This just in: I'm still alive.

Actually, it's because I am so active that I haven't blogged in a while. Hats off to the person who posted as Martin Luther King yesterday. That was hilarious. I have sneaking suspicions that it was Senior Klause, once again keeping me in check. -Especially after all the crap I give him for not updating his site regularly. heh.

So yea, it's been a while. Days blend together and my sleeping schedule is kind of like the one described in Men In Black, with the 72-hours-awake and then a quick 8-hour nap, then 72 more hours thing. Yea, I've got that going for me.

I have good news and bad news. First, the bad news: There's nowhere for junk to hide in my apartment anymore. Sorry, Junk. I've cleaned house. I've thrown away more than 6 bags' worth of shit, eBayed 30 items and have three more boxes ready to go next time I get the urge to start photographing. Surely, there's someone out there who wants a lid to a salsa jar. I'm sure someone in the world might get use from my old ties and coozies from the Radford grocery store Wades. Somewhere, in some basement of some house in some corner of the world, there's an old lady who is DYING to find a plastic clipboard that looks like wood!

Yep, I've got a clean apartment now. So maybe I have a few boxes of junk, but they're stowed away in the closet, out of sight and out of mind. The deck is the only thing left to go. It's been rigged up as a spray station for all the stuff I've painted for my room.

Oh, and that's the good news. The bedroom is more or less complete. Pics will come when the rest of the stuff arrives from eBay. The TV is piping in video and sound from the main room and has a switch to change to its own independent cable stations as well. It has been really nice to fall asleep after doing the "there's nothing on" routine like the old days. (Once you get a TiVo, you may never do that again.)

I also cleaned up the TiVo just a bit. I had too many shows saved that I knew I'd never watch, so I dumped 'em. Pretty soon, I'll start dumping some of the Good Eats episodes off onto VHS or something. Rob got me started with a digital library of episodes, so I've already been able to delete almost 30 that TiVo captured.

Check out fontifier.com if you haven't already. You can create a font from your own handwriting, and it's all on-the-fly. I uploaded my scanned sheet and almost instantly got my own True-Type Font with pretty true-to-life handwriting.

Tiago came down to Richmond this week. Our mission was to make up our minds about a marathon and our running schedule in 2004. We both signed up for the 10k in March, but that's not exactly going to cut it when even a half-marathon is TWO 10k runs. So, in our figuring, we decided that the first run should be a half-marathon (13.1 miles). There was an awesome one at midnight in Alaska on the longest day (meaning it would be midnight, but fully sunny), but it was too soon and we didn't feel like we could justify all that money for half a marathon. If we're going some place cool to run, it needs to be for the real deal..

So, we scrapped that and found one within a day's drive: Rochester New York has one right on the coast of Lake Ontario in early May. That'll work. When we get back from that race, we can decide if a real marathon is going to be realistic. If the answer is "yes, definitely" or even "I dunno...maybe" then we can go ahead and sign up for the next marathon, because we'll have eight months to train for the big one... In the Cayman Islands.

That's right, boys and girls. The Cayman friggin' islands hosts a marathon (26.2 miles) along the gorgeous, flat coastline of Grand Cayman. December 4th will be balmy, sunny, and beautiful in the Caribbean, and if we survive Rochester, we're going to be there.

Hell, I'll go even if I'm in crutches at that point. So, start saving up folks. Come with us!! We've talked about all going to a tropical paradise as a group...how 'bout this one? Should be a blast. Oh, and the run will be pretty cool too.

Just to see where I currently stand in terms of running, I went out for a jog after Tiago left. I busted out 3.6 miles with no problems of note (except that my iPod's batteries ran out on my way back and I had to make up my own songs.) I should get to 10k status before January ends.

Sunday was a great workout. I also did a killer upper-body workout to complete the evening. It didn't really finish the evening for me. Little did I know that I'd be up until 5am that night.

Tying up loose ends until the sun came up, I knew I had to sleep SOME before driving to Northern VA to get to my appointment Monday morning. I hit the hay at 5:20 after setting my alarm for 8:20, and by 9am, I was out the door on my way to NoVA. I had an X-ray done and my jaw got a clean bill of health, so I'm good to go... go get a crown that is. Eh, maybe I can hold out until I have benefits somewhere. I've paid way too much for my mouth in 2003.

I got my W-2 in from TruSecure, so it's tax time, baby! I think I might be too late to beat last year's record of Early January, but I should have it all done before February without a problem. I can really use the money.

So I'm off now. Before I go, here are a few songs from our New Year's concert if you're interested:

Brian Korte (Originally "Brian Wilson" by Barenaked Ladies)
Vocals by Brian Korte
Guitars by Paul Costa and Chris Rhines
[Download Now]

Happy New Year (originally "Merry Christmas from the Family" by Robert Earl Keen)
Vocals/Lyrics by Chris Rhines
Guitars by Chris Rhines and Paul Costa
[Download Now]

By Your Side (Inevitable) (a Chris Rhines Original)
Lyrics by Chris Rhines
Vocals by Brian Korte
Guitars by Chris Rhines and Paul Costa
Guitar Solo by Chris Rhines
[Download Now]

So Far Away (originally by Staind)
Vocals by Brian Korte
Guitars by Chris Rhines and Paul Costa
[Download Now]