Wednesday is a good day at the office. Usually we have 5 or more guys go to Buckhead Burrito Grill for lunch. Wednesday lunch at BBG has been a tradition for longer than most of us have been employed here. The only thing (we thought) that could make it better would be if it was a company sponsored outing.
Today our lives changed.
What’s that new item on the menu? “Snickerito” - what’s that?
The Snickerito starts with, as you might suspect, a Snickers bar. They wrap it in a tortilla and deep fry it. Amen. Then they top it with whipped cream. Wow!
It is my speculation that everything is better fried. Chicken, okra, potatoes, bananas, tomatoes, cheesecake, turkey, ice cream, burritos (chimichangas), cheese (on a stick…like from the Corn Dog place). They’re all better fried than they are when served another way. Add Snickers bars to the list.
Buckhead Burrito Grill is located at 3940 Cherokee Street in Kennesaw (next to Johnny’s Pizza, but seriously, why would you ever eat there?). They recently moved from another location on Cherokee Street, so don’t get lost. And if you’re going, let me know so I can meet you there.
A couple of months ago, I got invited to go along on a mountain bike ride. I barely made it through the 4-mile loop, but I had a blast. So I went back again, and again. Soon I was hooked. (And I have no trouble with the 4-mile loops any more.)
I have been riding an old bike that I borrowed from a friend. It’s WAY too small for me, but I rode it anyway. I started saving up some cash for a new bike, and with the help of some family at Christmas, I was able to complete my bike fund.
On Monday I went to Outspokin’ Bikes in Woodstock. They had exactly what I needed, and in a size for a genetic misfit like myself. I bought a 2008 Specialized Rockhopper and went home very excited.
Then on Tuesday, I went with Aaron and his wife riding. We had a great time accidentally trespassing on some land up in Canton. (long story) And though we had a good time, but I had a problem with the bike. The hole where the right pedal screws into the crank was completely stripped. I had to ride about 2 miles back to the car with only 1 pedal (a task much harder than it sounds).
On Wednesday I took the bike back up to Outspokin’ to be fixed. Obviously, it was a warranty issue. They didn’t have the exact part I needed, so they ordered it. I picked it up last night, and we’re going riding in about an hour.
The guys at Outspokin’ really know what they’re doing. They’re not a bunch of sales people selling bikes, but rather a bunch of biking enthusiasts who know what they’re talking about. If you need a bike, I highly recommend the guys up at Outspokin’ Bikes. Tell them the genetic misfit sent you.
Today is Brandy’s birthday. Brandy is one of my internet friends that has become one of my real life friends. And I’m glad…she’s a pretty cool friend. We’ve met twice now. Twice. So, yeah, we go way back.
Anyway, here are a few things about Brandy you may not know:
She read 77 books last year, which is more than I have read in many, many years combined. Or ever, maybe.
She inspired my “Dear…” posts where I write letters to idiots and post them on my blog.
She sometimes wears “hooker boots” to work. (No, that’s not her profession…)
She works for a noble group of people who help meet needs and change lives all around the world.
The Presidential Primary elections here in Georgia are on February 5. That’s soon, in case you didn’t notice. The deadline for registering to vote and being able to vote in the Primary election is Monday, January 7. That’s really soon.
If you’re not registered to vote, you need to get that taken care of. You can register at your county’s Board of Registrar’s Office. You can find the address for your county here.
I tried calling Comcast today. I needed to speak with someone who can talk to me about network abuse issues. The first guy I called said “network - as in the internet?” I swear to you all, that’s a direct quote. The second guy I called hung up on me.
If anybody who reads this knows how to get a human within Comcast’s network abuse department (or, as they call it, Customer Security Assurance), please let me know.
We’re home from our Christmas trip to the Carolinas. It was fun, but it’s always nice to be back.
I’m on the bed right now, catching up on some email and all of my regular reads. I hear Randall Goodgame singing “Tractor Tractor” in my son’s room. My wife is in my daughter’s room, training Trevor, our new virtual dog (the best kind) on the Nintendo DS. The cat is by my head, purring very loudly, thrilled that her people have returned.
And now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a Wii in the living room just begging to be played with. I guess I should get right on that…
This past summer, I visited (and fell in love with) Australia. I was mostly in Melbourne, but we did take a weekend trip up to Mount Buller to go skiing.
Yesterday when I was digging up that video of water going down the drain in Australia, I realized that I never finished uploading my pictures from my trip to my flickr account. I’ve finished uploading my Australia photos here.
The newly uploaded pictures include shots of St. Kilda, Melbourne, St. Paul’s Cathedral (from the outside), Flinders Street Station, the Yarra River, and the Arts Centre.
Many people here in the US mentioned to me that I should check the toilets in Australia went I went to Melbourne this past summer. Of course, they’re referring to the myth (legend?) that toilets flush one way in the Northern Hemisphere and another in the Southern Hemisphere.
The answer to the real question is no, water does not go down a drain the opposite direction in Australia. This is not theory or second-hand information. I have been to Australia; I have tested the waters; I have proof:
This is one of those posts that I hope ends up in search engines so that somebody will find it and get the answer that I had trouble finding.
I wanted to have my Facebook status appear on my blog by using the Wordpress RSS widget. I went to Facebook and found the RSS feed for my status updates, but when I put that URL in the RSS widget, it never showed on the blog. When I went back into the widget’s properties, it said that it “could not find an RSS or ATOM feed at that URL”
After tinkering with it a bit, I went to feedvalidator.org to see if something really was wrong with the feed. Turns out that it wasn’t validating. So I logged into feedburner, burned a new feed using the Facebook status update RSS URL, and now it works.
This blog post is the closest thing you’ll get to a Christmas card/letter from me. If you’re one of those sappy, sentimental people, print this post, put it in your mailbox, and pretend that I mailed it to you.
Chances are good that if you read this blog regularly, you’ll know most of what’s going on with me. It’s been a fun year, so I’ll recap the highlights.
January - looking for new job.
February - left old job and took new job. Now I keep kids safe online.
March - spring training trip with Dad.
April - moved our company from the old office building to a new one.
May - celebrated 10 years of marriage.
June - turned 30.
July - family vacation to Pigeon Forge, TN.
August - spent 2 weeks in (and fell in love with) Melbourne, Australia. My girl turned 7.
September - mostly recovered from the AU trip and the extra long hours.
October - the boy turned 4.
November - got into mountain biking. Also ate much turkey.
December - spent most of the month figuring out what this post would say.
It’s been eventful, but it’s been fun. I’ve learned a lot this year, both on a business and on a personal level, and I hope 2008 brings even more fun and learning. I could do without another job change or a month full of working 18+ hours per day, but other than that, I’m ready for whatever 2008 has to offer.
I hope you’ve had a good 2007 and that you have an even better 2008. Take time to spend this season with your family. Reflect on the reason we have Christmas (if you need help with that, click here). Tackle 2008 with much fervor, and make it the best year ever.
Blessings, hope, love, etc., to you and yours in this holiday season and throughout the coming year.
