And by “books” I mean some German studying (not enough), pleasure reading (just enough), and YouTube/Amazon Prime watching (too much).
48 Must Be The New 24
It’s official! I received notification granting me Global Entry status on late Saturday night, a full twenty-four hours after I was told that I would receive their decision. As I mentioned on Friday I sort of knew that I got it based on what I saw in my account, but now it’s official.
Europe, here I come!
Canada, here I come?
If I Had A Dollar
On Friday night I attended the Dinner Lab dinner. I made the drive over to the west end area only to be startled to realize that the event was being held in the same space in which I took a photography workshop a little more than six years ago. (I’m not a savant, I had to look into my Flickr archive to find out in which year I took that workshop.)
To my surprise the woman in whom I had interest came up to me, along with her friend, and started talking. They were both very friendly and I was having a good time. To my surprise and delight she was also a nerd, wearing an Apple Watch. I was further surprised when she told me that she was 54 years old. Whoa! And then she let me down by telling me that she would be happy to help me meet other women at the event. Not exactly the thing you want to hear from the person you are trying to meet. Oh well.
Dinner was fun, even if at times I felt like the odd man out (which I was) at a table of nine. Here is the menu we were served:
Everything they served us was delicious. My favorite course was the first one, “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)”, followed closely by the last one, “Blackstar / The Parting Gift”.
Two Days On A Trainer
On both Saturday and Sunday mornings I put in ninety-minute sessions on my trainer. With a little creative watching I was able to finish watching Season 3 of The Amazing Race. Season 3 will go down as the first season in which I felt the winner was completely undeserved. In looking at the The Amazing Race Wiki for Season 3 I see that one team member performed all but one of the eleven Roadblocks that team faced — the producers made a smart move when they finally realized that they had to force each team member of the final teams to do the same amount of Roadblocks for the race. Oh, and the underserved winner (imo) was one of the whiniest women ever to run the race, threatening to quit often. This team was also incredibly lucky, being saved by non-elimination legs twice during their race. I read in a 2003-2004 blog post that claimed that she gave her winnings to her partner, but I didn’t spent the time validating this claim; it was her money to do whatever she saw fit.
I’m giving myself a day off from the trainer today so that I don’t incur and overuse-related injuries.
Glued To The Tube, YouTube
On Saturday night I made a discovery — the first season on The Great British Bake Off, the real first season of this British show, has been uploaded to YouTube. The first season of the GBBO was only six episodes long and by Sunday morning I managed to watch all six hour-long episodes. Crikey!
Season 2 seems to be a little harder to find, though I know of one place on the interwebs that probably has it available for downloading.
Reconnecting
Yesterday I had a lovely phone conversations with one my best friends, ITP-Reader Tamara. Tamara is also my favorite Canadian (don’t let her know that she is currently the only Canadian I know, however). Fortunately for me Tamara, once an Atlanta resident, will be visiting Atlanta in April. I’m so looking forward to catching up in person again.
To The Germans I Return
Tonight is the second class of my German A2 Exam Preparation class. If tonight’s class is anything like last week’s, and I feel that it may be worse, I have some great strides to make in order to feel comfortable in this class. In the end, the intense training for the German A2 exam may teach me more German in five weeks than I’ve managed to maintain in the past six months, at least that what I keep trying to tell myself…
Hope your weekend was wonderful.
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Global Entry – don’t you have to have an very short interview & they need your handprint? Felicia was telling me you need to do that or it won’t be complete.
We had some tasty Tasty China friday night, and we will see if Steve’s bike is fixed, or if it needs a whole new part.
Saturday I went & rode 27 on SCT, it was a fun leisurely ride with JoAnna, Mike & Ray (aka Red Eye).
Sunday morning Allan needed some sleep (he’s at a real firehouse again) so our mtn biking didn’t happen. But – we went to Black Sheep instead. Good trail, very hilly, luckily I was with Sani, she had some intel on a short cut at the beginning, so we got to miss some of the hills. It was nice we have a hot tub, it came in handy last night. I”m a little tired & sore today.
I had the interview last Thursday, that is when they told me that they would email me their decision within 24 hours. At the interview they took a photo of me as well as fingerprints.
I need to return to riding on the road, as well as hashing, sometime soon.
I was just thinking – have you used the sous vide cooker yet?
Wonderful TC and company Friday night. And the new house for TJ and Mary is really nice.
After 6 hours of the office Saturday, I went home, sat for an hour, then turned around and headed north again to the We Fooled Them Again Games party. A great turnout and pretty good food. Skyped our “speechifying” to our volunteer who is undergoing a bone marrow transplant and couldn’t be out in public. Great!
Sunday, after a HH breakfast, I went and was a lumberjack. But I broke my chainsaw!!! sheared the driveshaft clean off!! If I can find the receipt, it has a 2 year warranty and has 2 extra chains, so I’d like to keep the same model.
I road the bike hard last night and didn’t have the first problem. The front derailleur worked as well, so if he hasn’t bought the replacement, I think I’m fine.
Finally have the last of the weekend fires extinguished!! Now a hair cut and lunch.
-FP
And what does anyone know about a Leap Year hash next week?
Steve – its next Monday.
after that – don’t think they have a start yet.
check here later this week
http://moonlite.atlantahash.com/
I have not Barb. I thought that this past weekend would be the time I finally did, but I was wrong. Perhaps next weekend…
I pinged Sani but haven’t heard. I was hoping for something beyond a normal Monday night hash, as we have always had something special on Leap Day.
it says Dum BUF is the hare – I’m sure it is the normal Leap Year hash shenanigans.
Yep, sounds about right. I’m planning on it.
Unfortunately I am committed to my German class on Mondays for the four Mondays following today, so I can’t partake. Just think, had I made it to all of the Leap Day hashes since I started hashing I’d finally be getting a Leap Day Hash Name.
I think I missed 1 since I’ve been hashing.
I have a LEap Year name, got it I think 8 years ago – but I can’t remember what it is. Maybe I’ll find out Monday.