Summer of Dan

Happy Birthday to the Niff!!!

Today, 28 years ago, the Niff came to be. And to think, she doesn't look a day older than 27!

I think the best gift I could give her is to have my toe heal up ASAFP so we can run together in our race series in 3 weeks.

She is insanely smart, beautiful, gifted, funny, open minded, athletic, and is the type of best friend people would kill for. God knows I have. I mean...

Anyways, Happy Birthday, Niff!

Zombies Ahead

People think I'm on crack with all this zombie talk. That's fine, I think most Republicans are on crack.

But they'll be here someday. And by then it will be too late.

A couple teenagers hacked an Austin Texas roadsign the other day:

Someday this won't be a joke. You'll see. And you'll be pissed at yourself you laughed me off.

How Schultz can save Starbucks

I am by no means an expert or pseudo-expert in all things Starbucks. But in this economy, with McDonald's posting an 80% profit, it tells you that they are doing something right and Starbucks is doing something wrong. Very wrong.

• Go back to brewing coffee. Not just that Pike's Blend that tastes like 5 day old burnt coffee. You can't succeed in the coffee business in this economy by selling $6.00 lattes and forgetting your roots - Starbucks used to be about the coffee, not the brand. It needs to get back there if Schultz wants it to succeed.
  
• Make Wi-Fi 100% free. There are plenty of other free places just where I live that I would choose over Starbucks because I don't want to sign up for an AT&T Wi-Fi account. Again, I wouldn't want to even stay there at this point because their coffee is awful.
  
• Drop prices. Aside from bringing back all the old brews of coffee, they need to compete with Dunkin' Donuts, local coffee shops, hell even McDonald's. Slash prices on the coffee mugs, the lattes, and the old brews of coffee.

Combine those tried and true coffees, 100% free Wi-Fi and better prices, and I think Starbucks could stop laying people off and start posting huge profits.

Again.

Nine toes

I've never wanted to chop off an appendage as much as I want to right now. I woke up with excrutiating pain in my big toe, for no reason at all. I didn't kick anything, I didn't stub it, I didn't drop anything on it.

When you have mystery ailments sometimes the worst thing you can do is hop on the internet. I plopped some symptoms into Google - insane pain, sudden, big toe. What comes up?

Gout.

That's right, gout. 

I looked a bit more at some of the causes - diets high in protein, drinking malt liquor, certain conflicting medications, and chemo. Four causes and only one that applied to me, but I'm not even in the high range of consuming protein so what the fuck.

I went to the doctor and she called me off the ledge - just a severe big toe sprain in all likelihood, most likely due to my training for my 3 upcoming races. Just what I needed to hear from the same woman that told me I was obese multiple times last week - "Sorry sir, I know I told you you were crazy fat recently and should watch what you eat and workout, but you are overdoing it, you need to rest."

Awesome. I'll sit here on house arrest and ice my toe in hopes that I can force frostbite onto it and it will fall off.

I guess I shouldn't complain. Afterall, at least it's not gout.

It's just a hat

In honor of my new doctor meeting with me last week and calling me obese no fewer than 6 times in about 30 minutes, I figured this cartoon was fitting.

 

Taking an interest

50 years from now people will ask where you were on this day. It's humbling to be a part of history, to be able to say that you were around when the country woke up and did the right the thing. Racism will be around for at least a few more generations, however long it takes for those people in society to be bred out of the gene pool. And we'll all wonder how it ever got to that.

I was proud to watch the inauguration of President Barack Hussein Obama. I was proud because it showed me that at least half the country was willing to look past race in order to elect someone to the most powerful position in the world. 60 years ago you couldn't even hope for half the country to believe in that ideal. Progress, however slow, is still progress and I think that is something we as a country can be proud of.

The Niff's grandmother emailed us today, some things that she said I think will always sit with me.

Sat down to listen to inauguration speech and have had it on all day - just not sitting for all of it.   I found it very emotional.   The millions of people out there in that crowd and cold and the spirits so raised in approval of that was going on.   And, when Obama was walking down the long hall before descending the stairs - it really hit me -- and tear were dropping.  God help us - I hope he and all his people can do a lot to pull us up out of this economical mess and war and give us a peace of sorts.   A lot of it is going to depend on your generation taking more of an interest and hope sincerely it gets to that. 

You two take care of each other.   

Love, Grammy

I couldn't agree more. This isn't about one person making a difference. We all need to put our hands together for the common cause and help ourselves out.

I think it was very poignant that she told us to take care of each other. I didn't just take that as I need to take care of her, she needs to take care of me. I took it as a message to everyone: take care of your fellow person. We need to do this together. It reminded me about the zombie book I just read (stay with me here), where it said "if there was one 'good' thing to come from the Zombie War it was that we all genuinely cared for our fellow man again, that we sought out to take care of them".

It's our job to pull together and fix what is wrong with this country. Not just our elected officials. Not just the Democrats or Republicans. We all have a part in it. So let's be like Nike and just do it.

Oh the comedic times we shall miss

Can we create some really interesting public-servant-always in the spotlight-position for him?



Because political humor just hit the all time high.

The Irish in me is a-callin'

The Niff doesn't realize this but being the Irish lad I am, and being that there is a race that bears a close resemblance to my family's name, I am inclined to take part in something that I never thought I would - a three part street race.

It goes like this: back to back to back weekends there are races - the first being a 3 miler, the second a 4 miler, and the final race a 5 miler. Each race finisher gets a medal, and when you have all three they form this pretty sweet symbol:

It's pretty badass, but that means I'll be running a lot...unless I beat down someone after each race and take their medal...hmmmmm...decisions...

All you can believe

I blame it on my mother, but I'm a sucker for cheesy chick flicks / soap operas / love stories / love songs. Growing up my mother and I would spend a couple hours a day watching soaps, and whenever she cooked she'd listen to love songs and want me to dance with her.

I blame her for me loving movies like The Notebook, Sliding Doors, Phenomenon, and Eternal Sunshine. She is the reason why I could turn on General Hospital or All My Children or One Life to Live and within a week be caught back up. I blame her for liking super cheesy love songs.

I wasn't a momma's boy. I wasn't daddy's boy. I was just a boy who was lucky enough to spend equal amounts of time with both of his parents, doing things each of them loved. Nothing wrong with that, right?

I blame it all on my mother. It's all her fault. 

And I thank her for it all.

Hypnosis with cupcakes

The Niff and I were watching a show on Animal Planet HD last night about training your dog not to eat food off the counter.

The dog being trained is named "Stains", which is cute considering when you think about calling him to you..."Come...come stains..."

I digress.

 

I think if you waved a plate of yummy cupcakes in my face this is the kind of look you'd get from me too.