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*blerk*

A thoughtful and artistic card from Will. Sharper than Cupid's arrows, he is.

From George, I received this one in the mail today. It's nice to be understood by your friends:

And from Anne, a lovely e-mail with this mindful snippet:

[My jo] and I have been married 16 years. One of the tenets of our marriage is that we don't buy things for each other just because some holiday tradition demands the giving or receiving of presents...We have opted out of the whole Christmas consumerism, but still enjoy the lights and the music. Every day we hug each other and say "I love you." We still hold hands. I would not trade this for all the diamonds and flowers in the world!

After reading your entry, it made me think of many moments in our marriage that I could keep under a snow globe. Thank you for that image - I'm going to tell [jo] tonight about it, and I know he will smile.

I guess you could say we Denizens run the gamut, huh. Anne is definitely on the upswing of the teeter-totter, as well she should be. Mmwah!

The thing I've been looking for is here. Namely, the weekend. Between my wallet-and-keys-induced dementia (found the keys in the refrigerator, and the wallet in Wilma and Harry's toybox)...some screwy stuff that's been going on where I contract, where apparently some out-of-state honcho checks their conscience at the door each morning...and a run-of-the-mill careless last-minute chowderhead....

Let's just say I'm ready for my nap, a snack, and a Chris Farley movie.

Of course, just as everything around me goes all swirly like a bad tie-dye, don't you know I'd find a moment of redemption. I had my checkup at the allergist on Thursday to see how what kind of progress I'm making on the current treatment. Am I making progress! After a month on the new regimen, I'm clocking a 7:30 mile, and running up to five miles on three to five days a week. I feel incredible! Dr. R. was very happy with things so far. He gave me another breathing test, and it turns out that I've gained a quart of lung capacity. A QUART! That's a lot of air, baby! Screw the huffing and puffing. I'm ready to blow down some houses.

With all of this running comes the need for new running shoes. I've had this wonderful pair of Adidas for about nine months, and they've had it. The shock absorption left me about 150 miles ago, and I'm having a heck of a time finding suitable replacements. In my case, that would mean not bright white, not splashy, not nine inches wide...and how about some SHOELACES, people.

Have you been shopping for athletic shoes lately? Let's say that you actually do something...oh, I don't know...athletic with them. When did Americans start growing such fat feet? Everywhere I looked, it was like a kaliedoscope of "W"'s. Ten wide! Even wider! Pour your gelatenous paw in here, ma'am! I understand the need for a selection of somewhat wider shoes, but when the entire wall is covered with these boats with nothing left for me, I've got a quibble.

I don't mind the detailing so much. Trends are trends. But are we so lazy and/or busy that we can no longer spend our valuable time tying a shoe? Between the elastic slide-on clog things, to slide sneakers with no back at all, to 100 dollar running shoes with ZIPPERS...I didn't spend all that time in kindergarten learning to tie a bow for nothing. Zippers my ass. Give me some shoelaces so I can tighten the thing. Is this too much to ask? These things don't look like they'd hold up on a walk around the mall, much less 30 miles a week.

I guess I should be thankful for all this extra lung capacity. I think you'll agree that it's time to do some deep breathing now. Here's to a lovely weekend, y'all. May you never run a quart low.