At Least The Lawn Is Mowed

Time nearly slipped by me last night. Since it may rain tonight, and more importantly since I have other plans, I had to rush home and get the lawn mowed before darkness fell. With the days getting shorter this is harder for me than it sounds. It’s done, the edges certainly could use a good trimming and the yard a great general cleanup, but they can wait…

Speaking of a good trimming, I’ve not been able to find time to get a much-needed haircut. ITP-Readers Lisa and Randy get ready to meet “Hippie Paulie” tomorrow. 😉

My MacBook Is At The Apple Vet
Yesterday I walked my MacBook over to the Apple store in Perimeter Mall to have my faulty keyboard investigated. After much investigation the Apple Genius agreed that there was a problem that he could not fix on the spot (duh!) and admitted my MacBook in for surgery. The bad part about this is that Apple’s repair estimate is four to five business days. The good part about this is that I shan’t need the MacBook during that time so this was the best time to bring it in for repair.

It did seem oddly frustrating to be without “large” screen mobile internet in the house last night. I watched a little telly before retiring to the bedroom with a book(!). Yes, I started reading another book — I should try finishing one once in a while — this one about the photography of Emil Otto Hoppé.

Hoppé was a German highly-acclaimed portrait photographer who came to the United States a few times during the 1920’s and expanded his portfolio to include landscapes. I’m finding the book interesting and Hoppé’s photos inspirational.

ITP Flickr Pic
Whew, it’s not a great photo but at least I accomplished to take a photo on day one of my October Photo-A-Day project.
Tin Drum's -- Sing Chow Men
What is it? (other than out of focus) It’s “Sing Chow Men” Tin Drum (I hate their website) style.

Speaking Of Projects – Introducing My 5-20-50 Project
By May 20, 2050 Wait a minute…

From this night onward I am going to attempt to do the following three things.

  1. Learn five new sign language words (I’ve completed the numbers zero through ten 🙂 and have almost learned the alphabet.)
  2. Do twenty (or more) pushups
  3. Do fifty (or more) situps

If I can do these three simple things every night I should be able to improve my life measurably.

I Tried To Supersize, But I Was Too Late
A few weeks ago (read “long before my flu struck”) I went to Target and bought a humongous (32 oz) bottle of Target-brand hand sanitizing gel for the house. The bottle I had at home had run out again so I figured getting the large bottle would be the best plan.

Yesterday I attempted to repeat this task, only this time the bottle would be for my cubicle at work. Almost unsurprisingly Target has sold out of the 32 oz bottles of hand sanitizer. So instead, I wound up buying two 8 oz bottles for my office needs. Those two bottles should last me through this winter’s cold-and-flu season.

Anyone Watching The Ken Burns “The National Parks” Mini-Series?
All week I’ve allocated the 8pm EDT time slot on my DVR for The National Parks : America’s Best Idea a six-part mini-series from mini-series specialist Ken Burns.

Sadly I’ve yet to watch any of the episodes. So I’m wondering. Have you? What have you thought of the series. Is it worth carving out twelve hours of my future life to watch?

Oh, And About Tonight
Ha! I forgot to add this first time around…

Tonight I’ll be hanging at Eddie’s Attic with my friend Bill for the Chatham County Line show.

Chatham County Line, unlike most of the music I normally go see live, is a country/bluegrass band whose sound I dig a lot. After all of the nonsense I dealt with earlier in the week it’s going to feel great to get to see a show that I’ve been looking forward to seeing.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – far from happy, far from suicidal
Current Music – listening to a CBC Radio 3 live concert podcast
Website Of The Day – So you like the Flughlesh from IKEA but want to make something else from it? Check out IKEA Hacker for all of your cheap furniture hacking needs.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 1
Marta Rides – 0

October Goals
– Not get fired from my job
– Take at least one photo every day
– Restart work on house, actually making progress this time (note: not successful during August)

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
– Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalapeño 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]

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13 Responses to At Least The Lawn Is Mowed

  1. RanLiCoop says:

    Have fun at Eddie’s Attic tonight. Glad those boys from just down the road (literally) are drawing a crowd. Also glad to hear that you are feeling better. Cooper is looking forward to seeing Uncle Paulie this weekend.

  2. Steve says:

    Much to Debbie’s chagrin, I set a timer to record all the NPS shows. I attempted to watch one last night and it almost instantly put me to sleep. They may be a bit too deep for evening viewing, or I may need to get some Red Bull. When I first heard about them, I thought they were going to be more of a travelogue. Oh well.

    -FP

  3. Will do Randy, thanks. Looking to seeing you all and meeting the new addition to your family as well.

    Steve, really? Hmmm, I hope that I get into the series but if I don’t at least it’ll free up some much-needed space on the DVR.

  4. Barb says:

    I’ve taped them too- but I was looking at the way they divided them up, I might just watch the ones with the more current dates. With all the new TV now, my DVR might not have the space to keep them too long.

    BTW – the 2 Day Breast Cancer Walk is going East from downtown this year – we have lunch Saturday at Agnes Scott, and it ends at the Zoo on Sunday. Feel free to come out & see if you can find me riding my bike with the walkers. If I can find some zip ties, I’ll have attached a pink feather boa to my helmet.

  5. Barb, when is the 2-Day Breast Cancer Walk? This weekend?

    I’m sure that Allan has some zip ties in his magnificent man cave.

  6. Barb says:

    yep – this Saturday & Sunday. gotta go downtown & get my “credentials” tonight, then the walkers do 20 miles tomorrow & 10 miles sunday. It is a long day in the saddle, but much better than walking in my opinion.

    I’m sure Allan has zip ties – just gotta find them (that’s the hard part)

    BTW – NEW SOFA & LOVESEAT ARE AWESOME! I’ve hated my old stuff for sooo long, I’m glad I finally got around to making a decision & just buying something.
    Paulie, you will understand this feeling when you get your plumbing fixed 😉

  7. Debbie says:

    I love you man, but I could have done without a food photo today!

    The National Parks series seems like too big of a commitment for me.

    Hope everyone has a great weekend.

  8. Shoot, that figures Barb. I’ll be OTP this weekend.

    Debbie, what don’t you like about the photo? Is it making you hungry or ill? I’ll have you know that I ate all of that and it was delicious!

  9. brenan says:

    I’ve been recording the park series all week now but have yet to watch a single one. Heck, I still have to plow through the last three of Burns’s Baseball discs that I’ve had from Netflix for, oh, about six months now . At this rate I’ll finish Parks by 2014.

  10. Debbie says:

    Ill. I’m sure it was great, and I normally have a cast iron stomach, but it is fragile today.

  11. Martha says:

    Uncle Paulie? I thought it was Grandpa Paulie?

    I’ve watched some snippets of the Parks show, I want to like it, I want to watch it but like Debbie said, it is just too much of a commitment. What I’ve seen has been interesting and there is some amazing video…it is making me want to take a trip.

    On a positive/negative note…I just realized last night that I have cable tvTVell beyond channel 74 or so…that is just more stuff to flip through and still have nothing to watch. Beneath the Planet of the Apes almost kept me from my run last night.

  12. Lisa says:

    Maybe you can hitch a ride back to Raleigh. We can’t wait to see you! Tried to get Randy to keep his goatee until you got here. Then I could be going out with 2 hippsters on Sat night. He shaved… See you tomorrow! Enjoy the show.

  13. Hahaha. Maybe after the career fair in Raleigh I’ll start growing a beard so I can be 100% hippie for LEAF.

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