Nor I a big loser, either.
My pants selection today are reminding me of this…
Today’s Daily Challenge
Stand with your hands on your chest, jump up, open your arms and legs, and repeat seven times.
This challenge brings all sorts of star power! It’s a nice way to stretch arms and legs if you’ve been sitting or standing for a while. It opens up the chest and shoulders. Best of all, it injects a moment of heart-healthy activity into your day and can give you an energy boost.
While doing this I require you to repeat the following:
I came to get down
I came to get down
So get out your seats and jump around
Jump around
Jump around
Jump around
Jump up, jump up and get down.
Jump [18x]
🙂
Spreading My Wealth, Through Paint?
December is traditionally the month in which I solicit suggestions for my “charitable” donations. As in past years I’ve earmarked $500 to give to local charities, this year will be no different. If you have a charity to which you’d like to see me donate a portion of that $500 please leave a comment.
It will be slightly more difficult to give this money away this year as my largest “charity” — the ITP Estate — seems to be sucking up “disposable” income hand-over-fist.
Yesterday I pulled the trigger on hiring the painting company to come out and paint the outer-doors, window trim (though I don’t know about the still-smashed window’s trim), soffit and carport, and all ironwork, as well as patch the two problem spots on my living room ceiling.
I think I will be putting the brakes on house repairs until January 2014 (which really isn’t that far away!) so that I can do a little more financial budgeting for the year in which I will be taking at least two trips.
ITP Flickr Pic
“My Companion, While I Still Can”
I love beer. SHOCKER! But beer has not done me well of late so I think we will break up at some time later in life. However, while we are still on a companionship basis I will enjoy it thoroughly.
(shot taken on Sunday)
Dave & Buster’s + Funtime Bowling
As mentioned yesterday we celebrated our office Christmas Holiday Party at Dave & Buster’s. Unfortunately the food was pretty terrible. Even more unfortunately I did not win any of the iPads, Nexus 7s, or Note 3s given away during the raffle. All was not a total loss however. I hung around a couple of coworkers playing games and together we amassed 2500+ tickets. We donated all of the tickets we won to the girl, err woman (she’s 25), whose birthday it was on Saturday. She in turn got herself a D&B pint glass and got two packs of trivia cards — 80’s TV, 90’s Music — which she donated to me. If she weren’t a coworker, twenty-five, and married I think I’d have a shot with her! Did I mention that her father is a year younger than I am? LOL.
Following Dave & Buster’s four of us went bowling at Funtime Bowl on Buford Highway to celebrate her birthday. I can’t say that it was the greatest celebration however, as it turns out that the birthday girl and our coworker / her roommate (who is leaving for Colorado in ten days) are currently fighting. I didn’t let that dampen my spirits as I averaged 140 for the two games bowled and was awed by a guy who bowled a 230+ on the lanes next to us (he had ten strikes, and two open frames I believe), all while sucking down two Red Hook Longhammer IPAs which were $3.27 each. Yes Virginia, there are still places in Atlanta where you can get a beer for less than $5.50 a pop.
By the time I arrived home I had no more time than to take out the recycling bin and chat with my mother on the phone for twenty-five minutes before calling it a night.
I Am The FUTURE!
Or not.
The Holiday Party started at 4pm.
Then there was the 3:30pm meeting out of which I could not get.
However, people wanted to carpool, so I devised a plan.
As long as I wasn’t driving there was nothing from stopping me from dialing in to the call on our way to Dave & Buster’s. Sure, I could have done this the traditional way, using my iPhone, but I had a “better” plan. Because my iPad has an LTE data plan I was able to hook up my USB headset via the iPad’s camera connection kit dongle, and use Skype to dial in.
Brilliant!
And my rig even worked well!
More brilliant!
Now if only I had won one of the iPad Mini’s yesterday…
Today’s Personal Project
Start doing more things on my “to do” list.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fat, but getting a bit better.
Current Music – silence at the moment, though I may be switching to Christmas music shortly.
Website Of The Day – Teller (of Penn and Teller) has directed a documentary, “Tim’s Vermeer”, about the guy who reengineered one of Vermeer’s greatest paintings. Read this Vanity Fair article to find out more. I can’t wait to see this documentary.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – ??? pounds (December 9)
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~0.0 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Gym Visits – 0 (0 cardio)
Days Of Bed-Making – 0
Vegetarian Meals – 11
Carnivorous Meals – 16
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0
December Goals
– clean my basement to the point where I could have people over
– hire a plumber, and a painter to work on the ITP Estate
– dissolve Sharpened Stone, LLC?
– follow up on some critical life details
– walk no fewer than 75 miles
2013 Goals: Measurable
– Get my weight down to 190 pounds so that I can wear a 36″ waist pants comfortably
– Completely read ten books, audio books permissible
– Dissolve Sharpened Stone
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Completely run at least one 10k
– Fix all (or at least most) of the things which are wrong with the ITP Estate
2013 Goals: Unmeasurable
– Simplify, simplify, simplify
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– 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)
– Take two real vacations, perhaps one abroad
– Take a more proactive approach to meeting women (read “stop being such a pussy”)
Books I’ve Read/Heard In 2013
- Pages 1.7 for iPad (Timestompers Guide) — by Sean Wells
- 60 Mountain Lion Tips — by David Sparks and Brett Terpstra
- The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business — by Charles Duhigg
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy — by Douglas Adams
- Amazing Things Will Happen: A Real-World Guide on Achieving Success and Happiness — by CC Chapman
- So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love — by Cal Newport
- Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life — by Steve Martin
- Who Am I: A Memoir — by Pete Townshend
- Still Foolin’ ‘Em: Where I’ve Been, Where I’m Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys? — by Billy Crystal
- Unstuff Your Life!: Kick the Clutter Habit and Completely Organize Your Life for Good — Andrew J. Mellen
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
I’m back from the frozen north.
Football game was a blast, except my toes staying a little cold, I was pretty well outfitted. Cheese Spread (Diana) & her hubby Dicks Trickle (Randy) know all the right people to tailgate with, they had the set up. Pictures really don’t do it justice. I did take a few, but damn smartphones need a bare finger to work & it was damn cold out, so it wasn’t as many as I would have liked to take.
3 days in snow & cold made me remember why I moved south 23 years ago. Sure, its pretty, but besides that, it does nothing for me.
We rambled our way to Green Bay on Friday, went to a cheese house in Theresa (very small town) to buy fresh cheese, then to another very small town Chilton to brew pub. The place looked like a corner bar, but they had I think 10 beers brewed there, I have no idea where, but they must have very small tanks. Beer was very tasty. Bartender named Bonita was a crazy older white WI lady with a potty motuh – we had a blast.
Then to Appleton to another brew pub called Stone Cellar, that really was in a Stone Cellar. Met up with our other Atlanta friends for a beer or two. finally got to Green Bay about 7pm, bought tailgating supplies an had piza at a place that used to be an old church.
Sunday – tailgated, watched football, then took a long slow drive in a snowstorm back to Milwaukee. When we got tot eh hotel we crashed.
Monday – went to tour the Pabst mansion, very cool old house. then to the Miller Brewery for their tour, interesting history & wow, that place is huge. Stopped at one more cheese house for more fresh cheese (yes, we brought it all home) and then finally to the airport. Didn’t eat enough cheese curds, but besides that (& is that realy a bad thing?), we got the full WI experience.
2500 tickets gets you a pint glass and two packs of cards?? rip off! Oh and yesterday you promised a picture of the Macbook Air with the new decal… just sayin’.
Barb it looked brutal and sooooo fun! That has to be a bucket list item for any sports fan. We toured the Coors plant on one of our ski trips – they really are amazingly huge!
Proving that I have lost a few brain cells with age, I went shopping at BJs in the pouring rain yesterday. I looked like a drowned rat.
We had a Q&A with Steve’s doctor. I’m a little nervous that he’s “the only one in the country” that does the surgery a certain way. Is he right and everyone else is wrong? Time for a little more research…
If it’s any consolation, wine is much better for weight loss than beer. I know beer is tasty, but it’s made from grain, while wine is made from fruit. Both carbs, but they metabolize differently in the body. So that’s an option. Your other option is to cut out all bread, rice, pasta, corn, etc., and then you wouldn’t have to cut out the beer. Can you tell I’m used to rationalizing my alcohol?
“bread, rice, pasta, corn” — you just described what I call “My diet.” Actually, I should be giving my liver more of a break by drinking a lot less alcohol. As for my waistline, excercise certainly wouldn’t hurt it either.
MacBook photo comes tomorrow, Debbie. If he really is the only doctor performing the surgery that way I’d be reticent however, if he’s the best of a handful I’d be okay.
Visit with the doctor, as Debbie said. I don’t know if he said he’s the only one in the country, but most others have gone laproscopic. We have a second opinion scheduled for next week, so that might be the diffference. Just to be clear, I’m carrying on a family tradition of prostate cancer- caught very early and will be taken care of soon- as soon as we determine the best plan of action. I actually think Debbie is more worried than me.
Sounds like a fun outing, excepting for the fighting roomates!!
-FP
You’ll probably be on the bike before I will, Steve — and I’ve just been milking this stupid tendonitis for the past eight months…
It was a grand evening, with the exception of the spat between the two ladies.
Oh, and I think the pint glass and trivia cards cost her about 2200 tickets (still, quite the ripoff) and she donated the remaining balance to one of our coworkers’ kids.
The quote was, “I learned this way 30 years ago at Emory with Dr. Whatevs and I’ve always done it this way. I’m probably the only one in the country that does.”
And yes I’m worried, you big dope.
Y’all may recall that Farley has an issue with shutting himself in the bathroom and waiting to be let out – sometimes multiple times a day, doh! Well Maggie the boxer has learned to go free him. Crazy Dog Lady anecdote of the day.
yeah Steve – I think I’m with Debbie – get a 2nd opinion.
Glad you caught it early, hopefully all will go as uneventfully as possible.
Debbie – glad Maggie can let him out – save you so much aggravation.
So she can have someone else to play “bitey face” with.
I know you’re worried sweetie, but it’s early with a high success factor. Remember, Dad lived to 96 with it… such a shame to be cut down in the prime of life!!! 🙂