Inside The Perimeter

There are those nights where nothing happens. Last night was such a night, unless you call filling and placing some Damp-Rid buckets around the basement “productive.” (note to self: you need to buy a replacement air filter for your HVAC).

And Somehow I Would Have Been Blamed
While driving home in the rain last night around 7pm I noticed something very odd on one of the streets down which I drove. Specifically the street was Oakdale between North Decatur and The By Way; there are no street lights. Being mesmerized by the darkness I nearly shit my pants when I came upon a bicyclist who was:

• riding in the middle of the road (thankfully riding in my direction)
• wearing dark clothing including a hoodie pulled over his head, which had no reflective material
• on a bicycle with no lights or reflectors

We are both fortunate that I was cognizant of the darkness and as such was driving 25mph, because I believe that is the only reason I was able to not hit him.

Cyclists, and runners too, please be smarter than this. I will share the road with you but in order to do so I have to know that you are there.

ITP Flickr Pic
I had lunch yesterday at the Chinese Food Court in Chamblee (or is that Doraville?). While walking to my car I came upon this.

Really? A Student driver? I would have never guessed.

Related: What ever happened to the old saying “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”?

Tightening The Belt
Man I can’t wait to mean this literally…. Instead I mean this financially. Yesterday I decided that I was not getting enough out of my $25/month Lynda.com subscription so I canceled it. I also decided to scale back my Netflix plan to the “One Disc, Unlimited Streaming” plan thus reducing my monthly bill from $14.99 (as of next month) to $9.99.

Will saving $30/month launch me into financial freedom? No, but I think this is a smart financial move for me for the time being and it allows me the freedom to do something ridiculous like sign up for HuluPlus at $8/month, or get the NHL Center Ice plan for $21/month if I so desire. (btw- I most likely won’t do either, but they are good “for instances”). Or, perhaps consider fixing my plumbing.

Who Shrunk The Sitcom?
As I mentioned last week I’ve finally succumbed and jumped onto the Modern Family bandwagon. In doing so I’ve ripped a bunch of shows from the dvd so I can watch them on my iPad (I watch them all and erase them prior to sending the dvd back to Netflix thankyouverymuch) and have noticed something very interesting — the length of the show is usually only about 20-21 minutes, down from the former standard of 22 minutes. That means that nearly one-third of the broadcast time is commercials. One. Third. Or, 33% if you’d rather. Unbelievable.

In keeping with last week’s theme I am thankful that I own a dvr so that I can skip through all of that consumeristic nonsense.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – meh
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – You know me, I love my crockpot(s). A Year Of Slow Cooking is a blog dedicated to crockpot cooking.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – walking (~1 mile)
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~14 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 30, Situps – 150
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 29
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

November Goals
- Not to get sick for the entire month
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Run no fewer than 50 miles
- Determine the fate of Sharpened Stone, LLC
- lose five pounds
- eat vegetarian at least one day a week

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I've sadly gained weight; I'm at 203 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 Sharpened Stone.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online, completed
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides, completed
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers, completed

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS Objective-C
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Have four full days really passed since I’ve written a blog? How was it for you?

My accomplished mission over the weekend was helping ITP-Reader Randy go through the half keg of Sweetwater 420 that he brought to Atlanta. Did this help my weight problem? Certainly not, but I’ll have to latch onto what little acclaim I can.

A Whole Lot Of Relaxing Going On
I spent the Thanksgiving break the way many Americans did, sitting around doing little. I watched a lot of football and had a great time hanging out with friends. This morning’s step onto the scale reminded me that I was too lazy this weekend.

ITP Flickr Pic
On Black Friday I joined a couple of Flickrites for breakfast at The Majestic. As we are wont to do we showed up early to shoot. I was more than surprised to find the parking lot full due to people going into Urban Outfitters for their Black Friday sale.

The three of us played my Soutmob deal perfectly on Saturday morning. The deal gets you 50% off the bill, up to $15 — our tab came to $30. Score!

Believe it or not I even did a little Black Friday shopping. No, I didn’t go into Urban Outfitters to look at all the hipsters, instead I made it over to Home Depot as well as Dick’s Sporting Goods.

It’s Dead Jim
On Sunday I decided to perform my weekly “takeaway” backup. I have two backup hard drives which I alternate, taking the latest one to work with me to my office for offsite backup. For some reason “Offsite B” decided to give up the ghost and failed. Dead. Gone. Kaput.

Luckily, in addition to belt and suspenders I keep a figurative piece of rope (or an extension cord if you are a Modern Family watcher) for just such an occasion. I had a spare hard drive in my closet and pulled it out in order to do my backup. Anal? Yeah, but I’m talking about backing up all of my documents, music, movies, and photos — I should be anal.

I Got A Lot Of Losses
It was a good thing that the NY Jets took care of business on Thursday night because not much else went my way (football-wise) the remainder of the weekend.

On Saturday my beloved Florida Gators had their asses handed to them by the hated Florida State Seminoles, thus capping one of the most mediocre Gator regular seasons since I attended the university.

I had three Deadbeat Dad players performing on Thursday, if you could call what they did “performing.” Sunday’s performances didn’t fare much better leaving the Deadbeat Dads in a position to lose yet another game and this time lose my position atop the league for the first time this year.

I was projected to score 103 points, I scored 58. This is another reason I’m putting the East Atlanta Deadbeat Dads Underachievers to rest at season’s end.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – angry
Current Music – silence as I let iTunes catch up on four days of podcast downloading
Website Of The Day – Have someone for whom it is impossible to shop? Have you tried American Science & Surplus? I used to get their catalog years ago and am pleased to see that they are still in business.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 208 pounds — did I mention that I was angry?
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~13 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 30, Situps – 150
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 28
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

November Goals
- Not to get sick for the entire month
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Run no fewer than 50 miles
- Determine the fate of Sharpened Stone, LLC
- lose five pounds
- eat vegetarian at least one day a week

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I've sadly gained weight; I'm at 203 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 Sharpened Stone.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online, completed
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides, completed
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers, completed

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS Objective-C
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Mine is far from a perfect life, and mine is far from an imperfect life. This I know. I would like to set a goal for 2011 that I wake up feeling healthy and happy more days than not — and I’m not feeling sickly / allergy today, but there is something else physically that is causing me distress today.

And somebody overslept, so perhaps I should be thankful for a job which will not fire me for being late today.

Responsibility
I had packed all my laundry into the Jackmobile so I could get that task out of the way before the long Thanksgiving weekend. I really didn’t want to go to the lavanderia last night; I’d eaten a large lunch and traffic was miserable. I really wanted to go to Taco Mac and add to my Brewniversity/Passport list, and I even had an offer to meet up with someone at Dunwoody Tavern; I’d eaten a large lunch and am trying to cut back on the empty calorie intake. I had to shoot down both options and do my damn laundry (now would be a good time to conjure a “You should fix your motherfuckin’ plumbing, asshat.” comment which I will ignore.)

Laundry done and feeling good about myself when I returned home to East Atlanta, only to have the whole power in the neighborhood go out about five minutes after walking through the door. SONNABITCH! Of course with an iPhone and iPad each loaded with content there was no fear of boredom during the more than sixty minutes of darkness…

The power came back on and of course went away sometime around 12:30am. I was awakened by the sounds of UPS beeping and I blame my tardiness this morning on the sleep lost due to this.

ITP Flickr Pic
I nearly walked right past this yesterday

I love it. Now, if I could only have found a more interesting way to have shot it…

Tonight? Who Knows!
I have a ticket a sold out concert at Center Stage (or The Loft).
I have great friends in town from North Carolina (ITP-Readers Lisa and Randy).
There is a “Who’s going to George’s for beer?” email going around.

I have no idea in which direction I will head this evening. All I know is that, even though I wine about my weight, I am glad that I am not getting up early tomorrow morning to run a half marathon (though I wish that I still had the capacity to do so).

[update: I just committed to dinner with the North Carolinians. I may try to hit the concert late.]

There will be no blog on tomorrow or Friday, so I wish you all (that are in the United States) a Happy Thanksgiving and a wonderful Black Friday (pssst – I wear a large, but prefer cash.)

Happy Birthdeh!
Most of you don’t know the young lady to whom I wish Happy Birthdeh today. Today is the birthday of my long-time friend, former Atlantan drinking buddy, and wonderful Canadian, Tamara. I got the Royal Albertan treatment when I visited Tamara some (four?) years ago in her home provence of Alberta, and with any luck our paths may cross in Novia Scotia in 2011.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – meh, I want to feel normal and happy
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – It’s rare that I’ll to a repeat, but sometimes I’m prone to do so. I really love the Coverville podcast. Not only does its host Brian play awesome cover songs, he also personally replies to emails. In this day and age customer service that good needs to be rewarded
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – situps (25), pushups (10)
Morning Weigh-In – 205 pounds
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~13 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 40, Situps – 175
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 23
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

November Goals
- Not to get sick for the entire month
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Run no fewer than 50 miles
- Determine the fate of Sharpened Stone, LLC
- lose five pounds
- eat vegetarian at least one day a week

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I've sadly gained weight; I'm at 203 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 Sharpened Stone.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online, completed
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides, completed
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers, completed

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS Objective-C
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Accidents will happen, and thankfully in my case they’ve been happening in the kitchen and are not a repeat of the slicing of my thumb from a few years back.

During my past two commutes I’ve witnessed the remnants of two bad accidents. Last night’s had the intersection of Buford Highway and North Druid Hills fubar, and today’s, which included a motorcycle down and its rider being strapped to a gurney, happened at North Av and Moreland. People, please pay attention and drive safely — everyones’ life depends on this.

Need A Bean Soup Recipe?
When I arrived home a little after 7pm I was surprised and dismayed to see so much fluid remaining in the crockpot and that, even after ten hours of cooking, the beans were not tender. Dinner fail. Having a thawed burger patty in the refrigerator I employed “Plan B” by making the burger while snacking on the baked bean soup until the beans were tender.

My fear of the concoction being incredibly salty did not come to fruition, most likely in part because I added an equally insane amount of chili powder, and two teaspoons of sugar once I realized my gaff. The soup is edible so I shall eat it for a couple of days as I start making a shopping list so I can make some baked beans this weekend the good old fashion way — inside a bean pot in the oven.

As for the bean failure my friend Bill correctly guessed that my beans were “old” (more than a year old I’d say) and explained that old beans don’t cook was well as new (fresher?) dried beans.

ITP Flickr Pic
I call this “Accident #1″

While waiting for the bartender to bring the bottle of wine whose label I wanted to snap using my iPhone I noticed this pattern in the camera. I think it’s fairly neat, and not having anything more superior to present to you, this is today’s photo.

The Department Of Lost And Found
I seem to be losing (and having to find) things more often these days. Last night while sorting laundry I thought I had lost the bag of hash clothes (containing my “better” tights) only to find that I had already put those clothes in the hamper — something I rarely do since I normally try to keep my nasty hashing clothes separate.

With the release of Apple’s latest mobile operating system I decided that I should download it and place it onto a thumbdrive so that I wouldn’t have to perform the 3.5GB download again at work. Unfortunately, my fancy-pants 8GB thumbdrive has given up the ghost. Now if I can only remember what I did with the 8GB USB drive I won this Summer…

Perhaps my inability to keep track of all of the thing I own is a clear sign that I still own too much shit. Oh well, that’s a problem for another day.

When Is An Energizer AA Battery Not Like The Others?
Coincidentally the rechargeable batteries in my home Apple keyboard/trackpad and the rechargeable batteries in my work Apple keyboard/mouse needed to be recharged on the same day. I popped the newer batteries I keep at work into the charger I keep in my desk and noticed that these rechargeable Energizer batteries were 2000 mAh batteries. When I did the same thing at home I noticed that the rechargeable Energizer AA batteries that were in my keyboard were 2500 mAH batteries and the rechargeable Energizer AA batteries that were in my trackpad were 2450 mAh batteries. WTF?

Note to self: start paying attention to details again…

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fat and still not 100% healthy, but mentally okay
Current Music – silence as I download everything the internet has to offer
Website Of The Day – I’ve been singing the same two songs in my head recently. Luckily, I like each. If I didn’t I could go to Unhear It and listen to another song to hopefully unstick the songs from my head.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – situps (25)
Morning Weigh-In – failed to check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~13 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 30, Situps – 150
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 22
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

November Goals
- Not to get sick for the entire month
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Run no fewer than 50 miles
- Determine the fate of Sharpened Stone, LLC
- lose five pounds
- eat vegetarian at least one day a week

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I've sadly gained weight; I'm at 203 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 Sharpened Stone.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online, completed
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides, completed
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers, completed

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS Objective-C
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

This will be a short blogging week. Thanks to the Company I’ll have Thursday and Friday off. Thanks to the Company, or at least the Building Company I’m currently sweating in an 81ºF office building. [Update @ 9:08 - chiller is working and the building is cooling down.] And thanks to my getting up late and rushing around the house I incorrectly put a tablespoon of salt instead of a teaspoon of salt into my crockpot baked beans that I’m making for my dinner tonight.

BetsyFest Was A Whopping Success
On Friday night I was the first one to arrive at Holy Taco, somehow beating everyone who said they’d be there early. Oh well. I plopped my ass at the bar and ordered a beer and then the party was on. My earliness and desire not to drink too much led me to be the first to depart BetsyFest ’10, but when I did there were perhaps fifteen others still remaining to keep the party going.

I feel as I somehow missed a third leg of BetsyFest ’10 which would by held on Saturday. But, I had such a great time at Thursday’s and Friday’s festivities that I didn’t feel a void.

Experiments In The Kitchen
For some reason this weekend was filled with kitchen experiments, most of which looked horrible, but unlike the salty beans I’ll have tonight were quite edible.

For lunch on Saturday I took some “guacamole” (in quotes because while the main ingredients of guacamole were found they were not in proper proportion) and fried it up with an egg. Hideous looking, not bad tasting.

On Saturday afternoon I decided to cook up (in the crockpot) the pumpkin, butternut squash, and new potatoes that I’d purchased the week before. I made this concoction using the spice combination that I’d used for the sweet potatoes I made for the Thanksgiving potluck. The biggest problem with my concoction was that the squash broke down into strands, much like a spaghetti squash would, while the pumpkin and potatoes proudly held their form. Again, not much to look at, but it was still quite edible.

ITP Flickr Pic
I like this navel orange

I don’t know why.

I’m Finally On The “Modern Family” Bandwagon
And I’m certain that ITP-Reader Lisa can’t understand what took me so long to heed her advice.

The St Andrew’s Day Massacre: When CB Really Means YBF
I ran with the Black Sheep Hash yesterday. For a long period of time I thought that I would be blogging about how I made it through the first check, but was so stymied by the “CB 2″ that I had to return to my car and wait for the pack to arrive there after running circle. Luckily I wasn’t alone, so the small pack of hounds of which I was a part managed to figure out where trail went (the “CB” was supposed to be a “YBF”) and we lucked into trail which was being laid by BWanA (aka ITP-Reader Harold) who had found a bag of flour and was using it to mark trail for the rest of us. The remainder of trail was really well marked and had I been in any sort of running shape I would have done really well.

Circle took a long time yesterday and its brevity was not helped by the appearance of four “local” lads who couldn’t figure out what this group of skirted guys was doing in the woods singing (to be fair there were more than a handful of women in attendance yesterday as well). I arrived home around 6:30pm and did little more than watch tv (The Amazing Race included) for the rest of the evening.

Odd stat of the day: Number of beers consumed by me at the hash — zero

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – sweating
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – I was going through notes this weekend and remembered to look for a guy who I saw in Wyoming who was walking across country. Why I didn’t stop and take his photo I’ll never figure out, but perhaps my transmission would have died then so maybe it was for the best.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Saturday: situps (50), pushups (20); Sunday: hashing (~4 miles), situps (50), pushups (10)
Morning Weigh-In – 202 pounds (aaah, the power of water retention)
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~13 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 30, Situps – 125
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 21
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

November Goals
- Not to get sick for the entire month
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Run no fewer than 50 miles
- Determine the fate of Sharpened Stone, LLC
- lose five pounds
- eat vegetarian at least one day a week

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I've sadly gained weight; I'm at 203 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 Sharpened Stone.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online, completed
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides, completed
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers, completed

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS Objective-C
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Everyone has seen it, I’ve returned to being fat. My scale, which read a shade over 207 on two occasions this morning, has reminded. My pants, who need no assistance from belts, have reminded me. So, starting today I’m challenging myself to shed five pound by mid-December. Why mid-December? Because I have business meeting in California for which I want to comfortably fit into my dressier pants. Wish me luck because I am going to need it.

Last Gluttony #1
My office held its annual pre-Thanksgiving pot luck lunch yesterday. I brought in some “candied” sweet potatoes — can I tell you how much I love sweet potatoes? — whose “candying” was less than stellar. In fact, I think I would have preferred the sweet potatoes to have been naked, or at least with just some butter.

Our pre-Thanksgiving feast started as a way for the employees to learn about the many varied cultures which make up our division. The spread yesterday was fantastic. Some people went out of their way to cook up some intricate dishes, while others went the store-bought route. While I tried to limit my intake, I did know that I had a reservation at Woodfire Grill, I consumed a wide variety of delicacies.

Last Gluttony #2: And The Star Of The Show
Is not in the building. Perhaps the only downer of last night’s Woodfire Grill visit was that Top Chef cheftestant Kevin Gillespie was nowhere to be found. We were told he was at The Pentagon, but I suspect he was at a strip club called The Panty-Gone (I wouldn’t Google that if I were you). I’m not one who expects the CelebriChefs to be in their restaurants (hell, it’s physically impossible for some), but I was expecting Gillespie to be there last night.

The five members of our pre-BetsyFest celebration, including ITP-Reader Gary, each dug our heels deep and agreed to go for the seven-course chef’s menu with wine pairings. Don’t ask how much this cost because all I will say is “a lot” and smile.

Here is what I remember, the wines were above my cognition:

[Pre-Meal] Bread, delicious bread
[Amuse Bouche] Radish with butter and minced celery
1. Fried shrimp served over minced shrimp : some dry white
2. Pan-seared scallop served over shaved brussel sprouts and surrounded by squash : some chardonnay
3. Mushroom served over a grit cake : honestly, I don’t remember
4. Sweetbreads served with something I cannot remember : honestly, I don’t remember
5. Pork belly with a side of pork and sunchokes : some tasty red
[Pallet Cleanser] Watermelon drink with some chili salt
6. Lamb with beets : a hearty red
[Pre-Dessert] A sample of a piece if chocolate cake with a brandied(?) piece of fruit and some sort of foam.
7. Mousse “tart” (see below) : milk — kidding, it was a sweet dessert wine

Each of these plates also had many components and sauces which were far too involved for me to remember.

Sadly we were told that we could get a printout of all of the things we ate and drank — which would have made writing this blog much easier — but we all forgot to get it.

Best line of the night, uttered by our birthday girl, in reference to cordial cherries — “Cordials aren’t always cordial.”

Would I go back? Sure. Would I go all in for the chef’s menu? Not unless I have some amazing financial windfall.

ITP Flickr Pic
Here was last night’s dessert

Happy Birthday Greetings
Today is the actual birthday of ITP-Reader Betsy. If you’d like to partake in BetsyFest ’10 you’ll want to swing into Holy Taco sometime this evening.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fat, way fat, but ready to start reversing the trend
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – There are no Kevin Gillespie dishes in Popular Plates BBQ magazine, but that doesn’t stop if from being awesome.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 207 pounds
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~9 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 25
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 18
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

November Goals
- Not to get sick for the entire month
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Run no fewer than 50 miles
- Determine the fate of Sharpened Stone, LLC
- lose five pounds
- eat vegetarian at least one day a week

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I've sadly gained weight; I'm at 203 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 Sharpened Stone.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online, completed
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides, completed
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers, completed

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS Objective-C
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

I’m feeling a little better than I did yesterday and am keeping my fingers crossed that I feel 100% better by tonight as I’ll be dining at Woodfire Grill for ITP-Reader Betsy’s birthday tonight.

I’m Sleeping Too Much
If and when I finally return to “normal” I want to put the brakes on the oodles of sleep I’ve been getting recently (as in the past few months). I know people attest that sleep is good for you, but I have too much to do in the rest of my life to sleep it away. As an immediate benefit my morning commute will be immensely less stressful as well.

ITP Flickr Pic
Thought about taking a shot of the sweet potatoes in my crockpot, but then I thought differently.

A Brief Update
The other day I groused about my ticket woes. Well, I’m glad to report that each has been rectified. I called Shakespeare Tavern and purchased a ticket for “A Christmas Carol.” And, I called the Horizon Theatre and was able to change my reservation to the 18th of December instead of the 17th — anyone “reminding” me of a previous commitment on the 18th will be shot.

Another Shorty
Yes, I have to go….

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – still bummed, but trying to be positive
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – Apple made a big deal out of (finally) getting the Beatles catalog on iTunes. I’ll do them one better, The Beatles Complete On Ukulele.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In –
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~9 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 25
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 17
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

November Goals
- Not to get sick for the entire month
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Run no fewer than 50 miles
- Determine the fate of Sharpened Stone, LLC
- lose five pounds
- eat vegetarian at least one day a week

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I've sadly gained weight; I'm at 203 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 Sharpened Stone.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online, completed
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides, completed
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers, completed

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS Objective-C
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

That’s about all I have for today. Tonight I’ll be leaving work, heading to a grocery store, going home to prepare some food, and then going to sleep.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – sick, tired, overweight
Current Music – silence, except for some bothered breathing and sneezing
Website Of The Day – Maybe I should drink some Pocari Sweat to see if it will help me feel better.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~9 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 25
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 16
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

November Goals
- Not to get sick for the entire month
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Run no fewer than 50 miles
- Determine the fate of Sharpened Stone, LLC
- lose five pounds
- eat vegetarian at least one day a week

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I've sadly gained weight; I'm at 203 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 Sharpened Stone.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online, completed
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides, completed
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers, completed

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS Objective-C
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

One of the reasons I may get sick so much (in addition to having a seemingly inferior immune system) — I’m working on fighting off something right now — is the many climates to which I have to subject my body. Yesterday the office hovered around 71º F (at least until we had a partial power outage at 4pm), right now my desk thermometer is reporting 78.4º F. [update: the a/c has apparently been turned on, the temperature has plummeted below 74º F in a matter of minutes.] [update @ 08:50, the temperature is now 72.0º F]

What Was I Thinking?
I don’t know what exactly possessed me to go to IKEA last night. It was one or more of the following:

• I heard about a neat photo hanging system sold there
• I had a desire to see attractive women to whom I would not talk
• I figured this would be the last time I dare enter IKEA until Christmas has passed
• I had a craving for Swedish meatballs
• I was mentally delirious from whatever illness I’m currently fighting

Regardless, I went to IKEA last night and somehow managed to spend $60 (dinner included) without being under the influence of a beautiful woman.

IKEA is a really strange place for me. IKEA is the only store that really makes me want to get rid of my house and move into a 800 sq ft loft — which I’d furnish using cheap pressboard furniture of course. IKEA is the only store which makes me desire a stylish abode, something I’ve not been able to accomplish in the eleven years in my house.

I lost my IKEA dinner virginity last night. I ordered Swedish meatballs with a side of macaroni and cheese (because that’s what the cute girl ahead of me, the one who never noticed me, ordered) and “healthied it up” with a side of wonderfully-colored steamed vegetables (basically most of the vegetables people tell you to avoid — carrots (both orange and yellow), sugar snap peas, and a hint of broccoli). The food was, well, the food was edible.

ITP Flickr Pic
Sorry, I have nothing for you. I took a shot of my IKEA dinner last night and the photo turned out blurry because I am apparently incapable of using a camera these days.

Thou Ticket Purchasing Process Doth Suck
I’m trying to get a ticket to “A Christmas Carole” at Shakespeare Tavern for December 23rd. I went to the website to purchase a ticket yesterday and was informed that I needed an E-Identity to purchase a ticket online. Not phased I filled out the form which generated an E-Identity and received a congratulatory message from the system. One huge problem though, when I went to use the username and password that I had just created I kept getting “Invalid Password” errors. Of course the “Reset Password” link does nothing more than send someone an email, and I’ve yet to hear back from him/her.

So today I will step back a communication generation and try to call the Shakespeare Tavern box office. If that fails I will attach a note to the leg of a carrier pigeon and see if that method works.

Paging Mr Dumas, Mr Dumas
That’s “Dumb Ass” to you.

Well, somebody forgot to put the Chatham County Line show at Variety Playhouse on somebody‘s calendar and then went and bought two (yes, two) tickets for “The Santaland Diaries” for the same night.

Fuck. Me.

So today somebody will be calling the Horizon Theatre to see if he can change his tickets for “The Santaland Diaries” to another night so he doesn’t have to eat either the $20 spent for the Chatham County Line ticket or the $75 spent for the “The Santaland Diaries” tickets.

Dumb ass.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fighting something, ticked off at myself
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – I’m not above liberating websites from others. Today’s choice is Gone-Ta-Pott : A Directory For Holidays & Celebtrations. (Thanks ITP-Reader Stacy!) Does anyone else wonder how much taxpayer money has been wasted by declaring so many “National Day”?
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~9 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 25
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 15
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

November Goals
- Not to get sick for the entire month
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Run no fewer than 50 miles
- Determine the fate of Sharpened Stone, LLC
- lose five pounds
- eat vegetarian at least one day a week

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I've sadly gained weight; I'm at 203 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 Sharpened Stone.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online, completed
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides, completed
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers, completed

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS Objective-C
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Wow, I could have had a better weekend, but it would have been very hard to do so…

I’ve Joined The ‘Big Boy/Girl’ Club
It took me nearly five years to do so, but I’ve managed to finally eclipse beer #125 at Taco Mac. On Friday I joined some co-workers at the Taco Mac just ITP in The Prado (nee Frankie’s for those of you who’ve lived in Atlanta awhile). We chose this Taco Mac over our customary local(er) Taco Mac because it has a big covered patio and we figured that this might be the last Friday on which one would want to sit outside. Our plan worked well for about an hour until Taco Mac decided to turn on there overhead patio heaters / broilers. The heat was intense and the fans installed to blow and distribute the heat generated by the glowing red broilers did little. Our table complained / pleaded with no fewer than three Taco Mac employees / managers explaining to them that we chose to sit outside because we figured the weather was fine and that anyone complaining to be cold could easily move indoors. Our pleas fell on mostly deaf ears. Occasionally the heating system would be turned off for a few minutes only to return with reckless abandon. The group wound up leaving much earlier than planned because we couldn’t take the heat.

A few of the heavy drinkers in the group, myself included, headed to The Fred — situated directly below Taco Mac — to add a few high gravity beverages to our Taco Mac Passport/Brewniversity lists. Of the three of us my 125 beers was the fewest.

ITP Flickr Pics
This was the first beer I had at Taco Mac on Friday.

I admit it, the can made me laugh out loud.

This was beer #125.

In this mug was a Jailhouse Brewery Mugshot IPA.

Not A Hurtin’ Albertan, But I Was A Hurtin’ Atlantan
After the Taco Mac / The Fred outing I drove down to the Peachtree Tavern in Buckhead. I hadn’t realized until I got there that I’d been to the bar before, many many years ago when it was The Chameleon Club — see also one of the greatest Dayroom shows I ever saw, complete with a girl named Domnique; but that’s another story…

I arrived a little before the announced 10pm starting time and grabbed a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and waited for the show to start. I was standing about five feet from the stage and except for perhaps Corb Lund and the Hurtin’ Albertans’ final three songs I had an unencumbered view of the stage (in fact, I should have brought my camera).

The show, at least for me, was phenomenal. Once the band was done I went to chat with Lund, shook his hand — he’s a country singer so I had no concern for injuring him — and had a very brief chat before others joined in. I later chatted with the band’s bass player and even purchased him a beer — no, I don’t really know why, who seemed nice enough but perhaps a little freaked out that someone was chatting with him. I will certainly try to see Lund and his band perform again sometime in the future.

To my surprise the place was nearly completely full when Jason Boland’s band took the stage. I stayed around for a handful of songs, all of which were good, before deciding that it was time for me to head home.

Far From The Same
Most of Buckhead has changed since the days I used to drink at the bars and work out at Jeanne’s Body Tech. I’ve gotten used to seeing the change in the party scene but was floored to see how small Jeanne’s has become since I let my membership lapse almost ten years ago. And then I walked past the bank, which was once the room in which I used to do aerobics, and for lack of a better term, became verklempt.

Camping With The Hash
As with the case for many things, it’s not quantity, it’s quality. When I arrived in Pine Mountain on Saturday I was shocked to see so few in attendance. At our peak there were twelve hashers in camp. That count was about half of the people whose names I saw on the “committed” list. Their loss.

The weather (and color) could have been no better this weekend. Since I was staying just one night I transformed the Jackmobile into a tent and spent a surprisingly comfortable night in it sleeping — though I re-remembered some of the previous tricks I had learned too late.

The five mile trail laid by Supersuck and High Dicker was great. I actually did a wee bit of “running” on trail, though I credit most of that to declines. After the hash I was nominated a GM of the Fall Campout and ran circle — not bad for my first time. Given our intimate size I made sure that each hasher got to do a down-down.

The food of chicken for lunch and pulled pork for dinner, along with a full breakfast spread on Sunday was delicious. I’m surprised that my weight was not higher given the quantities of food and beer I consumed this weekend.

Prank’d
I couldn’t help be feel as if I were being pranked this morning. I searched high and low for the carrying case for my iPad. I tore apart the bedding, I looked in the clothing hamper, I even looked in the trash — to no avail. I searched the den completely; I searched the kitchen completely; I searched the living room completely; three rooms in which I knew that I had spent time yesterday — to no avail. And the finally, while just about to give up I remembered the five minutes I spent in the guest bedroom — and there it was.

It reminds me of another account from Friday night. While sitting outside, and before the broilers were turned on, two women at the table behind me bumped into me as they passed. Each woman apologized, and I told each that it was okay. Then, the second woman, a rather attractive blond asked “Do you ever feel like you are on camera, you know, like on Candid Camera?” I was so stunned by her question that I really had no good answer, muttered a few things, and watched her walk away. And that my friends is how you can stay single your entire life!

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – a little run down
Current Music – silence as I upgrade iTunes
Website Of The Day – If you’ve used an iPhone you’ve no doubt experienced one opportunity to say Damn You, Auto-Correct.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Saturday: hashing, 5 miles
Morning Weigh-In – 205 pounds
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~9 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 25
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 14
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

November Goals
- Not to get sick for the entire month
- Not get fired from my job
- Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
- Run no fewer than 50 miles
- Determine the fate of Sharpened Stone, LLC
- lose five pounds
- eat vegetarian at least one day a week

2010 Goals
- Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds) [update: On July 1 I've sadly gained weight; I'm at 203 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 Sharpened Stone.
- Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
- Attend at least one professional photography workshop
- Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
- Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online, completed
- Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides, completed
- Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers, completed

The Unmeasurable
- Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
- Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS Objective-C
- Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]