Mexico

In mexico city, the zona rosa and hotel Bristol. Delayed rental car till tomorrow due to fear or driving in the city. Had a nice dinner in Mexico city’s Castro district. To amecameca tomorrow after picking up DF. Good news: GPS works with Mexico maps and driving directions! We’re set (famous last words),

away, away!

Talked to a CITer that successfully climbed ORIZABA last week. Didn’t seem too bad. We have lots of stuff. Wings, shaking, exultant, terrible, youth, etc.

Star Mountain of the Anahuac

Merry merry merry christmas!

I’m watching this movie Momma Mia and it’s not very good. White Christmas! Snowing even. Louie the bulldog is sleeping after attacking my feet.

yay

Yay – my paper got accepted to The Astrological Journal with “I do not recommend any changes” from the ref., which probably means I made it too long and boring for anybody to read. Score.

snow!

It snowed up here in the Berkeley hills last night. Real honest-to-goodness white stuff on the ground – like half an inch! It’s a damn winter wonderland. Cars are covered in snow just like, say, Wisconsin. Amazing.

I went running in the rain this morning but it took a great effort to do so – it didn’t used to be this way but I’ve become a pansy.

SEA MONSTER UPDATE: Elbowed squid at Shell drilling site off Houston.

Pooka

Princess Pooka was all kinds of wonderful so it was very sad to lose her yesterday after 13 years and 9 months of a great pug life.

adventure next

Popocatépetl e Iztaccíhuatl
Originally uploaded by Aleksu

Damn look at those volcanoes.

Popocatépetl y Iztaccíhuatl

CIM

I’m just going to remember the first 19.5 miles of this race, which went really really well. JB and I were just cruising along – hitting 6:00s to 6:08s with minimum effort. 1:19:37 at halfway – seven seconds off what we wanted. I sewed some Gu packets into my shorts – worked much better than the duct tape I tried last time. Rolling down the hills, maintaining effort up. It was really good, and easy! At 18 I thought, crap only eight miles to go – I can even pick it up to 5:50s! So exciting. Then ten minutes later, my vision got all blurry, I got cold and hungry and it was over. Eight minute miles tripping over my feet and not seeing straight to the finish, in 2:50. However, JB held the pace all the way to the finish to run a great 2:39, and the Beast 2:28 to best 2000 Oly 1500 champ Jennings. So it didn’t work out the way I wanted it to, but 75% of the race was really wonderful – so I’ll call it a 75% success. I need to figure out why I bonked – I was taking water and Gu well the whole time. It was kind of cold but not too bad. Go figure. I’ll probably take the spring/summer off from marathons and come back next fall/winter. Maybe CIM again – it’s a really awesome race, good course, lots of people 2:35-2:45, and no damn rock bands.

iPace….THE MOVIE!!!

Go Bears

I was in attendance at the Cal vs. DePaul men’s basketball game last night. Early in the game, the Bears of course played their 8-foot Chinese center who posted up in the paint, missed rebounds to players two feet shorter than him, and hit an easy basket because he’s head-and-shoulders taller than everybody else. Then they took him out and never played him again. But it was a good game nonetheless, Bears were up big, then turned the ball over on fifteen consecutive plays, then rallied late with some big 3s and won.

Also this is the formal announcement for possibly the greatest iPhone application of all-time: iPace! Soon to be available in the iTunes app store, possibly in the next couple days. I am finishing up the video advertisement so stay tuned. Everybody should buy the app, regardless of whether you have an iPhone. If possible you should buy multiple copies.

In other news, Farm Date if you like women who like men who like tractors and pigs. Best line: “I’d bought cars and trucks on the Internet,” he says. “I thought … maybe I can get a woman, too.” Yes that’s good thinking. I buy rats and pythons and remote-controlled helicopters on The Internet.

Futurama is the funniest show ever. See for yourself:

DONBOT
As the duly-elected mobsters of this
union, it’s our duty to support the
struggle of these proud, lazy slobs.

JOEY
Yeah, but what if management remains
intragnizent?

DONBOT
From the context it is clear what you
mean.

—————–

KEN
Welcome back, Lord Nibbler, Ambassador
to Earth, homeworld of the pizza bagel.

NIBBLER
Thank you. I bear many receipts for
reimbursement.