A Night At Home Was Just What I Needed

While I didn’t get the chores completed that I wanted to get done, last night was a good night for me. I got home, started to do some things, then kicked on the tv for a night of mindless viewership.

Why La Casita? Why?
For the second day in a row I attempted to eat vegetarian. It was very easy at lunch because I had a can of vegetarian beans and some vegetarian hot dogs readily available for consumption. For dinner I contemplated my options while driving home.

After much consideration I determined I was going to support East Atlanta Village (which has just lost another restaurant — Kasan Red) by eating at Cantina La Casita. I had my mind set for some veggie empanadas and a basket of chips with their green and red salsas.

You may remember some months ago when I blogged about going into La Casita and being dumbfounded that they had changed their menu, eliminating one of their (then three) salsas. I had a strange feeling last night and wondered what I would do if something like this were to happen again. Little did I know how right I would be.

Paulie : “I’d like chips and salsa with both salsa please.”
Waitress : “Oh, we no longer have the green salsa. We are in the process of changing our menu.”
Paulie : “UGH!” *drops head toward table*
Paulie : “Okay, I’ll take chips and salsa and an order of vegetarian empanadas.”

I want to support La Casita. I want to love La Casita. However, unless I order nightly specials or a restaurant is known for seasonal menus I need to know that I am going to be able to order certain things every time I go to a restaurant otherwise I can do neither.

Catching Up With The Drapers
I’ve slowly been working my way through season one of Mad Men. I had started watching some months ago, but was interrupted. Surprisingly, much like with exercise one I stopped watching, it was hard to start again.

I absolutely love this show and can’t wait until season two becomes available on either iTunes or preferably Netflix.

Oh and if you consider yourself a friend, please don’t post any Mad Men spoilers here. ‘kthanks!

ITP Flickr Pic
I like the fact that I can bring my camera into the High Museum and shoot their permanent collection.

This statue against that wall color just floored me.

Just When I Thought It Was Safe To Develop Film Again
As I mentioned the other day I haven’t shot film in years. Even when I had it was shitty 35mm so I never developed anything myself and I’d drop my film off at places like Costco for processing.

With the purchase of my Diana, admittedly a “toy” camera whose results are a crap shoot, I had to get 120 film. There aren’t many places in town who process 120 film so I had to seek advice from those around me. Apparently there are three places people commonly take their 120 film, one of which is not really an option.

The two remaining film processing options are Spitfire and E-6, and I was told that Spitfire was the place that I should go. That was until yesterday when I heard news from John (aka HamWithCam on Flickr) that Spitfire’s machinery has gone on the fritz. Dangen! Today I will be swinging by E-6 to talk about having them develop my film. Wish me luck…

4 Chefs + 3 Courses + 1 TV Hour = Recipe For Success?
Last night I watched the premiere episode of Food Network’s Chopped. I was under the assumption that Chopped was going to be Food Network’s answer to Top Chef. I was wrong, it is much more like a game show than a reality show.

The premise of Chopped is this : Take four chefs, and three rounds of cooking — appetizer, entree, dessert — with mystery ingredients, and eliminate (chop) one chef after each course. At the end one chef is named the winner and gets $10,000 (not bad for a few hours work).

For each course the chefs are presented with (four?) mystery ingredients and have to incorporate those ingredients into a meal produced in thirty minutes. At the end of each course there is judgment performed by three judges and one of the chefs is eliminated from the competition.

While I enjoyed Chopped the lack of time getting to know the chefs seems to make the show a bit awkward. Unlike long-running competitions like Top Chef I have no emotional investment in these people, so why should I care whether they win or lose?

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – cold
Current Music – listing to Paul Giguere’s “Thoughts On Photography” podcast
Website Of The Day – If you have fast download speeds you must check out boxee. In fact I love this so much that I am going to write about it tomorrow.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – none

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 3 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 14 (14)
Vegetarian Days – 3
Carnivorous Days – 10
Marta Rides – 0

January Goals
– Complete all necessary work on the dining room (not going to lie, I picked an easy room first)
– Lose no fewer than two pounds
– Run no fewer than 50 miles
– Completely read Softbox Lighting Techniques for Professional Photographers, Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas, and How to Be Happy, Dammit: A Cynic’s Guide to Spiritual Happiness

2009 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 190 pounds (today’s weight was 199.5 pounds)
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
РEarn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalape̱o Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C (iPhone development) and Ruby on Rails (Black Sheep web page concept)
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]