in this economy...

while in humboldt county this past weekend (that's in california, friends), my buddy nate downey, heidi and i discussed how much fun it is to start every sentence with the phrase, "in this economy..." it's a lot of fun. a few examples:

> in this economy, writing a consistent blog is very difficult.

> in this economy, graham harrell can't buy a ticket to new york to participate in the heisman ceremonies.

> in this economy, soup is my favorite evening meal.

go ahead and incorporate it in everyday conversation. in fact, go overboard - to the point where the people around you become annoyed and disinterested in anything you have to say.

we need to actually write a blog here, so lets get to some random thoughts. in this economy, random thoughts are like chicken soup to soul (the use of + and - is to indicate whether i am in favor or opposed to each entry). (if you needed me to tell you that, then you are an idiot). (i'm fairly confident that some idiots read this blog, but refuse to name names).

- i am on an unbelievable losing streak when it comes to stepping in dog poo. i mean it. every time i take calvin out to relieve himself i find myself looking down in disgust, and then spending the next 11 minutes trying to scrape, rub, hit, lick (not really) that crap off my shoes. i have like 4 pairs of shoes sitting on the doorstep right now because i can't get all the doo-doo off. it's getting to be ridiculous.

+ heidi and i got ipod shuffles from my parents for christmas this year. i ran the past two mornings to the sounds of my favorite songs, and i can tell you that it's made my morning ritual much more enjoyable. thanks mom and dad for hooking me up. it's great! how did i go so long without this accessory? i will never run in silence again... mark my words.

- kentucky/ohio is cold. as i mentioned earlier, we spent some time in northern california last week. it was in the 50s and 60s during the day and it was awesome. i was running around in just a hoodie all weekend - didn't even bring a jacket. fantastic.

+ speaking of travel: i was pretty sick with a massive head cold on my way out there, so i decided to attack it full on with orange juice after orange juice on the plane. i was drinking that stuff down and then, lo and behold, my cold is now gone. good riddance, cold. you're not welcome here anymore. and don't come back.

- he went to jared!

+ i have worked three day weeks each of the last three weeks. i could get used to this (i have gotten used to this... next week is going to blow). i work much better on a limited schedule. 40 hour weeks are for suckers.

- somebody told me that there was an attempted assassination on barack obama today, and that this was the third such attempt. i don't know if this is true, and am too lazy to do any research, but i am opposed to assassination attempts on the mr. president-elect (side note: the person that told me this, in response to my statement that some crazy people don't like the idea of a black president, said "i don't like it either." she assured me that she would not attempt to assassinate the future president and i told her i believed this to be a wise decision).

- + calvin gets his balls cut off tomorrow. (the + is for heidi and i, while the -, obviously, is for calvin). heidi and i have discussed giving the little guy one night with a lady dog before stealing his manhood from him. this doesn't appear to really be a viable option (again, sorry calvin).

+ baseball offseason talk. i don't know what "the hot stove" is, but i love all the talk about free agents and trades. i told kevin the other night that i enjoy the offseason just as much as the actual season. i stand by that statement.

+ in this economy, playing at least 400 hundred games of gin rummy while traveling across the country is a great way to pass the time. i'm fairly confident that i beat her roughly 87% of the time (she will, of course, deny this and probably offer some sort of retort about the erroneous nature of my statistics. fair enough).

- christmas stresses me out. read kevin's thoughts on this subject, which are similar to my own. don't get me wrong, i love christmas. i love to give and receive gifts. i love family. i love tradition. i love jesus. but i just get too stressed out about buying gifts and answering that annual question, "what do you want for christmas this year?" if i had a million dollars, i would buy heidi a state-of-the-art karaoke machine. and a new car. and a bunch of other stuff. i don't have a million dollars, so she will most likely get socks (she actually asked for socks, so i can't go wrong... right?).

+ in this economy, i find myself rambling more and more.

- in this economy, you can't waste time reading random thoughts from some guy sitting on his couch in his sweats while watching espn.