Sunday: Race to the finish!

"Enough with this Sunday stroll...let's hurt a little bit."
-American Flyers

I think Rob's ready to start racing now. I hope he can find a team near our house. In the meantime, we'll just have to cheer for our good friend Blain.By the way, he came in 7th! Woohoo!

Saturday: The most relaxing of them all

“Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think.”
-Robert Henri

Saturday was a great day----simply for the fact that we didn't have to wear real clothes----all day long!! We started the day in our athletic gear and a 22-mile bike ride. That's the longest and fastest I've ever gone! And my first time on a real road bike!! No pics from that--I was much too focused on shifting gears and holding on to worry about capturing photographs of my achievement.
We got back to the house, showered, changed into bathing suits, and headed to the beach. We spent the afternoon at Hilton Head, enjoying the heat, relaxing on the beach, and trying to avoid stepping on sand dollars in the ocean. Dinner at Wild Wings completed the evening before we drove back to Georgia to change back into our pajamas and head to bed. Had to get enough rest for the race on Sunday. More to come later...

Friday: Our favorite people

"There aren't enough days in the weekend."
-Rod Schmidt

On Friday we got to eat lunch with one of my favorite little guys--my nephew Chase. He was on his his best behavior as we ate lunch at McDonald's and walked around a car dealership. I think he will be a very good big brother, come December.Then we headed to Blain and Katie's house to spend the rest of the weekend with some of our favorite friends. A night of test riding bikes, Mexican food, wedding invitation consultation (they picked my favorite design!!!), and an episode of "Top Gear." What a wonderful start to a wonderful weekend! More to come...

A last little bit of iPhone love

"Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern; it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that - one stitch at a time taken patiently, and the pattern will come out all right, like the embroidery."
-Oliver Wendell Holmes

I'm sorry that my life is so boring that I have to write three blog posts about the same topic; I'm hoping this is the last news about my iPhone for awhile. But I just had to share my craftiness.
Yesterday I spent the afternoon outside on my patio listening to Pandora (wonderful website and iPhone app!) while I embroidered a little telephone on a scrap of turquoise fabric. I've kind of taught myself how to embroider, so I'm probably not doing it 100% correctly, but I'm tickled that it came out so well. I finished up just as the mosquitoes started biting, and I was forced to move my "sweatshop" inside.Then inspired by these gadget covers I found on etsy: here and here and motivated by my first go at it (and failure!) the day before, I set out to make an additional cover for my phone--a little more protection for when it's bumping around in my purse. It was a little bit of guess and check as I estimated seam allowances and top stitching, but what a relief when the phone slid in snugly after I finished my last seam.

Ultimate productivity: reality or fantasy?

"Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is specifically your own."
-Bruce Lee

[poster from our senior design project]

As an industrial design student, it seemed that every assignment could be solved with the design of an electronic device that made the consumer's life more productive. At each class review, you would see projects designed to organize your kitchen, track your fitness level, monitor you caloric intake, or keep track of your to do list. Even I was not immune; for our senior thesis project, a friend and I designed a handy gadget to manage your finances from your pocket (or more specifically, your purse!). All of these ideas were merely fantasy--that is, until the iPhone came to play.

As Rob and I contemplated (and saved) for our iPhones over the last couple of months, we rationalized the purchase of $200 phones because they can do so much. Our GPS quit working--an iPhone can give us directions. Our mp3 players are losing their edge--an iPhone can be our music player. We can't keep up with small scraps of paper--an iPhone can save our notes electronically.

As I downloaded apps this weekend, I saw my iPhone as the ultimate productivity tool. Technology was going to whip me into shape. And then Sunday evening, as I downloaded an app to manage my grocery lists, I realized...I'm still going to have to make time to input all of that data. Same with all of those devices we designed in school--an iPhone is really only as productive as I am. If I didn't make pantry lists, exercise logs and budget graphs before, I'm probably not going to with an iPhone either.

I'd say I'm still in the honeymoon phase with my new gadget--but a bit of reality is starting to set in, too. Good thing I'm still in love with the idea of carrying the Internet around with me in my purse! That makes it all worth it!