Jack Frost

Nosing at your Nips. Greetings, all! Had my first sub-zero run this morning. Sub-zero Centigrade, that is, but still quite cold. There was frost on the ground and the trails were slippery from where the previous rains had frozen over making for quite a tiring run. Luckily the run was only 3 miles so I didn't suffer long. I will say that my Mountain Hardwear jacket rocks! That thing is so warm when you're on the move that you often have to unzip it, though it cools down quickly once you stop. And my Garmin Forerunner 201 has been acting up lately and not finding satellites quickly. Have to figure that one out.

Anyway, I don't have much to offer today, as I worked late last night so I didn't do much, except what? That's right! I read. I finished "Knife of Dreams" a few days ago, by Robert Jordan. It's book 11 in his Wheel of Time series. A great book and a good series, if you ask me. I will say, however, that it was quite slow (and overly political) for the past few books, until this one. This one was great, with many loosed ends on their way to being tied up. The last in the series comes out next year and I can't wait. I've started "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and so far it's shaping up to be just as good as the rest. It's great to enjoy reading a book so much that you look down and suddenly you're already over 100 pages in.

I picked up my dry cleaning today. Had the same incompetent woman, though. But we found my shirts and I even got to see how they bagged them. You know how your dry cleaning always comes back in these bags with the hangers sticking out the top? Well I always just assumed they had a roll of these bags, similar to garbage bags, and they just pulled one off and slipped it over. It seems I was wrong, and that process would just take too long. This place had a machine attached to a roll of the bags, except the bags weren't seperated; they were more like a tube. Anyway, you hang the clothes on this machine and drag the roll down over the hanger. Then they press a hot edge around the hanger, similar to those vacuum pack machines, that cuts and seals the edges around the top of your clothes. Finally they just pull that newly formed "bag" down over the hanger and -voila!- you have your garment bag. Okay, maybe it's not that interesting to you, but I thought it was cool to see such a customized piece of machinery as that.

Okay, I need to get back to work, so here's your taste of British culture:
The British LOVE to roll their own cigarettes. I suppose it makes them feel a little more validated for charring their lungs. Me, I just think it's too much work. What this DOES do, however, is lead first-time American tourists to walk around thinking everyone is smoking pot in public, unless of course you know what marijuana smells like. But, yeah, at first glance it does look like that.

And, finally, your photo of the day:
Here's a photo I call "Lonely Soldier" that I took on my way to Buckingham Palace. I think it was at some other military base around there. Not sure of the name. Anyway, there were no mods to this photo other than your general sharpening and color/contrast balancing. It's one of my favorites.

Oh, Jared, guess what? You should've waited. Christina Applegate is getting divorced!

And finally, your moment of Zen. Have a great day, all!