Homecoming

Well, vacation is coming to a close. Time to return to reality. Well, I do have one more half-day to continue my fun. Do me a favor and clear out all of that nasty weather before tonight if you can. Thanks.

Today’s Personal Project
Make it to the airport on time. Get on a plane. Get in my car. Pay my exorbitant parking fees, and drive home.

Today’s Daily Challenge
Eat one food that’s high in vitamin B3, such as whole grain bread, bran cereal, tuna, or chicken.

Vitamin B3, also known as niacin, is believed to help boost HDL, the “good” cholesterol. HDL is important because it picks up the extra LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol in the blood and ferries it back to the liver for disposal. The higher your HDL, the less LDL you’ll have.

I hope that hot dogs have Vitamin B3, because that’s what’s on the agenda for my last New York meal today. And it won’t be the Sabrett “dirty water” hot dog from a vendor, or even a Nathan’s as I was expecting, instead I’ll be getting my first taste of a Walter’s Hot Dog

ITP Flickr Pic
On a couple of occasions I tried to capture sunrise from the waterfront near my brother’s house. Weather has not been my friend.

Also not my friend is my ability to hold my camera steady for an extended period of time, that’s why this shot is a bit soft.

You Put A Museum In My Gift Shop!
After waiting an hour for the parking space in which we were parked to become “legal” my brother and I had to wait out Mother Nature’s torrential downpour prior to making our way into the American Museum of Natural History. We wandered around the exhibits, many of which were the same as when I visited on school trips in the 1970’s. Including….

Bonus ITP Flickr Pic

The big Blue Whale.

One thing I didn’t remember was the number of gift shops tucked into the museum. It seemed as if each time we turned around we were at another gift shop.

Another ITP Flickr Pic
“Schaefer is the one beer to have when you’re having more than one!” In its heyday that was the jingle for Schaefer beer, one of the beers consumed at family parties when I lived in New York.

After wandering the Museum of Natural History my brother and I ate a late lunch at a place called Island Burger & Shakes in Manhattan, though don’t try to Google to go there because it’s now located on Amsterdam between 80th and 81st. Served by a beautiful young woman named Megan who moved from “upstate” to the city last year to attend nursing school (huh, maybe I should have taken a photo of her instead of my beer…) I had the burger of her suggesting the “Bourbon Street” and orders some french fries au poivre. Needless to say, lunch counted as a “carnivore” meal.

Same As It Ever Was, Unless It’s Not
Last night we travelled back into my old neighborhood where my step-nephew and his wife are looking to buy a house which has the identical floor plan as the one in which I grew up. After wandering about we all went up into Whitestone Village for a bite to eat (I split a small pizza with my brother since we both had eaten that late, large lunch). The village has changed a lot, business-wise, since we departed the area thirty-four years ago which is to be expected.

It wasn’t until I returned to Whitestone as an adult that I realized how many houses are identical, across a multi-mile area. If the couple buys this house it’ll be the third time our family has owned one with this floor plan.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – a bit chubby
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – Want to see real-life City Island? City Island Images has a live webcam among other City Island news.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – walking, ~3.6 miles
Morning Weigh-In – I guess I should get on the scale again tomorrow in order to see the damage which has occurred on this trip.

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~58.7 miles
Wheel Mileage – 2.0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 0 flights

Days Of Bed-Making – 1

Vegetarian Meals – 41
Carnivorous Meals – 30
Pancakes Eaten – 4

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

August Goals
– Eat no fewer than forty-five vegetarian meals
– Take at least one load of stuff from my house to Goodwill
– Take unused electronics to recycling center
– Post at least ten new photos during the month (let’s try this again)
– Lose at least two pounds (net weight loss)
– Finish two books (audio or otherwise, comic books do not qualify)
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Exercise for thirty minutes no fewer than twenty days
– Ride no fewer than 150 miles (might be hard given the amount of travel scheduled this month)
– Walk (or run) no fewer than 75 miles
– Do no fewer than 750 sit-ups
– Do no fewer than 300 push-ups

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

Books I’ve Read/Heard In 2012

1. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me — Mindy Kahling
2. Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man’s Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science — Curtis Ebbesmeyer
3. God, No! — Penn Jillette
4. The Elephant to Hollywood — Michael Caine
5. Here Comes Trouble — Michael Moore
6. How We Decide — Jonah Lehrer
7. Steve Jobs — Walter Isaacson
8. Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays) — Arthur Miller
9. Fahrenheit 451 — Ray Bradbury

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]