Journal

January 25, 2008 21:54

Hello from a chilly Savannah. Granted it's not as cold as Atlanta, but it's still a lot colder than it should be for Savannah. I mean, come on, it's further south and it's on the coast. This is not acceptable.

Why am I in Savannah, you ask. Well, to be completely accurate, I am at a Holiday Inn in Pooler. Pooler is about 8 miles north of downtown Savannah. And it is where the Savannah Coca-Cola Company is located. And that is why I am here: site analysis and software training for the local Coke bottler. The sessions went well and I was done at the plant before lunch this morning.

I spent this evening hanging out with Rosalie, who is currently living in Savannah and studying at Savannah College of Art and Design. Rosalie is one of my favorite people, but I usually only see her at Dragon*Con (which reminds me, I should look into booking hotel and weekend pass). The last non-Dragon*Con time I saw her (I think) was when I visited her in Greensboro two and a half years ago.

Anyway, we spent an hour chatting at her place and then went into downtown and had dinner at a new Thai restaurant. The meal was good, but nothing spectacular. We then went to one of the SCAD studios and checked out a whole lot of student art. A lot of it was pretty good; a lot of it was not so much. But it was fun wandering around and checking things out.

Now I'm back at the hotel and chilling out. I'll do some reading and then get an early and head back to Atlanta first thing in the morning. Tomorrow, I'm going to the NHL All-Stars game with Katrina. After the game I'll be going to an art show where Colleen has a piece on display.

The early part of the week was busy. Next week is going to be busy. Lots of long days. I may be MIA. Until Friday - when I shall come off the 31 days of no alcohol.

January 20, 2008 10:38

The snow came back on Friday night. And it stayed snowing most of Saturday. And right now it is not snowing, but it is 17F (-8C). In about ten minutes I will be heading out the door to meet Clair and Jen for brunch. This temperature is frightening me. It's nice and toasty in my apartment, but I'm scared to go outside.

The weekend so far has been pretty good. I've watched a bunch of movies (Underworld Evolution, Superbad, The Bourne Ultimatum) and enjoyed them all. I had lunch yesterday with Warwick and Stacy and Skylar, newly returned from Texas, and dinner with John, Holly, Sidra and a visiting Christie from Louisville. And Ashe came over to watch movies last night. Yep, a good day.

Today, as I mentioned, will be brunch and then bills and then reading. I've already read a little this morning and will probably do more this afternoon. I'll also play some more FIFA 2008, I think.

That's my quick Sunday morning update. It's cold here. Very very cold. Will it be spring soon? Please?

January 16, 2008 19:07

Well, it's snowing. The weatherman said that it could go 50/50, but it's definitely snowing. It started just as I was getting back into Atlanta from my trip to Athens. It wasn't sticking then, but it definitely is now.

Last night I had dinner with Jen M. We went to a new Spanish restaurant, Cuerno, recommended by Russ. It was very nice. I had a salad of iceberg lettuce and white anchovies followed by rack of lamb in vanilla oil and mashed potatoes. It was very tasty. The white anchovies were tasty without being overpowering. For dessert I had the yogurt and peach sponge with peach sorbet. The sorbet was incredible. Jen's tuna was excellent and her chocolate dessert was very rich. I will have to come back again when I am drinking again so I can sample the food with appropriate beverages.

Monday night was a Local night. I finished reading about the Somme in The Face of Battle. Wow, what a cluster that was. I'll hopefully knock off the final chapter tonight and move on to something else tomorrow.

It's snowing.

January 13, 2008 13:56

It's another pleasant day out there. A little colder than yesterday, but still quite pleasant. I shall be going for a walk after I have lunch.

I had a pretty good evening last night. After dinner (Pappadeaux leftovers) I wandered up to the Local and read my book while also taking note of the first period of the Atlanta vs Pittsburgh hockey match. Lauren and Matt cruised in for dinner and I chatted with them for a while. Around 8:20 I took my leave and headed over to Eyedrum for the opening of a new art show. I hung out with Mandie for a while (she had a piece on display) and then headed home. I watched the second quarter of the New England vs Jacksonville American Football match and then headed over to (former neighbour) Amy's place to watch the rest of the game and engage in some Guitar Hero fun. I'd never played Guitar Hero before, and it was a lot of fun.

For the record, Atlanta won the hockey and New England won the football.

This morning I read more of my book before getting up, having breakfast, showering, and then working on my taxes. I hate taxes. Taxes suck. Fortunately, most of what I was doing was filling a worksheet and generating documents to send to my accountant, who will do all the real work. I have to fill out forms for Federal, State, County, and City taxes. It's freaking ridiculous. And because I'm self-employed, certain of my Federal taxes (Social Security, Medicare) get doubled. So while I do make a lot of money, I also have to give more of it to the various government jurisdictions. Having said all that, I grossed less than I did last year (courtesy of taking a month off) so hopefully my quarterly payments will have covered my total tax bill and I won't have to pay any additional Federal or State tax.

January 12, 2008 17:38

Another piss-poor performance from Liverpool today. Better than the game against Luton, but still crap nonetheless. I can already see the headlines and blogs calling for Rafa's head. All that said, Torres' goal today was a cracker.

Aside from the football, it was another nice Saturday today. After the game I dropped Tim home (Arsenal also drew) and went to Pier One to buy a serving tray. For when I have whisky guests. I pretty much have the rest of the accoutrements - water pitcher, tasting glasses, whisky, literature - so it was time to get the serving tray to make it all good.

When I got back from my consumerism, I poured myself a glass of water, turned on my iPod (connected to the stereo), took off my shirt, and sat in the sun reading for about an hour and a half. Very pleasant indeed. I read some more on the couch after I came inside.

Over the past hour I have updated my company web site. It's been sitting there with an "Under Construction" message for the past two and a half years, so I figured it was about time I put something useful there. It's all very basic, and I need to do more work on the content, but it's a million times better than what it was.

Last night I stayed in and watched a movie. I looked through the High Def selection on Video on Demand, and found a movie that I had meant to see when it was in the theatres. So I threw it on and had an absolutely blast. The storyline for Shoot 'Em Up is weak and pretty silly, but the execution was spot on. I laughed hard from start to finish. After watching this movien, you'll never look at carrots in the same light again. Brilliant movie.

I paid bills this morning. I now need to look at my taxes. My accountant has sent me a worksheet for my state and federal taxes, but I've also got the annual forms for city and county taxes for my company. I tell you, it's expensive having a company.

I'm not sure what I'm going to get up to tonight. I do feel like heading out for a while. I may go up to the Local and read there for a little while. I haven't been there since January 3rd.

Upcoming stuff: I need to buy some new work clothes. I'm getting too fat for my current clothes. I started this year ten pounds heavier than last year, and while I've lost three pounds so far, it's a far cry from the 30 pounds I need to lose. Maybe I'll go for a long walk tomorrow. In a couple of weeks I'll be going to the NHL All-Star game; I'm looking forward to that.

January 11, 2008 08:35

I heard on the radio this morning that Sir Edmund Hillary died. A great NZ hero, Hillary, with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, was the first to scale Mount Everest, back in the 1950s. He also made several trips to the South Pole. A great New Zealander.

In other news, I've had a busy week. I've got one training session to do today, then a meeting after that, and then I've got a bunch of data analysis to do. I had a working dinner last night at Papadeaux; courtesy of my break from alcohol I was not bothered by the fact the restaurant had lost its liquor license. It was a good dinner meeting, covering a lot and again giving me more work to address. I'm going to be busy next week, in spite of the fact we have bumped the next phase of the project back a week. My 2008 negotiations are complete; not entirely as I had hoped for them to end, but I'm going to be working and I am going to be able to buy a place.

I've been reading a lot, which is good. I've already knocked off two books this year and I'll knock at least one more off this weekend. Last night I started back into The Face of Battle by John Keegan; John had loaned me this book before we even moved out of Penn Ave, so it's probably about time I actually read it. The first section is very interesting in its discussion of the writing and historiography of military history; the rest of the book looks at three significant battles: Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme.

Okay, must finish getting ready for work and head off to edumacate peeps.

January 06, 2008 17:35

I've had a bit of a mixed day. Mostly good overall, but disappointing in the football. Let me start with that. Two years ago, Liverpool drew Luton Town in the third round of the FA Cup. It was a crazy game, with Luton ahead of Liverpool for much of the game. It was only in the last minutes that a 5-3 victory was achieved by the Reds. I wanted something different today, a strong performance, a showing that displayed skill and desire and victory from start to finish. I didn't see that. To give Luton their credit, they played a phenomenal game, one that any side would be proud of. Their players played hard and commited football. Liverpool did not look good, and seeing as they started with a lineup that could have quite easily started in a Premiership game, there was no excuse. I won't go into my frustrations, but say that Luton Town probably deserved more than the 1-1 draw that takes both teams to a replay at Anfield on Tuesday.

But enough of that. I awoke mostly refreshed, but still a little tired. I grabbed a book from my bookshelf, John Donne No Man Is An Island and read that for an hour. Then it was time to get up, shower and head out for the previously discussed game. Half of the usual suspects were at the game, Tim (from the earlier Arsenal match), Oiler, Bianca, Christy and Greg, Gwen, Tiffany. I had breakfast (sausages and eggs). After the game I headed down to the Aussie Bakery for lunch (steak and mushroom pie) and to pick up some pies and sausage rolls for my freezer. Then it was back home again.

At home I did a half-arsed job of cleaning the floors. Well, the kitchen and bathroom floors had a good going over, but the living room was tackled in a fairly lackadaisical manner. The weather was beautiful outside (I had been driving around with the sunroof open) that I decided to sit on my deck, read more of Donne, and catch some rays. I spent an hour or so in the sun, listening to one of my Bripop/Madchester playlists. Yeah, that was nice. It's still fairly nice out there - sunny and 66F (19C) - and little to no breeze. Wonderful weather after last week's frostiness.

Craig called earlier on this afternoon to let me know that a group was getting together for Korean barbecue tonight. It's very tempting. We're meeting up at the Local at 7pm, so I have some time to think about it.

Yesterday I got a call from my Mum, and spent a good 45 minutes chatting to her. I walked down to Eats for dinner (jerked chicken with broccoli and green beans) and stopped by Borders for some impromptu book-buying on the way home. And I spent the rest of the day reading, namely Fluke; Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore. It was fairly fun, although not as good as Lamb; The Gospel According to Biff. I went to bed around 1am, which may explain why I was quite as fresh and spritely this morning as I might have been.

A big week ahead of me. Mostly training and documentation and problem resolution. Also some negotiation. At least two dinner engagements. Mail my quarterly tax check.

January 05, 2008 12:23

I kind of slept in this morning. I woke up but went back to sleep, because my bed was simply too cosy and inviting. I considered grabbing a book and reading for a while, but, frankly, my bed is not the right sort of comfortable for that. So I eventually got up and caught the FA Cup 3rd Round Preview show on Fox Soccer Channel. Then I jumped in the shower.

I didn't really feel like tackling the various tasks that last night I had set myself for today. I was hungry, but lacking eggs to go with my bacon. So I walked up to Belly for breakfast, then to Publix to pick up some basic groceries, and then back home. The round trip distance is about a mile and a half. Groceries went away, FA Cup results were checked (some very interesting results), and I wrote a large check to be sent to US Treasury to cover my fourth quarter estimated taxes.

I (legally) downloaded Spoon's 2007 album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, which Tim had picked as his number one album of last year and which also scored high for Kenyon. I shall give that a listen later on, as I'm currently listening to some PJ Harvey.

For some reason, some of my CSS is not working properly. I'm going to try to fix that today.

January 05, 2008 00:52

Late Friday night. Just got back from watching Sweeny Todd with Lauren and Matt. It was very enjoyable. I walked down to the movies and back, which was a bit rough. It's quite cold outside, so I was bundled up well.

Thursday night I did get to see Juno, with the desired company. The movie was good, and then we stopped by the Local on the way home. I had a coke.

Off to bed in just a little bit. Being a non-drinking month I'm probably going to get a lot more done in the weekends and evenings than I normally do. So tomorrow's tentative agenda includes: bathroom, kitchen and living room floors; farmer's market, new shirts and trousers for work. This weekend is FA Cup weekend; Liverpool plays at Luton Town on Sunday. I think I'm going to have to squeeze some work in at some point as well.

Sleepy time.

January 03, 2008 09:09

My computer is telling me that the temperature is 16F (-9C). Yesterday never actually made it above freezing. Weather.com is telling me that it's 18F but feels like 10F (-12C). It shouldn't come as a surprise that it was very hard getting out of bed this morning.

I made a really tasty dinner last night of sauteed trout filets, bacon-wrapped asparagus, and steamed cauliflower. I even have left-over trout. That's another good thing about my January hiatus from drinking: I tend to cook up really tasty good food in amongst the simple fare of meat and veggies.

I should be able to avoid going out today. I have a conference call at four, but that's all for the agenda. That's not to say that I don't have a good amount of work to get done, because I do have a fair bit to do. I'm just having a latish start as I wait for breakfast to cook. I may go out this evening to the movies; I want to see Juno, and there is someone I want to see it with. I'm just waiting to see if she's going to call me back.

Ooh - I need to reregister my company. Must do that today. Okay, that's all for now.



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