A good reason shopping the day after Thanksgiving should be banned!

Wal-Mart worker dies after shoppers knock him down

People are idiots!

A good day...

Yes, it was a good day. A day in which much that needed doing got done.

Relatively speaking.

I took work off today cause I need to go in Friday. Friday would normally be a day off because of Thanksgiving on Thursday. I need to go in on Friday due to the requirements of particular job. Wednesday to Monday is just too long.

So I took the day off and stayed home and took care of a few things.

Big item #1: The yard.

I let the yard go to pot this past year. Not completely, but with the possibility of construction on back-end of the house I wasn't going to get too involved in the upkeep. Who knew if and when a crew of construction workers would just come in and rip it all up? Well, they didn't. Dad came down with his truck and a flat bed trailer and we loaded a grundle of wood that has been laying around the place for a while and he hauled it off to my brother's house to use for firewood. Very charitable of me, don't you think? I suppose I could have used it here in the old fireplace in the living room, but I don't know how safe that would be--the darn thing hasn't been used in at least 5 years--there's probably a house fire waiting to happen in that chimney somewhere...

Item #2: Hay's car.

Hay's down for Thanksgiving--pulled into town at about 5:00. We went to El Pollo Loco and then I did some maintenance stuff to her car. Her check engine light has been going on and off for a while but it's too old a car to plug the check-engine-monitor-thing into it and get an explanation of whatever problems there might be. So, I did what I could based on what I knew--which really isn't much. I can't hurt though. Anyways, I pulled her EGR valve and gave it a good cleaning. The EGR valve on her car wasn't stuck (at least not as badly as mine was) but I cleaned it anyways. I then gave the car the old Seafoam treatment. Holy Crap! That sure smoked up the neighborhood. When that was all done and I was putting things back together, I noticed that I forgot to plug back in the connection to the EGR valve... Doesn't do a bit of good to clean it up nice and then fail to plug it in.

I've got milk, eggs, and socks sitting out in my car I'd better bring in. There's nothing worse than spoiled milk, eggs, and socks.

El Pollo Loco

Mmmmmm.

I had my first anything from the El Pollo Loco tonight.

I picked the Twice Grilled burrito.

Mmmmmm.

But then at $6 it had darn well better be!

It came with a small drink, some tortilla chips, and a tablespoon of salsa for $1.50 more.

On a somewhat related note, Del Taco no longer offers the Del's Deal! What the...? That is sooo not cool!

Valley of Fire Marathon...

I had given some thought to driving down to run the Valley of Fire Marathon next weekend (it's on the 22nd), but had pretty much concluded that I wouldn't.

It's 350 miles down and 350 miles back for a grand total of 700 miles. That's two tanks of gas--minimum. At $25-30 a tank, roughly, I'm looking at $50 to $60.

And then there's the registration fee, which, due to the late date, would be $80. Yeah, I could do the half ($70); but that runs contrary to my nature--if there's a full being offered, that's the option I take. And 700 miles to run a half-marathon on a 3 day junket? Probably not.

Throw in food at maybe $20 per day for 2 1/2 to 3 days (Friday to Sunday)--add on another $60.

Lodging has been offered to me at no cost so that's not an issue...

Grand total for the trip: $200.00.

Actually, that's less than I had thought--but it's still a whole lot more than I've got in my discretionary spending account right now.

So, as much as I really would like to get away for the weekend and run another race before year end, I'm gonna have to pass. I really am sorry.

On an unrelated note, it's that time of year again when sitting here at my computer tends to get my toes all nice and iced up. IT'S COLD tonight! I should pajama up and go to bed! But I haven't had dinner yet and dining at The Olive Garden is looming large--30 minutes from now unless something else happens. (We were supposed to be eating at 8:00...)

Oh well. I'd better spell check this thing, format it, and do the publishing thing that needs doing.

Later.

Hi Chan! Love you! ;)

Run

I'm going to run tomorrow.

Really.

I've got my bag packed already.

If I don't, I may just die.

I didn't log one single mile this past week.

60% chance of precipitation tomorrow. Highs near 50°.

I just gotta get out and run...

Friday night!

First off, before I forget: bikes are to be ridden on the side of the road. NOT ON THE SIDEWALK! I recognize the complete and utter futility in my making that declaration here. No offending BYU or Provo High School student is going to read it. Still, that doesn't invalidate it either. The only bikes that should be ridden on the sidewalk are those that are being peddled by young children under the age of 12.

Second. Well, there is no second. At least there isn't any more. I thought I had a few things to blog about, but now I find myself with an empty mind. My mind seems to have emptied itself of those things I thought I'd throw on here tonight. There are those who would argue, and probably correctly, that my mind is empty all of the time. I would tend to agree.

I've got two months to stockpile all the weapons and ammo I can before Obama makes it illegal for me to do so any more. ;) How does the Kimber Custom TLE II sound?

Sweet...