Super-Sized Edition

Instead of writing code on Sunday night I am writing a blog post. Please remember this when I run out of things to say later in the week.

Yesterday’s Daily Challenge
Think about a past success: Recall how you achieved your goal and how it made you feel.

Nothing boosts confidence like reflecting on your successes! This exercise puts the focus front and center on your positive traits and how they contribute to your life. Remembering how you’ve handled past challenges may also help you feel more confident about any roadblocks you may be facing at home or work.

Pancakes — 3×2
I had pancakes on both weekend days, three on each day to be exact! On Saturday I returned to The Original Pancake House where I consumed three blueberry pancakes. Yesterday I had three pancakes at The Majestic Diner.

It may sound stupid, but eating pancakes satisfies me and I wish I had started eating them again sooner.

ITP Flickr Pic
I witnessed many photos being taken by my friend Maigh (I’m not sure if she blogs any longer, so I won’t link to her site — though I admit I dig her site’s current layout), but I could not take any myself. I haven’t snapped a frame since last Monday. Pity.

Instead, here are the two walks I did this weekend:
Friday (4.5 miles)

Saturday (5.0 miles)

Oops I Did It Again
After breakfast with Maigh we had some time to kill before the photoshoot. We walked from The Majestic Diner to San Francisco Coffee to kill some time. Inside the coffee shop we were greeted by an attractive young lady with a super-short haircut and neat tortoise-shell frame glasses (read “Paulie’s type”). Recognizing that she was far too young for yours truly I decided to simply compliment her on her choice of frames. It seems that I took it too far (or perhaps in a direction which made her feel unsure about my admiration), because not more than five minutes later I noticed that she had removed the glasses. I wonder if I had complimented her on her haircut if she would have gone into the back and put on a hat. 🙁

Seriously, I’m not sure that I’ll ever figure out how to flatter a woman. I wanted to ask the young lady if I was the cause of the eyeglass removal, but when Maigh and I left the coffee shop she was nowhere to be found. It was probably for the best.

I Had A Fifteen-Year-Old Last Night And It Was Fantastic!
If you didn’t think I was referring to a bottle of wine then shame on you. 😉 With dinner last night (a great concoction of onion, pepper, zucchini, garlic, pasta, chicken tenders and chicken broth) I decided to open a bottle of wine from the “cellar.” The wine I chose (and drank completely) was a 1997 Rioja, that I have been unable to thrust upon anyone else for fear of corking. The cork was brittle, so brittle in fact that it broke into to pieces as I tried to extract if from the bottle. I was unable to extract the whole cork, so I poured the entire contents of the bottle into a measuring vessel, through a coffee filter placed inside a strainer. The Rioja was fantastic! The only downside of consuming an entire bottle of wine with dinner (and afterward) was that it meant that I was unable to join some coworkers at Barcelona Wine Bar on Sunday evening after receiving a late invite.

Slowly but surely I’ve been working my way through my wine stock. I’m not trying to empty my cellar, I’m trying to consume the wine that I’ve previously purchased prior to their demise.

Boil Water? Why, Who’s Giving Birth?
Yesterday I found out that I was supposed to be boiling water do to a large loss of pressure with the City of Atlanta’s water system. The problem with this was that I found out about this in a round-about way through word of mouth. “Luckily” I was at the office for most of the day on Saturday, ate dinner out after doing laundry, and then only drank a cup of tea (which requires the water to be boiled anyway) after returning home.

For yesterday’s baking I used mostly beer in my bread recipe (yeah, you read that right — I’ll be publishing my recipe soon if the next loaf turns out as well as this one did) with only a smidgeon of water. For yesterday’s dinner I made pasta (which requires the water to be boiled anyway) with my chicken and vegetables.

So, I think that I’ll be okay. Only thing is, when is it okay to drink the water out of the tap again?

Hmmm, I Hadn’t Slept That Poorly In A While
I’d sooner blame the nap I took yesterday afternoon before I blame the wine for my poor night of sleeping. I tossed and turned last night. My plan was to wake early and go out for a walk prior to starting my work day. Instead, I woke, slept, woke, slept, woke, turned off my alarm, went back to sleep, and the finally woke too late to walk. I packed clothes to go out for a walk tonight after work, but I’ll have to see how the weather turns out today.

One Year Ago Today
Today marks the first anniversary of the day my health changed — perhaps forever. On February 27th, 2011 I got into my bike v. car wreck.

• I’m still broken
• I inexplicably still have ITP-Martha’s stuff and can’t seem to remember to return it
• I’ve yet to completely repay all who helped me through the toughest of times

I’d like to change all of the above very soon.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – rushed (again)
Current Music – listening to a “GardenFork Radio” podcast
Website Of The Day – I think I should go and memorize the pickup lines at Pick-Up Lines Galore to see if I can figure out this whole “guy meets gal” thing before I die.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Friday: walking, 4.5 miles; Saturday: walking, 5.0 miles
Morning Weigh-In – jeez, the thought never crossed my mind this morning

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~45.1 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 31 flights

Days Of Bed-Making – 25^*

Vegetarian Days – 7^*
Carnivorous Days – 19
Pancakes Eaten – 11

Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

February Goals
– Lose at least one pound (net weight loss)
– Exercise for thirty minutes no fewer than twenty days
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Eat vegetarian no fewer than ten days
– Not get fired from my job, nor quit my job
– Follow up with doctors, lawyer, women in whom I have interest
– Go out on a least one date with a woman in whom I have interest
– Submit 2012 paperwork for Sharpened Stone, LLC
– Gather all tax paperwork for 2011 income taxes
– Successfully arrange for automatic payments for my mortgage
– Watch all of the classes in the 2011 Winter semester of Stanford’s CS193P (iOS Development) course

2012 Goals [will be a little less fluid than last year]
– Get my weight under 200 pounds, or at least whittle myself back down to where wearing a 36″ pant size is comfortable
– Completely read ten books, audio books permissible
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than one one 10K
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store
– Restore the ITP Estate to a condition where it can be put up for sale at any time
– Buy a new iPhone (iPhone 5?), a new iPad (iPad 3?), and MacBook Air [look, not all goals have to be altruistic]

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient and profitable programmer in Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions
– Start, and continue, to make my own bread using my bread machine as well as using the technique outlined in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
– Read and discard magazines during the month in which they arrive (even digitally)
– See more live concerts than I did in 2011
– Eat more pancakes
– Drive/Fly somewhere for a real vacation

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]