That lead to two interesting things (three really), when she came by yesterday, she handed me a percolator coffee pot and said my dad gave me this to give to you, he said you would appreciate it, I don’t know why.  I was flattered & surprised.  For the longest time, when I was young,  I made coffee at the house using an old stove-top percolator coffee pot.  Racheal was confused since she didn’t know why it was important.

Also, she’s lent me his old guitar an Epiphone with a wider neck than my current guitar.  It should make it a little easier to play.  It’s also Randy’s (her Dad) old guitar.  So I’m glad they trust me with it.  Using it we started getting into classical guitar.  It’s a cool way of playing using your fingers to pluck the strings more than strum them.  My  hang-up (besides just getting into it as a beginner) is that it’s what Helen’s Ex-husband is an expert at… so I makes me reluctant in some ways, not wanting to do anything even associated with what he’s done.   I cannot say whether it’s justified or not, it just is how I feel for now.

Time for work now.  I’ve had a blast setting up a wiki for our servers over that past couple of days and I’m looking forward to working on it more today.

AHHHHHH!  I had a great post here but thanks to the network, I lost it!  AHHHHHH!

Fri (8/13)

1 hard boiled egg
1 cheese stick
2 slices roast beef, 1/2 cup yellow pepper, mound (~3cups) celery
2 slices roast beef

Thurs. (8/12)

1 whole hard boiled egg
2oz lean pork, 1/2 – 1 cup cucumber, 4 frozen strawberries
2oz lean steak, 4 frozen strawberries
2oz lean steak, salad greens, 1/2 cup yellow pepper, all covered w/ hot sauce for salad dressing

Wed. (8/11)

1 egg

salad (lettuce, yellow pepper, onions) 3oz steak

4oz lean pork, 2oz cucumber, 1 scallion chopped, 1/2 cup yellow pepper

Tues. (8/10)

Chicken 10oz (starving hungry by this day, keytonic)

Mon. (8/9)

Chicken 10oz

Sunday (8/8)

1 Clif Bar

Chicken 10oz

Part of the diet is taking phentermine for dealing with the hunger pangs.  It certainly does that.   I ate the equivalent of 2 chicken breasts all yesterday and got hungry just once.  As a side effect though, I don’t sleep as well, and … well it makes me feel funny.  Ultra focused in a way, that’s not necessarily a bad thing though lol.

I spent most of the past week down with a cold, which didn’t help anything.  I felt weak and couldn’t do anything, and just wanted to stay in bed.  My head was congested and I was constantly sniffling.  By yesterday I was mostly over it and spent the day finishing some re-arranging started on Fri.  That was due to Maggie’s new bed coming in and so we had to make space for it.  Nothing sucks like moving with a cold.  Even though itwas just between two rooms it was pretty rough.

So through diets and colds, I have a new office in Maggie’s old room.  It’s a nice bigger space and I have more windows!  We’re not 100% done with the moving, I still have some things to move out of her room and she’s still got stuff in here.  I put out a call on facebook for people to suggest new posters for my walls.  I’m happy with the layout for the most part, but with a little more moving that can be fixed.

Bone and Bone

In an effort to learn to carve, I got the camel bone so that once I’ve gotten in enough practice, Here using soap bars:

a small alligator and fish

So I’m working on being creative… driving myself to be more than just work & home life.

What’s nice is that after the yard work yesterday, I got out of the house on my own for a while. I hit he 5-guys burger place and st and read and ate and read some more. I’m reading “World War Z” by Max Brooks. Told as a series of post zombie invasion interviews, it comes across with a lot of heart, adventure and horror. I am really enjoying reading it.

Taking breaks from reading, I made notes on things I wanted to do over the next 6 months and various goals and what not. It was a good time to step back and evaluate what things I think are important and how I want to approach them. I really needed it and I’m glad I was able to take the time.

I enjoyed the chance to stop and make a few plans while not pressed with the emergency of the day. As a first step, I’ve ordered some new computer parts, which should come in this week. I hope to make a good linux box for learning & testing new things. My old one is ok… but hard to work with. I’ll update more as time goes on, but I think this is a much needed first step.

My New Office Chair!

For those wondering, I got it from Amazon.com and it’s a Tiffany Industries Big & Tall Executive Chair (Although by all accounts it’s a re-branded Mayline Chair but I don’t care about that.)