I worked from home today. I finished Jim’s final edit, and I canceled my one-on-one meeting with my manager, with both of us agreeing that it was unnecessary today.
I went to the gym late in the afternoon, in time to finish up my routine for Free Pizza Monday. It was good to get back into my routine, which I did with crunches, upper body work, and a short cardio workout. I missed my friend Kevin (av8rdude) today, and will again tomorrow morning for Free Bagel Day. |
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Cardio (Elliptical) |
20 |
411 |
From Planet Fitness, I went to Helios, where I took care of a few things:
- Completed the IBM Matching Grants forms for my $100 December/January donation to Manbites, and for my current $500 donation. That should get them an extra $600 in donations. Yay!
- Devised my “cloud tag” entries from this weekend, and posted them.
- I renewed my Chinese for Dummies library book, since I haven’t read a page of it yet, and it’s due tomorrow.
- Started filling out the incredible (as in incredibly complicated and detailed) Visa Application Form of the People’s Republic of China.
With regards to that, I can’t believe what it’s going to cost to get this visa. My Australia visa, which I bought at the airport on the day of travel, was $25. Total.
The China visa costs include: $130 for the visa application to the Chinese consulate, a $55 “service fee” to It’s Easy Passport – Visas, and a $22 return shipping and handling fee to It’s Easy Passport (on top of their service fee). I mean, really, $22 to ship a passport with a visa stamped in it? That’s $207 altogether—an absolute outrage.
My goal is to get to bed at a decent hour this evening, so as to be at the gym all bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed (yeah, right) for bagels in the morning.
I am anticipating two deterrents to that: (1) I am not a morning person, and (2) my workout buddy (av8rdude) won’t be joining me as encouragement. I must be strong.