Man, this is a sad little blog these days

Yeah, yeah. I know, I know. I've promised several times to update this damned thing more often. But then it falls through the cracks.

So what have I been doing besides updating my blog?

Riding my bike again - Originally, the plan was to commute to the radio show. Like updating the blog, that hasn't happened yet. But I have been going on regular rides. According to MapMyRide.com, I've put in more than 100 miles in the past month. This past Sunday, I did 16.4 miles at Ben Geren. I'm riding my old Diamondback mountain bike, which I bought probably 15 years ago. It's heavy and doesn't have a front suspension. I'd like to get a road bike, but those things are ex-freakin-pensive. Thanks to the bike and watching what I eat, I've lost 18.5 pounds in the past two months or so. I'd like to drop another 20. I just have to figure out what to do when the days get shorter and I can't go for a ride at 7 p.m. after work.

Tweeting - Yeah, I know. Some of you Luddites still aren't even on Facebook (Hi Craig!). But I'm enjoying Twitter much more than I thought I would. I use it basically as an RSS feed. Right now, I'm getting bombarded with Steelers info thanks to following five different Pittsburgh area reporters. Plus, I figure it's a good thing to be promoting my brand online given the current nature of journalism.

Bransoning - We met Jen's family up there for a mini-reunion. I was dreading it. Visions of the Baldknobbers and Shoji Tabuchi danced in my head. But Branson has grown so much in the years since I last went. Branson Landing is incredible. It's a pedestrian mall alongside Lake Tanneycomo. High-end shopping, restaurants and bars on the street level, with condos above that. Combined with Table Rock Lake for boating, Tanneycomo for cold-water trout fishing and the outlet mall, I could see the Party Squad having a grand old time in Branson.

Being Mr. Mom - It was only three days, but good gosh I liked it. I've always enjoyed my mornings with Paige. But I was a little nervous about having her all day. But that was a silly worry. I just wish the Martins lived here, so Craig could have brought Trevor to the mall one day to meet us. There were plenty of moms pushing strollers that day I went, but I was the only dad pushing one. As I walked around the mall, I got tickled at the idea of Craig and I pushing our kids through the mall arguing about some sports topic while we got odd looks from the moms who were there.

Not getting a haircut -



(No, I don't leave the house like that. Yes, I use hair product to make it look somewhat better.)

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 ...

Random Thoughts

• The Fort Smith Classic was last weekend. As usual, the whispers are "That's it, that's the last one." Given this was the worst-attended tournament in the 12-year history, I think they might be right. It's sad more people haven't gotten on the bandwagon for the tournament. I admit, I thought it was ridiculous when they started. But now I realize we don't have anything else in Fort Smith that could attract national attention. It's a shame First National Bank, Arkansas Best or even Choctaw Casino hasn't taken over sponsorship rights to this thing. Fort Smith needs something to feel good about, and the tournament could be it.

• Speaking of the golf tournament, it ended on Father's Day. So my first one, I only saw Paige about an hour total all day. That kind of sucked. One of my gifts was "Home Game" by Michael Lewis, author of "The Blind Side," "Liar's Poker" and "Moneyball." He's married to former MTV personality Tabitha Soren. They have three kids. The book is about his adjustment to fatherhood. I give it two thumbs up. It's hilarious, non-Dads would probably enjoy it too.

• Speaking of books, "Idiot America" by Charles Pierce is on my wishlist. It's about how populism is actually a major dumbing down of our national intelligence. And before "Home Game," I finished "The Year of Living Biblically" by AJ Jacobs. It was a good skewering of the people who claim to follow the Bible word-for-word. Given there are 800-plus rules, laws and suggestions in the Bible, Jacobs shows it's impossible to do. Every denomination picks and chooses what they want, but most won't admit it.

• I still haven't gotten a haircut. This is the longest my hair has been since I had the 'fro. Only now I'm using product to tame it. At some point, I'll have to decide if I'm going to let it keep growing or make time to get it cut.

• Dad had knee replacement surgery earlier this week. I'm thinking that's a medical procedure I'd like to avoid, based on how much pain he's been in the past couple of days.

• The baby is whining in her crib, just waking up from nap. Jen's napping too. Got to go.

Mike Irwin gets angry!

"Me" time

Nash recently blogged about the importance of Me Time in his life. I have to say, while reading it I was a little jealous.

You see, Nash wrote about taking time to do his hobbies. And how he's lucky Karen understands he needs Man Time.

The last Man Time I had came after my old friend David's funeral. I had the day off (obviously), Jen was at work and Paige was at Mom's. I had a window of about three hours to myself. So I took the doors off the Jeep and went fishing. I caught one sad little fish.

Since then, the only Me Time happens late on Friday and Saturday nights. Since Jen is still nursing, she wakes up early with Paige each morning around 7:30 a.m. So that means 11-ish is about as late as she can stay up. The problem is, of course, there's nothing to between 11 and 1 a.m. So I've been reading a ton and squeezing in some PlayStation soccer games.

Don't get me wrong. I don't mind sacrificing my time for Paige and Jen. Getting married, you have to learn to be unselfish. But having a baby requires you to completely tamp down your own desires for Me Time.

Jen doesn't have it any better. She's lacking Me Time too. We need to carve out some soon. If for no other reason than I've not had a haircut in more than three months now. So I'm about halfway to having my "turning 30" afro* again.
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* - Thanks to hair product, however, it looks much better than it did back in 1998. Gillette Sculpting Paste gets the Scotty C. Flamingo Seal of Approval. Yes, I'll surrender my Man Card now.

Craig, this is why you should Twitter

DMB's resurgence

OK, enough of that. I didn't realize every time you hit the blog's main page that video about DMB would launch.

Sorry.