Bada Bing

Man, we're hurtling toward Christmas at warp speed. I just spent part of the afternoon sitting in traffic picking up a last few gifts. Not my favorite activity.

Deb has kicked off her marathon fundraising activities and is doing impressively well. I emailed a bunch of my friends and co-workers and they have already kicked in some decent amounts, so thanks to everyone who has pledged and who is thinking of pledging toward Deb's charity, the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange. You can pledge via the InterWeb by clicking here.

Okay, so I've been saying for the last few months that I only wanted to run one marathon next year, the Chicago Marathon in October. But now I'm thinking I might take a crack at the Vermont City Marathon again in late May, since I was registered to run it this year but couldn't because of injury. Having gone up there to cheer my bro-in-law Matt and my buddy Rick on, I saw firsthand what a great race the VCM is. And it's five to six weeks after Deb's marathon, so our training schedules won't overlap too much. It's not final yet, but I can wait because I can sign up at any time.

Screaming yellow zonkers:

• The music industry isn't satisfied with suing folks who share music files online; now it's going after sites that host lyrics, too. The Music Publishers Association announced its plans to sue a handful of companies that distribute lyrics to copyrighted songs, and Warner Chappell Music even threatened to sue a software developer who create an app that lets iTunes users search for lyrics. After receiving a ton of bad press, the publishing company relented and apologized for its tactics. But the MPA still will forge on with its campaign to alienate music fans everywhere, even threatening jail time for some especially egregious offenders. These guys just don't get it.
• Gee, this war on terror thing is going great. Turns out the Iraqis had caught the infamous Abu Musab al-Zarqawi last year and then let him go because they didn't realize who he was. Nice.