it's september eve!

sweater weather.
school supplies.
red leaves.
gold leaves.
football.
bonfires.
trapper keepers.
gray days.
hayrides.
candy corn.
outdoor soccer.
homecoming dances.
county fairs.

guess who scored a hat trick tonight? that's right - me. uh-huh. uh-huh.

watching the last pre-season game, titans vs the cheeseheads. looks like the titans are going to keep lendale & the two chris's [chrisses?]. three running backs is too many, but chris henry kept mostly for special teams and as a backup for mr white & mr brown.

plans for this weekend include another 16-mile run. working on getting the 16-miler down pat before moving along to the longer distances. no soccer on sunday, but there's some kinda family thing on sunday. really not a big fan of the family thing without mini-me. so lonely. waaaa!! yeah, stop yer bellyachin'. monday's a holiday and there's a 5k and maybe the 10k, too. the 5k for competition - the 10k just for mileage. care to join us?

right.

helloooo wednesday!

so, my old man wants to go see the new bourne movie... borne ultimatum, i think it is. but, we haven't seen the other ones. i read bourne identity like 20-odd years ago. so, he wants to see them so that we can then go see the new one, so we saw bourne identity on tnt or somesuch, and he rented bourne supremacy, which we are going to watch tonight, but here's my real question: why are the commands for the dvd player in german?

miss south carolina!!!!!

if you have not yet seen the vid, go to youtube and look it up. miss south carolina, in the teen miss usa pagent, simply having a good ol' fashion brain meltdown. asked the question why can't usa students find the usa on a map?, she starts by saying because most kids don't have a map. what?! then, she speeds up and veers totally off course, begins babbling incoherently, saying iraq three or four times and also mentioning africa. who here thinks miss south carolina can find either iraq or africa on a map? who thinks miss south carolina can find her homeland (that's the usa, kids) on a map? jeezumpete, who thinks miss south carolina can find a map?!

let's give her a d-. not a total failure -- she does know the names of some countries that have been in the news recently.

being committed to fathering doesn't make him a committed father

the local paper reports that running back travis henry -- current denver bronco, former tn vol, former tn titan -- has fathered 9 kids by 9 different women in florida, tennessee, georgia, & north carolina. at one time, the titans lent this multimillionaire $9800 to make up his back child support to one of these kids. his lawyer says that henry has significant financial issues.... i know these are a lot of kids.... but he's a really committed father.

lunch

for lunch, i mixed tuna w/ mexican rice. the mexican rice turned the pan & spoon yellow. wonder what it is doing to my innerds.

bristol race

watching the bristol race, and they were fixing to throw the green flag, but john andretti jr stalled in turn 4. whoop! delayed green. you never know what you will see at bristol. michael waltrip managed to qualify for this race. rusty wallace is in the booth now instead of on the track, but he's still an arrogant sunnufagun. rusty, man... if you were as fabularious as you think you are, you'd be in a car, and i am pretty sure you know that. to gain true fabularity, be more like michael waltrip.

good stuff

have you seen that lincoln mkx commershal where the lady gets out of the vehicle at the surfer beach, attracting stares from all the guys there as she pulls on her wetsuit & pulls her surfboard out of the car, and then her daughters climb out of the vehicle, and they all run down to the water together as the guys all laugh. good stuff.

currently reading the art of detection, by laurie r. king. having read several of her past works in this series, it's like visiting old friends. this particular book is actually supposed to bring together characters from her two series - the kate martinelli series and the mary russell series. both characters are smart, strong women: one modern & one from the 19th century. remains to be seen how characters from two different eras will end up together, but getting a chance to see these two friends again... good stuff.

did the 11.2 this morning in just under 2 hours, with one stop in the restroom & no walking. now, that's good stuff.

doofus doofi doofae

this is the helmet buffalo is wearing tonight in the titans-bills game. what a stupid helmet design. nothing inimidates like a big doofussy red blob just blobbing at you. speaking of doofusses - so far tonight, lendale has continued his reign of idiocy. chris brown is taking advantage of the opportunity afforded him by lendale's doofusness. michael griffin is looking to be an excellent draft pick. lamont thompson is redeeming himself somewhat. cortland finnegan's not playing tonight b/c the coaches are still looking at reynaldo hill. you know who i'd pick, so i won't repeat finnegan's name. heh heh.

so - back to the doofussy bills. their qb's name is jp losman. he's the loss man. heh heh heh. that's just funny, i don't care who you are. another bill is peerless price, who was formerly a volunteer. peerless is a great name. if i ever have a kid, i will name him peerless.

what?

tomorrow's plan: run the 11.2, get a haircut, pack mini-me's car. sunday, it's back to the grind for mini-me.

coming to you live & in person, from the couch

this is how you know you are tired - when the part of the soccer game you are looking forward to the most is the shower & pjs afterwards. doh! crappy green team had a tie tonight, a loss last week. the brand new indoor season is not off to a good start. perhaps the whole team is looking forward to showers & pjs. double doh!

the indiglo went out on my watch, so he's at the repair shop. here's a picture of a watch just like his little self. be safe, little buddy! get well & come back soon! we all miss you! say you miss him. say it! i said - say you miss him! that's better. see, little buddy? we all miss you! we do!

currently have like 6 boox checked out from the liberry, and another few from the bargain bin at b&n, and then another couple from the liberry book sale, and then there are those boox at work that i am supposed to read. who wants to read the supposed-to's when there are so many want-to's hanging around?

that's all from the couch - back to you, in the field.

baby stupidsteins

in the newspaper today, we learn that every hour babies age 8-16 months spend watching baby einstein or brainy baby translates into 6-8 fewer words in their vocabularies compared with other children their 8-16 months. since this cohort isn't known for wide-ranging linguistics, a couple hours in front of this electronic babysitting is going to effectively quash any vocab they possess.

oh, woe to parents! oh, the horror! oh, the humanity! what's the solution? what can parents do?

as the headline states, interaction, not videos, aids babies - reading is best way to build vocabulary.

go figure.

the least you could do is act your shoe size

instead of going into detail about how adults can act like children, i would just like to summarize by saying that adults can act like children. note to the world: take responsibility for yourselves. all of you. suck it up! whatever it is that you did, well... you did it. hence the "you" in "you did it". see? it was you. you did it. maybe you can fix it, maybe you can apologize, make it up some other way. but you can't go back and undo what you did; therefore, you did it.

criminy.

the relative definition of real conversation

tonight, me & mini-me & my old man had supper with a person who is my relative, and who is very old. her hearing seems to be a tidge off, but her mind is sharp. for 93 yrs old, her body's not doing too bad - still scootin' around on her own steam. but, here's the thing -- she usually has supper with a couple other residents of the residence where she resides, and these other residents are old guys. this old lady relative of mine would rather sit with and talk with the guys than the girls, so now you can see that this is in my dna. what's in my dna? the recognition that while the girls -- even the old, old girls -- are all busy talking about their hair & their shoes, the guys are talking about something real, like... politics or local ordinances or religion or philosophy or cars or movies or sports.

monday... time to begin again

why can't they take the rain from the places where it is flooding and bring it to the places that are having a drought? it must be more complicated than it sounds, or someone would have figured out a way to do it already. in one part of the country, towns are washing away, and in another part, they're withering.

i don't remember the ending, but i remember the guy in the tree.

crappy green team pulled out a win today. it was close there for a while, really close, but then the grace period was over, the other team still only had 6 players, and so they had to forfeit. we win again. yesss!

also in the haps of the day: the mac & cheese mini-me & i prepared for supper came out just right, goldilocks.

oh, and here's a tip to close things out - the mortgage company doesn't care if you have recorded the payment in your checkbook. they want you to write the actual check, put it in the mail to them. doh!

babylon candles & orphans & runes... trapped lightning & true love

this good movie is:

one part princess bride -
one part monty python -
one part witches of eastwick -

one part e.t. -
one part brigadoon -

one part sword in the stone -
one part little mermaid -
one part cage aux folles -
one part sixteen candles -

all parts good, clean,

heartwarming

fun.

update

currently reading andrew greeley's the senator & the priest. greeley's predictable, but it's predictably good storytelling, and he usually works in something to learn... history, politics, something about the city of chicago or the catholic church. it's simply a relaxing read. highly recommended.

tomorrow's scheduled run w/ speedy: 16 mi. criminy.

odometer spotted today: 91919.

hummus consumed today: 1 container. it was smallish, but it doesn't matter anyway b/c if i want to eat a container of hummus, i will. it's all chickpeas and olive oil. it's health food.

found a couple not-bad bookshelves at big lotsasnot. they're not family heirloom quality or anything - just plain ol' sauder furniture - but they were only $15 per. sweet deal, yes. see, i'm gonna put 'em in there, you know... by that chair? where the little table is right now? we'll move that little table out. you'll see. it's gonna be perfect.

chillin' wid my boys da titans, and guess who ain't playin'. yeah, lendale white. he's hurt again, and maybe it's for real, but it's not so much a matter of real or not, anymore. he's either a whiner, or he's fragile, but either way -- he's off the field too much.

who is having a good game? my man, cortland finnegan. he's sharp, quick, hard working. keep an eye on #31 this year. here's a pic of cortland with the ball, and guess what - he's a cornerback. in case you didn't know, that's a defensive position. you run along & google cortland finnegan, and you'll see quite a few pix of him carrying the ball b/c he can make an interception. yes, he can. tonight, he scored a td already. cortland finnegan. impressive.

young mr young is having an okay game - not too bad, not too good. he didn't play last week b/c he broke the team rule of staying at the team hotel the night before the game, and got himself suspended. so, this is his first preseason game, and it's a lackluster effort. uh... but he just broke a run for the first down, so let's just reserve judgment. okay.

so, that's it - watching the titans, reading greeley's latest effort, eatin' some hummus, planning to run 16 miles.

good times. good times.

everybody sing!

there was an odometer that did read: 9-1-9-1-0.

the meter read could not be beat: 9-1-9-1-0.

9-1-9-1-0!

9-1-9-1-0!

9-1-9-1-0!

the odometer, it did read-oh!

that's all you need to know now

the road ended, right by the water. you'd have thought it would go around the water or maybe there'd be some rocks across. you'd have thought there'd be a road on the other side of the water. but, no. that was quite literally the end of the road. there was really no choice at that point, with the fire at our backs and hailstones raining down from the sky.

so, we dove in.

looking out for the fashion police.

don't you hate when you have that outfit all picked out in your head, but when you put it on, it just doesn't look like what you thought it would? so, you change your clothes a couple times, and nothing's coming together right? so, you settle for something that you know works, but it's not what you wanted to wear at all?

yeah. me, too.

al michaels & john madden - somehow their voices make me feel all is right w/ the world. something about football, autumn, school starting....

currently listening to the del vikings on public television, and man, they sound good. i am a fan of their sound. motown? doo-wop? no matter what they are, they sound good. picked up a kieran kane cd from the dog pound at cat's records. that's good too, and it's country. also, my old man picked up the new rooney cd, and of course that's rock, and it's good, too. my old man also got phil collins' face value, and... can you guess?... it is good, too. they are all good. music is good.

the doo-wop is a great show - it's not just the music, it's the fancy suits & the synchronized dancing. take this group - the cadillacs. they are known for their synchronized show. they've got some moves, but public teevee, in all its brilliance, is showing us mostly shots of the audience clapping. the emcee actually said - here's a group that can really dance - and then they proceeded to show more of the audience than the group. stellar.

the cadillacs are shown here in their green outfits, and speaking of green, you will be happy to know that the crappy green team pulled out the win today in the first game of the fall season. fall? it's 101º. at an rate - we managed to win. 7-0. yeah, it was really close. a real nail-biter. right.

had supper at waffle house, and instead of the regular grits & raisin toast, i got the chicken-bacon sandwich. a delishusly greeesy taste sensation. this sandwich is highly recommended if you are looking for something delishus & greeesy. waffle house rocks!

preseason football has started. ah, yes. all is right with the world.

going for a 10-mile run today. why? just 'cause....

there is some debate in the running community over what it means to be a purist - a pure runner. well, here's the answer -- being a purist is not about running fast, although a purist might run fast. being a purist is about simply running... or running, simply. being a purist is about focusing the abilities you have inside yourself, with the purpose of travelling through the space-time continuum by the force of your own propulsion.

hp7 - no spoilers - covers from usa & britain. the brits have 2 - one for the adult version. what about the rest of the world? more covers out there?

finished hp7, and the proper thing to say about the book is that it is extremely satisfying. satisfying sounds like not-much, but it's actually... well, it's everything. you've got an epic series, carried over many years, hyped maximally, made into movies, studied from every angle, blogged about, put on summer reading lists -- the epitome of a classic. the long-awaited conclusion is ripe with the potential for failure. but, what happens? the complexities are made simple, the answers are given, all is explained, resolved... in short, concluded. with this book, the series is made whole, and the satisfaction that affords is something to which all authors should aspire.

now that i have read it, i totally get the usa cover art. it's obvious once you know the story. i haven't looked at the others too much yet, so i don't have a comment on them.

zoom - zee double-oh em - box 3-5-oh - boston mass - oh two one three four!!

zoom. what a great show. i remember once they made deviled eggs, and it was fascinating. seriously, something about the way they mixed the egg yolks with the mayo, mustard, & relish. truly fascinating. another time, they made these water-walker shoes out of large pieces of styrofoam with venetian blinds on the bottom. the blinds would go flat with the forward motion and then open with the pushback and afford some resistance, allowing the wearer to move across the surface of the water. what a great show. zoom.

lookie what i made!!

want to know it, not learn it.

i do not want to learn how to play the drums.
i want to know how to play the drums.

... speak portugese.
... sew my own clothing.
... sail.
... fold origami.
... play softball.
... sing harmony.

books 2007

night work - laurie r. king
glass castle - jeannette walls
cross - james patterson
the kite runner - khaled hosseini
with child - laurie r. king
the bookseller of kabul - åsne seierstad
bridget jones's diary - helen fielding
bridget jones: the edge of reason - helen fielding
how to be good - nick hornby
about a boy - nick hornby
olivia joules & the overactive imagination - helen fielding
a series of unfortunate events vol. 1-12 - lemony snicket
high fidelity - nick hornby
a long way down - nick hornby
the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime - mark haddon
the nightspinners - lucretia walsh grindle
the last days of dogtown - anita diamant
the end - lemony snicket
special topics in calamity physics - marisha pessl
hp6 - jk rowling
currently reading hp7 - jk rowling

pancake trouble

there's this shoney's commershal where the shoney's lady goes: what trouble did a pancake ever cause? and, the answer is clearly obesity. well, okay... that's not the answer ol' shoney lady be lookin' for....

today in history: August 6, 1945 Hiroshima Peace Day-atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima by "Enola Gay"

oak ridge national laboratory was built hastily, though carefully, in the early 1940s. tucked in a secluded valley in east tennessee, the laboratory was part of the secret manhattan project that produced the bombs dropped on hiroshima & nagasaki. the laboratory was staffed by thousands of degreed scientists and science industry workers. brilliant men & women going to work every day in a dangerous & toxic environment. the oak ridgers needed homes. wooden houses connected by boardwalks were constructed in the muddy land surrounding the laboratory. as the months passed, more permanent housing was built from cemestos. this remarkable building material was formed by combining cement with asbestos.

that's right, the nation's best & brightest scientists worked all day in a nuclear bomb factory and went home at night to asbestos houses.

ran 16 miles today. very, very little walking was involved, but much, much time was involved. not sure that walking would have been much slower.

here's a tip: not everyone has seen seinfeld; therefore, it's best not to call an ice cream shop owner the ice cream nazi because it may turn out that ice cream shop owner is an immigrant from poland, doesn't get the joke, and will with unknowing irony, withhold the frozen snack treat.

speaking of treats: necco makes all the best candies -- the necco wafer & related sweetheart heart, the lemon head, and the incomparable molasses & honey delight known as the mary jane, a pile of which i am currently devouring.

currently on hp7. trying to savor it and take it slowly, but just like the 16 miles this morning, the encounter with the ice cream nazi, and the pile o' mary janes -- no matter how slowly i take it, it will eventually be over, n'est-ce pas?

definition

sometimes, you are compelled to say something unpleasant. it's weighing you down, so you have to take the ugly thought out of your mind and form it into words, and put it out there. you extract it from the other thoughts and expel it and man, do you feel better. but, then, there it is... it drives everyone to silence as they turn to contemplate it in all its smelly, steamy glory, and all you want to do is bag it up & throw it out -- a conversational turd.

couscous schmouscous

for lunch, i shall be dining on couscous w/ pine nuts & shrimp. too bad for you that i am going to eat all of it myself.

did i mention i started hp7? shhh! don't say anything. i just started it.

on the doctor's advice, i kept running through the hamstring injury, and it feels amazingly better, so there's a vote in favor of the doctor, eh? looking forward to at 16-mile run this weekend. right. who looks forward to a 16-mile run? idiot.

have you seen last comic standing this season? it's been rather uneven, but some of them are showing potential. gerry dee, matt kirshen, and ralph harris jr -- all good. on the other hand, amy schumer, debra digiovanni, doug benson... these could go, and it wouldn't hurt my feelings.

the simpsons movie made $71 million. i have never seen an episode of the simpsons. how much of the popular culture slang am i missing? myriad merry references wooshing over my head. woosh. woosh.

uh... what?

rev al sharpton said on the bill o'reilly show: "we are double unemployed".

what does that even mean? double unemployed. what the hula are you talkin' 'bout, al? criminy, man. if you want people to take you seriously, here's a tip: make sense.

that is all.