I�ve been meaning to open this account forever, pulling in nearly 5% interest on the cash that�s sitting there, waiting for me to blow through it. No worries, cash. I�ve got plenty to spend you on. Besides the new teeth, I have lots of travel coming up.

Whenever Southwest has a sale, a friend and I are heading to LA for a quick look-around. A night in Santa Barbara, a day in Ventura, a night in Santa Monica, and plenty of sun and sand. I�m pretty excited about this trip, since I�ll be scoping out living arrangements and making contacts for job-related inquiries.

In April I�m heading to Dallas to run another marathon. A friend is heading down south with me, certainly to put my jogger-ass to shame with her speedy ways. So long as I beat my previous marathon, I won�t complain. Once the death rattle cough is gone, I�ll be back on the treadmill for hours at a time instead of the measly 30 minutes I�m doing now.

The end of April is a week-long trip to London to meet up with an Internet friend. I don�t know what there�s to do in London when you�re not particularly interested in going to the tourist traps, but I�m sure there will be plenty to do and see. I went to London once, hated it, and am now giving it another shot to change my mind.

May is a possible week-long trip to Hawaii with a friend whose cousin has invited us to stay in his villa for free. I can scrape up airfare for the opportunity to go without having to pay for hotel, yes sir!

Then over Memorial Day, I have another marathon. This time I�m venturing only a few hours away to Madison, marking Wisconsin off my list of states raced in.

I�ve luckily already paid for some of this airfare, but I�ll still need to come up with a good chunk of change for the recently-added trips. If I have to eat dried beans for the next two months, so be it. I�d rather jet-set all over than stay in Chicago before it hits 85 degrees here.

Speaking of that, today is absolutely miserable. Rain, grey skies, cold. Blah! All I want to do is eat carbs, lounge at home with Hambone, and drink large amounts of Diet Coke. No fun.

I might or might not have just settled down with a can of Spaghetti-Os and a Diet Rite soda. That�s all I�m saying. �