I was beat when I arrived in Atlanta, made my way in to work, played trivia last night, and when I woke saw the alarming news that I currently weigh 205. Time to “right the ship” again.
Well, That Was Unexpected!
I went to New York to get away, to visit my brother and sister-in-law, and to go to the Guggenheim for the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit. What I wasn’t expecting was meet one of the contestants for The Next Food Network Star.
My brother’s house is on a small island in New York known as City Island. As it turns out, City Island is where Michael Proietti and being a small island, everyone seems to know everyone else.
The food at the restaurant — which is billed as an American Bistro — was good, not great mind you, but good. The meal started with complimentary flatbread which was served with a tasty dipping sauce. When Michael heard that some City Islanders were at our table he sent out some complimentary chicken wings which were phenomenal. For my entrée I had a bleu cheese burger (stupid me, I should have ordered the Mulberry Burger, the burger that one the burger challenge on the show) which was cooked a little more than I had requested. [side note: I don’t know why people even ask to which temperature I’d like my burger cooked because they never seem to get it right.] Michael came out an socialized briefly. And then upon seeing who was present at the table he sent out a complimentary desserts including New York cheesecake, red velvet cake, and some sort of fruit tart (which I obviously passed on since I really can’t describe it.)
All in all the evening was a blast. Our company that night, friends of my brother and sister-in-law, were incredibly entertaining, the food was good, and I got to put another notch in my Foodie Cred Card. However, looking the photo it’s evident that I need to lose weight, and it should be noted that I was not pissed off even though my expression suggests differently.
ITP Flickr Pic
Before joining some friends for team trivia last night I stopped in to Decatur’s Brick Store Pub. At one point in my life I considered myself to be photogenic — no longer.
Sure, this photo was a off-the-cuff, snapshot-taken-with-a-cellphone, and I should have smiled but I didn’t so there!
Shoes On, Hands Up, For Safety
I can’t believe that we still have to take our shoes off in order to board a plan. What a fiasco! While I am not a fan of silly rules, I am going to encourage the FAA to implement a “Hands Up For Safety” program. And here’s why…
I am not normally confrontational. However…. as our plane was getting ready to pull out from the gate the young bitch woman/girl seated next to me pounded out text messages. When the announcement came to turn off all devices she continued to message. When flight attendant walked down the aisle she’d hide her Blackberry under her armpit and return to messaging when the coast was clear. Her Blackberry was hidden when the person in the seat ahead of her was instructed to turn off her phone. She then continued to message. Her Blackberry was hidden when the person in the seat to her right was instructed to turn off his Blackberry. She then continued to message at which point I had enough.
Me: Okay… the person ahead of you was asked to turn off her phone. The guy next to you was asked to turn off his phone. Would you please turn off your phone.
Her: Why don’t you mind your own business.
Me: They’ve been instructing us to turn off all devices for minutes but yet you continue.
Her: Why are you talking to me? You can shut up now.
Me: I’m talking to you because you refuse to follow the rules. And I am minding my own business because my safety is my business.
Her: Why don’t you shut up and relax.
Me: All I’m trying to do is get home safely. I am relaxed, but you are making me nervous.
Her: You can stop talking now. Shut up.
Me: I’ll shut up once you put away your damn phone.
And then she put her Blackberry away.
I was trying to be civil with this arrogant woman/girl and did not want to snitch on her. And I tried to remember the tenet that it’s my job to obey the law, and not enforce the law. However, this woman/girl clearly knew what she was doing was wrong and couldn’t care less.
So for all future flights I’ll suggest that we are all forced to raise our hands in the air, open palmed, to prove to the flight attendant that we are not trying to hide anything. Seriously, I’m more afraid of arrogant asshat passengers that I am of terrorists.
Damn Hashers Are Everywhere!!!
This is actually a spillover topic from last week. I used to take pride in knowing most of the serious hashers in the Atlanta hashing scene. That day has long since passed so when I see an On-On sticker on a car I am not surprised when I don’t recognize the driver.
On my commute to work up The Connector last week I saw a vehicle with an On-On sticker. I passed the guy a couple of times, but it was evident that I did not know him and that he did not know me.
Yesterday when we stopped in the Park-And-Ride lot I noticed this.
From the coloring of the sticker I gather that this vehicle belongs to a Wheelhopper hasher, and since I haven’t done one of those in many years I’m pretty sure I don’t know its owner.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – meh
Current Music – the “Mac Geek Gab” podcast
Website Of The Day – Looking for photographic inspiration? Check out the many photography sites cataloged by Blogs Of Photogs.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 205 pounds
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 65 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 1 (7)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 12
Marta Rides – 0
August Goals
– Not get fired from my job
– Restart work on house, actually making progress this time
2009 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
РEarn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalape̱o Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
I’ve never considered myself photogenic, I pretty much hate every picture taken of me, after the age of 4 or so.
I don’t know a lot of hasher/cars either. There is one on my Saturday running route, a mini with I think a PL3 sticker. The other day I saw a pretty beat up car with a foot sticker…when I was finally able to see the occupants, I made the assumption that they bought a hasher’s car.
I’m struggling with my weight as well…I’m not completely sure what is going on. I know some of my mindless eating stems from being bored at work, then again late night. Otherwise, my eating habits are pretty good. I just need to figure out and work on those two triggers.
Really the only way for me to handle the work issue is I bring all my food with me, no small bills or change for the vending machine, drink LOTS of water and workout during the day.
I’m with you on not recognizing cars with stickers – I don’t know who owns that jeep.
As to the weight issue – I just don’t own a scale, and think way too often, I shouldn’t eat “this” but still eat it.
As for the texting fool – I always wonder, does it really affect anything on a plane? I agree, shut the damn thing off. You could have gotten her arrested or detained, those TSA & flight attendants are like GOD these days, just to piss her off more, and you could laugh at her….
Honestly, I’m not sure how much the radio interferes. But even if the FAA wants us to shut it all off if only to pay attention for a few minutes then I believe we should comply.
I was trying not to be too much of a dick, but she was a real bitch.
The scale was wildly higher than it had been recently. I’m not surprised since I’ve been eating and drinking a lot. I wanted to ride today but couldn’t get my sh*t together to pack my bike with me.
We are possibly doing a ride friday evening, and/or saturday morning. No idea how long or where yet. I had a crappy ride last night, forgot to OD on ibuprophen before, and the Vinings loop, while a good 21-22 mile ride, doesn’t have the smoothest streets, and lots of speed humps. too much impact for my messed up back. I may change it to a mtn bike ride saturday morning, the full suspension bike may be calling my name.
Hey – if you don’t have plans, we could do a ride around Marietta & go to Tasty China after?
I meant friday night for Tasty China. I’ve never been there on the weekend.
We (Barb, Michelle & Allan) rode the Vinings Loop last night, it was fun. Thankfully Allan rode slow so I was able to keep up, plus he gave me some tips that helped. Maybe next week I’ll try one of the Stone Mnt rides.
Barb, Jerry ended up not running…it was too hot. LOL. Did you get the fire hydrant?
Only another 90 minutes of work, the rest of day will be spent at home with or waiting for the plumber.
I’d be up for a ride tomorrow night. I’m supposed to meet folks for a photo stroll Saturday and it’s “supposed” to rain the too.
Fwiw – another vacation taken and it didn’t rain. My plants hate me.
I would have simply asked her to put her crackberry away before you rat her out, and if she doesn’t, do it. I’m with you, I can’t imagine what a cell signal would do to the avionics of a commercial jet, and I’m certain the FAA has no data on interference. Remember, these are the folks who still can’t get carriers to put smoke detectors in cargo holds.
-FP
Allan thought Tasty China sounded good when I just talked to him, so if you want to roadtrip OTP to Marietta, we could ride over to Kennesaw Mtn. OR – if you’d rather, I could probably talk Allan into riding over in Roswell.
It was supposed to be “severe storms” yesterday, and it rained a little around lunch time. I’m going to guess you will be fine for your photostroll.
Yes – Allan now has another f*cking heavy fire hydrant, we now have 2. He’s already planning the paint job. I guess they will go on the patio someday?
My On-On foot keeps getting stolen off my car. 🙁 Not that it matters….doubt anyone would recognize me either! (though I *did* make it to Hog Mtn last week!)
That’s so cool that you got to meet that guy! Even more cool how NICE he seemed to be. I hate when they get those attitudes after “becoming famous.” Glad you had a nice trip….more pictures please! 🙂
Okay Barb. My bike will be on the Jackmobile tomorrow, tell me where and when to meet and I’ll be there.
Are the hydrants from Albertville, AL? Albertville bills itself as “The Fire Hydrant Capital of the World.”
Stacy, Michael was very personable. He didn’t spend too much time at our table (and the restaurant was not that large) I think because he had good friends at another table with whom he wanted to converse. Oh well. 😉
Although I didn’t take a whole lot of photos, more will be uploaded soon. I’ve been hampered by the stolen computer as it was my photo-editing computer.
My two cents regarding the pda/avionics issue:
You can do you own internet research on this topic and argue until you are blue in the face.
However, people in the business of flying planes — and those entities who regulate them — sometimes have to make decisions on the //probability// of things happening. This can be something as basic as changing runway lighting, the design of a placard in a cockpit…or the effect that a pda might have on avionics.
Sufficient evidence exists that certain electronic devices *may* cause interference with avionics. This is enough to cause the FAA (and other regulatory bodies) to prevent their use during flight.
Let me say up front that I am not a fan of the FAA. I used to have to work with them to develop procedures for our manuals at Delta and they gave me plenty of headaches. However, I believe that the pda policy formulated by the FAA is based on the best data available. Some of these were incident investigations, some from the Aviation Reporting Safety System (AFRS) that is run by NASA. There are industry working groups that are still working on this issue, and I believe that the FAA has an ongoing program for monitoring it.
My point is: if I’m flying in a metal tube 30,000 feet above the ground, you’d better be 100% sure that pdas do not interfere with the avionics. Until proven otherwise, turn off the phone when the plane is in the air.
I enjoyed the Vinings ride last night with Barb, Allen and Martha. I definitely need to ride more often though….and pay attention to where I’m going when I do ride! (I failed to make a turn at one point.)
I agree with Barb the roads are a bit rough in places and there are more speedbumps than I would have like to have seen.
michelle