The past two evenings my Number One fast was to write out my Christmas cards so that I can drop them into the mail. Guess what I’ll be doing tonight.
Today’s Daily Challenge
Eat one food that’s rich in zinc, such as chicken, yogurt, milk, fortified cereal, or oatmeal.
Zinc is an essential mineral that boosts your body’s immune system and nerve function. It also helps to heal wounds and is critical for maintaining your senses of taste and smell.
Deposit Paid, Work Scheduled
Yesterday I coughed over 25% of the cost for the painting of my house and living room ceiling repair. I’ve also scheduled the work to begin next Wednesday, December 18th (Wow, is Christmas that near? Looks like I won’t be able to slim down to fit into my “fancy” clothes for my annual trip to for “A Christmas Carol” on December 23rd.); it’s to be completed on the 20th. Given that I’m having exterior doors painted and inside work done I suppose that I’ll need to be home each of those days (and bundled up if the doors have to remain open for extended periods while they dry!), thus burning up three of my precious vacation days that I was hoping to carry over to next year. I was also planning on having a really long “weekend” by taking off on the 23rd, but that’s not going to happen now.
Stupid house.
I will say, while I am dumping more cash on this job than I expected the company I’m dealing with is on it. The woman working their office called me on schedule, emailed me all of the information I needed for the job, and just responded with a receipt for my deposit. I’ll wait until the job is complete to reveal the company’s identity.
Oh Look! Traffic Is Horrible (AGAIN)
A quick look at the traffic map last night convinced me to eat dinner at the office and wait it out.
For dinner I consumed the remains of the pork that I made for lunch. When I finally go tired of puttering around the office I braved traffic and hit the roads around 7:30pm. Things weren’t too bad on the surface streets, but suffice to say that I was ready to be out of the car by the time I pulled into my driveway.
ITP Flickr Pic
“Drops”
If you think it’s too cold today just remember the weather we had last weekend, as well is what it predicted for Saturday — and be thankful for the sun.
I took this shot as a potential new background image for my laptop.
Low-Key Thursday
I’ll be going out tomorrow night for a coworker’s going away gala (happy hour / dinner / karaoke), so I think I’ll be super low-key tonight. I think that I’ll spend the evening watching a couple of Christmas specials (“Year Without A Santa Claus” anyone?) and writing out my Christmas cards of course.
My goal is to get out of work early enough to beat some of the traffic tonight — wish me luck with that.
Today’s Personal Project
CHRISTMAS CARDS!
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – pretty good, working on correcting all that is wrong with me
Current Music – listening to a KEXP “Music That Matters” podcast
Website Of The Day – Rankin/Bass were responsible for much of what makes me happy about Christmas time. Go back in (internet) time and look at their website The Enchanted World of Rankin-Bass; I’d say that this website was last updated some time during the late 1990s.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car, because I didn’t feel like waiting for MARTA in sub-30°F temperatures.
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – ??? pounds (December 9)
Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~0.0 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Gym Visits – 0 (0 cardio)
Days Of Bed-Making – 0
Vegetarian Meals – 13
Carnivorous Meals – 20
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0
December Goals
– clean my basement to the point where I could have people over
– hire a plumber, and a painter to work on the ITP Estate
– dissolve Sharpened Stone, LLC?
– follow up on some critical life details
– walk no fewer than 75 miles
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
- Pages 1.7 for iPad (Timestompers Guide) — by Sean Wells
- 60 Mountain Lion Tips — by David Sparks and Brett Terpstra
- The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business — by Charles Duhigg
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy — by Douglas Adams
- Amazing Things Will Happen: A Real-World Guide on Achieving Success and Happiness — by CC Chapman
- So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love — by Cal Newport
- Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life — by Steve Martin
- Who Am I: A Memoir — by Pete Townshend
- Still Foolin’ ‘Em: Where I’ve Been, Where I’m Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys? — by Billy Crystal
- Unstuff Your Life!: Kick the Clutter Habit and Completely Organize Your Life for Good — Andrew J. Mellen
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
I think my house is jealous of the work you and Laura are doing so it decided to suck $1200 out of my wallet. What started as a leaky shower valve turned in to a pressure regulator replacement. The best part? I still have a friggen leak! Now I get to cut another hole in my ceiling to locate the leak (this now makes 3 holes I need to repair the drywall too).
Owning a home sucks sometimes.
Can you work from home at all? Can you meet with the painters & then assess if you can go to the office? Maybe give them a key if they need it? I know you don’t trust people, but could you work half days (in the middle of the day) to save some of the vacation time? When we had the guys at our house doing the windows & the sliding glass door, we weren’t there the whole time & they were in & out of the house all day.
I’m thinking about taking my parents to the Botanical Gardens Light Tour on 12/23 (side note, I’m glad in retrospect I didn’t buy the 2 Christmas Carol tickets way back when, I’m guessing it is sold out now). Then, maybe dinner at The Colonnade since we will be down in the big city. I’ve never been to the Colonnade & thought that might be a fun place to take mom & dad (& TJ & Mary). Do they really still NOT take credit cards? That’s what the website says.
Why did you cough over the money? That’s gross, cover your mouth next time… 🙂
For anyone (well for one) who is not on Facebook…we got the permit yesterday!! Now let the spending frenzy begin.
I may be able to work from home or partial-days, I’ll have to see.
Gonna miss you two at “A Christmas Carol.”
I haven’t been to Colonnade in a long time, funny though, I thought of this just last week as I drove past it. I bet you that it is still cash only.
Good luck, Martha!
And sorry to hear it, Bob. The plumbing that caused me to get a regulator installed is still not functioning properly; it’s part of the “plumbing overhaul” that will occur in 2014.
I should try to sell the house before Summer 2014 so that I can travel to Europe without a care in the world. 😉
wow Bob – that’s no fun at all.
Plumbing problems suck – we’ve spent plenty on it – and the drywall repair sucks even more. I know it will cost money, but you might want to pay someone for that repair – Allan & I hate drywall repair more than about anything we’ve done withthe house so far.
Paulie – I’m all about you selling that house before vacation!!!
yippie Martha!!!!! how soon will ir be before they get started again?
Very happy for you Martha! Bob, not so much for you.
Sell the house after you’ve sunk all this money in it? Hmmmm….
The “Garden of Lights” is quite pretty, but if you don’t have kids, they will check you out a couple so you fit in.
We might have a new horse in our future- Crazy (whose new name has yet to be determined) I suppose would be “my” horse- quiet until you ride him in the ring and then he tends to buck- oh boy. It will only cost shipping- from Deleware!! About 6 bills.
Next Wedensday is 3rd Wednesday and a good excuse to come to Georges!!
-FP
Steve – is that Fed EX or UPS or USPS?
I’m doing these repairs to make the house sellable, if for some unknown reason I fall in love with the house (again?) I can always not sell it.
The sales price of the house would include the cost of all of these repairs so that I wouldn’t get screwed.
Barb, it’s a whole ‘nother world when it comes to horses. If you’ve ever seen the show “Shipping Wars”, it’s a little like that. There are drivers that make farily regular trips from the NE to Florida, and this particular shipper was heading to Conyers, so we’ll meet him there. MUCH easier than meeting in Savannah.
And did anyone think about bowling practice?
Speaking of deliveries… I ordered a table-top tripod from Amazon while at breakfast Saturday morning. Originally it was supposed to be delivered yesterday, but I received an email telling me that shipping had been delayed (I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that this was ice-storm related). I wonder when it will arrive…
I just downloaded that image and did make it my laptop background — I LIKE IT!
I sort of like doing drywall…I also like running 40 miles, so what do I know…
They are going back over today to put up silt feneces, etc. The next step is excavation. Not sure if they’ll get to it by EOW, might be next week. I should have more information in the next day or so.
I am so thankful for my one day a week telework…honestly, it’s the only thing that keeps me around some days (well that and my paycheck).
I got an email yesterda from UPS, said “due to local operation disruption, packages not unloaded from trailer, expect a one day business delay”
Then later that day I saw a woman driving an UPS truck in regular street clothes…wonder if there was some sort of walk out or ‘blue flu’ here in Atlanta.
Steve – I forgot the sarcastic smiley – I knew you couldn’t ship Fed Ex.
Martha – just making drywall look perfectly smooth, just too irritating for both of us, and the dust…..
Fed Ex actually does ship horses… or at least does air-freight work to Europe. We will not be doing that, unless we win the lottery.