Double triple day weekends, Hunger Games, Dog days, Time

So I decided late Thursday afternoon that I was going to take Friday off.  I figured with my having the dogs it would be a good thing, plus it would allow me to get a big jump on what needed to get done this weekend.

It was funny how quickly the dogs jumped right back into their routines.  The new furniture didn’t bother Sadie at all, she was quite happy to nap on it just the same.  Of course Nicki, the sensitive one, was more mindful of the different surroundings.  She has not gotten up on the new furniture as of yet.

On Friday I got started on work around the house bright and early, heading outside to weed and attend to other items outdoors.  The weeds were bad since I skipped the process last week.  I also harvested a number of items out of the garden including the last rutabaga, some nice heads of broccoli, 3 good sized carrots, leeks and onions.

Once I was done with the outside work I grabbed the girls and we headed over to Ali’s place.  I had a number of to do’s over there.  I first set up her new TV.  Wow, what an improvement over the temporary 15 inch TV she was using.

Before she left town Ali had bought a cherry shelf unit and a rolling laundry cart, both requiring assembly.  Although Ali could have probably muddled through the assembly process I thought I would save her the hassle.  The shelf unit was the far more challenging of the two projects.

I then grabbed the mountain of flattened boxes she had at the top of her steps and lugged them out to the party van to transport to the one of the community recycling dumpsters.

After I was finished I decided top stop at the Super Target right up the street.  I figured I could kill a couple birds with one stone.  I needed cutting boards for the new dog food stands I was planning to build, a new hammer (gave old one to Ali), and groceries.

I was pumped that not only did I find cutting boards of the correct size, 14″ x 17″, but they were also black, a nice fit since the new stands would be black as well.  Grocery shopping at Super Target was ok but not a great experience.  I didn’t know the layout of the store so finding things took longer than if I was at my normal Publix.  I also found that the selection of items was somewhat lacking in comparison to Publix.

I was able to find the Bud Light Platinum, one of the important items on my list.  Even with buying two cutting boards and a new hammer, my bill with the groceries came out to $100.  Yes my new food budget is pretty minimal.

Friday afternoon I decided to start work on the new dog food stands.  I actually only bought enough black shelving to make one stand at first.  I wanted to make sure it turned out ok before I bought more shelving.

As in most of my construction projects I sort of winged it although I have made two other dog stands in the past so I had a basic game plan in my head.  I pulled my rarely used table miter saw out of the shed for the work.

The biggest issue I had was the shelving was a foot wide so I was unable to cut through it in one swipe.  After making the first cut I had to spin the board around and then get down at eye level and line up the blade with the existing cut.  It worked surprisingly well.

Here is the first table after it was done.  I actually went a step further, later removing the 2″ green decking screws, (all I had), and replaced them with black drywall screws.  I knew the green screws would be like a little pin prick for Ali since she loves when things match.

Friday evening I called my mom and told her I wanted to drop off some of my garden harvest for her.  It also would give her a chance to see the dogs.  Of course the girls were very excited to see grandma as always.

My trip was two fold, I also wanted to stop at the Home Depot in Bonita to pick up more black shelving for the second food stand.  I was quite annoyed when I found that this location does not stock the black variety, only white and natural wood grain.

Saturday morning I decided to pull myself out of bed at 4:30 to head to the club group run.  I hadn’t really thought about it beforehand, but I think I have not done any significant distance running since the Hooters Half Marathon.  There has been a lot going on in my life since then that has precluded running.

I went into the run thinking I would just do the shorter 7 mile run at a pretty casual pace.  Well I wound up running most of the distance with Matt who makes me pick up the pace just because I know how fast he can run.  I wound up covering the 7 miles at about the same pace as my PR half marathon.  It felt pretty tough.

After the run I swung into the near by Home Depot where I got my original black shelving to grab some more for dog food stand number two.

When I got home I attended to the indoor chores that were yet to be done which didn’t take all that long to do.

Later I built the second stand.  Of course it went much faster than the first attempt and I didn’t have to do any guesswork on the sizes of the individual pieces, I just used table number one as my template.

Saturday night I decided to take myself to the movies.  I wanted to go see Hunger Games.  I went to go see the film at the pricier but closer Silverspot Movie Theater.  When I figured out the cost in gas of driving up to Coconut Pointe to see the movie I realized I actually come out a few dollars ahead seeing it locally.

Some people may think it is odd to go to the movies yourself, I guess it is in a way.  A movie is one of those things that is better as a shared experience I suppose, however it isn’t the first time I went to see a flick with me, myself and I.  I am sure it won’t be the last.

Anyway, I had never even heard of The Hunger Games prior to the movie being released.  I had no idea it was a successful book.  However after hearing the premise and the positive reviews I thought it was worth seeing in the theater.

I thought the movie was quite good.  The concept of the poor enduring bloodshed to entertain the rich is one that is actually quite firmly based in human history.  It’s part of the twisted make up of the human psyche.

The film was very well done and I enjoyed it from beginning to end.  It gets a solid A in my book.  Speaking of books, it almost makes me want to go out and read the book version of the film which I hear is better than the movie.

Sunday morning it was nice and crisp out, I figured that was the best time to take the dogs for a walk at the swamp.  We were pulling into the parking lot a few minutes after 8.  I was kind of surprised there were 5 other vehicles in the parking lot already.

I was really surprised when I saw how low the water levels were in the swamp.  Most areas that in January were 4-5  feet deep with water are now bone dry.  As a result we didn’t see any gators until the very end of the walk when we spotted two big adults and one baby.

During the walk my phone rang, I thought it might be Ali.  Instead it was a guy that does race timing, he just started doing it a couple months ago.  He uses the same Ipico equipment I use for the club.  He was timing a race and was having a problem getting the finish times to publish.  I did the best I could trying to help him in the middle of a swamp.  I told him if I was in front of my PC I could give him more direction.  I gave him a few things to try but was not able to correct it over the phone.

The dogs and I enjoyed our walk in the swamp as we always do.  Afterward instead of heading home we went back to Ali’s place for the second time.  I had more things to set up.  Ali had me order an external hard drive for her to use to back up her pc.  She has seen first hand over the years what happens without a good back up.

I hooked up the drive and configured her pc to be backed up weekly.  I then started a full back up.  While that was running I headed out to the living room.  When I set up Ali’s tv on Friday I noticed that all of her shows she set up to tape on the DVR recorded in crappy SD resolution.  I went into the DVR with the intention of switching the shows to record on the HD channels which are up in the 400’s.

Wow the Comcast DVR interface isn’t even close to Tivo in terms of usability.  It is a huge pain trying to figure out how to do things that are dirt simple in Tivo.  After much futzing around I finally figured out how to make the change so Ali’s future recordings will be in crystal clear HD.

The rest of my Sunday was pretty relaxed, I had all of the house chores done.

Late in the afternoon I popped in “In Time”, a Netflix rental that has been sitting in it’s envelope for a few weeks.

The movie premise is one that is quite interesting to me.  The setting is one in the future where human beings have undergone some bizarre rewiring where once you hit the age of 25 you no longer age.  Wow, the fountain of youth, how fantastic would that be?  Well there is one catch.

At 25 a built in clock on your forearm starts counting down.  You only have one year of time to live.

Now it isn’t as bad as it may seem as there is no longer any cash in this future, time is the currency.  So at your job you are paid in time, adding to that clock on your forearm.  You also pay for everything in time.  A bus fare might cost two days, a new car, a few months.

Anyway I found myself very interested as the movie ramped up but by the end I was sort of done with it.  The movie was too long and it just got so silly at points.

They also bludgeon you to death with the, rich people are mostly evil, angle which got to be a little tiresome even for me, someone that mostly subscribes to that theory.

Anyway it was a fine rental but I wouldn’t have felt like I spent my “time” wisely if I footed the bill to see it in a theater.  B+

Tonight I am picking up Ali at the airport very late.  I will be lucky to get home before 11:30.