A Yankee in Texas

… who knew I would like it. I am kinda of a pepperoni kind of guy. I went through a thin crust bacon kick a while back, but that is the extent of my experimentation. Tonight my co-worker/buddy Kearney had to work late so Ben ordered him a pizza. It’s kind of a policy we have: If you stay late to get things done, the company picks up dinner.

Anyway Kearney decided he wanted Pineapple and Bacon pizza. Ben placed the order and when it was delivered Ben and I were still working so we each had a slice or two. I was shocked at how much I liked it. I mean I like bacon, I like pineapple and I love pizza, but who knew if they were all combined that I would find it very tasty.

I called Nicole when I left work and she was feeling under the weather. I told her I was thinking of having pizza for dinner since we really haven’t had pizza since moving down from NY. When I got home she was curled up in bed still not feeling well so I figured I was still on my own for dinner.

I popped on to the computer and ordered a pizza from Papa Johns… half pepperoni… half pineapple and bacon. I wasn’t sure it would be as good as from where ever Ben ended up ordering from and I didn’t want to place the fate of my dinner on an unknown quantity. For all I know that pineapple and bacon pizza could of been the best one ever made.

The pizza arrived and I was happy to discover that the bacon and pineapple combo was just as tasty as it was earlier. Nicole was a bit shocked when she saw what I ordered. She swears she didn’t know I liked pineapple. Granted I do hardly ever eat it unless it’s covered in chocolate.

– Jeremy

… I love them. I am not much of reader, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like books. I think my dislike of reading has more to do with my vision than anything else. My eyes get strained quickly. I know I need to get new glasses, but even when my prescription is good I have eye strain issues.

Anyway, 3 or 4 months ago I signed up with Audible.com it gave me something to listen to on the plane while flying back and forth from New York to Austin, but it wasn’t till Ben and I drove my car down that I really gained an appreciation for how audio books can turn wasted time in to time well spent. For me though the real test was if I could stay in to a book just listening to in on my way to and from work. The answer to that question is yes, yes I can!

I just finished listening to World War Z by Max Brooks. I really enjoyed listening to it over a period of about 2 weeks. Just listening during my 20-30 commutes in the mornings and evenings. I am now transferring to my new iPod Touch Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I don’t know much about the book except that it is a Sci-Fi classic. I have high hopes that it will be an interesting and engaging story.

I have more credit for a book waiting for me to pick something. I am thinking something health or fitness related to go along with my 2008 plan.

– Jeremy

I hope everyone had a good holiday. Nicole and I received a lot of great gifts and had a great time hanging out with Ben and Gina. I am going to keep this short since I am writing this post on my new iPod Touch and I haven’t got the hang of typing on it yet.

— Jeremy

With Christmas right around the corner things have settled down a bit, at least for the next four days. So with some free time on my hands I took the opportunity to finally rearrange my computer setup. I moved the Macbook over to the left of the external monitor. Moving the Macbook achieved two things first it is now easier to get to so if I do want to go mobile I don’t have to dig it out of the corner. Second it got it out of the way of the mouse.

I also figured out how to move the Apple “Menu Bar” so that it’s at the top of the external monitor. Which basically is the same as setting the external monitor as the primary on a Windows machine. As far as the switch to Mac goes I am very happy. Things I had issues with I am now finding come second nature. In fact the real pain in the ass is when I find myself trying to do things that I would do on the Macbook on a Windows laptop like the two fingers on the touch pad for a right click.

– Jeremy

One issue with personal projects is that they tend feel over whelming… at least for me. At work if we have a big project I get to spend 40+ hours a week tackling it. A personal project on the other hand is lucky to get 10-20 hours a week depending on how dedicated I am feeling. That’s why last night I started to carve grubfi.com down in to little bites. So when I have an hour of time I can sit down and get something done.

I still have a bit more planning to do, but I figure by January 1st I will have a good game plan in place. I am looking forward to making some progress on it. I still think it’s a good idea. I am not sure if it will be that popular, but it’s cool to have even a small group of people using something you built.

Wish me luck…..!

– Jeremy

I apologize for not posting this week, but it’s been a bit crazy. We are trying to wrap up a few projects at work before the end of the year. We also had somethings not go as planned so they had to be tested and retested. Which was a bit of a distraction.

At home Nicole is getting the apartment in to full Christmas mode. Which started with moving all the Christmas decorations upstairs from the garage. We rented out the theater in the clubhouse for Christmas Eve. Ben and Gina are going to join us for a Christmas movie marathon. It should be a lot of fun and I am looking forward to it.

I am going to spend part of this weekend working on some recipes for the new diet. I need to come up with a basic meal plan for at least the first month. I found a few good dumbbell only work outs on line. I will post links over at 80in08.com. I need to start developing some content for 80in08.com. I also need to finish up a few scripts that I am developing to track my eating, my weight and my workouts. I will hopefully get some of that done this weekend.

I am also hoping to launch stickeraday.com in Jan or Feb. This is a project Ben and I have been meaning to work on for a while, but laziness has gotten the better of us once again. The goal of the site is to give away stickers and try to collect donations to keep the site self sufficient. I am not sure how it will work out, but it should be a fun experiment.

– Jeremy

Today was Nicole’s Birthday. I won’t say how old she is except that it’s a year younger than me… you can do the math if you know how old I am.

I got her a Flute… yep you heard me right a flute. She used to play in High School and she has been egar to start playing an instrument again. She really wants an Alto Saxophone, but the cost and the fact that we live in an apartment made me choose a flute instead.

Happy Birthday and I love you!

– Jeremy

Tonight I installed iWPhone which is a Wordpress plugin that detects that you are view from an iPhone/iTouch browser and applies a iPhone/iTouch optimized template to the content. I then tested the plug-in using iPhoney which is an iPhone emulator for OSX.

I can’t wait till Christmas day when I get to see it on my own iPod Touch.

– Jeremy

Nicole has been having issues with the wireless in the bedroom. I added a DIY Wifi booster called Wind Surfer and it worked great for me last night, but today she was still having issues. I am thinking of switching the channel we are running on. There are 4-5 other routers running on Channel 6 in our general area.

Of course I am laying on the bed with the Macbook and the wireless is working great. I will check Nicole’s computer before I go to bed.

– Jeremy