Working On Plumbing

No, not that plumbing… I spent the weekend rewriting the plumbing of the application I’m working on for a living. “Plumbing” is the code for the parts that you don’t see, “porcelain” is the code for the parts that you do. Make sense?

Unfortunately after eating dinner last night, to which I seemed to have a mild allergic reaction, my health took a downward turn. I plopped into bed after watching The Amazing Race and went to “sleep” shortly afterward. I woke up and fell asleep no fewer than three times during the evening. This was/is horrible because I have too much work to do, need need need to get my tax paperwork in order today for tomorrow’s meeting with my tax preparer, and have a physical scheduled for Wednesday morning.

The Elder Tree Regular
On Saturday night I met up with a handful of friends (ITP-Readers Betsy, Terri, Pat, Tony; non-ITP-Readers Gary, Lynette) at The Elder Tree Public House.

Yes, it was my third visit within a five-day period. What of it?

On Saturday night I ate the “BLT” which was rather tasty and washed it down with beers. I think the consensus at the table was that the food was good, and I think most of us appreciated the non-smoking environment.

Below you’ll find what I hope to be doing tonight, and if it comes to fruition there is a good possibility that my first stop will be The Elder Tree.

Yesterday’s Daily Challenge
Ask a friend to go for a walk this week, either in person or as you talk on the phone.

Social support makes exercise easier and more fun! It’s hard to make excuses to avoid physical activity when you have a commitment with a friend. And connecting with someone you like, even if it’s just on the phone, will help lower your stress level.

I’m getting a little wagged out how these challenges seem to be very near to what I’ve started doing already this year.

ITP Flickr Pic Walking Map(s)
Friday’s walk:
2012-03-02

Saturday’s walk:
2012-03-03

I Won Top Chef!
Well, I didn’t win Top Chef, but my namesake did. As I mentioned before ITP-Reader Betsy came over last night to watch the Top Chef finale and The Amazing Race. She arrived with SoBa in hand — tofu, short ribs, pho — and we commenced to pigging out while drinking some cabernet sauvignon. After eating my mouth became a bit numb and swollen, and I started to get stuffy. This has never happened before when eating SoBa (or drinking wine, or eating Twizzlers) so I wasn’t sure how to handle it. I had taken Advil earlier in the day so I held off taking any sort of allergy medication until I woke up some time in the middle of the night. As I mentioned earlier I don’t feel great (and would have taken the day off from work if I didn’t need to print some stuff out here today) and am hoping for a quick recovery.

Supposed To Be Rocking Tonight
I have a ticket for tonight’s Craig Finn show at The EARL. By then I better feel better and have all of my tax shit together so that I can go out and have a good time. If neither of these two conditions are met I am going to stay at home instead.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – bummed, not feeling great and I am tired
Current Music – listening to a past “The Web Ahead” podcast
Website Of The Day – Want to know more than you ever wanted to know about a city in the United States? Check out City Data.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Friday = walking, ~4.25 miles; Saturday = walking, ~5.3 miles
Morning Weigh-In – Wednesday is the new, official weigh-in

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~12.0 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 0 flights

Days Of Bed-Making – 4

Vegetarian Days – 0
Carnivorous Days – 4
Pancakes Eaten – 0

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

March Goals
– Lose at least three pounds (net weight loss)
– Exercise for thirty minutes no fewer than twenty days
– Not to get sick for the entire month (may be a moot point as of today)
– Eat vegetarian no fewer than ten days
– Not get fired from my job, nor quit my job
– Follow up with doctors, lawyer, women in whom I have interest
– Go out on a least one date with a woman in whom I have interest
– Submit 2012 paperwork for Sharpened Stone, LLC
– File tax paperwork for 2011 income taxes
– Watch all of the classes in the 2011 Winter semester of Stanford’s CS193P (iOS Development) course

2012 Goals [will be a little less fluid than last year]
– Get my weight under 200 pounds, or at least whittle myself back down to where wearing a 36″ pant size is comfortable
– Completely read ten books, audio books permissible
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than one one 10K
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store
– Restore the ITP Estate to a condition where it can be put up for sale at any time
– Buy a new iPhone (iPhone 5?), a new iPad (iPad 3?), and MacBook Air [look, not all goals have to be altruistic]

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient and profitable programmer in Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions
– Start, and continue, to make my own bread using my bread machine as well as using the technique outlined in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
– Read and discard magazines during the month in which they arrive (even digitally)
– See more live concerts than I did in 2011
– Eat more pancakes
– Drive/Fly somewhere for a real vacation

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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9 Responses to Working On Plumbing

  1. Barb says:

    thanks for NOT having an Amazing Race recap, as Allan was a tthe firehouse, so we will watch it tonight. I watched Celebrity Apprentice instead.

    Busy weekend for me, storm warning Friday night that seemed funny, as we had no bad weather at my house, but according to the weather man, it was hitting us & we had lots of phone calls asking us about it. (and – if you were on FB, we did put our helmets on, as Ken Cook told us to. Is that something new with storm coverage? I’ve never heard that before)

    Then went hiking at Kennesaw Mtn Saturday morning with a good group of people, went mtn biking Sunday with another group of people.

  2. Steve says:

    I’m glad to be back at work where it isn’t raining or blowing or where I have to watch bicycles go by in said rain and wind. An ugly weekend of weather in Albany. With the start of each field Saturday, I told them while the weather is awful (raining) it isn’t dangerous (lightning). If it gets to be dangerous, the lap cards are going to 1 to go and we’ll all take cover. Everyone got it and I never had to play that card.

    Sunday was as blustery a day as I have ever worked a race in. And it seemed the later in the day, the worse it got. The womens field I followed in the afternoon was doing 12 MPH and struggling to hold that. 33 miles took an awfully long time. And the 3 leaders of the Cat 5 race decided to disagree as to where the course went- 1 followed the lead police car for their field and 2 decided not to turn… if you think the cops knew where they were and what they were doing you’d be correct(this was not their first rodeo). The 2 guys went from the very front to the very back and were a bit upset because somehow it was the organizations fault. Man up fellas.. just because you’re fast doesn’t mean you’re bright.

    -FP

  3. You are lucky that I am far too busy to have posted a TAR update. ๐Ÿ˜‰

  4. Martha says:

    Ugh, the weather in Albany…what a mess. It began raining right before the race started, so I was wet and miserable for over 4 hours. I’ve never had so much chaffing in all my life, I’m chaffed in places I didn’t know you could chafe. Around mile 5 tornado sirens started, it rained off an on for the entire race and around mile 22 it really started to come down along with some big wind gusts. Even thought it was 70 degrees, I couldn’t stop shaking, lots of folks were cramping (it was pretty warm, even if it didn’t seem to be). Well at least I finished, two of our Grant Park crew, jumped in the SAG truck sometime after mile 20.

    We changed into some dry clothes and headed home…

    I defense of the two guys that didn’t follow the cop, the don’t always know where they are going. A couple of years back the Romp and Stomp 5K turned into a 3k because the lead motorcycle cop didn’t know the route.

  5. Steve says:

    Martha, you’re absolutely right. And we’ve been there as well. As the course is a lollipop- you go out, do any number of laps, then come back- my suggestion to the organization was to paint the word “Finish” and an arrow at the turn. Then it’s simply up to the rider to know how many laps they are riding. These 2 guys were hot, and I let them vent, but there is very little I can do when the rulebook says ” the rider is responsible for knowing the course”. Had the cop led them in the wrong direction, I have a little more leeway…

  6. Barb says:

    Martha – I am more than impressed that you finished in those awful conditions.

  7. “Martha รขโ‚ฌโ€œ I am more than impressed that you finished in those awful conditions.”

    Ditto!

  8. Martha says:

    It seems like there’s a lot of that (getting off course/lost) on some of the trail runs…it’s hard to feel bad for someone but you sort of do. Last year at Twisted Ankle volunteers sent some of the marathoners off in the wrong direction, they ended up handing out two sets of awards…those that did the course and those that did the ‘other’ course.

    Thanks guys, there weren’t too many moments out there when I didn’t want to quit.

  9. Steve says:

    I was under cover for the first part of the day- while you were on course, and I know what that weather was like. I’d have packed it in at the first beer stop!

    You got Moxie!

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