I finally pushed past the part where running sucks to where it sucks when I don't get to run.  I have decided to do my first 5K with my sister.  It's the Taco Truck Challenge... 'cause some of us need something more meaty than a carrot dangled in front of us to get motivated.  Enter soon for a big ol' discount!

The hubs and I both won lottery spots to race in this year's LBS! We had entered the lottery several years in a row and I kind of thought we were never going to be selected. Maybe we finally aged into smaller divisions? Maybe all the Olympians were in Russia? Maybe they took pity on us.  Whatever it was, we were stoked. We booked a VRBO with a hot tub and at the very least, it was a peaceful stay in Glacier, WA. The race itself was the opposite of peaceful.

To train for the LBS I bought one of these things off of Craigslist.  I haven't embraced running in the cold and rain which, in Seattle, means I don't run much during the winter.  Hence, I thought an indoor cardio option would be good.  Treadmills are expensive and very large.  Where this thing can be tucked away into a closet fairly easily. I had to buy a special skewer for the rear wheel so it mounts tightly with the trainer.  It comes with one when you buy it new, but since I did the Craigslist route, I ordered the missing skewer off Amazon for like 10 bucks.  It was easy to swap out. 

So far, I really like the thing.  I use my mountain bike.  It's a carbon fiber frame but there hasn't been any issues with cracking or whatever at all.  I have thrashed the bike pretty hard on trails so, it stands to reason, standing and riding hard on the trainer shouldn't be any worse for the bike.  I did have to get a special smooth tire for the rear-wheel.  The regular knobby tire caused crazy vibration and noise.  It is still a little noisy even with the new tire.  It's nothing that couldn't be solved by turning up the TV's volume.  Oh, yeah.  It sits in front of the Tee Vee. 

You can adjust the tension by turning a knob on the trainer but for the most part, I set it up the one time and have only used my bike's gears to increase or decrease the difficulty.  I have had it since November and it does the trick when I want to burn some calories and get a sweat going when the weather outside is gross.  Hell, I do it when it isn't that terrible outside sometimes, too.

While visiting my brother, his wife and their son, we discovered what might be the best toy ever!!! Snap Circuits...

My nephew has the Jr. set and one of the other base models.  My husband and I spent hours with Jeffrey playing with the thing.  Basically, you snap together pieces and build electronic devices like radios, lights, buzzers, etc.  Even after Jeffrey went to bed, Ben and I kept playing with it. 

Buy it for the kids in your family.  Maybe one of them will be the next Steve Jobs and put you in a nice retirement home.

We flew to the Midwest to visit my family.  As we flew in, I was a little disappointed to see that the leaves hadn't turned for fall.  I miss the Midwest's spectacular display of fall colors that you just don't get in the Evergreen State.  Here or there, sure, you get some maple trees that turn red or yellow, but damn, the Midwest does it big.  I'm sure there are other parts of the country that get better fall leaves but I spent plenty of falls in Indiana and it wasn't until I moved to the Northwest that I realized it isn't like that everywhere.  Now, I miss seeing it and was sad to see it hadn't started happening yet for our trip to the Midwest.  I could have sworn October was the right time of year for the leaves to change but I guess the Midwest had a hot summer and fall is happening late.  Damn you, Global Warming.  At least if it was going to be a late fall, couldn't you have at least had the fireflies out and about still?  I also miss seeing those.

... and sunglasses.  Or goggles.  I was tired of the picture I was using on the home page.  I was wearing sunglasses when it was taken because the photographer had his  gigantic light ring up and it was super-bright to my eyes.  I had just come out of my dark editing room.  It is a nice photo.  The sunglasses just felt a little too casual..

But upon looking through my collection of photos, I have discovered that I was wear hats and/or sunglasses alot.  Either that, or I am making faces.  No duck-lips or anything, just lots of corny smiles and dorky poses.  I have some great wedding pics but those seem too fancy.

Eventually, I will have a photo taken with the specific purpose of using it as a profile pic.  In the mean time, I will put up my current favorite photo.

They play better than you, they sing better than you, command a stage better than you, write better songs than you and do it with more purpose and meaning than anything you have ever done with all your supposed artistic talent. Ok. Ok. Ok. Maybe, that statement is hyperbolic, but I doubt B.B King or Aretha Franklin reads my tiny blog. Soooo, chances are...

If you are lucky and they tour through your town, GO! Screw the plans you made with friends and drag their butts to see Savages perform live.  We saw them on Monday at a sold-out Neumos.  My mind was blown. They mesmerized me so thoroughly that I forgot Neumos' sound system is wonky and the whole place smells of French onion soup and fried fish.  I totally geeked out.  I haven't done that in ages.  I jumped up and down, screamed every lyric I knew, punched my fist in the air and I wasn't alone.  It helped that there were signs posted at the venue requesting people refrain from taking photos or videos:

I just got home from editing Seahawks Saturday Night. This week, Greg Scruggs interviews teammate, Breno Giacomini.  They both played college football in Louisville.  Word is, Greg will be taking over where Michael Robinson left off with the Rob Report.  Not sure if it will be the Greg Report, Scruggs Report or branded something entirely different, but after watching his interview with Giacomini, I'm exited to see what he will come up with each week.  To be fair, Breno was quick with great answers to Greg's snarky questions.  I think you can tell that these guys have a great rapport.  I had fun editing a little sparkle into Breno's response when asked which teammate he thinks would win a beauty contest.  I almost threw a star wipe in there.  Probably the ONLY time it would have been appropriate in my entire career to do so.  Watch it!  Tell me if I should have gone for it with the star wipe.  Saturday at 9:30PM on JOEtv and 10:30PM on Q13.

This week's Mic'd Up Segment is with Brandon Mebane.  Talk about big hits and big talk.  It's a great perspective on a game where Hawks' defense made a huge difference.  I didn't cut this week's mic'd up, so it won't appear on my demo reel website.  Just gotta tune in to see it, I guess. If only Kaepernick's bet with Wilson was true.  After finding out the firey twerking video was a fake, it didn't surprise me that the eyebrow shaving video was also smoke and mirrors.  

Also this week on the show, Coach Carroll tells us what the Seahawks did during the rain delay.  His interview made me and my producer laugh and wish there was some video of what Carroll described.  It would have been scandalous and not for any reason you might think.  Just our warped sense of humor.  But as I sit here typing, the rain outside is pouring, and it has me hoping for another steamy rain delay for Sunday.  Mmmmmmm... football.  I think I might be starting to actually like the sport.

For a look at pro-quality photos check out Ben's blog at MYKNEESHURTTHEMOVIE.COM.  This page only has iPhone pics I took since all the good cameras were rolling on skateboarding.

Thanks to TACKY.DK, Ben is now getting international attention for his documentary.   I think it's a website from Denmark.  Maybe someone could confirm this for us?