Third site is the charm

Image caption: This was the original background image for tripmakersonline. Sadly, it didn't fit with the rest of the design.

I created my third site! tripmakersonline.com is live. Here's how it came to be.

Months ago my wife volunteered me to create a travel site for my in-laws. My mother-in-law is part of the dying breed of travel agents. She's based out of Chattanooga. I told them that I would work on the site in my spare time. Spare time was hard to come by. I decided for ease of uploading to create one page with tabbed panels. Tabbed panels is a Dreamweaver trick that creates JavaScript to allow you to click different tabs to access specific content. I used this technique when creating my second site, thehoeyfirm.com.

I was dying to create something cool looking for the site's background. I thought of an old travel standby, the postcard. I found a bunch of cool looking old style postcards and stacked them jigsaw-puzzle style to make a coherent background. It didn't go over well with my testers (wife and in-laws). Sadly the creative part was good but it didn't work with the rest of the design. I instead used a background image of sand. We all like sand. It indicates vacation in a way few images do.

Today I got the green light to upload the site. My wife bought the hosting account through godaddy.com and I uploaded the files. It took a few tries because in godaddy.com 's file upload system you're unable to upload new content after uploading once. I'm sure there's a way around it but I have to log out and log back in every time.

The site's live although there are some steps to take. The forms go to my e-mail address because I need to set up the e-mail account through godaddy. I don't have meta tags yet. SEO isn't a big deal yet since traffic will come through the in-laws contacting customers directly. We may even do an e-mail campaign.

It's fun to create and it's even better when you can get the site live for the world to see. Now it's time to re-design my own page, zachlawonline.com.

Sweat equity

I welcome summer on a day when I cannot stop sweating. I'm not an uber sweaty person by nature. I don't sweat at work, or in the car, or on long elevator rides. I sweat when I exercise. Yesterday I hosted some friends to watch the USA/England soccer match, because draws are so quaint, and I overindulged in food and drink. This was a long burn, so instead of drinking five beers in two hours it was more like seven in four. Plus there were sausage rolls from our Scottish friend, a full on grill meal and two boxes of Keebler cookies that prove I will eat anything if it's dipped in fudge.

I felt like fudge this morning. It didn't help that we stayed up until one in the morning in part because I had to watch the NFL Network re-air of Super Bowl 34 and we had one more episode of Big Love to watch before turning in the Netflix disc. The cat puked at 6. He's very prompt that way. I had to purge.
I mowed the lawn first, because home maintenance is important. I knew that the logical follow-up to a lawn-mowing would be a run. I'm no super athlete. The lawn takes about 20 minutes to mow and is more of a warm up.

As my eyes were bigger than my stomach yesterday, my brain was ahead of my body in terms of running. I usually start running cold, without a warm-up, so running after mowing had me going at a good pace. It was only when I reached the point of no return which is a huge hill that's a lot more fun to run down than up that I knew this was going to be a challenge. It was about ten in the morning and in Atlanta summer is here in full force. That means heat and that means humidity. I had a lot more shade on the way in than the way back. As I talked myself into another 100 seconds and another I felt really hot.

It took me about 30 minutes outside reading the AJC sports page to slow down. I went inside and started a load of laundry. The sweat continued. I'm writing upstairs, which is the warmest part of the house. Sweat continues. Right now I feel like I could sweat for the next eight hours. It's no longer cooling. It's annoying.

Falling down blue

If someone asks me who my favorite band is, I pause. I do so because saying the name means I'm going to have to explain who the band is to a party that will generally get less and less interested the more I go into detail. I have two favorites, but the one for which I have expended the most emotional energy is called Blue Rodeo. Their music has been described as roots, which means good music that isn't going to get a lot of commercial play. When the fiddle and lap steel are prominent, you are looking at a niche band, at least in America. Yep, they're Canadian.

I would assume that a large percentage of Canadian Atlantans were at Smith's Olde Bar last night. I could get bitter and complain that such an accomplished group has to play in a venue that fit maybe 200 in a room last night. But honestly I'm glad that I can see them in such an intimate setting. The band's been together since 1984 and belies the common rock myth that two alpha dogs can't co-exist.
I discovered the band along with my college roommate in 1993. He would not stop listening to the ballad "Now and Forever", which was a song about regret and loss after a breakup. He was going through a breakup and I assume that it helped.
Blue Rodeo often uses the imagery of ghosts in their songs. I don’t think of ghosts as real. Instead they are our own creation manifested in painful memories of the past.

Consider gems like this: “I was happy for a while. Then I started chasing your stone cold heart. I was happy for a while. Then everything started falling apart.”

Or, better yet, check it out.

The band has become like a good friend who's known me for nearly 20 years. How can you overstate such a relationship? I can't wait for their return in 2012.

Fast as a slow comet

Having a hobby is an expensive prospect these days. I have a friend who owns a bike. He can't just have a bike, though. He has the bike, a bike shirt, bike shorts (hopefully worn under other shorts), shoes, gloves, a helmet, and a rack for his car. I'm not ready emotionally or financially for such an investment. I'm good with my shoes for running. Today I joined him on Georgia's Silver Comet trail today.

We didn't do enough research, apparently. For those who are out of the state, yeah, Georgia's kind of shut down on Sunday morning. The bike rental shop didn't open until 10:30 and we got there at 9:30. It was a 30-minute drive to get there so we waited. The folks started putting their bikes on the pavement outside but would not serve me until 10:30. I had a choice between a "speed" bike and a "comfort" bike. The speed bike had a seat that was a molded plastic monstrosity that would have destroyed my personal seat. I took the comfort. Mr. Funk suggested a 20-mile ride. No problem. I started quickly but it didn't take long for me to realize that there are muscles used in bike riding that I don't usually use. My thighs were killing me. When we got within a mile of our turnaround point I felt saved. I had miscalculated and we were two miles short.

A rest gave me enough energy to continue. Don gave me one of those gel packs that tastes horrible but is supposed to give you energy. Does that mean tons of caffiene? On the way back we passed more than passed us, which was nice. Only one spandex-clad guy gave us guff for taking too much room. Bike shirts are weird. They're like football jerseys but of anything you like. Don had an AC/DC "For Those about to Rock" yellow shirt. I saw one Cat in the Hat and a Froot Loops selection. Lovely. My generic $10 white wicky shirt from Target will do for now.

We finished in less than two hours. Our time was pretty good for 21 miles until I realized that world-class marathoners run faster than we biked. We may do it again soon, but on a Saturday this time.