All The Wrong Teams Won In The Dome This Weekend

The Alabama Crimson Tide?
The Philadelphia Eagles?

C’mon, who wanted those two low-life, cheating, football clubs to be victorious?

I’ll have to give credit where credit is due, however. From the get-go Alabama owned my beloved Gators. Fortunately for me I could not watch the entire game. It’s a sad ending to the season for this Gator fan. Since I cannot bring myself to root for Bama all I have left to say on the matter is “Hook’em Horns!”

(as a side note: I desired to attend the University of Texas when I was a high school lad, and if I had landed a job in Austin prior to Atlanta I would have moved there instead of here in 1995).

Five Of The One Hundred Simple Secrets Of Happy People
I am currently, and deliberately slowly, reading a super-easy read called The 100 Simple Secrets Of Happy People. Each morning I read three of these “secrets.” (Remember when I mentioned exercising my mind?)

Here are five “secrets” on which you can ponder

• Friendship beats money
• Have realistic expectations
• Be open to new ideas
• Share with others how important they are to you
• If you’re not sure, guess positively

You may find this hard to believe, but I’m trying to live my life under the concept that it’s the only one I’ll ever have so I better enjoy it.

White Elephant Surprises
On Saturday night I attended a “White Elephant” gift exchange. I had no idea what gift I would bring until I spied “it” while wandering on Saturday. What was “it?” A Snuggie

That’s right! I brought last year’ “Big Thing to Mock!” And you know what? It was a hit! My Snuggie was stolen three times, thus allowing the last person to steal it to keep it. Woo Hoo!

As for me? I wound up with some sort of bizarre blending device whose manual I’ll have to read in order to figure out what it really does. The “best” part of my gift (for me anyway) was what was also included in the box. When I opened my gift yesterday I saw that it contained a “gift receipt” for exchange. This gift receipt was from The Bay in Calgary, Alberta Canada! You may remember me talking about going to The Bay when I visited Winnipeg earlier this year. How cool is that?!?!

ITP Flickr Pic
While far from the best photo I’ve ever posted in this space this one evokes thought for me.

It’s a bridge placard in Old Fourth Ward. I wonder what that area was like in 1941? Oh, and I absolutely love the font they used for the placard.

Besides, what better photo to display on Pearl Harbor Day — December 7, 1941?

Speaking Of Exchanges
As part of my Economy-Stimulation Saturday I visited Total Wine & More, where I managed to spend “only” $97 which included five different Christmas beers (expect to see photos and reviews in the near future), as well as Bed, Bath, and Beyond — where I managed to (finally) join the “Bread Maker Generation.” However I really didn’t get to join this “Bread Maker Generation” until Sunday…

After getting home from the White Elephant party I opened up my “new” bread maker in order to read the manual and to see what sort of ingredients I’d need to buy for bread making. Only there was no manual inside; and the power cord had been unraveled, dammit, this bread maker had already been opened by someone else! I went as far as checking for food particles (and found none) before coming to the conclusion that I was going to exchange the one I bought Saturday for a really new one. So on Sunday morning, as part of a Edgewood Retail District Sunday (where I shopped at Lowe’s, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and ate at Five Guys Burgers and easily could have dropped money in Target, Best Buy, Barnes & Nobel, and Kroger).

RealiTV Update: The Amazing Race — It’s Great When Ugly People Overcome
(alternate title “Team Aryan Ãœber Alles!”)

Last night I went over to ITP-Readers Terri’s and Pat’s house to view the dramatic conclusion of this season’s The Amazing Race. There we were joined by ITP-Reader Stacy, and we all ate pizza created by Terri and ITP-Reader Tony (the pizza was deeeelicious!).

Of course you know by now that I correctly predicted the order in which the teams finish. But by the luck of the draw I was rooting for Team Zebra to win it all.

As would be expected all teams boarded the same flight to Las Vegas thus wiping out any advantages gained along the way. Once in Vegas they interrupted a couple getting married by an Elvis impersonator, walked face-down on the side of The Mirage (to which I laugh when I think of the way Phil pronounces it), do some silly bouncing as part of a Beatles “Love” Cirque du Soleil advertisement, find Wayne Newton, and then attempt to get to the most popular casino in Monaco (you say “Candle-a-bra,” I say “Mon-AHH-co”) for some chip counting before running past all of their competitors, well almost all — the couple who were ousted on the very first show seemed to be missing, and hugging Phil.

With the exception of a Wayne Newton sighting (who has had terrible work done) the finale was a bit of a disappointment. Gone was the final challenge which forced the teams to remember intimate details about their journey, instead teams had to count out a million dollars in poker chips (without concern for exchange rates, or the price of gold, or anything!)

Except for the fact that I’ll be forced to buy two more songs at the pleasure of Terri, I’m not upset that Meghan won The Amazing Race (Cheyne? Who’s that?). Hell, those two will need what’s left of their million dollar prize after taxes to pay the taxes on all of the other shit that they’ve won during this season. From the get-go they were the team to beat and they prevailed. Now if only I could say the same about my beloved Florida Gators….

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – harried
Current Music – nothing currently
Website Of The Day – If the fact that the website is called Camel Camel Camel doesn’t get you hooked, perhaps the fact that they are trying to help you save money will.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 7 (7)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 6
Marta Rides – 0

December Goals
– Not get fired from my job

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]