Jace Cole (dot) com

I’ve been working with my RAGBRAI teammate Joe to create our new team site.   We’re dropping our beer sponsor title name “Fat Tire Army” this year after diminished support from our tasty beer sponsor New Belgium Brewery.  Each year they’ve been sponsoring more teams and giving us less.

When Mike James & I purchased our team’s 1987 Ford School bus we affectoniately named the POS the Perineum Falcon.  The bus is a big pile of dog shit and always breaks down like the Millenium Falcon on Star wars.  And the Perineum is your taint (the area of your body that kills you after a long bike ride) …  So we just decided that Perineum Falcon would be a good fit for the bus and our RAGBRAI riding crew.

Check out our new site,  and if you’re interested in partying by bike across Iowa with us this year … we’d love to have you join us!

Is it just me,  am I the only that has been seeing this new Pepsi logo plastered everywhere and the first thing that comes to my mind when I see it is the Korean Air logo?

New Pepsi Logo

Korean Air Logo

That is the name of me and the writing I’m doing on this blog … sorry to neglect it.   I’m not a very good blogger. I just post when I’m traveling, pissed off, or when I’m really bored.  So anyways here’s the bullet update…

• I’m still in consulting, currently working for a major home improvement retailer based in BFE North Carolina
• I’ve now been in my condo for a year … REALLY a Year!?! Where does time go
• I just bought a new bimmer (this week) … it’s my nearly 30 life crisis and I love it.  I’m refusing to participate in this recession
• Pete & I are planning a trip to Thailand (imagine that , Thailand) … but I can’t wait WAIT!
• I’ve been forced back to a Blackberry because my firm will no longer allow us to expense mobile bills, I’ve been in iPhone withdrawal for about a month now
• We adopted an amazing 5 year old English Bulldog named Blanche

Loving the job,  the travel is wieghing on me,  but I’m learning something new everyday…  currently working on Payment Systems and learning the world of plastic transaction systems.  Can’t wait to be home every weeekend to hang out with Blanche & Pete …  both of them are amazing and make this life worth living!

Blanche the Bully

Da New Bimmer - 2006 BMW 330xi

Chicago Marathon 2008, originally uploaded by JaceCole.

It’s officially fall in Chicago … you know this time of year, every year when the marathon comes around , it’s the official sign of fall in Chicago! I love this shot I took this morning while waiting to cheer on good friends looking east down Adams street by the United Center. Nice view of the foliage changes with Sears Tower sticking its head out.

Looking forward to celebrating fall (with no Cubs) it’s time for football and Halloween parties!

Our Campbell Ave. After the Storm!, originally uploaded by JaceCole.

Last night was a crazy hurricane coming off Lake Michigan, with 95 MPH gusts and raining sideways … here is the aftermath on our street. Luckily the condo is doing fine, no damage to building. The car that was under this tree didn’t fare so well.

I’m blogging live now from outside of Chicago’s AT&T Fullerton Ave store.  I woke up at 2:55a by the sound of my coffee make grinding and brewing me a pot of joe.  I’m now in line , waiting for the big day … taking delivery of my iPhone 3G.

3:32 AM:  I arrived here about 3:10 AM to find about 10-12 other people in line.  I’m currently at the end of the line but I’m sure that won’t be my position for long.  When I woke up this morning the first thing I checked was MobileMe,  I was able to login and view e-mail.  I thought this time would be a good time to get my account up to date and get everything to the cloud.  Apparently Me is down again.  Looks like a rocky start for MobileMe.

5:33 AM:  McDonald’s trip necessary,  my friend and niegbor BJ arrived about 20 minutes after I did.  We’re sitting together trying to take inventory of what everyone ahead of us getting.  We’re bankingon AT&T getting about 40-50 units.  There are about 12 people ahead of us so we should easily get our choice of my white 16gb , black 8gb unit and BJ’s black 16gb.  It’s been rainy here like crazy,  glad I chose this store,  the sidewalk has a covered canopy.  NO ONE will rain on my iPhone parade

5:45 AM:  MobileMe is now online,  I was able to sync my contacts and calendar to the cloud!

5:50 AM:  AT&T staff has arrived,  acitivity in the store,  T-130 minutes

6:15 AM:  The Starbucks next door to the AT&T store just had a barista come through the line pouring free coffee.

8:55 AM:  I’m home with my new white 16gb iPhone 3G …  iTunes activation is down.  I guess Apple didn’t learn from last years mistakes.  AT&T could not activate the devices,  I can’t activate it at home yet,  have to wait until it is restored to “play” … or I could just jailbreak it now.

Irony, originally uploaded by jedisushi.

Nothing is better than beer and biking … just ask anyone that has ever been on RAGBRAI.

Sporting the new W Flag @ the Condo, originally uploaded by JaceCole.

The flying high Cubs have made their way to the new condo with an early birthday present of my new Cubs W flag. (PS – pretty flowers, thanks Mom! )

I’m back in the Windy City.  Arrived home yesterday after a nice United Airlines business class flight from Singapore to Chicago (thanks to Erik and his upgrade certificates).   It truly was an amazing trip,  the cultural experiences,  seeing different ways of life,  and the beauty of the places we saw was life changing.

Over the next few days I’ll be working on putting together a detailed photo album and a summary of the experiences.   For now,  I have to focus on finding new project work back in my professional life.  I guess as they say… “back to reality”.

Thanks to everyone for reading about our trip,  your kind comments and e-mails.  Pete & I truly enjoyed sharing this experience with you.  I hope everyone has the opportunity to take some time out and do some globe trotting.

Diva Resort, Dhidhoofinolhu, The Republic of the Maldives… a.k.a. Paradise!