It�s dark, raining, windy, and snowing all at once, and it makes me get all Thanksgiving-y thankful that I only have a three block walk to get home.

I called my brother soon after the nastiness started and asked if he was out and about. I warned him that if he went outside and got lost, I certainly wasn�t going to come and help him out of whatever jam he got into.

My sister�s made enough kids to genetically replace one of us, so now it�s each Keena for him or herself. I�m not risking life and limb if someone in my bloodline decides to go outside in this mess.

In addition to the day being so crappy, I have zero desire to work.

Zip, zilch, nada, nothin�, gone, nuh-uh, bye-bye, no more.

I should take this as a clue to go home, get into warm clothes, and drink hot chocolate soy milk, but I know that isn�t the way to go. I need to plow through this work, run my ass off on the treadmill, and then get to the warm clothes and hot chocolate soy milk bit.

Blah.

Last night I talked with Benito for a bit. Texas seems to be getting its own bout of crap weather right now too. The rain let up just enough for him to get in a run to narrow my lead in our workout contest. And then when the electricity went out in his neighborhood, he went out for another run. There goes my lead, although it was nice to talk with him since he wasn�t doing anything fun that involved electricity.

Because I needed a little extra Internetting to get me going today, I read some articles on running. I need motivation to build my stamina and speed.

I�ve set a new goal to run alongside Benito in next year�s Shamrock Shuffle 8k. He�s speedy, but it�s not an unrealistic pace for me to get to. So long as he doesn�t go crazy with the running between now and then, we should be evenly matched: He�s got experience, and I have (more) youth.

Speaking of youth and getting back to that I�m-only-25-so-why-do-I-feel-so-crotchety thing, my brother got to witness my full-out sleepiness last night where I became fully annoyed by the rotten-ass college students in our el car.

The blank stares from the eyes. The mindless chatter from the mouth. The look of hopefulness and optimism still beaming from the face.

Bleck!

Now don�t mind me as I shake my fist at the kids who run across my manicured yard and start saving paperclips for the day when they no longer make them as high-quality as they do today so I can tell all of the whippersnappers how things were when I was their age.

Would you care to wager a bet? I�m betting $8 that my brother hasn�t washed the dishes yet. I�m not pulling a Cinderella/stepsister on him or anything, but I do ask a little give in return for housing, feeding, and entertaining him all week.

If not, he�ll eat nothing but sandwiches for the rest of the week and will be forced to use nothing more than paper napkins and his hands as utensils. I�m pretty sure Cinderella wasn�t given low-sugar jam and organic peanut butter sandwiches on wheat bread. (Which she may or may not have been thankful for...) We�ll just have to wait and see.

A few people from Texas are coming into Chicago tomorrow night. We�re meeting up with them on Friday evening for pizza and beer. I haven�t seen these people in a long time, so we�ll see how that goes. All I know is that nobody -- NOBODY -- is staying at my house.

They can come and see it, check out my adult-like living arrangements, compliment me on my paint color choices, and drink from my fancy Pur water filter pitcher. But they are to return to their own hotels that night without suggesting that my place would be an ideal place to crash.

There is no crashing at my pad. We�re too old to �crash,� and my place is too nice to be considered a �pad� of any sort.

Now turn around and head directly to your hotel room!

(Again with the old person crotchety-ness!)

*GASP* Another Daley connection being brought to light?! Color me surprised!

Okay. The wind is so strong right now that the building is moving and creaking. Lovely. Just lovely.

I don�t fear being in a building this large, but it still squicks me out a bit when something of this size is affected by something seemingly as harmless as a little wind. It�s not like I live in Florida with all of the hurricanes and tornadoes, although we do get quite a gale coming off the lake.

Weatherbug tells me that we have a 10-15 mph wind right now. That doesn�t seem like nearly enough to make the building shake like this, but apparently it is.

All right. I�ve gotta get some more work done so I can go home. G�nite all. Stay warm and dry! �