I left Kroger last night with burger fixins and white wine in the middle of a torrential downpour — with lightning. Before departing Kroger’s parking lot ITP-Reader Betsy and I chatted on the phone about dinner and our fear that the rain would obscure my DISH Network satellite signal. I drove home through heavy rain and in spots the Jackmobile was hit with hail. When I got to my street and noticed that the corner house was without power, and then I noticed that every house along my block was without power — including mine. DANGEN! Even worse, the best estimate Georgia Power could give was a resumption of service no sooner than 10:30pm EDT. DOUBLE DANGEN!!! No fish, nor burger, nor Top Chef Masters. TRIPLE DANGEN! The night turned into an evening of watching videos on my iPad (have I mentioned how much I love that device?).
I assume power returned sometime after midnight. When I awoke around 1:00am EDT it was on, but unfortunately I was then wide awake. I think I fell asleep around 3:00am EDT so it was no surprise that when my alarms went off at 5:00am EDT and 5:30am EDT I had little difficulty turning them off and immediately returning to slumber.
Oh, did you know that white wine can freeze? When I unloaded my packages upon arriving home to a dark house I put the warm bottle of white wine in the freezer (the pre-chilled bottle went into the refrigerator) in anticipation of Betsy’s visit for Top Chef Masters viewing. When I got up at 1:00am EDT I thankfully remembered that the bottle was in the freezer; it was frozen solid, but no damage had occurred. Ice-wine anyone? 😉
Oh, and who looks smart for having his gutters cleaned right before a huge rain storm?
All I Ask For Is Openness
I am considering joining a gym, specifically LA Fitness. (Why LA Fitness?? Location, location, location). What bothers me about gyms and their memberships is that they always seem to be sleezy or frustrating. Yesterday I went to LA Fitness’ website to see how much it would cost to join. You’d think this would be simple — but it’s a gym membership so it’s not.
I’d like to know:
– Can I join for a month? How much would that cost?
– Can I save money by signing up for a year? To what would that reduce my monthly cost?
But no, all I see is that it costs $9.95 for a week and that I there is another $9.95 tacked on as “Dues” (which if you read the “fine” print is because you must sign up for a minimum of two weeks). ARGH!
Yes, there are other gyms out there, but none that offer the “convenience for my lifestyle” of LA Fitness. I’ll have to ponder on this for some more time.
ITP Flickr Pic
Yesterday on a whim a co-worker and I ate lunch at the 57th Fighter Group.
The lunch was good (I had a cup of beer soup and the reuben sandwich with home-made potato chips) but a bit on the expensive side.
Failure To Launch
Looks like I won’t be headed to Cape Canaveral for the final launch of the space shuttle. I received the following in email yesterday.
Thank you for registering for the opportunity to purchase viewing tickets for the launch of STS-135 space shuttle Atlantis from Kennedy Space Center. Unfortunately, your entry was not selected for the STS-135 launch ticket purchase opportunity.
Oh well. I hope that ITP-Reader Randy had better luck.
Best Laid Plan Screwed Again
Because of my late start today I doubt that I’ll get out of work early enough to make it down to Turner Field for the final game of the Mets v. Braves series. I’m really disappointed because I really wanted to go tonight. 🙁 Besides, the Mets have won the last two games (including a shutout last night!), why would I want to jinx that?
Instead I’ll probably return to the ITP Estate and cook up those burgers that I didn’t get to make last night. And drink beer, lots and lots of beer, or white wine.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – late, frustrated
Current Music – listening to a Coverville podcast
Website Of The Day – Mission “Grill More At Home” can probably use the help provided by Grate TV.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check, but damn I looked skinny in the pitch-black of last night
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0.0 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 0 flights
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)
Vegetarian Days – 5
Carnivorous Days – 10
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0
June Goals
– “Completely” recover from the bike crash
– Get back on a bicycle
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Run at least once
– Eat vegetarian no fewer than five days done!
– Lose three pounds
– Go out on a date with someone else
– Finish The Laws Of Simplicity done! and read another book
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 one half-marathon
– 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]
well – OTP wins this time – we never lost power at all, our grill is on the covered front porch still (well, untill a deck gets built), so we did have burgers since you gave me the idea. And – we could have watched live TV, but didn’t, we watched a couple episodes of White Collar on the DVR.
and yes, I’ve frozen white wine more than once trying to quick cheill it & forgetting about it. Sometimes the cork can pop out too.
I’ve only been to 57 Fighter Group for Sunday Brunch, which is a heck of a deal if you like bottomless champagne & mimosas & way too much food. I think it was $34 with tip, and we sat there from 12:30 until they basically kicked us out about 3:30. (but, I do like theri beer cheese soup, which they do have on the brunch buffet)
We only had a couple of blips in the power last night, no long term outages. I heard the hail start, mentioned to Jerry it was setting off car alarms…looked out front, told Jerry it was his car alarm going off, he then told me he didn’t have a car alarm…well he does now 🙂 Thankfully, nothing more than some lost lettuce and a few small limbs resulted from the storm here.
As a bonus I was able to do some weeding today, now that the ground is a bit more giving.
LA Fitness? Really? I’d much rather have a gym closer to home than the office. But as long as you go and workout I’m on board!
and of course I know that white wine will freeze…can’t count the times I’ve forgotten the bottle I put in the freezer to chill ‘for just a couple of minutes’ after we drank the two bottles already chilled 😉
Oh and happy birthday Jenka…three sites down only one more to go!
I love that beer soup at the 57 Fighter Group! Kinda feeling like I may have to take a jaunt over there for lunch now…. Also highly recommend the simple turkey sandwich at The Downwind. Real turkey breast sliced off the bone; none of that processed stuff.
My power went out for a minute. Like, literally for a minute – and before any of the storms started. Alas, it still was enough to make me a chicken and I canceled my trivia plans to stay in instead of driving around out in it.
I heard a few car alarms go off with the thunder and wind as well.
LA Fitness has many locations but the one I’d go to most often is near the office. I could use that time to wait out traffic on the days that I don’t want to gain weight at Taco Mac.
Happy birthday Jenka! Had I known (I’m not checking Facebook much these days) I’d certainly would have included it into today’s blog.
It’s been years since I’ve been to The Downwind — I might have to remedy that soon.
The waitress told us yesterday that the new owners stipulated that they get the recipe for the beer cheese soup as a condition for buying the restaurant.
Power out at JEFDSDR at 10PM with not a rumble of thunder or blink of lightning nearby.. WTFO? Came on around 4, I believe. Debbie reported less than a quarter inch in the guage.
The dogs were a might perturbed before the power went out… I just thought it was a deer in the front yard or something. Maybe they knew something we didn’t.
I have fond memories of 57th FG. After all, it’s where I met my lovely wife.
-FP
Miss Nibbles was none too happy with the storms last night…she’s not so tough when it comes to loud noise from the sky. Logan took it all in stride, not sure he even noticed.
ITP-reader had the same luck regarding the final shuttle launch – DANGEN! Of course, I was hoping that I would be able to enter the lottery and then they would delay the launch (we’ll be in WI on July 8th), so it’s probably for the best – sometimes life gets too complicated. In case you still want to go and watch for free, I can direct you to an excellent place on the water in Titusville – you’ll just have to get there early…
As for chilling wine (or other beverages), we’ve moved to the Whole Foods method after freezing too many. We place the bottle in an insulated water jug, add water and ice – and voila, cold wine in less than 10 minutes. Note – it helps if you swirl the wine every once in a while during the ice bath immersion.
Doesn’t the cardboard box get soggy that way? 🙂
HEY! You better not be dissin’ on my cardboard box o’ wine! LOL
I am, but then again I’m the one who keeps some “adult juiceboxes” purchased from Target at home.
Thanks for the birthday wishes! Ha, Martha, it’s so funny how you’re making the rounds on the internet wishing me happy birthday! 🙂
I have frozen white wine many, many times! I like it really cold, so I’m always putting a bottle in the freezer and then forgetting about it.
Can’t you just show up late to the Mets game? I almost never show up at the start or even stay until the end.
It hailed on me as I drove home from yoga; I had to sit in the driveway for a few minutes until it passed. Good thing I drove! I was able to give Sharon a ride home, too.
Gym = GOOD. Just join.
We skipped sliders last night because we’re going to The Shed for dinner tonight. Maybe I’ll still have sliders? Nah!
Oh, and we never even had a blip in the power, but the cable was out all night. Thank goodness for the hours and hours of television-y delights on the DVR!
I could show up late, but I’d rather not. Besides, I’ve been spending quite a bit of money of late so my wallet could certainly benefit from not spending money on parking, a ticket, beer, and food — and I get to eat my burgers!
Funny, I nearly tried to contact you last night to see if Betsy (who doesn’t live far from you if I am correct) and I could go over to your house to watch the finale (we would have brought wine!) but since you said you were behind I figured that you’d not be watching it last night.
Enjoy The Shed.
You would have been welcome, but alas, with the cable out, no Top Chef! I believe Betsy lives one street over from me.
We had power, cable and internet all night. I was even texting with Betsy, if she had mentioned it I would have invited you all over here.
Jenka, I just posted my last birthday wish to you…unless I think of a fifth place.
I just got back from seeing X-Men: The First Class…my geek meter is in the red right now, plus I got to enjoy it in a completely empty theater!!!