Oh Yeah, The Blog

Forgive me a bit today. With the exception of about an hour I have been awake since 3:30am writing code. It wasn’t a hardship to wake up that early because I was inspired with an idea, and I had been sleeping almost uninterrupted since sometime around 9:300pm.

Today’s Daily Challenge
Plan to be the first one to order food the next time you’re in a restaurant.

Even when we sit down to the table with the best of intentions, if one or more of your dining companions orders something that’s less than healthy, that choice may suddenly sound irresistible. Ordering your food first helps you stick to your original decision.

Chivalry is dead!

Almost A Wonderful Day
When my 4pm meeting was canceled I used my “salaried employee” attitude and headed out of the office around 3:45pm to run errands.

I made it to the physical therapist’s office where they told me not to worry about the letter from my medical insurance company.

As I started to leave Dunwoody Village to head back toward the office area I discovered a post office right in front of me and was able to drop off one of my “very important” documents into their mailbox.

I then made a quick stop at the dry cleaners and Target before heading to LA Fitness for an hour on a stationary bike (more on this below).

After the gym I ruined it all with a trip to Taco Mac to wait out traffic. At Taco Mac I became “that guy” when I ordered the veggie fajitas. Sadly the sizzling platter of vegetables does not possess the same goodness aroma as that of a sizzling plate of beef — but the vegetables were probably healthier for me.

All the time at Taco Mac I tried to remind myself that I had a ticket for the Shearwater show at The EARL. I wanted to go. Really, I wanted to go. But instead I made a stop at home first and put my head down for just a seconnnnnnnn

When I awoke again it was 10:20pm. Living so close to The EARL I could have gone to the show, but by that time I was complete spent and went directly back to sleep.

A Bike Is Not A Bike
Consistently I notice that the LA Fitness near Perimeter Mall, which is old and apparently will never be renovated because they built a new one at Roswell/Abernathy a couple of years ago, has less-than-stellar equipment. The stationary bike I mounted yesterday was clearly of an older generation than those I’ve used at Ansley Mall and Brookhaven recently. Perhaps the only upside to this was that I was able to pedal for an hour with less difficulty than at the other locations (because of the different programming / levels), though I am not about to believe that I burned up over 700 calories during my hour of doing so.

Another Rental In My Future
Yesterday I secured (well, as secured as can be in the car rental industry) another rental car from Hertz. This car will be my transportation to and from Austin, Texas in two week’s time.

I did two things very differently than for my last rental used on my trip to Florida:

First, I used a coupon which saved me $25 off the rental (I’m renting this car for a week) rather than play the “search for the lowest rate” game. Oddly by doing this I wasn’t offered the option to pre-pay for the car the way I had last time. Honestly, if I weren’t so GD busy these days I would have also done the “search for the lowest rate” game.

Second, I signed up for the renter’s insurance. Yes, I know it’s a scam. Yes, I know that it almost doubles the cost of the rental (see, I told you it was a scam). But for some reason it feels like it’s the right thing to do for this trip. According to Google Maps the journey from Atlanta to Austin should take fourteen hours driving time (hell, it’s taken me nearly twenty years!) on roads which I am not all that familiar. In the grand scheme of things $140 for the peace of mind it’ll bring me seems like a bargain; I estimate the trip will cost me somewhere on the order of $1000 when I factor in conference fee, hotel room four nights, rental car, gasoline, food, and beer.

A Different Hertz Tonight
Tonight I’ll be attending the performance of “The Tall Girls” at the Hertz Stage of the Alliance Theatre. This performance is the one I rescheduled last Thursday (today is Thursday, is it not?).

My original plan was to drive to midtown and take the train from/to there today. That plan fell through when I realized that I wanted to get to work swiftly and didn’t want to deal the the morning temperatures. The new plan is to leave the office no later than 4:30pm, not go home, and see the play.

Today’s Personal Project
Fill out and process another of my “very important” documents.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – bummed
Current Music – silence
Website Of The Day – Nice, short piece on Decatur’s The Marlay House in the AJC this week. I like The Marlay House and should frequent it more.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car (I was supposed to car/train today bud decided against that).
Exercise (b)Log – stationary bike, 65 minutes
Morning Weigh-In – Arg, I keep forgetting to jump on the scale

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~3.9 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Gym Visits – 6 (6 cardio)

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

March Goals
– have Austin CocoaConf trip plans in place (new)
– exercise no fewer than twenty days (new)
– ride my bike no fewer than five times (new)
– 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

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

1. “Johnny Carson” by Henry Bushkin
2. “Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative” by Austin Kleon

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]