In With A Bang, Out With A Thud

Well, after today 1/12^th of 2011 will be in the books. I’ve decided that this year I will do monthly recaps in addition to my three-part year-ender.

January: In With A Bang, Out With A Thud
The month started on a strong note with a great Cheddarhead Hash — even though I didn’t win the bowling trophy again this year. Not even Snowpocalypse 2011 could ruin the early month as I got to play in the snow, visit my local bars on foot, and even went on my first first-date in years, though sadly it seems as if there will be no second date.

And then, like my attempts to walk on ice things started slipping.

You know, I’ve been meaning to use the following line on the “social networks” but, believe it or not, I don’t want to appear to be too much of a loser:

I consider myself a ‘catch.’ Unfortunately the women in whom I have interest consider me a ‘catch and release.’

I don’t know, I think it’s kind of clever….

Sure, I’ve been “running” but my running has been slow with too many walking breaks and my knees are reminding me why I stopped running in the first place (and I’m only up to a five-mile “long” run!).

I did get to see my brother (ITP-Ronnie) (hey guess what, your birthday card will be late) and nephew (ITP-Eric) for a couple of nights which was quite pleasing.

I had an oddly satisfying few minutes yesterday. I stopped in at QT to fill my tank prior to doing laundry and upon entering the building I sort of busted a cute young girl (womanish) staring at me. She smiled, I shot her a “Busted!” glance and smirk and thought nothing of it. She happened to be at the coffee area as I walked up, and get this, she started talking to me. That’s right, for the first time in I don’t know how many years, I was actually hit on by a cute young girl. I’d forgotten how much of a pleasure that is. Our “conversation” was brief and cordial but for me it was quiet uplifting. What happened from there? Nothing. She was too young. She was with a guy who I thought was her boyfriend (disproved when another young girl entered the building), and I had already noticed that she had gotten out of a car with North Carolina license plates.

I’ve yet to hear shit about my business license renewal from the City of Atlanta. Apparently I was supposed to hear from them by January 15th. I figured that the city being closed for a week slowed them down (if that’s even possible) so I’ve generously waited. Guess what I have to find time in an already-too-packed schedule to do today. Fuck me.

With my mind racing of thoughts of business license renewal I woke early to begin the day. I walked into the den to use my computer to look at the new downloads and sync my iPhone, the same as I do every morning, only today nothing but a Samsung error box reading “Check interface cable” popped onto the screen. None of my “quick fix” attempts to rectify the problem worked, so I’ve schlepped most of the gear into work — not that I’ll have time to deal with it. In fact, I doubt that I’ve have time to deal with it until I return from Raleigh next Monday. Really? Do I need this added bullshit in my life? I’ve been good to Mankind, what the fuck dude?!?!

A Very Groupon Weekend
I’ve moaned about allowing Groupon coupons to expire in the past. I am bound to not let that happen again.

On Friday some of my coworkers and I used my $25 coupon at Slopes BBQ for lunch. On Saturday night I headed over to Village Pizza in Cabbagetown and used a $20 coupon for dinner. And on Sunday I returned to Cabbagetown for dinner, I initially tried to eat lunch but was thwarted by a lack of parking, at Carroll Street Cafe where I used another $20 coupon.

Each meal was good, and quite different in their own way. Foodwise last night’s meal at Carroll Street Cafe was the best (probably not hurt by the two Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPAs nor the attractive young lady serving them to me), though the loudness of one six-person table (initially, they grew larger) really put a damper on the atmosphere (excepting the attractive young lady serving me beer, of course).

ITP Flickr Pic
Far from my best food photo, but this is a shot of the large pizza I ordered at Village Pizza on Saturday night.

It was good, but I ate too much that night and punished myself by staying in.

Coincidence Is So Coincidental
Start with trying to remember the name of an iOS application you heard about recently (Textastic).
Add the remembrance of a website (MacBreak Weekly Picks) which chronicles all of the picks made on the podcast on which you heard about the app.
Add a mention of another podcast done by a guy (Merlin Mann), who I swear must have crossed paths with my old friend Mike Borland, but more importantly to this conversation used to be a regular on the first podcast.
Add downloading this new podcast (Back To Work).
Add starting to listen to this new podcast while loping around Grant Park on Saturday’s run.
Add having a strange feeling that you’ve heard the co-host of Back To Work before.
Sum these up.

And you get Dan Benjamin, who used do to co-host a photography podcast called Tack Sharp which died on the vine (as so many podcasts do) back in 2009.

Hoping Tonight Ends The Month On A High (And In Tune) Note
Tonight I’ll be hanging with ITP-Reader Betsy at Eddie’s Attic for the Alejandro Escovedo show. I’ve been forced to violate my “When there are two shows you should see the first” rule because by the time I found out that Escovedo was coming back to Atlanta the first show had already sold out.

I’m just hoping that I get out of my afternoon meeting which starts at 4pm in plenty of time to fight what will inevitably be shitty traffic between my Perimeter Mall starting point and Decatur.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – pissed, frustrated
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – While we won’t see much sun in these parts today Sun Calc is a cool way to find out sunrise/sunset data and track the sun’s progress across the sky. [Thanks to ITP-Reader John “HamWithCam”]
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – Tomorrow, which will be strange because I just realized that it’ll be another six days before I can weigh myself on the same scale.

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~34.8 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 6 flights

Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 2 (9)

Vegetarian Days – 2
Carnivorous Days – 29

Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

January Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Run no fewer than 75 miles
– Prepare Sharpened Stone, LLC for 2011 so that I get no more penalties
– Lose two pounds
– Eat vegetarian at least one day a week
– A couple of goals which I will not divulge
– Eat lunch out no more than twice a week
– Limit myself to eating dinner out on laundry nights, meeting nights, and dates

2011 Goals [will be a little more fluid than in past years]
– Reduce my weight by 25 pounds based on the my weight as measured on February 1st
– Completely read the book Daily Negations which I received as a Christmas gift.
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business — one which does not get penalized.
– 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
– Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than two half-marathons
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store

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

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]