Geez

Its been a while...

First piece of news: I'm crazy. I'll blame it on peer pressure, but whatever the reason, I'm officially signed up to do a 1/2 Ironman Triathlon (70.3 miles) next fall. The link is http://www.beach2battleship.com/. I've only done one triathlon before, so its a dumb idea. The other triathlon was a dumb idea also. I'd only barely trained for it and it has the reputation of being the toughest international distance triathlon in the Southeast. I think I may have finished last, but I finished nevertheless. I did a little research on training programs for a 1/2 IM and here's the plan I'm going to try and follow: http://www.trinewbies.com/tno_trainingprograms/tno_HIM.asp. Notice near the bottom, I'm supposed to already be swimming 5000+ yards a week, biking 3 times a week (25-30 miles each time) and running 7 miles in an hour comfortably. I think I've got my work set out for me.

2nd piece of news: Rob and I are finally joining a church tomorrow! Also, I've received a wee little bit of income recently due to my new job and some painting sales, so I've been writing tithe checks again and I truly believe God is rewarding me. New opportunities and ideas are trickling in, whether a result of this or not is a mystery. Regardless, I'm usually very down this time of the year because of the icky weather and usually have to force myself to do anything; but this year I think my spirits are a little higher. Hopefully we can keep it up, God and me.

Next piece of news (which makes piece of news #2 look all the more promising): the economy still sucks. I guess this isn't news, because I've been expecting all year that its only going to get worse and we're in for a very long depression, but it is confirmed by the Federal Reserve's decision to cut interest rates to zilch 2 days ago. I think soon or now is the time for investing in gold. I'd really like to have some. Here are a couple of Peter Schiff resources I'll be referring to often: http://www.europac.net/radioshow.asp and http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/schiff/archive.html