I’ve gotten to know my neighbors in Homer, Alaska – the Schallock’s – over the past two summers.  They are great folks and the two kids – Jessica and Eric – are stars.  Eric and I are learning Ruby together (and about to graduate to Ruby on Rails) and Jessica is turning into a super blogger.  She’s also got a monthly column in The Homer Tribune – pretty cool for a senior in high school.  Jessica is a great writer, extremely smart, and very thoughtful – her column this month titled Information Can Prevent Further Harm is well stated.  I’m proud of Jessica and I wish I knew more teenagers that would take the same intellectual risks she takes.

As I start to get my head into the Albuquerque Marathon (which I’m running on Sunday), I thought I’d start the day off with some running stuff.  I’ve had a rough taper – starting off with a smashed toe 9 days ago (fourth toe on left foot – turned completely purple to the base of the third metatarsal) followed by a gout attack in my right knee (never had one in the knee before – that sucked).  After about 100 advil, 50 gallons of water, and a gallon of cherry juice over the following four days, it vanished, to be replaced by a sore MCL from walking around funny for four days.  I woke up this morning with three days to go, feeling great and completely refreshed since I haven’t run in 9 days!  I’m not even cranky anymore.

I have a new sponsor for my attempt at the North Pole Marathon.  I’ve been talking to Todd Langer – the CEO of Functional Innovations – for the past six months about his cool product.  Todd’s product – the P.A.S.T. Collection – is an innovative balancing product that promises to improve your balance, build core strength, increase your aerobic health, and have better sex.  Having used it for a little while, I can attest to at least two of those benefits.

I’m totally digging the balance boards.  Todd has committed to “keep me balanced” – which is probably a harder task than he expected.

I also woke up to a note from Mark Iocchelli announcing the relaunch of his Complete Running Network.  Mark coordinates the Running Blog Family which is a list of 900 running bloggers.  Now I’ve just got to convince him to turn it into a FeedBurner Network for Running.  I poked around looking for a little inspiration and found it quickly.

Amy and I are off to Santa Fe to carbo load.  Think happy thoughts for me around 9am Mountain Time on Sunday.

In addition to trying to reform the health care system, my dad is on a quest to become a Chocolate Ice Cream Making Superstar.  Chocolate ice cream has always been a mainstay of our family’s diet – I can think of few things more satisfying than chocolate ice cream covered with chocolate syrup (very few.)  My dad now has an ice cream maker and is looking for recipes – if you love chocolate ice cream, give him some suggestions (it will improve the quality of my life in the long run.)

This is a special Sunday hint for all my male friends out in blogland.  It’s in the spirit of my work life balance post.

These are our golden retrievers (Denali and Kenai).  They are looking at Amy, who happens to be standing next to me as I’m taking this photo.  Notice their eyes – they are giving Amy their 100% undivided attention.  We call these “Golden Retriever Eyes.”

I have a special talent.  When Amy is talking to me, I can be doing something else (e.g. typing on my computer, reading a book) and – when she says “Brad – you aren’t listening to me,” I can repeat back the last two sentences that she said to me word for word.

For a number of years in our relationship, this was effective (at least for me.)  At some point, Amy realized this wasn’t satisfying to her – she’d figured out my special talent – and realized that her assertion (that I wasn’t listening to her) was close (I was listening, but I wasn’t paying attention.)  After several “conversations” (definitely a euphemism in this case) about it, Amy realized she didn’t want me to just listen, but she actually wanted me to pay attention.

So – give your special friend “Golden Retriever Eyes” when she is talking to you.  That’s what she really wants.

My dad (Stan Feld) has a great post up about why he blogs.

A friend who wishes to remain anonymous (and – ironically – is a journalist) pointed me at the Jackson Pollock by Miltos Manetas site.  If you ever wanted to pretend you were Jackson Pollock, this is a great (and inexpensive – no paints and canvas necessary) way to do it.  Awesome.  Don’t forget to click your mouse for different color ink.

I returned home to Boulder today to a stack of books I’d ordered in the spring about the TV show 24.  There are a pile of them out now – some are additional episodes in print such as 24 Declassified: Operation Hell Gate while others are critical analysis of various seasons.  As I laid on my couch trying to recover from the red eye from Anchorage while simultaneously adjusting to being at 6000 feet, I had a thoroughly enjoyable time reading A Day In The Life.  Keith Topping – a british writer – covered Season 1 in great detail along with his often very entertaining wit (e.g. many chapters have a section called “Points at Which [Teri / Kim] Needs a Slap” as well as a section titled “Logic, Let Me Introduce You to This Window.”)  I was beginning to feel a little 24 withdrawal – between A Day In The Life and the other seven books waiting for me, I think I’ll be fine until January.

JB pointed me at Dilbert’s comic on 8/3/06 that does a perfect job of explaining the problem with most PowerPoint presentations in 10 seconds.

Amy and I are sushi lovers.  Chris sent us an article from BestLife titled Too Sexy for Wasabi about Masa Restaurant (in the Time Warner Center in New York City) and the amazing experience of eating a meal prepared by Chef Masa Takayama.  Wow.