So back to the gym story now.

Apparently people have borrowed my stuff to the point that I have exactly two pair of workout shorts these days. I slipped into the black cotton shorts recently, and Benito laughed as they barely hung off my J-Lo hips, their elastic completely shot. I tossed them into the trash, and didn�t give a thought to this incident until yesterday.

Thirty seconds into my treadmill run.

Apparently the elastic in the second pair of shorts decided that it too was throwing in the towel. Thus concluded this segment of anything involving me working out. I wasn�t about to risk my shorts falling down, me tripping over them, and someone walking in to the empty gym to find my face being ground away by the treadmill�s track with my pants around my ankles, and my ass for all the world to see.

That is not the way to go down.

I changed back into my work clothes, braved it through the horrible rains, and found myself home at a decent hour. Although there was no packing going on last night, I pushed myself into being productive on this whole moving thing and went to price paint at three different stores. I brought swatches of the stuff I wanted to match up, had the approved three brands of paint in-mind, and headed to Home Depot as my first stop.

Approaching the Behr section, there was a shopping cart with signs reading, �OOPS!� on it. This was the paint that was mixed for others that didn�t live up to their shading standards. And wouldn�t you know that the painting gods were once again smiling on me?! (They�ve already smiled once in that they�re sending Angel Dad to do my dirty work.)

In this OOPS! shopping cart sat a dark red (living area), deep green (kitchen), a light grey-blue (second bedroom), and a color that�s something like popcorn (the hallway). I bought four containers of paint (three full gallons and one small container) for under $20 after all tax was included.

Getting it home without my tard-cart (goodness, I hate that cart) was difficult, but I caught each bus and train on the way home with no issues. I think it�s safe to say that I got my workout in, despite the shorts incident at the gym. Paint it damn heavy, and there are a lot of stairs at the two el stops I hit up.

I got word from my buddy Mick that he got another 4.0 in college. And since he had pink eye over the Xmas break (scroll to the last section for a great story), I now owe him two congratulatory dinners. I have a restaurant picked out for tomorrow night. So far I�m 3 for 3 on picking good restaurants to take Mick too, and this should be no different. Go me!

Tonight, however, is beer with friends early in the evening, followed up with a house party that night. I�m gonna make my head turn funny colors to surprise Benito for his return this weekend.

I�ll say it. I missed the boy. I didn�t notice how much a part of my day he was until I didn�t get IMs about pooping while at work, sending Hambone to Mars, or any of the silly stuff we chat about. I at least got a few phone calls to help break up the day. Otherwise I would have just been -- GASP! -- working.

All right. I�m outta here. There�s a bottle of hair dye waiting for me at home. Oh yes. And a stack of laundry too.

Hope you�re weekend is colorful and that you can partake in activities that raise your healthy hormone levels. �