A fairly small and quiet contingent of a dozen or so anti-abortion/right-to-life activists were on the Georgia Tech side of the 10th Street bridge this morning.  They had graphic signs and red shirts (I didn’t catch the denominational affiliation or specific church).

They disbanded at about 9:30 or so as my wife and I were returning from daycare on our way to work.

Thankfully our 5-year-old didn’t see them on the way over the bridge.

As much as I disagree with their views AND support their right to express them, I’m fairly certain my wife would have jumped out of a moving car to beat one of them had her little girl seen the aborted fetus on their signs.

I’m just sayin’.

If you’ve got a picture or your own recollection, share a comment.

When the weather gets like this—warm but not hot, sunny but not humid—I think about dashing out to small towns in the country and looking for farmer’s markets. I think about driving around rustic roads with the windows down and the music up. I think about jarred honey and vegetables with dirt still on them.

In the Midwest, I have a good idea how to run out and find those places. Out here, I’ve only done it once, but to great success. Last autumn, the wife and I spent a weekend perusing old houses and buying fresh food in Washington, Georgia, and I’m pretty sure we’ll be driving back this spring to do it again. (See what I wrote back then.) It’s a good distance—away but not far—and a pretty drive, depending on how you do it.

When we were out there last fall, we decided to spring for a night in a local B&B, which I’ve actually never done before in the States. (I think of B&Bs as Something You Do In Europe and New England.) My advice? Do it. Go forth and spend even just one night in a small town this spring.

The B&B we chose was the Washington Plantation (pictured here), and we will absolutely go again. Just having the nice weather here has me thinking about it. The place is charming, but both big and cozy. You get rooms with fireplaces, but also cable, for the best of both worlds. Plus, it’s got a three-legged cat, which is always good.

I don’t have a fireplace or cable at my house, so that’s almost reason enough to seek out a night away right there. But, of course, a B&B is half bed and half breakfast. Our bedroom was a claw-foot-tub and candies-on-the-pillows kind of place, good for the history buff in me, but good also for the guy who wants to sit around and watch a Dirty Jobs marathon for two hours. Breakfast, I recall, was awfully good, with fresh fruit and French toast, but aside from the grits (terrific, but I’m neither Southern nor a purist, so my opinion may not be worth much), what I really remember is the conversation.

In my opinion, the hidden reason to stay at a B&B—and what makes it a trip in its own right—is the chance to chat with new people over breakfast. Every time I’ve done it, in the UK or the US, I’ve thought “it’s going to be awkward,” but it never is for long. At the Washington Plantation we talked politics with strangers and it wasn’t tense or vitriolic or fake. It was pleasant, thoughtful, reorienting. It was an exchange of ideas, like you read about. Even as somebody addicted to the Internet for it’s supposed ability to facilitate communication, I pine for happy conversations with strangers. You know, in person.

It said a lot about the place, to me, that it was the pinnacle of a long search for the perfect B&B-worthy home. The funny and welcoming Yankee couple that runs the Washington Plantation, Tom and Barb, drove up and down the old Colonies looking for a spot to live out the dream of running a B&B, and they landed here. It’s easy to see why. The house seems built for slowing down, for sipping at Saturdays, for breathing deep, for sweet tea and sunshine. By the end of breakfast, and maybe some kind of crazy-delicious sausage grits I can’t forget, you’ll probably start thinking about moving outside the Perimeter and opening a B&B, too.

Of course, you won’t go through with it. But that’s the point, right? We don’t have to. We can go and live inside somebody else’s dream house for a weekend, drink wine on a wraparound porch, chase a three-legged cat, and browse the local real estate, without giving up our lives ITP. We can get away, and come back. Good deal.

Next week, why Birmingham, Alabama’s Sloss Furnaces are a great photographer’s daytrip.

I hate to get political or partisan, but given the current state of the Democratic contest for their party’s nomination, I figured this was apropos.

Former GA Senator Sam Nunn endorses Obama

[h/t Griftdrift]

Now, to hear the commenters “discuss” things over at AJC.com, this is either the magic bullet that saves Obama or the silver bullet that kills him.

I realize we’re not very political here (well, I’ve already endorsed Obama personally on my blog and james has endorsed McCain here & on his personal blog) but I’m curious what Atlantans think of this move.

Does it matter for Georgia?
Does it matter for Pennsylvania?
Does it matter for the Democratic race?

Nunn had previously toyed with the idea of his own Presidential run, do you think he’s lobbying here to be Obama’s running mate? (I do, but I think Bill Richardson is a likely choice).

Anyhow, I’m no political blogger, but I think this is a big deal. Nunn was always well-liked in the state and had that magical “bi-partisan” quality that pundits and voters talk about but can’t quite define. The “I’ll know it when I see it” variety.

Feel free to throw in your two cents on this issue.

Unless you’ve been trapped on a deserted island for the past decade or so, the intersection of sex and technology is very prominent. The past five years or so have only built upon that with the popularity of social networks. Orkut, Friendster, MySpace, Facebook…social media is changing the landscape of how we interact. Moreover, we’re also seeing the real-life implications of showing your sexuality online, such as former Arlington, OR mayor Carmen Kontur-Gronquist and her MySpace photos which cost her job.

Until now, there hasn’t been a real chance to discuss how social media, sexuality and the world today all work with each other! That is, until Sex 2.0.

From their website:

How is social media enabling people to learn, grow and connect sexually? How is sexual expression tied to sexual activism? Does the concept of transparency online offer new opportunties or present new roadblocks — or both?

Sex 2.0 is the brainchild of Atlanta blogger Amber Rhea, who also heads up the Georgia Podcast Network and organized 2007 PodCamp Atlanta. The unconference will be the first of its kind — attendees are welcome to speak or head up side sessions — and will feature several prominent speakers (Audacia Ray and Rachel Kramer Bussel, to name a few) and several Atlanta bloggers, such as Joseph G of monotonous dot net and J. Brotherlove of thebrotherlove.com.

The unconference will take place on April 12 and will run from 8:00am - 4:45pm over at 1763~A Deviant Place of Decadence, located in Tucker. Registration will run you $50, and you must be 21 and older to attend.

For more information, including travel, accomodations, and full bios of the speakers, visit Sex20Con.com.

Dear fellow Atlantan’s. I’ve missed you. Been on assignment out of town, state, country for far to long. Home soon.

While on said assignments, I’ve received updates from HQ on things going on in ATL. This one was too rich to pass up a post. Please see the following two headlines:

[Georgia] State lawmakers seek to move part of Georgia’s border one mile north into Tennessee.
Georgia wants to move the entire border northward by more than a mile along a line from just west of Lookout Mountain to near McCaysville, Ga. That appropriation (or land grab) of more than 50 square miles would transform longstanding relationships along one of America’s fuzziest stretches of border.

Chattanooga Sending Truck Load Of Water To Atlanta
The city of Chattanooga, facing a possible Georgia land grab as part of an effort to get access to the Tennessee River, is sending a truck load of bottled water to Atlanta.

The best way to settle this is to challenge any football team in Tennessee to play the Georgia Bulldogs. If we win, we get the whole river. If we lose, we give Tennessee, Stone Mountain. Let’s see ‘em move that.

This is where I am now. Help me explain this to them as I’m tired of the laughter. (Folks, I’m really tired of it)

WTF?

XO, Stevie.

photo courtesy of Colin Mutchler

the 14th street bridge project is the gift that keeps on giving.

beginning this weekend and also on the next two weekends after the atlanta police will be ‘pacing’ traffic on the downtown connector so that georgia power can relocate equipment around the new bridge (details available on the 14th street project site.)

basically for about 15 minutes every hour from 7 am for the next ten hours the police will be slowing traffic to 20 mph and blocking off any new traffic from getting onto the downtown connector. i have gotten caught in this pacing once before and it is an unmitigated traffic disaster.

gdot suggests you give 511 a call before you head out. i suggest you take surface streets if you need to move north/south through the city.

or maybe this is the time for you to finally give something else a try.

photo courtesy of tanakawho

ah yes, the general assembly is in town again and that means that it is once again time for metro atlanta’s famously libertarian republicans to once again pay homage to the fact that the rest of the state is dominated by republicans who still aren’t sure about that dinosaur thing.

the ajc has it’s obligatory article this morning about how as always there will be no bill to allow sunday sales of beer and wine passed in this session.

you can read all the obligatory quotes in the article. they haven’t change since i last posted about this so i won’t even bother cutting and pasting.

i really am waiting for someone to make the argument that this forces drunks and college students to learn valuable planning skills as a way of defending an outdated and silly restriction.

if you want to tell your representative what you think you can head on over tovotesundaysales.org votesundaysales.com(no web site working right now, but we’ll keep trying), but be under no illusion that it’ll do any good.

don’t forget that this state voted for a presidential candidate whose primary qualification as far as i can tell was that he loved jesus more than the other guy.

(in full disclosure the author of this post does not drink alcohol and attends church regularly - he just happens to think that this whole thing is plain stupid.)

Well helloooo mah babies. Do you know what time it is?

No? Don’t fret. I’ll tell ya.

It’s time for everyones favorite: the “Georgia Rides To The Capitol” event!

Okay, not yet, but the website has been updated with 2008 event information, and registration is now open as well. Registration is free and also entitles the first 2,000 participants to a free light lunch at the event.

Mmmmm. Free light lunch. Sounds delicious.

During the third annual “Georgia Rides to the Capitol” event, cyclists will embark on rides to the Capitol in order to raise support for improved conditions for cycling, including the development of regional systems of bicycling and pedestrian networks.

The event will be Tuesday, March 11, 2008, during the state legislative session. Estimated time of arrival at the Capitol is 11:40 a.m. Your starting time will depend on which city or auxiliary location you choose to start at or which route you choose to join along the way.

For more info, please see: http://www.GeorgiaRidesToTheCapitol.org

Right on, ride on.

In the water wars, that is. The New York Times reports that Georgia has lost the federal court case in which they were petitioning to take more water from Lake Lanier. Florida and Alabama claim that this action would siphon water from downstream Alabama and Florida.

On the one hand, as an Atlanta resident, I do worry about where our water will be coming from a year from now if the drought continues. On the other hand, I think that this serves Atlanta right for not planning better for water usage in the metro area. Our unbridled, unplanned building has gone on for too long, and this just highlights the problem.

Since today is BOTH Super Tuesday AND Fat Tuesday (thx, Amber) I thought that I should solicit photos of folks voting, wearing their “I’m a Georgia Voter” sticker or wearing beads and purple, gold & green.

Obviously cell phone use is permitted at polling places, but I’m sure most of the folks who read this blog are armed with cameras or could snap pics outside the school/church/government building where they voted.

Here’s me:

Feel free to link to your own Primary Election Day or Fat Tuesday pics in the comments.

Stay safe out there.