Done. I've had two of these tests so far this year and both have been 5.9 or below!

• To visit 50 new bars while still achieving the above two goals. ;)

Done, provided I lose 16 more pounds. :) This goal proved easier than I expected... I hadn't counted on getting to do any major barhopping trips this year and instead have done several. So far I've been to 121 new bars in 2007. :)

• To throughly clean my place sometime this spring, and clean out my damn closet.

Oh HELL no.

Posted by ScooterJ at 09:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After last weekend's postponement, caused both by a case of strep throat and a grossly inaccurate gloom-and-doom weather forecast for last Saturday by our imcompetent cabal of weathercasters, my attempt at my first 40-mile walk is now back on for this Sunday (July 1).

Once again I'll be setting out from downtown Liberty and walking generally in a southwest direction, following a route that is similar to my last walk. (The first half is mostly the same, the second half is mostly new.)

This time I'll be walking for a cause... walking 40 miles to help give someone else back the ability to walk. I urge you to visit my donation page and make a contribution to Limbs For Life to help someone in need.

This walk will be webcast live at LiveWalking.com. I'll be starting around 5:30am (give or take 15 minutes) and walk until I have reached 40 miles or can't go any further. The web site will update frequently showing where I've walked so far, my latest reported position, distance walked, photos of what I am seeing along the way, and blog reports from the field. Visitors can also post comments or questions that I'll receive and be able to respond to during the course of the walk.

So be sure to drop by the web site on Sunday, wish me luck, and make a donation to a worthy cause!

Posted by ScooterJ at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

...and embrace my geekiness.

A few days ago Seth dropped a challenge in one of his blog posts for me to post about something geeky I do and celebrate my inner geekdom. I thought about it a bit and here's a few things that I guess would qualify:

1. Seth suggested I post about the geekiness of my barhopping. "But what's geeky about that?" I thought. Then I realized that most people don't record where they went, what time it was, what they drank and at what ounce size, write down notes, take a picture, get map coordinates, and the post the reports online. And most people also don't keep a running log of every place they have been, nor have 4-page long Google Map pinpointing the location of ever bar visited.
2. I supposed there's some geek factor involved in my walking, since I push myself to greater and greater distances each time, document the walks online, and now even do live webcasts of them.
3. I'm pretty geeky about the 1980 movie Flash Gordon. I've seen it hundreds of times and if you give me any line from the movie I can pretty much recite the remainder of the film from that point onward.
4. I'm obsessed with maps. I collect them, love to look at them, especially maps of familiar places. I like making my own maps, too.
5. Then of course there's this.

So, there you have it, I admit it, I'm geeky.

What does your inner geek obssess about?

Posted by ScooterJ at 02:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night I downloaded some PhotoMosaic software (MacOSaiX) and started playing around with it. My first two attempts didn't work out but my third turned out rather nicely I think.

Here is the result, a cool refreshing mug of beer...

...made entirely out of photos I took on all my various barhopping trips.

Here's a full-size version where you can make out the individual pictures: View image

Enjoy!

Posted by ScooterJ at 08:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Part 2 of last weekend's road trip. (See also part 1.)

On Saturday (June 16) B and I continued our road trip with one final Iowa stop before spending the remainder of the day barhopping in Northeast Missouri. We ended up hitting 21 bars that day and learned about a pyromaniacal mayor, met a guy who can remove his skivvies while keeping his pants on, and sang at the most poorly-organized karaoke night I've ever seen.

Follow the link below to see the travelogue, complete with pictures and beer notes. Enjoy!

• DrinkingNEMO.leapbeer.com

Posted by ScooterJ at 06:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

My boss got a surprise visitor on the window ledge in her office...

>

Posted by ScooterJ at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A few weeks back my friend "B" and I broke our previous barhopping record (21) when we managed to have a drink at 23 bars in a single day on Cinco de Mayo. This got us wondering just how far we could go if we planned it out really well.

This past weekend we may have found the answer. Heading out on the road towards rural north-central Missouri and southeastern Iowa last Friday morning, the journey and our destination of Ottumwa, Iowa (where we then set out on foot) ended up taking us to a grand total of THIRTY (30) bars on the first day of our trip! Other than a few places being closed that should have been open the whole thing went off without a hitch and we had a really great time. You can see it in our drunken faces at the moment we realized we'd just had our 30th bar drink:

Along the way I also passed the 300 mark in my own personal bar tally and got to make a connection with an ancestor at just about the same time.

You can read all about it at the link below:

• 30 bars in a day!

Hope you enjoy it! And, this was just day ONE of our weekend, Saturday's report will be posted in a few days. :)

Posted by ScooterJ at 02:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The most delicious blimp ever just floated past my office window. Mmmmmmmm.....

Posted by ScooterJ at 04:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Posted by ScooterJ at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)