Oh Hello There, Gentile Reader

There was supposed to be a blog yesterday but Mother Nature’s furious dumping of snow upon the Southeast on Sunday night on Monday morning convinced me to stay in Raleigh for an additional night and drive home yesterday. Mother Nature cramped, but I will say that it was fun to spend the additional night away even though it meant I had a seven+ hour drive to perform. Thankfully the worst of the weather was nasty rain in southwestern North Carolina and through parts of South Carolina.

A Good Old Time In Raleigh
What would call three days filled with a night with Drive By Truckers, go cart racing, a Carolina Hurricanes hockey game and a trip to the science museum in Durham?

My weekend.

Oh sure, there were moments of vegetarian eating (I made it from Friday through lunch yesterday before I cracked by stopping for some extremely disappointing Zaxby’s in Gaffney, SC) and beer drinking, but I can do that anytime here in Atlanta.

What Can You Do With Thirteen Hours In The Car?
Listen to the audio version of A Confederacy Of Dunces which is how I consumed the majority of my mileage to and fro this weekend.

I had actually read the book as part of a book club (as one of my many attempts to meet women back in 1999/2000) and wanted to refresh my knowledge of the content. I was not disappointed as the narrator of the novel did an outstanding job sucking me into the intertwined plot.

ITP Flickr Pic
Raleigh got some snow on Friday night / Saturday morning.
Footsteps
It was even nicer that most of it melted by the time I left yesterday.

Hey Paulie, What’s Cooking?
On the shoulders of my final success to bake another loaf of non-collapsed bread I’m building a vegetarian chili whose ingredient list I blatantly stole by taking a photo over ITP-Reader Lisa’s shoulder.

Today is “Fat Tuesday” and we are supposedly having our annual Fat Tuesday Potluck at the office, although I noticed that very few people signed up to participate (and some who have had taken their annual easy route to commit to bringing in store-bought dinner rolls). Normally there are a dozen or so whose only contribution to events such as this is to help consume the food brought in by others. I think if the list of contributed dishes doesn’t increase as the morning progresses I’ll withdraw my submission and share it amongst select coworkers.

RealiTV Update : I’ve Watched, But Don’t Have Time To Comment
I am now up to date with both Survivor and The Amazing Race. I think that I’m hooked on each already. I don’t have the time today to give a summary, but hope to do so in the future.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – scared
Current Music – listening to the “This Week In Tech” podcast
Website Of The Day – Every time I drive to Raleigh I pass an Indian Motorcycle dealer and actually consider buying one. I’m sure that I never will.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 52

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 1** (3)
Vegetarian Days – 4, Carnivorous Days – 11
Marta Rides – 0
* – since I stayed in a hotel
** – because I stayed in friends’ house

February Goals
– Not get fired from my job

2010 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 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
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
– Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
– Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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3 Responses to Oh Hello There, Gentile Reader

  1. Barb says:

    we were all worried about you yesterday – glad you are back! Sounded like a good weekend, & you got to see the Devils play, something we haven’t been about to do this year.

    I haven’t watched Survivor yet – these damn Olympics are messing with my Tivo watching. But – I gotta say, snowboard cross is a cool event.

    BTW – Team USA hockey plays this afternoon – it is going to be televised on the USA Network – isn’t that appropriate? I forgot to set my Tivo, I guess I’ll have to run by the house at lunch.

  2. Barb says:

    we did watch Amazing Race – not sure who I want to win yet, but I do love that Miss Teen SC & those idiots from Big Brother are on the show, I’m sure we are going to have plenty of hilarious quotes from them.

  3. Thanks. I’d like to say that I am feeling as fit as a fiddle, but truth be told, I need to start taking some of the medication prescribed for me two weeks ago and see if my condition improves, otherwise it’s time to dig deeper into my strange feelings.

    Your cousin Jamie got an assist on Saturday; he was also mentioned as one of the NHL players who will be in Vancouver for the Olympics. The Hurricanes’ venue is loud and at first Cooper didn’t like the noise and plugged his ears with his fingers. I mentioned ear plugs to Randy and Kevin, the do’er, got up and found some for the little guy. Things were much better for Cooper when he had his earplugs.

    I arrived home about 4:30pm, logged a call to my mother — who is recovering from a weekend of that darned stomach flu/virus, and then caught up with some things which needed to be done around the house.

    I didn’t see the season of Big Brother that featured those two. Big Brother never really caught on with me. Miss South Carolina is a hoot, though I’m not sure if I like her or not.

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