My Mind Is An Open Book

Unfortunately, my mind is open to a blank page and has been providing me with very little useful information lately.

Junky Yards Wars ’09 : A Lot Of Work With Little To Show
Last night I made a quick pit stop at Lowes where I picked up a new shovel (because the one I own is in the attic and for $6 I decided to get a new one), a few bags of dirt, a bag of rocks (because there are not enough in my head), some more vegetable plants (Martha, I was there, they were there, I couldn’t help myself), and a small bag of S-hooks from which I am hanging some (cooking) pots in the kitchen for when the time comes that I can cook in my kitchen again.

I passed on the opportunity to pick up some yard waste bags because I was sure that I had a stash at the house [side note: I have been incorrectly “sure” about a lot of things recently.]. I had one yard bag. DANGEN! So, instead of bagging the dirt and leaves which littered my curbside I filled my one bag and lugged it to the planting bed and deposited the contents there. I repeated this procedure about five or six times before tiring of this exercise. I made a dent in the appearance of the curb, but I’m far from being done.

Again I will mention how optimistic mockingbirds are. Each time I’d drag my bag of crap to the planting bed one or two mockingbirds would swoop in and feast on the bugs which had been uncovered by my shoveling. Oddly, no worms were eaten. I guess that worms are not in the diet plan of mockingbirds.

ITP Flickr Pic
I had a fairly decent spot from which to shoot last Saturday’s Inman Park Festival Parade.

I keep looking at the facial expressions in this photo and cracking up.

Did I Put Vegetables In My Herb Box, Or Did I Put Herbs In My Vegetable Box?
Five new plants were planted last night into a large crate which had a layer of leaves, a layer of rocks, and a bunch of soil. This was supposed to be a herb box.

While I cannot remember the exact items I planted, I can summarize…

1. Flat-leaf Italian parsley
2. Yellow bell pepper
3. Sweet basil
4. Hot cherry pepper
5. Jalapeño pepper (or did I buy the Tabasco pepper plant?)

I’ll have photos soon, especially they start to grow.

If you remember that the top side of the two hanging planters were also peppers (one green bell pepper, one jalapeño) you’d correctly guess that I am a pepper fanatic.

Music, Music, Revolution
In the past two days I’ve downloaded four cds from Amazon. Yep four, and two of those were free. Here’s what I bought:

1. Manchester Orchestra‘s “Mean Everything To Nothing” – $7.99, well worth it to support this local band. I’ll be giving this its first hard drive spin later today.
2. Great Lake Swimmers’ “Lost Channels” – Hurry, it’s currently $2.99 at Amazon for a limted time.
3. Saddle Creek Record’s “2008-2009 Sampler” – free!
4. Jagjaguwar Record’s “2008/2009 Sampler” – free! And, it contains the awesome Okkervil River tune “Lost Coastlines” in addition to other good songs.

I’m loading up my iPod with new music, podcasts, and audiobooks. Can traveling be in my future? Perhaps, rabbit. Perhaps.

Happy Birthday Salutations
Today is my friend, and non-ITP-Reader, David’s birthday. David is a friend and former co-worker. To celebrate his day of birth we are eating pizza. Mmmmmm, pizza.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – busy, really mad at myself
Current Music – listening to last weekend’s “Sound Opinions” podcast
Website Of The Day – Sheldon is a really good comic book on the web. Not only that, it’s also a blog. So you are getting two for the price of one!
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – about forty-five minutes of shoveling and bagging dirt and leaves
Tuesday Morning Weigh-In – 199.6 pounds

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 3 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 2 (25)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 27
Marta Rides – 0

April Goals
none, and this is not an April Fools joke

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]