Last Saturday I came to downtown Nashville to run. It was hot, I wasn’t 100% sure of the course and was a bit nervous, but I lined up at the starting line and ran my way through my first 5k. The results are now in. Of the nearly 400 entrants, I finished 110th. Of all the males, I finished 84th, and in my age group 17th. My final time was 27:59, a pace of 9:02/mi. Woo hoo!

I can’t help but feel I could have done better, but I suppose that is the curse of all competitors in a race. It has been a great experience, and I imagine myself entering a big race (including that big juggernaut,”M”) in the coming months.

—d

This day be Talk Like a Pirate Day, matee. Take yer closest scallywags to the nearest tavern for a bottle of grog, and don’t let it slip yer mind to tell all the lilly-livered landlubbers you come across that today is a day for eye patches, parrots, striped red shirts, peg legs, and most importantly, booty. Yar.

-d

If it weren’t for the presence of the best grocery store ever, I could probably count on one hand the number of times I would visit Knoxville’s Turkey Creek shopping district in a year. Sadly, as it is I find myself visiting at least once a week. If you aren’t familiar with Turkey Creek, there is probably a similar place somewhere in your nearest metropolitan area. It is, for all intents and purposes a shopping mall without the convenience of a mall. It is a miniature city unto itself, complete with the sprawl. The whole area, which must be around 50 acres to my knowledge contains but one crosswalk, thus forcing the shopper to get in their car and drive from shop to shop, rather than walking. This type of development is a sad trend I have noticed in just about every sizable city I have visited. For added enjoyment, all this driving also increases the amount of time spent waiting in traffic, which if you know me is one of my least favorite past-times ever. But I digress…

I ventured out to Turkey Creek this evening (rather than this morning) to test a theory. There was a UT Football game tonight, and banking on my experience with the campus-area ghost-town phenomenon during games I decided to do my shopping during this window. The only waiting I had to do the entire trip was at traffic lights (up at the light). I now know when I will do my shopping on game-days from this point forward. I have never been so glad that I bleed red rather than orange.

—d

This morning, as I reached down to grab my dumbbells for the morning workout I noticed something next to my shoe. It was oddly shaped and I didn’t have my glasses on so I went in for a closer look. Slowly the blurry edges converged and revealed the body and legs of an adult Brown Recluse spider… I think. Here are the facts: it was definitely brown in color, definitely about the size of a quarter, and definitely had eight legs. I promptly squashed it with the end of my dumbbell, and by the time I had a chance to go grab a paper towel and my glasses for a postmortem the spider was making its final journey down the digestive tract of my cat.

I am usually very kind to critters that happen to wander into my house, either letting them back outside or leaving them be (especially in case of spiders—they eat other critters), but I have a bit of phobia surrounding Brown Recluse (and for that matter Black Widow) spiders and tend to squash first and ask questions later. It is truly astonishing that my cat made such quick work of the carcass—she typically stares at bugs and bats at them innocently for a few minutes and is done with them. I hope the spider wasn’t playing possum… I have seen what Brown Recluse bites can do(WARNING! Gross!) and I am not a fan. I went to my apartment complex’s office and got signed up to have my whole apartment sprayed this week. I hope they come tomorrow. In the mean time I’ll be sporadically freaking out and dancing around like a fool every time I feel a twitch.

—d