File this under: Tell me something my nose and sinuses don’t know. Atlanta is number ten on the Asthma and Allergy Foundation’s 2007 Allergy Capitals list. The Southeast is well-represented on the list. Well, duh.

As Steve just blogged, the Dogwood Festival is this weekend, but what in the fine print is this?

My friend Stacey (I

Don’t forget this festival. It’s always been very cool each time I’ve gone. April 13-15, 2007

Atlanta Dogwood Festival Official Site

The Kirkwood Neighbors Organization is performing a survey of their neighborhood and surrounding areas (including East Atlanta, Cabbagetown, East Lake, Reynoldstown, Parkview, Edgewood, Ormewood Park, and others.) They want to know what residents think about their local schools, and have put a survey up here.

If you live in one of these neighborhoods, please take a moment to help them out. It only took me a couple of minutes.

so file this under ‘things most of you could care less about, but i feel compelled to bring to you.”

a few nights ago i came home to see my housemate watching something called the bad girls club on the oxygen network of all things. so i sat down and watched a few epsiodes on the tivo and was transfixed in the same way someone witnessing a head-on collision of two freight trains might be transfixed. this show is as deliciously bad as you can imagine a show that centers around a bunch of dysfunctional women who like to drink living together can be.

anywho, if you are interested you can meet several members of the cast tonight at TWO urban licks from 5:30 – 9:00. showing up and signing autographs will be aimee, leslie and zara. and guys, before you dismiss this as something to ignore, i’ve seen the show; you really might want to give this a second glance, if you catch my drift.

the producers will also be on-site casting for the next season, so if you have what it takes – which from what i can tell by watching includes; a love of alcohol, a really bitchy attitude toward people you live with, and to put this delicately, a desire to experiment in intimate areas (the show’s pr people decribe it as “the type of girls who lie, cheat and flirt their way out of trouble and have serious trust issues with other women.”) – you might want to head over too.

wow, i cannot believe i just posted about this….

i won’t spend too much time on this, since i posted an extensive race report over on my personal blog, but i ran the inaugural ing georgia marathon a week and a half ago now.

first things first – i want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who came out and cheered. if you have just come back from reading my race report you know how hard a run it was, and you presence made the 26.2 bearable. particularly thanks to the residents of deactur, virginia-highland and inman park who really turned out.

the race my friends was difficult. it was around 85 degrees at the finish which in the middle of a marathon feels like the surface of the sun. the course, of course, was hilly, but i knew that going into it, although many runners i talked to along the way were surprised by the hills. the course was definitely amazing to look at and will become known for its beauty and difficulty.

there were, of course, first race glitches. the biggest was the complete lack of powerade on the course. at only three water stops was there any hint of a sports drink, and at one it was diluted and the other it was gatorade. on a hot day like that day, not being able to replace your electrolytes was a total bear. i was surprised to hear that 97 per cent of the runner finished on such a tough day

we got an email from the race director apologizing and pledging to fix it, but no real explanation.

well you can’t control the weather and they’ll fix the fluid issues so i’ll be back next year. kudos to everyone who put the race on.

for some other perspectives, here is nat at the negative split, here is christian at the quest to become an ultra runner and here is sara at the peanut butter and jelly blog.

happy running and see you all next year.

i don’t know why i am so enamored with the mannequins that were used for an advertising gig at eon at lindbergh. maybe they just have good pr people who have convinced me to be. either way, if you remember they donated the mannequins to scad-atlanta for a contest.

the mannequins, designed by the scad students, will be unveiled tomorrow night at the museum of design atlanta at 7:00 pm and will run until april 19.

the one i included is called pandemonium and it described thusly -

The Atlanta Zoo recently acquired Mei -Lan, a panda from China. Interesting debates took place behind the naming of this creature that brought many different people together. The mannequin is an ode to this Panda and to personalize it the artist built a face to vaguely resemble theirs, thus reflecting the happy “pandemonium” in their life.

the pictures i have seen for others including ‘connections,’ ‘hip hop grunge,’ and ‘real estate’ all look pretty cool, so my guess is this will be a fun exhibit.

check it out.

To offset my previous entry with a smidge of positivity:

Beltline vs. Streetcars
~ or ~
Beltline + Streetcars
~ or ~
Neither, let’s talk about ________________ instead.

Discuss.

So the SO gets a ticket the other night for “running” a stop sign at Huff Rd and Forsyth Fabrics. Check. Ticket says he can pay on line. Check. Hit the site. No check. Ticket says he can call and pay by phone, but after 5 different attempts we conclude that this is also no check because people apparently don’t answer phones in this government office on weekdays between 7am and 5pm.

As far as I can tell he’s got to make a court appearance just to pay his ticket. Which is great, except you can’t read the handwriting saying where or when that is to take place. Awesome.

Soooo if the lack of funds from uncollected tickets is in any way responsible for our having pothole/swimming hole/craters all over the fekkin’ city, then I’d like to go ahead and call BS on the folks who call my tax dollars a paycheck.

That is all. You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

Timely, sensationalist headline? Check.

Ok, so I was actually in the basement-level athletic club at the time (1:30) of the shooting but I can tell you this much: despite the fact that I was involved in a very spirited game of 4-on-4 basketball, it sounded like a herd of elephants stampeding above us in the atrium.

About 2 dozen athletic club members filtered down into the club talking about a shooting, so we stopped playing for about 10 minutes. We were informed 3 times over the internal loudspeakers that the situation was in-hand an that those who were injured had been taken to area hospitals.

If you want to know more, keep on eye on CNN.