Inside The Perimeter

Fear not, I am not going to regale you with a story of passionate romance taken to its climax. This is me about whom we’re talking; I doubt that I will every be that fortunate again.

No, yesterday I left work “early” and drove up to LA Fitness in Atlantic Station. I spent thirty minutes on the elliptical an then the same amount of time on a stationary bike. All the while I was getting ready to exercise I felt as if I was missing something. It wasn’t until I was already on the elliptical and starting my workout that I realized that my heart rate monitor was back in the locker room.

The workout was as tough as I expected it would be given that it has been eight weeks since I’d done one.

It Was Much Easier When I Wasn’t Working
After my workout I stopped into Target, very briefly. While entering Target a little before 6:00pm (how was it almost 6:00pm when I left the office at 3:30pm?!?!) I discovered that Warby Parker is only open until 7:00pm. I made a quick 180° turn and headed out of the store. I fought traffic from Atlantic Station to Howell Mill, getting to Warby Parker with plenty of time to spare.

My trip to Warby Parker convinced me that I didn’t want new eyeglasses as nothing looked good on my face. The trip was not a total loss however as the friendly young lady who greeted me upon entry actually remembered me from my previous visits.

I was really hungry leaving Warby Parker so instead of going directly to IKEA I stopped into Baby Tommy’s Pizza for two large slices. Unfortunately I was once again disappointed at the state of the restaurant, so that may have been my last visit there.

After stuffing my face I went to IKEA where I walked the mile winding route, picking up a few small items for the ITP Estate or in the case of the two chocolate bars, me.

I returned to the Atlantic Station Target after IKEA. I probably should have gone to the Edgewood Retail District Target, because had I done so I would have completed my errand checklist by stopping into Lowe’s as well.

By the time I got home and hung up my workout clothes it was 9:00pm. Yikes!

I spent the rest of my waking time doing some preparation for today.

Yardwork and Cleaning, Oh My
I was hoping to put some things on the curb this morning, but by the time I got home last night I had no energy to do so. Tonight I will be clearing out a bunch of things that are no longer of use to me, putting them on the curb for anyone to claim. Must. Keep. Making. Progress.

Tomorrow I will be clearing out some of the debris in my back yard. When I am tired of doing yard work I will return to cleaning and clearing house. I think that I will treat myself to dinner out somewhere.

On Sunday I may hash, though it’s highly unlikely given the fact that I am still fighting off poison ivy acquired on the last Black Sheep Hash.

Along with all of this I need to do some coding, as well as some studying and planning for my trip in three weeks.

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

I am typing today’s blog post using a Bluetooth keyboard that is communicating with my new iPad Mini 4! Admittedly typing on this keyboard, which is very cramped to accommodate the length of the iPad, is a little harder than I had anticipated. Many, many years of typing as part of my profession has trained my fingers to make certain maneuvers that are not identical to what is needed to hit the proper keys. But I will continue trying.

While fine for typing in English, this keyboard will be useless for typing up German texts. Oh well, for that I will have to return to the method of typing on the pane of glass that is the iPad’s built-in keyboard.

Homebody
Because I had been alerted to the delivery of my new keyboard, and since I have no faith in Humankind to leave well enough alone, it canceled all of my post-work plans and went directly home. Of course the package was on the front stoop, but at least this delivery person tried to hide it a bit behind the ironwork.

A body at rest stays at rest. It’s not my theory, it’s a Law of Physics! Anyway, I was at home, figured out what I could throw together in the name of “dinner” and decided to stay at rest for the rest of the evening. Minor advances were made in the name of “progress” but nothing about which I can boast.

No smoke detector noises were heard all evening.

Back To Minimalism
This afternoon I have my (hopefully) final physical therapy session. After therapy I plan to go somewhere I have not been in far too long — LA Fitness.

Even though physical therapy is in Old Fourth Ward I will be reversing my direction to go to the LA Fitness in Atlantic Station, or perhaps the one near Fifth Street; traffic will dictate my decision.

Also on the busy docket for this evening are trips to — IKEA, Warby Parker, Target, Lowes, and a yet-to-be-determined place to eat dinner — not necessarily in that order.

Assuming that I have any gumption left when I arrive home I will resurrect my desire to rid my house of unneeded shit.

Have a great Thursday.

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

I think because of experiencing the warmer weather in a house with essentially no air conditioning helped me oversleep this morning.

If that weren’t bad enough, I have angst that there may be something else wrong with the ITP Estate. A few weeks ago the smoke detector in the basement stairwell went off a few times. I replace the batteries twice a year, but this was an ancient smoke detector that was installed when I bought the house, so I simply replaced it. I had heard nothing since. That was until this morning when I swear that I heard a momementary buzz emit from the newly-installed smoke detector. Of course now I fear the worst especially since my inferior sense of smell will never be able to detect anything afoul.

The only thing “running” in the basement is the fan unit for the air conditioner. What should I do? Replace the air filter again (the next scheduled replacement is 7/1)? Call an electrician? Nothing, assuming I don’t hear it buzz again?

There is one possible non-electrical explanation – dust. I have never had my ductwork cleaned, and over the years some of the suspended ceiling tiles have fallen out, allowing exposure to the ductwork and its insulation. On of the vents, and one of these openings is not far from the location of the smoke detector in question.

These are the things that make me hate being a homeowner.

Hope your Wednesday has had a better start than mine.

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

My calendar contained a dinner meetup last night. I sent a text to my dinnermate but never heard back. Fearing that the person would go to the restaurant under the assumption that a plan had been made, I drove to the restaurant, found street parking, and went inside. The place was crowded, the bar was full, and the host told me that there was an approximate thirty minute wait to get a table. I turned around and left the building. Instead i chose to drive all the way home and save the money I would have spent eating out.

ITP Flickr Pic
“I Feel As If This Foot Bridge Has Stories To Tell” (Black Mountain, North Carolina, United States)

Had to dig into the recent archive for a photo today. I took this while up in North Carolina for LEAF.

My Last Class Of B1
Tonight is my tenth and final class of German B1.4, and marks my completion of the B1 level. I will have nearly a month, which will contain a trip to Germany, before attending my first B1 “Bridge Course”.

Starting in July I will be preparing for the B1 certificate test being offered in Atlanta this Fall.

Eleven Years Ago Today
Eleven years ago today I was interested in someone and made the decision to show up to the end of the “Chicks No Dicks” hash at The Graveyard Tavern in East Atlanta to see her. To my dismay I was summarily booed out of the bar by the hashers.

To add injury to insult, that was also the day I contracted one of the worst cases of food poisoning that i have ever suffered, compliments of Lettice Surprise You, where I had eaten lunch that day.

June 6, 2006, or, 06/06/06 which seems a fitting day for all of this bad shit to have happened to me. Things certainly didn’t go to p,an on that day.

Eleven years? Where has the time gone?

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Well, once again I came up empty at the big bingo tournament. I never really got very close to winning all night long. I drove all the way to a Roswell to play and returned home with none of the $2000 handed out. It was sad.

Believe It Or Not, I Got Poison Ivy
Poison ivy stemming from last Sunday’s hash finally surfaced late Friday, early Saturday morning. I happened to notice that the inside of my right knee was itching, and when I looked at it I saw the tell-tale patch of small bubbles. Sunday was the only day that I could have contracted this, and my attempt to kill it early through the use of some leftover Prednisone failed.

At this point I am hoping that it’s weak and will go away on its own so that I won’t have to spend money by going to see a doctor in order to get a prescription for more Prednisone.

ITP Flickr Pic
“Fun Fact” (Atlanta, Georgia, United States)

I have been drinking Snapple at “XYZ Corp”. With each bottle you get a “Real Fact” and this one tickled me.

Before The Rain
On Saturday I decided not to ride my bike and went out and mowed the lawn instead. Because it was starting to climb the house I also spent some time pulling some of the English Ivy (there is so much more of this to do).

After mowing I made my first trip into the wilds of my backyard to find the fallen treetop. Finding it was no problem as it was much larger than I imagined. I thought the section that came down was about four-six feet, but in reality it was probably closer to twelve-fifteen feet in length. Yikes! That being said I was glad to see that my assumption that it did no damage to my neighbors’ fences was correct. I also noticed that the other branches I saw in the other corner of the backyard were also larger than I originally thought.

Next weekend I think that I will be forced to spend a lot of time cleaning up the mess in my backyard. It’ll be good exercise, right? Later this summer I will have to bring in some professional help to cut the tree down and clean out the remainder of the debris. Anyone want to pull ivy with me? 😊

Who knows, at some point this summer I may have a useable backyard for the first time in many years.

Read The Not-So-Fine Print, Idiot
I was so excited to receive the keyboard case for my new iPad Mini 4 on Saturday. My mobile blogging rig for my trip later this month was going to be complete! The package was delivered early in afternoon and after charging the battery I attempted, and failed, to insert the iPad. With my failure I learned something, the iPad Mini grew in size slightly between iPad Mini 3 and iPad Mini 4, and that I was now in possession of a useless-to-me keyboard case.

Yep, I had ordered the wrong thing.

Fortunately for me all was not lost because Amazon has a liberal return policy. On Saturday I also learned that Amazon has a brick-and-mortar store near Georgia Tech that is specifically there to handle returns and provide PO Boxes for deliveries. So I boxed up the keyboard case, printed out a return label, and dropped it off at the Amazon store yesterday just before the skies opened up.

Waschsalon Und Hamburger
Tonight’s fun will consist of doing my laundry and then partaking in a dinner of beer and hamburger at Torched Hop.

Hope your weekend was an enjoyable one.

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Since the onset of Survivor I have been a RealiTV fan. I watched many seasons of it before giving up. I dabbled with Big Brother; it didn’t stick. I was a late comer to The Amazing Race; it’s one of the few shows in the genre that I still watch. I thought this season of TAR was entertaining, but not as “amazing” as in past seasons. I can’t blame the organizers too much however, after nearly thirty “seasons” it seems impossible to find new, and exciting challenges. I found it strange that the final three flew to Chicago and did all of the final activities there, without ever leaving the city.

I won’t spoil the outcome in case you have not had an opportunity to watch.

Good Time With Great Friends
I was fortunate to be invited over to Betsy’s house for an evening of gorging on Tasty China. Betsy was in Marietta to get work done on her car, so she was was able to bring some back to her house to share.

I stopped by Krobar to pick up a couple of bottles of wine, and I also brought over a few boxes of ice cream bars to help soothe the burn of the Szechuan food.

The night was an earlier one than normal for me. I was home by 8:00pm and was able to do a few things, including getting a cat nap, before the 10:00pm start time of TAR.

Flickr Pic Of ITP
and others…

“Drinking? Yes, Why Do You Ask?” (Atlanta, Georgia, United States)

ITP-Readers Claire and Stacy, improving a photo including yours truly. Photo credit to Stacy, who is on the right.

Weekend Summer Of Fun
After work tonight I will be having a beer or two with my friend Hank.

Tomorrow will be a day of yard work and organization.

In addition to getting a haircut on Sunday I will be driving up to Norcross to play in the bingo tournament for which I qualified way back in December when a Hank and I would meet up at Lucky’s in Emory back when they offered bingo.

Before I know it, it will be Monday. Fortunately I already have plans for having fun then.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

I had a great time hanging out in downtown last night. Even though I had to fork over $12 to park because I chose to drive instead of rely on MARTA, the experience of having two $3 beers in downtown followed by a $15 wine flight and snacks at Nikolai’s Roof with friends, more than made up for it. ITP-Readers Stacy and Claire, Allan, and I met for a couple of pre-happy-hour drinks at the now-oddly-placed “Braves All Star Cafe” in downtown Atlanta. Summer of fun has begun!

Downtown Atlanta is such a different place than the downtown of my twenty-one-year-old memories of when I worked for Georgia-Pacific in 1996.

ITP Flickr Pic
“Art Inspires Me” (Atlanta, Georgia, United States)

This is a snippet of the art that has collected inside Colony Square. Some of the drawings put up on this board were quite well drawn.

ITP-Reader Stacy has sent me many great photos that she took last night, I was too pooped to download them and the upload them to Flickr. Tonight, tonight.

Who’s Lurking The Lurker?
I have to admit that I have misidentified the identity behind ITP-Reader “ITP Lurker”. Given the information provided to me recently I was certain I knew the identity behind “ITP Lurker” but when I related the story of going to the PT that she had recommended, I was informed that I was misinformed. She said that she as a “lurker” but not “ITP Lurker”. Oh, it’s so confusing! 😉 I apologize to “ITP Lurker” for a case of mistaken identity, your identity is still safe.

Another short and sweet blog post today… Sorry. Have a great Thursday.

Cheers,
Paulie [atl/ga]

I couldn’t settle down for sleep until nearly 1:00am last night. No reason, slept just didn’t seem to be on the agenda. Consequently I overslept this morning and am behind my tightly-wound schedule. I probably just need to grab some covfefe this morning… 😉

Here’s a photo that I took yesterday afternoon. Stare deeply into its recesses and eyes and find the meanings that aren’t there.

“Color My World” (Atlanta, Georgia, United States)

Truth be told, I just love color against a start white background, and kind of love the way the positioning of the overhead lights cast different shades of shadows of my hands and iPhone upon the table.

That’s going to have to be a wrap for today. See, you lucked out and didn’t have to read bout my pain and itching and weight gain.

Make it a great Wednesday.

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

Though summer won’t officially start for another few weeks, like many others I declare the Tuesday after Memorial Day to be my start of summer. And even though I have already suffered one major setback, and am hoping not to encounter another (mentioned below), I am hoping to make this an enormously fun summer and am asking you to orchestrate/join with me.

Consider The Source
Because of the unfortunate event with a hasher taking her own life a few weeks back Sunday’s Black Sheep had a late start time and was advertised as being “short” so that people could go home and clean up for the karaoke that was to begin at 9pm. As I do, I had talked myself out of going to the hash, but then I was semi-guilted into going by ITP-Reader Barb given that the start was no more than three miles from the ITP Estate.

In the past ten years I have lost most of my running ability, especially the ability to through the woods. It was clear to me that after only a few hundred yards of “running” through a parking lot that I was completely out of shape and that my left hip/knee were not going to be happy to be hashing after being injured eight weeks earlier. Fortunately, this occurred at the start and I was able to walk with Barb, Sanitary, and House of Boobs.

At one time I knew the area behind Value Village and around the landfills well, but I had forgotten how strenuous climbing around, into and out of the Entrenchment Creek, and through swaths of poison-ivy infested woods could be. It didn’t help that I was in tights and a long-sleeved technical shirt, my armor against poison ivy, on a high-eighty-degree and humid day. I was swearing profusely, had brought no water because I heard trail was going to be short, and unfortunately all attempts to cool dow with water crossings failed. It would have been much worse had my hashmates had not been so generous in sharing their water with me. I make no lie when I say that at points on the journey I was hallucinating. Hell, had I seen the snake in the tunnel through which we walked I may have assumed that I was hallucinating then; I walked by it unknowingly and it wasn’t until HoB screamed that I saw what I had missed.

I’d suspect that we, the walkers, were on trail for at least two-and-a-half hours.

By the time I got home, hung the hashing clothes outside to dry, showered vigorously, and sat down to eat dinner in what I was assuming was a low-blood-sugar state, it was past 8:30pm.

The waiting to see if I get attacked by poison ivy has begun. Sadly it feels as if I have the makings of body itching. It’s hard to explain, but I have been here before. I hope that I am wrong. Today I will be investigating to see if my primary care physician takes my new health insurance…

ITP Flickr Pics
“Eating A Bahn Mi With My New Friend ‘Laura'” (Chamblee, Georgia, United States)

You know that I have a preference for women whose names begin with the letter ‘J’ but as the saying goes, Beggars can’t be choosers. I had a plan to head to Marietta for dinner and a desire to rid my hashing clothes of any poison ivy so I stopped into the lavanderia next to Lee’s Bakery to do a small load of laundry and then treated myself to this for lunch.

“Hello My Old Friend” (Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States)

The next stop on my “Oh, The Places I Used To Go” tour was the Perimeter Mall area. No, I didn’t go to the Apple Store, I purchased that iPad Mini 4 from Best Buy on Saturday… No, my target was Target, and then Taco Mac to pick up what I will show in tomorrow’s blog. Of course when you are in Taco Mac you have to have a beer, right?

Nothing Life A Death-Defying Drive
My dinner destination was the Garage Mahal. Seeing the heavy rains slowing traffic on I-285 I thought I could beat the worst of it and cleverly take Old Paper Mill Road from Sandy Springs to Marietta. This was almost as bad of a decision as deciding to hash on Sunday.

Torrential rains.

Very low visibility.

The beginnings of flash flooding (I drove through some spots that concerned me).

And finally a downed tree branch that blocked my lane, forcing me to drive in the other lane around a blind curve! Of course a SUV came from the other direction while I was in their lane.

By the time that I got to Terrell Mill I was never so happy to be in Marietta.

Dinner was a lot less dangerous as we sat on the Deck Mahal eating deliciously-cooked ribs and swapped stories like old sailors. My drive home was far less harrowing.

Hope yours is a happy Tuesday. Think about what we all can do this summer. Let’s do this!

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

After a rough day yesterday that I will detail tomorrow I am taking a day off from blogging so that I may tend to matters that I ignored yesterday.

Have a safe Memorial Day.

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]