Yikes! Even having grown up with knowledge of etiquette, I sometimes forget to ignore my phone or incoming texts when actually speaking to someone in person. I've always worried that the person I'm speaking with will think, "I guess I'm just chopped liver," when in reality, it's just knee-jerk that I respond when the bell rings.

I've got new tele-skis! Couldn't resist the blowout deal they had on the Karhu Betty with the Bombshell tele-bindings. Now if we could just have some snow...

Back from Beaver Creek. No snow, but still better than skiing on the east coast.

Best memory: a ski instructor coming up to me and telling me my tele-turns looked good going through the moguls. Then again, maybe he's never seen a real free-heeler doing the bumps. But still, it made feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :)

Heh! Subaru's Drive magazine has a feature on Ray's Mountain Bike Indoor Park! How awesome. Can't imagine Lexus sponsoring such an awesome service that Ray provides. This could be my next winter wonderland. Only, what, 8 hours from NJ?

...apple bar code label.






We did not put that on him, honestly. Orientals are famous for their inquisitive nature.

Right. Three postings in one week. I guess I'm back, sort of.

This past fall was a bust in that I was dealing with family illness and studying. Not that I'm entitled to anything, but I will be thoroughly pissed since I actually took this test seriously and studied. And I missed out on too many all the TMBG shows as well as fall marathoning. On the up side, I did more mountain biking and road biking since those stints didn't exhaust me as much as long training runs on the weekends would have. My technical skills had improved, but now that we've had such a wet winter, the trails are verboten unless the weather gets cold enough to freeze the ground again.

However, it's less than a week to Beaver Creek and Vail. Not that they've had good snow so far. But, it'll be better than anything in the east. So jealous of carvinkeeper12 that she lives so close to good skiing that she can start her season IN DECEMBER!!! My legs will not be in any shape for freeheeling. *sigh* Yes, life is tough.

Speaking of skiing, why is biathlon not part of the winter sports that Universal Sports televises? Instead of repeating the World Cup Alpine and Nordic events, I'd like to see some of the biathlon events. Especially since an American male has finally taken the lead in some decades. For those of you not familiar with biathlon, this is NOT what biathlon is, although it would make the Olympics far more interesting.

So, everyone around me is on Facebook and some are on Twitter as well. I've contemplated registering for them, but don't want to give my real name out. Not happy about being trackable on the web. While listening to CBS radio, I heard that even using the Kindle allows Amazon to track what you've been reading and where you are at a given time. But, I want the capability of stalking others...However, seeing as how much time I would spend on the computer if I did join these groups, I think I might pass.

The annual WKCR Bach Festival is over, but when streamed today, they were playing some awesome music during their regular after classical session that you would never hear on WQXR even when owned by the NY Times. Very cool Cantigas de Santa Maria.

Happy Birthday to bec_87rb!!

And Happy New Year to everyone else! :D, including TMBG! Wishing I were in Northampton instead of where I was.

Annual Bach-fest! on WKCR 89.9. Yummy. Yay for Columbia University on having a bitchin' radio station.

For those of you who celebrate it,
merry Christmas!

For those who don't, happy belated Chanukkah and Diwali (and any other festival of lights), Kwanzaa, and Boxing Day (for any Canadians or Brits).

Hope your stash was all you hoped it would be. :)

Right. The White House's ego is so frail that they're trying to mess with the media. "Boo hoo, Fox doesn't worship me".

What they're doing almost smacks of Pervez Musharraf's attempts to shut down the media a few years ago. I guess the national emergency of the swine flu epidemic will be the ostensible excuse Obama needs to eventually declare an emergency state a la Pakistan.

Or perhaps the administration is hanging too much with the People's Republic of China. Will my live journal be frozen?

Fountains of Wayne write fucking good songs.

Their live shows are a little dull, but after having taken a hiatus from seeing them, I went to see them at Maxwell's in Hoboken in June and then at the Bell House in Brooklyn last night. I had forgotten how great their songwriting is and just enjoyed listening to them again. Four new songs were introduced, my favorite of which is Cold Comfort Flowers. A Road Song is also a keeper.

Although the shows were marketed as "acoustic", they were still pretty loud. Bonus to an "acoustic" show, I guess, is that Adam Schlesinger was on the piano a lot. I AM a sucker for keyboards. So, uh, yeah. FoW. That's my quota for another few years unless they liven themselves up.

By contrast, I also went to the TMBG shows at Oak Ridge Park this past Sunday. I am a dork. Will report later as to why.

Otherwise, I've spent this summer catching up on things I ignored while running. So, I've been mountain and road biking a lot as well as kayaking on the creeks and rivers that have come up as a result of the unusually cool and wet summer we had. Can I just say that I love mud?