UPS knows all

Package Progress

Location	Date	Local Time	Description
SECAUCUS, NJ	01/02/2008	6:58 P.M.	ORIGIN SCAN
	12/30/2007	7:57 P.M.	BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

Tracking results provided by UPS: 12/31/2007 7:11 A.M. ET

It's nice to know that they've planned the arrival of my package so precisely. I wish they would pick it up today so my PC wouldn't have to sit dead until next Monday. The machine died an unceremonious death two days before we left town and I forgot to order the replacement motherboard and processor from my parent's house. UPS should resolve to pickup packages the day before a holiday next year.

Christmas isn't Christmas without an ER visit

Last year I jokingly said we were starting a tradition of taking Princess Ana to the ER for Christmas Eve. This year the tradition changed a bit, but was continued.

The day before we left Aggieland we took Bubba Gene for a preemptive doctor visit hoping to catch any infection that he might have. We got antibiotics for an ear infection that was just starting. Ana had finished a round of antibiotics the day before, so we thought we had nipped the hospital visit in the bud.

Christmas Eve, the day we normally spent in the ER, came and went as did the next three days. The kids were healthy and happy. On Thursday we moved from my mom's house to my grandmother's house and forgot Bubba's antibiotic. Icy roads prevented a trip to get it. The next day he didn't feel well at all and in the evening we finally took him to the ER. His ear infection hadn't gone away. A shot of a second antibiotic and a prescription for a third seem to have cleared things up, so all is well that ends well.

Next Christmas we're just going to ask Santa for gift certificates for the ER of our choice and that the doctor we like be on call.

Merry Christmas

SMRT smart

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I'm comforting myself with some foggy recollection of reading something somewhere that said the New York Times was written on an 8th grade reading level. That's junior high too!

Headline Writers Seek New Words

Glancing through the headlines Google thinks are important this evening I see:

* Dodd Seeks Boost on Surveillance Bill

* McCain Seeks to Capitalize on New Endorsements

* Hillary Clinton seeks to warm up her image

* Romney Again Seeks Huckabee Apology


Here's my guess for tomorrow's headlines.

* Obama seeks mundane headline to counter Clinton coverage

* Ron Paul seeks to dismantle federal government

* Gulliani seeks new ways to reference 9/11

* Remaining candidates seek name recognition with computer science students

Monotony and the Wall

My half-marathon training had been going very well up until this weekend. I've been steadily increasing my weekly mileage and was up to 10 miles on my long run last weekend. I was beginning to think that my first marathon might even happen in the next year. Then the running gods put me back in my place.

Friday I set a new personal record for monotonous workouts when I ran 8 miles on the track inside the Student Rec Center on campus. 8 miles is somewhere around 35 laps on this less-than-a-quarter-mile track. My iPod did a wonderful job of keeping my from going insane as I went around and around again. I was still feeling good, if just a tad bored from staring at cinder blocks for almost an hour and a half.

This morning I went out for my long run. 12 miles was the goal. I knew last night when it was still warm and muggy at 10pm that it wasn't going to be fun, but I was not prepared for the miserable consitions this morning. I made it to campus and was running by 5:45am. Even with the early start the heat had wiped me out by mile 6. I made a second loop around campus, but called it quits at 10.5 miles. I had run out of water and didn't think Lidia would appreciate me running myself into the ground since we had a photo sitting at 10am at Sears. Other runners were dropping out and ducking into buildings looking for water fountains as I was packing up as well. It seems that few of us were ready for a September weather workout.

So I've been beaten down and humbled. I'll do my 13.1 in January and not even think about 26.2 again until after I've crossed the finish line.

R.I.P. Asok

Scott Adams has killed Asok the intern, the only sane character in the Dilbert universe. Something tells me Asok will be back on Monday though, and will be sweeter than ever.