Russ Hall

Everybody loves pictures. I put up some more from the past few weeks here. They’re from various adventures in and around Columbus - St. Patrick’s day, free dinner at BJ’s with Judd and Jessica, and our first visit to Carabar.

We’re trying to get stuff fixed up around the house. I organized most of the random closets throughout and threw out some stuff from previous tenants that had found itself into weird nooks and crannies throughout then Jessica and I began cleaning up the backyard. This weekend, I’m hoping to borrow some yardwork stuffs from the ‘rents to continue getting through the process. Actually, kinda scary-like, Jessica found stuck in the ground.
Unfortunately, we do have some stuff that we can’t handle like plumbing overflows, electrical problems, etc. So, we’re trying to get Alan to bring some people in to fix these problems for us. The electrician was supposed to come this afternoon to look at stuff, but he didn’t make it down here, so hopefully tomorrow or Friday. We shall see. Judd also started looking into renter’s insurance, which we put off because we (maybe just I) didn’t think it was worth the money previously, but have had changes of heart since then. That also reminded me that I need to backup my files more regularly because I have so much stuff on the PC. The only benefit of it getting destroyed and having it covered by insurance is that I could get a PC with the same value and not how much it actually cost me to put it together. Maybe I’d get a computer memory upgrade.

Speaking of my gluttonous ways in my last post… as I was reviewing some of the assignments I had outstanding for ad placements in blog posts, I realized that the next one was for an appetite suppressant called Tenuate. I can’t really take a stance on appetite suppressants or diet pills, because I don’t think it’s my place to push that on someone. I would love to argue, “whatever happened to good old diet and exercise?” But, in the same stride, I have to wonder… would these things exist if there wasn’t a market? Further, I have heard that “diet and exercise isn’t always enough.” My fear would be that those claims are not backed by any actual doctors or health organizations, but pharma companies.
Living with someone who has no desire to change his eating habits or exercising amount can definitely make you wonder about things like this. But, watching the things that happen to people when they excessively consume diet pills is also troubling. I guess I’m more thankful for my metabolism now (ignoring other potentially harmful things like diabetes, etc.), but also like to think that I would take steps to remedy the situation if things started becoming worrisome.

The new sandwich from Wendy’s definitely got me excited. I’m constantly seeking for spicy food with good taste and not just mouth-burning heat. So, the 4-Alarm Spicy Chicken sandwich has been on my food to do list since the first commercials. Sadly, the sandwich was only a 2-Alarm. The spicy chicken had the same spice as always, and the jalapeno slices were a little hotter than typical deli jalapenos, but the pepper jack cheese and spicy chipotle sauce left me hoping for more spicy flavor. So, if you’ve thought about getting this sandwich hoping that there was finally some truly hot fast food, you might as well stick with the traditional spicy chicken if the 4-alarm costs more. I believe you can add jalapenos for 39 cents, if you want those.
What troubled me most about my trip was that the value menu had plenty of options, most for 99 cents. But, if you want a salad at the Wendy’s on E. Broad St, you’ll be looking at paying at least $1.09. Last I recall, the side salads at Wendy’s around Ashland/Mansfield were still just 99 cents. Hopefully this has nothing to do with the demographics of that Wendy’s versus others.
And, yes, I got the small fries because they were under a dollar and that kept my meal under 5 bucks. I am that cheap sometimes.

I can’t wait to have money for groceries again. I’ll need funeral insurance if I keep up these gluttonous fast food habits.

I don’t write enough about what I just randomly think about. But, for alcohol, I like gin. Tanqueray is OK, but it’s got an awful pine-y taste to it that I just prefer not to ingest. For some reason, at the bars I’ve ever frequented, the well gin has always had a smoother taste. I almost think this is also an issue I’m running into with vodka, but I’ll save that discussion for later.
Anyhow, I recently bought a bottle of Sir Robert Burnett’s Gin from our local liquor store and it’s delicious. It’s a classy bottle (i.e. not Mr. Boston-esque) and goes down quite smooth with cheap tonic water and a lime. You’re welcome to come over and enjoy one with us, but you could be either excited or disappointed. I expected the worst and came out ahead of the game with this one and give Burnett’s my stamp of approval.
Now, this does mean you have to enjoy the occasional gin and tonic, but that’s a pretty regular drink of mine. It makes a great solo drink because sitting back with a gin and tonic while you:
a. relax.
b. work.
c. game.
d. …anything else.
is a good idea.
I have really gravitated towards this drink when I’m writing code for website projects because it gives me something to keep me somewhat somber and focused while letting me drift to the point of being creative without getting out of hand.

I like sports. Playing them is usually favorable to merely watching them, and watching them in person is favorable to watching games on TV. Football is definitely my favorite sport to follow, but I don’t mind watching other sports. For the most part, I don’t really care to follow basketball. Similar to many other people, I get excited about March Madness. It’s fun to pick teams that you don’t really know enough about and place them in your bracket, trying to pick the right upsets is always a challenge, and the games this year were very close most of the time coming down to the last couple minutes to decide the victor.
My bracket was shot after the first round, basically, but it’s still been an interesting tournament so far. In a couple days, it will be the last time I watch college basketball for another 51 weeks. If you ever camp for long periods of time, or just go out hiking a lot, this water bottle filter seems pretty cool. And, it seems like a decent price for what it does, but I’m not sure if it would really make river water drinkable. Hmm…

I have been blessed with a high metabolism. There’s no better way to say it. I’ve often told myself that if I didn’t have this metabolism, I would eat healthier and work out so that I would stay thin, but I’m not sure that’s entirely true. I probably would go through spurts of being healthier, but overall I would not have the dedication to fitness that I really would want to have. So, maybe it’s not surprising to see hordes of obese people at Hometown Buffet, gorging themselves on plate after plate of food. It makes it easier to say, “man, I would stop eating if I saw myself becoming like that…” but I can’t be certain I would. Today we saw a lady put an entire bowl of bacon on her salad. As we left, we noticed that it was really just a pile of bacon and franch dressing (french and ranch mixture that is a weird thick orangy color… blech) with some shreds of lettuce swimming around. I’m just thankful I don’t have any major medical conditions *knock on wood* that prevent me from being able to do anything that I enjoy doing. Hopefully it’ll stay that way and I’ll never need Crestor, Levitra, or any other prescription pills to maintain a lifestyle until I’m very very old. Maybe then I’ll start taking Viagra.

I probably won’t get to take much of a vacation this year. I don’t have enough money saved up and I’m not going to have a worthwhile amount of time available to take off work, but that’s not so bad. We are entering the best time of the year for Ohio weather, but more importantly, I’ll (hopefully) be moving away before the weather turns foul again and it will be a permanent escape from these dreaded Ohio winters. Someday, it’d be cool to have a place up around here, maybe in the Hocking Hills or somewhere else that’s got good seasonal views, but I’d rather have a permanent home in the warmer climate than having my main base here and having an Orlando rental or something like that.

Finally, the weather is breaking. I have been waiting for this since about the middle of December and with that bout of really crappy weather we had in Mid-February, I have gotten increasingly antsy. I need to put together a spring cleaning project list and start taking care of some things. I really need to clear out my wardrobe of some of the stuff I never wear because it doesn’t fit right or because I don’t like the looks of it so that I can replace it with some new threads that I will indeed wear. I also want to clean up the truck and fix the stuff that needs repaired before too long. I don’t really need a truck rack, but I’ll probably detail stuff on my Cardomain site as I work on stuff. Autos are expensive. :-/