My Disposable Income Became A Little Less Disposable
Today’s post I was going to tell you about the things I plan to purchase, and the charities to which I plan to send money. That changed when I opened the mail box last night.
There are certain entities from whom I never want to receive mail. The United States Internal Revenue Service is one of those entities. Yesterday I received a letter from them asking for even more of my money. I am not pleased in the least.
Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.
Last night I suddenly realized that each of is was wasting much energy trying to relate what we wanted to say to what the last person had just said. A funny “should”! I see now that I was not always honest when I did this. Often I could not tell what connection had been made inside me that resulted in my wanting to say what I did, so I would manufacture a relationship to the discussion in order to be able to tell everyone a good reason for my wanting to talk. The reason was simply that I want to. “I want to say such-and-such–” not “What you said raises this question–”
To all who have helped me — Thanks.
I’ve Got Gas — And I Know How To Use It
On my commute home I stopped into Lowes and exchanged my $20 and my empty LP gas container for one that was full.
Oh sure, I thought about checking to see if the East Atlanta Ace Hardware store provided this service, you know so that I could continue to support my neighborhood, but when I called them on the phone I was greeted with an annoying menu-based answering system instead of a human. Am I supposed to know what department handles the exchange of LP gas? Am I supposed to hope that I can actually talk to someone after waiting to hear all of the menu options — which have changed, or so they say? No, instead I will shop at the place that I know is both on my way home and am guaranteed provides the service I need. My neighborhood loyalty has its limitations.
Can you say teriyaki pork tenderloin and stir-fry vegetables for dinner on Friday night? I knew you could. Why wait until Friday? I’ve got plans that you will no doubt read about here…
A Night A Elliott Street
Last night I needed to get out of the house for a beer. Luckily for me it was Tuesday night at Elliott Street Pub for the Atlanta Photographers Guild. The turnout for last night’s shoot was incredibly large, so much so that it made getting time with the models difficult — especially for someone like me who doesn’t excel at portrait photography and has no interest in fighting like paparazzi.
I haven’t had the time to scrutinize the shots I took, but I feel my portraits were pedestrian and most likely just like those taken by twenty other photogs. I will probably wind up uploading the abstracts that I shot instead.
ITP Flickr Pic
On Saturday I got an invite into a semi-secret shooting location.
It was a cool location to shoot, I’d like to find more locations like this for the future.
RealiTV Update: Hell’s Kitchen
Oh for fuck’s sake… I have a hard time watching Survivor contestants get all emotional when their loved ones are brought on, but on Hell’s Kitchen it’s just fucking ridiculous!
For the QuickFire Challenge the cooks had to recreate on of Ramsay’s dishes. What they didn’t know was that they’d have to recreate the dish that they ate with their loved ones. Only Christina was able to figure out that they were being tricked and dissected the dish while she was eating. For her victory she was able to eat a fantastic lunch which she shared with Ramsay and her ‘rents.
For the Elimination Challenge each cook had a turn at the pass; they got to order around Ramsay and they got to yell at their fellow contestants. From the way all was edited we were led to believe that Christina was the weakest of the remaining three and had no chance of winning. Christina had the worst night of cooking, and her turn at the pass wasn’t that stellar either. As is always the case you can’t trust the editing, and Corey was sent packing.
Next week we get to see each cook create their own restaurant and cook the meal of their lifetime! Okay, well maybe not lifetime, but that’s what RealiTV is all about now, isn’t it.
Paulie, You Got Some ‘Splainin To Do!
Yesterday my antenna that I will be hooking up to my living room tv arrived. Antenna? Is this the 1970′s? No, but welcome to the retro future! Antennas, combined with digital receivers that will be all the rage next year are great ways to pick up those digital HDTV broadcasts on the tellie — now if I can only find a way to DVR them…….
I am still waiting on the arrival of the refurb AppleTV I purchased this past weekend. While not an option for DVR’ing the programming I mentioned above, it will give me another opportunity to watch web content, this time directly on my tv.
Let no one accuse me of not being experimental, even though I work for a company that sells television and television byproducts.
Ankle Update
I’m not ready to run, but I’m going without the support of a brace today. It’s time to start rebuilding strength.
Even though I have no plans to run I will be at George’s tonight if for no other reason than to complete the sale of my old camera to Willy. Shit, I might as well put the money in an envelope and mail it off to the Government as I am sure they’ll want what they consider to be a “fair share” of that transaction as well.
And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – frustrated
Current Music – watching last night’s Hell’s Kitchen on Hulu
Website Of The Day – You can watch a lot of things on Hulu, but Mojo HD offers original content. Mojo is not perfect, but it does provide an intriguing option for online entertainment.
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monthly Foot Mileage – 22.75 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage – 38 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – My car
Monthly Marta Rides – 22
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 84 (84)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle – 5
June Goals
1) Run no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 100 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least one book
5) Make my bed every day
6) Eat out at a bar/restaurant no more than twice in one week
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
for future reference ACE does sell propane and I assume propane accessories (you knew that was coming). Walk in tell them you need to refill your tank and someone will meet you around back. It usually goes okay.
I was thinking about swinging by George’s tonight but my plans have changed. 1) I can’t find my ID badge so I need to go home tonight and tear the house apart to find it and 2) I ran almost 6 miles today at bootcamp so I didn’t feel like riding my bike to work (and I spent 45 minutes looking for the damn badge)…next week I’ll make an appearance, hopefully with a treat for fellow ITP readers Debbie and Steve.
I hope your new Apple TV doesn’t lead to the snowball of home improvements that followed Brad’s new one.
PS am I seeing a preview of tomorrow blog at the bottom of this one?
While I’m sure everyone will miss you tonight Martha, ITP Reader Steve won’t be at George’s either… something about a physical in the morning and fasting and not drinking… of all the nerve!!
-FP
Ack, I just realized that I kept in the remnants of some of today’s “Other Ideas”. Deleting now for all of you confused by these comments.
@Paulie at least I got the speed hump reference.
@Steve ‘fasting and not drinking’, I know that is English but I don’t know what it means??
I wish I had planned it to see if anybody actually makes it down to the bottom.
As for the AppleTV I’ve already made many of the house alterations necessary. It’s going into the basement to be projected on the screen. There exists a couch and a refrigerator already in place, so life will be good in the ITP Man Cave.
Make sure you show up next week Martha. It’s one of the 26 Days of Hashing, and you’ll get to see all of the people who are “training” for the Peachtree. I’ll be there because I’ve changed my plans about going down to Florida. I will not be doing the Peachtree Pub Crawl or drinking with the hashers on the 4th of July however…. I want to remember what it’s like to see the fireworks.
Paulie – what you really need to do is invest in a 2nd full propane tank (purchased at your local Ace Hardware). That way when you run out, you just switch the tank, and continue cooking. Oh yeah and throw the empty one in the car and get it refilled sometime in the near future.
And – when presented with all those automated options, I just hit zero…..
Hitting zero is my motto too. Of course, every now and again you get the obnoxious one that then says, “Okay, I can transfer you to an operator, but first need a little more information…” and asks you to start pressing buttons again. Oh, that totally burns me up.
I REALLYhate the ones that you have to speak into as well. Like UPS: “what would you like to do? Say ‘track a package,’ ‘arrange for pick-up’, etc…” I always feel like a complete dumbass sitting at my desk just speaking half sentences into the phone between half minutes of silence waiting for the machine to talk back at me. What would I like to do? I’d like to SPEAK TO A HUMAN BEING, that’s what I’d like to do! (and, no, it’s not a recognized option when you do answer that way)
Paulie, I saw all that stuff at the bottom too…thought perhaps you were adding a new category to your blog that I just didn’t quite understand just yet.
Wednesdays are hard blogging days right now because I have a 7:30am meeting with my boss. Therefore I didn’t proofread the “finished” product and left all of that mess at the bottom.
Hopefully all of you who read it have short memories so that when I use the material later it will still seem new.
Try coughing or sneezing into the phone with those speaking options….. it is pretty funny, you get the response “I’m sorry, I don’t recognize what you just said”.
# sign works pretty good sometimes too.
Sometimes I just push numbers to see where it will send me. (I have to call the Railroads all the time, and they hate letting you talk to someone)
ACE automated system: Haha, funny you should write that. It also had my husband ranting, cursing and jumping up and down the other day when he tried to call them to ask if they sold something. Amazing how such a small store can have so many departments, do they even have that many staff?…maybe they have a room full of oompaloompas out the back just to answer the calls? Well, I guess not because when hubby did try to select various departments no one answered anyway. Straight off to Lowes he went.
Whew, I’m not the only one who gets frustrated with these automated answering systems!