I like freeeeeeeeee stuff and I can not lie...

in my head that goes to the tune of 'baby got back' by the immortal sir mix-a-lot.

Anyhow, the free stuff I'm loving on today is my 6 greeting cards from my homies at Cerebral Itch website (check your mail, several of these are already en route). I linked to their page and their store because their stuff made me actually spit out my coffee while looking through it, and they noticed and gave me 6 cards just for linking to them! If anyone has a blog and wants free cards, link to them. They also said they're looking for ideas for cards so if there's a special occasion for which you are currently unable to find a smartass greeting, drop Paul and Kacky a note and they can put it in their think pile. Also check out their blog. It's short, sweet and often hilarious.

Let's see, when we last spoke I was getting ready to go explore the falls of Baltimore. I did in fact go for a bike ride on the Gwynns Falls trails, and it was a good, but strange, time. Very surreal experience, and I don't know a way to put it better than that. It's actually a cool little setup of trails, 14 miles long and it goes from the start all the way down to the inner harbor where all the tourist stuff is. So conceivably, one could opt to bike ride on the path to an O's game, which would be interesting to some I'm sure. (but not me)

Anyhow, here's a peek at the map:


And here is the website in case you're really interested in looking at it.

I learned a couple of things that day.
1)little dashes on the map mean it's going to be uphill, and steep
2)I *suck* at reading maps and signs. Now, many of you already knew this - I already knew this- but some days it is just underscored so much that it needs to be said again.
3)My bike seat is a bad bike seat. It tilts up in the front, and I believe I may be sporting some nerve damage in my nether regions. Good thing I'm not using those these days...

I set off on my trip from T2, the Winans Meadows trailhead, and the whole time I was completely amazed that this was all in Baltimore. You couldn't tell at all, you couldn't see any city stuff. Then it's even weirder because you all of a sudden end up on a street or in a park and you're smack dab in the middle of the city. It was very strange. The other thing is that it goes through all sorts of neighborhoods and sometimes you can hear things and then it's just creepy because you can hear things but are also completley isolated. I was very conscious of the fact that I was all alone, it's weird being in the woods with no dog for reassurance. Then I came upon some police tape- not comforting! Someone was on the ball though, because it looked like an excellent little spot to hide a body.

Overall though it was a good ride. I took a wrong turn and ended up going almost a mile uphill at the start, but once I got back on track (and realized the signs with the big arrows that said "Gwynns Falls Trail" were for me) it was a pretty nice little cruise. At one point after riding about 4 miles I realized I was about 1 mile from my car, the trail loops around and crosses the road I drove in on. It was weird, I would not have guessed. But still a good time.

I think in total I made it about 8 miles each way, and it took a couple of hours. At the end my ass was killing me, I need a new bike seat.

Anyhow, here is a shot of the falls. They were really nice to look at as long as you didn't look too closely. If you did that you would notice the state of the water, and the litter and all the mess and you would know you were in the city. blech.



ok, I'm off. Today is nice out and I need to get work done so I can slack off.