Nothing But Green Lights

Just whiling away the hours 'til turkey time...

Had a rough day yesterday. I woke up fully expecting to go to the gym, go to work, and then play hockey, but my stomach had other plans. I ended up spending much of the day in the bathroom courtesy of a nasty stomach bug. It was really at its worst until about 1 p.m. or so, but I ended up going about 20 hours without eating by the time I was able to eat a bagel at 2:30. I just watched a lot of TiVo'd shows and a couple of Netflix rentals that had been languishing on the shelf. But thankfully, it was just a temporary bug. I feel fine today and have been eating normally. Also, Deb and the girls managed to escape it, which is also good news.

Got out of work early today to help Deb make the house presentable for Matt, Tricia, Danny and Timmy, who are staying with us for T-giving. They should be arriving in about an hour or so. Looks like it will be cold and possibly wet or snowy tomorrow morning when we run our race.

Congrats to Deb, who found out yesterday she was accepted to the Boston Marathon charity team sponsored by the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange. Which means she has to raise $2,500 for MARE in addition to training for the big race next April. She ran the marathon in '98 as a bandit, long before I ever harbored the slightest desire to run more than a couple of miles at a stretch.

Zippity do dah:

• It was sad today to hear of the death of Chris Whitley, a truly great guitarist and songwriter whose work I have followed for the past 14 years or so. He died of lung cancer at the age of 45. His 1991 debut album, Living With the Law, was a blues-rock masterpiece, and his follow-up, Din of Ecstacy, went in a totally different direction, embracing Hendrixian feedback and loudness. The one time I saw him live was when he was touring with the latter album, almost exactly 10 years ago at the Middle East in Cambridge. There were only about 25 people there (it was a Tuesday night, I think) and he had some sound problems at first, but holy crap, did he wail. He followed an adventurous musical path in the years that followed, from acoustic blues to electro-jazz. I regret never seeing him play again, but I'm glad I saw him when I did. He will be missed.
• You've probably seen this already, but our fearless leader is at it again. Y'know, leading and stuff.
• Here's a great story from Florida about a guy who got hit in the genitals with a taser. But he was naked, breaking windows and asking women to touch him, so I'd say it serves him right.
• Talk about timing. The creator of Stove Top stuffing recently shuffled off this mortal coil just before her favorite holiday.