Together For Another Year?

The Jackmobile passed its emissions test yesterday! Looks like the two of us may be staying together for another year. However one thing I’ll need to do in order to ensure this is to take the car back to Lam sometime soon for a timing belt change, and to fix the small oil leak he discovered yesterday (which to be fair I knew existed because I occasionally have to add oil). This maintenance won’t be cheap but it’ll still be cheaper than buying a new car.

Next up on the To Do list is to renew the Jackmobile’s tag.

Today’s Daily Challenge
Learn the different names for sugars added to food.

Sugar takes on many names on food labels, but your body processes all of them in the same way. Some foods may have more than one type of sugar listed on the label, making it harder to know how much sugar has been added to the product. Sweeteners pack calories into foods without providing any extra nutrients. Knowing the names of sweeteners can tip you off to the foods that may be adding sugar to your diet.

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. If you know my reference they you are old like me.

If you really want to know the names then go to Choose My Plate(.gov)’s list of sugars. It’s a sweet list. HEEEEEEEY YOOOOOOOO!

I Bought The Farm Last Night
The boss and I smacked the racquetball around for over ninety minutes yesterday; it was a really good workout.

And then we ruined it (c’mon, you know this is what we do).

With a few out-of-town coworkers here stranded without a car (Thanks to the car rental company not having any available cars even though they had “reserved” one. This is starting to sound like a Class Action lawsuit just waiting to happen.) the boss went to fetch them from their hotel and we met at Tilted Kilt.

I’ll blame my food order — nachos — on the pretty young lady sitting at a table near us, because what she ordered looked amazing to me.

me: “I’ll have the nachos please.”
waitress: “Would you like them with chicken, beef, or both.”
me: “Both?”
waitress: “Yes, you can get them with both.”
me: “Both please. And hell, if you have any bacon back there I’ll take some of that so I can have the whole farm represented.”
waitress: “We can do that.”

And they did.
And there was much rejoicing.

Served with cups of salsa, sour cream, and guacamole these may have been the greatest nachos I have ever eaten. Of course I was hungry and had already consumed one twenty-ounce beer, so my judgment may have been impaired. But they were really good.

Why my heart didn’t stop immediately once that plate of food was set in front of me I do not know. I’ll credit my superior cardio-vascular conditioning.

No, I did not eat the entire portion. Though I really wanted to do so.

And the best part of the night? I didn’t actually buy the farm because one of the out-of-towners picked up the check.

Photo Frustrations
(I couldn’t bring myself to alliterate by spelling “Frustrations” with a “Ph”. You’re welcome.)
ARGH!
I take the photo with my iPhone, I edit the photo with my iPhone. I then try to upload the photo to Flickr with my iPhone but the Flickr app orders the photos in the opposite way that the iPhone native Photos app does, so I get confused about which photo I really want to upload. I upload the wrong photo, and then I go back to delete that unwanted photo from my iPhone and inadvertently delete the wrong one because I get confused by the ordering again.

So I have no photo.

Be Safe Out There Friends
It may be sensationalist journalism but there seem to be more bike versus car altercations occurring recently. There was the hideous verbal exchange in Morningside after which the rider was dragged under another car after getting hit by a SUV (the drive of which has still not been apprehended I believe). And then there was the story I heard about a rider and a driver nearly coming to blows in Sandy Springs (I didn’t read the entire article because it was behind the AJC’s pay wall, and from what I read in the comments force me to close the browser tab) last week.

I fear that tensions are rising and drivers are becoming more willing to use their vehicles more aggressively toward riders. I also believe that many motorists do not understand that cyclists have just as much right to be on the road as they do.

Neither party is more righteous than the other:

– Cyclists break the law (running stop signs, rolling through red lights when no traffic is present, riding more than two abreast).

– Motorists break the law (speeding, not stopping at designated spots when approaching a stop sign, not ensuring the walkway is clear before turning).

Let’s try to respect each other’s rights and stay healthy.

Today’s Personal Project
Get a haircut and maybe stop into George’s. Probably not the latter since I have many things to accomplish tonight and I’m skipping town after work tomorrow.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – sniffly and a little sneezy, hope it’s something minor
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – I probably have linked to Earth 911 in the past but the other day I found myself searching it in order to find out how to properly dispose of fluorescent light tubes.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – racquetball, >90 minutes
Morning Weigh-In – 217 pounds (2014-06-14)

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~10.5 miles
Wheel Mileage – ~33.0 miles
Gym Visits – 5 (5 cardio)

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

June Goals
– 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
– go away two of the weekends

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]