Inside The Perimeter

We made it to Friday! Wait, it is Friday right?

As I type this I am eating breakfast (a roll) in my car doing the best to social distance myself while doing laundry at the Waschsalon. I may be popping into Target and/or Kroger after this. Anyone need anything? 🙂

Last night I figured out how to salvage my sugarless pumpkin bread. All hail maple syrup!

My goal today is to do enough work to keep my job, and find a way to exercise that doesn’t involve my trainer; after three consecutive days I need something else.

As Ham would say, “Make it a great day”.

Stayed at home all day yet again. Hardest part of yesterday was waiting for my dough to proof (prove?). I’ll find out today how well it did.

I got in another trainer workout, and finished watching the Trans North Georgia series.

I planned for today to be an “out” day, with the thought of perhaps doing laundry (that’ll happen tomorrow morning instead, assuming the Waschsalon is open), and making Kroger and Target runs.

Target sent out an email stating that the first hour they are open hour for business should be for those who are elderly / susceptible to illness, because I don’t qualify (completely) for either category I’ll honor their request and go later.

The other day (yesterday?) Kroger sent out an email of amended store hours in some locations, Georgia was not mentioned. When I awoke at 6:15am I thought I could do the “socially responsible” thing and shop while few people are in the store. Driving through the thick fog added another layer to the feel of the End Days. Nope! When I walked up to the door I saw a paper sign informing me that the Glenwood Kroger is currently only open from 8:00am-9:00pm. I get it, but couldn’t they have put this change in the goddamn email? Perhaps I will try again later. Also, there were many cars in the parking lot leading me to believe the store was open. These couldn’t all be employee cars, could they? And if so, why are they all parked closest to the store? When I worked for Toys R Us we always had to park in the spots furthest away! Harumph!

Oh well, enough ranting for today…

Hello from the ITP Estate! I am proving my theory that I do not function at my best when working from home, no matter how much I love not wasting time of my life commuting.

Yesterday I puttered along and after work I put in a good 45 minutes on the trainer, appropriately attired in my Ireland jersey.

Last night, thanks to ITP-Reader Bonnie, I streamed the Dropkick Murphys’ audience-less concert from Boston.

Here’s my dinner from last night.

It was a riff on pasta with pesto, roasted red peppers, green beans, and almonds, to which I also added garlic and capers. Bonnie, I know that I joked on Instagram about not having a recipe, but I did take notes so I can possibly recreate this in the future. (FYI – the Red Hook bottle is placed there intentionally because its label mirrors the colors in the food, and it’s what I drank with my dinner. 😉)

After the concert I was looking to see if the documentary about the Adventure Race that “General Erectdick” and “Dumbfuck” did last year was available on Amazon Prime, and found Ride to Extraordinary: The Trans North Georgia Race, instead. Apparently this race has been around for awhile and I have never heard of it. Inconceivable! I watched two of the seven episodes and am hooked.

How are you all doing today?

It’s St Patrick’s Day with no cause for celebrating.

Boring post for boring times.

Is the sky still falling? It seemed like anything related to fun was canceled over the weekend. That is, except for the one place that I thought would be perfect to visit on Saturday afternoon, Park Tavern. With the swim meet canceled we wanted a place where young boys could get outside and adults could sit outside watching them as we drank beer. Turned out that though it wasn’t even listed as an event on their website, Park Tavern’s “Lucky Fest” was not canceled, and they wanted $25/person to enter the restaurant. #youhavetobekidding Instead, we ambled across the park to The Nook, WHICH WAS PLAYING MUSIC REALLY LOUDLY, and had a beer before moving on.

I visited Kroger on Saturday morning to see how things look in the End Days. As reported many of the staples were sold out, but I did manage to get the items I had gone to buy.

Yesterday I decided to drive all the way to Suwanee, I was certain COVID-19 hadn’t reached them yet, to go hashing.

Oh hello Friday the 13th.

At the last minute yesterday the swim meet I was going to attend was canceled. Oh, the way things are going…

Instead of going to Georgia Tech I met up with the Raleigh Royalty at New Realm for a few hours.

My weekend plans are now in flux. Oh well, I guess I’ll try to make the best of everything.

My weekend plans for next weekend have just changed too. I just received an email alerting me that Goethe’s Frühlingsfest has been postponed.

Apparently going out hashing and then staying out until 12:15am wasn’t a great idea? I had a horrible night of sleep, or lack thereof, waking often with a headache. It’s going to be a rough day today…

The Australian Rugby League started today. There is an iOS app for watching games, but alas the content is not available outside Australia and New Zealand. 🤬 I was going to try to see if I could use a VPN to appear that I was there, but it’s not worth the effort to me.

Pretty boring evening. I worked later than I normally do and ate dinner at the office thinking that I’d be walking across to Colony Square for German class; I did not. Instead of German class I decided to put “exercise first”, given that I was too tired to do it immediately after awaking as was planned yesterday, and headed home. I did 45 minutes on the trainer and by the time I was finished it was past 8pm. Not much productivity happens at the ITP Estate after 9:0ppm these days, and that was also the case last night.

Thanks to COVID-19 I will be working from home for the remainder of this week, and perhaps next. Woot? I had already planned to work from home today because I have a mid-day appointment with my tax preparer. Another reason it was going to be beneficial to work from home today is that tonight is the annual Founders Day hash for Black Sheep and I didn’t want to have to fight traffic to get to the start. Well, wouldn’t you know, the start for tonight’s Black Sheep hash is Grant Park! 😮🎉

Much like my illness we can’t seem to shake the rain. I know rain is beneficial, but we seem to be getting an inordinate amount this winter.

I skipped the hash last night, instead I stayed home and cooked. I should have also exercised, but failed that effort. The vegetable lo mein dish I made in the Instant Pot would have been wonderful if not for the additions that I experimented with; perhaps it was the miso and turmeric that gave the dish a salty and bitter finish?

I also started contemplating a couple of radical life changes, such as selling the house and moving into an apartment in East Atlanta. That contemplation ended when I saw the ridiculously high rents being charged for tiny apartments. Even if you factor property taxes, insurance, and other expenses of home ownership (excluding repairs of course), it would easily cost me $400/month more for less than half of the space. I’m okay with downsizing, but not at a significant additional cost. It’s time to resort to another plan I suppose.

Though could certainly use another night at home I may try to make it to the final German class of this quarter, even if I am completely unprepared. My effort, or lack thereof, for learning German is another decision I have to make about my future…

Anyone need a recipe for pumpkin pudding bread? Yesterday I accidentally created one by carefully reading the quantities for all ingredients in the pumpkin bread recipe, except for the pumpkin. The recipe called for one cup, I erroneously added one can. 🤦🏻‍♂️ At least this explained why the “bread” looked so wet at the end of the directed baking time. Oh well, at least it’s still edible.

Yesterday Bonnie and I ventured up to Buford Highway to spend hours perusing the multiple aisles of the Buford Highway Farmers Market. Due to my upcoming schedule this week I won’t be doing much cooking, so I didn’t “need” anything. However, I managed to spend $58 regardless of this fact.

On Friday I called to make an appointment with my dermatologist; I’ll finally be getting a once-over and hope to have some questions answered. I expected an appointment a month or more out, but I was informed that they had cancellations for today, so I snapped up one of those openings. The dermatology office is on West Paces Ferry, perhaps I’ll reward my good luck with a lunch at OK Cafe, but I should probably return directly to the office and eat some of the leftovers I have here.