‘F’ Is For Failure

‘Tis the end of February and things are not good. I’ll say that I completely missed all of my exercise / weight loss goals so I won’t even belabor those points. Let’s take a look at the rest

February Goals
1) Lose two pounds. (starting weight ~205 lbs)
2) Run no fewer than fifty miles.
3) Do twenty push-ups and fifty sit-ups at least three times a week.

4) Read two books.
I missed this big time. I am almost done with “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” but no other “book reading” was done this month.

5) Go to the Center For Puppetry Arts.
Yep, got this one done.

6) Use Marta for commuting at least one day per week.
Check! Today I even purchased a seven-day pass for Marta. Tune in tomorrow to find out why…

7) Get all 2007 information into Google Calendar.
I succeeded here, but in the process have not been so good at keeping my “Walk In My Footsteps” section up to date, nor have I figured out how to publish my Google calendar.

Phoenix: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
One day after I’ve scheduled my flight to Phoenix there have already been issues.

The Good: I decided to bite the bullet and use my SkyMiles to “buy” my ticket (read on…). The flights I selected where labeled as “SkyChoice” and not “SkySaver” so I was prepared to spend more of the 50k SkyMiles that I had in my account than I had originally planned. I was a bit miffed to see that I’d have to spend 47.5k miles for my trip, but then immediately pleased to see that on one of the flights I am booked in First Class. Woo Hoo, this will be my first First Class flight ever.

The Bad: Yesterday I found out that Phoenix’ Sky Harbor Airport will be one of the first in the country to employee the new full-body x-ray machines. They say that it will only be used on those who fail the initial metal detector test. I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of losing my civil liberties. I “get” that 9/11 happened. I also “get” that people used to hijack planes to Cuba. I don’t “get” while so few people are concerned that we are heading down a road toward George Orwell’s “1984.”

The Ugly: At lunchtime I checked my email account and found out that United Airlines is having a “Big, Big Sale.” For as many times as I’ve received these sorts of messages I have never seen Phoenix included as a destination. Of course since I had just made a reservation on Delta this would be different. United is offering $188 roundtrip travel to Phoenix and my Delta tickets are non-refundable. Rats! Oh well, at least I’ll be flying First Class on one flight.

ITP Flickr Pic
I’m not sure why this little guy is so proud, but he certainly doesn’t mind showing off his “stuff.”

I’ll try and go out and shoot more so that I stop posting zoo pictures.

And I Repeat To Myself
“I must not put time critical paperwork in folders!”
“I must not put time critical paperwork in folders!”
“I must not put time critical paperwork in folders!”

Last night I stumbled across a DeKalb County tax document that has been in my possession for months and is supposed to be filed by March 1st. Luckily for me when I went online to see what time the Tax Collector’s office opened I found that I could file this paperwork online.

This sort of oversight has become all too common in the past few years. The last two nights I have started to reorganize my life so that this sort of snafu becomes extremely rare.

“Paulie’s Hundred”
Remember that movie Brewster’s Million where Richard Pryor had to spend thirty million dollars in thirty days? I have a similar, but far smaller task. I have one hundred Flexible Medical Spending dollars to blow by day’s end or I lose it. I already went and bought $50 worth of medication and $300 sunglasses recently. If I had a few more days I’d schedule an appointment with an eye doctor to try and figure out why my right eye has been flittering (if that’s a word) recently. How would you spend the rest?

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – okay even though I throw my hands in the air because I am a failure
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Of Montreal — (some really long and utterly bizarre song title from “Hissing Fauna….”)
Website Of The Day – Ever wonder when the sun will rise and set? Sunrise, Sunset is a neat little tool to help you figure this out. Since I’ve gotten into photography knowing this information has become more important to me.
Exercise (b)Log – nada

February Goals
1) Lose two pounds. (starting weight ~205 lbs)
2) Run no fewer than fifty miles.
3) Do twenty push-ups and fifty sit-ups at least three times a week.
4) Read two books.
5) Go to the Center For Puppetry Arts.
6) Use Marta for commuting at least one day per week.
7) Get all 2007 information into Google Calendar.

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]