Not Dreaming

The morning after a trip to Redbones is always an interesting experience. You feel a little tentative at first, as though one wrong move and you might explode. But more on that later.

I'm happy to report that I got up early yesterday and successfully completed a 13-miler with no shin pain, although I did feel something tweak in my back at about the 3-mile point. Fortunately, it was nothing serious and I was able to resume running after a minute of walking. I'm guessing I slept wrong and my back was extra tight. It was chilly, in the mid-20s, but actually pretty nice. Got back home, jumped in the shower and took the girls to Hannah's soccer game. Deb was gone to all-day scrapbooking thing, so it was just me and the girls. Hannah played another great game, hustling and creating a lot of offensive chances. We went to the running store so I could buy some new shoes, then grabbed some lunch at Panera. Came home and the girls helped Mimi clean up the front of the house before I took them down to a nearby playground.

Deb got home at 4 and I headed in to Cambridge to meet my friends OJ and Amy. I brought my new Zoom H2 digital recorder and recorded about 45 minutes of me and OJ jibba-jabbaing about music for upcoming episodes of the podcast. I thought the recorder worked pretty well. It's got mics in the front and back of the device. Anyway, look for a new show in a day or two.

We headed over to Davis Square and met the other Webnoizers--Dave, Ric and Karen, and Lee--at Redbones. The place was jammin', as one could expect on a Saturday night. We spent a fair amount of time in the bar waiting for a table. Once seated, I once again rocked the Texas beef ribs and then felt bold enough to get the white trash sundae for dessert (it's ice cream sandwiches slathered in Cool Whip and chocolate sauce). Had to roll my ass out of there. OJ dropped me off by our old office, where I parked. I was driving along Mass Ave. through the MIT area when suddenly I saw a cop car pull out behind me. I quickly realized he was pulling me over. I was going about 25 mph and had been following another car, so I honestly had no idea why he pulled me over. The cop said I went through a red light--"It was close, but you still did it"--and asked for license and registration. Gave him the license and had to sort through all crap in my glove box looking for the current registration before I actually found it. Waited a long 7 minutes or so before he came back and apologized for the delay; he gave me a warning and said, "Next time, err on the side of caution." So glad they're keeping the streets of Cambridge safe from the likes of me.

More hot sauce, please:

• The Hockey East playoffs were this weekend and once again, UNH got bumped by BC. Dammit! They still have a shot to get in the NCAA tournament next week with an at-large bid. But there are so many good teams this year, I don't have high hopes. I actually had two different friends call offering me tickets to games last night, but I had the Redbones. Priorities, my friends.
• It was fun this week watching Jon Stewart rip into CNBC and "Mad Money" loudmouth Jim Cramer for their irresponsible corporate cheerleading masquerading as financial advice. It all culminated in Cramer visiting "The Daily Show" on Thursday and basically getting verbally bitchslapped by Stewart.
• The latest "smoking alternative" is straight out of Europe: Electronic cigarettes. They're essentially plastic filters that vaporize liquid nicotine, giving smokers the drug they want without the smoke; the idea is to wean off the real stuff with these, but I can't see people getting away with "smoking" these things in just about any public place. The FDA hasn't determined yet whether these e-cigs are safe to use. I actually wrote about one of these e-cig brands in the work blog to which I contribute.