Sunday, August 22, 2010

TMAX Update

Today, I rode my TMAX again. I've put nearly 3,000 miles on it now. The bike continues to perform great. I'm pleased that I'm definitely getting better riding it. Remember, I've only been riding any kind of motorbike for 14 months now. I'm not so frightened by the loud noise of the wind and the buffeting you take when you go 70 mph plus. I ordered the touring windshield and side wind deflectors for my TMAX. They're in and, I hope to get them installed this Thursday. I'll post an update on what if any difference they make in regards to noise and handling. Also, I'm keeping an eye out for what the 2011 TMAX is going to be like. Will there be any difference between it and the 2010? I keep my fingers crossed that Yamaha will come out with a 750cc TMAX. I think that would be seriously cool. Plus, a 750cc TMAX would seriously fly. So far, there have only been rumors of that. I haven't seen anything definite from Yamaha. But, I keep hoping Yamaha will make one. We'll see.

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Baltimore Update

I got to visit Baltimore's Inner Harbor today. I rode my TMAX in and to my surprise, I found a parking space about a block from the Hard Rock Cafe. Parking was $2 an hour with a maximum stay of 2 hours. However, I doubt anyone would check if you ended up staying longer. As I came into the harbor area, I noticed there was a large warship tied up at one of the piers. It turned out to be the Brazilian training ship NE Brasil. The ship is supposedly 427 feet long so it is a good size ship. During its visit, they'll be offering free tours at set times and dates. I don't happen to know those. After looking over the ship, I walked back to the Hard Rock Cafe where I had a nice lunch and looked over their rock memorabilia collection. They have a bust of rubber hips Mick Jagger, a number of guitars including one by the rock group Slaughter, they had the shoes worn by Olivia Newton John in Grease, a movie poster from Elvis Presley's movie Girls! Girls! Girls! as well as other stuff. I bought one of the cafe's signature t-shirts. This one is from the rock group The Who and helps support the City of Hope which does research concerning cancer, diabetes and HIV/AIDS. 15% of the purchase price goes to that foundation. After lunch, I walked by the ESPN Zone on the way back to my bike and to my surprise, I found out it had closed on June 16th. It seems it and a number of other ESPN Zones had closed for reasons unknown to me. As it was in a prime location in the Inner Harbor, I wouldn't think it'll be long before some other big name restaurant moves in. We'll see on that. That's all for this update. Cheers all!

Sunday, August 01, 2010

New Today's Pet Store Opens in Elkridge Maryland

Today, I stopped by the Gateway Overlook Mall. I knew there was an Office Depot there and, I needed to buy some more rubber bands for work. Mail carriers at various post offices use a lot of rubber bands to bundle mail so they can keep it in order until they deliver it. 2 stores down from the Office Depot is the new Today's Pet store (right next to the Costco). I found out the new store opened just yesterday. The store didn't seem terribly wider than their old store at The Mall in Columbia. It did look like they had a good selection of tropical fish as well as rats, gerbils, hamsters, parrots, kittens and my favorite puppies. As luck would have it, they had a cute Pug puppy. He/she looked particularly cute. I still hope to get a Pug puppy some day. First though, my job at the post office has to get more predictable before that happens.
Overall, I thought Today's Pet's new store nice though I think the previous location at The Mall in Columbia was cooler. From what I understand, the new location will offer more services than the previous one. If you want to visit just Today's Pet, the new store location will be easier as you won't have to walk through a mall to get to it. I plan to visit the new location from time to time to check out the puppies. Some day, I hope to get one. Cheers all!

Update November 17, 2022: A Maryland law according to the sales people at this store makes it illegal for a store to sell puppies 🐶. I was saddened to hear this as I really enjoyed checking out the puppies at this store. I don't know when the law went into effect.