Cholesterol Skirmish Setback

Went to see Mr. Doctor today to go over my latest lipid profile. Ooops, looks like I did a little back sliding in the last 6 months. My total number was up by 30 points and the bad stuff was up by 20. Not only that, my triglycerides were up a chunk as well. (latest numbers on top)

  Chol HDL LDL Trig
Goal <200 >31 <100 30-150
03/05/07 195 39 123 167
09/19/06 167 37 103 135
04/06/06 168 37 106 126
12/08/05 182 35 120 137
07/28/05 177 30 113 169
06/17/05 164 31 85 238
05/06/05 174 27 108 194
01/10/05 176 33 110 167
09/21/04 209 24 131 271


There are a few reasons for this: 1) I was a real slug this winter, once the weather turned cold I stopped roller blading altogether. B) Even though my appointment was today the blood was drawn in mid Girl Scout Cookie binging. iii) My weight is up by about 5 pounds since September [see 1 & B for explanation.] Doc wants me to double up on the Red Yeast Rice and come back in 4 months.

Of course 2 heaping plates full at the Chinese Buffet at lunch is probably not helping matters either. Lunch buffet with water to drink for both of us.

Meal Cost: $11.98
Tip: $1.02
Spent Today: $13.00
Year to Date: $678.83

It is officially spring. Not just because the vernal equinox has passed and not because the Bradford Pear trees blooms are turning to leaves and the dogwoods are flowering, but because we rode to work with the top down at 6 o’clock in the morning and didn’t feel cold. Oh yeah, another sign that it is spring is the pine pollen whipping around the company parking lot doing it’s middle east dessert sandstorm impression.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 92

Just Cancel It

Turns out I may be able to avoid bouncing a “check” to the IRS after all. The other day I told my tale of woe to one of our accountant s who does taxes on the side and she recommended that just mail in a payment using Form 1040-V. This way when the payment gets there they will credit my account, so that when the attempt at an electronic transfer fails the money would already be there. I might just avoid the penalty that way. I figure, what the heck it is worth a shot.

While hunting around on the IRS website looking for the forms I stumbled on a page about Pay Taxes by Electronic Funds Withdrawal and there near the bottom is a procedure for canceling a payment in cases sort of like mine:

Taxpayers can call the Treasury Financial Agent, Customer Service, at 1-888-353-4537, toll-free, to cancel a payment or to report problems such as bank closures, lost or stolen bank account numbers, closed bank accounts or unauthorized transactions. Customer Service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Dude, the solution is just a phone call away. I’d better get on it so I can mail Uncle Sam a real check…

Started down, went up, went down, up again, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 92

Non-Feature of Size Post

Feature Control FrameI am stuck all week for full mornings in a class on GD&T which they swear is an intermediate level course, yet uses the same book and covers the same ground as the one I went through in 2004. It’s only use might be as a refresher course, but we don’t really use GD&T to its real potential. And if we did we wouldn’t need a refresher course. Usually I would say that lousy time spent training is better than a good time working, but this is the exception to the rule.

I have started to rename the photos in the Post Office Gallery so that the newest ones will display first. This might take a while to complete, maybe if we take a weekend off from taking pictures of them I can get it ready for the next batch of new ones. I really need a different gallery software that will allow viewing of files by different tags: zip code or town name or date taken… I know you can do that on Flickr (and I may post them there too), but I like the idea of having total control of how they are presented. I’m taking suggestions.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 88

Shopping Center Post Offices

Main Anderson Post OfficeI started the morning with a Cinnamon Bun, then well fortified, Donna and I started our quest for the four Post Offices of Anderson. The first one was a little hard to find as it was in a shopping center hidden behind a line of businesses. We knew we were in the right block and looking on the right side, but we couldn’t see it. Good thing it was early on a Sunday and traffic was light or we might have given up. We did find it finally by trying to turn around and stumbling onto to parking lot of the shopping center. After that, the other three became progressively easier.

When we left Anderson we took our usual route home, down the two lane, very scenic SC81. This took us by another 5 small town post offices that I gladly photographed for my growing gallery. There are now 94 Post Offices there, which is maybe 20% of the state’s total. So over this two day weekend there have been 13 new photos added in the gallery, but I still have no way of highlighting the new additions. There is no option for sorting the images in any other way than filename. Because I have used the zip code as the file name I’m kind of stuck. I might have to rename the files and put a large number in front of the first file and decrement as I add new files.

Lunch was at a Blimpies. Blimpie Best for me and a Meatball Sub for her. We made one a combo so we split a bag of Ruffles and a small Sprite.

Meal Cost: $10.77
Tip Jar: 23¢
Spent Today: $11.00
Year to Date: $665.83

Before settling down on the couch to watch March Madness on TV for the rest of the day we went out and took a nice long walk in the Hitchcock Woods. I hope I don’t jinx it by posting it here on the big ol’ internet, but I’m at the top of the charts in the office pool having missed just 2 of the 16 second round games. If you are remotely interested, I listed my winners in a post the other day and I have gone back and crossed out the losers.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 86

Mural, Mural on the Wall

Mural, Mural on the WallDonna felt good enough to go out to eat lunch and grocery shop. Chick-Fil-A Sandwich combo meal for me and a Kiddie 4 Nugget meal combo for her. Because we had a coupon the Kiddie Meal was free.

Meal Cost: $5.08
Tip: None
Spent On This Meal: $5.08

After the shopping she was still feeling alright, but didn’t really want to go to Anderson as we had planned, so she asked me to cancel the room reservation. When I went to the Holiday Inn site to cancel, there was some red lettering at the bottom of the page warning me that even if I canceled I would not be getting my money back. Ooops, I guess when I made the reservation I selected a room with a low rate that was non-refundable. So we packed a change of clothes, our tooth brushes and got in the car. Of course we packed some Post Office maps too. We hit 4 towns on the way up, we will do the 4 in Anderson in the morning and will try and get 4 more on the way home tomorrow.

The mural above was on a building right next door to the Post Office in Donalds. Clever use of perspective. And the tree as utility hook-up is genius.

Right next door to our hotel in Anderson is a place called Buffalo’s Southwest Cafe, where we have eaten before, which was calling our name for dinner. We split the Navajo Chops (two 6oz pork chops topped with bourbon, roasted apples and brown sugar butter, served with loaded mashed potatoes and steamed veggies) and a large dinner salad. Water for her and iced tea for me.

Meal Cost: $18.76
Tip: $2.74
Spent on This Meal: $21.50
Spent Today: $26.58
Year to Date: $654.83

It is unseasonably cold here this weekend, not news to most on the east coast, so the top will be up in the dozen or so photos in the Post Office Gallery that we take, but unlike those in the northeast there will not be any snow in the background.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 85

Sky Lights

Sky LightsDonna and I took 129 pictures at the BMW Ultimate Drive yesterday and would have taken more, if the battery didn’t give out. I don’t know if it was fully charged or not, but it will be for the 29th when we go to Columbia to do it again. Tonight I sat down to separate the wheat from the chaff. I’m going to whittle it down to 24 because that is how many photos I put on a gallery page. I’m almost there. Maybe by tomorrow I’ll have them posted and on Sunday I’ll have some words to go with the pictures.

Of course that depends on whether or not we got on a Postal Safari or not. Right now we are taking the weekend off because Donna caught a bit of a bug and has felt like crap all day. We were supposed to go to Road Atlanta to watch the POS Racing Team take on the world in the NASA Time Trials there, but we scratched those plans when she felt poorly enough that she asked for Chicken Noodle Soup with Saltines for supper tonight. I kidded here that she had a reaction to that “New Car Smell” in the nine BMWs.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 85

Boy, Is My Left Foot Bored

Big GrinWe drove a ton of BMWs today and not a single one had a manual transmission. One of the workers said they quit a couple years ago because they were burning up too many clutches…

It is probably easier to name the models I didn’t drive (6 series convertible, 5 series wagon & a 3 series 4-door), but let me list the ones I drove and the order we drove them before I forget.

  1. Z4 Coupe
  2. 335i Convertible (the new hardtop model)
  3. X3
  4. 550i Sedan
  5. X5
  6. 750 Li
  7. 335i Coupe
  8. 650i Coupe
  9. Z4 Roadster

Because the BMW dealer had moved a couple miles further out on Washington Rd we had a whole new loop this year. It was a mile shorter than the previous one at 14 miles and a little more suburban. It wasn’t too bad until school let out as it passed three different institutes of education. Maybe because it was a nicer day than last year, there seemed to be a lot more folks out driving today, so we didn’t do any double loops. We drove each car once for a total of 125 miles. For you math majors, I know that nine times fourteen would be 126, but a slight navigational error on the first loop brought us in a mile too soon.

Highlights: The 335i Coupe with enough horsepower to achieve earth orbit if you could get a ramp of the right angle. The 5 series sedan and the X5 had a HUD speed display that hovered just above and in front of the hood on the driver’s side.

Lowlights: I-Drive and the abrupt throttle response from the drive by wire system. (I’m sure both of these would turn into highlights or at least invisible if I had more than 14 miles to figure them out.)

My navigator missed a turn call out on the first loop, but I had my own oops moment when we got in the X5. The rep got us in the car, I got it started and he reset the odometer and marked down the mileage. He then asked if I had any questions and being as this was our fifth loop and I’d driven aN X5 last year, I said, “Nope.” I hit the window up button, bzzzzzzzit. He walked away and I grabbed the shifter and pulled back to put it in drive, it didn’t move and nothing happened. Pushed it forward with the same result. Pushed a button on the side and then tried to move the shifter, still nothing. Bzzzzzzzit, I hit the down button for the window. “Excuse me,” I say, “Just how do I put this thing in drive?” The nice rep leans in the window and points at the button I pushed earlier and said, “Hold that in while pulling back.” “Ahhh,” I said, “I tried each separately, but didn’t try the combination.”

Even though we knew there would be food at the BMW dealer, we weren’t sure what and Donna wanted a fish sandwich, so we stopped at McDonald’s before heading over to drive cars. Fillet-O-Fish for her and a Southern Chicken Sandwich for me. We split a small drink and fries.

Meal Cost: $6.61
Tip: None
Spent Today: $6.61
Year to Date: $628.25

Turns out he food that was available was good, so we had half sandwiches and wraps with some pasta salad at the end of the day that we called dinner. The brownies were so awesome I ate two.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 84