I’m at work. If you aren’t why not do something productive like stimulating the Economy by going out and buying a mattress today; I’m sure someone is having a sale.
Home Alone
For the better part of the weekend I stayed home and puttered around the house. Before you think that I am complaining about this let me explain that this was what I chose to do as I was not in an entirely social mood and really needed to get work done at home.
So what did I do?
- Finally got a haircut in Friday night. I was going to follow that up with a meal at Little Azio, but chose not to and wound up at Holy Taco instead.
- I identified that my plumbing is still not self-healing; washing a sinkload of dishes proved that.
- I cleaned out some clothing that I know I will never wear again.
- After making an emergency run to Lowe’s to purchase a $6 screwdriver that allowed me to unscrew an incredibly tight, tiny screw, I installed RAM into my computer.
- I lost all patience with my failing, aged Windows laptop which continued to give me fits. Hello, recycle!
- I attempted to install Windows XP Pro as a virtual machine on my Mac — and failed. Why fail? Because the valid Windows XP key is only valid on the machine with which it was delivered. Hate. Microsoft!
- Twittered and Facebooked far, far too much.
- Made numerous unsuccessful attempts at writing code.
- Watched the first episode of this season’s Amazing Race (see below)
- Ate breakfast at a restaurant that I’ve never been to before — Sun In My Belly. I’ll return. Saw Romanlily and a friend of hers arriving as I was leaving. Pity, it would have been nice to have seen what she ordered. 😉
So what didn’t I do?
- Go to Black Sheep even though the weather was perfect.
- Meet Maigh and her man on Saturday night because hunger got the best of me and I couldn’t resist going out solo.
- Neither fall in love, nor slit my wrists on Valentine’s Day.
- Install the new network cabling at home.
- Clean and organize my kitchen thoroughly. The process has started but is far from complete. (I know, the kitchen is not the target room for this month)
- Download my first e-book from Audible. I became a member last week.
See, overall it was a busy weekend. It just so happened that it was a busy weekend alone.
ITP Flickr Pic
When in doubt, Bedazzle. On Saturday night I went over a friend’s house, who conveniently lives but three blocks from me, for what was billed as a Bedazzler party.
I was not disappointed. For the record I did not Bedazzle, I was merely a Bedazzler spectator.
The Amazing Race: Who Moved My Cheese?
Don’t look now, The Amazing Race is back! W00t! That’s right kids, one of my addictions has returned.
The people who cast Amazing Race are up to their old tricks; we have cheerleaders, older couples, yokels, a mother / son team (this time the child is deaf), dating couples, and gay folk.
Last night the teams started out in California and immediately flew to Switzerland. Once there the teams met up with their first Road Block — bungee jumping. [Note to anyone who may consider me a qualified Amazing Race partner: I am deathly afraid of heights. I can guarantee you that I will not be the one leaping off a platform and torpedoing toward Earth with only a strand of rubber bands to keep me from certain death.]
Next up was what I considered to be the best part of the night — taking four, fifty pound wheels of cheese down a leaf-filled, slippery hill using holders apparently constructed from balsa wood. I don’t know if I have ever laughed so hard during an episode of TAR. The constant sight of people falling down, and wheels of cheese barreling toward the bottom of the hill cracked me up.
Once done with that challenge the teams headed to the finish line for the first stage. They had to locate yodelers in a valley. Slick move producers, enlist a team with a deaf person and them immediately require them to find something by listening. Classy! Oddly, it was the mother / deaf-son team to finish first! I nearly shed a tear.
But before I could we were back trying to figure out who would be last in this first stage. What could suck more than getting ousted first? Perhaps being an Auburn graduate and seeing the last-place team wearing an Auburn hoodie and ballcap (backward). That’s right, unfortunately for us all the fire/gas couple from South Carolina was the first team to be ousted. Pity, I was looking forward to a few more episodes of arguing between these two.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay
Current Music – listening to the current “This Week in Tech” podcast
Website Of The Day – Chedd’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese. How could this not be my choice after seeing all that cheese roll downhill last night?
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – a combination of sit-ups, dumbbell work, and push-ups
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 16 (16)
Vegetarian Days – 1, Carnivorous Days – 15
Marta Rides – 0
February Goals
– Complete all necessary work on my bed room
– Lose no fewer than one pound
– Run no fewer than 30 miles
– Completely read Softbox Lighting Techniques for Professional Photographers, and Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas
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
– Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalapeño 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]
Happy Presidents’ Day! Since today is a company holiday for us, that means NO MEETINGS!!! With any luck, I’ll actually be able to get something done at work today.
See you after lunch.
I guess we can cut the boy some slack… and we can always talk amongst ourselves.
Did anyone do the red dress on Saturday? Since I alerted the Law Enforcement staff at the Fed that you would be having a beer stop near the back door, is there anything I need to know before I go back to work tomorrow? Extreme drunkeness? Lewd behavior?
-FP
I was at the Red Dress, we (as in Jack*ss & Robin Red Breast) decided at the last minute to just have the beer stop at the Back Of America parking lot right there at 11th & P’tree. Surprisingly no cops or anything showed up. So, you are safe to go to work.
And – this is for Debbie especially – what’s up with Fabian dropping out of the Tour of California? I haven’t decided who is my cute rider of the race, I’ll probably have to go back to the old standby of Tom Boonen.
How about the regular workers drinking beer and laughing their asses off at the fools sliding down the hill with the cheese. That was great! I picked the Yokels from Virginia to be first team out, I don’t think they will last very long.
I actually opted to work today (I get a free floating day later) and it is nice and quiet! There is only about 5% of my office here and NO MEETINGS, yay! I can actually get stuff done AND probably leave early to get in a mtn bike ride.
Today is a good day
Yeah, the guys laughing added to my enjoyment.
I was surprised that more teams didn’t just roll the cheese down the hill (or use the sled method that the Virginian guy did) since it didn’t seem to matter how the cheese made it to the bottom.
I predicted the Virginian team to be ousted first. I was wrong, but agree with you that they are soon to go.
Barb- I hate to see anyone leave a race “the hard way” (the easy way is to crash out!!) and especially in the leaders jersey. At this point in the season, don’t do something stupid that may jeopordize the rest of the season.
Almost glad the red dress didn’t stop behind the Fed. I’m sure you were still on our cameras across the street.
-FP
I was sure the VA yokels were toast, too, but don’t count out the “will-rig-it-ness of a yokel. Those XL cow bell contraptions they were swinging at the bottom of the hill are on my must have list now!
Barb, I am very disappointed that my man… err Fabian isn’t feeling well. My eye-candy incentive for TdeCa is now greatly diminished. Can’t believe somebody nicked Lance’s TT bike. It’ll probably show up on eBay like the Michael Phelps bong. Stoooopid!
I agree, the highlight of the episode was the locals laughing at the bottom on the hill. I think I would have just rolled all 4 cheeses down the hill and collected them. I think I like the older couple best so far, they seem like they might be tougher than the other teams will think. I WANTED the blondes gone (they were being so stupid), but no such luck, and the VA yokel lady crying when the hubby tells her to hurry up will get old really fast.
I’m at work now, had to work half a day, and drew the short straw of the afternoon shift. Allan & I really wanted to go biking this afternoon, it was still a little too chilly to go this morning.