"Not being prepared when I should have been" ranks right up there at the top of this list. I did the Accenture Chicago Triathlon again on Sunday and had 2 blowouts on the bike (but only one inner tube). The first one I was able to patch in about 4 min, but after the second one I had to walk all the way down the bike course with my bike where I luckily found a kind soul who was nice enough to give me one of his inner tubes. If I can ever return the favor to someone in a future race, I will, because without his kindness I would have been DNF. Regardless, my bike time was *really* bad, though my run made for it a little (top 7% of all runners).

Another thing that would definitely make the list of "Things that Piss me Off" is the condition of Southbound North Lake Shore Dr. The lanes which made up the bike course were literally a minefield. I witnessed 3 accidents during my ride alone and saw more riders walking their bikes than I've ever seen before this year. Gotta get that fixed for next year or at some point there's going to be a fatality.

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Currently Playing: Fate

Currently Reading:Absolution Gap - Alastair Reynolds

Just came back from visiting a client in Newark, NJ, an experience that I hope to not have to repeat anytime soon. I was supposed to leave on Wed night, but my flight home (among many others) was cancelled because of poor weather. I had to rent a car and drive to Secaucus to get a hotel room because everything at the airport was sold out. Holy crap, the new Jersey Turnpike is my idea of what it must be like in hell. I missed my turnoff because I was on the phone with United (yeah, I know, serves me right for talking on the phone while driving) and had to drive around for another hour and a half, just to get back to that same turn off again. At one point I drove all the way back to the airport to start over again because the weather was so poor and I was so f#$%^&* pissed off. As I was driving in what I hoped was the right direction, I thought to myself that Sartre was wrong: hell isn't other people, it's getting lost while driving in New Jersey and not being able to find your hotel. Oddly enough, it only struck me this morning how perfectly fitting my reaction to the situation was, when after all, that play was named...No Exit.

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Currently Playing: Dungeon Lords

Currently Reading:Redemption Ark- Alastair Reynolds

...or more correctly, "...on my way back from my run, this evening." While taking a cool-down walk along a tree-lined street full of early 20th century brick houses, known as Professor's Row (all $2 million+, these days), we passed an open living room window through which the soft strainsof indistinct womens' singing filtered,bolstered by a forceful piano accompaniment. We stopped to listen in the cool night air and tried to pick out the lyrics of the unfamiliar tune. At first the high-pitched voices brought to mind memories from my childhood of sitting in church on Sundays and being made to listen to the 200 year-old organist and equally prehistoric choir belt out Jesus' weekly top 10, but try as we might, we simply couldn't make out what they were singing...until the arrival of a very shrill refrain of "...THAT'S WHY THE LADY IS A TRAMP!!!" I gotta tell you, that put a smile on my face for the rest of the night. :D

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Crrently Playing: Dungeon Lords

Currently Reading: Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds