BRING ON THE NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

Hope everyone has a great 2006!

Holiday Around the Ol' Apartment!

Christmas is a time for acting silly when the kids stop over!
Even "Stan the Skeleton Man" got into the spirit!I just love the present Alex got me! The famous "matrioshka" from Russia (the character depicts a circus performer not a Ukrainian robbery victim!)

Me, Alex, and Jeff

Don't you think the festive fake banana tree in the background added that extra holiday touch?

Had a great Christmas hanging around the apartment. Got to sleep in late for once. Man did that feel good! Fixed breakfast then opened presents from friends. I'm speechless for all the wonderful gifts and so fortunate!

The kids stopped by later that evening- Alex my daughter and her fiance Jeff. Great time sitting around catching up with one another.

Okay now we get geared up to ring in the New Year!

Later,

All My Presents Are Wrapped and The Champagne is Chilled!

Taking a break to hang out with Santa and the elves. Wishing everyone a happy Christmas. Be merry and spread some joy this weekend!

Later,

'Tis the Season. Good Tidings My Friend

"At Christmas play and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year"
-Thomas Tusser

What Is It About Leather?

From a recent email:

When a woman wears leather clothing, ........

A man's heart beats quicker,
his throat gets dry,

he goes weak in the knees,
and he begins to think irrationally.

Ever wonder why?


Because she smells like a new truck.

Mystery solved.

Ever Been Eaten By a Whale? ......Fear Not!

I was wondering today, as I ran 12 miles on the treadmill suffering from the chest cold from HELL- How could you survive being eaten by a whale?

Well, I'm in luck. Found this helpful website that gives the answers! If survival on the high seas is important to you then hit the link below and scroll down to the section titled "Advice for Swallowees".
Simple yet effective, huh?

What To Do If You're Ever Eaten By A Whale

Later,

Time to Reflect........

"I tend to live in the past because most of my life is there"
-Herb Caen

Got Runny Nose? Don't Let It Get You Down!!

Well it hit me. Whatever is going around has hit me like a ton of bricks. I feel like crap and my head is all stopped up. Did a little research on the internet and discovered a lot of doctors are recommending "nasal irrigation" to help rinse the sinuses and relieve the pressure of all the nasty stuff that accumulates in there.

So, I mixed up a pretty simple saline solution:
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
into 8 oz. of luke warm water

Applying the solution is tricky. You have to put your face over the sink with your left nostril pointing down and your nose a little higher than your mouth. The saline gets into your right nasal cavity by pouring or using a nasal bulb. The solution drains out your left nostril if done correctly. It was a little cumbersome at first but I finally got the hang of it.

Boy could I tell a difference. I'll continue to drink plenty of water and take my regime of Zinc and multi-vitamins. Why Zinc you ask? Well, Zinc is required for the development and activation of T-lymphocytes, a kind of white blood cell that helps fight infection. That should shorten the time frame of the cold. The vaporizer is helping also!

Later,

Inflatable Santa?

(Yes, that is a large candy cane next to Mr. Snowman.... Why else would he be smiling?)

So,
I'm standing in Wal-Mart buying a can of fake snow and silly putty when it hits me. Have you guys noticed something strange this year? Yep, that's right- Christmas yard decorations keep getting bigger. Just a couple of years ago the average "Griswold" house was considered fully decked out if more that one side of the house had lights hanging all over it. Then came the lighted wire reindeer yard ornaments. This year the popular items are- INFLATABLE SANTAS!!!!!

Good golly, how gawdy can you get? There damn near everywhere you go. I'll bet every neighborhood in Charlotte has at least one idiot family with a gargantuan Santa swaying in the breeze. Talk about scaring kids. Where the hell do you store something like that? No wonder "Pods" and mini warehouses are so popular.

Now, being Italian, my family was never much on holiday yard ornaments. To heck with lights, good Italians focused on food during the month of December. I'll never forget growing up. Without fail, Mama would bake her famous holiday lasagna in the shape of a turkey and Papa would carve it just like a real bird. There was nothing better than inviting guests over and serving them a "leg or wing". They'd always look stunned! How festive!

Anyway back to the discussion on decorations. This year will be the first year in memory that I'm not living in a "house" with a live Christmas tree. Don't worry I'm not sad since I've found a suitable replacement. The fake banana tree in my apartment will soon be transformed into a tropical Yule time masterpiece. A little tinsel should do the trick.

Get the eggnog ready!

Damn the French and Their Fine-Mesh Dragnets!

Wait a minute, just had a thought. My Italian ancestors must have been involved in the anchovy industry since the image of a fishing net keeps popping into my mind. Why do I think this? I don't know.

Anchovy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The anchovies are a family (Engraulidae) of small but common schooling saltwater plankton-feeding fish. They are found in scattered areas the throughout the world's oceans, but are concentrated in temperate waters, and rare or absent in very cold or very warm seas.

Biology
The anchovy is a small green fish with blue reflections dorsal to a silver longitudinal stripe that runs from the base of the caudal fin. It is a maximum nine inches in length and body shape is variable with more slender fish in northern populations. The snout is blunt with small, sharp teeth in both jaws. The mouth is larger than those of herrings and silversides, two fish which they closely resemble. It eats plankton and fish larvae.

It is generally very accepting of a wide range of temperatures and salinity.Large schools can be found in shallow, brackish areas with muddy bottoms, as in estuaries and bays.

Spawning occurs between October and March, but not in water colder than 54 degrees Fahrenheit (12 degrees Celsius). The anchovy appears to spawn 100 kilometers from the shore, near the surface of the water.

As a food source
The anchovy is a food source for almost every predatory fish in its environment, including the California halibut, rock fish, yellow tail tuna, sharks, chinook, and coho salmon. It is also extremely important to marine mammals and birds; for example, California brown pelicans and elegant terns, whose breeding success is strongly connected to anchovy abundance.

They are also eaten by humans. Anchovies preserved by gutting and salting in brine, matured, then packed in oil, are an important food fish, both popular and unpopular for their strong flavor. In Roman times, they were the base for the fermented fish sauce called garum that was a staple of cuisine and an item of long-distance commerce produced in industrial quantities. Today they are a key ingredient in Caesar salad and Spaghetti alla Puttanesca, and are occasionally used as a pizza topping. Because of the strong flavor they are also an ingredient in several sauces, including Worcestershire sauce and many other fish sauces, and in some versions of Café de Paris butter. Fishermen also use anchovies as bait for larger fish such as tuna and sea bass.

The strong taste that people associate with anchovies is due to the curing process. Fresh anchovies, known in Italy as alici, have a much softer and gentler flavor. In English-speaking countries, alici are sometimes called "white anchovies", and are often served in a weak vinegar marinade.

European anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus is the anchovy of commerce. Morocco now leads the world in canned anchovies. The anchovy industry along the coast of Cantabria now dwarfs the traditional Catalan salters, though the industry was only initiated in Cantabria by Sicilian salters in the mid 19th century.

Fishing
Overfishing of anchovies has been a problem. Since the 1980s, large mechanized anchovy fishing vessels based in France have caught the fish in fine-mesh dragnets.

Charlotte's Thunder Road Marathon

"He who would leap high must take a long run"
-Danish Proverb

UPDATE! I did it! Rode across the USA on a bicycle! Check out my journal of the adventure here at: Three Spokes and a Mirror

The inaugural running of Charlotte's Thunder Road Marathon took place on Saturday December 3, 2005. What a day it was! Starting temperatures hovered around 40 degrees with mostly cloudy skies. Pretty good conditions considering we had mostly cloudy skies all day with a 5 mph wind out of the South. Cold front and rain moved in by late afternoon.

Our local running store- Run For Your Life- resurrected the Charlotte Marathon this year. Previously, the Charlotte Observer was the main sponsor but dropped the race after an embezzlement scandal hit several years ago. While there were over 700 registered for the marathon at packet pick-up on Friday the official race taly indicates there were 686 finishers.

This course was much different than past years. The route had 50 turns! Sounds like an Indy race instead of a stock car race huh? The new course resulted in over 370 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officers to man the intersections and keep the runners safe. Heck, even the Chief of Police came out and manned an intersection. How 'bout that for hands on leadership? I'm proud of the local police force and heard many runners give similar compliments.

Now, as far as the course, the first half was rather hilly and traced through familiar running routes including the SouthPark and Dilworth areas. Fabulous homes and beautiful tree lined streets. I was surprised to see my time was 1:57 at mile 13. Smokin' for me. I try to remember to keep a good steady pace since I don't want to repeat the big drop off I had at Marine Corp Marathon on October 30. We'll see how it goes.

As we crossed the halfway point we wander around the Bank of America Stadium before heading North to the North Davidson or "NoDa" section of town. This area has seen new development and quickly became Charlotte's art and cultural section. If you've followed previous posts, you'll know this is were my favorite live music venue is- the Neighborhood Theatre. Spectators were sparse in NoDa except for the concentration of fans at the turn at 35th Street. Music and noise abound! Thanks!

The course now heads toward the Plaza/Midwood area. Funny, I flash back to my childhood as I run here. You see I used to live on Belvedere Ave. This area has revitalized as well. Lots of young professionals moving there and driving the real estate market up. It's not unusual for homes to be priced in the $3-400,000 range. The course snakes through the neigborhood and eventually onto Hawthorne Lane. There is a killer hill along this part of the course but the last hill before the finish.

I'm feeling pretty good and check out my time on the many time clocks on the course. I'm amazed at my pace. By all calculations I'll PR if I can keep it up. The last part of the course provides a fantastic view of the Charlotte skyline. It's all but over now. I turn onto the 2nd street and spot the finish line. I hear our "scream team" president- Wendy- yelling for me and I make it across the line at 4:20. WOOHOO!!! A PR for me.

Depicted above is the Thunder Road medal and picture of friend Ricky Scott from Virginia (L) and me just before the start.

Later,

Marc