No Catchy Title...Just an Update

It sat there innocently enough.  Just a wide black belt and above it, a lot of blinking lights and buttons.  I swear the LEDs rearranged themselves at one point to read "just one run".  

Hope everyone has had a great Christmas break.  Oh, some of you had to work the past few weeks?  Sucks to suck, huh?  I've managed to spread holiday cheer throughout the land, be Father of the Year to my 2 kids, and, not coincidentally, justify drinking at just about any point in the day.  Amazingly, I've also managed to hit the gym on a regular basis.  I've managed to hold off on running save for one glorious mile on Christmas Eve (see above lede).  To fill the void, I've found the "holy shit, this is a workout" button on the elliptical*.  I've bought myself some swimming goggles in the hopes that I'll actually hit the pool soon.  And I've even taken a spinning class. 45 minutes of pure hell on a one-wheeled bicycle, but honestly the best workout save for running.  A buddy of mine is an instructor at a local club and he invited me to his class.  Holy. Shit.  I was a walking puddle afterwards, but it was worth it.  

I'm ready to get back at it.  You know when you're sort of fixated on one thing and then you hear about it everywhere you go?  Running - and beer - has been like that for me this holiday season.  On January 1st, I'm ready to go.  Oh wait, it's supposed to be single digit temps and my gym is closed that day.  Oh, and look at that...there are all those bowl games on New Years Day.  They still PLAY those games**?  Huh.  Looks like I'll just have to curl up on the couch and wait for January 2nd.  Yep, that's the day.

P.S. - I'm considering going "public" with my blog.  By that, I mean posting my stuff on Facebook and/or Twitter.  Don't know why exactly.  Any thoughts out there?  Kind of like the relative anonymity, but also would be interesting to see if others like this silly little blog.  Who knows.  I also say I'm going to do a marathon every year, too.

*it went to "11"
**thanks BCS for making every bowl game even less significant.  Bravo.

Clips Show!

You know how some TV shows pretty much mail it in during December?  They have that one "Very Special Holiday Episode" and then, if you're lucky, they'll crank out a clips show.  Well, why should I be any different?  Seeing as though my blogging was lacking this year, I give you the following.  I think that the most underrated line of the whole skit is "I can't leave food out because I have an excessive rat problem."  


P.S. - Did anyone catch the fact that I posted a SSTIFY yesterday and it wasn't Friday?  Yeah, me neither.

A Very Special Holiday SSTIFY

I'm all about tradition.  Having World War III in my house while the wife and kids are baking Christmas cookies, seeing who will pass out first...me or the kids...before Santa gets here, trying to do my best imitation of the couch at the in-laws.  You know, those little things that make the holidays special.  And at ROATM, we're no different.  If I had a soul, I'd put up Springsteen's Santa Claus is Coming to Town or Bing Crosby's White Christmas.

Hell no.

I want this song stuck in your head the way it's been stuck in mine.  Oh, and by the way...can someone explain the lyrics, "Well, tonight thank God it's them, instead of youuuuuu."  Is that sarcasm or not?  If it is, I tip my hat to Bono.  Sarcasm and Christmas go hand in hand at the Razzdoodle household.



*P.S. - It looks as though Nitmos, Ian and I are back to blogging.  Looks like Christmas came early for all of you!

Shutting it Down

I read this article this morning.  According to Pew Internet (giggle!), we're all lame:

Overall, virtual worlds and blogging aren’t very popular in any age group, which probably indicates that tools such as Facebook and Twitter – which also enables users to express themselves online – have substituted blogging for many users. E-mail, on the other hand, has become nearly ubiquitous, even among adults ages 74 or over.  

This settles it.  I'm quitting again.  I have to be cool.

Just kidding.  I'm just shutting down running until 1/1/11.  I went about .25 miles last week before my IT band reared it's sinewy, ugly...uh....head?  Until then, it looks like a lot of cross training and elliptical boredom for me.  Oh, and did I mention that a friend of mine teaches a spinning class?  He offered to let me join in and embarrass myself.  Should be interesting.  At the very LEAST, a blog post.

Here's wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas* and Happy New Year!  I leave you with one of the best scenes from one of the most underrated Christmas movies of all time.

*Yeah, that's right.  I said "Christmas".  F**k this PC sh*t.  It's Jesus' birthday.

SSTIFY - Tis the Season

THIS is that I had in my head yesterday and it wouldn't get unstuck at our daughter's Christmas program.

I'm going to hell on so many levels.

Clean Up on Aisle 3

So there I was forgetting what the hell I was doing at the grocery store.  See, I started off with a list of 4 things...my absolute maximum without having to write it down.  Then, my wife calls me and tells me we need something ELSE.  Well, that just threw me into a tailspin.  Now, not only is the extra thing forgotten, my whole list is jacked up.  I should have just come back with a 6 pack of beer and sat on the couch.

Getting old sucks.

Where was I?  Oh yeah, I'm at the store and half way through shopping, my knee gives on me.  Not a slight buckling....completely gives.  I don't even remember doing anything to aggravate it.  It's not like I was trying out for Supermarket Sweep or anything. I immediately go down in pain.  I must have yelped because a little old lady asked if I was OK.  She didn't offer to help me up (hag), but at least she asked.  I got up, shook it off and went about my shopping with a pretty pronounced limp.

I thought I had gotten past this whole sore knee thing.  I stayed off the road until it got better.  I started up slow again.  Everything was going pretty well and now this.  I blame basketball.  For the 2nd week in a row, we've only had 4 guys to play.  That means no subs and I'm playing the entire 40 minutes.  Throw the fact that there's a lot of starting, stopping, and cutting and I think I see the source of all of this.

I'm not going to quit.  I suck at basketball.  I mean really suck, but I'm not a quitter.  On the other hand,  I'm not real crazy about collapsing while I'm shopping for brownie mix, either.

Wax On, Wax Off.

I was a huge fan of The Master in 1984.  I mean, it had Lee Van Cleef and a Van Patten.  You know, son of Dick Van Patten?  The dad on Eight is Enough?  How many more pre-1985 references do I need to make my point, people?  Anyhow, The Master debuted on NBC* at the height of the "I'm spindly and awkward and I can kick anyone's ass via martial arts" craze in the mid-80's.  Granted, he wasn't as dreamy as that one guy from The Karate Kid.  What was his name?  Oh yeah, Pat Morita.  Anywho, I wanted to be a ninja.  Every Christmas (and by every, I mean "1984" and "1985"), I'd beg my parents to buy me nunchucks and throwing stars.  What better way to celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ than by hurling lethal, pointy objects at my 8 year old sister?

So what does this have to do with running, you ask?  Oh, I saw a guy running last night and he was dressed in all black.  Damn near smacked into him in my Honda (from Japan!) if it weren't for my keen, ninja-like perception and his reflective Mizunos (also from Japan!  Symmetry!).

End of story.  Go about your day.

*Sadly, for this post I didn't have to go to IMDB.com or Google for any of this.  At least not until I had to post links and the classy picture. Amazing I'm married and I spawned children, isn't it?