I did about two weeks worth of training. Needless to say, standing at the starting line of a 3.1 mile race is a little unsettling when you train like I trained (not much). But the race went surprisingly well. I accomplished my two major goals. 1) to finish. 2) to finish without walking.

I ran a time somewhere around 27 minutes. That's by no means a great 5k time. But it was my first time, so I'm giving myself a break.

Oh, and just after I got to the finish line, I barfed in a bush. So that was great.

In other news, I'm in the middle of planning a wedding. Rephrase, I'm in the middle of watching Angie plan a wedding and I'm in the middle of planning a Honeymoon. One question posed to me was "how much are you hoping to spend." How am I supposed to answer that? "Umm, zero, because I want someone to step up and offer to pay for everything." Or how about, "Somewhere around $10,000. I'll put it on my Vise and pay it off later. Or can I borrow your Visa?" I see now why people set up payPal accounts for weddings. But don't worry, I'm not stooping that low.

One other thing: we have scheduled a meeting of the parents. Angie's folks and mine have never met each other. So in late April, Dad his flying his lil plane to Indiana for the conference. Angie and I will be flying up (commercial) to moderate. I think it will be a great time.

Anything else? Probably. This is what I get for updating so infrequently. But don't feel bad. I do this on purpose--if you knew everything about me we'd both feel like we should be outdoors more.

The last couple of weeks have been what I am calling "a little rough." After working hard for a couple of months at saving up a nice chunk of bling/change, some car troubles depleted said bling pile. I was and am still in no way impoverished--luckily my foodstamp application impressed the right people.

In all seriousness, it was a sizeable set-back. But money is money. You make it, you spend it--that's the way it goes. On Monday, part of that money equation took a hit (read: you make it). Due to some downsizing I lost my cush job at a software development company.

Again, a set-back. But it's ok. Actually, in a case of providential coincidence a couple of job offers fell in my lap. One that is a sure thing and one that I'm waiting to hear about. So all is well or at least has some serious potential to be well in the job market.

But today at lunch I hit rock bottom. Actually, I hit rock bottom and then got up off of the rock, lifted it out of the way, laid myself prostrate where the rock once had been and dug my way a good mantle-and-a-crust below "rock bottom."

It was about 2:30 and I finally tore away from editing video (I'm finishing out the week at the softare development place) and headed off to get some lunch. I sat in my truck (read: for sale so I can buy food) and pondered my options. I wanted something cheap and fast. I was hungry but not for anything specific. Then the best and also the worst idea came to me. I went to Cici's.

There are few things in life more humbling both to the soul and to the gastro-intestinal fortidude than a meal at Cici's. But my humility was increased ten-fold--I went alone.

The nice girl behind the counter looked at me with a snicker--"Just one?" she asked. Indeed. Just one. Just me.

By then it was 2:50. With the lunch rush long past the pizza remaining on the buffet reminded me of something I saw at the museum of natural history. So I sat down to a piping tepid plate of Paleolithic Pizza with a red plastic goblet of unsweet iced tea (the Cadillac of teas). I tapped my toes to the beat of poorly chosen 80's music while watching a muted version of "All My Young and Restless Bold and Beautiful Children with Various Passions Concerning the World Turning to General Hospital with Only One Life to Live." Plus, I was just a smidge past chilly.

I made three trips for pizza, the last time racing a woman who was getting food for her grandchild and a 60-year-old man wearing an unbuttoned FUBU baseball jersey.

And you thought you knew me.

I came home yesterday to my genius of a roomate doing homework bundled up with the AC blasting. It got much cooler when the AC went off and windows went up. This morning's temperature without the aid of electricity was a brisk *65 f. That's downright chilly. I mean, I was considerably more comfortable in long sleeves than short. For this region, that's saying something.

In sports . . .

Chiefs move to 4-2. That makes me happy.

And to my boy, Brad Smith (pronounced "Smiff"), he had another outstanding game against Nebraska.

Passing, he was 21 of 36 for 234 yards and a touchdown. No biggie, right? I mean lots of quqarterbacks can do that. Here's what they cannot do, 28 carries for 267 yards and 3 touchdowns. He had 480 total yards, leading the NCAA in week 8.

This guy is leading the Big 12 in RUSHING YARDS by a good 200 yards. Someone try and stop him, I dare you.

10 TRUTHS BLACK AND HISPANIC PEOPLE KNOW, BUT WHITE PEOPLE WON'T ADMIT:

1. Elvis is dead.
2. Jesus was not White.
3. Rap music is here to stay
4. Kissing your pet is not cute or clean.
5. Skinny does not equal sexy.
6. Thomas Jefferson had black children.
7. A 5 year child is too big for a stroller.
8. N' SYNC will never hold a candle to the Jackson 5
9. An occasional BUTT whooping helps a child stay in line.
10. Having your children curse you out in public is not normal.

10 TRUTHS WHITE AND BLACK PEOPLE KNOW, BUT HISPANIC PEOPLE WON'T ADMIT:

1. Hickey's are not attractive.
2. Chicken is food, not a roommate.
3. Jesus is not a name for your son.
4. Your country's flag is not a car decoration.
5. Maria is a name but not for every other daughter.
6. "Jump out and run" is not in any insurance policies.
7. 10 people to a car is considered too many.
8. Buttoning just the top button of your shirt is a bad fashion statement.
9. Mami and Papi can't possibly be the nickname of every person in your family
10.Letting your children run wildly through the store is not normal.

10 TRUTHS WHITE AND HISPANIC PEOPLE KNOW, BUT BLACK PEOPLE WON'T ADMIT:

1. O. J. did it.
2. Tupac is dead.
3. Teeth should not be decorated.
4. Weddings should start on time.
5. Your pastor doesn't know everything.
6. Jesse Jackson will never be President.
7. RED is not a kool-aid flavor, it's a color.
8. Church does not require expensive clothes.
9. Crown Royal bags are meant to be thrown away.
10.Your rims and sound system should not be worth more than your car.

Lately I've been occupied with catching up with my girlfriend, Angie. She was gone for most of the summer for her work. I was glad she got to go, but SO glad she's back. A trip like that shows you how you really feel. I'll admit that at first I was glad to have some space, and the chance to do whatever the junk I wanted. But that wore off after about 2 weeks. By the end of her trip I was pining. I moaped, i sulked, i whined . . . i yearned. But she's back, so it's cool.

Recently I have acquired two new toys:

1. Road bike.
A la Lance, my road bike is complete with curvy handlebars and skinny tires. I've been riding so far at the parking garage to the office building right by our apartment, and at a great local park. It's a park in the New Tampa Area called Flatwoods Park. The highlight of the park is a 7-mile paved loop that is great for bikes, joggers, and bladers. I just got a sweet road bike and I tried the trail out today for the first time. My bike performed well today--my firt time on that trail.

It's about as wide as a 2-lane highway. And since traffic is one way, even if it's crowded, it doesn't seem so conjested. They have shelters every now and then with water jugs and bathrooms. And the best part, its out in the middle of the Florida wilderness, which has its moments.

2. iPod Shuffle
A friend of mine has a job at a bank that has several branches here in Tampa. They were opening a new branch and if you opened up a checking account they gave you an iPod. They were unspecific as to what kind of iPod. I was hoping for a mini--6 gig maybe. Turned out to be a 512 Shuffle. I almost backed out but decided to do it. That was a good decision.

The shuffle doesn't boast all the nifty features of the bigger brothers like gigabytes of storage or a screen, but for my purposes, it's about right. It holds about 8 hours of music. And after combing my iTunes library, I couldn't find enough stuff to fill it. I have over 5 gigs of music, but most of it isn't stuff I need to carry around with me all the time. Plus switching out a new playlist is really easy. And I can't think of any situations where I listen to 8 hours of music at a time.

So that's the latest. Shuffles and biking. I plan on mixing those two very soon.