Early In, Early Out

At least that’s the plan because someone spent way too much time out drinking yesterday instead of taking care of his lawn duties.

I need to get home and mow today because it’s supposed to rain again tomorrow and I have plans for the remainder of the week, including spending extra hours at the office to get some things working this week.

Today’s Daily Challenge
Instead of hand cream, apply sunscreen to the backs of your hands to protect them from the sun.

Sun exposure causes the majority of skin cancer. Though many of us remember to shield our faces from the sun, other areas, like hands, are neglected. The backs of our hands are exposed to the sun year-round. Keep your hands out of harm’s way by staying on top of sunscreen application.

I suppose I should put sunscreen on this afternoon/evening whilst out mowing the lawn.

What An Ugly Saturday
I was up and out fairly early on Saturday morning with my destination being my office. Prior to badging in I made pit stops at the Delta Community Credit Union, Publix, and Einstein Brothers, all conveniently located in the same small shopping center near the office.

Though I should have been mega-productive because I was all alone in the office and had no distractions, I was not. This is not to say that my efforts went for naught, I did manage to sort some things out, but overall it wasn’t the smash success I was anticipating.

I didn’t mind being in the office on Saturday because let’s face it, the weather in the Atlanta area was miserable.

Another reason I wasn’t as productive as I wanted to be on Saturday was because I wound up leaving the office sooner than I had expected. The call for beer was too loud and I wound up picking up my boss and heading down to Blue Tarp Brewing for their “tour”. This outing was followed up by a failed attempt to eat dinner at Fox Bros BBQ so I made my long-overdue return to Daddy D’z instead. Sadly the food at Daddy D’z wasn’t as good as I remembered it being, perhaps because I’ve since been introduced to many other barbecue places.

After dropping Hank off at his place (which is in the wrong direction for me when starting near East Atlanta) I returned home and passed out nearly immediately.

What A Beautiful Sunday
I made multiple attempts at productivity on Sunday morning, with some success.

All along there was a plan to meet up with the singing duo of Hank and Bill at Diesel Filling Station (around which controversy has stirred since they have “proudly” stopped serving Sweetwater because of its exclusive local-beer deal at Turner Field) for a late lunch. I didn’t quite understand the time at which we were to meet so I left the house way too soon, and upon realizing this made the best of the situation by going up to QT (Dangen! I should have brought the mower’s gas can!) and making a stop at CVS.

It turned out that Hank was bringing two of his aquarium diving friends, so we wound up with a table of five. At Diesel I drank two Eventide stouts and ate a truly sloppy hamburger, aptly named the “Hot Mess Burger”.

Because it was so nice yesterday, especially when compared to the day before, I agreed to wander down to Neighbors Pub to sit outside and have one more; this time I went non-local and had a Goose Island Honkers Ale (even though I know that Goose Island is now owned by Budweiser). While at neighbors we were served by a striking young woman who looks a lot like a young Uma Thurman and scoffed at a couple who brought their newborn, seriously this baby was probably weeks old, to the bar.

By the time I returned home it was far too late to consider lawn maintenance, so I took an impromptu nap before watching last night’s “Mad Men” episode and then crashing for the night.

Today’s Personal Project
Get the damn lawn mowed, at least the front yard.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, but need to get a lot of shit accomplished this week
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – I wish that I could invent a need for a device as cool as the Replay XD camera.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing (not good, not good at all)
Morning Weigh-In – Arg, I keep failing to jump on the scale

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

April 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

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
3. “Chaos: Making a New Science” by James Gleick
4. “What’s So Funny?: My Hilarious Life” by Tim Conway

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]