looks like carmen and i will be moving next month. this will mark my second move in less than a year. A trend, i hope this does not make. Perhaps the crab set the moving curse upon me?

anyway, we’d have loved to stay here, but it turns out that the landlord has other plans for the apartment, so sorry to any kids out there looking to sweep this place up.

moving. again. in july. this is going to suck.

carmen was pretty upset about it. more than a few tears were shed over all the work she put into this place. And the curtains. oh, the curtains.I guess we shouldn’t have really unpacked all my stuff.

i’m trying to look at the bright side. there’s a possibility of moving into a building with fios! plus, who knows, maybe we luck out and find an even better apartment. maybe one that’s off of an avenue so the kids in snv no longer have to hear sirens blaring over the phone all the time.

so, i guess i should wrap this up by asking if anyone knows of an apartment in the east village area with fios. anyone?

Over the past two and a half weeks, i’ve gotten carmen running with me. Carmen’s friends are impressed. They tell me they’ve never seen her run before.

anyway, it’s been going pretty well. we’ve been running three times a week. started at 20 minute runs and have worked our way up to 25 minute runs. actually, i should say that we started out with two back-to-back ten minute pieces and have worked our way up to one consecutive 25 minute run. We’ve progressed decently.

Are we where I think we should be after two and a half weeks? not really. I’m impatient, i know. We haven’t quite gotten to doing core work, push-ups, and squats that i’d like to introduce. We haven’t gotten to the stuff that really hurts. I’d love to get there, but i can’t be her trainer.

I can’t be her trainer because trainers need the latitude to make you cry.

Maybe it’s the militant way I was brought up in sports, but the only way i know how to get results is by breaking down the walls of rational thought. Crying is a pretty effective mean to that end. It’s like breaking a horse . . . almost. It doesn’t sound nice, I know. And it’s not that everyone has to cry. It’s more about being able to push them to that point.

The thing is, I know if i do make her cry, i’m the one that’s going to be hurting in the end, and maybe even our relationship will suffer. how much can you love a guy who makes you cry all the time? well . . . i guess she could develop some sort of stockholm syndrome or something.

anyway, the other day, it sorta happened. we got into an argument right before our run and i sorta left her in the dust for a good half a mile as i ran off some anger. eventually i calmed down a bit and realized what i was really doing. suddenly, this image of what she was experiencing, what it was like to see me running further and further away from her, popped into my head and my better nature came through. It wasn’t the sort of crying that you want to see, though. it was the “my boyfriend is a dick” crying instead of the “i’m so tired i’m going to puke” cry.

It also wasn’t a pleasant experience. We usually chat about our day while we run. It was total silence yesterday other than the occasional “watch out for the dog shit” signals. We didn’t talk much the rest of the night either. All-in-all pretty uncomfortable for a while.

We did, however, run a whole lot faster. We got about a minute thirty past our usual halfway point landmark, which means we found three extra minutes in a 25 minute run.

Was it worth it? The irrational in me says yes–it would have taken multiple weeks to reach that pace otherwise. Imagine how fast we could have run if it was the puke-crying! The rational says no–look at the cost! Inner conflict is so lame. We smoothed things out eventually. I think the cornish game hens i cooked up for dinner helped a bit. cooked in bacon fat with pearl onions.

moral of the story: maybe there are other ways to get people to perform, but making them cry sure is effective. and, no, I can’t be your trainer.

sub-moral of the story: i can be a real dick.

I could spin a tale about how i was taken by surprise when a delivery man showed up at my front door with one of these bad boys. I could tell you that carmen really out did herself this time. I mean, wow, a new tv? for me? you shouldn’t have . . . thank you so much!

this post was brought to you by a sagging economy, the good people of capital one, and the phrase “0% APR”

samurai is so last season:

how embarrassing. first our only pro team falls to last place. next, we steal lance armstrong’s bike.

sactown is the place to be.

I’ve been screwing up cliches lately, so i figured i’d just throw random words in this title that might conjure up my gist.

Does anyone out there in kings-land wonder why the bee brought back Scott Howard-Cooper? His distaste for the kings has always been evident. even in the glory days, everything he wrote was pro-so-cal franchises. It’s not a real surprise given his so-cal roots, but i’m just wondering what value he adds to kings coverage. His stories are nothing more than casual observations and random questions that he doesn’t want to bother thinking about so he posts them as stories.

anyway, on to my point, today’s shc post posits the question “Why do you still go to Kings games?”

from the post:

The economy is in crisis. The team isn’t just bad, it’s bad and apathetic. The operation has been mishandled from the very top to the players who occasionally deign to give full effort. In that light, the woeful average attendance of 12,405 per home game, although last in the league, may be better than the Kings have a right to expect.

So: Why do you go?

I read this and it just re-affirms my belief that there are no real lakers’ fans–they all just get on and off the bandwagon whenever the record dictates. The notion of fan loyalty is such an alien concept to this guy that he can’t imagine watching a team that isn’t winning 80% of their games.

granted, any editor is probably thanking their lucky stars to have one sam amick on his staff, but c’mon sacbee, you can do better than scott howard-cooper.

In case you missed it, yodel anecdotal, the y! corp blog, did a piece on the y! sports fantasy team.

For the record, that soda pyramid has been there since the olympics.

someone is talking about the incredible similarities between the new espn site and our humble home on the web.

I have yet to decide whether the lack of commentary on the interwebs is a function of apathy or perhaps a tipping point in the company’s public perception which makes it ok to ignore the largest sports website in the world.

while the crab has opted for the hawk of late, i’ve been running with the samurai look lately. I’m sure it makes me look younger, but today while checking out at the supermarket, an older gentleman remarked to me:

how was the christmas haul this season? where you a good boy?

he said it in such a way that I was sure we wasn’t joking.

Once again, i find myself living in my aunt’s basement, if only for a couple days this time. It all feels vaguely familiar enough to coax a reminiscing blog post out of me and close the books on a season of change.

the basement:
is now a remodeled basement worthy of being called a guest house–52 inch flat panel tv, pool table, new bathroom. It’s pretty swank.

The coffee shop :
the korean girls have been replaced with a korean dude. He doesn’t seem to be as affected by my charms.

The house:
is now sporting some brand new landscaping. gone is the gopher hole ridden plot of dirt. in its place is some eco-friendly paving stones and low maintenance foliage.

Oh, and for those who are curious, no, i have not had another run in with the birds. Then again, it is winter time . . .