In the late 90′s, I lived within walking distance of a Borders store. It was the first time in my life that I’d had easy access to that kind of place. I enjoyed regular trips to the store’s cafe, where I’d usually order a vanilla Coke and then spend some time browsing the nearby magazine racks. I’d start with the music magazines, reading anything that looked interesting. Then, I’d move on to the technology mags (usually the Mac-centric ones), if I was still in the mood to read. I’ve often wondered if this type of behavior is exactly what these stores had in mind when they all opened in-store cafes. It’s likely that Borders made more pure profit from my purchase of vanilla Cokes than it would have if I had just bought all of the magazines I happily read for free. And while that’s great for Borders, it’s not so good for the magazine companies. Even so, lots of people were still buying magazines, so maybe it didn’t matter if some of us were using our local bookstores as libraries. Or, maybe not. Read the rest of this entry »
Some cockatiels are more vocal than others. We have (at least) two birds who sing regularly. Here, Pepper expresses his appreciation of the day with a nice song. It’s fun to watch him sing because sometimes it looks like the notes are really being pulled out of him by some external will.
(Another cockatiel, her name is Poke, does some video bombing towards the end.)
I’m somewhat discouraged to note that FIVE MONTHS AGO I wrote about how I had determined that, in order to lose weight, I had to keep my daily calorie counts under 1500. And since then, I’ve only managed to lose a couple pounds. This is kinda pathetic, and it’s the ultimate proof that I’ve been having far too many 1700 – 1800 calorie days. And when I get to this level of caloric intake, I don’t gain weight, but I don’t lose any, either.
Since the beginning of 2009, I’ve lost 25 pounds. And that achievement shouldn’t be downplayed. But I need to lose more. At the beginning of last year, I set a weight loss goal for myself. I started the year at 253 pounds. I wanted to get below 240 by my birthday (July 11th). I beat the deadline on that goal by almost a month. It was a big deal, because I knew that if I managed to get below 240, it meant I was doing something right, as all of my previous weight-loss attempts never passed the 240 mark. Right now, I’m at 228. And I’ve been at 228 for awhile. I’ve decided to give myself another goal. This time, I want to hit 220 by year’s end. It’s a reasonable goal, and I believe I can do it. I know what I need to aim for on a daily basis (1500 calories total). I just have to do it. And yesterday and today, I have! I made specific choices about my meals that helped me to keep my calorie counts low. Of course, these are things I’ve known about all along. But habits tend to control a lot of my behavior, especially when it comes to eating.
Jen and I met with our insurance agent today. We wanted to go over our existing homeowners and car insurance policies to make sure they were still adequate for our needs, and we also wanted to get some information on life insurance as well as health insurance. Read the rest of this entry »
I added some wheels to my new Line 6 Spider IV guitar amplifier. Now, it’ll be much easier to move the amp around. I ordered the casters (wheels) from Amazon, as our local hardware store didn’t have any in the correct size. I used some loose screws from my hardware tackle box to affix the casters to the bottom of the amplifier housing. Overall, it was pretty easy.
The amplifier on its side, with the new wheels resting on top.
I had to eventually turn the amplifier over completely, in order to get the wheels attached.
Fast forward to the last wheel.
A short video of the amp being moved about on its new wheels.
It’s been five years since Jen and I moved from Illinois to California. In this audio blog, which I recorded yesterday, I talked about some of my thoughts on this subject.
As a belated anniversary present to ourselves, Jen and I spent a couple days last week in Solvang, CA. We stayed at the Kronborg Inn, which turned out to be a pretty nice place.
Kronborg Inn sign, with requisite windmill feature.
from Amazon, as our local hardware store didn’t have any in the correct size. I used some loose screws from my hardware tackle box to affix the casters to the bottom of the amplifier housing. Overall, it was pretty easy.
