I always win

This week, I saw the Neville Park "mini-ravine" for the first time. I was driving down Victoria Park Avenue to meet a friend in the Beaches neighbourhood. Vic Park gets very quiet and residential down by the lake. It jogs slightly to the east at Bracken Avenue... and that's where I had to stop and take a look. In front of me was a landscape I had never seen before, yet it was strangely familiar. I've had a recurring dream about an almost exact replica of this beautiful, south-facing, tree-lined ravine. The light was poor, but I took a photo anyway. You can see Lake Ontario in the background. On my way back home, I got this shot of downtown Toronto on Kingston Road, just east of Woodbine. Again... not the best light. I shot several, but my hands were freezing and the best vantage point was in the middle of the road. Once home, I did this: It's basically the same thing I've done with this blog. I haven't quit or bailed on it for...

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I didn't clog for two weeks. Pablo asked "where do you go when you go away?" I didn't go anywhere, but I got a fuckload of stuff done: I really focused on work, and finally got on top of things exercise (swimming & walking) buttsecks established a healthy sleep pattern uninstalled a hog of a computer security program (rhymes with "Florton") and replaced with a better program... thus preventing me from throwing my computer off the bacony in a fit of frustration saw The Lives of Others . God, I miss Berlin. kept up with household crap like cleaning, dishes, and laundry applied for a new job If I had done all of this stuff plus clogging... well, I couldn't. My sleep would have suffered. And I don't function when I'm sleep-deprived. I have missed the clog camaraderie; sadly, in order to achieve some very pressing goals (new job, weight reduction), something must be extracted from the schedule. I haven't quit the clog. Yet.

During a nap yesterday at my parents' house, I woke up with a pang of anxiety and realized how much money I'm wasting on my gym membership (considering that I never go). A quick check in my 2005 planner confirms that my last visit to the gym was exactly six months ago today. (Blogging started about 8.5 months ago.) This means I've wasted $545.70. Something's gotta give. So, for a week, I'm going to attempt to cut blogging out of my life and insert exercise in its place. With any luck, I'll be able to reintroduce blogging once I'm burning fuel more efficiently and sleeping more soundly.

Since I can't undo a whole morning of cbox posts and miscellaneous comments on every blog that I can remember being linked to Ooh La La , I'll provide this update instead: Mitzzee appreciates all of the lurve (although you'd never know it from some of her comments on the previous post), but the poor dear just needs a break. Like Sarah Jessica Parker killing Sex and the City in its prime, or Naomi Judd leaving The Judds , she decided to exit while the exitin' was good. (I'm secretly hoping that her "retirement" is more akin to Celine Dion's... i.e., often-promised but never actually delivered.) For more information, please visit the homepage for Exhausted Bloggers of North America . The family (myself, Jason , Bruce , Shora , Carmine ) asks that in lieu of flowers (or pleading e-mails), comments and good wishes be left here rather than sent directly to Mitzzee. (I really can't stress that point enough. She'll cut me.) p.s. - I would like...