8.5

That's how many miles I rode my bike around Ben Geren today. Oddly, I'm not sore ... yet.

Running of the Bulls

Today in Pamplona, Spain, a bull gored to death one of the people participating in the annual Fesitval of San Fermin's "Running of the Bulls." The young Spainerd's death was the 15th since 1910.

Hemingway (who may or may not have been a KGB agent) wrote about it in "The Sun Also Rises." He helped turn what had been a local festival of bullfighting into a one of the biggest parties on the planet. More than 1,000,000 people crowd into a city of 200,000 for the fiesta. It's sheer madness.

As a Hemingway wonk, I've always been intrigued by the encierro (the run) and the corrida de toros (the actual bullfights). Most people don't realize the entire purpose of the run is to move the bulls from corrals to the bullfighting arena for that evening's bullfights.

Anyway, I've come to realize I'll probably never run in Pamplona. But I now know somebody who has attended the festival! Karen's dad is there right now. No word on whether he ran the encierro or attended the bullfights. I hope Karen gets a full report about what it's like over there for me.

In a rut

Every weekday for the past two weeks, I've had the exact same thing for breakfast and lunch.

Clif Z Bar and Lipton Citrus Green Tea before my radio show. Small bowl of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal after it.

Subway club sandwich, Miss Vickie's jalapeno chips and tea for lunch.

I should probably shake things up. But, oddly, I'm actually enjoying not having to think about breakfast or lunch. In fact, when I've thought about getting something different, nothing sounds good at all.

Chalk it up to middle of the summer doldrums, I guess.

Special effects in local TV news

I guess they didn't have CGI, so they used cardboard instead ...