The Travels and Rants Journal

1. Ran the Frostbite 15k in Richmond yesterday. I hadn’t planned on doing well - I’m pretty much over my cold, but I’m still coughing some and my energy level is way down - but I had a pretty good showing: 1:15:07 - well slower than last year, but a good bit faster than I thought I could do. It was a fun race.

2. Winter kickball season started yesterday as well - my team (Skanky Pete) won by forfeit when the other side didn’t have enough people, but then we beat them in a practice game too. Good to be kicking again.

3. Has anyone else noticed Netflix’s serious drop-off in service over the last month or so? I called about the problem last week - they offered no reason for it, but did send me a bonus DVD and half off on next month’s fee. Still, the bad service seems to be continuing. Anyone else having problems?

4. From Dubya: Deaf and Blind!, a great article on slate.com about our beloved Art-Critic-In-Chief. Seems that our president’s favorite painting, a western landscape that, according to him, is about a methodist missionary spreading the gospel, is actually about a horse thief trying to escape a lynch mob. (Better yet - aforementioned Art-Critic-In-Chief proudly notes his physical resemblance to said missionary/horse thief.) There’s a message here somewhere…

5. May I have your attention please: The buttocks are not a sexual organ.

6. Not that you’ll notice, but the website, email, file servers, and life in general on andrewhersey.com may be unreachable from Friday night into Saturday morning. Go ahead, start hoarding now. And while we’re at it, there are new pics on the “Nocturnes” section.

7. Not sure I’ve ever mentioned this blog before, but if you’re a cool kid in Charlottesville and you have that intarweb thing, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be reading cVillian.

8. The blind snow dog.