Coasting To December

At least with the blog. With the four-day hiatus from blogging I completely lost track of my meal counts. And since none of the other numbers that I keep track of were going in the desired direction I’ve decided to pull my monthly counts for the remainder of November. This site will be back in ernest starting December 1.

Today’s Personal Project
Get better. I still ache in many places and I feel as if my life is a complete mess.

Today’s Daily Challenge
Share the names of your three favorite in-season fruits and vegetables.

Eating a diet rich in colorful fruits and vegetables is important all year round, and each season features tasty finds! Produce can help protect you from heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer, and its fiber content helps fill you up. By sharing your favorites, you may encourage others to share theirs with you, giving you even more healthy fruit and veggie ideas.

  1. Sweet Potatoes
  2. Winter Squash
  3. citrus (oranges, tangerines)

And you?

Feed A Cold, Starve The Flu?
Or is it the other-way-around?

Regardless of what I have, I ate a lot of food yesterday — Pop Tarts for breakfast, an egg salad sandwich and a sizable portion of vegetable soup for lunch. I wanted to stop at The Elder Tree Pub to eat some fish-and-chips and to say “Hello” to the night’s bartender Joy, but I knew that I shouldn’t be drinking beer in my distressed condition (and because I am fat), so I went home and prepared some pasta instead.

I attempted to get a good night’s sleep, but tossed and turned for most of the night before waking up before my alarm this morning. At least the morning wasn’t brutally cold so I was able to get up and out of bed with little regret (except for my back pain) and make it into the office early.

Cashing In
Not so much this year, but previous years of traveling for work had earned me a fairly substantial amount of “rewards points” with the Choice Hotels chain. Knowing that I am probably not planning to travel before year’s end I decided to cash in my points for a $50 Amazon Gift Card before my points expire. I received my $50 Amazon Gift Card in the mail the other day and think that I already know on what it will be spent (today’s Website of the Day might provide a clue).

More R&R Tonight
While I’d love to pack my schedule tonight with activities and drinking I think it’ll be best if I just go home and relax, or at least do some chores which don’t require much physical prowess.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – meh, still struggling nightly
Current Music – listening to this week’s “Sound Opinions” podcast
Website Of The Day – You may not know this about me, but I adore Charles Schultz’ Peanuts. Tis the season to watch the Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas specials, all of which I own on DVD. I own the iPad apps for “It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown,” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” I am contemplating starting to buy (in print!) and read The Complete Peanuts strip from 1950 to its publication’s ending when Schultz died..
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – not checking until December

November Goals
– none

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
– Drive/Fly somewhere for a real vacation

Books I’ve Read/Heard In 2012

  1. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me — Mindy Kahling
  2. Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man’s Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science — Curtis Ebbesmeyer
  3. God, No! — Penn Jillette
  4. The Elephant to Hollywood — Michael Caine
  5. Here Comes Trouble — Michael Moore
  6. How We Decide — Jonah Lehrer
  7. Steve Jobs — Walter Isaacson
  8. Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays) — Arthur Miller
  9. Fahrenheit 451 — Ray Bradbury
  10. White Jacket Required — Jenna Weber

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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11 Responses to Coasting To December

  1. Steve says:

    A walk might do your back some good. A gentle warming to get those muscles to relax.

    A big shout out to Chef Debbie- last nights dinner of lemon talapia over couscous with roasted brussel sprouts was very tasty!! Speaking of favorite vegetables- the afore mentioned BS, green beans in almost any form, corn (though not a real fan of on the cob) and spinach.

    Farley went back to the vet yesterday for another looksee and an xray. The vet had a blonde moment when she gave him the sedative and wasn’t close to the xray room. The vet, a tech and Debbie got to wrangle a fairly limp Farley into the room and then onto the table. Let’s just say this would have been easier with a little more planning, but they probably don’t have many (any) clients as large as the Farls. And as we susppected, nothing broken. He’s doing a bit better, but that’s partly because he’s getting used to being 3 legged.

    -FP

  2. Barb says:

    I still haven’t had any brussel sprouts, I just can’t make myself buy them as I “think” I don’t like them, but it has been many, many years since I’ve had them.
    I like apples & oranges & grapefruit, I really need to make an effort to eat more.

    I’m going to finally pick some lettuce from my fall garden, there is enough out there to make salads tonight (to go with the wild rice & turkey soup Allan’s been working on – we made way too much turkey stock from the bird)

    the snow peas vines are growing (no snow peas anywhere) and the broccoli plants are growning (no broccoli either). I guess I need to look ath te package to see how lon git is supposed to take, jsut hope for not too many moe cold nights to kill them off.

    that’s funny about the vet & Farley – I can imagine the fun of trying to move him.

  3. Jenka says:

    The Atlanta Half Marathon went really well on Thursday: the weather was actually very pleasant! Saw ITP-reader Martha and Jerry cheering from the sidelines. Then I went to 3 separate Thanksgiving feasts, all in Grant Park and Ormewood Park! Well, I probably only ate once, and then grazed. Good times, but like everyone else, I’m back to the grind this week. Ho hum!

  4. Glad to hear Jenka. I’m sure you ran well too!

    Steve, you reminded me that brussels sprouts should have made my list. Dangen! And you are correct, they probably don’t see many animals of Farley’s size there…

    Good luck with the veg growing Barb. I wish I had desire to do so again.

    And it appears that email notifications still don’t work, at least finding three comments and receiving zero emails would lend me to believe so.

  5. Jenka says:

    Nope, I totally hit a wall around mile 10. I would’ve done MUCH worse, though, if I hadn’t been running with a group of friends. Not my best showing, but hey, I got ‘er done!

    I haven’t gotten email notifications on comments for the past 6 months or so.

  6. Stacy says:

    So…does this mean you have totally given up on TAR? I’m close to it myself: I think it’s run its course (pun intended). I do have to admit I miss your recaps though. *grin*

  7. Barb says:

    I won’t give up on TAR, just because I like seeing places in the world I’ll never go to. But – this season’s “leaders” aren’t as likeable, and I do have to say, some of the challenges have been pretty crazy. Maybe they need to re-visit some of the old challenges – not sure what is differnt but this season is a little different.

  8. Steve says:

    I think we’re almost over it as well. We’re sort of rooting for Chip-n-Dale because they are trying to win to pay for cancer treatments for one dad.

    If you think notifications have worked lately, you are very wrong- which might explain the lower blog response traffic.

  9. Barb says:

    here’s a story for Paulie – made me laugh

    http://www.awfulannouncing.com/
    you need to scroll down a little way to get to this story.
    Here’s the title:
    Fireman Ed wrote an entire column to step down from his imaginary post

  10. Debbie says:

    I’m with Jenka – no notifications for 6 months or so.

    I hated Brussel Sprouts growing up as we only ever had them boiled – little soggy mini cabbages, yuck. Steve and I went to dinner one night at Watershed and his entree came with roasted Brussel Sprouts and we were hooked. They are super easy, just cut them in half, toss them with some olive oil, fresh ground pepper and sea salt and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or so. If you’re feeling carnivorous throw in some chopped pancetta.

    If there had only been video of the three of us hoisting a limp Farley onto a waist high xray table. We could have surely paid for all of his treatments after winning America’s Funniest. Once we finally lifted/shoved and squished him onto the table, we all had to catch our breath and wait for our heart rates to slow, it was pathetic.

    He’s lost 8 lbs since becoming injured, but the difference between lifting 166 and 158 isn’t really appreciable.

  11. Paulie [eatl/ga] says:

    My notifications are different then yours, which is why I am frustrated. I’m supposed to get email each time someone leaves a comment.

    I’m done with TAR; it hasn’t kept my interest and is not convincing me to deal with the NFL delays.

    I heard Fireman Ed had canceled his Twitter accound during the game.

    Fireman Ed To Step Down From His Imaginary Post.

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