Twelve Days: Day Ten

For the next twelve days I will give you the item for that day from the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” along with the gift I would like to receive. You will see quickly that mine may not always be material, but are just as strange…

Song: Ten Lords A-Leaping
Paulie: A unified audio/video plan for my house, and a well-planned backup strategy for my data

Oh The Traffic Outside Is Frightful
Wow, my commute home yesterday was horrible, and I left the office at 4:20pm (go ahead make your stoner reference here). Things were so bad yesterday that I turned around and went shopping at Target, Circuit City and Border’s (can anyone guess where I was?) in order to let traffic die down before I got back on the roads. If not for the fact that I was cooking a crockpot full of beef stew I would have also gone somewhere and eaten a nice relaxing dinner. My strategy worked partially because the traffic later on was still bad, but not as bad as it had been earlier. [note to self: in 2007 start planning Atlanta exit strategy]

Sometimes Being Neurotic Pays!
I suffer from a touch of neurosis. Surprised?

Normally when I cook using my crockpot I connect it to a mechanical programmed timer which controls the electrical current to it. This way I can start the crockpot when I leave for work and the concoction won’t be overcooked when I arrive home later in the evening.

On my way out the door yesterday I felt uncertain about using the timer this time so I went back into the house and took the timer out of the setup. For sanity I plugged the timer into another outlet to see if my neurosis was nonsensical. When I arrived home last night I saw that the timer got stuck sometime around 9am! If it had gotten stuck while in the “off” state (I forgot to check its final state) dinner would have been ruined. Instead it was wonderful to open the door and be greeted by the aroma of beef stew wafting through the air. For once my neurosis paid off.

ITP Flickr Pic
I took this picture for the Atlanta Chain game going on over at Flickr.

I know it’s not perfect, but I had to act quickly to get it posted in time.

With Visions Of Sugarplums Dancing Through My Head
I am not entirely sure what came over me last night, but I fell asleep around 9:45pm. Therefore even though it was actually Wednesday I didn’t get to see Top Chef (see yesterday’s post about Top Chef if you don’t understand). If all is right in the world my DVR has recorded the episode, assuming it was a new episode, and I will be able to watch it sometime soon.

A Christmas Apology
You may have noticed that my entries for the last few days have been lacking some of my normal material. Truth be told my life over the past two weeks has been rather lame and I have not been doing a whole heck of a lot. I am hoping to change this behavior real soon…

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – can’t believe that Christmas is right around the corner
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Fugazi — “Exit Only”
Website Of The Day – About to buy that last-minute Christmas gift but not sure if the thing you are buying is good? Check to see if it is reviewed on Wize, the “unbiased” product ranking sire.
Exercise (b)Log – none

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]