Climb Every Mountain

Or at least the mountain closest to Atlanta. Last night I joined a group of hardy souls for a hike up Stone Mountain near sunset in order to watch the sun set behind downtown Atlanta.

Pizza, Pasta, Rice, Repeat
Because I’m not getting the required exercise I am also not losing any weight by following my five-sevenths vegetarian diet. And because of some house issues I am eating out a lot more and noticing that vegetarians have very few choices. I picked up a vegetarian cookbook that I’ve had for some time and almost every entree was constructed around pizza, pasta, or rice.

Friday night I had a near breakdown and sought comfort by visiting my old China Buffet friends and eating meat like there was no tomorrow.

Saturday morning I returned to The Cause and ate a skillet breakfast at Kasan Red (with soy sausage thankyouverymuch) and in the evening ate dinner at Grant Central Pizza because Cantina La Casita was so busy I was ignored so I left in a huff.

Yesterday’s brunch was a return to Cantina La Casita where I had chips and salsa with some vegetarian empanadas. And last night I wound up at Flatiron where I ordered a black bean burger with french fries; while the burger was good, even though it fell apart each time I bit into it, it just wasn’t the same as meat.

I have no plans to give up! I am still going to struggle for a while as I attempt to eat less meat. Maybe I should try eating a salad or something?

This Is Going To Be One Tasty China
However there will be no salad eating at lunch today, because I am meeting Barb and Stacy at Tasty China for lunch. I will also be picking up the Red Rocket (aka my road bicycle) in the process. The bike has undergone an overhaul by master mechanic Allan (aka Service My Tool) and will be all ready for me to ignore until next year (kidding!). [note to self: bring checkbook to lunch to pay for overhaul.]

ITP Flickr Pic
If you look at my Flickr (still looking for alternatives) contacts you’ll see that this weekend we attended one or two of the weekend’s major happenings.

I chose for the “climb Stone Mountain on Sunday evening event” over the “Marietta Air Show event on Saturday.”

And had I known, I may have also shot the annual Highland Games in Stone Mountain this weekend as well.

Lights On Concourse Buildings
The retailers have confused the light operator at the Concourse buildings (the King and Queen at I-285 and GA400). For the first half of the month the Queen was turned an ugly shade of red, supposedly pink, in order to celebrate National Breast Cancer Month. During this time the King was darkened, to the point at which I feared that some low flying plane or helicopter might hit it. This morning the King was again illuminated, now in green.

So there we have it, Christmas is officially here as the King is green and the Queen is red.

Less Amazing, But Quite Compelling
I actually fell asleep before I could watch The Amazing Race last night. However, my night’s slumber allowed me to wake early enough to watch it this morning. Here are some observations, including a SPOILER.

I still don’t care for Ken and Tina. Every time they are interviewed he harps on how they are still working on their relationship, and then she looks at him and I think she’s going to open her jaws and eat his head like a snake eats a mouse.

Terence and Sara are going to be around longer than I wish. I predict that their relationship post-Amazing Race will falter quickly. He is such a wuss that I can’t imagine her putting up with it for too long. “Give me some love. Touch my hair.” Yes, that’s what he said…

The divorcees are just complete bitches (at least this is what the editing leads us to believe). They probably married me who were into their own looks as much as they were, and that’s why their marriages ended. Next week they make a Teen Wolf reference. Teen Wold was in the theaters in 1985. Old much?

Nick and Starrrrrrrrr. Is it wrong for me to wish that Starr had to finish the Amazing Race in a sling, or be taken off the show due to injury?

The Southern Belles (aka “Miss America wannabes from South Carolina”) can barely get by. I am glad to see them go. At the end they said that they will be best friends forever; of course they will…. they are the same person!

The seem to like the rest of the teams, but with the exception of the African-American “Long-Distance Relationship” team, I think that they are mere blips on the radar.

Work French Press : 2006-2008
Instinct can be a very funny thing. This weekend I began a subscription order of Yuban coffee from Amazon. While doing so I convinced myself that I was going to have to make more of my own coffee at the office in order to not have the shipments stockpile. I was okay with this since I knew that I had the means of making my own coffee using my French press.

This morning I arrived at work and remembered that I had forgotten to wash out the French press from last Friday’s brew. No worries… As I walked to the break room I started patting myself on the back for using a French press, which is obviously reusable and uses no filters, over a standard percolator.

While washing the French press I noticed it had developed a large crack in its glass vessel. Dagen! Now what to do? But another French press, or buy a standard coffee maker?

Rest in peace my old friend.

Same Old Deadbeat Dads, Brand New Outcome
Wow, I won a game! How’d that happen?

My East Atlanta Deadbeat Dads, including a starting player on a bye week and one scoring negative points, managed to win! I even managed to have players scoring big numbers while sitting on the bench. I take no credit for the victory, I thank my opponent for having a team who played worse than mine did this week.

And in other Deadbeat Dad news…. another one of my players was suspended because of indiscretions occurring off the field. I am like a proud papa right now.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – better
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Regina Spektor — “Better”
Website Of The Day – I’m trying a new file synchronization service called Dropbox. When I get some time with it under my belt I’ll give a revie
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Monthly Foot Mileage – 32 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Monday Morning Weigh-In – 199 pounds (expected to be higher than last week)
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Monthly Marta Rides – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 36 (110)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle – 4
Vegetarian Days – 13
Carnivore Days – 6

October Goals
1) Lose no fewer than three pounds
2) Drink nothing but water, coffee, beer, wine
3) Run no fewer than 75 miles
4) Bike no fewer than 125 miles

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]