Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

Bonus points if you read that in the voice of Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle.

Unfortunately my surprises don’t include announcing that I possess one of the winning tickets for last night’s Mega Millions lottery. I read where one of the winners was sold in Buckhead.

Today’s Daily Challenge
Eat one stress-busting food with omega-3 fatty acids, like tuna, salmon, walnuts, or spinach.

Research studies have shown that omega-3s help to lessen levels of cortisol and other stress hormones in the blood and can provide relief from stress and anxiety. Getting more omega-3s in your diet isn’t only tasty, but may help you better deal with daily tensions and stresses, too.

OMG I NEED SOME OMEGA-3s TO GET RID OF THIS STRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Surprise! I’m At The Office Today!
Just after I conditioned my coworkers to believe that I’d be gone from the office through Christmas I received a phone call from the painting company.

“We are in the midst of a project that just got bigger. Would it be a major imposition on you if we started your job on Friday?”

I am such a shitty debater/bargainer that I relented and didn’t even ask for any compensation for my hardship. I’ll never be rich because I’m not a big enough of an asshole.

So here I am at the office and I’ll be back tomorrow as well. I will definitely be taking Friday off even if the painting company can’t come out to my house on that day either.

The painting will now be done Friday (during which I need to leave the house for an appointment), Saturday, and Monday (they better be done in time for me to go to Shakespeare Tavern). To placate myself I’ll be taking Monday off from work now, as I wanted to do originally.

ITP Flickr Pic
Picture me holding the winning Mega Millions ticket. I’d be just like this photo…

Can’t’ see anything? That’s because I’d be sooooo out of here!

C’mon, I’m just kidding. I wouldn’t abandon you.

Surprise! I Spent Time Last Night Restoring My iPad Because Of Some Previous Backup Failure.
A few weeks ago I had a iPad backup failure and didn’t think anything of it. At that time I didn’t realize that this failure cause my iPad to chew up nearly 20GB (of 64GB) as “Other” an worthless collection of data. All of my Google searches led to the same verdict — “restore, lose everything…”

DANGEN!

So, instead of spending what was left of my evening (because of traffic I didn’t leave the office until after 8:00pm) watching a Christmas movie, I docked around restoring my iPad.

DANGEN!

Fortunately my restoration went well. It appears that I successfully retained all of me “critical” data and I’m back up and running today.

Surprise! I Might Not Be Going To See “The Santaland Diaries” After All.
The moment I read that ITP-Jenka had other plans… What, I kid, I only have a single ticket for tonight’s performance.

Instead you can call me “Paulie the Double-Booker.”

A few minutes after confirming my presence in the office I received an email asking if I wanted to hit up Flip Burger today. I made the snap assumption that the offer was for lunch, so I replied with a hearty yes.

And then I realized that the request was to make up for the missed dinner that was arranged a few weeks ago, and dinner means that I shan’t be heading to Horizon Theatre to see “The Santaland Diaries” after all.

Sure, I could correct this screw up by backing out of Flip Burger, but in the end I think that I’d rather spend time with a friend than to attend something alone.

Hell, if traffic is as shitty tonight as it has been the previous two weeks I probably wouldn’t be able to get to the Horizon before the play’s start anyway.

If only Jenka had been free… 😉

Surprise! The New WordPress (Or TextExpander?) Does Ellipses Correctly!
The pendants pedants out there have probably cringed every time in the past they saw me use three individual periods in place of an actual ellipsis.

What used to look like “this…” (you’ll have to imagine this one too)
Now gets autocorrected to “this…”

Thank you WordPress (or TextExpander?) for saving my bacon.

Mmmm, bacon…

Today’s Personal Project
Forget about the little shit that’s nagging me dearly.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – out of sorts
Current Music – listening to a recent KCRW music podcast
Website Of The Day – I suppose living in Surprise, AZ is a lot nicer than living in Blue Ball, PA.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 213 pounds (December 15)

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~0.0 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Gym Visits – 0 (0 cardio)

Days Of Bed-Making – 0

Vegetarian Meals – 19.5
Carnivorous Meals – 28.5

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

1. Pages 1.7 for iPad (Timestompers Guide) — by Sean Wells
2. 60 Mountain Lion Tips — by David Sparks and Brett Terpstra
3. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business — by Charles Duhigg
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy — by Douglas Adams
5. Amazing Things Will Happen: A Real-World Guide on Achieving Success and Happiness — by CC Chapman
6. So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love — by Cal Newport
7. Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life — by Steve Martin
8. Who Am I: A Memoir — by Pete Townshend
9. Still Foolin’ ‘Em: Where I’ve Been, Where I’m Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys? — by Billy Crystal
10. Unstuff Your Life!: Kick the Clutter Habit and Completely Organize Your Life for Good — Andrew J. Mellen

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]