Why were there so many people on the road at 6:00am this morning? WTF, it’s dark outside what’s with all of the go-getting?
Today’s Daily Challenge
Save money by unplugging appliances that aren’t in use.
Pulling out plugs can boost your bottom line and improve your financial health! Many homes have dozens of appliances that gobble energy even when they are off, which wastes your hard-earned money. Bonus: Doing this challenge is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint, as well.
I wish my scale were plugged in, I have used that in a long time.
Beer Me!
On Saturday morning I got out of the house to run some chores (gas, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Target) before heading over Three Taverns Brewery for the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild VIP Tour.
I arrived at East Decatur Station about thirty minutes before the tour and decided to pop into The Corner Pub for a “food base” and pre-beer-tour beer (I had a Blue Tarp Brewing Amber — I’d score it a “C+”). To my surprise I knew the bartender, who didn’t recognize me, as some else who used to frequent The Gravity Pub back in the olden days of East Atlanta Village.
At the prescribed time I wandered over to Three Taverns only to find a small group of beer nerds standing outside. Seems as if there was a miscommunication and they didn’t know that we were coming. Yeesh. The small group, perhaps twelve, consisted of two women and the rest were men. Once inside with a beer in hand I mingled inside the space before the owner/brewmaster took us on the tour (yes, I went on this tour). By the time the tour ended the place was open to the public and was filled with attractive twenty-somethings who were there to lavish in the beer as well as the abundant sunshine. Two more beer “samples” and the realization that I was going home alone led me to go home alone rather quickly.
I spent the rest of the afternoon napping off my early drinking and then coding (unfortunately on a work-related project) for the rest of the night.
Blistering Speed
Yesterday was another beautiful day outside that I spent inside. I was not too phased by the loss of the hour in the wee hours of Sunday morning, so when I awoke I started right into more coding. Throughout the morning I was either coding, cooking/eating (eggs), or backing up data. I finally got out of the house (and in to traffic) around 3:30pm to go to my boss’ house to meet up to play racquetball.
During my trip to Dick’s Sporting Goods on Saturday I purchased a new racquetball glove and some grip tape in order to reduce the damage I did to my hand on Thursday evening. The new setup worked well, but I still managed to re-aggravate the spot on my palm. I also managed to give myself a bit of a blister on the bottom of my left foot, compounding the pain that foot has with last year’s tendonitis remnant and some toe pain due to a nail clipping fiasco seven days or so ago. I’m a fucking mess.
After beating ourselves up for awhile we headed back to my boss’ place where we grilled up some burgers and sampled some beers that I had picked up in Florida a few weeks ago.
I’m As Ready As I’m Going To Be
After getting home last night I gathered up my computer and all of the financial information that’s been sent to me over the past two months in preparation for meeting with my tax preparer this afternoon.
2013 wasn’t an especially financially busy year for me (in fact, due to the thousands of dollars I spent repairing the house I wasn’t especially generous with my charitable donations last year) so the paperwork gathering wasn’t too bad. Of course I am assuming that I remembered everything that I needed to gather…
Today’s Personal Project
Visit a lavanenderia, or maybe even a laundromat.
Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – meh, wishing my body wasn’t so feeble
Current Music – silence at the moment
Website Of The Day – DEDPXL is the latest incarnation of Decatur photographer Zack Arias’ work. If memory serves me right Arias’ studio is now very near Three Taverns brewery.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
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 – 2 (2 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
- “Johnny Carson” by Henry Bushkin
- “Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative” by Austin Kleon
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Good thing nobody came out for the urban cross race, it was pretty underwhelming. It was basically a sprint up and down the beltline by Piedmont park with a couple run ups and a water crossing thrown in. It was still fun though, large crowd heckling/encouraging us and it was a beautiful day. I was doing really well and on lap 3 I was holding 7th or 8th place when the bike got squishy and realized my race was over with a pinch flat.
Sunday I got bathroom #1 up to 99% done by installing the new door. Hang some shelves and it will be done! Bathroom #2 is at about 60%, need some plumbing and drywall repair then paint and install fixtures. I couldn’t dedicate the whole day to it though, way too nice out so I snuck away for a mtn bike ride in the late afternoon.
Next week if anybody is interested is the ride to the capitol (http://georgiaridestothecapitol.org/), always a good time as we do a post ride pub crawl. Nice way to spend a Tuesday 🙂
I managed to ride my road bike twice this weekend.
Saturday we took Steve on a ride over to Roswell & back, ended up being 33 miles, not a bad ride. He had his cross bike, so maybe that slowed him down a little, so I could almost keep up. Ok, not really, but I tried.
Sunday I went out with JoAnna for her first ride since all the A-fib stuff. We rode very easy on the Silver Comet, around 20 miles, but she’s feeling more confident, so I’m sure the next ride will be a little faster.
I wish I could take the day off for the ride to the Capitol, but Allan is working. If he wasn’t working, I’d call in sick.
and Bob – what’s up with that plumbing issue you posted on FB? Did you get that fixed?
Bob-I was interested in spectating the urban cross, but could never find any info on the course or the start. I figured it was probably a completely bandit event, considering the video I watched from last year with the race on roads open to traffic!
A nice ride Saturday with the Groves. Surprised there were not more people out on such a beautiful day. Saturday evening, I went to hear a friends band in Newnan- small space with just a bit too much sound. His guitar playing was excptional, but he had a lot of amp for a reasonably small room.
Sunday should have found me on my bike, but instead I did chores that were overdue- the pavers between the pool house and diving board needed the pea stone cleaned out of all the weeds. I first started by pulling, but soo realized that wans’t going to work well, so I just dug it all out, easily removed the weeds and put it all back. After 2 bouts totaling 4 hours on my hands and knees, I threw in the towel and left the rest for another time. Ugh.
Debbie arrived home with one of the “door/displays” sold and one still to sell.
-FP
That plumbing issue is where the mirror fell off the wall and snapped the sink drain pipe. I have to cut the 2 inch drain/vent pipe and replace the broken pieces. Good times.
Steve – that does not sound like a good time Sunday. Yippie on selling the door display(s)!
Bob – Allan said that didn’t look like fun at all. Hope it goes smooth.
Oh, I had the weirdest electrical issue last night, went into the bedroom to go to bed (about 11pm) & half of the room had no power. TV outlet & the outlet that is for the clock/alarm, bedside lamps. So, I tried to hit the reset button on the outlet, wouldn’t work. Called Allan, he actually left the firehouse to come home, since he was really worried as there was no reason for this to happen. It was all dead. he changed otu the outlet, nothing. Messed with the breaker box, nothing. Messed with the juction box down in the new basement room (had to remove the ceiling fan to do that), all looked fine. Allan was not a happy camper at this point. Go back upstairs, power is working again. So, something is/was wrong (maybe pinced?) down in the basement ceiling. Good news, no call to an electrician today, Bad news, what the hell happened?
Could there be multiple GFCI outlets in the circuit? We had that situation after we popped the breaker out by the patio table… there was a ssecond breaker hiding in Debbie’s closet!
Steve – none of the breakers were popped. It was just really, really weird. But, all is working again, so I’m not sure what is next.
Steve, you would not find this race anywhere but on Facebook. It was not sanctioned by anybody and was just a bandit race on an open course. Dodging runners, dogs, and cars was a part of the race, totally not safe but fun as hell 🙂
Barb, electrical issues scare the hell out of me. Not a fan of fires. I had sockets going dead in the kitchen so called an electrician fearing the worse case. Turns out it was just old sockets that needed to be replaced. I’m sure that is not your case as your sockets are all new but you may just have a loose wire somewhere. Good luck locating it.
Another weekend picking out stuff for the house. This time it was cabinet hardware and the kitchen faucet. Plumber were around this weekend, got about half the plumbing completed.
My contractor is back in town so I expect things to pick up again. Lots of little stuff but most of the major tasks are complete. I’ve got the movers scheduled for Friday afternoon, fingers crossed I don’t have to reschedule.
Bob, I thoughtt that is was some sort of benefit for SOPO Co-op (?) and their website had all of last years info and photos, so I just assumed. I knew it was not likely sanctioned. Oh well.
Matha, I can’t wait to see the finished product!
Steve, me too! I just want to go and hang out for the next week (probably be in everyones way) and watch them finish up. If anyone is around this weekend feel free to swing by, but be warned, you might be put to work 🙂
I just remembered Paulie, you were in a dream I had the other night…one of those weird ones where you know you are dreaming?? Anyway, you were very rude and wouldn’t let me sleep, plus I have no idea what you were doing in my house or why I was sleeping on the couch … but I forgive you 😉
I was probably trying to return your coffee mug, which of course when I do will be my “housewarming gift”. 🙂
And when is the house “re”warming party?
Lovely outside if you get a chance. Is Atlanta City out of school? Lots of kids and parents at the park.
it si nice out – I really didn’t want to come back from lunch.
Yeah, Martha, we need a date for the re-warming party. That porch ain’t gonna puke on itself.
Bob: I might be interested in the Capitol ride. Margaret Kaiser invited me a few weeks ago, but at the time I had depositions scheduled for that day. Now I don’t.
We are shooting for early to mid-April for the open house/house warming… ITP readers will be some of the first to know.
Kevin – http://georgiaridestothecapitol.org/
There are lots of different routes to get there. all depends on how many miles you want to go.
Bob, whatever you do, make sure you don’t ride in Kevin’s slipstream if he’s been drinking the night before… what am I saying don’t ride in Kevin’s slipstream.
I promised last year that I would do it this year, but with all the medical leave I’m taking, I just can’t- but next year- I PROMISE!! AGAIN!
For the last I think 4 years, Allan has had to work. Maybe next year he will be off so we can attend.
and – its finally Daylight Saving Time – we are heading to Kennesaw Mtn for a hike after work!
I saw this in an email and thought you might be interested (you’re the only photographer that I do or don’t know)…
“The F8 Motorsports Photography Workshop is coming to The Mitty at Road Atlanta on April 25-27. Held during one of North AmericaÂ’s oldest and most prestigious vintage racing events, students will have an opportunity to photograph legendary historic racing cars in action on Road AtlantaÂ’s scenic 2.54-mile circuit.
Capturing the excitement and drama of speed in a still image is one of the greatest challenges facing any photographer. The three-day F8 Motorsports Photography Workshop will take you over the fence where the proÂ’s shoot and teach you the skills and techniques necessary to create stunning images.
Students will receive full media credentials, lunch both days and one-on-one instruction from photography pros. The workshop is open to intermediate and experienced photographers that have a good basic understanding of the functions of their camera. They must have their own SLR digital camera with interchangeable lenses. Class will be limited to six students per instructor. For more information and to register for a class go to http://www.f8photoworkshops.com.”
Huh, I will look into that. Thanks.
Done with tax paperwork, currently doing laundry (I will disclose where tomorrow). Really want to drink beer and ear out tonight, need to exercise instead.