Here is my April 2016, installment of what I had done at 8:16 PM each night during the month. I also found it helpful writing down what happened during the day as a small journal/diary of what was good, bad, or interesting.

Little Background

I started keeping track of what I was doing at 20:16 (8:16 PM) every day for the last month after reading Kitt Hodson’s Pastry Box article from Jan 1, 2015. Which was about how a year earlier she read Erica Douglass’s article about writing down what she did at 11:11 AM and 20:14 (8:14 PM) everyday.

April 2016 Events

Apr 1 – Driving up 30th street in Georgetown section of Washington, DC, after not finding any parking near Baked and Wired to get cupcakes. First had dinner of a small bowl of beef eye round and fatty brisket at Pho 75. Did more work gathering evidence that the new version of Compliance Sheriff we updated to is making scans take anywhere from twice to ten plus times longer to run. We used to have 2,000-page scans take 20 to 30 minutes which now take hours. Not sure if it is software related or possibly server related.

Apr 2 – Laying on my bed reading the latest edition of Edible DC, which is about spring veggies and new bakeries that are opening. Got up around 8 AM and did some reading before heading over to the Post Office to pick up my mail after having it held while out in Las Vegas and San Diego. Next went to St. Elmo’s to visit with friends to see what they had been up to the last few weeks while I was gone. After stopping at the Del Ray Framer’s Market to grab two blueberry scones, I went to M. E. Swing’s Coffee Roaster for hot chocolate and dealt with my e-mail inbox which needed work after not doing much with it besides deleting junk while gone. Once I was done there went to Wegmans for a late lunch from the hot bar and to grab some cheese, toilet paper, and facial tissues. The next thing on my list was to read in bed some more and take a nap.

Apr 3 – Sitting in a comfy chair at Boccato Lounge reading Scott Hurff’s “Designing Products People Love” after having a blood orange tea while setting up the April Accessibility DC event. Slept in until 9:30 AM, before meeting up with old co-workers, their child, and significant other for brunch at the Royal Restaurant in Old Town Alexandria. Afterward, we stopped at Buzz Bakery for coffees, hot chocolates, and of course cupcakes. They have made a bunch of changes to the layout along with the types of cupcakes they make. Sad there was no 9:30 Cupcake, at least, today. Once I got dropped home did some reading and had a short nap or at least short for me.

Apr 4 – Sitting in my living room reading but I can’t remember what, since I’m posting this two days later. If you’re going to try and keep track of what was going on at 8:16 PM or any other time you need to do it then or if busy spending time with people, at least, out in a few notes as soon as you can so you can jog your memory.

Apr 5 – Sitting in my leather chair with my feet on the ottoman continuing to reading Scott Hurff’s book “Designing Products People Love”. Did more research on when and possibly why the new OSHA Android Heat Index application was giving incorrect results.

Apr 6 -Reading “Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test in Just Five Days” by Jake Knapp and others from Google Ventures. I spent today explaining what you knew about the new OSHA Android Heat Index application issues, along with spending afternoon teaching a Compliance Sheriff training.

Apr 7 – Sitting at home watching “The Big Bang Theory” for the first time in a few weeks to over a month. Did another Compliance Sheriff training even though the application is running way to slow? Plus, I did more screenshot to document my findings.

Apr 8 – Writing bills in my spare bedroom that I should have sent out earlier this week. Once done I realized I was one stamp short to drop them in the mail. Did more testing of the updated OSHA Android Heat Index and found that not all of the locations were found when doing so in Spanish. The English version seems to be working but hard to tell when the country is in a cold spell.

Apr 9 – Listening to the radio in my bed while reading the Washington City Paper’s “Best of DC 2016” edition. Trying to find the best place to eat particular types of food, places to read, relax, etc. Went to the Courthouse Farmers Market and had egg, bacon, and to types of cheese ( Provolone and aged cheddar). Then went to St. Elmo’s. The post office for stamps. M. E. Swing Coffee Roasters to work on e-mail backlog and draft e-mail for accessibility meetup organizers. Then to pick up Sam for lunch at Pho 75 then headed to Boccotto Lounge for Cherry and fig tea to work some more on another e-mail draft, along with posting a blog post of what I did at 8:16 PM in March.

Apr 10 – In my spare bedroom launching Turbo Tax 2015 on my Windows XP PC so I can do my taxes for the year that are due in five days. Slept into 9:00 AM or so today. Headed over to Eastern Market but could not find anywhere to park so then went to the DuPont Farmers Market. Once I got there, I did my usual walk around to see what was there first. I noticed two things and the first being that the guys near the flower stand was making a breakfast dish of pork three ways with grits and some lightly pickled kale. The other item was Jose Andres restaurant Zaytinya was slow roasting a whole lamb. I then doubled back to get a single order of the pork and grits which had crispy pulled pork, stuffed pig stomach parts, and then what might have been a pork head cheese cooked in a pan with an over easy egg. Once I ate that wonderful dish I did my shopping and then camped out at the Zaytinya booth reading Twitter to kill some time to when the were going to be ready to carve. After taking the lamb of the spit and letting it rest, they started carving and asked if anyone wanted any of the skin, which of course I had a piece or two or three. What they served people was homemade tzatziki sauce on a Boston lettuce leaf and a few pieces of roasted lamb. What a killer dish to top the excellent pork and grits breakfast. Next, I managed to get to the Georgetown Flea Market to see what they had, and there was nothing I was interested in or needed that bad. I then headed towards home the long way through DC up the rest of Wisconsin Ave and then down Connecticut Ave to U St. and then down 14th St. to Del Ray to get tea at St. Elmo’s and send out a few e-mails and read an article or two. Once I got home did some more reading and then a two hours or so nap.

Apr 11 – ENTERED 05/07/2016 – must have been so busy doing cool things that I didn’t even put in a small note to say what I did that day or even the next day. My guess of what the exciting thing was working on my taxes and then submitting them closer to midnight.

Apr 12 – Catching up on Twitter after being home sick for the day. Didn’t feel like cooking after sleeping an extra five hours during the day.

Apr 13 – Walking home from Braddock St. metro after attending the DC Fem Tech awards a few of my friends won ( Maggie, Marissa, JoAnna, and a few more).

Apr 14 – Watching a repeat episode of “The Big Bang Theory” from Thanksgiving time that I never saw. Interesting to see Elon Musk on the show and working in the soup kitchen cleaning dishes. My day was spent reading and responding to e-mails.

Apr 15 – Sitting at Pho 75 texting with a co-worker while waiting to order a small bowl of Pho with raw round eye and fatty brisket and extra noodles. Attended two meetings and had the tech guys roll back to the old version of Compliance Sheriff because the newer one caused scans to run for hours instead of minutes.

Apr 16 – Sitting in Buzz Bakeshop drinking a chocolate cinnamon tea, not the best. Went and got my oil changed along with having the car dealership replace my front left headlight first thing in the morning. I used the time while I waited to publish a blog post about two different ways to create organizational charts using HTML (definition list and structured heading levels) and CSS, along with sending out a few e-mails. Once done went to St. Elmo’s to meet the gang, but only one showed up which is good because a few old friends I hadn’t seen in a year or year and a half were walking by and stopped in. Once I left there, I went to M. E. Swing Coffee Roasters for hot chocolate and to work on dealing with a bunch of old e-mails and to DM a group of people about talking at Accessibility DC either in person or remotely. Then went home for a bit of reading, listening to NPR, and a nap. All in all, I managed to deal with about 75 to 80 e-mails. Now I need to get through the last 100 or at least get closer to zero. Tomorrow it’s off to the Shen-Valley Flea Market in White Post, VA, which is between Winchester and Front Royal, for the first time this year.

Apr 17 – Walking into the house after grabbing dinner of shrimp, lime chicken, red curry chicken, pork pot stickers, and some rice at Wegmans after a day of wondering around near Shenandoah National Park area. Spent the day with a co-worker first going to Shen-Valley Flea Market where I bought three Griswold cast iron skillets and another cast iron skillet with a cover. Then we headed to the Front Royal Flea Market were all we bought was lemonade. Next stop was at Knotty Pine Restaurant, and I had cheese omelet with home fries, rye toast, and a side of sausage. We then made a stop near the quilt store to get some cherry apple cider. After that, it was a stop at the Copper Fox Distillery so he can pick up a few things for himself and friends. Then we walked across the parking lot to Pen Druid Brewery where we tried tastings of all six of their beers so that way I could purchase two of them to take with me Tuesday night in Cabin John.

Apr 18 – Reading an article about Jason Zook on http://minimums.com/, which is a website about featuring the most interesting possessions of the world’s most interesting people. So far of the three articles I have read they are cool people with interesting stuff. Think I saw this website a year or so ago. Did a quick Trusted Tester review of two Survey Monkey survey pages to see what was not accessible. Also, found out the rollback of Compliance Sheriff has at least gotten rid of the issue of scans running for hours or days when they should have taken minutes or an hour for the larger ones. Even managed to look at some code to try and figure out why the visual page display breaks. My guess is it is because it’s part of a FORM.

Apr 19 – Sitting in Cabin John having a beer tasting with friends.

Apr 20 – Giving a talk about ALT text at Blackboard. Finished correcting the show hide for the definition stuff at work.

Apr 21 – Talking with Jason and Rochelle after the performance talk at Refresh DC at Chief.

Apr 22 – Talking with the neighbor before for driving to Pho 75 for dinner.

Apr 23 – Driving from Wegmans after grabbing dinner and some more of the runny cheese that’s like butter to Boccatto Lounge for some tea nd doing research on iTunes about restaurant review applications to see what issues people have with them. Went to Arlington Courthouse Farmer’s Market to grab asparagus, heirloom tomatoes, along with bacon, egg, and sharp cheddar cheese breakfast sandwich. Next went to St. Elmo
s to meet up with friends and see what’s been going on with them for about an hour or so. After that went to M. E. Swing Coffee Roasters for a hot chocolate and sent out over a dozen requests for friends s to give accessibility talks at our monthly Accessibility DC events. Once done there came home to read and nap for a few hours. After the nap did a bit of cleaning up to get ready for my father’s visit on Monday, which was mostly taking paper and cardboard outside to be recycled, along with some plastics from the kitchen.

Apr 24 – Cleaning silverware and getting ready to do dishes to finish up the last part of cleaning before my dad comes on Monday. Slept in until about 9:45 AM. Then did some reading and took a shower. After that headed to the Dupont Circle farmers market. Ended up having the pork three ways with grits Friday egg and some greens. This time, the grits were a little bit flavorless compared to last time. Extra around DC up towards zoo and then down Wisconsin and then through Arlington before heading home. Then started cleaning my house, but had to stop to go over to Target to pick up a new Swiffer Sweeper to help clean the hardwood floors. While I was over in the plaza stopped at Barnes & Noble to look at a few magazines.

Apr 25 – Dinner with dad and James at Maketto for Cambodian food. Listened to my brother’s stories about bartering for items during his work trip to China.

Apr 26 – Cabin John drinking beer and eating jerk chicken wings.

Apr 27 – Watching American Pickers after getting home and spending an hour visiting with my sister who is in town for a conference. Continued working on accessible and Unites States map.

Apr 28 – Catching up on tweets during the commercials of the Big Bang theory. Found Edward Tufte forum post about creating charts and grafts that are usable by those that are colorblind.

Apr 29 – Finished up my small bowl of raw eye round and fatty brisket pho at Pho 75 and getting ready to pay my bill. More work on the accessible United States map along with finishing the review of a few PDFs and a required annual learning module.

Apr 30 – Sitting in a lounge chair at Boccato Lounge reading Jamie Oliver’s “Everyday Super Food” about creating a great healthy fruit salad. At my third coffee shop of the day. Woke up at 7 AM and read for a bit before writing bills which I nailed on my way to St. Elmo’s Coffee Pub to meet with friends. Once we left I went to M. e. swing Coffee Roaster for a hot chocolate while responding to e-mails about talking at Accessibility DC and a few other things. Ended up dealing with about 40 or 50 e-mails. After that drive the long way to Union Market so I could listen to “This American Life”. Once there ran into Chef Mike at the Toki Underground grocery store. He told me he had a pork belly pork based soup along with steamed Opel buns. Grabbed soup for lunch followed up with a chorizo and cheese kolache and a fruit and cream cheese one. Then went back to talk to chef Nike about him going to open a ramen place in the Foggy Bottom Whole Foods for Chef Eric. Ended up grabbing two steamed pork buns and a Concord grape and blackberry large bottles of vinegar. Dropped food in my car then went to A. Litteri’s to get a meatball sub for dinner and some cured meat. Finally, made it to Boccato Lounge to work on making the DOL developer dataset tables responsive and accessible using Dylan Barrel’s method, so we didn’t have to have tables for desktop and a whole other set of code for handheld devices. Productive day all around if I don’t say so myself.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this has been helpful to you and gets you to keep track of what you do a particular time of the day, along with a short daily diary entry to see what you have done or can accomplish over the course of a year.

If you want to meet up to do something exciting at 8:16 PM some evening, please leave a comment. Or a suggestion of something that is not part of my ordinary life you think I should do.