10.31.08
Boo!
Sorry, folks, I completely spaced on blogging the past couple of days. It wasn’t like I was super busy, either, I just plain forgot. ‘Cause I don’t care about you, obviously.
Not much is going on. This week I’ve been good about eating well and not going out. Today at the gym I’m doing my second weight training session of the week, and I’m committed to doing weights twice a week from now on. This weekend I need to do a long run in order to progress towards the half marathon I’m running on Thanksgiving. That’s about four weeks away, so I can do 10 miles and still be in good shape. At this point I’m planning it for Sunday, unless by some chance I wake up tomorrow with extra energy. Hey, it could happen!
So, it’s Halloween. I’m not a big Halloween person. I don’t like scary things, I don’t like to dress up, and I especially don’t like kids. I’m pretty sure I was scarred as a young child when my mother refused to buy costumes for us, so she’d make us costumes that looked incredibly stupid, then we lived way out in the boonies so we had to drive somewhere to go trick-or-treating, then we weren’t allowed to eat candy so once we got home with our haul we could only look at it longingly and have one piece per day. Yep. We generally finished off the Halloween candy in April, and that’s not an exaggeration. And now that I’m grown up and over that trauma, the holiday still involves not only children, but children who come up to the door! No on both points.
Fortunately the Canadians are saving the rest of us from the horror and having a trick-or-treater avoidance party. Usually we don’t get home from the gym until 8:00 pm and then go out to eat in order to avoid them, but since this year it’s on a Friday things are different.
Otherwise this weekend I need to go shopping for some necessaries and watch lots of TV. Also on Sunday the last Formula 1 race of the season happens, which should be dramatic given that the championship isn’t sewn up tight. It’s almost sewn up, but not quite. You never know what’s going to happen. Anyway, I’m looking forward to watching the race and also to the season being over. Heh.
Happy Halloween, y’all! Have a good weekend!
10.28.08
Eating out is the reason why I work out. And I’m gonna hafta work out a lot.
Fall weather really makes me want chili. I picked up all the ingredients to make chili last week, now I just have to actually, you know, make it. I have zero time during the week to make chili, especially considering it tastes best if you simmer it for a couple of hours. But I’m sure I could rustle up a pot this weekend. I’m also going to make butterscotch cookies!
Running group was good last night. I was completely unmotivated to go, but since I’d skipped running both days over the weekend, and replaced it with eating and drinking, I really had no choice. But I just did the regular 4 miles, no extra running afterwards. Lame, but whatever. I’ve already gone to the gym today since I have my law class tonight. Have been rockin’ the weights twice a week now for a little while, and it’s fun. Different, but fun.
In eating out news, I just found out that Restaurant.com is doing a kickass promotion, where they discounted their gift certificates by 80%. This means that you only pay $2.00 for every $25 increment. (Enter the code TREATS at checkout for the discount to be applied.) Now, the list of participating restaurants is kind of lame, but there are still several on there where I go quite frequently, like The Shed. I just bought $550 worth of gift certificates for $44! How happy am I right now?
One more week until election day! Excitement abounds!
10.27.08
I voted! Did you?
A big, hot, steaming happy Monday to you all. I hope your weekends were more productive than mine. Sometimes I wonder how (or why) the earth/our culture bothers to sustain me when sometimes I do literally nothing to justify my existence.
Friday afternoon I had lunch with my pay pal. We went to Taqueria and had a delightful meal. Afterwards I dropped her back at the office and then went downtown to vote. It was a rainy, cold day so I was hoping that fewer people would show up, but unfortunately everyone else seemed to have the same idea. But the line was inside, so I was warm and dry, I brought my book, and they moved the line very efficiently. It took about an hour and 40 minutes, all told. Here I am waiting to enter the room where the magic happens:
After that I had planned to do some shopping, but I left there right in the heat of rush hour, so instead I went home and went running in the rain. That night Dice and I went to Planet Bombay for dinner where I had a dismal glass of wine and a pretty spectacular saag paneer.
Saturday Dice went off to work and I puttered around the house most of the day and went to Whole Foods. Late afternoon some neighbors had a party for people who live on our street, which was lots of fun. We met some neighbors who we’ve never seen before. It was over pretty early so Dice and I went to the Albert for dinner. We were tired but Dice wanted food, so we just had dinner and went home again. Sunday we watched some serious TV until mid-afternoon when we went to Lenox mall and visited the Apple store, which is so dangerous because I’m THIS CLOSE to getting myself an iPod nano. While we were out we had a late lunch/early dinner at Brick Store and then went grocery shopping before returning home to watch more TV. Good weekend, but not exciting and certainly less than productive.
The TV is a pretty tall order these days. The DVR is at 85-90%, which normally wouldn’t be all that big of a deal because we have movies and random things on there that stay on for a long time. But because of all the new shows starting again this fall season, we got rid of most of those other things. That means that almost the entire DVR is filled up with Tv shows to watch. At this point, through diligent work over the weekend, we are about a week and 3/4 behind. During the week we generally only have time for one show in the evenings while we eat our dinner before going to bed, while we tape 2-3 per night. We’re just going to have to buckle down and watch more TV! I can think of worse things.
10.24.08
I wear a short skirt and a loooooonnnnnnnng jacket.
Well folks, it’s a cold, wet, dark, rainy and SCARY Friday out there. Very Halloween-y. Although I don’t particularly like Halloween, I do like miserable fall days like this. Just one of the charming quirks of my personality, heh.
It’s a short day at work for me. I’ve got a lunch date with my Paypal, no idea where we’re going, and then I’m going downtown to vote. As I mentioned a few days ago, GA allows advanced voting, which I’m going to take advantage of so as to avoid the long lines on election day. “They” are predicting up to 6 hour waits on election day, which I think is hyberbolic malarky, but it does illustrate the fact that it’ll be a madhouse that morning. And I’m thinking that on such a craptacular day as today, the lines will be proportionately short. So I’m equipped with an extra sweater, an umbrella, a book, and a pushy attitude. She is fast and thorough, And sharp as a tack, She’s touring the facility, And picking up slack.
I’m looking forward to our Indian feast tonight. It’s been entirely too long since I’ve enjoyed some naan and saag paneer. When I worked at Cornell I probably went to Indian buffet for lunch a couple times a month or even once a week. Of course, someone (I won’t say whom but he’s a boy with a girl’s name and a penchant for convincing me to do very, very bad things, usually involving huge vats of alcohol, molasses and feathers) was always dragging me there and I, weak as I am in the face of unlimited tandoori chicken, could never say no.
There’s been very little time to watch TV lately. I wish I could expound on my reactions to the various new shows, but I’m at least two weeks behind, which means that my opinions count for nothing. I need to get caught up so that I can accurately analyze the various plot twists (or lack thereof). Hopefully this weekend I’ll have a chance to catch up!
Think fast thoughts for Ray and Michael on tomorrow’s race. Michael’s going for sub-18 minutes. He’s racing, and pacing, and plotting the course. He’s fighting, and biting, and riding on his horse. He’s going the distance, he’s going for speed. He’s going the distance, he’s going for speed.
Have a nice weekend, y’all. Stay dry (unless wet’s your bag).
10.23.08
Changing thats to whos, shazaam!
To me, the funniest part about the Presidential election is that the actual election day is also my wedding anniversary. So every time CNN or whatnot says, “12 days until election day!” what they’re really doing is counting down until I get a very expensive meal. And on the upside, they were the easiest reservations!
I really wish I could convince everyone on the world, or at least English speakers, to remember to use “who” instead of “that” when talking about people. Every day I have to mentally change incorrect thats to whos just so that I can retain my respect for the speaker. It’s not that hard to remember “I have a cousin who loves para-sailing” or “I think everyone who votes for McCain is an idiot.” And on a related note, there is almost never a correct usage for “whomever.” Just never use it unless you know what you’re doing. Do not play recklessly with grammar!
I’m already thinking about weekend plans. Friday night The Commune is going to the scary tour of Oakland Cemetery, but because 1. I forgot to get tickets; and 2. Dice doesn’t want to go anyway, we won’t be joining them. I think instead we’ll go for Indian food. You might recall a few weeks ago when we were foiled in our quest for Indian by the kitchen fire at Planet Bombay? Well, the damage has been fixed and Planet Bombay is open again for business. Huzzah! Saturday we’re having a neighborhood get-together that was supposed to be a major block party blowout but has been reduced to most people on our street and a smattering of close neighbors. Which should be a blast, especially since we don’t have to do too much work, heh. So far those are our only plans, and that’s plenty considering I still need lots of TV watching time.
10.22.08
Once again, the law disappoints.
Last night I went to my law class after work, and was supremely disappointed. The topic was supposed to be legal research on the internet, taught by one of the law librarians. Now, you may or may not know, but I have a master’s degree in library and information science, so the topic is near and dear to my interest. And as all people in that field know, a regular brushing-up on your skills is necessary. Unfortunately the poor librarian could have used some instruction in instruction, because she didn’t know how to structure a class, nor how to impart the knowledge it was obvious she had. I basically learned nothing last night. I did come away with an impressive list of links to use when doing online legal research. However, since I’m a trained reference librarian (not experienced, but trained at least!) I already know that knowing links is less important than being able to find where links are. And that’s a skill I already have. Sigh.
After class I skipped over to Apres Diem in midtown to hang out with Tash on her birthday. It was nice to chat and unwind for a bit after the long day I’d had. I had a glass of the Joel Gott sauvingnon blanc and the fattoush salad, which is made up of romaine and arugula, tomatoes, eggplant and feta. Very good! The service was good up until the end when our waiter did a disappearing act. Normally I’m not one to complain about service, but she literally didn’t show up for almost an hour after our entrees were served, and it was a week night!
Is anyone else voting early? This whole early voting concept is new to me, and it seems like it’s taking away that election day feeling. But I’ll take it so as not to wait in line for 4 hours. Except the line for advanced voting is reported to be at least 2 hours. I’ll have to take a half day off work! Hmph.
10.21.08
Coldy-cold-cold.
Aaaaaaand it’s winter. SHAZAAM! Okay, yes, it’s 72 degrees outside today and the sun is shining. But the nights ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. Let me put it to you this way: Sunday night I went to bed wearing shorts and a wee t-shirt. Monday night I went to bed wearing 3 layers of clothes, including socks and a turtleneck, under extra blankets.
And to answer your question: no, we didn’t turn on the heat. Heat is for suckers. Even when I lived in upstate NY I didn’t turn on the heat until mid-October.
I went to my neighborhood running group last night, and it turned out to be not so much of a group as just me and Martha. And to top it off, we were both wearing the same t-shirt (our ING Georgia half marathon Ts), so it totally looked like we were on some sort of track team or something. Is that geeky? Yes, yes it is. But you know what? We still ran several miles and we’re, like, way awesomer than you are. So there.
10.20.08
I did lots of stuff this weekend. What’d you do?
Aloha, fellow people! It’s sad when the weekend is over. My goal to become independently wealthy becomes more important every day. Or at least every Monday. I wish I could work three 12 hour days. I have no problem staying at work once I’m here, it’s just the getting here in the morning that I have issues with.
I had a nice weekend. Friday night we picked up pizza on the way home from work and ate it in front of the TV and went to bed early. When we got home from work we were surprised by a weird noise coming from the kitchen, which turned out to be the timer on the stove going off. It’s a really old stove, the timer is of the turn-dial variety, and furthermore neither of us have ever touched it in the two and a half years we’ve lived in our house. That buzzer continued to go off at various intervals between 10 minutes and an hour until the point in the middle of the night when I told Dice to get up and “fix it for GOOD.” He unplugged it, but the damage was done and I don’t think I got more than 2 hours of sleep.
Which I needed because I had to get up early on Saturday morning and run 8 miles. Which I did in the company of a friend from my Monday night running group. Then I had just enough time to stretch and shower before crossing the street to have brunch at the Canadians’ house. Dice and I had both signed up to volunteer for the SAND Tour of Homes, so from 11-2 pm we each house-sat for a house that was included in the tour. After our shifts we wanted to take the tour ourselves but we only had time for 3 before we collected the Canadians again and went to the Little 5 Point Halloween parade. The parade wasn’t quite as good as last year, but even so it was still fantastic: the best parade in ATL in my opinion. Then that evening the SAND volunteers had a party, so we stopped in and had a good time chatting with our neighbors, both volunteers and homeowners. When the band started we left and went to the Shed where we sat at the bar and had an appetizer. It wasn’t even 10 pm when we got home, but we were so exhausted we didn’t stay up very long, although I watched the Red Sox game as long as my eyes would stay open.
Sunday we did very little, blissfully. In mid-afternoon we went to P’Cheen in Inman Park to watch the Formula 1 race from Shanghai. Pretty unremarkable race, but we had beers, wings and fries. Then we went grocery shopping and then back home to veg out on the couch for the rest of the day. Very relaxing!
Which brings us to Monday. The only interesting thing about today is I’m meeting up with my regular Monday night running group, which could easily consist of just two of us today. This is fine, because considering how nice the weather is outside, I’m just happy not to be at the gym.
The Red Sox lost last night, thus losing the ALCS and not going to the World Series. Bugger! The worst part about this is that means no more baseball until March. That’s a long time to wait!
10.17.08
I’ve been a bad, bad girl.
I’ve been a bad girl this week. I’ve gone out to eat every single night since last Friday with the exception of Monday. And I didn’t eat salad, either. Well, I did eat salad, but then I had something else. Something else bad. Every night. I’m not going to obsess about it because 1. there’s nothing I can do about it but be better in the future; and 2. my runs have been magnificent this week. So that makes up for it. And next week I’m eating nothing but raw vegetables.
Wednesday night we went to cheese dip. I don’t know why the urge hit me, but it did. As usual, a flawless cheese dip experience. Then last night we went to Graveyard where I had a spectacular BLT. First I had an arugula and romaine salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, and balsamic on a super chilled plate that was just perfect. Then the sandwich was toasted just right and had juicy tomato and crispy bacon. I’d heard from a friend that the wings had gone downhill there so I was a little worried about the food, but they’ve totally redeemed themselves in my opinion.
Tonight Dice and I are staying home instead of going to beer club. We’ve got a crazy busy day tomorrow. Among other things our neighborhood is having a Tour of Homes, and we’ve both volunteered to work a shift tomorrow. Plus I need to get up early to get my run in first thing. Plus there’s the Little 5 Points Halloween Parade, which is always the best parade of the year. So it’s going to be a fun, yet busy, day. Sunday we plan to watch a lot of TV and then in the afternoon watch the F1 race from Shanghai.
It’s dreary and rainy out there today, and the rest of the weekend it’s supposed to be cold. And by cold, I mean 70 or just below. Which, to me, is cold! I’m going to have to dig my turtleneck out!
10.15.08
Catching up is hard to do.
Although really there isn’t much to tell about Savannah, I’m afraid. I got there on Friday evening around 8-ish, cleaned myself and changed, and then walked all over hell and back looking for a decent place to eat that wasn’t crowded full of drunk people. I finally found a place on Bay Street, surprisingly enough, although later in the evening it got uncomfortably packed and I got out of there. In the interim, though, they played the Red Sox game on their flat screen, which was nice to watch even though they lost.
Saturday I went to Clary’s for brunch, which is where we went for breakfast with my in-laws when we all went in May. I was unsurprised to find that their food is still delicious. So good that I ate too much and didn’t need to eat again for 10 hours. After that I mostly wandered around town and read my book. I had originally wanted to go to the beach, but it rained the entire weekend, so I wandered when it wasn’t raining and read my book when it was. Took a little rest in my hotel before going out for dinner. I found the Six Pence Pub near my hotel where they had decent food and, more importantly, a very wide bar so that I could spread out with my book and plate. Chatted with a few people, some of whom were visiting from Connecticut and were also Red Sox fans, and watched the game as well. Fun time!
Sunday I got up, had breakfast, and drove up to Macon to hang out low-key with the other half of the Handitards. It rained all the way to Macon, while I was there, and then all the way to just before Atlanta, where it stopped completely. So frustrating! 4 million people in the metro area using the majority of the water in the state, and it never gets rain. After I got home Dice and I went to the Glenwood for dinner since he hadn’t gone out all weekend and was hankering for some food. Their fall menu is out now and it’s not as exciting as their summer menu was. We both got the burger.
Monday was work as usual, followed by running with my neighborhood running group. I had forgotten it was Columbus Day, which meant that traffic was unusualy light, which in turn meant that we got home extra early from work. I had time to run about a mile or so before meeting the group. We ran a nice 4 mile loop, and then afterwards I ran an extra couple miles for a total of 7.5. Considering I took both Saturday and Sunday off, I was pleased with that distance, although it didn’t totally make up for it.
Tuesday evening I went to see Wicked: the Musical with some girlfriends. First we had dinner at Baraonda which was very good. The female half of the Canadians (who was part of the party) correctly described it as a cross between Osteria 832 and Fritti. Price-wise, though, I would put it on par with Fritti. Then off to the theatre where we saw a very good production of Wicked, which is a sort of re-thinking of the characters in the Wizard of Oz and an allegory on the concepts of “bad” and “good.” Although I don’t like the Wizard of Oz, I enjoyed Wicked. It wasn’t fantastically fabulous, but it was definitely entertaining and the singing talent was phenomenal. I didn’t get home until 11:30 which meant I didn’t get to sleep until the wee hours of the morning, but it wasn’t much different from any other night so I’m actually not too tired today.
And that brings us up to date. I haven’t decided if I’m going to watch the final presidential debate tonight. I don’t really care what they say because I don’t believe that either one will, once elected, do what they profess they will do under the gun, so to speak, during a debate. But I will remember what they said and resent whoever is elected just for not doing it. Plus my vote would never change no matter what either of them say, so there’s little point.
