I went to walk the dog this morning: cool, rainy and cloudy. The two nice weeks of fall are gone. Hello winter.

When did I last update, Wednesday? Okay, let's see...the spirit-crushing depression seems to have disappeared, which is a good thing. I don't exactly remember Thursday, but I know I watched Friends. Friday night I ran the Cooper-Young 4-miler with Ward and Kathy. Sonya chose to stay home and clean, making her one of the finest wives in the world. I had fun; four miles was the farthest I'd ever run, and I did it in forty-five minutes. That breaks down to eleven minutes and change per mile, which seems pretty good to me. The next day I told James about my time and that it was almost good enough to get in the army.

"Yeah," James said, "if you're a seventeen year-old girl."

Have I mentioned that Aquarians love to take shots at the Leo ego?

Anyway, Kathy and I hung out after the race, sipping at beers and shooting the shit. Kathy and I have never hung out just me-and-Kathy before, so that was fun. She told funny stories of other races she'd run and pretty much talked me into doing the Turkey Trot, a run on Thanksgiving morning. Ward came back after an hour or so and he and Kathy went to eat; I went home to scarf down some Krystal's and crash.

Saturday was very, very busy. The Wife and I:

• applied for passports
• went by the tuxedo place so I could be measured for a shirt for the Jen-James wedding
• advised my in-laws on the purchase of a computer (Sonya and I both tried to talk them in to getting an iMac - which is all the computer they need - but they declined. We got them a fast, roomy IBM and a three year contract with Prodigy, they got a damned good deal)
• had lunch at Applebee's with the in-laws
• ran by Wal-Mart to pick up a few things
• set up the aforementioned computer at the aforementioned in-law's house
• realized it was getting very late very quick
• hauled ass to Kroger to get a cake
• hauled even more ass home so Sonya could shower and I could change clothes and walk the dog
• threw it all in the truck and took off to the Arcade, where we were hosting a wedding shower for Jen and James

The shower was a huge success, by the way. It was co-ed and more of a party than the traditional wedding shower, I'm sure. There was lots of pizza and beer, I know that. We had a good crowd and great waitresses and the happy couple got lots of excellent kitchen and bathroom goodies.

That was pretty much it for Saturday.

Sunday was far more relaxing, even though we did go back to West Memphis to do some fine tuning on the in-law's computer. The Saints gave away a perfectly good football game to San Francisco, though Steve Young did get his bell vigorously rung several times which is always good to see. We got some takeout from Pancho's and had a quiet afternoon at home.

Sunday night was fun. Sonya and I - along with our friend Christy the Good Witch - went to the Castle, an on-again, off-again Memphis club with a shaky reputation - for their inaugural gothic night. Honestly, we didn't know what to expect. We were met at the door by a group of fratboys and Prince Mongo, a Memphis eccentric, celebrity and perennial candidate for some office or another. Apparently he owns the place. They were friendly, though, and we were welcomed.

The music - and, apparently, the very idea of the evening - came from a girl named Paige, who we visited with. Her and her boyfriend Jeremy (cool people, both) made some mini-CDs full of tunes, which everybody enjoyed. The vibe was very mellow and conversational, which was pleasant. We talked to people, explored the place (a mansion in its former life; very ornate, very creepy, very cool) and played pool. Christy worked her mojo on me and Sonya while we played pool with Jeremy and Paige. I'm not saying good or bad about the wiccan thing, but we did win two out of three games.

Coincidence? You be the judge.

Mind you, we stayed very late. This found me in the shower the next morning, profoundly tired, trying to scrub the eyeliner off my face. This was when I remembered that I had to make a cheese ball for a party at work. The rest of the pre-work morning was frantic, to say the least.

I'll probably go this Sunday, too, even though I was dog-tired yesterday morning and went to sleep before ten last night without writing or running either one. It was too much fun to miss. Here's your notice, Memphis readers. Whip out the black clothes and get there before eleven and there's no cover.

In other football news, the Falcons got smacked around by the Pompous Texas Felons last night. Good. The only better outcome of that game would be for both teams to annihilate each other. Can't have everything, can we?

Oh, and just for the record: it's fucking impossible to find an internal CD-RW that's Mac-compatible anywhere in the city of Memphis. Goddammit.

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