Don't You Evah

Hey, it's mid-August! Soon I'll be whining about how cold it is out...

I got my first 20-mile run in on Saturday morning. I got up earlier and was out the door by 6:30, but the temps were in the 50s at that point. I ended up buying a new bladder system for my Camelbak Friday night; I just didn't have enough water with me when I was bringing a 20-ounce bottle. This thing holds 70 ounces. The only problem in the past has been cleaning them; after a while the tubes get pretty skanky. I bought a cleaning system, so hopefully I can keep this thing bacteria-free. It was a good run. I had only one blip, when I took a spill on the sidewalk in Beverly Farms. Just plain tripped on part of the sidewalk that was sticking up and before I could react was on the ground. Skinned my knee, but that's about it. I also landed right on my iPod, which normally would have been the end of it, but thankfully I had it in a protective plastic case that absorbed all the impact. The case is banged up but intact and the Nano's fine.

We went to Portsmouth to meet my mom and my brother and his family for lunch at an Italian restaurant. Of course, Saturdays in the summer are usually pretty slow on 95, so we ended up jumping on Route 1 in Seabrook and making our way slowly to Portsmouth that way. The not-so-scenic route. We got to the restaurant about a half hour later than we planned, had lunch and then hung out at Prescott Park for a few hours. Sunday was much lazier; I slept in a little and then took a nap later in the afternoon before we went up again to my mom's for dinner. Got home around 9.

Kibbles and bits:

• Ding dong, the Rove is quitting. Well, at least Dubya's still got Cheney for all his evil needs. Apparently, MC Rove wants to spend more time working on his rap skillz.
• Merv Griffin died over the weekend at 82. Most of you young punks under 30 are probably saying, "Who?" but Merv was a showbiz giant for many decades. He had a daytime talk show that was kinder and gentler than the late night shows, but he made his fortune creating game shows like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. Rick Moranis used to do a killer Merv impression on the classic SCTV show.