a long and busy week

I spent last weekend in San Diego to run the America's Finest City Half Marathon. I ran the race last year and managed to post a personal best, so I came in this year hoping to beat that time. Fortunately, I did, but only by about 40 seconds. My official chip time was 1:48:42. To top it all off I also beat Kiley for the first time in the two years I've known him. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday. Here's a link to my race pics.

This past week has been incredibly busy. Work from Monday to Wednesday, and I've been spending my days off on Thursday and Friday taking care of errands. I finally got a new phone and plan on Thursday and I took my car to for its 60,000 mile service on Friday. Susie kept me company at the mall while we killed time waiting for it to be finished.

I also saw three shows last week. Monday was another free show by Little Ones at Spaceland. Quite good. Thursday night was Oh No! Oh My! at the Echo. Closing their set with "A Walk in the Park," the band invited onstage an audience member inexplicably dressed as a gorilla.


The gorilla danced.

Friday night was the culmination. Liz and her sister were nice enough to wait in line three hours before the Wolf Parade show to get tickets and to ensure we got primo seats. We did. We sat in the front-center row of the balcony. Wolf Parade were on fire and showed a marked improvement from their January show when they seemed disorganized and unfocused. Friday night, the band was tight and energetic and, the biggest surprise, relaxed to the point that they seemed to be truly enjoying themselves.

Saturday night was a quick visit to a beer tasting party in Pasadena followed by birthday dinner and drinks with Liza.

Sunday was spent at home recuperating and watching the Emmys and dreading coming back to work tomorrow.

New Tires

Things done this weekend:

-Watched Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby with Astrid and Winston. Funny movie with really committed performances. Grade: B-

-Ran 8 miles in 1 hour and 15 minutes. Not a bad run considering I didn't get home until 1:30 AM from the movie and didn't fall asleep until after 2. Four hours later I had to get up for the trek to the Rose Bowl. The run was uncomfortable and exhausting, but the weather, at least, was nice for once.

-Took my Mom, sister, niece and nephew to Griffith Park for my cousin's son's birthday. All I wanted to do the whole time I was there was to curl up somewhere and nap. I was so tired. As soon as I got home from the party, around 4:30, I took a nice two-hour nap.

-Watched Vera Drake on DVD. I've had the DVD for weeks now, and Netflix just kept on charging me $19.99/month anyway. It's a terrific film that offers no easy answers. Now I can return it and start making a dent on my queue. I still have The Best of Youth to watch. Hopefully I can get to it soon. The thought of watching a six-hour film is just intimidating, though.

-Replaced the tires on my car. I had to wait for three hours while they did, so I headed to the mall and walked around. Bought some socks, looked at sunglasses for running, and had a nice cup of coffee. I thought of seeing The Descent but the showtime didn't work out.

-Watched Final Destination 3. I really like these movies. The gruesome deaths can be clever, but I felt like I was watching porn. I couldn't wait to get to the death scenes but grew impatient with the connecting scenes.

-Now it's 1:45 AM and I'm actually going to sleep relatively early. I'm going to go into work at noon tomorrow and will take a yoga class in the morning. After work I'll try to get in to the free Little Ones show at Spaceland.

Just when I thought I was out...

Just when I thought I can take next year off from the Los Angeles Marathon to run a different race, the organizers go ahead and change the course forcing me to do the race again. The marathon route, I think, is terrific. Not only is it downhill, but it will also showcase more of the city. It will run through some of my favorite parts, from Hollywood to Los Feliz to Koreatown to Hancock Park, even to USC. I'm sure the hipsters who live in Los Feliz will be annoyed on marathon morning, but at least the new course doesn't trap anyone inside the course like it used to. I lived in an apartment in Koreatown for a few years and every marathon morning I couldn't go anywhere. The marathon route wrapped around my neighborhood so that I couldn't drive anywhere. At least I got to see the runners pass by.

So, it looks like I have plans in place for March 4, 2007.