When Last We Met
I am a bit out of sorts, being out of my normal surroundings yet again.
On Friday night I hung out at my boss’ place where Miss K prepared the best shaslick she could given the tools at hand (ideally she wanted a charcoal grill and skewers, instead she cooked the pork directly on the grate of a gas grill). The shaslick was really good, especially paired with the cabbage prepared two ways (one hot, one cold) by Hank and one of his daughters.
Given the amount of alcohol consumed it was smart of Miss K and me to have packed everything into my rental and sleep (separately) at Hank’s. I promised Miss K that I would take her to the airport on Saturday. I fulfilled this promise, but failed on the one about pronouncing her name correctly — I just couldn’t do it.
On The Road Again
After dropping Miss K off at Hartsfield at 6:30am on Saturday morning I pointed my rental car (a 2014 Chevrolet Malibu) south and made the long drive to Clearwater. I can say with certainty that the Chevrolet Malibu won’t be the Jackmobile’s replacement. It’s a good thing that I am not a fast driver because I saw a lot of revenue being generated by state and local police up and down I-75. In my rental I tooled along listening to podcasts via the audio-input jack (and occasionally via Bluetooth when I plugged into the USB port and it immediately took control of the audio system), stopping only once to fill up my tank at Waffle House and the car’s tank at a gas station located at the same exit.
I pulled into my mother’s driveway at almost the same time as my brother and sister-in-law did; they were just getting out of their van as I pulled into the driveway.
It was nice to be under the same roof as my mother and brother; it’s been a very long time since that has happened.
I think we had a good time hanging out before heading to a local Italian restaurant which was “slammed”. Florida is “in season” and we were there on a Saturday night when they were clearly training new staff so the service at this small restaurant was almost comical. The food was good and even better for me as my brother and sister-in-law picked up the tab.
ITP Flickr Pic
“Brothers”
Yours truly on the left, ITP-Reader “Ronnie” on the right.
I’m A Two-Time Winner!
As is our tradition my mom and I went to the local bowling alley for breakfast, where she also spent some money on lottery tickets. I’ve long-since given up asking her not to buy any for me because she’s never honored my request. In this instance I won $12 ($8 really since $4 was required for the purchase), I turned the winning tickets over to my mom and told her to reinvest the winnings later.
I, being the “good” son (a joke between my brother and me), joined my mom at bingo last night. Not only did I get to yell “bingo” I got to do it twice! My grand winnings totaled $45 and a bag of bingo markers — all of which was donated to my mother as part of her birthday fund. I didn’t leave completely empty handed, err stomached, however as I got to eat my mom’s slice of free birthday cake because she is diabetic.
Today’s Personal Project
Celebrate my mother’s birthday.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – not bad
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – Guess what I found in Clearwater, Florida. Skyline Chili. If my mother agrees I plan to drag her there for lunch.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – n/a
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – Will check again soon
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0.0 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Gym Visits – 3 (3 cardio)
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0
February Goals
– have European trip plans in place, if not carved in stone
– clean my basement to the point where I could have people over
– hire a plumber to fix all of the sinks at the ITP Estate
– walk no fewer than 75 miles
– publish an app to the iOS AppStore (new)
2014 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
– 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
– Sell the ITP Estate (tentative)
2014 Goals: Unmeasurable
– Continue to 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)
Books I’ve Read/Heard In 2014
- “Johnny Carson” by Henry Bushkin
- “Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative” by Austin Kleon
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Skyline in Clearwater!! Barb, we’re making a road trip!! Although I think it would probably shorter to drive to the one in Louisville, but their beaches are lacking.
I guess if you’re the good sin, that makes Ronnie the “better” son? 🙂 Happy Birthday Mom!!
It was a busy weekend at JEFDSDR- replaced the one side of the mancave siding and added a trim piece to cover the new joint. Rebuilt a corner of the soffit on the house that was rotted and as a bonus, full of ants! Got an almost 25 mile ride in, and did not kill one of 2 of Debbie’s Godchildren. Big plus.
And the horse count at the farm now stands a 4! I’ll let Debbie tell that story.
Have a great Monday.
-FP
Hardy har har. 🙂
There are beaches here? This American of Irish/German heritage never goes to them.
I leave tomorrow at some time, and am going to try and snap a few photos while I am here. I often wonder what different things I would do if I weren’t visiting mom (more breweries? more photography? more exercise?)
Busyish weekend for us. Friday was Jerry’s first day of ‘work’ (he’s was in Miami for two weeks, training, etc.)…so we did some shopping for office supplies and set up his temp home office.
I met with Corey to work on the layout of the kitchen. He wanted to put in a large kitchen island…I thought 8 feet was big enough 🙂 I had to drive to Duluth to pick Jerry up, we grabbed lunch at Lee’s Bakery (that place was slammed at 1 pm Saturday) and then we did a bit more shopping for the house. All the lights fixtures, with the exception of pendant lighting for the previously mentioned island have been selected!
Yesterday was grocery shopping, house work, the gym, statistics and finishing my taxes. The weekend ended with a chili pot luck back in the old ‘hood.
Steve – speaking of Skyline, TJ said he didn’t have enough to share with you. But, we did get a chain & a derailleur yesterday (though Allan isn’t 100% sure the derailleur will work). TJ said you just owe him one, he wants no money & it will be great to have an official “in his pocket” at the next race. I will be sending you an official email with TJ in copy….. without the part about Allan not being sure if it will work.
It was a gorgeous weekend here, I got a decent hike in Saturday with Michelle & Sharon, then Sunday went to Chicopee to mtn bike with Sharon & her 13 year old grandson. Having a beginner with us was good, kept the pace slow, as I needed that, I’m so out of shape for mtn biking. Allan was an excelletn teacher, I think Gabe even sort of enjoyed himself, when he wasn’t scare to death.
and Paulie – I did sell our Brussels regos – but to someone in Atlanta that you know- Juss Lix Dix. And a Wisconsin hasher, Krackashowa who was here at Cheddarhead. I’m so bummed about not making the trip work, but we just can’t justify spending that money right now.
Bummer Barb, I was looking forward to bumming around Brussels with you. I’ll save that fun for Portland.
Barb I just laughed out loud! I’ll see if TJ can actually call that favor in.
I had the leftover duck for dinner last night- holy cats, I don’t know how it could have gotten any hotter but it did! I think it might have taken the finish off the silverware.
TJ was cracking me up…….
and – maybe Paulie would see about getting some Skyline to go & bring it to you?
Allan ate my leftover spicy chicken, I’m sure it did get hotter, but that never bothers him.
Went to a hash party at Diaper Dan’s house up here in Marietta Saturday night, its been a while since I’ve hung out with drunk hashers. Show-Ur-Anus would not leave me alone, I guess he misses me. Some interesting newer hashers, and a bunch of “kids” from the Birmingham hash. MC was there, so it was fun to catch up with her. I talked to TV Hair about having an AH4 friday happy hour back at Tasty China again, he wants to make it happen.
I actually have some canned open in the fridge at the moment. Waiting on the right meal for some Coney’s.
I assumed the “to go” chili was frozen. If canned I might bring some to share. If frozen I have no means for transpiration.
I know it’s my mother ‘a birthday but I am so tired of sitting in the how this morning.
Canned is available in the stores around here- “to go” was literal! (and we were kidding (I think).
Go for a walk!
well Paulie – we are talking frozen from the restaurant.
You buy a cheap ass cooler. Or, you “borrow” one from your mother, if she is like my parents, there is a styrofoam one (or two or 10) somewhere in her house.
are you watching The View? or The Doctors?
At Skyline now. Too fed up with “dealing with things” to consider bringing chili back. Yeesh!
We we’re watching movies on TCM
and – we really were joking about bringing back chili.
Hope fun with the family gets a little more fun!
It’s not *that* bad, just think about me at my worst annoyance level and triple that. 😉