It’s hard to be really really ridiculously good-looking when you’re swallowing a rat whole, but my boy manages to pull it off. I know you want to see more.
Month: September 2006
rift valley to pasadena
I finally did my first workout with the Caltech XC team this afternoon – mile repeats at Lacy Park. I was basically running with their current top guy so it wasn’t all out, but still slightly uncomfortable due to my lack of running anything under 6:30 pace in a long, long time. Plus, it’s hot. I like running in the morning.
Here’s some good caltech running gossip: there’s a frosh in this year’s class from Kenya who’s related to one of the greatest distance runners of all time, Henry Rono. They even share the last name. Rono set a world record in the 5000m at a WSU vs. Cal dual meet in Berkeley, running completely alone. He set four world records in 81 days. He toyed with people at the NCAA meet – sprinting the straights and jogging the turns in the 5k. It was claimed that Rono blew by a long jumper sprinting down the runway in that race. Anyway, I just emailed the frosh with hopes of getting him out for the team. I have visions of arriving at the conference meet and some spindly kid gets out of our van. The other teams are wondering – who’s that? A ringer? Can he run? The gun goes off, people crowd around the mile marker and here comes the Caltech frosh, splitting 4:15, a hundred yards clear of the field. Can it happen? Can the Beaver rise again?
TV
Invasion of the televisions. My home has more rats than people, more bikes than people, and many many more buddhas, pixies, and signs that read “every seed is a little big of magic” than people.
El Raton de Fuego
Last night I stumbled into 5WC at 9:30pm after a long day at the data analysis salt mines and an uphill bike ride home. I had no energy to cook so I decided on refrigerator biscuits for dinner. I prepared the meal with my three roommates in the kitchen and Jesse’s girlfriend in the dining room. As I turned the gas oven on somebody noticed a rat tail slink across the door jam, and then disappear through the outside door. But through all this there was another noise: squeak-squeak, squeak-squeak, coming from the vicinity of the oven. Alex said it was probably the pot on the oven boiling, but squeak-squeak is not the sound a pot makes. We pondered for a couple seconds, then I was the first to admit what we were all thinking – There’s a rat in the oven. And he’s on fire. The squeaks were definitely animal; Jesse thought we should turn off the oven to avoid the essence of charred rat bits complimenting our food in the future. I ran out to the shed to grab my rat weapon of choice – a shovel. The rat was spotted briefly when the lower tray to the oven was opened, but then he disappeared, probably behind the refrigerator. After investigating the thoroughly disgusting floor beneath the oven and the equally abominable sub-fridge area, we declared victory: the rat had evaporated. Jesse’s S.O. was privy to this whole scene. I think we won’t be seeing her around the house for awhile. So what to do now? Jesse’s Rat Zapper contraption has only increased their power and resolve. They ice skate over the sticky traps and Alex’s corn oil poison will eventually make them lethargic and may result in heart disease and Type 2 diabetes in several years. We need an immediate solution. Ironically, my rat-eating python was sitting smugly in his cage watching this whole scene. Hansel is too worried about being ridiculously good-looking to make himself useful as a ratter. We could get a cat, but then we would be stuck with a cat which is not much better than rats in my opinion. If we bought a large and rabid dog to eat the cat, and then a polar bear to eat the rabid dog, we’d only be stuck with a polar bear which would simply die of heat exhaustion when summer rolls around again.
eat lightning, crap thunder
Rocky Balboa is the greatest movie character of all time. This should be accepted without dispute. The sixth and final installment of the Rocky saga is coming out this December. Here’s the teaser and the trailer.
Comments: You can’t doubt the Italian Stallion, but I’m worried he won’t beat this Mason Dixon guy. I thought the same thing about Ivan Drago, but Balboa went to Russia, ran through the snow, lifted some wagons, and clobbered the communist in one of the greatest upsets in sporting history. Also, he single-handedly won the cold war when he won over the hostile Soviet crowd with his perseverance and American “can do” attitude. But the original Rocky came out thirty years ago and Stallion’s getting up there in age. As Corner Man Mack says in the preview, they’re gonna build some hurtin’ bombs. Hopefully things will turn out in the Rock’s favor. Anything better than that piece of garbage Rocky V will be a success. I’ll be camping out in front of the theater starting on Thanksgiving day, yelling at passersby: “You’re gonna eat lightning, and you’re gonna crap thunder!”
What is it you said to the kid? The world ain’t all
sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very rough, mean place… and no matter
how tough you think you are, it’ll always bring you to your knees and
keep you there, permanently… if you let it. You or nobody ain’t
never gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you
hit… it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward…
how much you can take, and keep moving forward. If you know what
you’re worth, go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be
willing to take the hit.
weekend adventures
My weekend was full of rather pedestrian adventures. Friday night the S.O. and I went to Mary’s Market in the Sierra Madre Canyon. Mary’s is awesome. She grows basil on her patio and offers you whatever she happened to cook up in the kitchen that day. I’ve been educating the S.O. in The Twilight Zone – we watched two classic episodes: The Hitch-hiker and Time Enough At Last starring Burgess Meredith aka Rocky Balboa’s trainer Mickey. Saturday I was used for manual labor in the Altadena Community Garden where I helped transplant about a thousand irises and spent the evening’s run looking for the mythical northwest passage from Sierra Madre to Eaton Canyon. I found a cool route through Pasadena Glen to the ridiculous McMansions in Kinneloa Ranch that tarnish the hillside above Eaton but couldn’t find egress to the trails. Sunday morning I cruised to Irvine to do a long run with some college friends. On the way I passed the Disneyland Half Marathon in action. Throngs of walkers clogged the route. These are the people that closed this damn race seven months in advance. I went to register in MAY and both the 5k and half were closed. I have an unjustified sense of entitlement when it comes to the combination of Disneyland and running and this is BS that people who don’t actually train for the race can afford to register a year in advance because they have no training cycle or injury concerns. Seventh place of 10,000 was 1:16:37…that’s ridiculously slow. But anyhoo, the long run in Irvine was pleasant. I stopped off at d-land afterwards and scowled at the people with their finisher’s medals and race T-shirts on, didn’t scowl on the best roller coaster in the world SPACE MOUNTAIN, went home and did some work.
sauna
The A/C is broken in my office. I think is part of a consipiracy to make grad student life as miserable as possible.
Elkins Trails
The mysterious Elkins Trails off Santa Anita are lost no more! I was running this morning, planning on doing my same-old rather lame run to the Arcadia Wilderness Park and back, when I spotted the gate at the end of Elkins off Santa Anita – it was open! So I ran in, passed a public works truck like I belonged there so don’t mess with me. There’s a great network of broad dirt roads zigzagging through some oak trees that I cruised through for awhile. Then I crossed a drainage canal, up around a dam and into a fence with a “Fire Danger” sign. But then off to the right, like the a shining angel of trail running, the dirt road continued up the hill! I chugged up the hill, at this point long past the short run duration I’d planned for the morning, and followed the trail as it wound around the rolling foothills. The route continued through a couple oddly isolated homesteads and pass several more “No Trespassing” signs. I eventually turned around when my hamstring started complaining loudly but there’s much more to explore. It may require hopping that first fence off Elkins but it’s worth it.
the notorious p.u.g.
texas trash
Lance’s teammates were dirty. Big surprise, huh?
Noctambulator 