Stream of Conciousness

We finally got our first significant snowfall of the year last night, in the form of frozen rain. There wasn't much of a build-up, but it was like loose sand. Now of course it's all an icy coating or slush, depending on whether you're on the sidewalk or the road. The result is that my ex-girlfriend's dog Barkley is still here although she returned late last night. I'll drop him off tomorrow morning when the streets are clear again. Right now Chris is charging through his 500 piece Christmas puzzle, with Barkley snoozing beside him on the sofa.

I've had a bit of a tiring weekend. Friday afternoon I dropped in on a friend to help get their PC back on it's feet, and decided on the spur of the moment to go for a long run first and finish at his place. I ended up following a 16K route in pretty cold conditions even though they only lived about 2K away... I ran over to Laird Drive first to see if I could spot where Enduro Sport, the local triathlon store, was re-locating their main store (I did, and chatted briefly with the owner). Saturday I did a one hour spinning class. Sunday I joined a friend at the Running Room's regular 8:30 AM Sunday group run. There were at least 50 runners there! Last time I showed up there were six. That's New Year's resolutions for you I guess. I was pleasantly surprised to see half a dozen other Toronto Triathlon Club members amongst the crowd. Once again I ran further than planned, this time due to peer pressure, covering 17.5K. It was cold and dry on the run but afterward, while I was helping my friend Adrian on a photo shoot, the snow began to fall. Today I trudged through the slush for another spinning class, and then got a haircut ahead of my next audition.

One more thing about Florida; at the beach house our garbage was beset by rats and hermit crabs! The crabs we saw crawling about dragging their seashell armor with them. The rats however appeared at night when we closed the "hatch" down to ground level (they made desperate escape attempts, racing all over the floor until I opened the hatch enough for them to slither out). Too funny.

Late night update: I've just finished installing the latest patch for my son's World of Warcraft game. This primarily enables access to the extra-cost Burning Crusade module, which I presume is superior to the Burning Itch module. Also I found an audio recording of a book tour appearance by John Hodgman, who plays "PC" in the current Apple commercials and appears on The Daily Show. He's a very funny deadpan comedian, and he's a blogger. I think I'll have to pick up his book, The Areas of My Expertise shortly.

The full title, by the way, is An Almanac of Complete World Knowledge Compiled with Instructive Annotation and Arranged in Useful Order by Me, John Hodgman, a Professional Writer, in the Areas of My Expertise, which Include: Matters Historical; Matters Literary; Matters Cryptozoological; Hobo Matters; Food, Drink, & Cheese (a Kind of Food); Squirrels & Lobsters & Eels; Haircuts; Utopia; What Will Happen in the Future; and Most Other Subjects; Illustrated with a Reasonable Number of Tables and Figures, and Featuring the Best of "Were You Aware of It?", John Hodgman's Long-Running Newspaper Novelty Column of Strange Facts and Oddities of the Bizarre. Thank god for copy and paste...

Listening to: Talisman by Air from Moon Safari.