Sort of a mixed bag today.

I ate here.
I received this in the mail.
I purchased these.
I helped set up one of these at a friend’s.

That was my Wednesday.

Today was my first guitar lesson in eight years. It’s something I’d wanted to do for a while, but environmental reasons or just time were not allowing it. Clearly, I have a lot of that on my hands now, so picking back up something I once really enjoyed doing was pretty much a no brainer.

I’m back at the same place I went to from May 2001 to May 2004. I brought my folder of saved tablature, including some papers that were eleven years old from my first go around. It’s pretty funny to see Blink-182 and Nirvana tabs in there. It’s a definite snapshot of what I was into that long ago.

Anyway, so far so good. I’m starting back up from the ground level, learning chords I hadn’t grasped last time around, as well as a blues scale I vaguely remember. Hopefully with enough focus (at least more than I had as a high schooler), I’ll be a better overall player.

A few days ago I downloaded an app called The Vinyl District that uses GPS to find your nearest record stores. Thats when I was directed to Rediscover Records in Elgin, Illinois. It’s a store within another store located in the downtown area. It’s a nice little space, with plenty of new vinyl from a variety of genres (ie: the new Tom Waits next to a mint copy of “Master Of Puppets”).

What really got me though was their used selection. For $10.75, I scored the following:

Elvis Costello – “Trust”
Jackson Browne – S/T aka “Saturate Before Using”
Joni Mitchell – “Blue”
Billy Joel – “The Stranger”

That’s a pretty satisfying haul. I’m very impressed that albums of that quality were that affordable. I don’t think I would have even come close to a deal like today’s somewhere in the city.

Today was not much of a day worth writing about. I saw “The Artist”, a modern silent film that didn’t do much to impress me, and I followed that up by watching football. That’s about it.

At least there’s something here, right? It still counts!

Last night I joined Weight Watchers. My weight has always been somewhat of an issue for me, as I’ve fluctuated up and down over the years. I’m unhappy with my size right now, and despite the fact that I’m exercising, I’m really not losing any weight. What I like about the “points system” with Weight Watchers is that I essentially can eat what I want as long as I don’t go outside my daily points total. Also, it’s fun entering in items on my phone and seeing how the math works out. It’s almost like a game. I’m committed to sticking with it in hopes that it actually works.

Hey, if Charles Barkley could do it, then I most certainly can, right?

Lately I’ve been trying my hand in the kitchen, specifically with baking. Over Thanksgiving, I successfully made tuxedo bars, followed by these Cheddar Bay biscuits and then chocolate chip cookies. Above is from tonight, a yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting, topped with white chocolate chips. The cake was a box cake mix, and the frosting was from the back of a Ghirardelli cocoa mix box. Still, it was fun to do, and I hope to get more ambitious with each recipe I attempt.

*Yes, that is a “Breaking Bad” reference.