The Exact Feeling

I'm not sure if it's real or not, but I feel like I've been a lot more tired since I did the marathon two weeks ago. Not during the day or anything, but by 10 p.m., I'm ready to hit the sack. Of course, I don't. It could also be that I have a little less energy because I've cut down on the food intake a bit.

We've had some real up and down weather the last few weeks, too. Today it was raw and rainy all day; I ended up running on the treadmill instead of going outside. The rest of the week doesn't look much better. It's nice being able to run without an event in mind. I'll probably get two more runs in on Thursday and Friday and that could be it for the week. Since I'm playing hockey Saturday and Sunday is Mother's Day, I don't think I'll have the time to work in a weekend run.

A sign of the times: We were at Toys R Us on Sunday to pick out a bike for Hannah's birthday present, and all the end displays were hawking "Hannah Montana" hand sanitizer. When the swine flu hits, make sure your tweens are prepared! I'm surprised I didn't see any accompanying surgical masks on sale.

Saturday's going to be busy. After I finish playing in the hockey benefit, I'm showering at the rink and heading straight into Boston to see The Tragically Hip at the new House of Blues (aka the venue formerly known as Avalon). Should be a good time. Speaking of Boston concert venues, I was surprised to hear today that Live Nation is selling three of them: the Orpheum, the Paradise Rock Club and the Boston Opera House. It's not clear who's buying them, but as a fan of the Paradise, I sure hope they don't tear it down and replace it with a Starbucks or something. That's still a great place to see a band.

Whip it good:

• The first U.S. resident to receive a face transplant spoke to the media today. It's an Ohio woman who had been shot in the face five years ago; the 22-hour transplant surgery gave her a new nose, lower eyelids and upper lips. Pretty amazing stuff.
• Dom Deluise is dead at age 75. He was a funny, funny man. I got into Mel Brooks movies like "Blazing Saddles" and "History of the World Part 1" around age 12-13 and Deluise had some great roles in them. He also brought the yuks to the "Cannonball Run" movies and plenty of others.
• The Boston Globe saga drags on. While the Times company has worked out deals with most of the Globe unions, negotiations with the Newspaper Guild (which represents editorial, advertising and business office workers) are not going so well. The paper has proposed a 23% pay cut, which doesn't bode well. [UPDATE: They reached a deal.] On the newsstand, the price has been increased from 75 cents to $1.00, which ends up being $1.50 for towns like mine outside of metro Boston. I think I'll keep reading it online for now. We've been buying the Sunday Globe every week. It's hard to envision the Times actually pulling the plug on such an institution, but it's losing a crapload of money right now. Sad state of affairs.
• It's May 6 and the Jays are still in first place. Wow.