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July 24, 2008 Morning commute: 38.7 mpg, 0.3 hours, 13.6 miles, 0.3 gallons.
No Comments | #6673
July 23, 2008 The futon mattress is gone! It was trivially easy! There was no line at the junkyard! The Great Basement Cleaning of 2008 is about to begin! I am using many exclamation points!
Please, take my stuff!!
This wouldn't be a blog if I didn't write about my deep metaphysical reasons for doing this, so stay tuned for that.
Today's car travel: 37.1 mpg, 0.8 hours, 27.8 miles, 0.7 gallons.
No Comments | #6672
July 22, 2008 Today's travel:
Morning commute: 13.6 miles, .3 hours, 37.9 mpg.
Evening commute: 13.3 miles, .4 hours, 34.6 mpg.
Bike from home to Parkville-Carney Library: 4.488 miles, 20:43 minutes, 13.0 mph average.
A mile or so out, I felt like my back tire was going a little soft so I stopped in a parking lot to pump it up. I got it back up to 55 lbs pressure, then did the same to the front tire. As I pulled the pump off the Presta valve, the valve stem burst out and the tire went from 55 lbs pressure to zero in the course of about half a second. Luckily I had a spare tube in my bag and changed it there in the lot in about five minutes while a young gal sitting outside in the garden department looked on with amusement.
I have never had that happen in my life with a Schrader valve on any bike or car I've ever owned. Just another point of proof towards Ben's theory that they're completely an invention of the bike pump companies and have absolutely no advantage as a practical valve style.
The ride up Harford Road was crazy. The northbound travel side has construction all along it so in spite of the fact that there is a nominal bike lane along at least half of the trip up to the library, its so filled with potholes, 3 inch ridges and dips that staying inside the two foot lines is basically impossible. The ride back southbound was nicer, even if the traffic was a little more aggressive.
Picked up Driven to Distraction by Hallowell and Ratey, and Scattered Minds by Adler on the advice of my doctor. Stay tuned for a review of both in a few days.
No Comments | #6671
Milliwatt Web site of the BRATS amateur radio club.
Follow link to Milliwatt No Comments | #6670 July 21, 2008 Total distance today: 8.541 miles.
Car travel today: 0 miles.
Biking today:
Morning trip for groceries and ATM withdrawal: 4.330 miles; time 22:10 minutes; average speed 11.7 mph.
Evening trip to Subway and to pick up ATM card left in machine: 4.211 miles in 20:54 minutes, average speed 12.1 mph.
Today begins the great Obama push of 2008. Links to the Obama campaign are now present on every page and on the main blog sidebar. The images rotate between five of their "web ready" pictures, just to keep things interesting.
My yard sign will go out 90 days before election day, which will be August 6, 2008.
Went from 2217 e-mails to 0 tonight. I am again at Inbox Zero, at least for a little while.
Evening weigh-in: 132.0 lbs. I can feel padding around my ribs!
No Comments | #6669
July 20, 2008 First of all, congratulations to Karen Suzanne, Chris, and Alex on their new baby girl Sara Nicole.
The report from Chris reads: "It's a girl!
10 lbs, 1 oz.
25 hours labor.
All natural, all at home.
More details to follow, after a few dozen hours of sleep."
Went biking today on the NCR with Mike, Ben and Alex. Stopped in New Freedom at the railroad museum diner for a sandwich.
Northern Central Railroad trail stats for today: 2:27:36 time on trail (not including breaks), 28.774 miles traveled, 11.7 mph average speed.
I consumed two apples, 2 1/2 bananas, a handful of just-picked raspberries, some fruit leather, a chicken sandwich and a bowl of chicken pad thai, a glass of coke, and two cups of ice cream. Also had about four liters of water through my nalgene bottle.
Changed the litter, put out the trash, and have laundry spinning in both machines as I type this.
Things just kinda falling into place lately. Exercise is easy, work is annoying but flexible, I'm getting organized around the house, more social, not anxious about (almost) anything, and my friends are actively soliciting me to come do sports and athletic things with them.
No complaints here.
Nightly weigh-in: 130.0 lbs.
No Comments | #6668
July 19, 2008 Woke up at 10:45 to a cell phone call from the lawn mower shop that my blade was finished. Threw on some clothes and my bike helmet and headed out on my bike to start the day. Hit up the shop and Overlea Diner out on Belair Road and an hour and 5.2 miles later was back at home cooling off and hydrating.
Worked on the lawn from 12:45 to 14:30 and managed to finish the front and side. It looks great but it still took me two and a quarter hours to finish half of my property. Just goes to show exactly how far behind I've been in chores.
After that I took a nice nap, then upgraded the firmware on my BCD-396T for the new digital decoding patch. It was supposed to do a great job of eliminating some of the clicks and pops in the P25 signals from the city, but I'm not convinced. I couldn't hear any real change in audio quality all night.
Got out of the house around 18:00 to go watch the new season of Weeds with Thomas and Penelope. They fed me (well) and after the third episode and a bunch of chatting about what's new in our lives I headed out to Mount Vernon to try to catch up with Patty and Jeremy.
I couldn't find them at The Brewer's Art, and I had to leave quickly because it was so hot and humid inside the place that can only assume the pre-smoking ban tar was being washed off the stone walls by the torrents of condensation.
Came back home and now that it's midnight, I'm going to bed.
No Comments | #6667
July 18, 2008 The last few days have not been great. Tonight I weighed in at 130 pounds even, but I've been dealing with an annoying lethargy and a tremor in my left ear for the last few days. It has been coming and going but lately its been coming more often.
I'm gearing up to kick some house-cleaning ass tomorrow. I'm hoping that I have the stamina and the concentration necessary to do it. While I can't focus on the yard until I get my lawn mower blade back, I can work on the rest of the rooms in the house.
I'm going to do what I can with sheer brute force tomorrow on cleaning and removing the clutter from common spaces. At the end of that I will take stock of what I've done and what systems (if any) I need to call on to do it right.
Between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning a system upgrade put a version of PHP5 in place with very aggressive error reporting turned on. Basically every line that the new stricter settings didn't consider up to par spewed out an error notice about how crappy my code was.
Thursday morning thanks to quick notice from Teresa, I fixed most of the public-facing issues as quickly as I could before work. After that I haven't had the time (or desire) to repair the page that I use to post. Not only are the errors silly, but the code itself is more than a little embarrassing.
I finally got around to it this evening but I'm not likely to backfill the last two days.
Summary: The last two days were fun, and involved good times, good company, good conversation, and good food. I did a lot of travel and a lot of sleeping. A little unexpected social drama took me by surprise, but only because I'm clueless and out of practice. The kitten continued to be adorable. Life is still a little confusing, but in a new and interesting sort of way.
No Comments | #6666
July 16, 2008 New traffic signal installed at Gilroy and Beaver Dam Road. Long overdue.
I am eating constantly, sleeping soundly, and exercising like crazy. I'm a little cloudy at the beginning of the day but that's largely absent by the evening. Tonight I'm hoping to break 130 lbs at my nightly weigh-in.
No Comments | #6665
July 15, 2008 The soda machine at work says "Exact Change Only" but what it means is "I am full of change, so I will only accept dollar bills for a $1.25 soda and give you three quarters in return." This is in fact the opposite of the phrase "Exact Change Only." But this is also the soda machine that thinks that it is reasonable to turn itself off at 18:00 in a programming shop and refuse to dispense caffeinated beverages to a cube farm full of programmers. If the machine thinks crimes against humanity are fair game, what's a little lie?
Every few weeks I manage to accumulate a pile of paperwork that can only be dealt with during business hours. Since I'm trying to actually be productive during the business hours that I'm actually awake with work-related items, these things tend to pile up. Then I'll find my cell phone headset and crank through the entire pile in my morning commute as I did this morning. I was able to schedule a new doctor appointment, resolve a misdirected insurance claim, change the names on my homeowner policy, convert my American Express Gold Rewards card to a no-fee Blue card, and clean out my cell phone voice mail (9 messages) in a twenty minute commute. Not too shabby.
Today I'm in day two of a SharePoint class at the office. The only flaw is that all the instruction materials are written in some Microsoft language filled with hundreds of different twelve letter words that all essentially distill down to "work", "use" or "share." I'd get more irritated at this fact except for the fact that I can read this language reasonably fluently, and that's one of the reasons why folks pay the big bucks for me to help them write software that helps them "utilize knowledge management architectures leveraging competencies throughout multiple organizational structures."
Sigh.
Any question why a action-packed workday in my industry makes me want to shove a sharpened pencil in my eye?
Last night the kitten slept with me either on my pillow or next to me in the bed, very quietly. It was delightful.
Bike exercise: 5.82 miles in 25:28 minutes, ended at 17:38 hours, temperature 83 degrees F and sunny.
1 Comments | #6664
July 14, 2008 Not the grandest start to the day. Managed to ignore each of my alarms until about 10am when I woke up face down on the bed with a kitten purring away on my back. Rolled in after a quick shower and realized I had a class today. Finished tidying up my time sheets from the last two weeks and waited until the lunch break to join the class. Luckily I had only missed the introduction and "sales pitch."
My attention span is definitely improved, now I will see how long into the day I can last at a productive pace. My usual down time is around 3pm, but I'm hoping I can make it until at least 8pm today.
The lawn mower shop can't have my blade sharpened for another week and a half. On the up-side, it was only $8. On the downside, I continue to be a horrible neighbor.
Tonight's plan:
- No caffeine after 6pm.
- Kitten gets two chances to be kittenish somewhere besides the bedroom. After that the litter box and bowls get moved into the hallways and the door gets latched. Sorry, Dot, we can play in the morning.
Evening weigh-in: 127.5 lbs.
No Comments | #6663
July 13, 2008 Never let it be said that it is not romantic to write by candlelight, even if that candle happens to be standing next to a tiny laptop.
First off, I'm happy to report that I have ended this weekend at the fighting weight of 127 pounds even. I've been eating and sleeping almost non-stop since Friday night and if I can work some weight training into my routine it's quite possible that I could see drastic improvements in my weight and build only a few weeks.
I've managed to move my bedtime to around 11 o'clock or so, although I haven't been able to move my waking time to anything short of 12 hours after that. Tomorrow morning will begin the day with at least three alarm clocks going off, so I'm hoping I can make a running start out of it. I believe that this small improvement in my sleeping will do wonders for my work-hours concentration. Only an actual work-day (tomorrow) will tell.
Today Elissa and I went out on the NCR trail for a 15 mile ride. I narrowly avoided getting beaned by a giant branch that fell from 40 feet up to the trail, just about seven seconds before my bike and I would have been directly underneath it. Fortunately fate was on my side, and after the shock of it wore off we moved the huge limb out of the path. It wasn't easy--the thing must have weighed about 150 pounds--so we mostly just rolled it out into the brush. I was too shocked to even take a picture.
We also narrowly avoided a huge thunderstorm that arrived about a minute after we made it back to the car in the Paper Mill Road parking area at 17:30. There wasn't a bit of rain before we both closed our car doors, at which point the windsheild immediately began to spot up with huge drops. This was a mean red storm on the radar, and the rain was so thick by the time we made it back to York Road and I-83 that it was difficult to see very far in front of the windshield.
I think the best part of the ride was wading out to a small rock in the middle of some small rapids in Gunpowder Falls and watching the water and world rush by for about half an hour. I sat dangling my feet in the cool currents and skipping stones against the water flow the entire time. The day was nearly perfect for doing exactly that. If I had the foresight to pack more food and water, we might have stayed out on that rock even longer.
The trail museum and restaurant at Monkton Road were open for the season. We got some pretty damn good vegan California Wraps for lunch. Afterwards I shot some great macro insect and flower pictures outside the store and in the small garden behind the museum while we wandered around and let our food settle.
This was the picture of a delightfully relaxing day all around. I'm looking forward to more in the future.
No Comments | #6662
July 12, 2008 Today I ate and slept. When I wasn't eating, I was sleeping. When I wasn't sleeping, I was eating. At some point I walked to the supermarket and purchased more to eat, and returned for a meal and a nap.
Most people would not consider this the most productive day, but then I'm not like most people. I've been running on a metaphorical empty tank for the last few months, getting through days on a minimum of sleep and caloric intake. It's worked out in the short term, but it's obvious that the habits I'm starting to form are not in the least bit sustainable. Starting today, I hope to restore my balance to an 8 hour night of sleep, a full workday, and a series of balanced meals all day long.
On Thursday I had the opportunity to go see Gyetrul Jigme Norbu Rinpoche teach a session to the audience of the Baltimore Shambhala Center. This session focused particularly on gaining a life balance by watching your environmental impact and limiting waste. My experience with Buddhist teachings is that they seem to emphasize moderation and balance as a path to happiness. This one was no exception, and the reminder was overdue for me.
Tonight's weigh-in: 123.5 lbs.
No Comments | #6661
July 8, 2008 Intruding beetles have no chance against the vicious kitten. She's consumed at least three since yesterday.
It's nice to be working from home today. It's 84 degrees in my office, but it actually feels more pleasant to be in 84 degrees in only shorts and bare feet than it does to be in two layers of shirts and long pants in the 72 degree office cube. Go figure.
Clean bill of health for Dot, the veterinarian was very impressed with her demeanor and health. Apparently I pick good kittens.
Going mobile and invisible for a few days starting around 22:00 tonight. I've got work to do and things to think on. Probably be a long post when I get back on Saturday with some thoughts on how the heck I'm going to get out from under all the things that are still holding me back.
1 Comments | #6660
July 7, 2008 Two huge storm cells over Parkville woke me up around half past two this morning. There were flashes of lightning I could see through my closed eyes and thunder that shook the windows. I went as quickly as I could to unplug all the electronics in the house, then came back to bed to find the kitten curled up against me for safety. As long as I had a hand over her, the thunder didn't bother her but the minute I fell asleep and turned over she'd start leaping all over the bed and over me when another strike shook the house until I woke up and put a hand on her again.
Had a very interesting dream early in the morning that I remember pretty clearly. I went back in time 8 years with the opportunity to give people I knew the gift of being able to look up a single page on the Internet "today" with my laptop. Most people screwed it up and asked for some dumb search that didn't help them very much, but one guy asked me to look up the news page for a company he had some stock in and see what it looked like 8 years later. Since all those other people were just aspects of me in the dream, that was probably the smartest idea "I" had the entire time. I also wasted a lot of time trying to explain to people how valuable this gift could be.
I thought about it after I got up and realized that if i could I go back in time, I would grab a copy of my blog database from today and as many files as I could and drop them on a server I used in 2000, assuming I could remember a password I used back then to login (or maybe just e-mail them to myself). The amount of insight I could get from my own writings from the last eight years would be absolutely invaluable.
Ben thinks its a pretty excellent idea for a short science fiction story. I think I'm going to try it in my "spare time." I haven't done any fiction writing in a long time, and I do miss it.
Spent most of the evening working on code and taking hundreds of pictures of my kitten. They're amazingly adorable. The best eleven are already up on Flickr. Those of you on my IM list have already received the secret pass to view the gallery. If you are currently receiving a picture of a kitten in your e-mail every morning (you know who you are) you will have to suffer in suspense of further kitten cuteness as they slowly trickle in to your mailbox.
Evening weigh-in: 123.5 lbs.
No Comments | #6659
July 6, 2008 Play by play for my stalker(s). You know who you are.
- Woke up.
- Read an e-mail I'd been expecting for a few days.
- Checked in with my regular IM chat peanut gallery.
- Replied to earlier e-mail.
- Chatted online.
- Ate microwaved insta-brunch.
- Went to the supermarket, got coding power food and ingredients for the quiche recipe in hopes of preparing it this evening.
- Started picking everything up off the floor of my office.
- Consumed cookies, Mountain Dew and blueberries while chatting online.
- Edited photos, tinkered with Epistolary and G2 code, wrote in General Design.
- Played with the kitten.
- Chatted with Emily on Facebook, shocked the hell out of her with an offhand comment (we haven't talked in over six months, but I forgot that fact).
- Made dinner plans for the two evenings on my schedule this week that were not already filled.
- Called my parents.
- Fifteen reps of 50 lbs bench press.
- Picked the last item off the floor of the office.
- Set Roomba running in office.
- Watched The Simpsons where Bart actually has a cow. Roomba finishes.
- Totally failed to make quiche due to lack of energy. Microwaved dinner.
- Definitely more chatting here.
- Set up Kittehcam to film kitten sleeping on the couch being adorable.
- Made and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
- Packed things for work tomorrow.
- Turned off Kittehcam.
- Evening weigh-in: 122.5 lbs.
- Brushed teeth, went to bed.
- Typed this blog entry.
- Slept.
1 Comments | #6658
July 5, 2008
- Breakfast at Overlea Diner for the first time in a while. Really wish I could remember the waitress' name that serves me every time I go there. I'll bother her about it next time. She always remembers me when I show up, even when it's been a few weeks.
- Spent the rest of the day napping, cleaning my office, and playing with the kitten. Life's good.
- The Bluetooth dongle in my laptop is covered in kitten tooth marks. Apparently the blinking blue light during the night convinces her that it is helpless prey and subjects it to relentless attacks. It's a pretty sturdy piece of hardware so I'm not worried about her breaking anything.
- Maybe I should just get the kitten her own Eee PC to play with and sleep on all day. She seems to like that and my shoes better than anything else in the entire house, including a sea of actual kitten toys.
No Comments | #6657
July 4, 2008 Got pulled over by MSP tonight for the second time in over twelve years and several hundred thousand miles of driving. The first time was by local police in New Jersey for doing donuts in the snow of my high school parking lot after a class trip to see Carmina Burana in 1996.
Thankfully I am a polite, sober, emergency responder who occasionally misses speed limit signs on unfamiliar roads. The trooper was also polite and benevolent; after taking my information and checking my status in the computer for five minutes he let me go with a written warning.
Great party at Suz and Chris' place tonight, met some interesting people and picked up a pair of fire poi for the first time in at least two years. I did a pretty nice set if I do say so myself. I can't wait to see the pictures Mary took on her D70. Hopefully I can post them up in a few days to share.
I can't tell if it was exchanging punches with Rebecca or the poi spinning but my shoulders hurt like hell now. Maybe some pre-party stretching would have made a difference. Luckily I have a warm shoulder pad in the form of an affectionate kitten to soothe me to sleep.
No Comments | #6656
July 3, 2008 Hello long weekend!
Quiet day at work. Quiet evening at home. Cheated and watched the first two episodes of season 3 of The Wire. I'm pretty sure I didn't pick up on much of anything that is going to happen in the last three episodes of season 2.
Ordered a small batch of things from Amazon and then accidentally sent it to the office from one job and three buildings ago. I called someone that works at the new company there and asked her to keep an eye out for my package and I could come pick it up on my lunch break or on my way home from work after it was delivered. She promised to do just that, which is awesome.
No Comments | #6655
July 2, 2008 Tempted to pick up a micro USB hub, 1 GB SD card and 2 GB microSD card from Amazon for 25.06 with free shipping. Only problem is I don't need any of these things, they're just inexpensive and shiny. I should be practicing more clutter elimination instead of lusting after new things.
The last DVD for Episode 2 of The Wire arrived cracked, so even though the first DVD of Episode 3 is arriving tomorrow I will have to wait until the expedited replacement shows up, probably Saturday or Monday since Friday is a holiday.
I was a little ticked at first because watching that show has become something of an addiction, but then I realized it was a great boon for me because I could concentrate on catching up on some coding and getting my laundry done. I'm happy to say that both got accomplished in spades.
The kitten has been exploring her limits a bit more, and today I opened one of the living room windows for her to enjoy the view and the smells of the outside. That took up a good two hours of her time while I was furiously typing on the couch. She came back to my lap about the time Late Night came on the TV and stayed attached to me until I got up to put my clothes away and pack some of my bags for this weekend.
Lots going on the next few days, I hope I can keep up.
Evening weigh-in: 122.0 lbs.
2 Comments | #6654
July 1, 2008 Good day at work, I was both motivated and inspired. It's a valuable combination for me. Co-workers are captivated by the live kitten cam. At one point today she had 12 simultaneous viewers. The cuteness cannot be denied.
On the way home I did some shopping at the grocery store and office supply store to prep for the rest of the week. Tried to find a nice micro USB 2.0 hub I can throw in my bag to work with the Eee PC but Office Depot was way overpriced.
Walked around the produce aisles and just put interesting looking vegetables into my hand cart until it was full. I have enough vegetables and staples to make some really creative dishes. Now I just need to figure out what they will be. Breakfast tomorrow will be fruit and hummus on pita bread.
Elissa showed up after work to visit the kitten and we hit up El Salto for dinner and watched Hot Fuzz (on loan from EPFL) while competing for Dot's attention. If you like cop movies or CSI type shows, it's pure hilarity. After she left I consumed another two episodes of The Wire while the kitten rested in the crook of my arm. I should pace myself but it's just such a great show, I can't get enough.
Dot saw the outside through the front storm door today for the first time since she moved in. Shortly after that she discovered that the outside is behind every curtain in the house. The kitten's independence has begun.
No Comments | #6653
June 30, 2008 
- Once you bullet point, you can't stop,
- This is why offices can't escape the grip of PowerPoint.
- Kitten threw up a little last night around 5am (okay, more than a little), but seems otherwise alert and healthy so I left fresh water and a little food out so she can fill her stomach again.
- I've got hardwood floors that have seen much worse, and I felt bad locking the kitten in the bathroom since its a little cramped, so I just left her in the bedroom.
- She probably just latent new digs anxiety. I can relate to that.
- Also set up the web cam on live streaming video, but only saw the kitten for a few minutes after noon. For the last four hours or so it's been hiding out of view.
- Made appointment to Metropolitan Cat Hospital for next week to check up on her. I love that place. The vet is all sorts of awesome.
- Fred B. told me that the Montgomery County SPCA actually sends someone over to do a home visit before they will approve you, and the process can take up to a week or two. Hampden SPCA seems almost painless in comparison.
No Comments | #6652
June 29, 2008
- Finally got in touch with Jacki for lunch to catch up on what's going on in our lives
- Afterwards she was planning to go to the "Bad at Sports" meet-up at Burdick Park to play kickball with some fellow bad-at-sports people. Sounded right up my alley so I came along
- Turns out that bad at sports people are also bad at showing up. Turned into me, Jacki and Steve the organizer guy. We drove up Belair Road to play mini golf at this new course he knew about up by Double T Diner
- Jacki won by 5 shots, I came in last behind by 9. This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows Jacki
- Surprise party at Rebecca's for Phil, who is 31 tomorrow. We were convinced he would figure it out, but he was totally surprised even though he parked his car right next to all of ours and even walked past Rebecca's car on the way into the apartment (she had told him she was somewhere else and he needed to pick something up from her place). That was awesome.
- Went back to play with the kitten for the rest of the night, which was adorable
No Comments | #6651
June 28, 2008
- Kitten shopping today at Hampden SPCA
- I HAZ A KITTEH!
- Me: "I'm just going to look and find out what the adoption procedure is like. I'm not going to get a cat today." Elissa: "That's a load of bullshit."
- Her name is "Dot." She is a 2 lb Calico kitteh who has not freed herself from the crook of my arm until we got back to the house.
- My mom hates the name, but she has some sort of fanatical pet renaming thing. I'm gonna keep it. Dot is an awesome name.
- I swear I will not do anything geeky like naming my next cat "Net" just so I can caption a photo of me and two cats on the couch as "Vees, Dot, Net."
- Seriously. I'm not going to do it.
- WHY DOESN'T ANYONE BELIEVE ME?
- Cat's on a 3 hour "get used to the house" break in my darkened bedroom. I'm going to run and get some litter and a bowl of food for when it's over.
5 Comments | #6650
June 27, 2008
- More bullets today.
- 1,868 e-mails in my inbox. When I hit 2,000 I'm going to blitz through all of them.
- Can't decide whether to find, buy, or build the best PIM system for myself. I have very specific requirements, but I can't be the only geek who has the ones I do.
- I have no idea how to deal with the clutter in my house. I'm hoping to come up with some sort of a plan tomorrow and get cranking on it.
No Comments | #6649
June 26, 2008
- In celebration of Heller vs. DC I will be using only bullet points today (har har).
- So far Felty is insisting the law won't change for a few weeks at least, and Daley is "angry" (according to an article in the Tribune) and vowing to fight.
- Feeling very fatigued lately, not too happy about that. Had to take two naps, and I've had enough caffeine to send a small puppy into orbit.
- Movie night tonight at Dave's will be 42nd Street. Should be slightly less interminable than 2001.
- Tonight's weigh in: 125.5 lbs. Down 1 pound with constant eating. Crazy.
- Couldn't get to sleep until 3:30. Apparently I have some sort of caffeine reservoir in my body that saves it up all day and then dumps it out the minute I get home and brush my teeth. Thank goodness for The Wire and Internet chat.
No Comments | #6648
June 25, 2008 Things are going well at work.
Tonight's experiment was going to be Pesto, Goat Cheese, and Sun-dried Tomatoes Quiche, but I got busy trying to clean out my office and didn't make it to the supermarket. Instead I decided to use the rest of the vegetables from last night plus some carrots seasoned with Italian spices, a tiny bit of garlic and pepper cooked on the skillet. It was much better than the recipe I followed last night, with crisper vegetables that kept more of their taste against an egg noodle base tossed in two teaspoons of balsamic vinegar.
Also managed to clean out the fridge save for a bowl of chopped vegetables, half of the eggplant that's left, a small box of goat cheese and a handful of basil.
7 bits of junk mail plus a phone bill today.
18 messages on the voice-mail and not one of them worth listening to.
1,711 e-mails to process into a reasonable stack of appointments, references, and tasks to do.
It's going to be a quiet evening at home. Probably a largely unproductive one. Luckily Netflix has not sent any The Wire DVD's back yet, so I will probably spend this evening writing and organizing.
Nightly weigh-in: 126.5 lbs.
No Comments | #6647
June 24, 2008 Came home around 18:00 and did about an hour's worth of lawn work before heading out on my bike to the SFW supermarket about two miles away. Filled up my bike bag with all the necessary veggies and stock and bought a new spare tire at the bike store while I was up that way.
This evening's experiment was Mediterranean Vegetable and Lentil Salad from a recipe I discovered before leaving work on nutritious-cooking.com.
I roast chopped tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and eggplant in the oven with a olive oil and balsamic toss, then boiled down a vegetable stock around a cup of lentils. Once everything was cooked I combined everything in a bowl with goat cheese and chopped up basil leaves.
The cooking process went very well, and was pretty simple, but the end result left something to be desired. The lentils really dominated the salad and two cups of diced veggies didn't really hold up against the stock-soaked beans. It said it made six portions, but I ate half in a single sitting and was left with a mushy set of lentils at the bottom of the bowl.
I felt like I could have just as easily cooked up the vegetables in the skillet and saved myself a 350 degree oven and twenty minutes without losing a lot of the taste. If I try this again it'll be with half as much stock and lentils, and twice as much water so they're more of a base, and possibly some spices on the vegetables to bring out their flavor a little more.
I have enough of all the vegetables left to try this recipe again tomorrow. It was filling enough that I just might, and try my iron skillet method and some spices instead. That would bring the total cost to around $8 per meal. Still a bit high, probably buoyed up by the goat cheese and the stock, which didn't add all that much to the final product.
Putting the finishing touches on my daily checklist of goals. My weight and exercise routines are on there, but I've also added some items about concentration and total driving time to see if there are any trends to what I do during the day and how I feel by the end.
More about that tomorrow when I finally get it into a workable form.
No Comments | #6646
June 23, 2008 Slightly brain-dead but happy to be here at the office pounding out work.
Had dinner and drinks at Holy Frijoles with Elissa, Sharon, Bryan, and Eliza. People are my new hobby. There's nothing like learning how others spend their days and why they love it or hate it.
I need to spend some quality time in front of the MacBook tonight to edit and back-post my blog entries from this weekend. The Eee PC is great for draft writing, but awful for proofing and revisions.
Finished the first season of The Wire tonight. Its quite possibly one of the best shows I've ever watched. I know it's not for everybody, but the gallows humor just clicks with me on a whole other level than other dramatic style can. Deadwood had a similar effect on me.
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June 22, 2008 I get knocked down but I get up again, you're never going to keep me down.
Tubthumping busts out from the iPod. I sing along gleefully. I am tired, full, and happy from a full and fulfilling weekend.
"This is like your theme song, isn't it?" Patty asks with a grin. I've told her my theory of the universe handing me free passes every few years. She's heard a few of my stories this weekend. It's hard to argue against it when you know my life. The "knocked down" parts almost seem to fade into the background compared to the crescendo that inevitably follows.
Yesterday as we sat by the firewood pile taking a breather from one of the many climbs up the hill on the way back from the chill area to the campsite, a guy stopped to talk to us just to mention how "the universe has been good" to him. I agreed wholeheartedly with his choice of words, and smiled at the thought that my good fortune might be contagious.
Got back to Baltimore around 15:30 and hung out at Emma's entertaining and being entertained by Corey and Micah behind the bar. Enzo showed up with a 512 MB SD memory card he found on the ground after the gay pride party at the park, and I taught Micah the beauty of photorec to recover deleted pictures on his new (to him) Eee PC.
And then there was a wedding... (more later)
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