Living For The Weekends

When it comes to weekends I’ve been killing it of late.

Some of you are fortunate enough to be reading this from the comfort of your home on this MLK Jr Day. Since starting work in Atlanta in 1995 I have never (to the best of my knowledge) had this day as a paid holiday. Traffic was light, so I’ve got that going for me.

Today’s Daily Challenge
Bend your fingers and thumb to your palm, hold for 10 seconds, release, and switch hands.

Fingers and thumbs can get cramped and sore, especially if you spend most of your day typing or doing other tasks that require fine motor skills. This simple challenge gives your fingers and thumb a little stretch and can also help increase their range of motion.

Last Week’s Big Three Scorecard

1. Do an exercise routine at least three times. YEP!
2. Clean out my “briefcase” and filing cabinet at home. NOPE!
3. Deliver two boxes of items to Goodwill. Deliver? Well…. I can take some credit for gathering up two boxes.

So in summary I was 1.5 out of 3.

This Week’s Big Three

1. Do an exercise routine at least three times (this might stay here constantly).
2. File my renewal paperwork for Sharpened Stone, LLC. Yeah, I know that I kept saying that I was going to kill it.
3. Finish last week’s “Big Three”.

Why Yes, I Did Lift Weights On Friday
I’m back into a routine for exercising. I’m also back to having parts of my body hurt in the good way, constant muscle ache, and in the bad way, foot problem at about 10% of the pain suffered last year.

After work on Friday I headed over to LA Fitness and did “Workout Routine #2”, a series of upper and lower body weights sandwiched by a ten minute jog on a treadmill as a warmup and a series of stretching at the end as a cool down.
(Why is “warmup” one word but “cool down” is not?)

My intention was to “spoil” myself (and my workout in the process) by going somewhere for dinner and beer. I was flying solo, so the world was my oyster (ew, I can’t stand oysters).

The first place I had to stop was Target (you know, because I like living dangerously with my credit cards) in order to purchase some deodorant to replace the tube/canister/whatever that ran out on me last week.

As I wandered the aisles I wondered where I should go. The natural selection would be Taco Mac, but I’ve come to realize that my loyalty to the Perimeter Place location departed with the departing of all the waitresses that I liked, and that the reason I continue to go there is for the convenience when drinking with others. I pondered Tilted Kilt, but have never really caught the Hootersesque lust for the joint, and with no clear destination in sight I started driving toward East Atlanta.

As I drove I realized that my limit for tolerating people, parking, and inconvenience in general was as an all-time low so I ended up at home.

My plan to cook a “nice meal” fell through.
My plan to watch a movie on the big screen fell through.
My evening turned into eating handfuls of salty, sugared nuts and lying in bed came to fruition and as soon as I decided to start reading I was all but asleep.

How Could A Meltdown Occur In This Cold Air?
I slept well on Friday night, turning my 5:30am alarm off immediately and returning to slumber until 7:00am(!) and with Burnt Hickory Brewery plans pushed back until 3:00pm I had the day ahead of me! I must admit that I didn’t realize that 7:00am in January would still be so dark outside so I was more than a little confused when I arose; I couldn’t wrap my head around the situation and thought that either my clock was wrong, or that I had slept through to 7:00pm on Saturday night.

I cooked a breakfast of two biscuits, topped with two (sunny-side up) eggs, topped with cheese.
I worked through one of the two iOS tutorials I needed to work on this weekend (doing both on Saturday would have been a good idea.)
I puttered around the house doing what I am not entirely sure.

At 2:00pm I picked up the lovely, charming, and talented ITP-Jenka at her place and we braved the drive to a place known as “Kennesaw.” While I know that flattery will get me nowhere with Jenka, I will seriously give her kudos for being an excellent navigator.

By the time Jenka, ITP-Reader Barb, Allan, and I made it to Burnt Hickory Brewery it was swamped with people, many who seemed to have already over-partaken.

We got in line, the first of too many that day, and paid our $10 for five beer samples.

And then got in another line, a serpentine affair the never moved. Barb sussed out that they were having keg problems so we jumped out of that line, and onto a different line, which never moved.

And then returned to the original line.

It was not a pretty sight.

Finally we got beer, but a single serving, before having to get back into line.

I had just about had enough when I asked two get a double pour by using two of my five beer tickets and was told “No, I can’t. It’s against the law.” and was pointed to the GA law posted on the cooler.

I should also mention that by 3:00pm Burnt Hickory Brewery was down to two of their beer offerings for us to try. While I wish no ill will toward Burnt Hickory Brewery I see no reason for me to make the hike back out there, especially with so many breweries popping up ITP.

After the beer outing the four of us went to Tasty China for an early dinner. This decision was both good and bad. It was a good decision to get food in my belly after drinking beer. It was a bad decision for me to eat so much spicy Schezuan food. At one point my lips were quivering from the hot and numbing beef. It was Jenka’s first trip to this Mecca (I hope you liked it) but she was too clever to fall for our attempt to get her to pay for the entire meal since she was a Tasty China “virgin.”

By the time I returned home there was plenty of time to do something productive. Perhaps I should start referring to sleep as productivity because that is about all I wound up doing for the rest of the evening.

ITP Flickr Pic
Unfortunately photography continues to be one of the things that I’ve not been killing.

Championship Sunday
Even without a dog in the hunt I knew that yesterday’s games would be entertaining to watch, so I planned my day around them.

For some reason (Tasty China?) I wasn’t feeling very spunky on Sunday morning. My “Get to LA Fitness by 8:00am” plan quickly fell through; to my credit I did manage to get there by 9:30am. At LA Fitness yesterday I rode a stationary bike for about an hour.

With exercise accomplished and a carload of dirty laundry (some freshly dirtied!) I headed to my favorite lavanderia. I think yesterday must have been “National Laundry Day” for the Latino community as the place was packed for the entire two hours in which I did my laundry (extended time because one of the dryers I used was less than efficient).

After laundry I ate a quick lunch at Las Tortas Locas and the headed to Kroger to pick up the ingredients for jambalaya. I’ve not made a good batch of jamabalaya in a while and with no “Little Easy Cajun Birthday Fest” this year due to the departure of Easy to Fort Collins there was no scheduled making on my calendar. By the time I arrived home (after dilly-dallying in Kroger scoping out co-eds) I had just missed kickoff for the 3pm game.

Last night’s batch didn’t qualify as “good” because I failed to remember that I usually halve Emeril Lagasse’s Andouille and Chicken Jambalaya recipe because the full version doesn’t cook as nicely in my kitchen.

I started cooking the jambalaya at halftime of the Patriots v. Broncos game. My substandard jambalaya did not disappoint my boss or me that much, perhaps because we were both thirty minutes drunker and hungrier by the time I deemed the dish done, some time during the 49ers v. Seahawks game.

I was too pooped to be productive by the end of the second NFL game and went to sleep shortly after my boss’ departure.

Muffin Top Be Gone!
Aside from my pants not fitting comfortably, the sight of my “muffin top” when I peer into any mirror bugs me to no end.

Okay, I know beer drinking is a culprit.
Okay, I know overeating is a culprit.

I am trying to improve my dependency on these bad habits. But as you have been reading of late I am also trying to introduce exercise back into the equation to help out. If I can only keep my foot from hurting again; so far it’s been so-so.

Today’s Personal Project
Get exercise. It’s supposed to get up to 61°F today so I may skip going into the gym and walk instead.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – aching, but okay
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – According to Vulture these are the five best punctuation marks in literature.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Friday = weight lifting; Saturday = nothing; Sunday = stationary bike, 65 minutes
Morning Weigh-In – Oops, I failed to check. Let’s say 215 pounds.

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~13.2 miles
Wheel Mileage – 0.0 miles
Gym Visits – 4 (2 cardio)

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

January 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
– walk no fewer than 75 miles
– have European trip plans in place, if not carved in stone

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

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]