I can’t remember that last time I was this excited to go on vacation.  I am really looking forward to trying out the new Animal Kingdom Villas at Disney.  The weather looks like it is going to cooperate and everyone that is going (6 adults and 7 kids) is starting to get excited as well.  We leave next Sunday morning and I can’t wait!

As a small business owner it is with great sadness that I write this post.  As I wrote last Friday, we have started a new tradition at the office of trying a new place for lunch on Friday’s.  I called it Friday Firsts.  Last week the new place was Cotton’s in Acworth.  The food was good, the atmosphere was good, and I would love to recommend the place… but, I can’t.  Last Friday was Cotton’s last day of business.  Due to slow business over the past several month’s the owners, Tamra and Alan Erisman, have decided to close the doors after 5 years.  It’s a shame really, I wish I had tried it earlier because I would have been willing to go back.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see if another restauraunt opens there so we can try it on another Friday Firsts… maybe even the first Friday it is open.  Would that be a First Friday Firsts?

A quick update about running.  I did not give up running after not making it to the marathon.  In fact, I am starting to think about another marathon attempt, but first I need to lose about 20-30 more pounds which may be harder than the actual marathon.  Since ending the marathon training I have run in a 5K and won my age group with a 24:55 time.  Not a great time, but faster than the other 30 to 35 year olds.  I have also run a 10k which qulaified me for the Peachtree Road Race this summer.  I am trying to run 12 to 15 miles a week still and have added some weight training.  I may look around for a good half marathon to train for.  Anyone got a good recommendation for a half?

We have started a new thing at work… every Friday we are going to try a new place for a lunch.  The rules are simple:

1. We rotate alphabetically on whose turn it is to pick.
2. The majority of the group can not have eaten there before.
3. It can not be a national chain.

I’d like to claim that this is some brilliant team building exercise that I dreamt up that requires group participation and everyone taking a turn making a decision for the group.  But, in reality, I was tired of eating at the same 5 places every week.  Here is the first review…

The Dog House
4628 S. Main Street
Acworth, GA 30101  (map)
770.529.2211

The Dog House is located on Main Street in Acworth across from Ferguson Family Chiropractic, in the building that used to be Stubby’s BBQ.

Since it was Opening Day for the Braves I figured that hot dogs was a great choice.  I was not wrong!  Everyone loved this place and said they would be willing to go back.  One surprise highlight was that they had Coke Zero on tap and a drink, with free refills, was only $1.29.

I had the Great Dane which is a 1/4 pound hotdog with chili and cheese as well as some fries.  The dog was awesome and was plenty of food.  (In fact, if you eat 2 Great Danes you get your picture on the wall.)  The fries were done to perfection.  Next time I am the mood for a hot dog I will be going back.

Other comments:

“I had the Junkyard Dog (Chili-cheese hotdog) with chili-cheese fries on the side.  It was good, but not great.  I would be willing to go back and try the Great Dane though.” - Garett

“Nice home-town atmosphere, great options on topping your dog, and really good value (large Coke $1.29!).  While eating a half-pound hot dog should not be a regular, weekly occurrence, I definitely look forward to going there again.  Also, they score points for offering Coke Zero.” - Chris

“I have not been big on eating hot dogs but thought I’d step outside the box and try something new.  There are no complaints from me on this one.  It’s definitely a place I’d bring the family” - Gerald

Now that we have tested the place out it is your turn.  Try the place and let me know what you think.

For the non-computer geek a quick lesson on computer architecture:  Context switching is a process used to make sure that a single program does not monopolize your computer’s processor.  Each application is given a time slice, if the end of the time slice is reached that application has to release the processor and allow another application to use it.  The “interrupted” application then gets back in line to wait its turn to use the processor again.  (Learn more)

It occurred to me on the drive home this afternoon that my day typically consists on one context switch after another.  I am working along on something when an email arrives that steals my attention.  I then put down what I was working on to take care of the email.  While I am answering that email I get a reminder that I am supposed to be in a meeting.  So, I leave the email half completed and go to the meeting.  It never fails that the meeting runs into lunch so I go from the meeting to lunch.  Upon returning from lunch I start to work on the new things I have to do based on the pre-lunch meeting.  Then the phone rings.  After the call I realize I never finished the email I started before lunch.  By the end of the day I am back to trying to complete the task I started the day with before I go home.

Maybe I am just an uber-geek to think of my life in computer terms but it was interesting none-the-less.  Maybe I will change my name to Shane “Windows XP” Kenny.  In this case I will want rename all the to-dos on my list “svchost” since for some reason this process can ignore the common context switching rules and hog the processor.  Maybe this way I would feel like I am getting something done!