I’m at the office early to make the 8:00am phone call that fell through yesterday due to a scheduling snafu.
Today’s Daily Challenge
Avoid snacking while preparing one meal: drink water, chew gum, or crunch on plain veggies instead.
When you’re feeling hungry and/or stressed and are busy in the kitchen, it’s all too easy to nibble on whatever’s nearby. The problem is that you may be all filled up by the time you sit down to eat! Taking steps to keep from snacking as you prep can help you avoid taking in extra calories.
I need to start eating much, much better. At least this is what I am gathering from the multitude of problems that my body has experienced (and is still experiencing) lately.
What A Difference A Week Makes
About this time last week we (in Atlanta) were getting prepared for the catastrophic ice storm that was heading our way (which would result in my social activities for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights getting canceled), I was trying to come to grips with the new project on which I’ve been assigned, the Jackmobile hadn’t surprised me with its brake switch problem, and I had no idea that I was going to lose my comrade Miss K at the end of this week.
Today I am trying to come to grips with having to devote a lot more effort to keep two projects going, as well as getting my shit together for my trip to Florida at the end of this week.
Off The Rails
By lunchtime yesterday I had enough of working on my day off, so I left. I tried to figure out what sort of lunch would make me happy and I chose Indian buffet.
After lunch I made the executive decision to not return to the office, and since I had a bellyful of food exercising was out of the question as well. As I walked to the Jackmobile I figured that it was high-time for me to get the disgusting salt/sand/dirt that had stuck to it off before long-lasting damage occurred (and to make look like less of a slob to those driving near me). Because of the bike rack I am always reticent to go to a machine carwash, and let’s be honest those really don’t do that great of a job cleaning off this type of grime, so I headed home to do it myself.
I washed the Jackmobile.
Wha, whaaaaaat?!?!
The Jackmobile looks good, not great because I can never get the rims to shine again and I did absolutely no work inside the car, but it looks as good as a twelve year old car that’s been rammed on its back bumper and has been losing its clear coating for years can look.
If Adult Napping Were An Olympic Sport I’d Be A Multi-Medalist
Back inside after performing my chore I laid down on the couch and promptly took a two-hour nap. When I woke up I was amazingly refreshed. If only I used this refreshed feeling to do something productive.
Hertz Is An Interesting Company
As I mentioned yesterday, I am trying to rent a car from the local-to-work Hertz office for my trip to Florida this weekend.
By last night Hertz managed to get its reservation login system back online and I started a long, and frustrating process by using the Hertz app on my iPad.
I started by getting a feel for the prices offered to AAA members. The prices proved to be agreeable to me, so I logged in with my work/personal Hertz Gold Member Plus account only to find the per-day price associated with my company’s discount code was higher than that I saw for a AAA member. I never found a way to apply my AAA membership discount code while logged in, so I logged out and started the process over as a “guest” so that I could get the better price.
After getting all the way to the point where I could reserve the car I was presented with a dialog telling me that there was no network connection and the process was cancelled. [side note: my iPad has been having difficulty keeping cellular and wifi connections in the house lately]. I would have to start over again. In frustration I shook the iPad in anger, only to see this…
It’s a little hard to read in this size photo but the popup reads
“SPECIAL OFFER
Congratulations! You have just uncovered a Shaking Offer! Get it at the speed of Hertz!”
Oye vey.
I picked up my MacBook Air and went through the entire process again, this time securing a vehicle for my trip, or so I think, I’ll find out on Friday when I go to pick up the car.
Today’s Personal Project
Make it to tonight’s TechCrunch Meetup.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fair
Current Music – listening to the latest “Release Notes” podcast
Website Of The Day – TechCrunch is a technology blog, one that I should read more often.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Car washing. Wait, is that really exercise?
Morning Weigh-In – Oops, I failed to check. Let’s say 215 pounds.
Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0.0 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Gym Visits – 3 (3 cardio)
Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0
February Goals
– have European trip plans in place, if not carved in stone
– clean my basement to the point where I could have people over
– hire a plumber to fix all of the sinks at the ITP Estate
– walk no fewer than 75 miles
– publish an app to the iOS AppStore (new)
2014 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
– 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
– Sell the ITP Estate (tentative)
2014 Goals: Unmeasurable
– Continue to 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)
Books I’ve Read/Heard In 2014
- “Johnny Carson” by Henry Bushkin
- “Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative” by Austin Kleon
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
I should have mentioned that I hope the rental car has some sort of audio-input jack or bluetooth so that I can listen to podcasts/audiobooks on my journey.
I would find it rare these days that any kind of car, especially a rental, not to be equipped with some sort of audio input.
Debbie’s brother Andy came over yesterday and we took a tour of the buildings on which we need some repairs prior to taking JEFDSDR to the market. Seems like a minimum of stuff, except for painting and I think we’re going to hire that out.
Barb, I need to drop the bike off and have Allan look at the drivetrain alignment- it hasn’t ever shifted properly. I even took out a link or two, which improved it some, but now it needs a new chain and an expert. I can drop it off anytime. My first thought was prior to 3rd Wednesday tomorrow, but maybe there is a TC opportunity- Thursday?
And yes, 3rd Wednesday is in fact, tomorrow. Would love to see some of your smiling faces there.
-FP
Paulie – did you click to see what the shaking offer was? I would have.
Just ask when you are renting the car about the audio input jack, I’d agree with Steve – it ought to have it, but always a good idea to ask. (But, I will also say, the rental we got in Milwaukee last Dec. didn’t have a USB port, so be sure to ask)
Steve – If you are dropping off the bike, any time is fine. But – if you want some dinner &/or Allan’s company, Wed. is not the day. Thursday works. Write down everything you are thinking about the bike for Allan to look at, I am terrible at remembering & relaying to Allan what others tell me about their bikes.
We are a year behind on Oscar moving watching, we watched Lincoln last night. I really enjoyed that movie. Did I tell you I (meaning my friend Gregg) figured out how to make my smart tv actually work with as a smart tv? Allan & I never hooked it up, & Gregg was over & bored Sunday morning, so he hooked it up the internet, so now all I have to do is push a button & I have Netflix streaming. Allan needs to go back to work so I can watch more Scandal.
A shaking offer, that is awesome!
That’s strange, I’ve also had a problem over the last few days with my Kindle Fire staying connected to the WiFi at the house. I just figure that it was 2.5 years old and ready for an upgrade. I just had to replace my wireless mouse, I kept getting a message that the USB device couldn’t be read by the computer.
I was feeling much better yesterday, not 100% but well enough to make my cardio boxing class, sadly I’ve had a relapse and I’m staying at home again.
Am I suppose to know what a “shaking offer” is? Am I that old skool? 🙂
Steve, in my anger I shook the iPad like an Etch-a-Sketch and the popup I put into this post shows mentioned that I unlocked a “Shaking Offer” that was previously not available.
I clicked through to see what this fabulous Shaking Offer was, but I could not distinguish it amongst the others.
Finally back to normal. With the ice storms and school closings everything has been crazy for the last 6 days or so. It is nice to work in a quiet house again.
Over the weekend I got bathroom #1 to 95% complete so got started on #2. Have I mentioned before that tiling is hard? It’s crazy that you can demo a bathroom in about 20 minutes but takes weeks to put it back together. It took the better part of the day yesterday just to get the backer board cut and put down. The actual tile will be put down next weekend. I’ll be glad when this project is done, although we will move on to the kitchen next.
And Paulie I’m with Barb, you need a new car for all your travels. A Subaru fits your lifestyle.
I think I should get a new car too, but I’m not ready to commit at this time.
Ha, Bob, tell me about tiling. When I redid my bathroom years ago, it must have taken me a week to tile the shower, I kept having to recut, remark, relay everything…just trying to keep it straight. Then I see what the ‘pros’ can do…a team of 3 had two bathrooms, floors and showers done in less than a day…they had come and gone to do the grout and we never saw them. Worth whatever it was we paid them.
Our contractor is building the vanity for the master, we have the other vanity ordered but still don’t have a ship date. We may have to cancel and pick up something more local. I don’t want to wait 4 weeks to finish one bathroom.
Paulie, you’ve been complaining about that car since before I bought the new Escape, that’s been over 3 years ago. It might be time to make a move…Heck, if you’d had bought a new car back then you could just about have it paid off by now.
Scrooge McDuck likes his cash… 😉
Allan has gotten pretty good at the tile, but it has taken some practice. And, when his Dad helps, it goes much faster than when I help. Tiling by yourself
takes so much longer.
Scrooge McDuck spends plenty of money, he doesn’t like his cash that much.
I probably don’t spend as much as you think. I’m much more at ease with sub-$1000 purchases, not so much with the $20,000 ones. Heck, I’m still nervous about this European trip…