No, not the television show, me. After getting home at 1:00am last night, or should I say this morning, I am a zombie today.
It felt like a very short long weekend, one that I’d detail in a second.
Today’s Daily Challenge
Take three minutes to examine your toenails and fingernails.
Changes to your nails can point to a number of health issues. Healthy nails have an even color and texture, while discolored or thickened fingernails can be clues to lung disease, heart disease, anemia, and other chronic illnesses. Bacterial or fungal infections and side effects of some medications can also cause nail problems. Staying on top of your talons can tip you off to changes that may need the attention of your doctor or dermatologist.
Why three minutes?
For an old man I have pretty decent nails.
It All Started Thursday
After leaving work I joined a couple of coworkers at Red Brick Brewing for their “Summer Employee Beer Contest”, or whatever the hell they were calling it. For $10 I received a glass as well as eight tickets for beer samples, one ticket for ever beer entered in their contest. I should have taken a photo of the ballot (hey, then I’d also have a photo for today!) but failed.
I tried seven of the eight entries, to be fair these were more like half pours of what you’d get normally, and liked all but one. Of course the one beer that I did not get around to tasting was the one that took home first prize.
After the brewery the boss and I had a hankering for pizza so I drove us up to Vintage Pizzeria (it’s not extremely far from where he lives). Apparently in my quest to get to the bathroom I walked directly past a table of former coworkers who were at Vintage Pizzeria playing trivia. The pizza was delicious.
Friday: Peachtree 2015!
Oh you are probably thinking “Poor Paulie is so tired, he doesn’t even know what year this is.”
Wrong! Well, partially wrong.
I woke fairly early on the 4th of July and had very mixed feelings. On the one hand I was glad that I was not getting out of bed super early to head to Lenox Mall to run the Peachtree Road Race. On the other hand I was sad that I was not, and somewhat disappointed that I couldn’t even get up to go shoot photos of the runners. Where has my drive gone?
Friday was strange because all day I thought that it was Thursday. I just never got into the swing of things and pretty much let the entire day go by without accomplishing anything monumental. I missed the olden days of gathering with friends, especially when I realized that I had spent the entire day and night alone. All day I reminisced about the fun times I’ve had on 4th of Julys (or is that 4ths of July?).
One conclusion I made however is the reason this section is titled “Friday: Peachtree 2015!” — I am going to start running again and make certain to run next year’s Peachtree. I have no idea where I will be living (or hell, if I will be alive) but unless there are physical constraints that stop me I will be there.
ITP Flickr Pic
Dangen! If only there had been photograph-worthy events this passed weekend.
Saturday: A Day Of Food, Chores, Racquetball, And Food
A series of miscommunications last week caused a change in dim sum plans from Sunday to Saturday. Squashed was my plan to “get in a bike ride” because of the 10:30am brunch meeting time. I was okay with the change because it allowed me the time to watch cycling (The Tour de France has started!) instead of actually cycling. For nearly the entire time at Royal China I was the only caucasian in the room. Perfection was dashed as my coworker Darren and I sat letting our food settle. It was almost the perfect meal
After gorging I headed to Lowe’s to buy some RoundUp to spray around the ITP Estate. (gardener’s note: NOTHING seems to kill English Ivy!) While finishing up my shopping I received a text from the boss asking me if I was free to play racquetball. Determined not to let this interrupt my plan to do yard work I said yes, but only if we could start later in the afternoon. He agreed.
When I arrived home I quickly changed into “yard work clothes” and went outside (hurray for Summer days that aren’t brutally hot!). I sprayed the hell out of weeds, mowed the front and back lawns, ran the weed eater along the curb line, and then took the “leaf” blower out to clean things up. Go me!
After all this home ownership nonsense I showered for a second time on Saturday and drove up to Brookhaven for a little smack-it ball. Needless to say, I wasn’t on top of my game.
Once we’d beaten ourselves up inside the racquetball court, and I had my third shower on Saturday, the boss and I wandered into the newly-opened Lucky’s Burger and Brew to have a few beers and some food.
I’m not sure what time I arrived home, it was very dark but the yard still shined, but I am certain that I was not awake for very long once I entered the house and hung up my wet clothes.
Sunday: I Think That I’ve Lost My Mind
Cycling on Sunday morning quickly died when I started watching the professionals do their work at 6:00am. While I sat and “watched” Le Tour. While the riders rode I started doing some hard Europe planning (finally, but not nearly enough) and eating breakfast.
As the day’s stage wound up, around 11:30am, I started to get hungry again. Instead of scrounging around for food I did something inexplicable — I drove all the way up to the office and ate some of the leftovers from the meal that I prepared last week. I managed to convince myself that this was the right thing to do, and in doing so I also convinced myself that I should get some exercise as well. So, after eating a delicious plate of pork and beans with cole slaw, I drove myself to the Brookhaven LA Fitness (I’ll explain in a second) to do a walk.
Why Brookhaven over the much-closer Perimeter LA Fitness? Cleanliness. The LA Fitness near work is old, and this is highly-evident in the men’s locker room (I assume the ladies’ is no better). LA Fitness opened a Sandy Springs location a couple of years ago and apparently decided to let the Perimeter location rot.
From the Brookhaven LA Fitness I set out on a walk of indeterminate length; when all was done I walked nearly 6.5 miles, at least according to the MapMyRide app on my iPhone.
My day was far from over when I arrived home from LA Fitness. I took an extreme power nap before heading out to Manuel’s Tavern for dinner and then driving to Mammal Gallery for the Fucked Up show.
Mammal Gallery is in what I conceive to be the scariest part of downtown; it’s located on Broad Street just south of MLK Jr Boulevard. While I thought the venue was great, the concept of ever being in that neighborhood around 1:00am will never be approved by my mind again.
Today’s Personal Project
Much work, much vacation planning.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – sore
Current Music – listening to today’s stage of Le Tour de France
Website Of The Day – My annual link to the official site of Le Tour de France.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Saturday = racquetball, ~90 minutes; Sunday = walking, ~6.5 miles
Morning Weigh-In – 217 pounds (2014-06-14); fuck I forgot to check this morning
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~6.5 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Gym Visits – 2 (2 cardio)
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0
July Goals
– be prepared for, and have fun on my European vacation
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
- “Chaos: Making a New Science” by James Gleick
- “What’s So Funny?: My Hilarious Life” by Tim Conway
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
I’m such a zombie that I am allowing myself a cup of coffee this morning.
Wow. Except for not riding, it sounds like a good weekend.
Let’s see, there was yardwork (I’m still wearing the badge called poison ivy) there was much painting- the living room is no longer red. And there was cycling on the road as well as the TV!! 30 miles Saturday evening, through the thriving cities of Luthersville, Lone Oak and Grantville. Only problem was I ran out of gas at about 25 miles, so the last 5 were tough.
And poor Cav- he took it like a man though- “It was my fault and I’ll apologize to Simon Gerrands when I see him.” Well done. The crowds are crazy at the Tour start in Britain. And when the crowds are crazy, you sometimes have to take care of business on your own:
http://www.cyclingfans.com/node/13507
I’m afraid the Fed has clamped down on stream video because of the World Cup and I’ll just be reading the play by play.
-FP
Yeah, I’m disappointed in myself for not putting in any pedal time. It looks as if August will be my riding month!
It’s the three weeks a year I’m glad I work for a television provider. Of course this year I’ll be spending two of those weeks in Europe.
We didn’t get any riding in this weekend either. Barely watched the Tour as well.
Allan worked Friday, I went to a pool party in the afternoon, then one of my “oldest” friends Mary (she was my bridesmaid at the wedding) & her hubby stopped in for an overnight on their drive home to FL from TN. We spend the evening on the deck catching up, it was quite fun.
Saturday we all had breakfast, they left for FL & we decided to go tubing on the Cartacay. It was a blast, 4 hours of floating (& drinking beer). We are planning to go again soon, so much so that I bought some tubes online last night to save us some money. Sharon’s hubby Sam won’t tube, so he can be our shuttle.
Sunday, we slept in, too much beer & sun & fun in Ellijay. Then, spread the huge mound of mulch around the front yard. (good times, right?). We then headed to JoAnna’s for some pool time.