38 Years Old

Greetings and nerdutations. So here I am celebrating yet another birthday. As the song title indicates, I'm 38 now. No parade or fanfare, but my co-workers did make and/or purchase breakfast food in my honor. Deb and the girls got me an Oreo cake and presents. It was all good. 'Nuff said about that.

Hither and thither:

• Damn, Rita ain't no lovely meter maid. Rather, she's a Category 5 hurricane bearing down on the Texas coast. It's times like these that I'm glad I come from the land of the ice and snow.
• A Chinese company hopes to hit it big with new condoms named after Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Nothing like striking while the iron's hot. What's next, Donna Rice string bikinis?
• Baseball's pennant races are heating up: as of this writing, the Yankees were half a game behind the Red Sox, the Cleveland Indians were making the Chicago White Sox nervous, and several other races were still going on. The Jays are playing out the string, hoping to finish above .500. Closer Miguel Batista has been blowing saves left and right; he must have pictures of somebody. The team's biggest problem this year, aside from losing ace Roy Halladay, is its failure to replace monster slugger Carlos Delgado after he signed with the Marlins. Talk about a popgun offense. That said, they never quit and are a fun team to watch at times. Hopefully, these issues will be addressed in the offseason.
• Meanwhile, the NHL's exhibition season has begun. St. Louis star Keith Tkachuk was suspended for showing up overweight; his playing weight in 2003-04 was 230 and reportedly he came into camp at around 260. Perhaps he had too many donuts during the lockout year. Certainly, the game of hockey and the donut have a rich history. Why, there's Tim Horton's, the Canadian equivalent of Dunkin' Donuts which was started by the Hall of Fame defenseman of the same name. And then there's the classic Jim Schoenfeld line back in the 1988 playoffs, when the Devils coach yelled at referee Don Koharski to "have another donut!"
• Played hockey last night for the first time since May and felt surprisingly good for the first time out. We're not playing Waltham anymore; we decided to stay at Valley Sports in Concord, MA, where a bunch of the guys played from April to August. I played until late May and then basically hung up the skates for the summer. The rink manager always gives us an extra half-hour or more, so we end up playing about 100 minutes. My timing was off for most of the night, but I popped in a few goals near the end of the night when everyone was getting tired. Sore today, but not as sore as I thought I'd be.
• My foot's still bothering me, but I'm continuing to run. I think it's one of those things that I'll just have to deal with until after the race, much like my Achilles' problem last year. Unless it gets really unbearable. I've come this far, so I'm going to try to keep going. But I think this may be my last marathon. Too many injuries and too much time spent doing long runs. I'd rather do shorter races and run the occasional half-marathon, and not feel like I'm beating the hell out of myself. Besides, I will have done five marathons, which is a lot more than I ever thought I'd do.

Okay, time to go catch up on some TiVo.