One would expect that every business in hometown of Martin Luther King, Jr. would be closed for celebration. One would be very wrong! In fact, I’ve not had MLK Day off as a paid holiday since I moved to Atlanta from Huntsville, AL in 1995.
And now it’s a “not too happy MLK Day” as I’m reading that Steve Jobs is going to be taking a medical leave from Apple. That is certainly going to make my AAPL stocks plummet, and I believe that the Stock Market is closed today. Dangen!!!
Saturday Night Failure
Oh, this has nothing to do with the Falcons. You know that this blog is all about me. 😉
As I lounged in bed surfing the internet on Saturday morning I read the Roadfood newsletter which was sent to me. In the latest newsletter there was a discussion of Cajun food, specifically Cajun meat pies. “Delicious!” I thought. Followed quickly by “Since I’m going to Little Easy’s Cajun-themed birthday party tonight I think I’ll try to make some fried meat pies. How hard could it be?” I did an obligatory Google search and upon finding a recipe which looked doable a plan was hatched.
I went out and purchased the necessary ingredients, cooked up the filling and began preparing the dough. That’s when things went to hell in a hand-basket. I’ve made “pie” dough before and they’ve always been dense, and a bit on the dry side. This dough was wet, noticeably wet, and sticky. I double checked my ingredients and I had followed the recipe exactly (I often time eff up my measurements) and tried to salvage the dough. No could do. I scrapped the dough and put the (rather delicious) meat concoction into the refrigerator.
I don’t like showing up to Little Easy’s party sans food, but hey, I knew that Tony and Gary always make outstanding Cajun dishes so my failure to produce wouldn’t be noticed. Only one problem, neither Tony nor Gary made it to the party this year, darn it. Next year it’s a “tried and true” jambalaya for me.
Oh, the party was a lot of fun even if most of it centered around the football games being played on tv.
ITP Flickr Pic
After suffering defeat on Saturday night I was convinced that I need to make a batch of biscuits from scratch in order to prove to myself that I had still had some cooking skills.
This batch was far and away not my best, but they were edible. In doing some retrospective analysis I think that I am rushing the process and that’s why things are starting to fall apart.
Here’s Something Different
My brother and nephew will be coming in to Atlanta tonight on their way back to New York. Cool!
Perhaps I will attempt to get a portrait of the three Nuesslein boys tonight.
J-E-T-S JETS! JETS! JETS!
I did not watch the game (I was in circle for the first half and didn’t want to jinx things when I arrived home.) I’m finding that I am having success through ignorance. Perhaps I will start ignoring the women in whom I have interest to see how that works for me. Honestly, I don’t think it would hurt my success rate.
If by some miracle the Jets and the Packers make it to the Super Bowl my trip to Raleigh that weekend is going to be very interesting…
That is all.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – Meh. My back still hurts from shoveling snow last Tuesday and none of the seeds which I’ve have sown this year seem to be sprouting.
Current Music – silence, just not in the mood for noise at the moment
Website Of The Day – Last week while “snowed in” I stopped into one of East Atlanta’s best store Traders and saw these really cool coasters Custom Coasters by Hazel.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Saturday: run/walk (4 miles); Sunday: hash/run/walk (~6 miles)
Morning Weigh-In – Feb 1
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~16.3 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 6 flights
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 4 (9)
Vegetarian Days – 0
Carnivorous Days – 16
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0
January Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Run no fewer than 75 miles
– Prepare Sharpened Stone, LLC for 2011 so that I get no more penalties
– Lose two pounds
– Eat vegetarian at least one day a week
– A couple of goals which I will not divulge
– Eat lunch out no more than twice a week
– Limit myself to eating dinner out on laundry nights, meeting nights, and dates
2011 Goals [will be a little more fluid than in past years]
– Reduce my weight by 25 pounds based on the my weight as measured on February 1st
– Completely read the book Daily Negations which I received as a Christmas gift.
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business — one which does not get penalized.
– 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
– Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than two half-marathons
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store
The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Those biscuits look pretty good to me.
“none of the seeds which I’ve have sown this year seem to be sprouting.”
Ummmm – it iwas below freezing all week last week, that could be why.
How was the hash? We went to Floor & Decor instead & bought tile for the garage mahal bathroom. I hate buying tile, there are just WAY too many choices.
The biscuits didn’t rise as I hoped they would. I was using fresh flour, baking powder, and baking soda, but to no real avail. One thing I did wrong was not place them in the baking sheet so that their edges touched. I also may have used salted butter, which given the recipe also called for the addition of salt may have suppressed the rising. I ate some last night with the meat concoction I created Saturday and will be doing the same for lunch today.
I was metaphorically speaking about the seeds. I know, I know, I need to be more literal.
Oh, with the Steve Jobs news and complete panic that I am going to lose a lot of money — which was earmarked for house repairs once I figured out how to handle the tax implications — today I forgot to write up the hash bit…
The hash was, um, interesting. Apparently the majority of us missed a check which was laid in toilet paper on snow. Thus, after successfully figuring out a “YBF Squared” (go back two checks) we fucked up the next “YBF” and returned to the wrong check to search for trail. Luckily I was with a pack which included Davey Crochet and his cell phone. So, we called to find the end and then boxed there mostly on road. Many people threw their hands up and went back to the start for their cars and drove to the end.
I was one of those ‘many people’…I never really did figure out where things went wrong, at that point I didn’t care. I’m not sure it was my freezing feet or lack of alcohol consumption but I was pretty miserable at the end. I figured I would just cut my losses and go home. Did you go to the on after? Where was it, I thought about calling to meet up but I took a shower and went straight to my pjs instead. As bad as it was yesterday, it still doesn’t come close to the trail he laid back in ’07 (I think)…the start was about 90 minutes away, it was cold and pouring down rain. God that was just awful.
I slept in this morning, just got back from the gym and washing the car. I managed, for the third day in a row to draw blood…wonder what tomorrow will hold?
I’m not really paying attention to football at this point, however, as a Colts fan, I am a bit please that your Jets were able to take out Mr. Brady. It seems like the last year or so the B’day party has been centered around the TV, I don’t like it.
You know, one of the “traditions” that has seemed to die is the on after. I don’t believe that one was mentioned yesterday. I decided to go home and keep my head in the sand so as not to jinx the Jets.
I was going to say that I think they’ll be good business at the local car washes this week, at least from the looks of most of the cars I saw this morning. I’ll need to get the Jackmobile out in the rain tomorrow night and take a bucket of soapy water to it. Stupid snow/ice salting…
I was happy the Jets got past the Patsys, and I’ve never been a Falcon fan, so Green Bay winning pleased me. Sorry I didn’t make it to the hash yesterday… or after all the lovely comments about the hash I’ve heard, maybe not!!
And I was wondering about your “seeds” remark.. maybe you’ve forgotten that this isn’t Florida.
-FP
You made the right call, Steve. I’m not unhappy I went to Black Sheep (my training schedule called for 30 minutes of cross training and I got much more than that).
You all know there are two things about which I tend to allude to more than speak directly about:
1) work
2) women / dating
which is why I occasionally slip into “metaphor mode.”
The Packers winning “pleased” me also! Don’t think that I didn’t realize that you were going to be here on Superbowl weekend. The only unforgivable thing would be if you got Cooper to cheer for the Jets (in the case of a Packers/Jets superbowl!).
Yep, the game is being played on Feb 6th (good thing I booked a flight for the 7th).
Well, if the Jets are playing the Packers it’ll mean that the Jets have bettered his “favorite” team the Pittsburgh Steelers. 😉
Yeah, we’ve already informed Cooper that if he cheers for the Steelers during a Steelers-Packers Super Bowl, he’ll end up watching the game at our next-door neighbors (Steelers fans) house…