This photo is for reference, only. I had to dig it out of the archives to help with the visual. I was probably 18 in that photo, taken by my brother Sam in our parents’ basement. It was one of those nights where we were making fun of SJ cowboys and documenting it.

Flash forward to yesterday. I had about a week and a half of facial hair going, mostly out of sheer laziness. It was time to get rid of it, so I shaved it into a handlebar mustache just like in the photo above, before hopping in the shower after my run. The only purpose was to make Reagan laugh, which she did (nervously). I had intentions of shaving completely before work this morning. I was able to carry out that plan, but not before taking a run down the west side path.

I woke up totally forgetting about the trucker ‘stache and hit the trails. Along the way, I came across a couple of friends who started laughing when they saw me. I was confused for a sec, until they complimented my handlebars. Hahahah.

About 10 minutes later, I caught up to this dude running in moccasins with duct tape on the bottom, who had stopped to be a good Samaritan and remove a dead rat from the path. To myself, I was like “oh man, I have to talk to this guy.” So I struck up a conversation with him, and we ended up running about 6 miles together. I learned that he is almost 50 and lives in my neighborhood, that his name is Barry and he grew up inspired by Prefontaine, but had only started running again recently after adopting the minimalist approach to footwear.

Barry is awesome, I wish that I could have kept going with him. When it came time for me to turn around and head back up town, I thanked him for the chat and said that I hoped to run into him again. Almost immediately afterward, I remembered about my mustache. Hahahahah. He probably just thought that I too, was inspired by Prefontaine.

In June, I saw this crazy thing called a burgermelt (a Friendly’s invention, consisting of a burger between two grilled cheese sandwiches) on the internet, and asked Reagan to make it for me. She totally did it.  So, last weekend, when I saw this thing called a Fried Cheese Melt, which is apparently a new addition to the menu at Denny’s (it is a grilled cheese sandwich with fried mozzarella sticks in the middle),  I once again forwarded the link to Reagan, asking her if she could make it. Friday night, when I arrived at my house, Reagan had already purchased all of the stuff to make it. She even fried her own mozzarella sticks!

The finished product came out better that it looked in the Denny’s photo (and I’m sure tasted better, too).

So good.

Reagan and I were volunteering at a race on Saturday, and they had a nice little holiday playlist pumping through the PA speakers. There was this elevator-music sounding song playing, that I suddenly recognized as the melody to Green Day‘s “Holiday.” I laughed and was pretty awesome, all at the same time.

Later, I did a little research and discovered that it was from an album called “The Green Days of Christmas” performed by Santa Claws and the Naughty But Nice Orchestra. The album is ridiculously entertaining. I also discovered that SCATNBNO did a similar album with Metallica covers, as well as one that features AC/DC covers. The whole idea is genius.

These albums are available for download on iTunes and Amazon. So, if you are looking for a fresh new soundtrack for your holiday season, this year. I strongly suggest picking up a copy.

Has anyone else come across any new favorites, along the lines of holiday music (besides the song that the Conan guys did for Senator Hatch)?

Alright, normally I wouldn’t just do a wholesale repost of something else, but dude, this made me laugh so hard that it hurt. In case the image above is illegible, the version of the story that I read, showed up today in Gothamist. A disgruntled New Yorker named Dalton Chiscolm is suing the Bank of America for “1,784 billion, trillion dollars.” Among other awesome facts, the judge reviewing the suit is the same guy who doled out Bernie Madoff’s sentence. But the post really peaks toward the end.

NYU mathematician Sylvain Cappell tells Reuters, “These are the kind of numbers you deal with only on a cosmic scale. If he thinks Bank of America has branches on every planet in the cosmos, then it might start to make some sense.”

Ok this part is so sublimely retarded and funny on so many levels that I was sitting at my desk literally laughing at full volume. It is so ridiculous: (a) that Reuters actually went through the trouble to consult a mathematician about this case, which is so clearly just another crack-pot with too much extra time and cash on his hands.; and, (b) that the mathematician, instead of shrugging off the amount as preposterous, qualified the scope of the requested damages by saying that they “might start to make sense” if the claimant thought that BOA had branches on every planet in the cosmos. If only all reading material were so rich.