A Man About Town

I picked Tamara up at the airport around 10am yesterday and we proceeded to have a day and night filled with drinking (oops), eating (oops), and napping (woohoo). Tamara had flown the red-eye from Edmonton to Houston the night before and was up early for her flight from Houston to Atlanta, so a post-lunch nap was requested. Who am I to deny my guest?

Today’s Personal Project
Put the chiropractor situation to bed, then see if I can get a workout in this afternoon.

Today’s Daily Challenge
Read about signs and symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS.

Irritable bowel syndrome is very common: it’s estimated that up to one in 10 people worldwide has the illness. It’s more common in women and can affect anyone at any age. Because the illness may be unpredictable and is marked by symptoms that many may be embarrassed to talk about, people who have it often suffer in silence unnecessarily. By reading about its common symptoms, you may recognize it in yourself.

Oh The Places We Go
Tamara’s last neighborhood in Atlanta was Virginia-Highland where she and Bill bought a house for a then-staggering sum (in my mind) of $250k (this was the mid-1990s). Prior to VaHi she and Bill had rented a house in East Cobb, and lived in an apartment near Ansley Mall (behind Cowtippers if you know the area).

After dropping off her luggage and setting in I started the first day of “What Has Changed” since she last came to town (five years ago?), drove her by her old house, and then parked the car in the Highlands.

We stopped for “one” beer at Moe’s & Joe’s as we decided where we’d eat lunch. We were the first patrons of the day at Moe’s & Joe’s and sat at the bar where we struck up a conversation with the young lass working bar.

One beer turned into two as we chatted up the young lady whose life kept unravelling before us.

• She mentioned not eating dairy, come to find out that she is vegan; she became a vegetarian for Lent one year and took it all the way to veganism some time later.
• She hails from upstate New York, really upstate, where she is one of sixteen children. “Irish Catholic?” I asked. “Yes.” she confirmed with a smile.
• She and her siblings each have a name which start with a unique letter, but the all end in the letter ‘n’; further, all but one have a name which has an odd spelling.
• Nearly each child was names in alphabetical order, except she “Gillian” was named after “Holen” and for some reason her parents skipped the letter ‘F’.
• She lives with her boyfriend, two dogs, and a cat.

It was an fun and informative stop.

Man (Nor Woman) Cannot Live On Beer Alone
Tamara and I decided to continuing the sight-seeing by driving down into Little Five Points for lunch. We were either going to eat at the Yacht Club (which apparently is not open for lunch on Thursdays) or The Vortex (which thankfully was). There I ate a burger and fries while having one more beer.

After The Vortex Tamara and I wandered around Junkman’s Daughter before having a coffee at Aurora.

From there it was nap time.

ITP Flickr Pic
Nothing to show today. I probably should have found something of interest at the airport, but I did not.

Night 1: EAV
After resting for awhile Tamara and I headed into my hood for dinner. I wasn’t sure where to go (she, btw is a pescetarian) but I figured that we’d manage.

We stopped into The Elder Tree Pub to look over the menu and have a pint. While the menu seemed tempting we decided to get burritos from Tomatillos instead.

That plan changed as we walked in to a jam-packed Tomatillos, which was as loud as any bar I’ve ever entered. Not digging the atmosphere, as well as figuring that we’d never find a place to sit, we turned around and left.

I was trying to figure out a smoke-free place to eat, so we passed on Graveyard and I suggested The Glenwood. I know that it has been some time since I visited The Glenwood and I was dismayed to find out that they have taken out the divider which separated the smoking/non-smoking sections and that patrons can smoke anywhere inside the restaurant. I guess we non-smokers (or families) did not do a good enough job providing business so they changed their business model.

At The Glenwood I had a humongous piece of fried haddock which was really tasty; it was served as a sandwich, but holy heck there was a lot of fish. I almost wonder if the kitchen screwed up my order and served me more than they were supposed to.

Huh, I Clearly Don’t Understand Wall Street
I still own Apple (AAPL). I should have sold it all last year when it was over $700/share. Before they released strong Q1 sales, but don’t have another “Big Hit” in the pipeline. Yesterday AAPL continued its decline losing $63/share and is down to $460/share. I could still make money selling today, but I’m feeling the remorse of holding on for too long. I wonder if I should sell before it goes down too much, or hope that it rebounds.

I’ve been watching Netflix (NFLX) for years and have considered buying it a few times. Yesterday it jumped $43/share (42%!) even though it has had two multi-day outages in the past month.

I’ll never be a millionaire.

A Busy Weekend Ahead
Tonight I’ll be joining some old friends for happy hour, a happy hour which I will attempt to drink a single beer (which is sadly very difficult for me).

Tomorrow night I’ll be at The EARL for the Camper van Beethoven show with Tamara and our old friend Mike.

On Sunday I’ll be handing Tamara over to her girlfriend in Duluth for a couple of nights as I head up to Gwinnett for hockey (assuming that’s still on the agenda).

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – feeling overstuffed from yesterday’s consumption; not looking forward to dealing with the issues in front of me.
Current Music – silence as I write from bed
Website Of The Day – More than just The Onion’s humor, The A.V. Club reviews all of society’s entertainment.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – n/a
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – checking again soon?

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~14.8 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Gym Visits – 8

Days Of Bed-Making – 1

Vegetarian Meals – 36
Carnivorous Meals – 37

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

January Goals
– lose five pounds
– walk/run no fewer that 100 miles
– read at least one book
– dissolve Sharpened Stone, LLC
– take at least one box of things to Goodwill
– post at least ten photos in the blog

2013 Goals: Measurable
– Get my weight down to 190 pounds so that I can wear a 36″ waist pants comfortably
– Completely read ten books, audio books permissible
– Dissolve Sharpened Stone
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Completely run at least one 10k
– Fix all (or at least most) of the things which are wrong with the ITP Estate

2013 Goals: Unmeasurable
– Simplify, simplify, simplify
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– 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)
– Take two real vacations, perhaps one abroad
– Take a more proactive approach to meeting women (read “stop being such a pussy”)

Books I’ve Read/Heard In 2013

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]