Where has free time gone?

I feel like I've gone from wondering what to do with my time to wondering where my time is going. Work has been plentiful lately and Beth and I have been out of town on numerous trips for Freshie & Zero. It's been a month since I put a post up...wow it's flown by.

I haven't gotten back on the cycling train yet but I've made a few meager attempts. I got out to Monty Bell last week for a solo ride. I was leery that the trail would be a sloppy mess with the wet month that Sept was but I was surprised yet again by the resilience of that trail. It was definitely wet, but there was no mud to be seen. My bike wasn't even dirty minus a little bit of wet crushed leaves and trail debris.


I had the entire trail to myself which was quite peaceful. I took it easy since I don't have the fitness I am accustomed to and stopped to take photos. It takes creativity (and a good camera timer) to get self portraits on a solo bike ride. I was using Beth's old Canon which only has a 10 sec timer so it made it that much more difficult, and fun.


We've been to Chicago and Memphis for craft shows this past month and Beth did a show down in Murfreesboro between them. All three shows were a success which is a great morale boost coming off the miserable shows we did in the Spring. We're both pretty worn out those from the cycle of: make a ton of jewelry, travel/setup/sell it, come home and make a ton more, travel/setup/sell it then come home and make more. Beth has also had some big wholesale orders to fill for stores around the country. Lots to do for sure!

Here is a bit of a picture dump from our last two shows:

Chicago Renegade Craft Show (Chicago is so fun!)

Some samples of the healthy cuisine we're treated to on the road.

This is what happens when it rains from 5am-5pm at an outdoor craft show


And I'll end with a new beer discovery. Theakston Old Peculier

time won't let up

It's funny how things progress. You think you know what will happen for the next month, even week, but life has a way of moving at it's own pace, whether that's lightening fast or dsl slow. I always have lots I want to say and put up in this blog, but then I have trouble with the follow through. I get sucked into other, more engaging online activities like facebook/twitter/research etc and then lose the creative surge of energy to update the blog. I also haven't been cycling much lately which leads to not many updates, but I think this will be changing soon. Life has been giving me lots of lemons here in Nashville for a while, but lately it's changed to pears. I'm still not sure what to do with these pears but I hope to document the journey here.

Beth and I are currently in San Francisco, staying at the historic Hotel Vertigo where they filmed the Alfred Hitchcock movie. We just wrapped up the Renegade Craft Fair which was our first show on the west coast. It is my first trip to the left coast as well. We haven't had much time to explore during the day but we've found a few nice cafe's for breakfast and coffee (we're addicts, yes) and of course some fun pubs to unwind in the evenings. We've enjoyed some local Anchor brewing beer and many other Californian beers. Last night we explored the Mission area and ate and drank at The Monk's Kettle. It's a self-professed gastropub and the menu and beer selection didn't disappoint one bit. Upscale pub food, as it was described on their site, completely under-estimates the level of food. Unfortunately the walk from the 49 bus stop down 16th street was not so enjoyable. Wow, we definitely found a seedy area by accident.

We have all day tomorrow to explore the city. We don't have any set plans other than to rent the tour buggy which has a GPS guided tour. Should be a blast if I can get a hang of the motorcycle controls, wonder if it will be front brake on the right or left. We've had a very nice view of the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz from the festival pavilion but we're hoping to get a closer look in the buggy.


I've been a busy bee lately emmersing myself in everything social media and learning ways to promote independent, small businesses online. I've setup Beth's jewelry company, Freshie & Zero with a Facebook Fan Page and also a Twitter Acct. If you're interested, follow us, I promise you'll get a much more up-to-date account of our travels and business experiences. I'm hoping that this may become something I can offer to other indie style businesses in the future. I've already talked with one company about it and need to continue brainstorming and follow up. It's all about follow through in life right?

So, hey look, insomnia can lead to productivity! Here are a few pics of our trip so far. I'll most likely wait until my return trip to upload the lot of them to Flickr.

Yes, that is a guy playing the piano, that he pedaled to the show.

dog days of summer still sticking around

Man it's hot... no humid, yes, humid and hot.


I attempted a ride on Labor Day with a fun group up at Lake Barkley but it didn't go so well. After sitting outside for 12+ hours in Atlanta on Saturday and Sunday, I wasn't too prepared for the exertion and humidity I faced on the trail Monday. Stupid me wasn't hydrated and hadn't been on the bike but a couple times in the past month. Oh well, the trail was great. The swimming afterwards was a very welcomed addition to the trip. We were worried the lake would be the only good thing about driving up to Barkley, but the trail was a lot of fun. It has a little bit of all the trails around here wrapped into a 10 mile loop. I'm sure it will be a lot more fun when I am in better physical shape. I learned that lesson at AEDC last year. I hated that place after one trip, but went back this year and really enjoyed it.

if this man asks you if you want to swim.... run the other way!


I have a lot of work to do if I want to enter Swank 65 this year. A lot of work and a lot of things going on in my life the next few months. We're getting closer to closing on our first house. We have some renovations placed before we even move in. Then there will be the fun process of moving (anyone wanna help for free Yazoo?) We also have craft shows the next two weekends and then a few more in Oct and Nov. I know I can 'make it work' if I really dedicate myself. But it sure seems daunting thinking about how to fit in some decent ride time and also trying to fit in finding some work to pay for this new house.

I've signed off on the drawing/geometry of my new Quiring frame. I have been over-thinking all aspect of course, but I think I'm content with the current design. I need to start collecting the new parts I'll need. Once I have a firm-ish date to expect my frame, I'll need to rebuild my wheels with 29er rims. At that point I will of course have to start telling everyone how much better my bike is and how I can't believe anyone would still ride small wheeled bikes. I need to continue my 29er research so I sound as authoritative as possible when I belittle everyone elses bikes. :)

On the bike product front I received my Swiftwick shipment last week, hand delivered by Mr. Swiftwick himself. I finally got myself some Olefin Zero 'no show' socks. I wore them all weekend at our outdoor craftshow (as did Beth) and then got to try them on the trail at Lake Barkley. For this hot weather, I really like the low cut of the zero style sock. While not a true 'no show' they stay up on your heels better than any sock and don't bunch up around your toes. I doused them in sweat during our super humid Barkley ride and they still stayed put. I'm not sure if I truely was 5% faster on that ride though... hard to tell during all the panting and stops to clear my head and lungs. Beth loves her zero and one olefin socks. I'm still waiting on a pair of one olefins to try that are on back-order. (guess they are quite popular) It's crazy to have a professional sock maker on the race team with you, but man is it nice when they make a superior product.



I'm still rocking the Ernesto Hippy Lube on both bikes as well. I'm still on the first application but don't see signs of needing to reapply. I still have the benefits of a super quite drivetrain so I'm in no hurry to mess with it. My Prolink has now been relegated to lubing the stantions on my Reba fork and not much else. Thanks to Thad for cluing us into the power lube and to Ernesto for making a great product!

Got a light work schedule this week so I'm hoping to get out on the bike this afternoon for a little time at Hammy and get a ride into the Tap Room thurs with J5. I'm all out of wack with my riding schedule so hopefully I can reign it back in.

been busy, real busy

yep, I know, it's been forever since I put up a post here... life got busy again and it remaining busy. I haven't even had time to ride my bike but once since my last post about my fit at Harpeth.

Work has been slow this summer. Heck, it's been slow the past 2 years, but it's summer and it's always slow in the summer. This makes this summer slower... fun. I've been trying to make the best of the time I have free from commitments. I think I was doing a pretty good job. I was rdiing a lot, spending a lot of time with Beth, getting things done around the house and helping Beth with Freshie & Zero. When I had some work, I also tried to make the best of it and make sure I was giving 110%. The quirk of freelance work being that each gig can be thought of as a job interview which I think is good. It keeps you honest, and keeps you working hard and hopefully not getting too complacent.

Fast forward through July and to the first week in August and between a couple days of work and a trip to Virginia for a craft show, I had no free time that week. The trip was a lot of fun as my brother lives where the craft show was, the Roanoke/Blacksburg, VA area, so we were able to visit with him and his growing family. My parents took the opportunity to come and visit also so it was a mini Lawrence reunion for the weekend. Sales wise the show could of gone better but we debuted a lot of new displays and booth setup stuff which all worked very well and looks great. We've officially stepped up the Freshie and Zero booth to the next level of professionalizum.

(our new track lighting setup, canvas displays and mesh sidewalls... yea we're big time now!!)

I started right into a session starting on the Monday after we got back from the craft show. I was starting what turned out to be a marathon 3 day session of Gospel music. I was the head engineer on overdubs and editing though which was a lot of fun and more responsibility. It was a lot of work and long days, like 11am-4am, but equally rewards and as it was frustrating. So this session ended very early Thurs morning and I slipped in a small project I needed to take care of later in the morning on Thurs and tried to recover the rest of the day with a nap.

Beth's parents took us all out for a belated birthday dinner celebration for Beth's 30th bday Thurs night and then I started right back into more session work Friday. Three days of assisting on some mix sessions for Blake Shelton and we are now up to date. Tomorrow I start back working with the Gospel clients again for the next three or four days so I'm trying to get my body ready for the late night sessions.

Truly feast or famine. This work couldn't come at a better time though as I could use some extra money to help fund my new bike purchase, and also Beth and I are starting to house hunt so more money for that will always be much appreciated. I'm hoping to have a slightly more relaxed schedule this week and fit in a few rides. Hope to make it out to the tap room since I missed last week. I have a big order of super hero socks to pick up from Sharpie also that I'm super excited about. Finally going to be able to try the olefin material and also the hip no-show cut! I'll report back soon I'm sure so stay tuned. Hope I haven't bored everyone too much lately.... it's life, my life at least. :)

I snapped this shot while at the craft show in Va. Is this bike locked? I don't think so. I couldn't help but find some humor in it. Luckily the guy was in a small town. He didn't even lock his daughters bike up at all.





I helped record a campfire performance out on a farm in Leipers Fork a couple weeks ago. Fun stuff, but HOT with no A/C!











Gotta love a trip to Peter's Sushi in Brentwood. They having opened in their new, larger location (right next door to the old place). YUM!!

NYC adventure

Well we're back from the big apple and getting rested up. Luckily I have a couple days to recoup before I start work. Where to start?? We went up a couple days before the Renegade craft show to visit with a college friend of mine and see the city.

My friend Brandt showed us around and took us to this awesome Cuban place called Café Habana for lunch. I had the spicy corn and an amazing Sincronizada Toluca filled with black beans, sun dried tomatos, avocado and chorizo. Beth and I wandered around after lunch and did some shopping. "Some wandering" turned into about 15 miles of walking by the time we made our way back to Brandt's apartment in Park Slope. Brandt and Rachel were both working late so Beth and I were on our own for dinner. We found an awesome sushi place called Monster Sushi which had some great decor behind the bar. It was nice to find an affordable and fresh tasting sushi bar in NYC.

Friday Beth and I ventured to Coney Island on our own and had fun riding the rides and eating hotdogs. We hit up the MOMA museum for their 'free friday' promotion. They had some great exhibits but we were exhausted after about an hour and a half in the museum. We headed back to clean up and take Brandt and Rachel out for dinner. We tried to go to a little Italian place they recommended but couldn't get in so we went to a great Thai place down the street called Song. Amazing food and very affordable prices, another gem in NYC.

The show started saturday so we were up early and on our way to Williamsburg by 8:30am. After waiting outside for a bit we were let in and started setting up as fast as we could. The show started at 11am sharp and people were waiting to come in. Unfortunately we weren't quite ready for the customers yet but most of our product was out and many vendors were still far from setup. The temperature was rising quickly but the show was getting crowded and sales were steady. Our friend Amy was in town helping us sell and we were catching up since we hadn't seen her in a few months. Brandt and Rachel came by the show as well and did some shopping and hanging.

The weather forecasts were changing hourly the days before the show, but seemed to settle by saturday. Well, the clouds rolled in around 4ish and the temperature dropped a good 10 degrees. It was nice for 30 minutes or so but then the bottom just dropped out and it poured for 45 minutes. Some brave shoppers stuck around and shopped, but most people left by 6pm. The rain let up enough for us to get packed up before it poured again. Brandt planned ahead this time and got us on the list for a great Italian pizza place called Lucali so we all pilled into Rachels car and drove through the flood to dinner. This place was yet another phenomenal eatery. True Italian style pizza, no menu, just enough dough for the night and when the ingredients were gone, no more pizzas. No sign out front and no liquor license, yet the place still consistently has a 3 hr wait during the 4 hours they are open each day. We brought some wine and ordered two pizzas and had a lovely dinner.

(the bar at Monster Sushi)

Day 2 of the show went well with decent weather. Thankfully it was cooler and the rain stayed away for most of the day only coming in little spurts. Sales were steady and overall we had a great show. It wasn't the mad house, selling spree that Renegade Chicago was, but it was in the top 5 shows we've done. After the show we were treated to homemade tacos and guacamole at Brandt's which were tasty. We ate and drank and hung into the evening before I finally called it a night and tried to get some quality sleep for the drive home.

After driving in NYC traffic for an hour, we finally made it to New Jersey and made our way down 78 to Pennsylvania and onto Roanoke VA to stay with my brother and sister-in-law. I was so glad we decided to split up our return drive as I was not feeling up to 15 hours in the car again. It was lovely visiting with my brother's family and then we were up early again Tuesday to start the last leg of our journey home to Nashville.

I got back in town just in time to roll to the WBN/Clif Bar sponsored viewing of the new movie Seasons by the Collective at the Belcourt Theatre. I could up on email and such and then jumped on the bike and met J5 and T.roy at T.roy's crib and then we all, plus T.roy's better half, road to the Belcourt to catch the show and hang with other crazy cyclists. The movie was great as was meeting the Clif Bar crew and checking out their cool bio-diesel bus. After received some cool swag we headed off to the Brewhouse for cajon dinner and a beer then rolled back to T.roy's to call it a night. This was a perfect ride after being off the bike for a week.


Back to the grind here starting tomorrow. I have work the rest of the week and into the weekend. Then have a tracking session on Monday in Cool Springs. Today is my 30th bday. I think I'll just slip that in here at the end and let that be it. Low key bday this year. I've spent the day with Beth which has been lovely. We had lunch at her parents house and then did some shoe shopping at the new Merrill store down the street. I've received a great mtn biking instructional book and a new pair of Pearl Izumi attack shorts courtesy of my Mom and Dad. Not sure how I feel yet about being 30. Just another year I guess.

(my 2 purchases at the show. A hip bag made from old inner tubes and a small camera bag for my messenger bag. Both made by Vaya)










Beth showing off our awesome Coney Island hotdogs



















The big ferris wheel at Coney Island, with swinging middle cars














the monsoon that struck the show saturday evening













statue of Robin Williams, I mean Theodore Roosevelt outside the Natural History Museum.







As usual you can view all my pics on my Flickr page HERE.




Late addition...... new pic of the yummy cuban style corn.... Does this look more appetizing Thad?!?

Spending money

I finally pulled the trigger on a new laptop. I'm going to be moving out of 2003 and into 2007! My 1g Ti Powerbook is getting replaced with a Dual 2.2g Macbook. It's really amazing where things have come and how cheap it all is. $1299 for a dual 2.2g laptop that can hold 4g of ram. I maxed out the ram through Other World Computing for a measly $137!! Take that Apple! Can you believe Apple charges $850 for 4g of ram?! $850!!!!! It's as though Apple is saying "We don't want to bother with putting more ram in your system, so we'll just price ourselves out of that service." oh well... I don't mind doing it myself and saving $713. Next on the shopping list is a LCD widescreen monitor. I've been shopping around a ton lately but I think I'll wait until ater Xmas to make a purchase. I imagine prices will drop some more by then.

Last night was another night of polo. The overall mood was different and everyone put more emphasis on style and technique. Sharpe coached us from the sidelines and gave tips. My first team (Thad, Neal and Dan H.) worked a lot on teamwork and spacing around the court. We concentrated on hanging onto the ball and control and passing and tried less slapping and big clears. Unfortunately Thad had a brake incident and had to retire his bike. Everyone decided to call it then and make it an early night. We only played three games this go around but they were all fun. I managed to stay upright a lot better and use my mallet more for balance. I even scored three times which is a personal best by far! I'm generally lucky to get 1 score per night.

This past weekend was our return trip to Austin, TX for the Stitch show. This trip Beth and I revisited a few areas of town like South Congress. We weren't as pro-active to do the sight-seeing activities as we were last year so it was a much more relaxed trip overall. The Stitch organizers planned a pre-party the night before which was fun. We didn't know many people and I didn't know anyone, but after about half an hour we had made some friends and had some good conversation. Keg beer was supplied as well as free water from some company I can't even remember. Obviously I partook more of the keg than the water. The show was in the Austin Convention Center this year. We had fears of crazy, unorganized load-ins but it all went very smoothly. We were setup in no time and then Beth had a chance to browse the other vendor's booths which she never had time for last year. The show was a definite success but overall I don't think they will host it in the Convention center again next year. The room was a bit too large and much brighter than last year. It was hard to feel the some vibe as last year. We sold more than last year which was Beth's goal for the show so I'm sure we will be making the trip again next year. You can view photos of our trip on Beth's flickr site.

Random things I learned while in Austin: Shiner bock tastes better with a lime, we never figure out how to get anywhere until we are about to leave town, I still don't think service roads are a good way to get on and off the interstate, hotel internet service always sucks and is slow, just about every city we travel to seems to have a lot more casual cyclists
than you ever see in Nashville.

Returning to Nashville

Well we are back from yet another weekend selling necklaces and earrings to the starving masses. This past weekend we were in Hoover, AL at the Moss Rock Festival. Hoover is approx 10 miles south of Birmingham and roughly 3 hours from Nashvegas. The show was great in all the ways it could be. The weather was perfect, the public was very interested in buying jewelry, the load-in/load-out was smooth (for us), our hotel rocked and we only had to drive 3 hours to get there. Sales wise it was our second best show ever (under the supremely successful Renegade show in Chicago). The organizers of the show even invited us to a party after the show saturday night where there was catering and free beer and wine! Beth and I enjoyed some chicken & dumplings and I passed off the car keys and enjoyed several glasses of wine.
Pictures of the show can be found here: Freshie and Zero At The Moss Rock Festival

I had a session fall through for this monday so it looks like I have some free time during the week. I am still working on this jazz record with the woman from Florida but we are in the home stretch. As I mentioned earlier she came back to Nashville to re-sing some songs. I remixed all the songs and these new vocals have taken them to a new level. I've got a final (hopefully) set of tweaks to do tomorrow AM and then just need to print some hi-def versions for Mastering. She has booked Independent Mastering to master the album on Monday. I am excited to hear how it turns out! This is really the first full length album I've mixed all on my own so I am anxious to finish it and hear it after it's mastered.

I'm hoping to get out this week and ride some dirt. It's been a very long time and I'm not sure I remember how to do it. I will be rocking the Soma all week whether I want to or not. Last week, I noticed an unfortunate crack in the faceplace of my Thomson stem. Thad got me in touch with the right people at Thomson and they are taking care of me. This means though that one of my bikes is handlebarless and would be quite hard to ride so SS it is!

catching up

I realized I never mentioned our trip to Oklahoma City here in the blog. I meant to and even thought of cool blog titles while on the trip. Unfortunately I was just too busy when we got back to Nashville and life moved on. The trip was a lot of fun. We realized that Oklahoma City isn't really all that cool of a place, it has a lot of crickets (A lot!) and the roads truly suck. If you've complained about Arkansas's roads, they've got nothing on Oklahoma! The Girlie Show was a lot of fun and was successful for Freshie and Zero. The show was in an old Farmer's Market building (pic to the left)
just outside of the downtown area. The show opened on Friday night and they had DJs and free food donated by local restaurants and cafes. Saturday was more mellow and included a bunch of bands instead of DJs. Most were not memorable except the last one. They were a Rockabilly/Punk band with a girl singer and kicked ass. EDIT: The band is called The Oh Johnny! Girls and you can check out their website here: TheOhJohnnyGirls.com Our hotel was nice but wasn't without it's quirks. Our room was in an annex from the main building and next to the outdoor pool. We had a nice warning on the back of our door.... "Caution: Door Opens Directly Into Pool Area" Apparently they were worried we'd exit the room in a our skivvies or something not realizing innocent swimmers may be just outside.
Photo's of our trip are here: Flickr: Oklahoma City Trip

This past week I went and saw a Virginia Tech football game with my brother. Roanoke was getting the same rain we had here when I got there. It was a thurs. night game and it rained the entire game. My brother (Chris) and I still enjoyed the game in our ponchos. Like most Tech games they kicked butt for 57 minutes and lost the game in the last 3 min. We got back to Chris' house around 1am where I crashed on the couch and woke up to my nephew telling Chris to "Be Quiet! Someone is sleeping!" He's 2 and a 1/2 and a chatter box now. He's entered his "why" phase and wants everything explained. He still randomly runs into the room where Chris is and blurts: "Hi Daddy!!" Then runs right back out. It's hilarious. Chris' wife is 7 months pregnant with a girl so Beth and I will have a niece in a couple months! We are all getting older and life is moving fast! I don't feel old, but being married now and talking about kids and spending time with nephews makes me feel all adult-like.... strange. What's next? Retirement planning, house, wills?? Started the first one already, planning the second and should probably make a will at some point.

Beth and I drove up to Indianapolis this past weekend for another show. Unfortunately this one was a bust. The first bad show all year. Money wasn't lost, but very little profit was made. This coming weekend we are driving down to Alabama for the Moss Rock Festival and then Austin, Texas the next weekend. With all these out of town shows, Thanksgiving is going to be a welcome break. Unfortunately it will involve more traveling as we'll be celebrating it in Syracuse, NY with my family.

Beth and I skipped all of the Halloween festivities this year. I don't get very excited about it anymore for some reason. I think it's mainly because I wait too long to come up with a costume idea, and I never want to buy a $50+ costume that will just be worn once. Beth wasn't excited about it this year either. She blamed being out of town so much lately and having too much on her plate. We were gonna speed back from Indianapolis on Sat and go to a party but decided it wasn't worth it and then found out the party was canceled anyhow. Maybe next year I'll get inspired early. It's hard to beat my Paris Hilton costume 2 years ago. . . it was pure perfection.

tired but accomplished

Well we (Beth and I) made it through our first show weekend for this month. Two more to go, then probably a couple in October as well. We headed down to Germantown outside of Memphis friday afternoon at a leasurely pace and found our hotel, no thanks to Googlemaps directions. Apparently Google needs to work on their left and right some more, back to school, no student left behind!! The hotel turned out to be a great find. Large suites with a decent breakfast and a pretty comfy bed, can't really ask for more on the business trips.

The show went well minus some grueling temps on Saturday and a few downpours on sunday. We managed to stay relatively dry and sell a bunch of jewelry. A lot of folks stopped by the booth and expressed how happy they were that we were back again this year. I think it is so awesome to think that Beth is having such an effect on people across the country!

A lot of the vendors surrounding us decided to leave sunday morning before the show even opened because of the poor weather. I have to admit the idea crossed our minds, but we always get so aggravated when people leave early and you never know what is going to happen in the long run. It always seems when people give up, the weather always turns for the better and the customers flock in. This show was no exception. We had great sales saturday even in the extreme muggy heat, and then sold almost as much sunday with 4 less hours and all the wet weather. The scared vendors really missed out this time!

I haven't been doing much biking lately. It's sad, but I've just had too much going on. I thought about getting out today but I had a few random studio projects to work on and some Google work to do. It also was muggy in the morning and then rained quite a bit around lunch. I'm looking forward to some more bike polo tomorrow. We are heading to Chicago thursday and I have a remote session in Franklin booked for wed. Tomorrow may be my only chance to be on a bike this week. I was doing so well last month towards my goal of 1000 off-road miles this year. Hopefully I can still put in some good miles sometime this month, or hit it really hard in October to stay on track. I've got about 300 miles to go. I wonder what my reward for myself will be?? hmmm never really gave that any though til now!

Well I'll leave this with another pic from the weekend. Found a good beer at Outback of all places while we were in Germantown. Coopers Sparkling Ale. Sounded like I wouldn't like it, and that it may be cider-like, but it turned out to be fantastic and refreshing. Sorta reminded me of a bubbly Bottingtons, even had a little Yazoo Pale taste to it, though less hoppy and more carbonated.