"When the darkness comes what will you see?"

Not much has been going on lately.  I'm planning on driving out to Western Mass for dinner tomorrow night, but we're supposed to get a mess of snow early tomorrow.  I'm hoping it all melts by the early afternoon, but who knows?  It's not even clear if I'll make it to work tomorrow.  I'm pretty sick of winter and I'm ready for some warmer weather.  I'm starting to get a little stir crazy.

Ramblings

The Blazers beat the Spurs last night in San Antonio.  I don't care if the Spurs were injury depleted since a win's a win.  Portland has now beaten SA twice in the past week.  Sweet.  They need to build some momentum towards the playoffs.

I need to get my sorry ass out of debt since I need to get new garage doors and new openers.  I had my performance review and it went better than last year so hopefully I'll get some extra cash in a couple of weeks.  We'll see and I shouldn't count on it.

A local news station is running a campaign to get people healthier.  They have an Albany med school professor in the ad which is cool except she's pretty chunkified.  I don't like fat doctors since it's hypocritical.

My dad's out here for work and we met up last night for Mexican with a couple of his coworkers.  We went to El Mariachi and it was pretty good.  I recommend the place and would go back again.

Slow cooked Greek lamb

Tonight's dinner marks the making of the 100th new recipe since I started my recipe challenge.  Yes, quite a momentous occasion.  Unfortunately, it turned just alright.  I used the slow cooker cookbook my mom gave me and the recipes from there have been underwhelming for the most part, but they're fairly simple and I wasn't in the mood for anything overly complicated.

Here's a shot of the recipe:

 The lamb served over spinach with plenty of feta cheese:

I couldn't find a lamb roast at the store so I used some pre-chunked stew meat.

I declare this challenge to be finished.  It doesn't mean I won't post more food pictures.

Broiled chicken

Tonight's dinner was broiled chicken using a recipe I found in my chicken cookbook.  It's pretty tasty so I definitely recommend it and I will make it again.

Here's the recipe:

I forgot to add the garlic to the sauce, but it's all good.

The finished product:

It's a new recipe so just one more until I fulfill my challenge.  Sweet.

There goes my perfect driving record

I got pulled over today for the first time ever because I went out a parking lot the wrong way. There was a big tractor trailer moving truck blocking the regular exit and, instead of going all the way around the building, I took a shortcut. I saw a police officer nearby, but I didn't think he would mind since I thought he saw the big truck. Heh. I was wrong.

I can plead guilty or go to court on the twelfth to fight it. I'm a big believer in law and order so I'm not going to try to fight it. I think there were mitigating circumstances, but what I did is illegal. I'm upset with myself for taking the shortcut rather than doing what's right. What's funny is that I'm probably the only on the road around here actually obeying traffic laws. While he had me stopped, I counted about ten more serious traffic violations.

I think once he saw my squeaky clean driving record, he felt sorry for me, but what's done is done so I'll pay the consequences. I tried to look online to see how much this violation will cost me, but the fines aren't listed. Hopefully it won't ding my insurance either.

Ugh.

Edit: Ah. It seems like this 1110A is going to run me around $150. Fantastic.

Fitness update

It's that time again. I've been keeping up with my exercise regime using Lauren's book and I've been eating ok. The numbers suggest I've got more work to do so I need to eat smarter and be more active during the week. One sporadic night of basketball isn't going to cut it.

Once the weather improves, I can get out on my bike and also go hiking. I'm thinking of taking yoga once a week to improve my flexibility, but "my cash flow's low so I'll have to pull a job."

Looking at the top graph, it seems the past year was not kind to my fitness. I don't feel as chunky as the numbers suggest, but maybe I've just increased the muscle under the fat.

What the heck, Prosper?

I'm a member of Prosper, but have strictly been a microlender. I thought I might consolidate some credit card debt so I started the process of borrowing. Uh...yeah. I qualified for a "great" rate of 26%. Crikey. My credit is excellent and I make great money. Heh. Maybe I should check my credit report/score to see what's up because I was thinking I could get a rate much closer to 6%. I mean 26% is in loan shark or payday loan territory and is obviously a lot more than my credit cards are charging me.

Hmmm...I'll have to check out Lending Club.

Edit: Lending Club quoted me a great rate of 15%. Ugh.

Prosper sent me back a note saying my credit score is much less than what I expected. Much less. I guess I owe too much money or something.