80!

Normally I save birthday announcements until the end of the day’s post. However, when a monumental day occurs for the woman responsible for me I can’t help but put that right up front. That’s right, eighty years ago today my mother was born. I love her dearly, and while I know that the only gift she desires is unattainable — that is to have my father around to celebrate her eightieth birthday — I hope that her day is wonderful.

My dad made it to seventy-two and with my mother turning eighty I figure that I should have a few more years ahead of me considering I’ll “only” be turning forty-five this year.

I’ve Signed Up For the Transportation Savings Account
I hemmed and hawed. Do I, or don’t I put money into a Transportation Savings Account? The decision would have been easier to make if I could apply the money set aside to pay for a Cruise Card that I could use for the toll booth on 400.

In the end I decided that I would put $25 pre-tax from my paycheck into a TSA in an attempt to get myself to ride Marta trains occasionally. I figure that if I can get myself to ride the train I can also get myself to get more exercise by walking.

ITP Flickr Pic
Oh how quickly the mighty can fall. I had no time to actually take a new photo for today’s blog, and what little “photography” time I budgeted for last night (I have a whole shitload of things going on in my life — fear not, none of them involve girlfriends and/or dating) was spent attempting to make a collage from three of the shots that I took from Stone Mountain on Saturday. The lack of photo today should be a clear indication that I failed miserably and no matter how many times I watch tutorials about photo editing I don’t know what the fuck to do when I sit down to do some.

I Hate What My Neighborhood Has Made Me
This morning when I left my house at 6am I saw a car driving slowly down my street and stopping in front of a neighbor’s house. My adrenaline started pumping quickly as I started to worry that he/they might notice me and try to hold me up. I quickly got into my car and drove off noting the license plate, which happened to be a Government-issued plate. I made a slow pass around the neighborhood, looping back onto my street to make sure that the car hadn’t moved to my house, before pointing my car toward work.

I remember the days that I’d notice people and never care! I wish that I wasn’t so cynical about life these days…

Closing In On Opening My Business
I’m getting closer…

  • It’s not “Jalapeño Beach” since I wanted to avoid the confusion with Jalapeño Software and I realized that the ‘ñ’ would possibly cause consternation.
  • I’ve filed and paid the $100 to create an LLC with the State of Georgia.
  • I’ve reserved the domain name for the company name I’ve selected.
  • I’ve reserved “CompanyName”@gmail.com
  • I’ve created an email account for paul@”CompanyName”.com
  • I’ll be getting an EIN from the IRS this week.
  • I’ll be chatting with my Tax Preparer when I schedule my income tax preparation for March.
  • I’ll be chatting with a bank to create a business account upon getting all of my “paper”work filed.

All of the non-disclosed bits of information, such as what the hell I named the company, will be revealed once I get all of my i’s dotted and t’s crossed.

This has been and is going to continue to be one helluva learning curve for me.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – fairly okay
Current Music – listening to the “This Week in Tech” podcast
Website Of The Day – Yesterday I made an off-handed reference about “paying it forward.” Yesterday I also found out that there is a Pay It Forward Foundation.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – twelve floors of stair climbing
Morning Weigh-In – didn’t check
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 52

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 3** (5)
Vegetarian Days – 5, Carnivorous Days – 18
Marta Rides – 0
* – since I stayed in a hotel
** – because I stayed in friends’ house

February Goals
– Not get fired from my job

2010 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds)
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
– Earn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalapeño Beach SmugMug account I opened the other day.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
– Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
– Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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11 Responses to 80!

  1. Martha says:

    RE: have a whole shitload of things going on in my life

    No kidding, when did this all happen. I’m ready to petition for a few extra hours in the day. By the time I got home last night, cooked dinner and cleaned up I had exactly 14 minutes until bed time.

    Happy Birthday Paulie’s Mom…and thanks for bring Paulie into this world and our lives!

    I’m playing hooky today. I had already planned on taking half a day off to take Bode to the vet, then I busted myself up at the gym this morning so I just said F’it…maybe I’ll be able to get the stuff done I wanted to do two weekends ago.

  2. I suppose that I shouldn’t whine about most of the things going on as I’ve brought them on myself. The rest are all part of life I’m sure.

  3. Barb says:

    happy birthday to Paulie’s mom.
    My Dad turns 80 in early April, my sister wants us to all go to Iowa to surprise him, but I know my Dad, that would just annoy him. Plus, it is Easter weekend, and Allan can’t get off work, so I’ll be the bad daughter & not show. In a way I’ll be the good daughter to him, because like I said, it will just annoy my Dad.

    Instead of sick kid daycare here at my office today, we have puppy daycare. My co-worker’s daughter got suckered into taking a puppy from some lady at Kroger. It is the cutest little tiny brown thing, maybe part chow, maybe part rat terrier, who knows.

  4. Well, I was supposed to fly my mother to New York for her birthday and join her up there for some sort of celebration. Last month she decided that she didn’t want to go, so I sent her a fat check with which she can play bingo in Florida.

  5. Martha says:

    I know, other than work and cooking most of my time is taken up with stuff I want to do, not have to do. But I have very little else to complain about so there it is…

    Its chaos at my place right now. On top of Nibbles, Logan is now here 5 days a week, of course little Bode, who has to be kept separate from the idiots and my neighbor is out of town so I have an extra 100 lbs of dog with the name Barney.

    Yesterday morning I just stood around the gym after the workout, I didn’t want to go home.

    Just saw in the AJC, The Painted Table close…never even had a chance to get it out.

  6. I saw that The Painted Table closed too and had no idea where it was, or what it served. These days my eating has been confined to the restaurants near work or along Buford Hwy.

  7. Martha says:

    It is/was in the old Zocalo space on Boulevard. Sort of a breakfast all day (even though they didn’t open until 11) and everything under the sun place. One of the biggest complaints I heard about the place was the menu was just too big.

    They had a rough start…had to shut down a couple of weeks after they opened because of electrical problems and they kept messing with the hours. I miss Zocolo.

  8. Oh yeeeeeeeah, now it rings a bell. I saw it once on a drive up Boulevard.

  9. Sal says:

    Happy Birthday Paulie’s mom!
    My dad’s birthday is on Friday. He will be 81.
    Since I have Mt. Cheaha this week-end, I plan to go to Florida next week-end.

    I just need a shorter work week! 🙂

  10. Steve says:

    Happy Birthday Paulie’s mom…. does she read the blog??

    Sounds like you’re about to be your own cottage industry.. good luck.

    -FP

  11. Paulie [eatl/ga] says:

    Does she read the blog? Thankfully, no.

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